In a campaign that curiously mimicked Skleros' revolt a decade earlier, Phokas proclaimed himself emperor and overran most of Asia Minor. Skleros was finally recalled to his homeland by Phokas, who took advantage of the Bulgarian wars to aim at the crown. Skleros promptly mustered an army to support Phokas's cause, but his plans of profiting from the attendant disorders were frustrated when Phokas had him committed to prison. Phokas proceeded to lay siege to Abydos, thus threatening to blockade the Dardanelles. The western army had been annihilated at the Battle of Trajan Gates and was still rebuilding. At this point Basil II obtained timely aid, in the form of 6,000 Varangian mercenaries, from his brother-in-law Vladimir, the Rus prince of Kiev, and marched to Abydos.

The two armies were facing each other, when Phokas galloped forward, seeking personal combat with the Emperor who was riding in front of the lines. Just as he prepared to charge at Basil, however, Phokas suffered a seizure, fell from his horse, and was found to be dead. His head was cut off and brought to Basil. This ended the rebellion.

Despite the inherently destructive nature of most rebellions, Bardas Phokas' rebellion, in fact, provided the Byzantine Empire with many long-term benefits. The most glaring of these was that the resources-depleted David III was now in no position to withstand a concentrated Byzantine attack on his Iberian territories, and his countries were quickly overrun in the years after the civil war in retaliation for his support of Phokas. The Rus' emerged from the civil war the newest Christian state in Europe, and one of the largest, largely as a result of the diplomacy sparked by the rebellion.