On 3 November 1082, the Normans besieged the city of Larissa. In the early winter of 1082, Alexios managed to obtain a mercenary force of 7,000 soldiers from the Seljuk Turkish sultan Suleiman ibn Qutulmish. The contingent was led by a general named Kamyres. Alexios continued to raise troops in Constantinople. In March 1083, Alexios departed from Constantinople at the head of an army which marched towards Larissa.

In July, Alexios attacked the blockading force, harassing it with mounted Turkish archers and spreading discord among its ranks through diplomatic techniques. The demoralized Normans were forced to break off the siege. Discord continued to spread in the Norman army, as its officers demanded two and half years worth of payment arrears, a sum Bohemond did not possess. The bulk of the Norman army returned to the coast and sailed back to Italy, leaving only a small garrison at Kastoria.

Meanwhile, Alexios granted the Venetians a commercial colony in Constantinople, as well as exemption from trading duties in return for their renewed aid. They responded by recapturing Dyrrhachium and Corfu and returning them to the Byzantine Empire. The death of Robert Guiscard in 1085 and these victories returned the Empire to its previous status quo and marked the beginning of the Komnenian restoration.