| Nikephoros II Phokas | |
|---|---|
| Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans | |
 Nikephoros II Phokas on a 15th-century manuscript,Biblioteca Marciana,Venice. The portrait is almost certainly imaginary.[i] | |
| Byzantine emperor | |
| Reign | 16 August 963 – 11 December 969 |
| Predecessor | Romanos II |
| Successor | John I |
| Co-emperors | See list
|
| Born | c. 912 Cappadocia |
| Died | 11 December 969 (aged 57) Constantinople |
| Burial | |
| Spouse | Theophano |
| Dynasty | Phokas |
| Father | Bardas Phokas |
Nikephoros II Phokas | |
|---|---|
 Icon of St. Nikephoros byTheophanes the Cretan | |
| Emperor of the Romans, Kallinikos | |
| Venerated in | Eastern Orthodox Church |
| Feast | December 11 |
| Attributes | Imperial attire |
| Patronage | Great Lavra of Mount Athos |
Nikephoros II Phokas (Greek:Νικηφόρος Φωκᾶς,romanized: Nikēphóros Phōkâs;c. 912 – 11 December 969),LatinizedNicephorus II Phocas, wasByzantine emperor from 963 to 969. His career, not uniformly successful in matters of statecraft or of war, nonetheless greatly contributed to the resurgence of the Byzantine Empire during the 10th century. In the east, Nikephoros completed the conquest ofCilicia and retook the islands ofCrete andCyprus, opening the path for subsequent Byzantine incursions reaching as far asUpper Mesopotamia and theLevant; these campaigns earned him thesobriquet "pale death of theSaracens."
Nikephoros Phokas was born around 912. From his paternal side, he belonged to thePhokas family[1] which had produced several distinguished generals, including Nikephoros' fatherBardas Phokas, brotherLeo Phokas, and grandfatherNikephoros Phokas the Elder, who had all served as commanders of the field army (domestikos tōn scholōn). From his maternal side he belonged to theMaleinoi, a powerful Anatolian Greek family which had settled inCappadocia.[ii][2] Early in his life Nikephoros had married Stephano. She had died before he rose to fame, and after her death he took an oath of chastity.
Nikephoros joined the army at an early age. He was appointed the military governor of theAnatolic Theme in 945 under EmperorConstantine VII. In 954 or 955 Nikephoros was promoted toDomestic of the Schools, replacing his father,Bardas Phokas, who had suffered a series of defeats by theHamdanids and by theAbbasids. The new position essentially placed Nikephoros in charge of the eastern Byzantine army. From 955, the Hamdanids inAleppo entered a period of unbroken decline until their destruction in 1002. In June 957 Nikephoros managed to capture and destroyAdata. The Byzantines continued to push their advantage against the Arabs until the collapse of the Hamdanids, except for the period from 960 to 961, when the army turned its focus to thereconquest of Crete.
From the ascension of EmperorRomanos II in 959, Nikephoros and his younger brotherLeo Phokas were placed in charge of the eastern and western field armies respectively. In 960, 27,000oarsmen andmarines were assembled to man a fleet of 308 ships carrying 50,000 troops.[3][4] At the recommendation of the influential ministerJoseph Bringas, Nikephoros was entrusted to lead this expedition against the MuslimEmirate of Crete, and he led his fleet to the island and defeated a minor Arab force upon disembarking near Almyros. He soon began a nine-month siege of the fortress town ofChandax, where his forces suffered through the winter due to supply issues.[5] Following a failed assault and many raids into the countryside, Nikephoros entered Chandax on 6 March 961 and soon wrested control of the entire island from the Muslims.[6] Upon returning toConstantinople, he was denied the usual honor of atriumph, but was permitted anovation in theHippodrome.[7]
Following the conquest of Crete, Nikephoros returned to the east and marched a large and well-equipped army intoCilicia. In February 962, he capturedAnazarbos and threatened the major city ofTarsus, which had recently ceased to recognize the Hamdanid Emir ofAleppo,Sayf al-Dawla.[8] Nikephoros continued to ravage the Cilician countryside and won an open battle againstIbn al-Zayyat, governor of Tarsus, who killed himself after the defeat. Thereafter, Nikephoros returned to the regional capital ofCaesarea. Upon the beginning of the new campaigning season al-Dawla entered the Byzantine Empire to conduct raids, a strategy which left Aleppo dangerously undefended. Nikephoros soon tookSyrian Hierapolis.[9] In December, an army split between Nikephoros andJohn I Tzimiskesmarched towards Aleppo, quickly routing an opposing force led byNaja al-Kasaki. Al-Dawla's force caught up with the Byzantines, but he too was routed, and Nikephoros and Tzimiskes entered Aleppo on 24 December.[8] The loss of the city would prove to be both a strategic and moral disaster for the Hamdanids. It was probably on these campaigns that Nikephoros earned the sobriquet "Pale Death of the Saracens".[10]
On 15 March 963, Emperor Romanos II died unexpectedly at the age of twenty-five of uncertain cause. Both contemporary and later historians attribute the death to overindulgence in sex and drinking, or suspect that Romanos was poisoned by his wife, the EmpressTheophano (c. 941–after 976). Theophano had already gained a reputation for intelligence and ambition, and hostile later historians characterize her as ruthless in achieving her goals. Romanos had alreadycrowned as co-emperors his two sonsBasil II andConstantine VIII. At the time that Romanos died, however, Basil was five years old and Constantine only three years old, so Theophano was namedregent.
