Who was the greatest Byzantine general?
Basil II the Bulgar-Slayer is the greatest Byzantine commander in our ranking. The emperor led his armies in person, won at Kleidion in 1014 and conquered Bulgaria by 1018, leaving the empire at its medieval height. Belisarius, Justinian's general, who beat the Persians at Dara in 530, destroyed the Vandal kingdom in 533 and held Rome through a year-long Gothic siege, is one point behind, followed by Heraclius, Alexios I Komnenos, Narses and Nikephoros II Phokas.
For almost a thousand years the Eastern Roman Empire, which historians call Byzantium, survived on the skill of its generals and of the emperors who rode out with their armies. This list ranks the twelve who did most in the field, from Belisarius in the sixth century to John II Komnenos in the twelfth. Emperors count only for the battles they led in person, so Justinian, not an active soldier himself, is not here. Each entry sets the numbers the chroniclers claimed against what modern historians accept. The twelve are ranked by score for recognition, battlefield record, consequence, legacy and certainty, not by date; see how we chose them.
1 Basil II the Bulgar-Slayer, 958 to 1025
- Lived
- 958 to December 1025
- Served
- Emperor 976 to 1025; led his armies in person in the Balkans and Syria
- Greatest victory
- Kleidion, 29 July 1014
- Record
- Won Kleidion (1014) and the conquest of Bulgaria (1018); beaten at the Gates of Trajan (986)
- Legacy
- Left Byzantium at its medieval height; the nickname Bulgar-Slayer spread only in the 12th century
Basil II was born in 958 and reigned from 976, but his first years were a fight for survival against rebel generals. When Bardas Phokas proclaimed himself emperor in 987, Basil beat him with 6,000 Viking warriors sent by Vladimir of Kiev, and by 989 he had restored order.1
His first campaign against Tsar Samuel of Bulgaria ended in defeat at the Gates of Trajan in August 986. He came back almost every year. In 995 he rushed an army to northern Syria, each man given two mules, one to ride and one for baggage. On 29 July 1014 he trapped Samuel's army in the Kleidion pass in the Belasica mountains; Samuel died on 6 October, and by 1018 Bulgaria was part of the empire. He left a state stretching, in Cyril Mango's words, "from Crete to the Crimea."2
Myth vs fact: the famous story that he blinded 15,000 prisoners, leaving one eye to every hundredth man to lead them home, rests on John Skylitzes, writing around 1090, who reports it as hearsay. Georgios Theotokis calls the number an exaggeration, and Paul Stephenson doubts it because the Bulgars still raised large armies afterward. Even the name Bulgar-Slayer was not used in his lifetime: Stephenson traces it to the twelfth century.3
Why it ranks here: Full marks for recognition, consequence and legacy: Kleidion and the conquest of Bulgaria left Byzantium at its medieval height. The defeat at the Gates of Trajan costs him a point on record and the late, inflated chronicles two on certainty, but with 46 points he still finishes No. 1, one ahead of Belisarius, whose defeat at Callinicum costs him the same point on record.
2 Belisarius, c. 505 to 565
- Lived
- Born about 500 to 505 in Illyria; died 565
- Served
- Justinian I's leading general in Persia, Africa and Italy, 530 to 559
- Greatest victory
- Dara, 530
- Record
- Won Dara (530), Ad Decimum and Tricamarum (533), held Rome (537 to 538); beaten at Callinicum (531)
- Legacy
- The hero of Procopius's Wars, and of a later legend of a blind beggar general
Belisarius was born around 505 in Illyria and became the general Justinian I trusted with his biggest wars. Most of what we know about him comes from his own legal secretary, Procopius, who campaigned with him.4
At Dara in 530 he faced a Persian army that Procopius, an eyewitness, put at 40,000, joined the next day by 10,000 more, with 25,000 Romans of his own. About 5,000 Persians fell in the rout. A year later the Persians beat him at Callinicum. In 533 he sailed for Africa with no more than about 16,000 men, won at Ad Decimum on 13 September, entered Carthage two days later and destroyed the Vandal kingdom at Tricamarum in December.5
In Italy he took Rome in 536 and held it with about 5,000 men for a year and nine days against the Goths of Witigis. The 150,000 Goths that Procopius has Belisarius report to Justinian are, as J. B. Bury put it, "far in excess of the truth": Bury doubted that the whole Ostrogothic people had numbered even 100,000 when it entered Italy. In 540 he entered Ravenna and took the Gothic king prisoner, and in 559 he crushed a Bulgar invasion. Myth vs fact: Justinian never had him blinded and sent to beg in the streets; that story first appears in the twelfth-century writer John Tzetzes.6
Why it ranks here: Every list of Byzantine generals names him, for Dara, Carthage and Rome. A serious defeat costs a point on record here, and the Persians beat him at Callinicum in 531. An Italy half won and a story told mostly by his own secretary cost a point each on consequence and certainty: 45 points, one behind Basil II.
