After Tzimiskes' death, Bardas Skleros had his troops hail him as Basileus, captured the southern fleet, conquered all of Asia Minor, set up headquarters at Nicaea, and besieged Constantinople. The imperial fleet repulsed him with Greek fire, but he remained dangerous until the chamberlain Basil released the exiled Bardas Phokas, whose ensuing three-year civil war concluded with Skleros defeated in single combat and fleeing to the Saracens.
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Episode 13 (12 mentions)
After Tzimiskes' death, Bardas Skleros had his troops hail him as Basileus, captured the southern fleet, conquered all of Asia Minor, set up headquarters at Nicaea, and besieged Constantinople. The imperial fleet repulsed him with Greek fire, but he remained dangerous until the chamberlain Basil released the exiled Bardas Phokas, whose ensuing three-year civil war concluded with Skleros defeated in single combat and fleeing to the Saracens.
“of Armenia and parts of Syria, lands that had fallen 300 years before during the first”
“The first, and in many ways the most serious, was his chamberlain, a eunuch also named Basil,”
“his first major military engagement had ended in disaster at Trajan's Gate.”
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