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Macedonian Dynasty - 867-1057

The inconoclast emperors pursued a moderate foreign policy, consolidating the Empire within its contracted limits; but under the "Macedonian" dynasty, which was of Armenian descent, it again expanded and became the strongest power in Europe. The 9th century also witnessed a revival of learning and culture which had been in eclipse for 200 years. The reign of Basil I [r. 867-886] was marked by an energetic policy in south Italy, where his forces cooperated with the western emperor Louis II. The Saracens were expelled from their strongholds, Bari recovered, Calabria saved, and the new province (Theme) of Longibardia formed. This secured the entrance to the Adriatic, and the increase of dominion here at the expense of the Lombards was a compensation for the loss of Sicily.

Leo VI [r. 886-919]. did much for reorganizing the navy, but his reign was not fortunate; Saracen pirates plundered freely in the Aegean and, under the able renegade Leo of Tripolis, captured Thcssalonica and carried off countless captives (904). But a great tide of success began fifty years later. Nicephorus Phocas won back Crete (961) as general of Romanus II, and then as emperor recovered Cilicia and North Syria (with Antioch) 968. Cyprus was also recovered. The tide flowed on under his equally able successor, John Tzimiskes [r. 969-976] (of Armenian race) and under the last "Macedonian" Emperor, Basil II [r 976-1025]; these reigns mark the decisive victory of the Empire in the long struggle with the Saracens, whose empire had been broken up into separate states. The eastern frontier was strengthened by the active policy of Basil II. in Armenia, which was more fully incorporated in the Empire under Constantine IX.

The reign of Basil II [r 976-1025] marked the culmination of the power of the Eastern Empire, for it also witnessed the triumphant conclusion of another conflict which had lasted almost as long. In the reign of Constantine IV [r 668-685] the Bulgarians had founded a kingdom in Lower Moesia, reducing the Slavonic tribes who had occupied the country, but less than two centuries sufficed to assimilate the conquerors to the conquered, and to give Bulgaria the character of a Slavonic state. The reign of Constantine V was marked by continuous war with this enemy, and Nicephorus I lost his life in a Bulgarian campaign. This disaster was followed up by Prince Krum, who besieged Constantinople in 815. His death was followed by a long peace.

Prince Boris was converted to Christianity (reign of Michael III); a metropolitan see of Bulgaria was founded, dependent on the patriarch of Constantinople; and the civilization of the Bulgarians, and beginnings of their literature, were entirely under Byzantine influence. The conversion was contemporary with the work of the two missionaries Cyril and Methodius, who (while the field of their personal activity was in Great Moravia and Pannonia) laid the south-eastern Slavs under a deep debt by inventing the Glagolitic, not the so-called Cyrillic alphabet (based on Greek cursive) and translating parts of the Scriptures into Slavonic (the dialect of the Slavs of Macedonia).

The most brilliant period of the old Bulgarian kingdom was the reign of Simeon (893-937), who extended the realm westward to the shores of the Adriatic and took the title "Tsar [i.e. Caesar] of Bulgaria and autocrat or of the Romans." The aggression against the Empire which marked his ambitious reign ceased under his successor Peter, who married a daughter of Romanus I., and the Bulgarian Patriarchate founded by Simeon was recognized at Byzantium. But the Byzantine rulers only waited for a favorable time to reduce this formidable Slavonic state. At length John Tzimiskes [or Tzimisces] [r. 969-976] subjugated eastern Bulgaria and recovered the Danube frontier.

But while Basil II was engaged in contending with rivals, the heroic Samuel (of the Shishmanid family) restored the Bulgarian power and reduced the Servians. After a long and arduous war of fourteen years Basil (called the "Bulgar-slayer") subdued all Bulgaria western and eastern (1018). He treated the conquered people with moderation, leaving them their political institutions and their autocephalous church, and to the nobility their privileges. Some Bulgarian noble families and members of the royal house were incorporated in the Greek nobility; there was Shishmanid blood in the families of Comnenus and Ducas. Greek domination was now established in the peninsula for more than 150 years. The Slavs of Greece had in the middle of the 9th century been brought under the control of the government.

In the reign of Basil II the Russian question also was settled. The Russian state had been founded before the middle of the 9th century by Norsemen from Sweden, who were known in eastern Europe as Russians (Rus), with its centres at Novgorod and Kiev. They did for the eastern Slavs what the Bulgarians had done for the Slavs of Mocsia. The Dnieper and Dniester gave them access to the Euxine, and the Empire was exposed to their maritime attacks (Constantinople was in extreme danger in 860 and 941), which recall the Gothic expeditions of the 3rd century. In 945 a commercial treaty was concluded, and the visit of the princess Olga to Byzantium (towards the end of the reign of the learned emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos and her baptism seemed a pledge of peace. But Olga's conversion had no results. Sviatoslav occupied Bulgaria and threatened the Empire, but was decisively defeated by Zimisces (971), and this was virtually the end of the struggle.

