Historical notes

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Historical notes:

Battle for Sicily is set in the mid-1060s, shortly after a Norman invasion force under the command of Duke Robert Guiscard ("the Cunning") de Hauteville and his brother Count Roger established a foothold in the northeast of the island. As was the case historically, they are allied with the Emir of Syracuse, Ibn al-Thumnah. They are opposed by a coalition of Emirs based in the port city of Balerm (Palermo), the inland citadel of Qasriyanna (Enna), and the southern town of Kirkint (Agrigento). Here, as would be the case in the First Crusade, the disunity of the Muslim leaders made them easy prey for the determined armies of Christendom. Another emirate based in the far west is also at war with the Enna/Palermo coalition.

If players want to read about this rather dramatic campaign, John Julius Norwich's "The Normans in the South" is quite a good read, and there have been a number of other more recent works. However, at this point the mod does not really set out to represent the actual sweep of history. One very obvious departure is the ahistorical Byzantine invasion in the east, allied with Palermo and Enna against Syracuse and the Normans. This loosely reflects George Maniakes' invasion in the 1030s, which conquered a chunk of eastern Sicily from the Muslims before it crumbled due to Byzantine infighting. The Greeks did fight the Normans in eastern Italy and in what is now Albania, so this is not an implausible development.

The focus of Battle for Sicily is on small-scale warfare at the time, skirmishes, raiding, plundering, and the occasional siege. The historical campaign was punctuated by dramatic set-piece battles, at Cerami and Musilmeri (Keramion and Manzil al-Amir) involving thousands of troops, but these do not happen in the mod (at least not yet, until I buy a computer capable of handling thousands-strong battles at a high FPS.)

The breakdown of the island by province is a bit artificial. In actuality, the "villages" represent rural districts of around 5000 people -- basically, whatever places are big enough to be a decently-sized fief and to have a semi-permanent marketplace. The towns are any place that has walls and specializes in manufacturing, or was historically used as a major base for one of the protagonists. In fact, I probably ought to have an intermediate category involving the larger villages (Nicosia, Noto, Randazzo/Randaj, Corleone/Qurliyum for example) and the smaller "cities" (Troyanum/Troina, Modica, Mazar, Sciacca/Shaqah, Cefalu, Taorminum etc).

I chose 11th century Sicily in part because I like the aesthetics of the early Middle Ages -- mail, round shields, spears and swords are still state-of-the-art -- but also because a lot of things happened in a fairly small place. Sicily involved Normans, Arabs, and Greeks, pitched battles and raids, sieges and naval battles, grand alliances of the Faith and some incredibly petty infighting, political intrigue and popular upheaval, wild hill country and one of the medieval world's larger and more cosmopolitan cities, in an area that I could just about work into an M&B world map with accurate march rates and a proper dispersal of villages that didn't take forever to load.

I'm going to try to get as close as possible to a 1:1 scale, at least in the numbers crunched behind the scene. The population of the island in the mod, about 1 million people, is on the low end of the estimates but probably isn't too far off. Some chroniclers suggest that Palermo had upwards of 200,000 inhabitants, but I've trimmed it down to 60,000, which is still a huge city by the standards of the time. Time is heavily compressed (100 game days see about as much action as a decade in real life) and the parties are about 2-3 times too small. The villages also need to be about 2-3 times larger, but the towns are designed to look as large as they actually were at the time (although you'll only be able to see part of them). Output and consumption of wheat is probably about right, as a daily average, and the other foodstuffs probably aren't too far off.  (Quantities of the other goods are largely plucked out of the air, although the trade patterns should be about right).

Anyway, I welcome anyone who wants to help out with the historical research. Things that would be particularly great would be:
* Maps of the cities as they existed at the time, or within 2-3 centuries either way. One thing I'm particularly curious about -- in Syracuse, was the island of Ortygia connected to the mainland at this point?
* Heraldry, or rather proto-heraldry. Within a hundred years ago the Byzantine Empire, the Hautevilles and others would have their own recognizable emblems, but heraldry was still in its infancy at this time and I would be grateful to anyone who can produce a picture of an 11th century banner relevant to the factions involved.
* Estimates for consumption by weight of items like iron, salt, and wool for any medieval economy
 
I would love to help you out with the historical research.  I've been studying medieval history for over 10 years now, and I try to learn something new about that time period every day.

If you would like for me to assist (I've been looking into scripting and basic modelling, but haven't done anything really productive with that yet) let me know.
 
Riothamus -- research help is much appreciated. I'm off traveling right now and won't have much time to work on the mod for another two weeks, but I'll once I get back I'll send you a PM.
 
I'd like to volunteer for historical research too if you need any help; after all, I just graduated from university with my special subject being The Normans in Southern Italy and my dissertation being Warfare in Southern Italy during the time period - its a period of which I'm very fond...
 
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