Rebellion of Bardas Phokas the Younger

Rebellion of Bardas Phokas
The Coronation of Basil II as co-emperor by Patriarch Polyeuctus, from the Madrid Skylitzes
Date February 987 – October 989 Location Byzantine Empire Result Loyalist victory
Belligerents
Loyalists Basil II Kievan Rus'	Rebels Phokas clan Support from: Principality of Tao Buyid Dynasty 2,000 Georgians, Armenians until 988	Rebels Bardas Skleros Arab mercenaries until mid-987
Commanders and leaders
Basil II Gregory Taronites	Bardas Phokas the Younger † Kalokyros Delphinas † Leo Melissenos David III of Tao Nikephoros Phokas Barytrachelos Leo Phokas of Antioch	Bardas Skleros
Strength
loyalist forces plus 6,000 Varangians	Byzantine army of Asia Minor, plus 2,000 Caucasians

The Rebellion of Bardas Phokas the Younger (February 987 – October 989) was a major war within the Byzantine Empire, fought mostly in Asia Minor.

During the second half of the tenth century the Byzantine Empire was characterized by emperors either devoted to or forced into long periods of campaigning mostly in the Near East, Crete, Cyprus, Antioch; many other territories were also conquered during this period.^[1][2][3] The success Byzantium experienced during this period was largely thanks to the Phokas clan, an aristocratic family who consistently produced competent generals, and their relatives. Indeed, during the reigns of Nikephoros II Phokas and his nephew John I Tzimiskes, these aristocratic generals supplanted the legitimate heirs of the Macedonian dynasty, the adolescent brothers Basil II and Constantine VIII, as the de facto rulers of the empire. When Tzimiskes died in 976 Basil II ascended to power. Quickly, however, tensions began to flare up within the royal court itself as the purple-born emperor attempted to reign fully out of the influence of the established court eunuchs. The figureheads behind the simmering tensions in the capital would come to blows in a major rebellion led by Bardas Phokas the Younger, the most powerful man left of the old Phokas regime.