Nikephoros II Phokas - Civil Administration

Civil Administration

Owing to the care which he lavished upon the proper maintenance of the army, Nikephoros II was compelled to exercise rigid economy in other departments. He retrenched the court largesses and curtailed the immunities of the clergy, and although himself of an ascetic disposition forbade the foundation of new monasteries. By his heavy imposts and the debasement of the coinage he forfeited his popularity with the people and gave rise to riots. Last of all, he was forsaken by his wife, and, in consequence of a conspiracy which she headed with his nephew and her lover John Tzimiskes, was assassinated in his sleeping apartment. Following his death, the Phokades family broke into insurrection under Nikephoros' nephew Bardas Phokas, but their revolt was promptly subdued. Nikephoros was the author of an extant treatise on military tactics, most famously the Praecepta Militaria which contains valuable information concerning the art of war in his time, and the less-known On Skirmishing (Περί Παραδρομής in the original Greek), which concerned guerilla-like tactics for defence against a superior enemy invasion force—though it is likely that this latter work, at least, was not composed by the Emperor but rather for him: translator and editor George T. Denis suggests that it was perhaps written by his brother Leo Phokas, then Domestic of the West. Nikephoros was also a very devout man, and helped his friend, the monk Athanasios, found the monastery of Great Lavra on Mount Athos.