Bulgaroctonus - The Bulgar Slayer
NOTE: This isn't finished yet, not even close. If the wording in the first part seems kind of strange and complicated, sorry. I was kind of rushing, and I haven't had time to go back and refine it. I will be adding on in layers, since I have school (and a :wub: of homework), and there's a lot to add.
So yea, here is part one, recounting the years 976-989
---------------------------------------
Part I: The Civil Wars 976-989
Basil II Bulgaroctonus
The year 976 was the beginning of the Golden Era of Byzantine history. It was ushered in by one man by the name of Basil II, the son of the Emperor Romanos II who was poisoned by his own wife.
Though Romanos II was assassinated in 963, Basil did not immediately ascend to the thrown, because he was still but seven years old. For six years the Empire was ruled by Nicophoros Phocas, known as the “White Death of the Saracens” for his skill on the battlefield, but that is a story for another time. Though a superb general, it was his misfortune to be a bad administrator. In 969 he in turn was assassinated by a fellow general, an Armenian known as John I Tzimisces. John was undoubtedly a good Emperor, and was the Empire was able to flourish. He unexpectedly died in 976 after a campaign against the Muslims. It was then that Basil II ascended to the throne, and it is now that we begin our tale.
From the start, Basil must have known that his rule would not be an easy one. When he took the throne, the Empire was beset by enemies, both external and internal. From the east was the Muslim threat; from the west was the fast growing threat of the Bulgars, the ancient enemies of Byzantium. And yet, from the interior, in the heart of the Empire, Anatolia a revolt had sprung up, led by the general Bardas Sclerus and another by Bardas Phocas. In 976, Sclerus began rampaging through all of Anatolia defeating Imperial army after army, talking many key cities, including Nicaea itself and also Melitene, until 979. Victories included battles at Lepara in 977 (Sclerus’s first victory), Amorium and another in the Basilica Thema, in the east. The rebellion eventually collapsed, not because of Sclerus’s incompetence at war, for he was a good general. No, it failed because he could not have the recourses to fight a war against the Byzantine Emperor.
In 987, rebellion again came to the mind of Sclerus. He had been sheltered in the court of Adud al-Dawla, ruler of Baghdad for around 8 years. He again invaded Byzantine territory, having Melitene as a base for operations. Bardas Phocas, the Byzantine general who had crushed Sclerus’s first rebellion was reassigned to guard the eastern front of the Empire. But he too had rebellion on his mind. By the fall of the same year, he proclaimed himself Emperor, and fabricated an alliance with Bardas Sclerus where Sclerus would rule the eastern provinces, and Phocas all the rest. Not long after, Phocas threw it out, proclaiming himself sole Emperor.
This rebellion was much more serious than the one 8 years prior. Phocas was constantly harassing Constantinople from the Asian bank and Basil could do nothing to push him back, like he had done to Sclerus. Phocas commanded the respect of the majority of the troops and commanders of the Army, and only a few generals were still loyal to the Emperor. Thing were getting very risky, when Basil made one of the most important decisions of his reign. He sent his sister Anne north to Kiev to break a deal with Vladimir, Prince of Novgorod. In return for the marriage between himself and Anne, we would send 6,000 Russian warriors to the aid of the Emperor. These 6,000 warriors were the first Varangian Guardsmen, elite warriors that would be used by the Emperors in battle and as guards untill the death of the Empire. "Praetorians" if you will, but without the urge to revolt against the Emperor and seat a puppet on the throne. There was one more condition to the deal. This was the baptism of Vladimir to the Christian faith. And so, in 988 the Russian people officially became Orthodox Christian.
Vladimir I
With the 6,000 warriors sent by Vladimir, Basil took the field against Phocas in 989 at Abydus. Phocas’s army was crushed, and he himself was killed. According to Delphinas, a medieval historian, Basil impaled Phocas’s severed head and paraded it throughout his Empire.