_into_Constantinople_in_963_from_the_Chronicle_of_John_Skylitzes.jpg)
Theophano, however, was not allowed to rule alone.Joseph Bringas, theeunuch palace official who had become Romanos' chief councilor, maintained his position. According to contemporary sources he intended to keep authority in his own hands. He also tried to reduce the power of Nikephoros Phokas. The victorious general had been accepted as the actual commander of the army and maintained a strong connection to the aristocracy. Bringas was afraid that Nikephoros would attempt to claim the throne with the support of both the army and the aristocracy. This is exactly what he did. On July 2 in Caesarea, his armies, along with his highest-ranking officers, proclaimed Nikephoros emperor. From his position in Caesarea, and in advance of the news of his proclamation as emperor, Nikephoros sent a fleet to secure theBosphorus Strait against his enemies.[11] Around the same time, he appointed Tzimiskes as Domestic of the East, now taking on the formal roles of emperor. He then sent a letter to Constantinople requesting to be accepted as co-emperor. In response, Bringas locked down the city, forcing Nikephoros' fatherBardas Phokas to seek sanctuary in theHagia Sophia, while his brotherLeo Phokas escaped the city in disguise. Bringas was able to garner some support within the city from a few high-ranking officers, namelyMarianos Argyros, but he himself was not a skilled orator and was unable to obtain the support of other popular officials such as the PatriarchPolyeuctus and the generalBasil Lekapenos. The people of Constantinople soon turned against his cause, killing Argyros in a riot and soon forcing Bringas to flee.[12][13] On August 16, Nikephoros was proclaimed emperor and married the empress Theophano.[14]
Nikephoros II was not very successful in his western wars. Under his reign, relations with theBulgarians worsened. It is likely that he bribed theKievan Rus' to raid the Bulgarians in retaliation for them not blockingMagyar raids.[15] This breach in relations triggered a decades-long decline in Byzantine-Bulgarian diplomacy and was a prelude to the wars fought between the Bulgarians and later Byzantine emperors, particularlyBasil II.
Nikephoros' first military failures came inSicily. In 962 the son of the governor ofFatimid Sicily,Ahmad ibn al-Hasan al-Kalbi, captured and reduced the Byzantine city ofTaormina. The last major Byzantine stronghold in Sicily,Rometta, appealed to the newly crowned emperor Nikephoros for aid against the approaching Muslim armies. Nikephoros renounced his payments of tribute to theFatimidcaliphs, and sent a huge fleet, purportedly boasting a crew of around 40,000 men, underPatrikios Niketas andManuel Phokas, to the island. The Byzantine forces, however, were swiftly routed in Rometta and at theBattle of the Straits, and Rometta soon fell to the Muslims, completing the Islamic conquest of Sicily.[16][17]
In 967, the Byzantines and the Fatimids hastily concluded a peace treaty to cease hostilities in Sicily. Both empires had grander issues to attend to: the Fatimids were preparing to invadeEgypt, and tensions were flaring up on mainland Italy between the Byzantines and the German emperorOtto I. The constant tension between the Germans and the Byzantines was largely due to mutual cultural biases, but also to the fact that both empires claimed to be the successors of theRoman Empire.[18] Conflicts in southern Italy were preceded by religious contests between the two empires and by the malicious writings ofLiutprand of Cremona. Otto first invaded ByzantineApulia in 968 and failed to takeBari. Early the next year, he once again moved against Byzantine Apulia andCalabria, but, unable to captureCassano orBovino, failed to make any progress. In May he returned north, leavingPandulf Ironhead to take charge of the siege. Pandulf was defeated and taken prisoner by the Byzantine general Eugenios, who went on to besiegeCapua and enterSalerno. The two empires would continue to skirmish with each other until after the reign of Nikephoros, but neither side was able to make permanent or significant gains.[citation needed]
