Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

Basil II "Bulgaroktonus" (in Greek language|Greek
Basilios Bulgaroktonos, written
Βασίλειο&#
962;
Βουλγαρο&#
954;τόνος, (en) "The
Bulgar-Slayer" (958 – December 15, 1025))
Byzantine emperor (January 10, 976 –
December 15, 1025) led the Byzantine Empire to its
greatest heights in nearly five centuries.
However, he left no worthy heir and most of his
achievements were undone by a long line of weak
successors.

==Birth and childhood==

Basil was the son of Emperor Romanus II, who died
when Basil was only five years old. Because he and
his brother, the future Emperor Constantine VIII
of the Byzantine Empire (ruled 1025-1028), were
too young to reign in their own right, Basil's
mother Theophano (Byzantine Empress)|Theophano
married one of Romanus' leading generals, who took
the throne as the Emperor Nicephorus II Phocas in
963. Nicephorus was murdered in 969, only to be
succeeded by another general, who became Emperor
John I Tzimisces and reigned for seven years.
Finally, when John died on January 10, 976, Basil
took the throne.

==Early reign and the Russian alliance==

Although Nicephorus Phocas in particular had
proven to be a brilliant military commander during
his reign, both generals had proven to be lax
administrators. As a result of this, Basil found
himself with a serious problem as soon as his
reign began. The great landowners of Asia Minor
who provided many of the empire's soldiers and
taxes were in open revolt against the empire.
Basil, showing the penchant for ruthlessness that
would become his trademark, took the field himself
and suppressed the rebellion. 

To do so Basil formed an alliance with Vladimir
the Great of Kiev, who had captured the main
imperial base in the Crimea, Chersonesos, in 988.
Vladimir offered to evacuate Chersonesos and to
supply 6,000 men of his army as reinforcements to
Basil. In exchange Vladimir demanded to be married
to Basil's younger sister Anna (963 - 1011). At
first, Basil hesitated. The Byzantines viewed all
the nations of Northern Europe, be they Franks or
Russians, as barbarians. Anna herself objected to
marrying a barbarian ruler, as such a marriage
would have no precedents in imperial annals. But
when Vladimir promised to baptize himself and to
convert his nation to Christianity, Basil finally
had to agree. Vladimir and Anna were married in
the Crimea in 989. The Rus recruitments were
instrumental in ending the rebellion, and they
were later organized into the Varangian Guard.

==Campaigns against the Arabs== 

Having put an end to the internal strife, Basil
then turned his attention to the empire's other
enemies. In the 990s, he launched a campaign
against the Islam|Muslim Arabs to the south of the
empire's heartland, and won several battles in
Syria. Although he did not have the force to drive
into Palestine (region)|Palestine and reclaim
Jerusalem, his victories did restore much of Syria
to the empire. No emperor since Heraclius had been
able to hold these lands for any length of time,
and they would remain Byzantine for the next 75
years.

==Bulgarian and Khazar campaigns== 

However, Basil was far from done. He wanted to
restore to the empire territories that had long
slipped from its grasp. As the second millennium
got under way, he took on his greatest adversary,
Tsar Samuil of Bulgaria.

When all-out war broke out in 1002, Samuil had
extended the Bulgarian kingdom from the Danube
River in the north all the way into Greece,
stopping just north of Athens. His rule extended
from the Adriatic Sea|Adriatic to the Black Sea,
and all of this territory had been conquered over
the past 300 years at the expense of the
Byzantines. Basil was determined to reverse the
fortunes of the empire.

The war ravaged the Balkans for the next dozen
years, as Basil and Samuil each won impressive
victories. Samuil's force was outnumbered
numerically, but he was able to avoid fighting a
general engagement while harassing Basil's forces
as they advanced through Bulgarian territory.
Samuil hoped to wear down the Byzantine forces and
either defeat them, or force Basil to make peace.

Finally, on July 29, 1014, Basil II cornered the
Bulgarian army and forced it to fight at the
Battle of Kleidion, with Samuil several miles away
from the battlefield. He crushed the Bulgarians
and took 14,000 prisoners. Basil was said to have
blinded 99 of every 100 of the prisoners, with
every 100th man left with only one eye to guide
the rest home. Although maybe an exaggeration,
this gave Basil his nickname Bulgaroktonus, "the
Bulgar-slayer." 

When Samuil saw his blinded troops return, he is
said to have died of sorrow. Bulgaria fought on
for four more years, but finally submitted in
1018. The victory over the Bulgarians and the
subsequent submission of the Serbs fulfilled one
of Basil's goals, as the empire regained its
ancient Danube River frontier for the first time
in 400 years.