In 988 Prince Vladimir captured Cherson, but restored it to the emperor Basil, who gave him his sister Anna in marriage, and he accepted Christianity for himself and his people. After this conversion and alliance, Byzantium had little to fear from Kiev, which came under its influence. One hostile expedition (1043) indeed is recorded, but it was a failure.

Much about the same time that the Russians had founded their state, the Magyars (Hungary; the Greeks called them Turks) migrated westward and occupied the regions between the Dnieper and the Danube, while beyond them, pressing on their heels, were another new people, the Pctchenegs (Patzinaks). The policy of Byzantium was to make use of the Magyars as a check on the Bulgarians, and so we find the Romans (under Leo VI) and the Magyars co-operating against the tsar Simeon. But Simeon played the same game more effectively by using the Petchenegs against the Magyars, and the result was that the Magyars before the end of the 9th century were forced to move westward into their present country, and their place was taken by the Petchenegs. From their new seats the Magyars could invade the Empire and threatened the coast towns of Dalmatia. The conquest of Bulgaria made the Petchenegs immediate neighbors of the Empire, and during the 11th century the depredations of these irreclaimable savages, who filtered into the Balkan peninsula, constantly preoccupied the government. In 1064 they were driven from the Dniester regions into Little Walachia by the Romans (or Polovtsi), a people of the same ethnical group as themselves. They were crushingly defeated by Alexius Comnenus in 1091, and exterminated by John Comnenus in 1123.

In the Macedonian period a grave domestic question troubled the government. This was the growth of the large estates of the rich nobles of Asia Minor, at the expense of small properties, to an excess which was politically and economically dangerous. The legislation against the evil began under Romanus I and was directed to the defence of the poor against the rich, and to protecting the military organization which was based on holdings of land to which the obligation of military service was attached. There was also danger in the excessive influence of rich and powerful families, from which the great military officers were drawn, and which were extensively related by alliances among themselves.

The danger was realized in the struggle which Basil II had to sustain with the families of Sclerus and Phocas. Various kinds of legislation were attempted. Under Romanus I alienation of property to the large landowners was forbidden. Nicephorus Phocas, whose sympathies were with the aristocracy to which he belonged, holding that there had been enough legislation in favor of the poor, sought to meet the difficulty of maintaining a supply of military lands in the future by forbidding further acquisitions of estates by the Church. Basil II returned to the policy of Romanus, but, with much greater severity, resorting to confiscation of some, of the immense private estates; and he endeavoured to keep down the aristocrats of Asia Minor by very heavy taxation.

Through the recovery of the Balkan provinces he gained in Europe a certain political counterpoise to the influence of Asia Minor, which had been preponderant since the seventh century. Asia Minor meant the army, and opposition to its influence expressed itself in the 11th century in a fatal anti-military policy, which was largely responsible for the conquests of a new enemy, the Seljuk Turks, who entered into the inheritance of the Caliphs. Constantinople was haunted by the dread of a military usurpation. An attempt of the military hero George Maniaces (who had made a remarkable effort to recover Sicily) to wrest the crown from Constantinc IX had failed.

When Isaac Comnenus, who represented the military aristocrats of Asia Minor; ascended the throne, he found himself soon compelled to abdicate, in face of the opposition. The reign of Constantine X, of the rival family of Ducas, marked the culmination of this antagonism. The senate was filled with men of the lower classes, and the military budget was ruthlessly cut down. This policy reduced the army and stopped the supply of officers, since there was no longer hope of a profitable career.

The emperor thought to meet dangers from external enemies by diplomacy. The successes of the Seljuks (after the fall of the great Armenian fortress of Ani in 1064) at length awoke the government from its dream of security. The general Romanus Diogenes was proclaimed emperor [r. 1067-1071]. He had to create an army and to train it; he did not spare himself, but it was too late. He was defeated and captured by Alp Arslan on the decisive field of Manzikert (1071). Released by the sultan, who honored his bravery, he was deposed in favour of Michael Ducas, and falling into the hands of his enemies, was blinded. The east and center of Asia Minor were thus lost; the Seljuk kingdom was founded; Nicaea was captured by the Turks in 1080. The provinces which escaped the Seljuk occupation were thoroughly disorganized, a prey to foreign and native adventurers and usurpers.