perors, Basil II was born around 958. In 963, Roma-
nus died, and Basil was co-crowned as emperor, sharing
the title with his brother Constantine. Since Basil and
Constantine were minors, their stepfather, Nicephorus
II Phocas, ruled as emperor (regent). When Nicephorus
died in 969, John I Tzimisces took his place, and when
John died on 10 January 976, Basil and Constantine
became co-rulers, although Constantine played very
little part. Almost immediately, Basil showed his ruth-
less side by crushing two generals who had opposed his
leadership, Bardas Phocas and Bardas Sclerus; they went
to war against Basil but were defeated in 979 and 987.
Meanwhile, the practical administration was carried out
by the boys’ great-uncle, Basil Paracoemonenus, whose
overthrow Basil engineered in 985.
Basil’s reign as Byzantine emperor was marked by a
series of wars against numerous opponents. Starting with
the warlords of Asia Minor, whose large estates he seized,
his armies marched to annex parts of Armenia to pro-
vide for an entrenched border against the Seljuk Turks.
In 996, he invaded Bulgaria, whose leader, Tsar Samuel,
had extended his borders to the edge of the Balkans, a
move Basil saw as a threat. This lengthy war lasted until
1014 and saw Basil exhibit extreme brutality against
the Bulgars, earning his nickname as Bulgaroctonus, or
“Slayer of the Bulgars.” After the battle of Kleidion (or
Belasitsa), in which some 15,000 Bulgars were captured,
Basil had them blinded and sent back to Tsar Samuel,
who fainted at the appearance of the men and died soon
afterward. Over the next four years, Basil won complete
control over the Bulgars, but he allowed them some au-
tonomy with ultimate control held by Byzantium.
In 1025, Basil began setting up a military force
to move toward Sicily to retake it from the Arabs, but
he died suddenly in December that year. His brother
Constantine took power as Constantine VIII, ruling
from 1025 to 1028 and sharing power with his daughter
Zoe.
Although histories of the Byzantine Empire note
Basil’s reign for its military victories and cruelty against
its enemies, his regime did mark the last major military
conquest of the empire before its slow collapse.
References: Charanis, Peter, “The Monastic Properties
and the State in the Byzantine Empire” in Dumbarton
Oaks Papers, number 4 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1948), 51–118; Ostrogorsky, George,
History of the Byzantine State, translated by Joan Hussey
(New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1969),
300.Bazaine, François-Achille (1811–1888) French
marshal
Born at Versailles, France, on 13 February 1811, Fran-
çois-Achille Bazaine entered the French army in 1831;
some sources report that he enlisted as a private soldier.
Two years later, he received a commission, and subse-
quently he saw action in the lengthy French campaign in
Algeria, in the Crimean War (1854–56), in the French
action against rebels in Lombardy in 1859, and in sup-
port of Emperor Maximilian in Mexico from 1862 to- For his service in Mexico, Bazaine was promoted
to the rank of marshal in 1864. In this role he aided
in the evacuation of French troops as the rule of the
Emperor Maximilian, whom France had placed on the
Mexican throne, collapsed. (Maximilian was captured
and executed by the Mexicans.)
In 1870, three years after the Mexican campaign
ended, Bazaine took part in the Franco-Prussian War,
commanding the III Corps of the Army of the Rhine,
one of eight French formations on the Franco-Prussian
frontier. Bazaine immediately moved his forces toward
Metz. At Colombey on 14 August 1870, Bazaine’s forces
faced the Prussians under General Karl Friedrich von
Steinmetz. The battle was indecisive: The French lost
some 7,000 men, while the Prussians lost about 5,000;
Bazaine received a nonfatal wound. This was a sign of
things to come, because Bazaine found the French army
ill-fed and ill-equipped for war, especially unable to
fight a force as well trained and equipped as the Prus-
sians. However, he pushed on, taking on the Prussians
at Mars-la-Tour on 16 August 1870; the inconclusive
result forced Bazaine to retreat to Metz. The two sides
then clashed at Gravelotte (18 August 1870), where the
French, backed by forces numbering some 113,000,
faced a Prussian army under the command of William
of Prussia (later Kaiser Wilhelm) of 187,000 men. His-
torian George Bruce writes: “The battle was most hotly
contested, but while the French held their ground in the
neighborhood of Gravelotte, the Prussians, under Gen-
eral [Helmuth Karl Bernhard] von Moltke, turned their
right flank at St. Privat, and they were eventually obliged
to abandon all their positions, and retire into Metz,
where they were subsequently blockaded. The Prus-
sian losses amounted to 899 officers and 19,260 men
0 bAzAine, FRAnçoiS-Achille