But it was never reversed by some more capable emperors Komnenoi and Gulogyi. 1025 In the decades after Basil's death, dynasty disputes broke out into chaos: unruly nobles and rebellious generals constantly changed short-term rulers; The treasury was hollowed out, the currency depreciated, and taxes were raised to pay for all expenses; In Anatolia, the theme system was destroyed, and the military victory was quickly overthrown and turned into a humiliating failure; Trade and the army were attacked by foreign mercenaries; And the lofty position of fundamentalist sectarianism in the church.
All this shows that the glory and greatness of Basil's reign are hollow, and something in Romania has rotted deeply. Although the cause of corruption may have appeared before Basil's rule, he did not care too much about solving it, but chose the short-term solution that the empire had always chosen: exporting its own problems through conquest and plunder.
In my opinion, the first criterion to measure any ruler should be his legacy: what kind of political system he established and left it to future generations. To make an unnecessary and untimely analogy: if a great ruler like Obama is replaced by a frustrating loser like Trump, then Obama's rule can't be said to be that great, can it? On the contrary, a ruler much bigger than Basil II will establish Byzantine power for him and let Basil expand (or better, waste! ) This power. He was Basil's grandfather, Constantine VII, a scholar-bureaucrat in the 10 century, and one of the greatest rulers of Byzantium.
Now, you might say I'm a little subjective. You see, Constantine is almost a household name in Croatia, because his book "The Governance of the Empire" (called De Administrando Imperio in Latin) contains a lot of information about early Croats and their kingdom in the Western Balkans. More importantly, the great emperor has a certain respect for us and thinks that we are respectable people and valuable allies. But in fact, this man thinks that the primary significance of rule is to understand the cultures of distant countries and foreign countries, which shows that he is a completely different emperor. As John Julian Norwich praised on his Wikipedia page:
Now, you might say I'm a little subjective. You see, Constantine is almost a household name in Croatia, because his book "The Governance of the Empire" (called De Administrando Imperio in Latin) contains a lot of information about early Croats and their kingdom in the Western Balkans. More importantly, the great emperor has a certain respect for us and thinks that we are respectable people and valuable allies. But in fact, this man thinks that the primary significance of rule is to understand the cultures of distant countries and foreign countries, which shows that he is a completely different emperor. As John Julian Norwich praised on his Wikipedia page:
As we all know, he is an enthusiastic collector-not only collecting books and manuscripts, but also collecting various works of art; What is even more unusual for people of his class is that he seems to be an outstanding painter. He is the most generous patron of writers, scholars, artists and craftsmen. Finally, he is an excellent emperor: he is a competent, diligent and conscientious administrative official and an inspiring candidate. He is imaginative and successful in appointing military, naval, church, civilian and academic posts. He has done a lot of work for the development of higher education and is particularly interested in judicial administration.