Siege of Syracuse
877 CE.
Shown on the map at 37.069°, 15.287°.
The siege of Syracuse from 877 to 878 led to the fall of the city of Syracuse, the Byzantine capital of Sicily, to the Aghlabids. The siege lasted from August 877 to 21 May 878 when the city, effectively left without assistance by the central Byzantine government, was taken by the Aghlabid forces. Following their first landing in Sicily in the late 820s, the Aghlabids had tried several times, without success, to capture Syracuse; they were, however, able to gradually take over the western half of the island. In 875, a new and energetic governor, Ja'far ibn Muhammad, was appointed, determined to capture the city. Ja'far began the siege in August 877 but soon left it in charge of his son Abu Ishaq, while he retired to Palermo. The Arabs were well-supplied with siege weapons, while the inhabitants of Syracuse were left largely unsupported by the Byzantine fleet, which was busy with transporting marble for a new church in Constantinople and was then delayed by adverse weather. Consequently, the besieged populace faced great hardships and famine as described in detail by the eyewitness account of Theodosios the Monk.
Text from the Wikipedia article Siege of Syracuse (877–878), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.