Oh boy grab your snacks and drinks and settle in for one hell of a ride if you're a fan of medieval history. TLDR at the end of my second comment since the reign of Basil II is impossible to fully understand in just one post.
When you want to know anything about Basil II, you first have to know where he came from and his early upbringing. Basil II, also known for his badass nickname the Bulgar Slayer, was born the son of a commoner women (Theophano) and the reigning Emperor, Romanos II. Although Theophano was the daughter of a poor inn-keeper, she was evidently renowned for her beauty and thus Romanos II, despite the wishes of his father Constantine VII (also known as Porphyrogennetos or the Purple Born), fell in love and eventually married her. It is worth mentioning that because of her lowly origins, the Byzantine nobility despised her and began spreading rumors about her throughout the capital.
By all accounts, Romanos II was a pleasure seeker who preferred to leave the day to day governing of the Roman Empire in the hands of his generals and ministers such as Joseph Bringas and Nicephorus Phocas (remember this guy). Suddenly, Romanos II fell ill after a long hunting trip and died, widowing Theophano and leaving the throne for his two very underage sons, one of whom was Basil II. Being at the mercy of court intrigue between the imperial bureaucracy and the military dynatoi (generals), Theophano quickly decided to marry the celebrated general Nicephorus II Phocas and even took his nephew John Tzimikes as her lover.
Nicephorus II Phocas , also known by his likewise badass nickname of "The White Death of the Saracens", was at this point rather old to put it bluntly. He was a battle hardened general who was beloved by his men and was even given a triumph by Romanos II for the successful recapture of Crete which had been under Arab rule for nearly a century and a half. The marriage between Theophano and Nicephorus II was therefore a marriage of convenience and security rather than one of love (Theophano needed the support of the powerful Byzantine dynatoi to secure the throne for her sons). After some brief fighting against the meager forces of Joseph Bringas, Nicephorus II was crowned as the new basileus of the Romans.
The short summary of Nicephorus II's reign is that he was relatively unsuccessful in advancing the Byzantine position in the West as the Fatimids were able to oust the Byzantines from Sicily but concluded a peace treaty as both sides had other issues to contend with. However, Nicephorus II was able to prevent the German Emperor Otto I from making any gains against Byzantine holdings in Italy. Finally, he created a huge future danger in the Balkan frontier as he had bribed the leader of the Kievan Rus, Svjatoslav, to attack the now weakened Bulgars in the rear. This successful bribery backfired as Svjatoslav absorbed the Bulgars into his growing kingdom; thus, an even bigger enemy was created.
In the east, he was far more successful as the Byzantines were able to retake Cyprus, annex Cilicia and Taron, and take back Antioch from the Arabs. It is worth mentioning that this latter victory came with a hiccup as he had ordered the general commanding the forces besieging Antioch, Michael Bourtzes, to take the city by hunger. Bourtzes instead took the city with a surprise attack but was disgraced and later joined a conspiracy against Nicephorus II.
The conspiracy against Nicephorus II was born out of his own mistrust, likely jealousy of his subordinates, primarily his nephew Tzimiskes and his general Bourtzes, and his cold marriage with Theophano. Tzimiskes, who was removed for fear of disloyalty, was able to easily woo Theophano to his side and with her help, he and a band of conspirators were able to murder Nicephorus II in his bedchamber. Tzimiskes was later on crowned as the new basileus by the Patriarch Polyeuktos but not before he was forced to banish Theophano from the capital for her prominent role in the conspiracy against her husband.
Tzimiskes was able to lend his relatively short reign a large degree of legitimacy by defeating the resurgent Bulgarian-Rus forces under the aforementioned Svjatoslav after a lengthy siege. In return for provisions, Svjatoslav agreed to leave Byzantine lands. In the meantime, Tzimiskes was also able to take away the imperial regalia of the deposed Bulgarian emperor Boris II and declare Bulgaria annexed. Furthermore, he was also able to greatly expand the Byzantine borders in the east, recapturing cities like Damascus and Tripoli which had been under Arab control since the latter half of the reign of Heraclius. He even almost reached the holy city of Jerusalem but had to retreat as his supply lines had been overextended. He had planned to return to his campaign in the Levant but died suddenly (likely due to an illness) and left the throne to his ward Basil II who at this point was around 16.
TO BE CONTINUED
PART II: The Reign of Basil II- Byzantium Rising
Now with the lengthy introduction to Basil II done with we can move on to the crux of our little lecture here. A key factor you have to remember is that since the reign of Nicephorus II, Basil II had been relegated to the sidelines as a junior co-Emperor. But his time spent in the shadows of greater men was not put to waste. He learned a great deal about what a man truly needed to know in order to function as Emperor and was well prepared for his ascension to his rightful throne. However, despite being the rightful heir and coming of age, Basil encountered two obstacles early on in his reign. The first came in the form of his eunuch great-grand uncle Basil Lekapanos who was the illegitimate son of Basil II's great-grandfather Romanos I Lekapanos and who occupied the role of head chamberlain.
