Editing Basil II (section)

===Conquest of Bulgaria===
{{Main|Byzantine conquest of Bulgaria}}
[[File:First Bulgarian Empire (976-1018).png|upright=1.35|thumb|Military campaigns during the [[Byzantine conquest of Bulgaria|Byzantine-Bulgarian War]].]]
Basil sought to restore former territories of the Byzantine Empire. At the start of the second millennium, he fought [[Samuel of Bulgaria]], his greatest adversary. [[First Bulgarian Empire|Bulgaria]] had been partly subjugated by John I after the [[Sviatoslav's invasion of Bulgaria|invasion]] of [[Svyatoslav I of Kiev]] but parts of the country had remained outside Byzantine control under the leadership of Samuel and his brothers.{{sfn|Talbot|Sullivan|2005|p=3}}

Because the Bulgars had been raiding Byzantine lands since 976, the Byzantine government sought to cause dissension among them by allowing the escape of their captive emperor [[Boris II of Bulgaria]]. This ploy failed so Basil used a respite from his conflict with the nobility to lead a 30,000-strong army into Bulgaria and besiege Sredets ([[Sofia]]) in 986.{{sfn|Holmes|2005|p=402}}{{sfn|Stephenson|2010|p=14}} Taking losses and worried about the loyalty of some of his governors, Basil lifted the siege and returned for [[Thrace]] but he fell into an ambush and suffered a serious defeat at the [[Battle of the Gates of Trajan]].{{sfn|Stephenson|2010|p=14}} Basil escaped with the help of his Varangian Guard and attempted to recover his losses by turning Samuel's brother [[Aron of Bulgaria|Aron]] against him. Aron was tempted by Basil's offer of his sister Anna in marriage, but the negotiations failed when Aron discovered the bride he was sent was an imposter. By 987, Samuel had eliminated Aron. Another brother of Samuel, called David, was killed in 976 by the Vlachs, the guards of caravans, between Prespa and Kastoria.{{sfn|Wortley|2010|p=312}} Although the titular emperor [[Roman of Bulgaria]] was captured in 991, Basil lost [[Moesia]] to the Bulgarians.{{sfn|Holmes|2003}}{{sfn|Norwich|1981|p=158}}
[[File:Ambush and death of Gregorios Taronites by the Bulgarians.jpg|thumb|The Armenian prince [[Gregory Taronites]] is ambushed by the Bulgarians near [[Thessaloniki|Thessalonica]].]]
While Basil was distracted with internal rebellions and recovering the military situation on his eastern frontier, Samuel had extended his rule from the [[Adriatic Sea]] to the [[Black Sea]], recovering most of the territory that was controlled by Bulgaria before the invasion of Svyatoslav. He also conducted damaging raids into Byzantine territory as far as central Greece. In 996, the Byzantine general [[Nikephoros Ouranos]] defeated a Bulgarian army raid at the [[Battle of Spercheios]] in [[Thessaly]]. Samuel and his son [[Gavril Radomir|Gabriel]] narrowly escaped capture.{{sfn|Finlay|1856|p=440–441}}

Beginning in 1000, Basil was free to focus on a war of conquest against Bulgaria, which he fought with grinding persistence and strategic insight. In 1000, the Byzantine generals [[Nikephoros Xiphias]] and [[Theodorokanos]] took the former Bulgarian capital [[Preslav|Great Preslav]], and the towns Lesser Preslav and [[Pliska|Pliskova]].{{sfn|Wortley|2010|p=326}} In 1001, Basil, operating from [[Thessalonica]], regained control of [[Vodena]], [[Veria|Verrhoia]] and [[Servia, Greece|Servia]].{{sfn|Finlay|1856|p=442}} The following year, he based his army in [[Plovdiv|Philippopolis]] and occupied the length of the military road from the western Haemus Mountains to the Danube, cutting off communications between Samuel's Macedonian heartland and [[Paristrion]] (the lands south of the lower Danube). Following this success, Basil laid siege to [[Vidin]], which fell after a prolonged resistance.{{sfn|Finlay|1856|pp=442–443}} Samuel reacted to the Byzantine campaign by launching a large-scale raid into the heart of Byzantine Thrace and took the major city of [[Adrianople]] by surprise.{{sfn|Wortley|2010|p=328}}

