Vasilief, A History of the Byzantine Empire

The Macedonian epoch (867-1081)

External affairs of the Macedonian emperors 

Page 10

His campaigns against the eastern Muslims were highly successful. Regarding his last campaign an interesting source is the letter from John Tzimisces to his ally, Ashot III, king of Armenia, preserved in the works of the Armenian historian, Matthew of Edessa. This letter shows that the Emperor, in aiming to achieve his final goal of freeing Jerusalem from the hands of the Muslims, undertook a real crusade. He departed with his army from Antioch, entered Damascus, and in his southward movement advanced into Palestine, where the cities of Nazareth and Caesarea voluntarily delivered themselves to the Emperor; even Jerusalem began to plead for mercy. If the pagan Africans who lived there, wrote the Emperor in his letter to Ashot, had not hidden out of fear of us in the seacoast castles, we would have entered, with God's help, the sacred city of Jerusalem and prayed to God in the Holy Places. But before reaching Jerusalem John Tzimisces directed his forces northward along the seacoast, and conquered many cities on his way. In the same letter the Emperor said, Today all Phoenicia, Palestine, and Syria are freed from the Muhammedan yoke and recognize the authority of the Byzantine Greeks. This letter, of course, contains many exaggerations. When it is compared with the testimony of the authentic information given by the Christian Arabian historian, Yahya of Antioch, it is evident that the results of the Palestinian campaign were much less notable. In all probability the Byzantine army did not go far beyond the boundaries of Syria.

When the Byzantine soldiers returned to Antioch, the Emperor left for Constantinople, where he died early in 976. One Byzantine chronicler wrote, All nations were horror-stricken by the attacks of John Tzimisces; he enlarged the land of the Romans; the Saracens and Armenians fled, the Persians feared him; and people from all sides carried gifts to him, beseeching him to make peace with them; he marched as far as Edessa and the River Euphrates, and the earth became filled with Roman armies; Syria and Phoenicia were trampled by Roman horses, and he achieved great victories; the sword of the Christian cut down like a sickle. However this last brilliant expedition of John Tzimisces did not accomplish the annexation of the conquered provinces, for his army returned to Antioch, which became the main base of the Byzantine military forces in the east during the latter part of the tenth century.

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