From 964 to 965, Nikephoros led an army of 40,000 men which conquered Cilicia and conducted raids inUpper Mesopotamia andSyria, while the patricianNiketas Chalkoutzes recoveredCyprus.[19] In the spring of 964, Nikephorus headed east. During the summer he capturedAnazarbos andAdana before withdrawing. Later that year, Nikephoros attempted to quickly takeMopsuestia, but failed, returning to Caesarea. It was around this time thatNiketas Chalkoutzes instigated a coup inCyprus, which at the time was a shared condominium between the Byzantines and the Arabs. In the summer of 965, the conquest of Cilicia began in earnest. Nikephorus and Tzimiskes seized Mopsuestia July 13, whileLeo Phokas investedTarsus and Nikephoros and Tzimiskes arrived soon after. Nikephoros won a pitched battle against the Tarsiots, routing their forces with his "ironclad horsemen", referencing the Byzantinecataphracts. Within a fortnight, on August 16, Tarsus surrendered. Nikephoros allowed the inhabitants to depart unharmed before the city was plundered by his army. With the fall of these two strongholds, Cilicia was in the hands of the Byzantines.[20][21]
In June 966, Sayf al-Dawla and the Byzantines held an exchange of prisoners atSamosata.[22] In October 966, Nikephoros led an expedition to raidAmida,Dara andNisibis, then marched towardsHierapolis, where he took a relic with the image of Jesus to be later placed in theChurch of the Virgin of the Pharos in Constantinople.[22] A detachment sent toBarbalissos returned with 300 prisoners, after which Nikephoros raidedWadi Butnan,Chalcis,Tizin andArtah, and finally laid siege to Antioch, abandoning the project after eight days due to a lack of supplies.[23]
In 967 or 968, Nikephoros annexed the Armenian state ofTaron by diplomacy,[24] in addition toArzen andMartyropolis.[25] He commenced another expedition in October 968 by besieging Antioch for thirteen days.[25] Afterwards the Byzantine army moved south, raiding and sacking most of the fortresses and cities along its path, includingMaarrat Misrin,Arra,Capharda,Larissa,Epiphania andEmesa in theOrontes valley, until it reached the city ofTripoli; from Tripoli, Nikephoros moved to takeArca,Antarados,Maraclea, andGabala, and received the submission ofLaodicea.[26] His aim was to cut off Antioch from its allies. Not wishing to damage its buildings, the emperor decided to take it by hunger. A detachment (taxiarchy) of 1500 men was left in the fort ofPagrae, controlling the road from Antioch toAlexandretta, while the occupation of Maarat Misrin, Tizin, and Artach closed potential relief routes from Aleppo and Damascus.[27]The siege ended in 969, whenMichael Bourtzes, thepatrikios commanding the fort, disobeyed the emperor's orders and took Antioch with a surprise attack, supported by the troops of thestratopedarch Petros, eunuch of the Phokas family. Bourtzes was disgraced for his insubordination, and later joined the plot that killed Phokas.
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Nikephoros' popularity was largely based on his conquests. Due to the resources he allocated to his army, Nikephoros was compelled to exercise a rigid economic policy in other departments. He retrenched court largess and curtailed the immunities of the clergy, and while he had anascetic disposition, he forbade the foundation of newmonasteries. By his heavy imposts and the debasement of theByzantine currency, along with the enforcement and implementation of taxes across the centralized regions of the empire, he forfeited his popularity with the people and gave rise to riots.
