Leo the Deacon
During this period, Basil amassed a huge fortune, including entire settlements in the recently conquered southeastern portions of Anatolia. Leo the Deacon mentions the localities of Longias and Drize, while Skylitzes reports that he owned the region between Anazarbos and Podandos. These riches were the cause of Basil's break with Tzimiskes; the sources report that on his return from campaign in Syria in 974, the Emperor saw the vast estates belonging to Basil, and resolved to move against him. Learning of this, Basil arranged for Tzimiskes to be poisoned, although the sources differ on how and where this was done. Modern scholars are skeptical towards these reports; as Kathryn Ringrose writes, "contemporaries believed that eunuchs, like women, rarely fought men honorably and instead resorted to poison and to other underhanded tricks", while the "Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium" speaks of "rumours that [Tzimiskes] had been poisoned by Basil the Nothos". All that is certain is that Tzimiskes fell ill during his campaign and died in Constantinople shortly after his return.