Basil II, "the butcher of the Bulgarians" (958-15 December 1025), was the Eastern Roman Emperor of the Macedonian Dynasty and the Byzantine Emperor (976-1025). During his reign, the medieval Byzantine Empire reached its peak.

Don't allow your subjects to be too powerful, don't let any important military chief have great wealth, suppress them with all kinds of taxes at will, so that they can spend all their time on private affairs and have no time to care about others. Don't trust anyone, let only a few know their plans - A Byzantine writer's description of Basil II's policy

Basil II was the hero of the mid-Byzantine Empire. In the long thousand-year history of the Byzantine Empire, the passive beating time was much longer than the strong time, but there were also glorious years. The era of Basil II was the two golden ages that paralleled the era of Justinian.

Let's take a look at the situation before the arrival of this great era. The "Iconoclasm" movement in the 8th century and the strengthening of the military system increased the military power of the Byzantine Empire. After the 9th century, with the disappearance of the tornadoes brought by the Arab Empire, the Byzantine Empire gradually gained the upper hand in the eastern battlefield, but the Arab Empire remained a long-term threat. At the same time, the "barbarians" in the north of the Byzantine Empire, including Bulgarians, Magyars, Southern Slavs, Rus, etc., were developing rapidly and were entering the stage of a state. They also had a ruthlessness that the newborn calves were not afraid of tigers, which made the Byzantine Empire suffer greatly. The Bulgarians, in particular, had established a state in the late 7th century. At the beginning of the 9th century, the era of Archduke Krum began to become a fierce enemy of Byzantium. In the era of Simon the Great, Byzantium was forced to bow down and pay tribute, and even almost seized the Byzantine throne. Faced with the threat of "barbarians", the Byzantine Empire also had its advantages. Christianity was one of its weapons, and it could often play the role of turning enemies into friends. And "using barbarians to fight barbarians" was also a common tactic of the Byzantine Empire. Using money or other bait to win over other "barbarians" to fight against the more threatening "barbarians", the Byzantine Empire also gained a reputation for being cunning and changeable.

In 867, Basil I from Macedonia completed the mythical journey from a peasant to an emperor and established the Macedonian Dynasty. This magical figure achieved military and diplomatic success, laying a good foundation for his successors. But in the era of his son Leo VI, the Bulgarian Kingdom was in its heyday and suffered a lot of humiliation under the whip of Simon the Great. In the era of Constantine VII and Roman II, the power of the empire gradually fell into the hands of military aristocrats.

In 958, Basil II was born. When he was 5 years old, his father Roman II died, and he was succeeded as emperor by his mother Fiona as regent. But Nikifo Foka, who then held the military power of the empire, married Fiona and became co-emperor with the young Basil brothers as stepfather. Nikifo Foka was a representative of the military aristocracy of Asia Minor, and had military skills. He recaptured Crete, Cyprus, and other places from the Arabs, and used the Rus to deal a devastating blow to the old enemy Bulgarians. But the outstanding commander died in a cruel court conspiracy in 967, and the murderer Tsikami took over the throne and became Basil's second "co-ruler".

In 976, Chikami died, and Basil II, who was already 18 years old, decided to monopolize power himself. But the Asian Minor military aristocrats, who had already promoted many emperors, were unwilling to be lonely and introduced their new leader, Skrill. Skriel declared himself co-emperor immediately after Chikami's death. As a result, a civil war was inevitable. Basil II sent his namesake and then chief executive officer Basil to quell the chaos. However, the military incompetence of the eunuch Basil made Skriel even more arrogant. Basil II had to use another feudal aristocrat in Asia Minor, Varda Foka, and finally quelled Skriel's rebellion. The rebellion lasted for three years (976-979).

But Varda Foca was no good either. As Basil II adopted a series of policies to strengthen centralization, suppress the overly powerful aristocracy of Asia Minor, and angered the aristocracy of Asia Minor, Varda Foca took advantage of these grievances and raised his banner again. In 987, he proclaimed himself emperor, and soon took control of the whole of Asia Minor, leaving Basil II with Constantinople. This was the most dangerous moment in Basil's life, but only at such a moment could human potential be fully realized. He took full advantage of the advantages of having the capital and the position of orthodoxy, took advantage of the abundant financial resources of Constantinople, and used the Rosvaryag personal army as his main army. After two years of hard work, he quelled the rebellion.