The year 989 marked the end of the Civil Wars, and the beginning of something completely different
End Part I. To be continued
-----------------------------
Part II - The East
By the time the Civil Wars were repressed, the Eastern frontier was looking very vulnerable. The territory Basil’s 2 predecessors had acquired after many conquests, the Taurus Mountains, the Anti Taurus, northern Syria and northern Mesopotamia, were under thread of invasion by the newly created Fatimid dynasty. Things came to a head in the early 990s, when Aleppo, a Byzantine client state, was besieged by the Fatimids. In 992, a Byzantine army was defeated near the city of Antioch, and again in 994. After the second defeat, Basil himself took control of the army, marching across Anatolia in two or so weeks, and surprised the Fatimid army. Unfortunately for Basil, the army was able to slip away. After the third defeat of an Imperial army near Antioch, Basil retaliated by plunging into Fatimid territory and horribly ravaging it. He then began to siege Tripoli, but was unsuccessful. But this action did have its advantages. The Fatimid caliph al-Hakim was persuaded by his advisors to sign a treaty with Basil, one which would not be broken for fifteen years, from 1001 to 1016.
Byzantine Empire circa 1000 AD
Though the Fatimid threat was gone, wars still continued in the very eastern corners of the Empire, in the Upper Mesopotamian valley and the Southern Caucasus between the Empire and local Muslim warlords. Among the enemies was a Bad ibn Dustuk, leader of the Kurdish Emirate, who incorporated Lake Van in Armenia to his state. He took advantage of the civil wars of the late 80s to raid deep into Byzantine territory until his death in 993. Several Byzantine raids quickly made the Kurds come to terms. In addition to a ceasefire, Basil offered Bad ibn Dustuk’s nephew ibn Marwan the title of magistros, the office of dux of the east, and the promise that imperial would reinforce his nation if they came under outside attack. This would be a recurring theme with Basil, who always tried to create client states with those who he had just conquered.
Basil was also able to consolidate his power in Georgia at this time. David of Tao, the Prince of Tao at the time of the civil wars had assisted Basil in defeating Sclerus, with which he was rewarded the stewardship of several eastern Byzantine cities. Unfortunately for him, he had supported Phocas in the second civil war, and with Phocas’s defeat, David was forced to make Basil the legatee of his principality. When David died in 1000, Basil marched with army towards Tao, and took control from the Georgian nobility. Unfortunately, Basil had not done enough to establish Imperial authority in the region, and in 1008 Bagrat III ruler of Abasgia, inherited Caucasian Iberia and went on to conquer Kakhetia, north east of Tiflis and the rich city of Ardanoutzin, a small distance away from Tao. Bagrat died in 1014 and his kingdom was acquired by his son George. After the ascension of George, Basil sent an imperial army to deal with this Georgian rebellion. It was defeated. It would not be until 1018 after the annexation of Bulgaria (next Part) that Basil would have the chance to crush the Georgians himself. The first campaign in 1021 was indecisive, but the following year Byzantine armies were able to grasp a crushing victory over the Georgians. In return for peace, George was forced to relinquish several key fortresses, as well as his son as a hostage.
The Georgian Kingdom under Bagrat III
After the suppression of Georgia, Basil went on to campaign in the Caucasus. When he left Georgia, he marched to Vaspurakan, and then headed east to the plain of Her, west of Lake Urmia. In the winter of 1021 John Smbat, prince of the Armenian kingdom of Ani, made Basil his heir. His territories eventually passed to the Byzantines in 1042, long after Basil had died. At around the same time Senecherim, the prince of Vaspurakan, did the same as Smbat.. He surrendered his hereditary lands south of Lake Van to Byzantium in return for a miscellany of titles, offices, and estates within the empire.
This brings us to the end of the second Part. The greatest is yet to come…
End Part II - To Be Continued
Whatdya think? Questions, suggestions, comments are welcome
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Kscott
The article is still pretty good though.
