So, i was listening to Lars Brownworth's Norman Centuries and he mentioned a battle where Roger I of Sicily beats 50 000 saracens with 136 knights. How could this happen? I do realize that for every knight there would be at least 5 - 6 men at arms, but that is still under a thousand men. Double their numbers and it is still an unbelievable victory. It's like if the Spartans had won at thermopylae, and not just won, but massacered the persians. I would imagine such a thing would be hailed as a shining example of their finest hour, so why wasn't the battle of Cerami sensationalized aswell? I can't even find a wikipedia page dedicated it.

I also realize the Saracens were drunk at the start of battle, but they make it clear the Normans charged down the hill, without any natural way(like the cliffs at thermopylae) of defending their flanks when they engage the enemy. It's a limit to how long it should take 50 000 men to sober up a bit and group up. It's not like they should be getting overwhelmed. I'm imagening a wasp killing off a beehive. Slowly making their way through endless ranks.

and all that day the Normans slew and slew, till the bodies of fifteen thousand Saracens were heaped up like great ramparts on the earth, and the Normans slept in their armour on the slippery field, and on the next day they pursued the flying foe far and wide through the valleys and ravines of the mountains.

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A hilltop town, Cerami was the location of a major battle between Normans and Muslims in 1063, during the Norman conquest of the Island by Roger I of Sicily son of Tancred of Hauteville. According to historian Goffredo Malaterra, after being besieged in the neighboring town of Troina for four months, Roger and 136 ferocious Norman knights took to the field of Cerami and faced approximately 50,000 Muslim soldiers. The apparition of St. George was said to have materialized on a white horse carrying the sign of the cross on his lance and charging into the enemy where their array was the most dense. Malaterra claims the Normans slaughtered 35,000 of the enemy.

here

and here

So what am i missing ? Was there some silly technological advantage or are the numbers just wrong? Is it that the story doesn't appeal to anyone because the Normans weren't italians, so later Italians didn't identify with them and bother to romatizise it? It seems like such an insane event, i would love it if there was any illustrations or paintings of it. I keep finding this painting, and it's not that detailed.