Salerno, July 1299
The victorious Catalan-Angevin fleet begun loading the Neapolitan army for one more invasion of Sicily, now that the Sicilians had been defeated at sea. But as soon as the Neapolitan army was transported to Sicily, much to the shock of Robert and Philip of Anjou and Charles II, king Jaime declared that he had fulfilled his obligations by defeating the Sicilian fleet and now he could leave, the two princes with the support of Roger de Lauria could surely subdue Sicily by themselves without further Catalan aid. As soon as the army had been transported to Sicily, Jaime picked up his mother and his wife from Salerno and left for Aragon.
Messina, July 1299
The city had been on the verge of panic at the news of the defeat of Cape Orlando. And then the survivors of the Sicilian fleet, 30 Despotate galleys, a third of them Messinese and 21 from the rest of Sicily reached the port with both the kind and the despot aboard. Desperation turned to joy, despite the defeat not all was lost. And this in turn into grim determination and a desire for revenge when the news that Roger de Lauria had massacred the Messinese and Greek crews of the galleys he had captured in revenge for the execution of John Lauria spread in the city and the crews.
Falconaria, Sicily, December 1st, 1299
The landing of Angevin troops to Sicily had been followed by nearly thirty towns falling to the Angevins nearly all of them to treason. The most important of them had been Catania where Walter di Pantaleone and Virgilio Scordia, perhaps out of greed, perhaps weary of the support of Vatatzes for the lower classes and the Basilian order and his centralization of Eastern Sicily had risen up and delivered the city to the Angevins. But the army of Robert had nevertheless been stalled by Sicilian resistance. And thus reinforcements under his brother Philip of Taranto had been landed near Trapani and advanced to the interior. They had been met by Frederick and his lieutenant Blanco di Alagona at Falconaria and decisively defeated with Philip taken as prisoner while Robert's army trying to march west to join that of his brother had been held back by Vatatzes and on news of the defeat had retreated to Catania.
Gagliano, Sicily, February 1300
Following the defeat of Philip in Falconaria, Roger di Lauria had left for Naples to bring reinforcements while advising Robert of Anjou to remain holed up in Catania and avoid battle with the enemy. Robert had initially followed that advice but had grown inreasingly frustrated by it, particularly at news that Philantropenos army had been brought by Alexandros Vatatzes back to Sicily, where Philantropenos along with Alexandros had begun systematically reducing the towns taken by the Angevins one after the other, often enough with support from within the towns. Thus the offer of the castellan of Gagliano to surrender his force to the Angevins, supposedly because he did not want to continue serving a schismatic had proven very tempting, almost tempting enough to bring Robert out in person to take the castle. At the last moment a French force of 300 knights under Walther of Brienne had been sent instead only to be ambushed and destroyed by Philantropenos in a night attack, with Walther taken prisoner.
Calabria, April 1300
Alexios Philantropenos and his Cretans might had left Calabria but Alexandros Doukas Vatatzes had no intention of losing Calabria. If most of his army was needed in Sicily other means of securing the loyalty of Calabria were needed. And thus Ioannis Doukas Vatatzes fresh from victory in the siege of Syracuse had been sent to command in Calabria. And since his father knew better that let a twenty year old on his own in command of an army he had sent alone a former Templar knight turned mercenary captain to advise him and as second in command. Roger de Flor was of course excommunicated by the pope. But so was Alexandros...
Although from the reading the whole episode in Amari the French leaders at Catania were all practically chaffing at the bit to go and fall to the trap, it could just as easily have been Robert of Anjou falling into it. But that would be too convenient for Alexander.