3 Heraclius, c. 575 to 641
- Lived
- About 575 to February 641
- Served
- Emperor 610 to 641; led the war against Persia in person, 622 to 628
- Greatest victory
- Nineveh, December 627
- Record
- Won Nineveh (627); beaten near Antioch (613); his army lost Yarmouk (636) under Vahan
- Legacy
- Brought the True Cross back to Jerusalem; made Greek the language of the state
Heraclius, son of the governor of Carthage, sailed on Constantinople in 610 and overthrew the emperor Phokas. He inherited a war with Persia that was going badly: an army he led was heavily defeated near Antioch in 613, and the Persians took Jerusalem and the relic of the True Cross in 614 and then parts of Egypt.7
From 622 he carried the war into Persian lands himself, striking at the Armenian capital Dvin in 623, and kept campaigning while Avars and Persians besieged Constantinople in 626; he sent part of his army home and the city held. In late 627 he pushed into Mesopotamia and in December destroyed the main Persian field army near the ruins of Nineveh, in a battle World History Encyclopedia says lasted eleven hours. He then plundered Khosrow II's palace at Dastagird; within months Khosrow was overthrown by his own son, and the peace of 628 returned the occupied provinces and the True Cross. Myth vs fact: the tale that he cut down the Persian commander in single combat is reported, not proven.8
The triumph did not last. In 636 the army he had gathered at Antioch was destroyed at Yarmouk under the Armenian general Vahan, not under Heraclius himself, and Syria was lost for good.9
Why it ranks here: Full marks for consequence: Nineveh ended the last great war with Persia and saved the empire. The defeat near Antioch and the loss of Syria hold his record to 4, and few, mostly later sources give certainty 3, so his 41 points leave him four behind Belisarius.
4 Alexios I Komnenos, 1057 to 1118
- Lived
- About 1057 to 15 August 1118
- Served
- Emperor 1081 to 1118; led his armies in person against Normans, Pechenegs and Seljuks
- Greatest victory
- Levounion, 29 April 1091
- Record
- Won Levounion (1091); beaten at Dyrrhachium (1081) and Dristra (1087)
- Legacy
- Founded the Komnenos dynasty, which ruled until 1185
Alexios Komnenos was a 24-year-old general when he took the throne on Easter Day 1081, a decade after Manzikert had opened Anatolia to the Turks. Within months the Normans of Robert Guiscard and his son Bohemond invaded the Balkans.10
Alexios attacked them outside Dyrrhachium (Durrës) in 1081 with an army that Historia Scripta, citing Anna Komnene, puts at about 20,000 and Balkan Military History at no more than 22,000; his Varangian Guard was made up mostly of English exiles. His center broke and he had to flee. He held on with Venetian sea power, and after Guiscard died in 1085 he retook the city.
