page_title: Nikephoros Phokas the Elder
section_title: Assessment and family
hierarchical_section_title: Nikephoros Phokas the Elder / Life / Assessment and family
context_page_description: Nikephoros Phokas, usually surnamed the Elder to distinguish him from his grandson, Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas, was one of the most prominent Byzantine generals of the late 9th century, and the first important member of the Phokas family. As a youth he was taken into the personal retinue of Emperor Basil I the Macedonian, rising quickly to the posts of protostrator and then governor of Charsianon, whence he fought with success against the Arabs. In c. 886 he led a major expedition in southern Italy, where his victories laid the foundation for the Byzantine resurgence in the peninsula. After his return, he was raised to the post of Domestic of the Schools, in effect commander-in-chief of the army, which he led with success against the Arabs in the east and the Bulgarians of Tsar Simeon in the Balkans. He died either in 895/6 or, less likely, sometime c. 900. Contemporaries and later historians lauded him for his military ability and character. Both of his sons later succeeded him as Domestics of the Schools.
context_section_description: By all accounts, Nikephoros Phokas was a capable soldier. Leo VI lauds his military talents in his Tactica, and he is credited with the invention of a weapon to counter cavalry during his campaign against the Bulgarians, consisting of a sharpened stake driven into the ground. Skylitzes assesses him as a "brave and prudent man, pious towards God and just towards men".
  Nikephoros was the father of Bardas Phokas the Elder and Leo Phokas the Elder, both of whom became Domestics of the Schools. So did his grandsons through Bardas, Nikephoros and Leo Phokas the Younger, with the first becoming emperor as Nikephoros II in 963–969. Both Leo and Nikephoros II scored major successes against the Arabs, with Nikephoros in particular leading the recovery of Crete, Cyprus, Cilicia and Antioch.
caption: Nikephoros II enters Constantinople as emperor through the Golden Gate in 963
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