Battle of Bitola ( 1015 ) The battle of Bitola ( ) took place near the town of Bitola , in Bulgarian territory , between a Bulgarian army under the command of the " voivoda " Ivats and a Byzantine army led by the " strategos " George Gonitsiates . It was one of the last open battles between the First Bulgarian Empire and the Byzantine Empire . The Bulgarians were victorious and the Byzantine Emperor Basil II had to retreat from the Bulgarian capital Ohrid , whose outer walls were by that time already breached by the Byzantines . However , the Bulgarian victory only postponed the fall of Bulgaria to Byzantine rule in 1018 . Prelude . In the battle of Kleidion on 29 July 1014 the bulk of the Bulgarian army was destroyed . The death of Tsar Samuil soon after that ( 6 October ) further weakened the state . In the autumn of 1014 Basil II penetrated deep into Bulgarian territory and burned the palaces of Samuil ' s successor Gavril Radomir in the vicinity of Bitola . The hostilities were renewed in the spring of 1015 . The Byzantine Emperor headed towards the heart of Bulgaria ( around Lake Ohrid and Lake Prespa ) and systematically seized every town or fortress on his way . The immediate reason for that campaign was the secession of Voden and its reincorporation to Bulgaria in the beginning of 1015 . Basil II swiftly seized the town in the spring and resettled its inhabitants . In the summer the Byzantines conquered another important town , Moglena . During its siege they captured " kavkhan " Dometian and many soldiers . Gavril Radomir ' s attempts to settle peace failed . Basil II continued the war and simultaneously encouraged a successful conspiracy of Ivan Vladislav to murder his cousin Radomir and take the throne . After Ivan Vladislav took the crown in August 1015 , he pretended to agree to surrender to the Byzantines . Basil II did not trust him and prepared another plot to murder the new Bulgarian Tsar . The new conspiracy failed and led the negotiations to an end . Campaign to Ohrid and the battle . As he did not trust the proposal of Ivan Vladislav , Basil II immediately launched a new campaign via Ostrovo . The Byzantines blinded every captured Bulgarian . In Pelagonia he left a large army under the command of the " strategoi " George Gonitsiates and Orestes to pillage the region and guard the Byzantine rear between Ohrid and Bitola . Basil himself reached Ohrid and managed to overrun most of the city except for the citadel where the royal palaces were located . However his initial intention to march west to Dyrrhachium failed after unexpected difficulties in the Byzantine rear . The army which was led by Gonitsiates was ambushed by the Bulgarian commander Ivats and was completely destroyed . That defeat forced Basil II to pull back swiftly . The rest of the Byzantine army entered Pelagonia , but Ivats avoided engaging it , and Basil II retreated undisturbed to Thesaloniki . Aftermath . The battle of Bitola deprived Basil II of the great success achieved at the beginning of a campaign which might have destroyed the Bulgarian state as early as 1015 . However the devastation which the country suffered that year was a prerequisite for the final fall of the First Bulgarian Empire in 1018 .