The islands off Attica are the worst-hit part of a pirate-ridden Aegean.
Michael Choniates, metropolitan of Athens, writes of islands left empty by pirates who use them to prey on the Attic coast, naming Aegina, Salamis and Makronisos; the people of Aegina had long since moved inland to the refuge town of Palaiochora. About 1195-1197 the Genoese captain Kaphoures (Gafforio) ravaged islands and coasts until an imperial fleet strengthened with Pisan ships destroyed him (Niketas Choniates; dates from French Wikipedia citing Smyrlis 2015). The raiders are Latin (Genoese and Pisan) and Greek corsairs; the imperial fleet under the megas doux Stryphnos gives little protection though the province pays for ships.
Raiding is seasonal: in winter the corsairs lie up, so on 1 January 1200 the belt is a zone of empty or half-empty islands rather than of active raids.
Who raids here
Genoese, Pisan and Greek corsairs (no leader named for the winter of 1199-1200)
Raided
The Byzantine province of Hellas: the islands of the Saronic Gulf, Makronisos and Keos, and the Attic coast
Anchors
The Acropolis of Athens and the walled towns on the mainland; Palaiochora on Aegina as the islanders' refuge
Last campaign
Chronic through the 1190s (Michael Choniates's letters); Kaphoures's raids about 1195-1197, ended before 1200. No raid is dated to the winter itself.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Michael Choniates's letters (through Miller 1908) describe the islands' state without a precise date; Kaphoures is dated 1195-1197 only through French Wikipedia (citing Smyrlis 2015).
On the map: Drawn on the islands only; the Attic coast, raided from them, is left to the province.
Sources and studies
- W. Miller, The Latins in the Levant (1908), ch. 1 'Greece at the time of the Frankish conquest' (archive.org full text; old but uses Michael Choniates's letters)
- Michael Choniates (Wikipedia)
- Byzantine navy (Wikipedia: the Angeloi, Kaphoures and Steiriones, Stryphnos)
- Alexis III Ange (French Wikipedia, citing Smyrlis 2015 for Gafforio and Stryphnos; Sgouros 1201-1202)
- Niketas Choniates, Historia, trans. H. J. Magoulias, O City of Byzantium (1984), archive.org
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.