In 1087 the Pechenegs routed him near Dristra on the Danube, and in 1090 they besieged Constantinople. On 29 April 1091, with Cuman horsemen as allies, he crushed them at Levounion in Thrace. In 1095 he asked the West for help against the Seljuks, and with the knights of the First Crusade he retook Nicaea in 1097 and freed parts of Asia Minor.11
Most of the detail comes from the Alexiad, written by his daughter Anna Komnene largely as a tribute to her father, so historians still argue how far the defeats at Dyrrhachium and Dristra were his own fault.12
Why it ranks here: Full marks for consequence, because he put a collapsing empire back on its feet and founded a dynasty that ruled for a century. Two defeats in the field hold his record to 3; level on 40 points and on recognition with Narses and Nikephoros II, he goes first on that greater consequence.
5 Narses, c. 478 to 573
- Lived
- About 478 to about 573
- Served
- Palace eunuch and chamberlain; commanded in Italy from 552 until his recall in 567
- Greatest victory
- Taginae (Busta Gallorum), 552
- Record
- Won Taginae and Mons Lactarius (552), Casilinum on the Volturnus (554); no defeat in the field recorded
- Legacy
- Ended the Gothic War; later blamed by legend for letting the Lombards into Italy
Narses was a eunuch of the imperial palace, and the Franks scorned his military talents. He was an old man, by one account eighty, when Justinian sent him in 552 to finish the Gothic War that Belisarius had left half won.13
At the end of June or early in July 552 he met the Gothic king Totila at Taginae, in the Apennines of Umbria. J. B. Bury guessed the imperial army at about 25,000 and EBSCO gives 15,000, against about 7,500 Goths. Narses beat the Gothic cavalry with archers and a disciplined line of infantry, about 6,000 Goths died, and Totila was mortally wounded in the flight.
Totila's successor Teias fell in the next battle, at Mons Lactarius in Campania in 552 (the 1911 Britannica dates it 553). In 554 a Frankish and Alamannic army under Buccelin, which Agathias put at 30,000 and Bury thought fewer, met Narses and about 18,000 men on the Volturnus; he bent his line so his archers could shoot into its flanks, and the invaders were almost wiped out.14
He governed Italy until Roman complaints had him recalled in 567, and the Lombards invaded in 568. Myth vs fact: the story that he invited them in out of spite appears in later writers such as Paul the Deacon; Marius of Avenches and Gregory of Tours, who wrote in the same century, do not mention it.15
Why it ranks here: No defeat in the field is recorded against him, so he has full marks for record. He is remembered mostly as Belisarius's rival and Italy fell to the Lombards soon after his recall, so consequence 4 and legacy 3; level on 40 points and on recognition, he trails Alexios I on consequence and stands ahead of Nikephoros II as the older man.
6 Nikephoros II Phokas, c. 912 to 969
- Lived
- About 912 to the night of 10 to 11 December 969
- Served
- General on the eastern frontier, then emperor 963 to 969
- Greatest victory
- Crete, taken 7 March 961
- Record
- Took Crete (961), sacked Aleppo (962), took Adana and Anazarbos (964) and Tarsus (965)
- Legacy
- Called the White Death of the Saracens
Nikephoros Phokas was born about 912 into a military family of Cappadocia and spent his life fighting the Arabs. In 960 he was sent against Crete, the Arab-held island that Byzantine fleets had failed to take back at least five times; TheCollector lists attempts in 825, 826, 843, 866, 911 and 949.16
His armada landed on 13 July 960 and he besieged the island's capital, Chandax, now Heraklion, through the winter. On 7 March 961 fires set under the walls brought a section down and his men stormed through the breach. At the end of 962 he sacked Aleppo, the capital of the emir Sayf al-Dawla; he took Adana and Anazarbos in Cilicia in 964 and Tarsus in 965, the year a Byzantine fleet won back Cyprus. His victories earned him the name White Death of the Saracens.17
Emperor from 963, he taxed heavily for his wars and became hated in the capital. Antioch fell to his armies in 969, but on the night of 10 to 11 December that year he was murdered in his bedchamber by John Tzimiskes. Myth vs fact: the best-known portrait of him, a dwarfish man with a fat head, comes from Liudprand of Cremona, a hostile envoy from the German court, not a neutral witness.18
Why it ranks here: Crete, Aleppo and Cilicia make the best record of the tenth-century offensive, so full marks there. He reached no further into Syria before his murder and is less known than Basil II outside Greece, so consequence 4 and legacy 3; level with Alexios I and Narses on 40 points and on recognition, he trails Alexios on consequence and Narses as the younger man.
