Pechenegs ravaged Macedonia & Thrace; Bryennios (&/or Michael the akolouthos) sent to fight them

Summary:
With the Pechenegs ravaging Macedonia and Thrace, Konstantinos IX joined his Frankish and Varangian allies to 20,000 horse-archers whom he summoned from Telouch, the Black Mountain and Karkaros. He appointed commanders under Bryennios, whom he made ethnarches, and sent him against the Pecheneg raids, to join Michael the akolouthos, whom he instructed to avoid a major battle  
Dates:
1051 
Bryennios the ethnarches (Anonymus 195)
  • Appointed ethnarches by the emperor (Konstantinos 9), he was placed at the head of the mercenary forces (Frankish and Varangian) and the 20,000 horse-archers summoned from the East, and sent to thwart the Pechenegs raiding Thrace and Macedonia (:) Skylitzes 471.20-472.25
  • Reached Adrianople with the forces entrusted to him, defended the region (from the marauding Pechenegs), and was soon joined by Michael 118 Akolouthos (:) Skylitzes 472.38-43
Emperor Konstantinos IX Monomachos (Konstantinos 9)
  • Joined his Frankish and Varangian allies to 20,000 horse-archers whom he summoned from Telouch, the Black Mountain and Karkaros, appointed commanders under Bryennios (Anonymus 195), whom he made ethnarches, and sent them to avert the Pecheneg raids (:) Skylitzes 471.17-23
Michael, akolouthos and commander of the army (Michael 118)
  • Was sent against the Pechenegs with orders to avoid an allout war and merely thwart their raids, came across some Pechenegs whom he annihilated at Goloe, then defeated a detachment he encountered at Toplitzos, and joined Bryennios (Anonymus 195) (:) καθολικῆς μὲν μάχης μὴ ἅπτεσθαι, εἴργειν δὲ καὶ ἀνακόπτειν τὰς ἐκδρομάς Skylitzes 472.40-46