Basil Boioannes detachment of the elite Varangian Guard was sent. The two forces met on the river Ofanto near Cannae, the site of Hannibal's victory over the Romans in 216 BC. In the second Battle of Cannae, Boioannes achieved an equally decisive victory. Boioannes protected his gains by immediately building a great fortress at the Apennine pass guarding the entrance to the Apulian plain. Troia, named after the ancient city of Asia Minor, was garrisoned by Boioannes' own contingent of Norman troops in 1019. Soon, all the Mezzogiorno had submitted to Byzantine authority, with the exception of the Duchy of Benevento, which
Roger of Cannae Martyrology. Roger of Cannae Saint Roger of Cannae (1060 – December 30, 1129) was an Italian bishop. The Catholic Church honours him as a saint. Roger (in Italian: "Ruggero di Canne") was elected bishop of the town of Cannae, where a small diocese already had risen in the 10th century. In 1083 there was the destruction by Robert Guiscard, king of the Normans. Roger contributed to the moral and material reconstruction of the ancient city of Apulia, supporting his fellow citizens with the consolations of faith and the material aid. The "Cannes Anonymous", an ancient local biographical sources of the