John I Tzimiskes
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John I Tzimiskes was the senior Byzantine emperor from 969 to 976. An intuitive and successful general who married into the influential Skleros family, he strengthened and expanded the Byzantine Empire to include Thrace and Syria by warring with the Rus' under Sviatoslav I and the Fatimids respectively.
Detail of the Gunthertuch, a Byzantine silk tapestry depicting John Tzimiskes being greeted by the Blues and Greens at a triumph.
Tentative reproduction of the lost portrait of John I. He's depicted beardless, although literary sources describe him as having a reddish/blonde facial hair.
The coronation of John Tzimiskes, from the Madrid Skylitzes
The Byzantine army under John I lays siege to the Bulgarian capital at Preslav.
Skleros
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The Skleros, latinized Sclerus, feminine form Skleraina (Σκλήραινα), Latinized Scleraena, was a noble Byzantine family active mostly in the 9th–11th centuries as members of the military aristocracy, and as civil functionaries thereafter.
Bardas Skleros receives officials as emperor, miniature from the Madrid Skylitzes