Emperor Basil Research Articles

The English and Byzantium: A Study of Their Role in the Byzantine Army in the Later Eleventh Century.

The role of the English mercenaries in the Byzantine army has long been under dispute. A. A. Vasiliev, writing in 1937, gave a very full summary of what was known at that time, and tended to stress their importance to Byzantium in the later eleventh century. However, his article came under brief but formidable attack from the German scholar, F. Dölger, who published a review of Vasiliev's work in 1938. A year later, Dölger's arguments were repeated and amplified by S. Blöndal. Since then, the dispute has hung fire, and a recent historian of the Byzantine army, A. Hohlweg, was justified when, in 1965, he wrote of the problem of the role of the English as umstritten — disputed. What follows is an attempt to reassess the problem and my conclusion is akin to Vasiliev's: there was a significant migration of Anglo-Saxons to the Byzantine Empire around 1080, and in the early years of Alexius Comnenus‘ reign. Further, there is evidence of diplomatic contact between the Empire and the rulers of England, and groups of Anglo-Saxons may have continued to migrate eastward later than has previously been thought. But the value of the English was probably greatest in the early years of Alexius Comnenus’ reign, and may even be compared with that of the Russians who had come to the rescue of the emperor Basil II nearly a hundred years earlier, in about 988.

Byzantium and the Papacy in the Eleventh Century

At the beginning of the eleventh century the Byzantine empire was at the height of its glory. The emperor Basil II, who died in 1025 after a reign of nearly fifty years, completed and consolidated the work of the two great soldier emperors before him, and deserves to rank with Justinian and Heraclius as among the greatest of all the rulers of Byzantium. In the East the Arabs had been beaten back and humiliated; on the North the Bulgars were savagely defeated by Basil himself and their territory reduced to a province of the empire; Armenia and parts of the Caucasus were conquered; and the Mediterranean was cleared of pirates and policed by the Byzantine fleet. The internal security of the empire seemed unshakable, its riches inexhaustible, and its prestige extended far beyond its boundaries. It was in 989, in the reign of Basil II, that the largest of the Slav states came within the Byzantine sphere of influence, when Vladimir of Kiev married the emperor's own sister and was converted to Orthodox Christianity and Byzantine culture. At the beginning of the eleventh century the Byzantines were justly proud of themselves, of their empire, its civilisation, stability and prosperity, and equally of their Church. They were more convinced than they had ever been of the truth, cherished since the days of Constantine, that the Roman empire was God's plan for the order of the world, or, as Eusebius had said, the terrestrial image of the Kingdom of Heaven, and that its ruler, the one true emperor in the ‘Queen of Cities’, was divinely ordained as God's regent on earth.

St Katharine of Egypt

Much of our knowledge about Katharine springs from legend, but legends are nearly always based on truths, and if the facts available are doubtful and few, the stories about her tell something of her virtues, of her character, and of the reasons for her death. St Katharine is not mentioned by contemporary writers, and different narrators are not even in agreement as to whether Maxentius or Maximinus was the tyrant who put her to death. She was not a popular saint until the eighth century in the east. Her story is contained in the so-called Menologium Basilianum, a collection of legends compiled for the use of the emperor Basil I who died in 886, and this story has been altered considerably since then.

XXV An Embassy from Baghdad to the Emperor Basil II

The following pages contain a rather circumstantial account of certain negotiations between the Buwaihid, 'Aḍud al-Daula, and the Emperor Basil, the slayer of the Bulgarians, consequent on the presence of Basil's defeated rival, Bardas Scleros, in honourable captivity at Baghdad. His defeat at Pancalia in A.D. 979 very nearly coincided with 'Aḍud al-Daula's final conquest of ‘Irāḳ, which was followed by the expulsion from Mosul of the Hamdanid Abu Taghlib. Between him and Scleros existed the tie of self-interest cemented by one of affinity: they had assisted each other against their respective adversaries, and had both been defeated. Abu Taghlib's defeat was final; driven from Diyār Bakr by the troops of 'Aḍud al-Daula, he fled to Syria and perished by a treacherous Arab hand. But no impassable barrier as yet interposed between Scleros and the object of his ambition. He had escaped to Mayyāfāriḳīn, which had lately submitted to ‘Aḍud al-Daula, and had sent thence his brother Constantine as his envoy to Baghdad with an appeal for succour and an offer of allegiance. Contemporaneously arrived at Baghdad an envoy from Basil with instructions to procure, at whatever cost, the surrender of Scleros, who was obviously a valuable pawn in the monarchs’ political game. 'Aḍud al-Daula thereupon caused him and his followers to be promptly conveyed to Baghdad, and the game proceeded.