Belle Époque or Crisis? (1025–1118)

The reign of Emperor Basil II is usually considered the high-water mark of medieval Byzantium. During Basil's reign, Byzantine political authority extended from southern Italy to the Euphrates. With the conversion of the Rus to Orthodoxy in 988, the empire's cultural influence stretched still further. Basil portrayed himself as a soldier emperor who was as implacable towards his domestic opponents as against his foreign neighbours. His brutal conquests later earned him the sobriquet ‘Bulgar-slayer’. This book considers the problems inherent in governing such a large, multi-ethnic empire; it examines the solutions that Basil adopted particularly on the Byzantine frontiers. It explains how the extant sources make unmasking the political realities of this period so difficult, and demonstrates that a convincing picture of Basil's reign only emerges once these sources are understood in their original contexts. Particular attention is paid to the impact that the Synopsis Historion (also known as the Synopsis Historiarum) of John Skylitzes, a little-studied text from the reign of Emperor Alexios Komnenos (1081-1118), has on our understanding of Basil. As the late 11th-century context in which Skylitzes operated is exposed, so the political, military, and administrative history of Basil's reign is reconstructed. Basil's Byzantium is revealed as a state where the rhetoric of imperial authority became reality through the astute manipulation of force and persuasion.

In this book Dr Harvey shows that, if we broaden our comprehension of feudalism, the economic developments of the Byzantine Empire and of the medieval west were far more comparable than Byzantine historians have been prepared to admit. Previous interpretations have linked economic trends too closely to the political fortunes of the state, and have consequently regarded the twelfth century as a period of economic stagnation. Yet there is considerable evidence that the empire's population expanded steadily during the period covered by this book, and that agricultural production was intensified. A wealth of evidence serves to reinforce the point that the disintegration of the empire in the late twelfth century should no longer be associated with economic decline. Dr Harvey's conclusions, in particular that there is no incompatibility between the development of the landed wealth of a feudalising aristocracy and the growth of commerce and urbanisation, will affect all future interpretations of Byzantine history.