As strategos, he accompanied the catapan Basil Mesardonites to Apulia in 1011.
The battle was either indecisive (William of Apulia) or a victory for Melus (Leo of Ostia).
This second battle was a victory for Melus, though Lupus Protospatharius and the anonymous chronicler of Bar record a defeat.
A third battle, a decisive victory for Melus, occurred at Vaccaricia [it], near the site of later Troia.
The entire region from the Fortore to Trani had fallen to Melus and in September, Tornikios was relieved of his duties in favour of Basil Boioannes.