John I Tzimisces

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Image:Histamenon nomisma-John I-sb1776.jpg John I, last name Kourkouas and surnamed Zimisces (Greek: Ioannes "Tzimisces" Kourkouas, Iωάννης «Τζιμισκής» Κουρκούας) (c. 925 – January 10, 976) was East Roman Emperor from December 11, 969 to January 10, 976.

1 Background
2 Rise to the throne
3 Reign
4 External links

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Background

John's surname was derived either from the Armenian tshemshkik, meaning "red boot", or from an Armenian word for "short stature". He was born c. 925 to a father belonging to the Kourkouas family and to a mother belonging to the Phocas family. Both were distinguished Cappadocian families of Armenian origin, and among the most prominent of the emerging military aristocracy of Asia Minor. Several of their members had served as prominent army generals, including the brother of John's mother, Nicephorus Phocas.

Contemporary sources describe John as a rather short but well-built man, with reddish blonde hair and beard and blue eyes who was attractive to women. He seems to have joined the army at an early age, originally under the command of his maternal uncle Nicephorus. The latter is also considered his instructor in the art of war. Partly because of his familiar connections and partly because of his personal abilities, John quickly rose through the ranks. He was given the political and military command of the province of Armenia before he turned twenty-five years old.

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Rise to the throne

At the time the Empire was at war with its eastern neighbor, the Abbasid Empire. Armenia served as the border between the two Empires. John managed to successfully defend his province. He and his troops joined the main part of the army, which was campaigning against the enemy under the command of Nicephorus. Image:Lebedev meeting.jpg

Nicephorus means "bearer of victory" and Phocas justified his name with a series of victories, moving the borders further east with the capture of about 60 border cities including Aleppo. By 962, the Abbasids had asked for a peace treaty with favorable terms for Byzantines, that secured the borders for some years. John distinguished himself during the war both at the side of his uncle and at leading parts of the army to battle under his personal command. He was rather popular with his troops and gained a reputation for taking the initiative during battles, turning their course.

After helping his maternal uncle to obtain the throne as Nicephorus II and to restore the empire's eastern provinces, he was deprived of his command by an intrigue, upon which he retaliated by conspiring with Nicephorus' wife Theophano to assassinate him:

The murder was protracted by insult and cruelty: and as soon as the head of Nicephorus was shown from the window, the tumult was hushed, and the Armenian was emperor of the East. On the day of his coronation, he was stopped on the threshold of St. Sophia, by the intrepid patriarch; who charged his conscience with the deed of treason and blood; and required, as a sign of repentance, that he should separate himself from his more criminal associate. This sally of apostolic zeal was not offensive to the prince, since he could neither love nor trust a woman who had repeatedly violated the most sacred obligations; and Theophano, instead of sharing his imperial fortune, was dismissed with ignominy from his bed and palace. In their last interview, she displayed a frantic and impotent rage; accused the ingratitude of her lover; assaulted, with words and blows, her son Basil, as he stood silent and submissive in the presence of a superior colleague; and avowed her own prostitution in proclaiming the illegitimacy of his birth. The public indignation was appeased by her exile, and the punishment of the meaner accomplices: the death of an unpopular prince was forgiven; and the guilt of Zimisces was forgotten in the splendour of his virtues. - Edward Gibbon. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

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Reign

Upon his coronation, John dispatched his brother-in-law Bardas Sklerus to subdue a rebellion by Bardas Phocas, who aspired to play the part of his uncle Nicephorus. John proceeded to justify his usurpation by the energy with which he repelled the foreign invaders of the empire.

In a series of campaigns against the newly established Russian power (970-973) he drove the enemy out of Thrace, crossed Mt. Haemus and besieged the fortress of Dorystolon on the Danube. In several hard-fought battles he broke the strength of Svyatoslav I so completely that he left Tzimisces master of eastern Bulgaria and Dobruja.

He further secured his northern frontier by transplanting to Thrace some colonies of Paulicians whom he suspected of sympathising with their Saracen neighbours in the east.

In 974 he turned against the Abbasid empire and easily recovered the inland parts of Syria and the middle reaches of the Euphrates. He died suddenly in 976 on his return from his second campaign against the Saracens.

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition{{#if:{{{article|}}}| article {{#if:{{{url|}}}|[{{{url|}}}}} "{{{article}}}"{{#if:{{{url|}}}|]}}{{#if:{{{author|}}}| by {{{author}}}}}}}, a publication now in the public domain.Template:Start box Template:Succession box Template:End box

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