Basil succeeded at the age of 5 and was in power at the age of 18. At the age of 31, he pacified all the hostile forces and truly took power. Although he was born in the deep palace and grew up in the hands of women, after several trials of court seizing power and quelling rebellions, he has become a mature and experienced monarch.

After two rebellions, the military aristocrats of Asia Minor, who used to pose a serious threat to the power of kings, were severely hit, but Basil still had lingering fears about the power of the aristocrats. On the other hand, at that time, the great aristocrats were more willing to invest their funds in more profitable land management. Land annexation activities became more and more intense. The economic situation of the yeoman sergeants, who were the cornerstone of the national army and taxation, deteriorated day by day. The number of free farmers serving corvee and paying taxes continued to decrease. Basil clearly saw this. One of the priorities of his policy after taking office was to curb powerful people. In 996, he strictly ordered the great feudal lord to return all the land occupied by the village farmers. In 1001, the "Payment Law" was promulgated, stipulating that the "rich and powerful" must be responsible for the "poor and weak" in paying taxes. If the "poor and weak" are unable to pay, the "rich and strong" will pay. This meant that big clerical landlords would have to be responsible for the taxes of their serfs, which not only ensured the country's tax revenue, but also dealt a blow to the greedy big landlords. Although this decree was strongly opposed by the great feudal lords, it was still adhered to during the reign of Basil II.

In general, however, Basil II's efforts did not stop the trend of the Byzantine Empire's rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. Generally speaking, a society will spontaneously divide between the rich and the poor without intervention. Usually only the powerful emperors in the early stage of the dynasty have the ability to reverse this trend, while the efforts of the emperors in the middle of the dynasty often fail to produce corresponding results.

In 976, once subjugated Bulgaria rose again under the leadership of Samuel, the governor of the west. Taking advantage of the early civil war of Basil II, Samuel gradually restored the old territory of the Bulgarian kingdom. After Basil II established his footing, he launched a large-scale war against this eye. This brutal war lasted 22 years and consumed most of Basil's middle-aged energy. Finally, he won a decisive victory at the Battle of Balsista in 1014, and by 1018 he had completely annexed Bulgaria. The once glorious Kingdom of Bulgaria was thus lost from the world map for nearly 170 years. The war also established Byzantium's dominion over Serbia. Basil II ordered 15,000 prisoners of war to be blinded, leaving one out of every 100 blind, and the blind were led back to Bulgaria by the one-eyed man. Basil II thus won the title of "Bulgarian Butcher", which was the greatest stain in his life.

Basil II took advantage of the further fragmentation of the Arab Empire to develop his territory eastward. He made several expeditions around the Caucasus, occupied part of Georgia, incorporated part of Armenia into the empire, and continued to exist as a Byzantine vassal. By the year of Basil II's death, the Byzantine Empire had reached its largest territory since the time of Justinian.

During the era of Basil II, all major civilized regions in the world were at a low ebb, with only the Song Dynasty in the east rising. He established an order centered on the Byzantine Empire in the western part of the civilized world. For the Eastern European nations that were at a critical stage of national formation, Basil II's international order had a great influence on their territory, political system, religion, etc. Basil II, like Trajan and Suleiman the Great and other monarchs belonging to the same type of monarch, both pushed a world-wide empire to its peak in terms of military, territory, and prestige, but there was relatively little pioneering influence. As a result, he ranks in the middle of this list of 100 emperors.

Comments: Byzantium's surrounded environment and relatively prosperous economy and culture made it extremely vulnerable to attack, and the dazzling aura of the Byzantine throne also attracted many heroes to bow down. The combination of these two factors, coupled with the danger of ascending the throne at an early age, made Basil II experience many more tests and challenges than ordinary emperors. Because of this, Basil II's prosperity was piled up on the basis of intrigue, power and brutality.