- For the Russian ruler, see Basil II of Russia
Basil II (Greek: Βασίλειος Β΄ Βουλγαροκτόνος, Basileios II
Boulgaroktonos i.e "the Bulgar-slayer"), also known as Basil II the Bulgar-Slayer and Basil the Young
(958 – December 15 1025), was a
Byzantine emperor from the Macedonian
dynasty from January 10 976 to December 15, 1025. Under
his reign, the Byzantine Empire reached its greatest height in nearly five
centuries.
Birth and childhood
Basil was the son of Emperor Romanos II by Theophano, whose family was of Armenian descent. In
960, he was associated on the throne by his father, but the latter died in 963, when Basil was only five years old. Because he
and his brother, the future Emperor Constantine VIII (ruled 1025–1028), were too young
to reign in their own right, Basil's mother Theophano married one of Romanos'
leading generals, who took the throne as the Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas several months
later in 963. Nikephoros 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 II took the throne as senior emperor.
Asian rebellions and alliance with Rus'
Basil was a brave soldier and a superb horseman; he was to prove himself a strong ruler and an able general. He did not at
first display the full extent of his energy. In the early years of his reign, the administration remained in the hands of the
eunuch Basil Lekapenos (an illegitimate son of Emperor
Romanos I), president of the senate, a wily and gifted man, who hoped that the young emperors
would be his puppet. Basil waited and watched without interfering, and devoted himself to learning the details of administrative
business and instructing himself in military science.
Although Nikephoros II Phokas in particular had proven to be a brilliant military commander during his reign, both he and John
I Tzimiskes had proven to be lax administrators. Although John had reportedly planned to curb the power of the landowners at the
end of his reign, his death soon after speaking out against them led to his reported poinsoning. As a result, Basil found himself
with a serious problem as soon as his reign began. The great landowners of Asia Minor,
Bardas Skleros and Bardas Phokas – 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 rebellions of both Skleros (979) and Phokas (989).
To do so Basil formed an alliance with Prince Vladimir I 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 of his soldiers as reinforcements to Basil. In exchange he 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 Slavs, 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 people to Christianity, Basil finally agreed. 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.
The fall of Basil Lekapenos followed the rebellions. He was accused of plotting with the rebels and punished with exile and
the confiscation of his enormous property. Seeking to protect the lower and middle classes, Basil II made ruthless war upon the
system of immense estates which had grown up, in Asia Minor and which his predecessor, Romanos I, had endevoured to check.
Campaigns against the Arabs
Having put an end to the internal strife, Basil II then turned his attention to the empire's other enemies. The Byzantine
civil wars had weakened the empire's position in the east and the gains of Nikephoros II Phokas and John I Tzimiskes came close
to being lost, with Aleppo besieged and Antioch threatened by the enemy. In the 995, Basil II
with an army of 40,000 men (with 80,000 mules)[1],
launched a campaign against the Muslim Arabs and won several
battles in Syria, relieving Aleppo, taking over the Orontes
valley, and raiding further south. Although he did not have sufficient forces to drive into 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 campaigns
Basil II and his step-father, Emperor Nikephoros II
Basil also wanted to restore to the empire territories that it had long lost. At the start of the second millennium, he took
on his greatest adversary, Samuil of Bulgaria, who also was of Armenian descent.
Bulgaria had been partly subjugated by John I Tzimiskes, but parts of the country had remained
outside Byzantine control, under the leadership of Samuil and his brothers. As they raided Byzantine lands starting from 976, the
Byzantine government sought to cause dissention by first allowing the escape of the captive emperor Boris II of Bulgaria. This having failed, Basil used a respite from his conflict with the nobility
to lead an army of 60,000 men into Bulgaria and besiege Sredets (Sofia) in 986. Taking losses and
worried about the loyalty of some of his governors, Basil lifted the siege and headed back for Thrace but fell into an ambush and suffered a serious defeat at Trajan's Gate at the Battle of Trayanovi Vrata.
Basil escaped with the help of his Varangian Guard and attempted to make up his losses by turning Samuil's brother Aron
against him. Aron was tempted with Basil's offer of his own sister Anna in marriage, but the negotiations failed when Aron
discovered that the bride he was sent was a fake. By 987 Aron had been eliminated by Samuil, and Basil was busy fighting both
Skleros and Phokas in Asia Minor. Although the titular emperor Roman of Bulgaria was
captured in 991, Basil lost Moesia to the Bulgarians.
From 1000, Basil II was able to focus on his war with Bulgaria again. Samuil had extended his rule from the Adriatic Sea to the Black Sea and raided into central Greece, and Basil was determined to reverse the fortunes of the empire. In 1001–1002, the Byzantines were able to
regain control of Moesia, and in 1003 he raided into Macedonia, taking
Skopje. In 1005, the governor of Durazzo
surrendered his city to the Byzantines. During the next several years, the Byzantines failed to make any significant gains.
