John I of Byzantium (925-10 January 976) was the Emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 969 to 976, succeding Nicephorus II of Byzantium and preceding Basil II of Byzantium.
Biography[]
John was born in 925 to the House of Tzimiskes, a dynasty of Orthodox Christian Greeks. John was of Armenian descent, and he urged his uncle Nicephorus II of Byzantium to seize the throne after the death of Emperor Romanus II of Byzantium. John succeeded his uncle on his death in 969, and John campaigned against the Kievan Rus. In 970 the Byzantine army of Bardas Skleros defeated the Rus, First Bulgarian Empire, Magyars, and Pechenegs at the First Battle of Arcadiopolis, and in 972 he campaigned against the Abbasid Caliphate. He invaded upper Mesopotamia, and in 975 he captured Emesa, Baalbek, Damascus, Tiberias, Nazareth, Caesarea, Sidon, Beirut, Byblos, and Tripoli in Syria, and he died in 976 while returning home from a failed siege of Jerusalem. He was succeeded by his nephew Basil II of Byzantium.