in 976, a rebellion led by bardas skleros broke out in the asian provinces of the byzantine empire, the greatest upheaval of the emperor basil ii’s early reign. skleros had won a series of battles against the then-loyal general bardas phokas and marched from the east through anatolia to constantinople. basil summoned ioane-t’ornike to his capital to mediate the alliance with david iii of tao, a measure that seemed to be necessary to save the situation. the monk agreed reluctantly, persuaded chiefly by his fellow monks that it would be in the best interests of the athonite community for him to obey the imperial command. david responded vigorously and entrusted his former general the command of some 12,000 georgian cavalrymen sent to reinforce the imperial army. the decisive battle was fought at pankalia near caesarea on march 24, 979 and resulted in the crushing defeat of the rebels.