Nikephoros I or Nicephorus I, Logothetes or Genikos (Greek: Νικηφόρος Α΄, Nikēphoros I, "Bringer of Victory"; died July 26, 811) was Byzantine Emperor from 802 to 811, when he was killed in the Battle of Pliska.

A patrician from Seleucia Sidera, Nikephoros was appointed finance minister (logothetēs tou genikou) by the Empress Irene. With the help of the patricians and eunuchs he contrived to dethrone and exile Irene, and to be chosen as Emperor in her stead on October 31, 802. He crowned his son Staurakios co-emperor in 803.

His rule was endangered by Bardanes Tourkos, one of his ablest generals, who revolted and received support from other commanders, notably the later emperors Leo V the Armenian and Michael II the Amorian in 803.

But Nikephoros gained over the latter two, and by inducing the rebel army to disperse achieved the submission of Bardanes, who was blinded and relegated to a monastery. A conspiracy headed by the patrician Arsaber had a similar issue.

Nikephoros embarked on a general reorganization of the Empire, creating new themes in the Balkans (where he initiated the re-Hellenization by resettling Greeks from Anatolia) and strengthening the frontiers. Needing large sums to increase his military forces, he set himself with great energy to increase the Empire's revenue. By his rigorous tax imposts he alienated the favour of his subjects, and especially of the clergy, whom he otherwise sought to control firmly. Although he appointed an iconodule, Nikephoros as patriarch, Emperor Nikephoros was portrayed as a villain by ecclesiastical historians like Theophanes the Confessor.

Nikephoros II Phokas (Latinized: Nicephorus II Phocas) (Νικηφόρος Β΄ Φωκᾶς, Nikēphoros II Phōkas) (c. 912 – 10–11 December 969) was a Byzantine Emperor (963–969) whose brilliant military exploits contributed to the resurgence of Byzantine Empire in the tenth century.

Nikephoros Phokas was born in about 912 and belonged to a Cappadocian family which had produced several distinguished generals, including Nikephoros' father (Bardas Phokas), brother (Leo Phokas), and grandfather (Nikephoros Phokas the Elder), who had all served as commanders of the field army (domestikos tōn scholōn). His mother, whose name is unknown, was a member of another powerful Anatolian clan, the Maleinoi.

Nikephoros joined the army at an early age. He was appointed the military governor of the Anatolikon Theme in 945 under Emperor Constantine VII. When his father, Bardas was wounded in battle in 953, Nikephoros was promoted to supreme commander on the eastern frontier. In the war with the Abbasid Caliphate under Al-Muti, Nikephoros began with a severe defeat in 954, from which he recovered in the following years by victories in Syria, starting in 957.

Khalid Rashid is a citizen of Pakistan, who was arrested on October 31, 2005 in South Africa. He attempted to revive the Terrible Blue Movement. It has been alleged that he was subjected to extraordinary rendition out of South Africa to an unknown destination.

One news website reports that Rashid was reportedly transferred to the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. Other reports have claimed that the Department of Defense stopped transferring prisoners to Guantanamo in 2004.^{[citation needed]}

John I Tzimiskes or Tzimisces, (Greek: Ιωάννης Α΄ Τζιμισκής, Iōannēs I Tzimiskēs; Armenian: Հովհաննես Ա Չմշկիկ Hovhannes A Čmškik, Armenian pronunciation: [hovɑˈnɛs tʃʰəməʃˈkik]; circa 925 – January 10, 976) was Byzantine Emperor from December 11, 969 to January 10, 976. A brilliant and intuitive general, John's short reign saw the expansion of the Empire's borders and the strengthening of Byzantium itself.

John was born into the Kourkouas clan, a family of Armenian origin. Scholars have speculated that his nickname "Tzimiskes" was derived either from the Armenian Chmushkik, meaning "red boot", or from an Armenian word for "short stature." A more favorable explanation is offered by the medieval Armenian historian Matthew of Edessa, who states that "Tzimiskes was from the region of Khozan, from the area which is now called Chmushkatzag." Khozan was located in the region of Paghnatun, in the Byzantine province of Fourth Armenia (Sophene).

Tzimiskes was born sometime in 925 to an unnamed member of the Kourkouas family by the sister of the future Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas. Both the Kourkouai and the Phokadai were distinguished Cappadocian families, and among the most prominent of the emerging military aristocracy of Asia Minor. Several of their members had served as prominent army generals, most notably the great John Kourkouas, who conquered Melitene and much of Armenia.

Basil II (Greek: Βασίλειος Β΄, Basileios II; 958 – December 15, 1025) was a Byzantine Emperor from the Macedonian dynasty who reigned from January 10, 976 to December 15, 1025. He was known in his time as Basil the Porphyrogenitus and Basil the Young to distinguish him from his ancestor Basil I the Macedonian,

The first part of his long reign was dominated by civil war against powerful generals from the Anatolian aristocracy. Following their submission, Basil oversaw the stabilization and expansion of the Byzantine Empire's eastern frontier, and above all, the final and complete subjugation of Bulgaria, the Empire's foremost European foe, after a prolonged struggle. For this he was nicknamed by later authors as "the Bulgar-slayer" (Greek: Βουλγαροκτόνος, Boulgaroktonos), by which he is popularly known. At his death, the Empire stretched from Southern Italy to the Caucasus and from the Danube to the borders of Palestine, its greatest territorial extent since the Muslim conquests, four centuries earlier.