7 John I Tzimiskes, c. 925 to 976
- Lived
- Died 10 or 11 January 976; emperor from December 969
- Served
- Seized the throne in December 969 by murdering Nikephoros II
- Greatest victory
- Dorostolon (Silistra), Rus besieged 23 April to 22 July 971
- Record
- Took Preslav and Dorostolon in 971 and drove the Rus from the Balkans; sacked Baalbek and took Byblos in 975
- Legacy
- Bulgaria annexed; the frontier back on the Danube for the first time since 602
John Tzimiskes was a general of the eastern frontier who took the throne on the night of 10 to 11 December 969 by murdering the emperor Nikephoros II Phokas. He inherited a war he had not started. Byzantium had invited Prince Sviatoslav of Kiev to attack Bulgaria, and by 969 the Rus held the Danube towns and were pushing into Thrace. The first blow against them, at Arcadiopolis in 970, was struck by John’s general Bardas Skleros, not by the emperor.19
In spring 971 John led the army north in person. He reached the Bulgarian capital Preslav, stormed it and renamed it Ioannoupolis, John’s city. Sviatoslav fell back on the Danube fortress of Dorostolon, where the Byzantines besieged him from 23 April to 22 July while a fleet armed with Greek fire held the river. Popular histories give Sviatoslav 60,000 men or more and repeat the Byzantine historian Leo the Deacon, who claims 15,000 Rus fell in the last battle; the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, by contrast, blames the defeat on the relatively small size of his army.
Starving, Sviatoslav signed a treaty on 23 July, gave up the Danube lands and was killed by the Pechenegs on the way home. Eastern Bulgaria was annexed, and the frontier stood on the Danube for the first time since 602. In 975 John swept through Syria, sacking Baalbek and taking Byblos, but turned back short of Jerusalem; he died in January 976.20
Why it ranks here: A record of 5, since he won his decisive war in person, and a consequence of 4 for driving the Rus out of the Balkans and annexing Bulgaria. A reign of barely six years, between Nikephoros II and Basil II, holds his recognition to 3 and his legacy to 2.
8 Leo III the Isaurian, c. 680 to 741
- Lived
- Born about 680 (year uncertain); died 18 June 741
- Served
- Emperor from 25 March 717 until his death
- Greatest victory
- Constantinople held against the Arab siege, 15 August 717 to 15 August 718
- Record
- Held the capital in 717 to 718 with Greek fire and Bulgar help; won Akroinon with his son Constantine in 740
- Legacy
- Saved the capital; began Iconoclasm, which colors his memory
Between 711 and 717 Byzantium had four emperors in six years, and a huge Umayyad expedition was being prepared against the capital. Leo, a soldier born Konon, marched on Constantinople, forced Theodosius III to abdicate and entered the city as emperor on 25 March 717. Myth vs fact: despite his nickname he did not come from Isauria; his family was Syrian, and WarHistory.org gives his birthplace as Germanikeia.21
Five months later the caliph’s brother Maslama dug in outside the land walls, on 15 August 717. Medieval chroniclers give him 80,000 to 120,000 men and as many as 1,800 ships; according to Byzantine World, modern historians treat these totals with skepticism, because chroniclers on both sides had every reason to inflate the threat. When the Arab fleet tried to close the Bosporus, Leo sent his ships out with Greek fire and burned the leading squadron.
