A Short History of Byzantium by John Julius Norwich

Author:John Julius Norwich [Norwich, John Julius]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780141928593
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2008-11-19T05:00:00+00:00

By 989 Basil had been Emperor for twenty-nine of his thirty-one years. For sixteen he had been a minor; for nine a puppet; while for the last four he had seen a succession of disasters ending with his submission to a piece of shameless blackmail on the part of the Prince of Kiev. That year itself had seen misfortunes enough: there had been the struggles with Phocas and Sclerus; the loss of Cherson; and serious disturbances in Antioch. On 25 October an earthquake destroyed or damaged over forty churches in the capital alone – including St Sophia itself, whose dome was split across while the apse subsided altogether. Yet the year was to close with the Empire enjoying internal peace for the first time since the death of John Tzimisces in 976, and its Emperor at last on the threshold of glory, free to concentrate on the task to which he had dedicated his life: the annihilation of the Bulgar Empire.

In the early spring of 991 he set off for Thessalonica. For the next four years he never relaxed the pressure. The new army, trained and toughened by the Emperor in person, was as impervious to January snow as to August sun. Many cities were recaptured. Some were garrisoned; others, less lucky, razed flat. There were no dramatic advances, no great victories. Success for Basil depended on faultless organization. The army must act as a single, perfectly coordinated body. When battle began, he forbade any soldier to break ranks. Heroics were punished with instant dismissal. His men complained about their master's endless inspections; but they gave him their trust because they knew that he never undertook an operation until he was certain of victory. In such circumstances progress might be sure; but it was also slow, and it comes as no surprise to find that when the Emperor was summoned urgently to Syria early in 995 he had achieved relatively little. Samuel too had moved with caution. He had one great advantage: he was on home ground. Sooner or later Basil would be called away, and Samuel's turn would come. He kept his powder dry, and played a waiting game.

But though the Emperor preferred to move slowly, he was also capable of astonishing speed, as he showed during his whirlwind Syrian expedition of 995, mounted in response to an appeal by the Emir of Aleppo, now a Byzantine protectorate: Antioch itself, as well as his own Emirate, was being seriously threatened by the Fatimid Caliph. Basil knew that in such an emergency he could trust no one but himself. Hurrying back to the capital with as many troops as he dared, he collected all available reserves until he could boast a new army of some 40,000 men. There remained, however, the problem of getting them to Syria: by the time they arrived, in all probability, both Antioch and Aleppo would be lost.

Basil's solution was unprecedented in all Byzantine history. He mounted his entire army. Every soldier was provided with two mules, one for himself and one for his equipment.

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