While the disruption caused by the Second Crusade was at its height, Roger II of Sicily made a destructive raid on central Greece. Greek sources are uncertain whether his was planned with Conrad III or independently. Revenge for the failure of Roger's project to secure a Byzantine bride for his son may have played a role. [The fuller narrative of Choniates has been preferred here to that of Kinnamos, at the few points where they diverge.] The Sicilian admiral went first to Kerkyra, where he exploited dissatisfaction with the exactions of Gymnos, who (as governor or tax collector) collected taxes in a demanding and overbearing way. The admiral thus talked his way into the city without fighting, introducing a garrison of a thousand knights; the citizens exchanged one burden for something worse. Having garrisoned Kerkyra and strengthened the walls, he sailed to Monemvasia, but was beaten off. He returned past Malea, attacking places large and small, outside then inside the Gulf of Corinth. Later he moved overland to storm Thebes, extorting money and goods, making citizens swear to lists of their wealth, taking prisoners, male and female, and loading his warships like merchantmen. Finding no opposition, he sailed to Corinth, and soon took Akrokorinthos, as its commander Nikephoros Chalouphes failed to defend a very strong position. Again he plundered everything, including an icon of St Theodoros Stratelates, took noble prisoners, and sailed low in the water to Kerkyra. Thus after the crusaders left the city for Asia, Manuel I had to recover territory and punish aggression