The Levant Egypt North Africa Anatolia & Constantinople Border conflicts Sicily and Southern Italy Naval warfare Byzantine reconquest The Battle of the Gulf of Corinth was fought in c. 873 between the fleets of the Byzantine Empire and the Cretan Saracens in the Gulf of Corinth.

According to the 10th-century chronicler Theophanes Continuatus—whose work was later reused almost without change by the 11th-century historian John Skylitzes[1]—in the early years of the reign of the Emperor Basil I the Macedonian (r. 867–886) the Arab emir of Crete, Shu'ayb ("Saet" in Greek), son of the founder of the emirate, Abu Hafs, sent a Greek renegade called Photios, "a warlike and energetic fellow", on major raiding expeditions against the Byzantine Empire.

[2][3] Photios with the remnants of his fleet survived to return to Crete, and some time shortly after—probably c. 873, although some scholars place it as late as 879[2]—launched another expedition, raiding the shores of the Peloponnese.

He destroyed many of their ships and killed many of the raiders, including Photios, while many others were captured and—especially the Christian renegades among them—tortured to death in various ways.

Given that the portage of entire fleets across the Isthmus was considered even in Antiquity an extraordinary feat, and was hardly possible to be carried out in such short time as to surprise a fleet anchored near Corinth, Pettegrew suggests that Ooryphas' portage and victory must be considered more a literary topos evoking Classical models, specifically Philip V of Macedon's similar action while campaigning against the Illyrians in 217 BC, rather than an actual event.