Basil II

Basil II "Bulgaroktonus" (958-1025), Eastern Roman Emperor (976-1025) 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.

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 (r. 1025-28), were too young to reign in their own right, Basil's mother 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 the Emperor John I and reigned for seven years. Finally, when John died on January 10, 976, Basil took the throne.

The generals had proven to be lax administrators, and 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 tax monies 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.

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 Muslim Arabs to the south of the empire's heartland, and won several battles in Syria. Although he didn't have the force to drive into Palestine and reclaim Jerusalem, his victories did restore the great city of Antioch and much of northern Syria to the empire. No emperor since Heraclius had been able to hold these lands for any length of time, but they would remain Byzantine for the next 75 years.

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 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 harrassing 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, in July of 1014, Basil II cornered the Bulgarian army and forced it to fight at the Battle of Kleidion, with Samuil too far away to support. He crushed the Bulgarians and took 14,000 prisoners. What he did next gave Basil his nickname "Bulgaroktonus"-Slayer of the Bulgars. He ordered 99 of every 100 of the prisoners blinded, with every 100th man left one eye to guide the rest home.

When Samuil met his troops on their return home, he died of sorrow. Bulgaria fought on for four more years, but finally submitted in 1018. The victory over the Bulgars and the subsequent submission of the Serbs fulfilled one of Basil's goals, as the empire regained its ancient Danube frontier for the first time in 400 years.

Basil returned in triumph to Constantinople, then promptly went east and attacked the 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 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.

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 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, and they 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 lost almost everything he regained.