From Western Thrace via Serres he reached the valley of the Strumeshnitsa river where his troops were halted by a thick palisade guarded by an army under the personal command of Samuil.
[1] To divert the attention of the enemy the Bulgarian Emperor sent a large force under his general Nestoritsa to the south to attack the second largest city of the Byzantine Empire, Thessalonica.
On the fields to the west of the city[2] or according to other historians near the river of Galik[1] it was confronted by a strong army led by the doux (governor) of Thessalonica, Theophylactus Botaniates and his son Michael.
[5] Later in that summer, Botaniates and his army were defeated in the gorges to the south of Strumitsa and he perished in the battle, killed by Samuil's son Gavril Radomir.
[4][6] Nestoritsa, who survived the defeat, surrendered to Basil II four years later in 1018, after the Byzantine Emperor entered the capital of Bulgaria Ohrid.