Snow lay for a hundred days that winter, and hunger and disease killed thousands in the Arab camp. The Bulgars of Khan Tervel, Leo’s allies, attacked the besiegers from the rear and killed many thousands; WarHistory.org gives 22,000. On 15 August 718 the army was recalled. In 740 Leo and his son Constantine caught a raiding force of 20,000 under Abdallah al-Battal at Akroinon in Phrygia and destroyed it; by Theophanes’ count only 6,800 escaped.22
Why it ranks here: Consequence of 5, because holding Constantinople in 718 kept the capital and the empire standing. A siege won with Greek fire, a cruel winter and Bulgar help is a thinner record than field victories, and the Iconoclasm he decreed in 730 overshadows him, so record, legacy, recognition and certainty all stay at 3.23
9 Maurice, 539 to 602
- Lived
- 539 to 27 November 602
- Served
- Supreme commander against Persia from 577; emperor from 13 August 582
- Greatest victory
- Constantina, against the Persians, 581
- Record
- As general won at Callinicum (580) and Constantina (581); as emperor ended the Persian war in 591; overthrown in 602
- Legacy
- The Strategikon, the army manual that bears his name
Born in Cappadocia in 539, Maurice was commander of the imperial guard when Tiberius II, his patron, made him supreme commander in the war with Persia in 577. He campaigned in Persian Mesopotamia and Armenia, and Livius lists his victories at Callinicum in 580 and Constantina in 581 (EBSCO dates the Constantina battle to 580). In 582 he came home in triumph, married the emperor’s daughter and succeeded him.24
As emperor he ended the Persian war by politics as much as by battle. When civil war broke out in Persia in 590 he backed the young Khusrau II; Byzantine troops helped beat the rebel Bahram in 591, and the grateful shah gave up wide lands in Armenia and the Caucasus. In the Balkans the war with the Avars and Slavs was left to his generals: Priscus won the victories near Viminacium and on the Tisza in 599.
Maurice was unpopular with the army, and in November 602 troops ordered to winter north of the Danube mutinied, raised the officer Phocas and marched on the capital; Maurice was killed at Chalcedon with his five sons. Myth vs fact: the Strategikon carries his name, but his authorship cannot be proven, and one study proposes his brother-in-law Philippicus; either way the manual shaped Byzantine warfare for centuries.25
Why it ranks here: Legacy of 4, because the Strategikon keeps him studied. His own battlefield wins came as a general before 582 and the Balkan victories belong to Priscus, so record, consequence, recognition and certainty all stay at 3.
10 John Kourkouas, c. 900 to after 946
- Lived
- Birth and death dates unknown; commander in the East from 923 for over twenty years
- Served
- Domestic of the Schools (commander in chief in the East) under Romanos I
- Greatest victory
- Melitene, taken in 934
- Record
- Took Melitene (934); routed the Rus on land (941); took Nisibis, Dara, Amida and Martyropolis (943); besieged Edessa (944)
- Legacy
- Won the Mandylion, the relic of Edessa, for Constantinople
John Kourkouas came from an Armenian family long settled in the empire. In 923, under the emperor Romanos I Lekapenos, he was made Domestic of the Schools, commander of the field army in the East, and by Peter Charanis's count he held that command for more than twenty-two years. He was charged with the war in Armenia and Mesopotamia, against the emirates that had raided Byzantine Anatolia for generations.26
The offensive on the eastern frontier began about 927, and its most decisive gain was Melitene in eastern Cappadocia, which he took in 934. In 941, when a Rus fleet attacked Constantinople, Kourkouas was recalled from Asia and routed the raiders on land. He then pushed into Upper Mesopotamia, taking the frontier fortresses of Nisibis, Dara, Amida and Martyropolis in 943.
In 944 he besieged Edessa and lifted the siege in return for its famous relic, the Mandylion, and a promise not to attack the city again; the relic was taken to Constantinople. His campaigns were mostly sieges and raids rather than great pitched battles, but they turned a defensive frontier into one that moved east, and the generals who followed, Nikephoros Phokas and John Tzimiskes, built on the ground he had won.27
Why it ranks here: Record and consequence of 4: twenty years of campaigning took Melitene and the Mesopotamian fortresses and turned the eastern war from defense to attack. He is known mainly to specialists, so recognition and legacy are 2 and certainty 3.
