Capture of Ibatzes of Bulgaria

Date: August 15, 1018 • Location: Istanbul, Turkey

Byzantine general Eustathios Daphnomeles captured and blinded Ibatzes of Bulgaria by means of a ruse, ending the last resistance against Emperor Basil II's conquest of Bulgaria.

Eustathios Daphnomeles was a Byzantine strategos and patrician who distinguished himself in the Byzantine conquest of Bulgaria. He ranks as one of the most prominent and successful generals in the thirty-year war between Emperor Basil II and Samuel of Bulgaria, helping to end the long conflict by blinding and capturing the last Bulgarian leader, Ibatzes, in 1018.