989 Death of Bardas Phocas, who for two years has been in revolt against the emperor. Sclerus, conspiring for the second time against the throne, dies. 991 Southern Iberia ceded to the empire by King David. 995 Campaign of Basil in Syria. Aleppo taken. Unsuccessful attack on Tripolis. 996 Great defeat of King Samuel of Bulgaria at the Sperchius. 1002 Samuel invades Thrace, takes Hadrianopolis, but is driven off. The war now proceeds for some years in desultory fashion. 1014 Basil resumes the Bulgarian War in earnest. Great victory under Nicephorus Xiphias at Zetunium. Basil puts out the eyes of 15,000 prisoners. Death of Samuel. The emperor’s cruelty engenders a last effort in the Bulgarians, but by 1018 the destruction of the kingdom is complete. Gibbon calls this the most important triumph of Roman arms since the time of Belisarius. 1022 Victory of Basil over a coalition of Armenian princes. They sue for peace. 1025 Basil prepares to expel Mohammedans from Sicily, but dies. His brother =Constantine IX= becomes sole emperor. 1027 Attack by the Patzinaks and Mohammedans repulsed. 1028 Constantine on his death-bed appoints =Romanus (III) Argyrus= his successor, makes him divorce his wife, and marry his daughter Zoe. 1030 Romanus defeated by the Mohammedans at Azaz and takes refuge in Antioch. He becomes the prey of melancholy, and Zoe takes the reins of government. 1031 Mohammedan pirates ravage Illyricum and Corfu. They are driven off by the people of Ragusa. 1032 Conspiracy and death of Constantine Diogenes. 1033 Capture of Edessa by the imperial fleet. 1034 Death of Romanus, probably by slow poison administered by Zoe, who now causes her paramour, =Michael (IV) the Paphlagonian=, to be proclaimed emperor, and marries him the day of her husband’s death. Earthquake at Jerusalem lasting forty days. Great famine throughout the empire. 1037 The Mohammedans attack the empire on all sides. They capture Edessa. The Patzinaks invade Thrace. 1038 The Mohammedans regain Edessa, by a stratagem that is the origin of the Tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. 1039 The imperial force and the Normans attack the Mohammedans in Sicily. Messina (Messana) and Syracuse taken. 1040 A fresh Mohammedan army from Africa utterly defeated in Sicily. The Norman power begins to get the control in the island. The Bulgarians attempt to recover independence. They invade Thrace and Macedonia.