Following this refusal,
Basil II intervened directly, despite his difficulties in
Bulgaria, but the renewal of the alliance between
Georgia and the main enemy of
Byzantine Empire, the
Fatimid Caliphate (against whom the Byzantine emperor had led a war between 992 and 995), repels the Greek troops for the first time. However, in 1018, Bulgaria was completely subject to Byzantine Empire. The Bulgarian Tsar Prousjanos II was dethroned and Bulgaria was made a province of the Byzantine Empire. A little later, the Caliph
Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah died and his son
Al-Zahir li-I'zaz Din Allah, too inexperienced to think about Georgia, succeeded him. George I found himself alone again in the international framework and the Basileus sent all his troops against him. The two armies then meet on the plains of
Basiani, in
Tao, but George I retreats, burns the town of
Oltisi to divert the path of the
Greeks, before being caught at Cola. Not far from there, at the village of Shirimni, the Georgian rearguard was attacked by the Byzantine vanguard, following which a fierce battle ensued on September 11, 1021, a battle won with difficulty by Basil's troops II, who is also present himself at the heart of the battlefield, after the death of the greatest Georgian generals of the time. The Georgian troops quickly left the region to take refuge in
Samtskhe, but the Byzantines still pursued them and ravaged
Javakheti, before burning the town of
Artaani. ==See also==