In September 1072 a rebellion by the Bulgarian nobility from Skoplje, headed by Georgi Voyteh, broke in the Byzantine Theme of Bulgaria. The rebellion leaders asked Mihailo for help, and he obliged, sending a company of 300 soldiers, headed by his son Constantine Bodin and a commander Vojvoda Petrilo. The allied Bulgarian-Serbian forces gathered in Prizren, where Bodin was proclaimed a Bulgarian emperor and given the name Petar, after the Bulgarian emperor Petar I, son of emperor Simeon. The Byzantine imperial army was sent to crush the rebellion, but they were heavily defeated ("horrific battle and even more horrific defeat of the Romans"). Heads of the Byzantine attacking forces, Damian Dalassenos and Lombard mercenary Longibardopoulos, were captured. After this victory and conquest of Skoplje, Bodin split his army in two. He took the command over the group which headed north. towards Niš, while Petrilo headed the other group which went south, to Ohrid, Devol and Kastoria. Petrilo was defeated at Kastoria, while Bodin managed to conquer Niš. Upon the call from Voyteh, Bodin returned to re-conquer Skopje which was retaken by the new imperial army sent from Constantinople, but he was intercepted, defeated and captured in December 1072 by the Byzantines at Taonios (later Pauni field). Mihailo sent new regiments to save his son, but they failed. Longibardopoulos, who was taken by Mihailo to his court and even married Mihailo's daughter, was leading one of those rescue missions which consisted of Serbian and Lombard soldiers, but he betrayed his brother-in-law Bodin and switched back to the Byzantine side at Taonios. Bodin was taken to Constantinople and imprisoned in the Saint Sergius Monastery before being moved to Antioch. Mihailo bribed a group of Venetian merchants who saved Bodin from imprisonment and returned him to Duklja. Bodin's participation in the rule of Duklja wasn't mention before, but after his return, the sources say that Mihailo "restored his previous rule", so Bodin apparently was a co-ruler before 1072.