Leo the Deacon
According to Skylitzes, Kourtikios attacked and raided several Aegean islands, and prepared to capture Abydos on the Hellespont, thereby cutting Constantinople's seaborne links to the western provinces still loyal to Basil, as well as allowing Skleros to ferry his troops over to Europe. Skylitzes reports that then he was defeated in a major battle off Phocaea by the "Droungarios" of the Imperial Fleet, Theodore Karantenos. Leo the Deacon on the other hand records that the Imperial Fleet was led by Bardas Parsakountenos, who defeated a rebel fleet off Abydos through the use of Greek fire. Modern scholars therefore suggest that there may have been two naval engagements, one under Parsakountenos off Abydos, and one under Karantenos—who accordingly was probably a thematic "strategos" rather than the "droungarios" of the Imperial Fleet—against Kourtikios off Phocaea.