invaded the Byzantine Balkans and defeated both Nikephoros and Basil Apokapes, archon of Paristrion, in battle, and took them captive, which Attaleiates suggests was greatly humiliating for Nikephoros; however, the two men were able to escape captivity after the Oghuz Turk forces were devastated by both Bulgarian raids and disease. The surviving Oghuz Turks were quickly recruited into the Byzantine army. Later military career Nikephoros was reassigned as doux of Antioch in 1065 by Constantine X due to the mismanagement of the province by its previous doux, Nikephoritzes, who would later serve as logothetes under Michael VII. Although his troops were inexperienced and under-equipped, Nikephoros was able to repel numerous raids against Antioch from the Emirate of Aleppo, largely due to his own military prowess, his well-trained retinue, and his use of local levies. Nikephoros was relieved of his command in 1067, likely due to the political efforts of the civil officials, who wished to eliminate the military aristocracy, of which Nikephoros was a member. The political machinations of the civil officials, and their willingness to undermine the military elites, had built up under previous emperors such as Romanos III () and Michael VI; during this period the civil officials had become increasingly powerful, until Isaac I's reforms definitively curbed their power. Constantine X had become emperor when Isaac abdicated in 1059 and was considerably weaker than Isaac had been, allowing the civil officials to manipulate him, thereby preventing him from gaining the level of control that Isaac had. This was largely accomplished by undermining the military aristocracy, even while the Turks had begun to invade Byzantine Armenia. Upon the death of Constantine X in 1067, his wife, Empress Eudokia Makrembolitissa, considered taking Nikephoros as husband and emperor, but instead chose Romanos IV Diogenes (). The need for an emperor was made pressing by the constant raids of the Turks into the Byzantine territories of Antioch, Cilicia, and Armenia; Eudokia, Patriarch John VIII of Constantinople, and the Byzantine Senate agreed that their top priority was the defense of the empire and that they needed an emperor to lead troops to repel the Turks. Nikephoros was the favorite candidate of the senate, but was in the field leading troops in Antioch, and was still married to Vevdene. Romanos was already in Constantinople and had no wife, making him a much more suitable candidate; Matthew of Edessa also suggests that Eudokia already