Finally, on July 29, 1014, Basil II outmaneuvered the Bulgarian
army in the Battle of Kleidion, with Samuil separated from his force. Having crushed
the Bulgarians, Basil was said to have captured 15,000 prisoners and blinded 99 of every 100 men, leaving 150 one-eyed men to
lead them back to their ruler, who fainted at the sight and died two days later suffering a stroke. Although this may be an
exaggeration, this gave Basil his nickname Boulgaroktonos, "the Bulgar-slayer" in later tradition.
Bulgaria fought on for four more years, but finally submitted in 1018. This victory and the later 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. Before returning to Constantinople, Basil II celebrated his triumph in Athens.
Khazar campaign
The
Pontic steppes, c.1015. The areas in blue are those possibly still under
Khazar control.
Although the power of the Khazar Khaganate had been broken by
the Kievan Rus' in the 960s, the Byzantines had not been able
to fully exploit the power vacuum and restore their dominion over the Crimea and other areas around the Black Sea.
In 1016, Byzantine armies, in conjunction with Mstislav of Chernigov, attacked the Crimea, much of which had fallen under the sway of the Khazar
successor kingdom of George Tzoul, based at Kerch.
Kedrenos reports that George Tzoul was captured and the Khazar successor-state was destroyed. Subsequently the Byzantines occupied the southern Crimea.
Later years
Basil II 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. Basil
created in those highlands a strongly fortified frontier, which, if his successors had been capable, should have proved an
effective barrier against the invasions of the Seljuk Turks.
In the meantime, other Byzantine forces restored much of Southern Italy, lost 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.
Basil was to be buried in the last sarcophagus available in the rotunda of Constantine
I in the Church of the Holy Apostles. However, he later asked his brother and successor Constantine VIII to be buried in the Church of St. John the Theologian (i.e. the Evangelist), at the
Hebdomon Palace complex, outside the walls of Constantinople. The epitaph on the tomb
celebrated Basils campaigns and victories.[1] During the pillage of 1204, Basil's grave was ravaged by the invading Crusaders of
the Fourth Crusade.
During the reign of Smbat III, an Armenian-Georgian great feudal lord, David, who owned Taik (Ispir and Olti) had, during his
battles against the Muslims, gained a large area which stretched all the way to Manazkert (Malashgert). David was a subject of
Byzantium and when he died his entire territory was occupied by Basil II, who had resumed the policy of, bit by bit, annexing
Armenia to his empire (year 1000).[2]
Assessment
The Byzantine Empire under Basil II,
c. 1025
Basil was a short, stocky man with ascetic tastes, 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 spent 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 shelter, food and education. Many of them later became his soldiers and 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 soldiers. To assure that this 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. As a young man he was a womanizer, but when he became emperor, he chose
to devote himself to the duties of state. Unfortunately, this meant that he was succeeded by his brother and his family, who
proved to be ineffective rulers. Nevertheless, 50 years of prosperity and intellectual growth followed because the funds of state
were full, the borders were not in danger from exterior intruders, and the empire remained the most powerful political entity of
the Middle Ages.
In literature
During the 20th century in Greece, interest in the
prominent emperor led to a number of biographies and historical novels about him. Arguably the most popular is Basil
Bulgaroktonus (1964) by historical fiction writer Kostas
Kyriazis (b. 1920). Written as a sequel to his previous work Theophano
(1963), focusing on Basil's mother, it examines Basil's life from childhood till his death at an
advanced age, through the eyes of three fictional narrators.
The first one is Areti Skylitzi, a girl from a noble family whom 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 who truly loves him. Basil can never marry her,
because he was traumatized by the murders of his father Romanos and step-father Nikephoros by their wife and his mother,
Theophano. He associates marriage and trust with death and murder. Areti stays by his side, as his unofficial consort, till his
death. She alone hears his private thoughts, often filled 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 Nikolaos, 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 narrator is a Bulgarian general of Samuel who spend most of his life serving his Tsar and fighting Basil. He tells
their side of the battle of almost 40 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 for a casual reader. It has been continuously reprinted since 1964.
For his part, commentator Alexander Kiossev wrote in "Understanding the Balkans: "The hero of one nation might be the villain
of its neighbour (...) The Byzantine emperor Basil the Murderer (sic) of Bulgarians, a crucial figure in the Greek pantheon of
heroes, is no less important as a subject of hatred for our [Bulgarian] national mythology "[2].
Bibliography
- (primary source) Michael Psellus, Chronographia
- The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press,
1991
- John Julius Norwich, History of Byzantium
- Penelope Delta, The Age of the Bulgar-slayer (In Greek), 1911, ESTIA
Publishing Co.
- Paul Stephenson, The Legend of Basil the Bulgar-Slayer, Cambridge (2003)
- Catherine Holmes, Basil II and the Governance of Empire (976-1025) Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-927968-3
References
- ^ J. Norwich, Byzantium: The Apogee, 251
- ^ Schlumberger, Un Emperor byzantin - Basile II, Paris, 1900, chapter
III
External links
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