Basil Lekapanos had hoped to keep Basil II as a puppet emperor but the latter simply played for time while he sharpened his administrative skills. With the firm backing of the most important elements of the Byzantine court, Basil II was able to confiscate all of Basil Lekapanos' holdings on the accusation of plotting with the prominent general Bardas Phokas. At this point in time, the Byzantine Empire was in a very precarious spot internally as Nicephorus II and Tzimiskes had been poor administrators (the latter belatedly made attempts to curb the power of the military dynatoi) and let prominent military families grow to an unhealthy level of power where they could realistically mount a challenge to his rule.
The first internal rebellion and second obstacle the young Basil had to deal with was against Bardas Phokas. Phokas himself had earlier crushed the rebellion of Bardas Skleros but later rebelled against Basil II and was nearly able to take the crown from Basil but died suddenly during the midst of an important battle on the Anatolian side of the Bosporus. Basil, with the help of the Varangian Guard*, was able to crush the now leaderless rebels and was finally able to secure his crown. At this point, I remember my history professor telling me that by some accounts Basil II had "lost the light in his eyes" and his personality totally shifted. Instead of a young man who thirsted to learn about the world around him, he became a somber, ascetic man who hated Byzantine court life and dedicated himself to one simple goal: the expansion of Byzantine might.
By the time Basil had regained control of his Empire, the Byzantine positions in the East and in the Balkans had been considerably weakened. On one side he faced a resurgent Bulgarian Empire under Tsar Samuel while on the other he faced another incursion by the Fatimids. The Fatimids made the first major move against Basil and managed to score a major victory against the Byzantine forces led by Michael Bourtzes (the doux/duke of Antioch) and later against Bourtzes' successor. However, Basil II managed to turn the tides by personally leading extensive raids deep into Fatimid territory with lightning speed that forced the Fatimids to conclude a ten-year peace with the Byzantines.
With his eastern front secured, Basil finally turned his attention to his life long goal: annexing Bulgaria. Earlier in his career in 986, Basil led a failed campaign against the Bulgars which ended in complete disaster. This defeat had helped convince the military dynatoi of Anatolia (in particular Bardas Phokas) to rebel. Thus, Basil harbored a deep desire for vengeance against Tsar Samuel. Long story short, Basil and a retinue of his best generals managed to gradually enclose Tsar Samuel and trap in his western Macedonian holdings through a mix of steely determination and strategic insight. Tsar Samuel did his best to fortify the passes through which the Byzantines could march through but was ultimately surrounded and defeated at the climatic Battle of Kleidon. Samuel only escaped the debacle through his son's actions.
In 1014, Basil would finally earn his famous nickname "the Bulgar Slayer". Desiring to crush Bulgarian resistance once and for all, he ordered the Bulgarian prisoners to be grouped into groups of 100 with 99 men in each group totally blinded. He left one man out of every group with the unfortunate task of leading their countrymen back to Tsar Samuel with one eye. Upon seeing this trail of misery, Tsar Samuel apparently fell dead on the spot (likely due to a heart attack). With Samuel's death, Basil's mission was finally complete and the entirety of the Bulgarian Empire was brought under Byzantine control. Despite Basil's admittedly cruel treatment of Tsar Samuel's soldiers, Basil treated the rest of the Bulgarian nobility and populace with kindness. He gave the Bulgarian nobility Byzantine court titles, and positions in both civil and military posts. Ultimately, Basil did not want to rule over a separate Bulgarian people but rather wanted to assimilate them into Byzantine society. He also won over the Bulgarian populace by allowing them to pay their taxes in kind as Bulgaria did not have the monetary economy (i.e. one fueled entirely by hard currency) that Byzantium did.
Basil followed up his crushing defeat of Tsar Samuel with regaining most of the Byzantine holdings in Armenia, Georgia, and even the southern half of Crimea. In the last few years of his life, Basil began efforts at reclaiming lost lands in southern Italy and was about to embark on a massive campaign into Sicily before he died in 1025. By the end of his reign, Basil II had propelled the Byzantine Empire to its zenith during the Macedonian Renaissance and helped secure decades of continued prosperity and international prestige.
As a last note, despite the constant campaigning, the Byzantine common folk actually prospered during Basil II's reign as he enacted a series of measures that reduced the taxes levied on them and protected the small landowning class (which formed the backbone for his army) from the excesses of the landed aristocracy (which had begun to spiral out of control under his two predecessors). Of particular note was the allelengyon tax which made the dynatoi responsible for the taxes the poorer Byzantine classes could not pay.
Well space_catto, I hope you enjoyed this length read as much as I enjoyed typing it out. Apologies for any formatting mistakes as this is the first post of its kind that I made on Reddit. Have a good day peeps.
*The Varangian Guard was an elite mercenary unit composed of Rus Vikings who were initially sent over by Prince Vladimir of Kiev to help Basil combat Bardas Phokas. In exchange, Basil agreed to hand over the hand of his sister Anna to Vladimir. This exchange brought the Rus and later Russians under the cultural influence of Byzantium. The Varangians would continue to remain an important part of the Byzantine military largely up until the 13th century.
TLDR: Basil II got his nickname from his treatment of captured Bulgarian soldiers when he had every 99 men out of 100 totally blinded with one unfortunate man left with one eye to guide the group back to their tsar. His reign represented the apex of medieval Byzantium from which the Byzantine Empire would unfortunately rapidly decay and collapse by 1071.