Meanwhile, in 1016, Byzantine armies, in
conjunction with princes of the Kievan Rus,
attacked the Crimea, much of which had fallen
under the sway of the Khazar successor kingdom of
Georgius Tzul, based at Kerch. Kedrenos reports
that Georgius Tzul was captured and the Khazar
successor-state was destroyed.

==Later years==

Basil returned in triumph to Constantinople, then
promptly went east and attacked the Iran|Persians
over control of Armenia, which had become a
Byzantine tributary when its king died in 1000.
More victories followed, and Armenia rejoined the
Byzantine empire for the first time in two
centuries. In the meantime, other Byzantine forces
restored much of southern Italy, lost to the
Normans over the previous 150 years, to the
empire's control. When Basil finally died on
December 15, 1025, he was planning a military
expedition to recover the island of Sicily. By his
last request, he was buried not among the other
emperors of his family, but instead next to the
cavalry's training field. Contemporary sources
state this was in order for him to forever hear
his troops training to combat for his empire.
During the pillage of 1204, Basil's grave was
ravaged by the invading Crusaders of the Fourth
Crusade.

==Assessment==

Basil was a short, stocky man who cared little for
the pomp and ceremony of the imperial court, and
typically held court dressed in military regalia.
Still, he was a capable administrator, who unique
among the soldier-emperors, left a full treasury
upon his death. He was worshipped by his army, as
he spend most of his reign campaigning with them
instead of sending orders from the distant palaces
of Constantinople, as had most of his
predecessors. He lived the life of a soldier to
the point of eating the same daily rations as any
other member of the army. He also took the
children of deceased officers of his army under
his protection, and offered them sheltering,
nourishment and education. Many of those children
would later grow to become his soldiers and his
officers, and came to think of him as a father. 

Besides being called the "Father of the Army", he
was also popular with country farmers. This class
produced most of his army's supplies and offered
him most of his soldiers. To assure that this flow
of supplies and men continued, Basil's laws
protected small agrarian property and lowered
their taxes. His reign was considered an era of
relative prosperity for the class, despite the
almost constant wars. On the other hand Basil
increased the taxes of the nobility and the church
and looked to decrease their power and wealth.
Though understandably unpopular with them, neither
of them had the power to effectively oppose the
army-supported Emperor. Basil never married or had
children that we know of - a womanizer as a young
man, Basil chose to devote himself fully to the
duties of state upon becoming emperor.
Unfortunately, this meant that he was succeeded by
his brother and his family, who proved to be
ineffective rulers. Within 50 years of Basil's
death, the empire had once again fallen to the
status of a second-rate power, and had lost almost
everything he regained.

==Basil in literature==

During the 20th century in Greece, interest for
the prominent Emperor resulted in Basil becoming
the subject of a number of biographies as well as
historical novels. Arguably the most popular of
them is Basil Bulgaroktonus (1964) by historical
fiction writer Kostas Kyriazis (1920 - ). Written
as a sequel to his previous work Theophano (1963),
focusing on Basil's mother, it examines Basil's
life from his childhood till his death at an
advanced age, through the eyes of three different
narrators (all of them fictional). The first one
is Areti Skylitzi, a girl from a noble family that
John I brought to young Basil to be his friend and
playmate. She becomes the confidant of his deepest
thoughts and later the only woman that truly loves
him. Basil can never marry her. Witnessing at an
early age the murders of his father Romanus and
step-father Nicephorus by Theophano, their wife,
his mother, had traumatised him. He associates
marriage, trust with death and murder. Areti stays
by his side, as his unofficial consort, till his
death. She alone hearing his private thoughts,
filled often with self-doubt, sorrow, inner
conflict while dealing with hard decisions. For
Areti, Basil is her life-long consort, needing to
be comforted. The second narrator is Nicolaus, one
of Basil's generals. He has followed Basil's
campaigns through his life, and witnessed his
major battles and later his death. For him Basil
was his leader, a lord to be respected and served,
a "father" of his army. The third and last one is
a Bulgarian, one of Samuil's generals. He spend
most of his life serving his Tsar and fighting
Basil. He tells their side of the long battle,
that occupied almost forty years. For him Basil is
the enemy, the slayer of his people, the man
responsible for his own leader's death. Accurately
describing the historical events and adding
fictional to fill-in the blanks, it has been
considered the best introduction to Basil and his
age, a casual reader could have. It has been
continuously reprinted since 1964.

==Bibliography==
*Michael Psellus the Younger. Chronographia.

==External links==
*A more detailed profile of the
Emperor:http://www.roman-emperors.org/basilii.htm

----
Byzantine Emperor | Prev=John I Tzimisces |
CoEmperor=with Constantine VIII | Next=Constantine
VIII