Editing Romanos I Lekapenos (section)

==Campaigns in the East==
Romanos appointed the brilliant general [[John Kourkouas]] commander of the field armies (''[[domestikos ton scholon]]'') in the East.  John Kourkouas subdued a rebellion in the theme of [[Chaldia]] and intervened in Armenia in 924. From 926 Kourkouas campaigned across the eastern frontier against the [[Abbasids]] and their vassals, and won an important victory at [[Malatya|Melitene]] in 934.  The capture of this city is often considered the first major Byzantine territorial recovery from the Muslims.
[[File:Melitene by the Byzantines in 934 from the Chronicle of John Skylitzes.jpg|thumb|The army under general [[John Kourkouas]] takes the city of Melitene.]]
In 941, while most of the army under Kourkouas was absent in the East, a fleet of 15 old ships under the ''[[protovestiarios]]'' [[Theophanes (chamberlain)|Theophanes]] had to defend Constantinople from a [[Kievan Rus'|Kievan]] raid. The invaders [[Rus'-Byzantine War (941)|were defeated]] at sea, through the use of [[Greek fire]], and again at land, when they landed in [[Bithynia]], by the returning army under Kourkouas. In 944 Romanos [[Rus'-Byzantine Treaty (945)|concluded a treaty]] with Prince [[Igor I of Kiev|Igor of Kiev]]. This crisis having passed, Kourkouas was free to return to the eastern frontier.

[[File:Byzantines_repel_the_Russian_attack_of_941.jpg|right|thumb|The Byzantine fleet under Theophanes repels the Rus' in 941. Miniature from the ''[[Madrid Skylitzes]]''.]]
In 943 Kourkouas invaded northern [[Mesopotamia]] and besieged the important city of [[Edessa, Mesopotamia|Edessa]] in 944.  As the price for his withdrawal, Kourkouas obtained one of Byzantium's most prized relics, the ''[[mandylion]]'', the holy towel allegedly sent by [[Jesus]] [[Christ]] to King [[Abgar V of Edessa]].  
[[File:Surrender of the Mandylion to the Byzantines.jpg|thumb|In exchange for sparing Edessa, its inhabitants gift the [[Image of Edessa|Mandylion]] to the Byzantines.]]
John Kourkouas, although considered by some of his contemporaries "a second [[Trajan]] or [[Belisarius]]," was dismissed after the fall of the Lekapenoi in 945.  Nevertheless, his campaigns in the East paved the way for the even more dramatic reconquests in the middle and the second half of the 10th century.