When the Pisans caught sight of them they speedily arranged their fleet in battle-order and whetted their minds, as well as their swords, for the fray. As the Roman fleet was drawing near, a certain Peloponnesian count, Perichytes by name, and a very expert navigator, had his ship of a single bank of oars rowed very quickly against the Pisans directly he saw them; and he passed right through the midst of them like fire, and then returned to the Roman fleet. The Roman fleet however did not venture upon a regular sea-battle with the Pisans, but made a series of swift, irregular attacks upon them.
Count Eleemon
Landulph himself, first of all, drew close to the Pisan ships and threw fire at them, but aimed badly and thus accomplished nothing but wasting his fire. Then the man called Count Eleemon very boldly attacked the largest vessel at the stern, but got entangled in its rudders, and as he could not free himself easily he would have been taken, had he not with great presence of mind had recourse to his machine and poured fire upon the enemy very successfully. Then he quickly turned his ship round and set fire on the spot to three more of the largest barbarian ships.
At the same moment a squall of wind suddenly struck the sea and churned it up and dashed the ships together and almost threatened to sink them (for the waves roared, the yardarms creaked and the sails were split). The barbarians now became thoroughly alarmed, firstly because of the fire directed upon them (for they were not accustomed to that kind of machine, nor to a fire, which naturally flames upwards, but in this case was directed in whatever direction the sender desired, often downwards or laterally) and secondly they were much upset by the storm, and consequently they fled. That is what the barbarians did.
The Roman fleet for its part ran to a little island, locally called Seutlus, and when day dawned sailed away from there and entered the harbour of Rhodes. There they disembarked and led out all the prisoners they had succeeded in taking, amongst them Bohemund’s nephew, and tried to frighten them by saying they would either sell them as slaves or kill them. As they noticed the prisoners were quite unmoved by these threats and thought nothing of slavery, they slaughtered them all on the spot.
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