| Battle of Dyrrhachium | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Byzantine–Bulgarian wars | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| First Bulgarian Empire | Byzantine Empire | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Emperor Ivan † |
Nicetas Pegonites David Arianites | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
The Battle of Dyrrhachium in February 1018 was a part of the Byzantine–Bulgarian wars. It happened as the Bulgarian tsar Ivan Vladislav tried to establish his power on the southeastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. He led an army against Dyrrhachium (present-day Durrës, in Albania) and besieged it, but was killed during a counterattack of the city’s defenders.
This was the final battle of the centuries long struggle between the First Bulgarian Empire and Byzantium. Within months after Vladislav’s death most of his realm was subjugated by the Byzantine emperor Basil II, with the last independent region (Sirmium) subdued in 1019.[1]