11 Constantine V, 718 to 775
- Lived
- 718 to 775; died of illness on campaign
- Served
- Fought beside his father Leo III; sole emperor 741 to 775
- Greatest victory
- Anchialos, against Khan Telets, 30 June 763
- Record
- Won Akroinon with Leo III (740), Marcellae (756), Anchialos (763) and again in 774; beaten in a Balkan pass in 759, by Theophanes' account
- Legacy
- Blackened by iconophile writers as Kopronymos, “dung-named”
The son of Leo III, Constantine fought beside his father at Akroinon in 740. Soon after he became sole emperor he had to win back his own capital: his brother-in-law Artabasdos seized Constantinople in 742, and Constantine beat him and was back on the throne by 744. From 746 to 752 he campaigned with success in northern Syria and Armenia.28
His long war was with Bulgaria: nine campaigns from 756 until his death. According to Byzantine Battles, the first ended in a bloody victory over Khan Vinekh at the border fort of Marcellae in 756. In 759 the Bulgars caught his army in a pass in the Balkan mountains; Theophanes names Leo, general of the Thracesian theme, among the many dead, though one recent account reads the fight as a Byzantine win.
The great day came on 30 June 763 at Anchialos on the Black Sea, where he crushed Khan Telets and threw Bulgaria into chaos. He won again in 774 and was still fighting the Bulgars when he died of illness on campaign in 775. Myth vs fact: the story that he soiled the font at his baptism, which gave him the name Kopronymos, was a rumor; the monks who wrote his history hated him for his war on icons.29
Why it ranks here: Record of 4 for nine Bulgar campaigns and a crushing win at Anchialos, held down by the disputed defeat of 759; consequence of 3 because the Bulgar state survived him, and hostile chroniclers keep recognition and legacy at 2. He ties John II Komnenos on 27 points, on recognition and on consequence, so the tie goes to the older man.
12 John II Komnenos, 1087 to 1143
- Lived
- 13 September 1087 to 8 April 1143
- Served
- Emperor 1118 to 1143, son and heir of Alexios I
- Greatest victory
- Beroia, against the Pechenegs, 1122
- Record
- Won Beroia (1122) and Haram (1128); took Anazarbus in Cilicia (1137); Shaizar bought him off and the move on Aleppo failed (1138)
- Legacy
- Called Kaloioannes, “John the Beautiful,” for his character
John was the son of Alexios I Komnenos and Irene Doukaina, and he succeeded his father in 1118. He spent much of his 25-year reign at war on the Danube, in Anatolia and in Syria.30
In 1122 Pechenegs from the steppe crossed the Danube. John met them near Beroia, today Stara Zagora in Bulgaria, lulled their chiefs with offers of a treaty and then stormed their wagon fort; when he sent in the Varangian Guard, the circle broke. He smashed the Pechenegs so completely that they never threatened Byzantium again. He then crushed a Serb revolt and at Haram, in 1128, drove the Hungarians back into their own lands.
After campaigns against the Danishmend Turks from 1130 to 1136, he turned south in 1137, took Anazarbus, capital of the Armenians of Cilicia, and forced the crusader prince of Antioch to accept him as overlord. The Syrian campaign of 1138 went less well: he besieged Shaizar, but the emir bought him off with submission and tribute, and the move on Aleppo failed. He died in 1143 after a hunting accident. Myth vs fact: his nickname Kaloioannes, John the Beautiful, was not ironic; as John Julius Norwich, quoted by World History Encyclopedia, explains, it praised his character, not his looks.31
Why it ranks here: Record of 4: he won Beroia and Haram in person, though Shaizar and Aleppo escaped him, and consequence of 3 because his Syrian gains did not decide anything lasting. Few readers know him, so recognition and legacy are 2; he ties Constantine V on 27 points, on recognition and on consequence, and the tie goes to the older Constantine.
