 The defeat off the coast of Durazzo , though devastating to Guiscard 's fleet , had inflicted little damage to his army as the majority of it had disembarked before the battle in preparation of the siege of Durazzo . In the coming months , Guiscard would regroup his forces and defeat a large Byzantine army led by Alexios I himself . In 1082 , Guiscard took the city of Durazzo , and as the Venetian sailors were forced out of the city and their ships vacated the harbor of Durazzo , the first victory by Venice against the Norman fleet appeared just a temporary setback for the Normans . Due to the new trade privileges and the fact that virtually no damage was inflicted on the Venetians during this siege , Selvo remained very popular in Venice . Meanwhile , Guiscard advanced rapidly across the Balkan Peninsula , but his march was halted by an urgent dispatch and a call for help from his greatest ally , Pope Gregory VII . Guiscard responded by returning to Italy and marching on Rome to temporarily expel Henry IV , but in the process , he lost almost all the territories he had gained in the Balkans . Knowing that Guiscard was gone , in 1083 , Selvo sent the Venetian fleet to recapture both Durazzo and the island of Corfu to the south . 
