HISTORICAL ADVENTURE. Apulia was in turmoil and the Eastern Empire had only itself to blame: the Byzantine possessions in Southern Italy were in open rebellion, the strife extending from the great trading ports to the rich agricultural lands that ran west to the high mountain barrier of the Apennines. Seeking to take advantage of a division between the Saracen Emirs of the island of Sicily, Constantinople had decided to invade and re-conquer that valuable possession but in doing so, in order to find the soldiers necessary for the task, harsh methods of recruitment had been employed in their nearby Italian fiefs and the results of that had come home to roost.