The battle of Demetritzes

 At 1185 (7 of November), the battle that turned the tide of the Normano-Byzantine war, took place near the city of Sidirokastro, Greece.
Since the beginning of the Norman invasion the imperial army had a great difficulty at holding back these invaders. As a result, not only all of Byzantine Italy fell to the Normans, but they crossed the Adriatic sea and invaded the Greek peninsula.
Emperor Alexios Comninos managed to defeat Bohemund at Larisa, forcing him to leave to Italy, but the Normans were here to stay for many years.
In 1185 after the Norman army sacked the Byzantine Empire's second city, Thessalonica, advanced east and met the Byzantine field army under Alexios Branas near Demetritzes (modern Sidirokastro). A period of confrontation and virtual truce between the two armies followed, but on 7 November Branas launched a sudden attack on the Norman army and routed it. The outcome was a total massacre for the Normans. Pursued by the Byzantines, the surviving Normans fled to Thessalonica, which was abandoned without battle. The remnants of the Norman army fled to Dyrrhachium on the Adriatic coast, effectively ending the attempted Sicilian conquest of the Empire.