Nikephoros II Phokas - Later Campaigns

Later Campaigns

During his reign Nikephoros II Phokas continued to wage numerous wars. From 964–966 he led an army of 40,000 men which conquered Cilicia and again overran Mesopotamia and Syria, while the patrician Niketas Chalkoutzes recovered Cyprus. In 968 he reduced most of the fortresses in Syria, and after the fall of Antioch and Aleppo in 969, which were recaptured by his lieutenants, he secured his conquests by a peace treaty. On his northern frontier he began a war against Bulgaria in 967, to which the Byzantines had been paying tribute. Nikephoros revoked the tribute and instigated (with 15,000 pounds of gold) King Sviatoslav I of Kiev to attack Bulgaria, which he did so effectively, that Nikephoros ended up renewing the alliance with Bulgaria and turning against his own Kievan ally.

Nikephoros II was less successful in his western wars. After renouncing his payments of tribute to the Fatimid caliphs, he sent an expedition to Sicily under Niketas (964–965), but was forced by defeats on land and sea to evacuate that island completely. In 967 he made peace with the Fatimids of Kairawan and turned to defend himself against their common enemy, Otto I, who had proclaimed himself Western emperor and attacked the Byzantine possessions in Italy; but after some initial successes his generals were defeated and driven back to the southern coast. The tension between East and West that resulted from Nikephoros' policies can be glimpsed from Bishop Liutprand of Cremona's very unflattering description of him and his court in his Relatio de legatione Constantinopolitana.