Nikephoros also disagreed with the church on theological grounds. He wished the church to elevate those soldiers who died in battle against the Saracens to the positions of martyrs in the church – similar to the status of "Shahid" which the Emperor's Muslim foes bestowed on their own fallen soldiers. In the Christian context, this was a highly controversial and unpopular demand.[28]
In 967, he sparked a controversy in the capital by making a display of his military maneuvers in the Hippodrome similar in style to those displayed by the emperorJustinian centuries earlier preceding theNika riots and its violent suppression within the stadium itself. The crowd within the Hippodrome panicked and began a stampede to retreat from the stadium, resulting in numerous deaths.[citation needed] In order to repopulate the regained lands in the East, he invited theSyriac Orthodox patriarchJohn VII Sarigta and his community to live in these lands. The Syriac community subsequently experienced a golden age with many monasteries founded, especially in the region around Melitene, such as theMonastery of Bārid, where John VII Sarigta and his successors came to reside.[29]
Nikephoros was the author of extant treatises on military tactics, most famously thePraecepta Militaria, which contains valuable information on the art of war in his time, and the less-knownOn Skirmishing (Medieval Greek:Περὶ Παραδρομῆς Πολέμου), which concerned guerrilla-like tactics for defense against a superior enemy invasion force along the eastern frontier; though it purports that the tactics were no longer needed since the danger of the Muslim states to the east had subsided.[30] It is likely that this latter work, at least, was not composed by the Emperor but rather for him; translator and editor George T. Dennis suggests that it was perhaps written by his brother Leo Phokas, then Domestic of the West.[31] Nikephoros was a very devout man, and he helped his friend, themonk Athanasios, found the monastery ofGreat Lavra onMount Athos.[32][page needed]
The plot to assassinate Nikephoros began when he dismissedMichael Bourtzes from his position following his disobedience in the siege of Antioch. Bourtzes was disgraced, and he would soon find an ally with whom to plot against Nikephoros. Towards the end of 965, Nikephoros had John Tzimiskes exiled to eastern Asia Minor for suspected disloyalty, but was recalled on the pleading of Nikephoros' wife, Theophano. According toJoannes Zonaras andJohn Skylitzes, Nikephoros had a loveless relationship with Theophano. He was leading an ascetic life, whereas she was secretly having an affair with Tzimiskes. Theophano and Tzimiskes plotted to overthrow the emperor. On the night of the deed, she left Nikephoros' bedchamber door unlocked, and he was assassinated in his apartment by Tzimiskes and his entourage on 11 December 969.[14] He died praying to the mother of God. Following his death, the Phokas family broke into insurrection under Nikephoros' nephewBardas Phokas, but their revolt was promptly subdued as Tzimiskes ascended the throne.
The tension between East and West resulting from the policies pursued by Nikephoros may be glimpsed in the unflattering description of him and his court by BishopLiutprand of Cremona in hisRelatio de legatione Constantinopolitana.[33] His description of Nikephoros was clouded by the ill-treatment he received while on a diplomatic mission to Constantinople. Nikephoros, a man of war, was not apt at diplomacy. To add insult to injury,Pope John XIII sent a letter to Nikephoros while Liutprand was in Constantinople callingOtto I Emperor of Rome and even more insultingly referring to Nikephoros merely as Emperor of the Greeks. Liutprand failed in his goal of procuring an Imperial princess as a wife for Otto's young son, the future emperorOtto II.
Bishop Liutprand described Nikephoros as:
Whereas Bishop Liutprand describes the emperor's hair as being bristly,Leo the Deacon says it was black with "tight curls" and "unusually long".
John Julius Norwich says, about his murder and burial, "It was a honourable place; but Nikephoros Phocas, the White Death of the Saracens, hero of Syria and Crete, saintly and hideous, magnificent and insufferable, had deserved a better end".[35]
During the last decades of the tenth century, the Phokades repeatedly tried to get their hands again on the throne, and almost succeeded when Nikephoros' nephew,Bardas Phokas the Younger, rebelled against the rule of Basil II. His death, possibly by cardiac arrest, put an end to the rebellion, and ultimately to the political prominence of the Phokades, although Bardas the Younger's own son,Nikephoros Phokas Barytrachelos, launched another abortive revolt in 1022 along withNikephoros Xiphias.
Phokas was the author of a military manual, thePraecepta Militaria.[36][37]
Due to his role in ending Saracen rule in Crete, Nikephoros II is often featured as a point of reference in legends that circulated in Crete during the later Middle Ages, when the island was underVenetian rule and the local Greek inhabitants sought inspiration in the Byzantine imperial past.[38] Nikephoros II was also brought into the legend of thetwelve noble families of Crete by sending one of his sons to be the governor of Crete.[39] TheKallergis family, the most prominent of the Venetian-era Cretan nobility, claimed descent from Nikephoros II Phokas.[40]
On 19 November 2004, theHellenic Navy named its tenthKortenaer-class frigate in his honour asNikiforos Fokas F-466 (formerly HNLMSBloys Van Treslong F-824). Also, in theRethymno regional unit in Crete, a municipality (Nikiforos Fokas) is named after him, as are many streets throughout Greece.
Nikephoros II appears as a character in:
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Nicephorus".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 19 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 647–648.
Nikephoros II Phokas Born: c. 912 Died: 11 December 969 | ||
| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Byzantine emperor 963–969 With:Basil II | Succeeded by |
| Military offices | ||
| Preceded by | Domestic of the Schools of the East 954– 963 | Succeeded by |