How we chose and ranked these Byzantine commanders
We counted a Byzantine commander as a general or emperor who led the armies of the Eastern Roman Empire between 476 and the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Emperors are judged only on the battles they commanded in person, so Justinian, not an active soldier himself, is told through his generals. Earlier Roman generals are in our guide to the greatest commanders of ancient Rome, the sultans who took the empire's lands in the greatest Ottoman commanders, and the empire's battles in the greatest battles of the Byzantine Empire.32
We considered 24 candidates and scored each one from 1 to 5 on five criteria. Recognition counts three times, because this page answers the question of who the greatest Byzantine commanders were; battlefield record, consequence and legacy count twice, and certainty once:
- Recognition (×3). 5 if the commander is known far beyond Byzantine history and appears on most published lists of great Byzantine generals, 1 if only specialists know the name.
- Battlefield record (×2). 5 if he won several decisive victories in person, against strong odds and with few defeats, 1 if he won no battle of note himself.
- Consequence (×2). 5 if his victories saved the empire or changed its borders for generations, 1 if they changed nothing lasting.
- Legacy (×2). 5 if he is still studied, imitated and remembered in national memory and culture, 1 if he is forgotten.
- Certainty (×1). 5 if his campaigns are documented by independent and contemporary sources, 1 if they rest on one late or partisan account.
The list is ranked by total score, not by date. Ties go to the better-known commander, then to the one whose victories changed more, then to the older one. The scores are our editorial judgment, made on the evidence in the sources below, and the table shows every one of them. We stopped at twelve because the next names score lower on record or rest on a single chronicle. The close calls below explain, for example, why Constantine XI, perhaps the best-known Byzantine emperor after Justinian, is not on the list: he is remembered for dying in the last defense of Constantinople in 1453, most likely near the Gate of St. Romanos, not for victories that changed a war.33
| Rank | Name | Recognition ×3 | Battlefield record ×2 | Consequence ×2 | Legacy ×2 | Certainty ×1 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Basil II the Bulgar-Slayer | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 46 |
| 2 | Belisarius | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 45 |
| 3 | Heraclius | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 41 |
| 4 | Alexios I Komnenos | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 40 |
| 5 | Narses | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 40 |
| 6 | Nikephoros II Phokas | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 40 |
| 7 | John I Tzimiskes | 3 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 35 |
| 8 | Leo III the Isaurian | 3 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 34 |
| 9 | Maurice | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 32 |
| 10 | John Kourkouas | 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 29 |
| 11 | Constantine V | 2 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 27 |
| 12 | John II Komnenos | 2 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 27 |
Close calls
Four commanders came close and did not make the twelve:
Constantine XI Palaiologos, 1405 to 1453. As despot of the Morea he took Thebes and Athens in 1444, but the Ottomans broke his Hexamilion wall across the Isthmus on 10 December 1446 and ravaged the Morea. As emperor he held Constantinople from early April to 29 May 1453 with about 7,000 men, 5,000 of them Byzantines; the eyewitness George Sphrantzes counted fewer than 5,000 defenders and 200,000 Ottomans, where modern historians prefer 60,000 to 80,000 attackers. He died in the final assault; exactly how is unknown.34 › Fall of Constantinople, 1453
Manuel I Komnenos, 1118 to 1180. The best-known Komnenian emperor led many campaigns in person, but illness kept him from Sirmium in 1167, the victory over Hungary won by his nephew Andronikos Kontostephanos. The battle he did command, Myriokephalon in 1176, was an ambush and a defeat that Manuel himself compared to Manzikert.35
Michael VIII Palaiologos, 1224 to 1282. He restored the empire when Constantinople was retaken on 25 July 1261, but the city fell to a surprise raid by a small advance force under his general Alexios Strategopoulos, and the victory at Pelagonia in 1259 was won by his brother John. This page counts only battles a ruler commanded in person.36
George Maniakes, died 1043. He retook Edessa in 1032 and from 1038 won back much of eastern Sicily, with Harald Hardrada among his Varangians. Recalled and imprisoned after a quarrel with the emperor’s brother, he saw his Sicilian gains lost, rebelled in 1043 and was killed at Ostrovo at the moment of victory, so his wins changed little.37
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