Szenario:St Nicephorus Phocas was born about 912 and into an aristocratic Cappadocian family that had produced several distinguished generals, including his father (Bardas Phocas), brother (Leo Phocas), and grandfather (Nicephorus Phocas the Elder), who had all served as commanders of the field army. Nikephoros joined the army at an early age, at that time Nicephorus married Stephano who bore him a son. Distinguished himself at his father's side, Bardas Phokas in a war in the east against the Arabs, he replacing his father, who had suffered a series of defeats by the Hamdanids and by the Abbasids. Both wife and son died before he gained his fame, , He was appointed the military governor of the Anatolic Theme in 945 under Emperor Constantine VII as a young patrician. In 954 or 955 Nicephorus was promoted to Domestic of the Schools The new position essentially placed Nicephorus in charge of the eastern Byzantine army. With their deaths, Nicephorus, influenced by Athanasius the Athonite for whom he helped build the Monastery of the Great Lavra at Mount Athos, embraced a monastic life style. Nicephorus then restructured the army, reinforced discipline, and improved recruiting as well as wrote treatises on military tactics that have been attributed to him. In June 957 Nikephoros managed to capture and destroy Adata. After the death of emperor Constantine on November 9, 959, and the ascension of emperor Romanos II, Romanos entrusted Nicephorus with the command of a expedition against the Arab Saracens who held the island of Crete. Nicephorus and his younger brother Leo Phokas were placed in charge of the eastern and western field armies respectively. In 960, 27,000 oarsmen and marines were assembled to man a fleet of 308 ships carrying 50,000 troops. At the recommendation of the influential minister Joseph Bringas, Nikephoros was entrusted to lead this expedition against the Muslim Emirate of Crete, and he led his fleet to the island and defeated a minor Arab force upon disembarking near Almyros. He soon began a nine-month siege of the fortress town of Chandax, where his forces suffered through the winter due to supply issues. Following a failed assault and many raids into the countryside, Nikephoros entered Chandax on 67March 961, Nicephorus freed the island from the Muslims and re-stored life to the Christian communities on the island.Upon returning to Constantinople, he was denied the usual honor of a triumph, but was permitted an ovation in the Hippodrome. Following the conquest of Crete, Nikephoros returned to the east and marched a large and well-equipped army into Cilicia. In February 962 he captured Anazarbos, while the major city of Tarsus ceased to recognize the Hamdanid Emir of Aleppo, Sayf al-Dawla. Nikephoros continued to ravage the Cilician countryside, defeating the governor of Tarsus, ibn al-Zayyat, in open battle; al-Zayyat later committed suicide on account of the loss. Thereafter, Nikephoros returned to the regional capital of Caesarea. Upon the beginning of the new campaigning season al-Dawla entered the Byzantine Empire to conduct raids, a strategy which left Aleppo dangerously undefended. Nikephoros soon took Syrian Hierapolis. In December, an army split between Nikephoros and John I Tzimiskes marched towards Aleppo, quickly routing an opposing force led by Naja al-Kasaki. Al-Dawla's force caught up with the Byzantines, but he too was routed, and Nikephoros and Tzimiskes entered Aleppo on 24 December.The loss of the city would prove to be both a strategic and moral disaster for the Hamdanids. It was probably on these campaigns that Nikephoros earned the sobriquet "The Pale Death of the Saracens". On March 15, 963, emperor Romanos II died suddenly leaving Joseph Bringus, a eunuch, in charge of the affairs of state and Theophano, his twenty-two year old widow as acting regent of their sons, Basil and Constantine - ages six and three, the legitimate emperors. Unhappy with Bringus' government, Theophano and John Tzimiskes, supported by Nicephorus, deposed Bringus and had Nicephorus crowned Caesar in Cappadocia on July 3, 963. After a march to Constantinople, Nikephoros was crowned emperor by Patriarch Polyeuctus on August 16, 963 in the Cathedral of Hagia Sophia. Although an ascetic and a deeply religious man, he being forced to marry empress Theophano on September 20, over the objections of the patriarch ho Polyeuctus excommunicated Nikephoros, Nicephorus and Polyeuctus had a mutual respect As emperor, Nicephorus loved the church, being loved by the church leaders who were kind but hated by the corrupt ones. issued laws that restricted the growth ecclesiastical property as he believed that wealth did not fit with the spiritual nature of the Church and the ascetic life style of monastics. In the summer of 964, he continued his campaigns against the Arabs in the east, mounting an offense through Cappadocia. In 965, he captured Tarsus, then freed the region of Cilicia. Meanwhile, his general Nikitas Halkountzes freed Cyprus of Arab domination. However, the attempt to free the Greek population of Sicily failed. His campaigns of 967 in the west were not as successful, where Otto I made himself the western emperor, to which Nicephorus objected, and attacked the possessions of Constantinople in Italy. While Nicephorus lavishly maintained his army, he was compelled to economize in other areas of the government that caused his popularity to fall and gave rise to riots. Added to this dissatisfaction, Nicephorus' wife Theophano and brother Leo Phocas, with John Tzimiskes, Theophano's lover, entered into a conspiracy and had him assassinated during the night of December 10, 969. Patriarch Polyeuctus had the good grace to oppose sin on all fronts. He excommunicated the assassins of the emperor Nikephoros and refused to crown the new emperor John I Tzimiskes, one of the assassins and the empress Theophano who organized the assassination of her husband.