Villehardouin, and hence a potential claimant to the Principality. Akropolites emphasizes the Nicaeans' use of strategy, and his account describes "a series of skirmishes on the road rather than a confrontation of two armies on a battlefield", giving the impression that "the defeat of the allies at the hands of the Nicene forces came quickly and ingloriously", whereas the Chronicle is at pains to portray the fight as a heroic albeit doomed combat, exaggerating the number of the Nicaean troops, avoiding any mention of the Sicilian contingent, and stressing the role of Nicaean agents in spreading dissension among the allies. Gregoras and Pachymeres, while following the earlier account of Akropolites in the main, contain elements also found in the Chronicle, including the role of a Nicaean agent, and praise for the valiant conduct of the Achaean nobles. As a result of the differences in the sources, numerous details of the battle remain unclear, from the exact date (proposed dates range from June to November), the location (Pelagonia or Kastoria), or the exact roles the various leaders played in the events. The two main suggestions for the date are by Donald Nicol, in early summer (July), and Deno Geanakoplos, in early fall (around September). The exact location of the battle has been disputed, as the only clear toponym given in the sources is Boril's Wood (), which has been variously placed by modern researchers close to Prilep, Kastoria, or Bitola (then known as Pelagonia). Using the sources and the topography to reconstruct the movements of the armies, the modern scholars Freiderikos Rochontzis and Robert Mihajlovski have independently suggested as the battlefield the plain between Florina and Kaimakchalan, north of Kastoria, near the modern settlement of Vevi (formerly known as Banitsa); a strategically important location where the Battle of Lyncestis had been fought in 423 BC and the Battle of Vevi was fought in 1941. Battle Akropolites puts the location of the first clashes between the two armies at Boril's Wood. In view of their numerical disadvantage, the Nicaeans had no choice but to employ strategy to overcome their opponents, aiming at the cohesion of the enemy alliance. Like all Greeks, the Epirotes mistrusted and hated the Franks as a result of the Fourth Crusade and the oppression of the Orthodox Greeks by the Roman Catholic clergy in the Frankish states, while the Franks despised the Greeks as cowardly, devious and schismatic.