After turning homeward with his extensive plunder, Samuel was [[Battle of Skopje|intercepted near Skopje]] by a Byzantine army commanded by Basil, whose forces stormed the Bulgarian camp, defeating the Bulgarians and recovering the plunder from Adrianople. Skopje surrendered shortly after the battle,{{sfn|Cartwright|2017}} and Basil treated its governor Romanos with overt kindness.{{sfn|Finlay|1856|p=443}} In 1005, the governor of [[Durrës|Dyrrhachium]] [[Ashot Taronites]] surrendered his city to the Byzantines.{{sfn|Cartwright|2017}} The defection of Dyrrhachium completed the isolation of Samuel's core territories in the highlands of western [[Macedonia (region)|Macedonia]]. Samuel was forced into an almost entirely defensive stance; he extensively fortified the passes and routes from the coastlines and valleys held by the Byzantines to the territory remaining in his possession. During the next few years, the Byzantine offensive slowed and no significant gains were made, although an attempt by the Bulgarians to counter-attack in 1009 was defeated at the [[Battle of Kreta]], to the east of Thessalonica.{{sfn|Holmes|2003}}
[[File:The_Chronicle_of_Ioannis_Skylitzis_Bulagar_Defeat.jpg|thumb|Byzantine victory over the Bulgarians at the [[Battle of Kleidion]], from the ''Madrid Skylitzes'']]
In 1014, Basil was ready to launch a campaign aimed at destroying Bulgarian resistance. On 29 July 1014, in the [[Battle of Kleidion]], he and his general Nikephoros Xiphias outmaneuvered the Bulgarian army,{{sfn|Stephenson|2010|p=3}} which was defending one of the fortified passes.{{sfn|Stephenson|2010|p=26}} Samuel avoided capture through the valor of his son Gabriel. Having crushed the Bulgarians, Basil exacted his vengeance cruelly—he was said to have captured 15,000 prisoners and fully blinded 99 of every 100 men, leaving one one-eyed man in each cohort to lead the rest back to their ruler. A possible reason for this vengeance was that, in Byzantine eyes, the Bulgarians were rebels against their authority, and blinding was the [[Political mutilation in Byzantine culture|usual punishment]] meted out to rebels.{{sfn|ODB|pp=297–298}} Samuel was struck down by the sight of his blinded army and died two days later{{sfn|Bury|1911|p=476}} on 6 October 1014 after suffering a stroke.{{sfn|Stephenson|2010|p=3}}

Bulgaria fought on for four more years, its resistance fired by Basil's cruelty, but it submitted in 1018.{{sfn|Holmes|2003}}{{sfn|Cartwright|2018c}} This submission was the result of continued military pressure and a successful diplomatic campaign aimed at dividing and suborning the Bulgarian leadership. This victory over the Bulgarians and the later submission of the [[Serbs]] fulfilled one of Basil's goals; the Empire regained its ancient [[Danube River|Danubian]] frontier for the first time in 400 years.{{sfn|Holmes|2003}}
[[File:Roman_triumph,_Basil_II.jpg|left|thumb|[[Roman triumph|Triumph]] of Basil II through the [[Forum of Constantine]], from the ''Madrid Skylitzes'']]
The rulers of neighbouring Croatia, [[Krešimir III]] and [[Gojslav]], who were previously allies of Bulgaria, accepted Basil's supremacy to avoid the same fate as Bulgaria;{{sfn|Stephenson|2000|p=74}} Basil warmly received their offers of vassalage and awarded them the honorary title of ''[[patrikios]]''.{{sfn|Wortley|2010|p=339}} Croatia remained a tributary state to Basil until his death in 1025.{{sfn|Fine|1991|pp=277–278}} Before returning to Constantinople, Basil celebrated his triumph in [[Athens]].{{sfn|Holmes|2003}}{{sfn|Stephenson|2000|p=76}}{{sfn|Holmes|2005|p=60}}{{sfn|Stephenson|2010|p=104}} He showed considerable statesmanship in his treatment of the defeated Bulgarians, giving many former Bulgarian leaders court titles, positions in provincial administration, and high commands in the army. In this way, he sought to absorb the Bulgarian elite into Byzantine society. Because Bulgaria did not have a monetary economy to the same extent as Byzantium, Basil decided to accept Bulgarian taxes in kind.{{sfn|Stephenson|2000|p=77}} Basil's successors reversed this policy, a decision that led to considerable Bulgarian discontent and rebellion later in the 11th century.{{sfn|Harris|2015|p=192}}
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