John I de la Roche succeeded his father, Guy I

Guy I de la Roche

Guy I de la Roche was the Duke of Athens , the nephew and successor of the first duke Otto. After the conquest of Thebes, Otto gave half the city in lordship to Guy....

, as Duke of Athens in 1263. He was cultured and chivalrous, spoke fluent Greek

Medieval Greek

Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, is the stage of the Greek language between the beginning of the Middle Ages around 600 and the Ottoman conquest of the city of Constantinople in 1453. The latter date marked the end of the Middle Ages in Southeast Europe...

, and read Herodotus

Herodotus

Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...

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In 1275, John, with 300 knights, relieved Neopatras

Battle of Neopatras

The Battle of Neopatras was fought in the early 1270s between a Byzantine army besieging the city of Neopatras and the forces of John I Doukas, ruler of Thessaly. The battle was a rout for the Byzantine army, which was caught by surprise and defeated by a much smaller but more disciplined...

, blockaded by a Byzantine mercenary army. It was at this battle that he said "'Great are their numbers but few among them are true men," quoting Herodotus, who said, of the Battle of Thermopylae

Battle of Thermopylae

The Battle of Thermopylae was fought between an alliance of Greek city-states, led by King Leonidas of Sparta, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I over the course of three days, during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place simultaneously with the naval battle at Artemisium, in August...

, "the Persian are great in their numbers but true men are far and few."

The next year (1276), the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus invaded Euboea

Euboea

Euboea is the second largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete. The narrow Euripus Strait separates it from Boeotia in mainland Greece. In general outline it is a long and narrow, seahorse-shaped island; it is about long, and varies in breadth from to...

 and Thessaly

Thessaly

Thessaly is a traditional geographical region and an administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thessaly was known as Aeolia, and appears thus in Homer's Odyssey....

. John joined Gilbert of Verona to march to the relief of Negroponte

Negroponte

Negroponte can refer to:*the Greek island of Euboea, called Negroponte in Italian**Chalkis, the island's capital, named Negroponte during the Middle Ages...

, which was under attack by Licario

Licario

Licario, called Ikarios by the Greek chroniclers, was a Byzantine admiral of Italian origin in the 13th century. At odds with the barons of his native Euboea, he entered the service of the Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos , and reconquered many of the Aegean islands for him in the 1270s...

. During a battle six miles to the north, at Vatonda, John was thrown from his horse and captured, along with Gilbert and many other knights.

In 1280 he died and was succeeded by his brother William

William I de la Roche

William I de la Roche succeeded his brother, John I, as Duke of Athens in 1280. He was the first official "duke" of Athens; previous dukes had actually been "lords."...

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