The reign of Nikephoros Phokas lasted only six years (963-969), but it left indelible marks on Byzantine history. It was such an intense period that it even influenced the new Greek culture.

A scion of a family from the military aristocracy, he set as his primary political goal the elimination of the Arab military threat and the elevation of Orthodoxy as the dominant religious and ideological force in the provinces lost during the 7th century.

For this reason, he led the great Byzantine epic in the East and the Mediterranean, which resulted in the recapture of those provinces, and he emerged as a great military genius.

The adventurous manner in which he came to power, his marriage and relationship with the young and beautiful widow of Emperor Romanos, his deeply religious, solitary, and hot-tempered personality, and the decisions he made regarding domestic policy sparked intense conflicts that undermined his internal unity and power.

In the end, the crisis surrounding his figure reached such a peak that a plot was woven with the aim of his assassination. The gruesome way in which the hero of the East was murdered shocked his people and sealed the collective memory up to this day.