John I Tzimiskes - Reign

Reign

After his coronation in December 969, John dispatched his brother-in-law Bardas Skleros to subdue a rebellion by John's cousin Bardas Phokas, who aspired to succeed their uncle Nikephoros II. To solidify his position, John married Theodora, a daughter of Emperor Constantine VII. John proceeded to justify his usurpation by the energy with which he repelled the foreign invaders of the Empire. In a series of campaigns against the Kievan encroachment on the Lower Danube in (970–971) he drove the enemy out of Thrace in the Battle of Arcadiopolis, crossed Mt. Haemus and besieged the fortress of Dorystolon (Silistra) on the Danube. In several hard-fought battles he defeated King Svyatoslav I of Kievan Rus so completely, that he left Tzimiskes master of eastern Bulgaria and Dobruja. On his return to Constantinople, Tzimiskes celebrated a triumph, built as thanksgiving the Church of Christ of the Chalkè, divested the captive Bulgarian Emperor Boris II of the Imperial symbols, and proclaimed Bulgaria annexed. He further secured his northern frontier by transplanting to Thrace some colonies of Paulicians whom he suspected of sympathising with their Muslim neighbours in the east.

In 972 he turned against the Abbasid Empire and its vassals, beginning with an invasion of Upper Mesopotamia. A second campaign, in 975, was aimed at Syria, where John's forces took Emesa, Baalbek, Damascus, Tiberias, Nazareth, Caesarea, Sidon, Beirut, Byblos and Tripoli, but failed to take Jerusalem. He died suddenly in 976 on his return from his second campaign against the Abbasids, and was buried in the Church of Christ Chalkites, which he had rebuilt. Several sources state that the Imperial chamberlain Basil Lekapenos poisoned the Emperor to prevent him from stripping Lekapenos of his ill-gotten lands and riches. John was succeeded by his ward and nephew, Basil II, who had been nominal co-emperor since 960.