Byzantine Battles: Battle of Strumica

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Battle of Strumica	year: 1014 August 1014
Ambush and defeat of a Byzantine force by the Bulgarians	★ ★ ★ ★ ★

enemy: Bulgarians	location: At the mountain pass Kostourino south of Strumica in North Macedonia	accuracy: ●●●●●
battle type: Ambush	war: Conquest of Bulgaria	modern country: North Macedonia

	▼ The Byzantines(emperor: Basil II Bulgaroktonos)	▼ The Enemies
Commander:	Theophylactos Botaneiates	Gavril Radomir
Forces:
Losses:

Background story:

After the defeat of the Bulgarians in Kleidion, their army was disbanded, but the end of the war was still far away.
Emperor Basil II was not complacent. He marched west and captured the fortress of Matzukion, planning to besiege the town of Stromnitsa (present-day Strumica in North Macedonia).
In order for his army to move freely towards Strumica, the emperor decided to first send a vanguard force to prepare the ground, with the main objective to destroy a palisade erected by the Bulgarians in the narrow passage south of the city (as they had done also in Kleidion, where the victory came when the Byzantines bypassed the wooden wall).

For this purpose, Basil sent an army to Strumica, led by his capable general Theophylactos Botaneiates.
The leader of the Bulgarian forces in the area was the son of Tsar Samuil and heir to the throne Gabril Radomir.

The Battle:

Statue of Gavril Radomir in Skopje

Theophylactos Botaneiates with his army marched to the area of Strumica through the mountain passes of western Bulgaria. The Bulgarians let him pass undisturbed.
Botaneiates' force completed its mission and took the road back, but then fell into an ambush of the Bulgarians in a long and narrow gorge (possibly the Kostourino pass) south of Strumica; the Byzantines suffered heavy losses. Botaniateis was killed in the battle by the spear of Gabriel Radomir himself.
When the emperor Vassilios heard the news, he abandoned the idea of a siege of Strumica and returned to the east, to Mosynopolis.

Noteworthy:

According to the prevailing theory, the blinding of the 15,000 Bulgarians who had been captured in the battle of Kleidion was decided by Emperor Basil after this battle, because he was angry with the losses at Strumica and the death of his general Theophylactos Botaneiatis.

Aftermath:

The result of the battle showed that the Bulgarians, despite the destruction in Kleidion, were determined to resist. The war was not over yet.
But their morale plummeted when Tsar Samuel died shortly afterwards, on October 14, 1014, of a heart attack (when he saw the blinded captives). His son Radomir, who succeeded him, was considering capitulation, but was assassinated the following year.