of the capital by suppressing the costly shows and amusements which the court had hitherto provided for their diversion, while the officials were scandalised at his disgust for the childish ceremonies that hedged about his domestic life. Conscious of his unpopularity, he fortified his palace and lived as much as he could in the camp, where he enjoyed unbounded popularity with the soldiers. [Sidenote: His conquests.] In a series of vigorous campaigns against the Ameer of Aleppo, the Emperor sought to consolidate his former efforts as general by winning back all Cilicia and north Syria to the Empire. In 964 and 965 he completed the conquest of Cilicia, sending the brazen gates of Tarsus and Mopsuestia to adorn the imperial palace at Constantinople. In 965 Nicetas, one of his generals, reconquered Cyprus. In 968 Nicephorus again took the field and overran northern Syria. Aleppo, the residence of the Ameer, was easily captured; the Ikshidite realm, now on the verge of dissolution, was overrun; Damascus paid tribute to avoid destruction; and Antioch was captured by assault on a snowy night in winter. [Sidenote: His western policy.] While thus occupied with the east, Nicephorus did not neglect the west. He projected the famous marriage between the future Emperor, Otto II. and Theophano, the daughter of Romanus II. and his own step-daughter [see page 34], hoping thus to strengthen the Byzantine power in south Italy. But the terms of the alliance were hard to settle, and no agreement could be arrived at during Nicephorus’ lifetime. Liutprand, Bishop of Cremona, sent to negotiate the match, left Constantinople in disgust, and vented his spleen in the famous, but not very flattering, account of Constantinople and its court to which we have already referred. Soon hostilities broke out between Otto the Great and Nicephorus in southern Italy, without any very permanent results. Nicetas, the conqueror of Cyprus, failed signally in an attempt to win Sicily from the Saracens. There were wars with the northern barbarians that produced equally little effect.