 Alexios Strategopoulos first appears in the chronicles in 1252 – 53 , during the reign of John III Doukas Vatatzes , when he led a detachment of the army sent to plunder the areas of the Despotate of Epirus around Lake Ostrovo . In 1254 , he was based at Serres , and in the next year , he participated , along with megas primmikerios Constantine Tornikes , in a campaign against the fortress of Tzepaina in the western Rhodope Mountains . The campaign failed with heavy losses , due , according to George Akropolites , to bad generalship on behalf of both Strategopoulos and Tornikes . They failed to reconnoitre properly the Bulgarian forces opposing them , and instead their army broke and fled leaving behind their equipment and horses " to the Bulgarian shepherds and swineherds " . This failure enraged the Emperor Theodore II Laskaris , who removed both from their offices . In addition , probably because of his close connection to the aristocratic faction around Michael Palaiologos , his son Constantine was blinded for lèse @-@ majesté , and Alexios himself was imprisoned some time later . 
