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| 976 |
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| Sudden death of John Tzimisces, at the early age of 51. | 1 |
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| 976 |
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| Basil II (Bulgaroktonos, Slayer of the Bulgarians) now became sole emperor. He was only 20 years old, but was serious and energetic, cynical and cruel. Until 989 he was much influenced by Basil the Eunuch, the illegitimate son of Romanus Lecapenus. The reign of Basil began with another great upheaval, led by Bardas Skleros, who marched his armies from the east through Anatolia and to Constantinople. Basil appealed to Bardas Phocas, defeated leader of the earlier rising, to save the situation, which he did by defeating Skleros at Pankalia (979). | 2 |
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| 976–1014 |
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| Tsar Samuel of Bulgaria. He built up another great Bulgarian Empire, with its capital at Ochrid, extending from the Adriatic to the Black Sea and from the Danube to the Peloponnesus. In 981 he defeated Basil near Sofia. | 3 |
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| 987 |
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| Rising of Bardas Phocas and Bardas Skleros against Basil and the imperial authority. The great magnates overran Anatolia. In 988 they threatened Constantinople, but the movement collapsed with the defeat of Phocas at Abydos (989) and his subsequent death. Skleros then submitted. | 4 |
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| 989 |
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| Conversion of Prince Vladimir of Russia, at Cherson. This initiated the general conversion of the Russians to eastern Christianity and the close connection between Kiev and Constantinople. | 5 |
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| 992 |
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| Extensive trade privileges in the empire were granted to Venice, by this time quite independent of imperial control, but in close cooperation with Constantinople in the Adriatic. | 6 |
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| 995 |
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| Victorious campaigns of the emperor in the east. Aleppo and Homs were taken and Syria incorporated with the empire. | 7 |
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| 996 |
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| Land legislation of Basil II. Many of the great estates were confiscated and divided among the peasants, and provision was made to prevent the emergence of powerful landed magnates. | 8 |
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| 996–1014 |
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| The great Bulgarian campaigns. In 996 Basil defeated Samuel on the Spercheios River and reconquered Greece. In 1002 he overran Macedonia. Samuel recovered, however, reconquered Macedonia, and sacked Adrianople (1003). In 1007 Basil subdued Macedonia again and after years of indecisive conflict annihilated the Bulgarian army at Belasitsa (1014). He sent several thousand blinded soldiers back to Samuel, who died of the shock. The Bulgarians finally submitted (1018), but were left an autocephalous church at Ochrid. Many of the Bulgarian noble families settled in Constantinople and merged with the Greek and Armenian aristocracy. | 9 |
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| 1018 |
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| The Byzantine forces won a great victory over the combined Lombards and Normans at Cannae, thus assuring continuance of the Greek domination in southern Italy. | 10 |
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| 1020 |
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| The king of Armenia, long in alliance with the Greeks against the Arabs, turned over his kingdom to Basil to escape the new threat from the Seljuk Turks. The empire thereby became firmly established in Transcaucasia and along the Euphrates. | 11 |
| Byzantine culture reached its apogee in the late 10th and early 11th centuries. The empire extended from Italy to Mesopotamia, and its influence radiated much farther. Constantinople was indeed the economic and artistic center of the Mediterranean world. | 12 |
| Government. The emperor was an absolute ruler, regarded almost as sacred. Under the Macedonian emperors, the idea of legitimacy became firmly established. The imperial court reflected the emperor's power and splendor. There was an extensive and elaborate ceremonial (cf. the Book of Ceremonies of Constantine Porphyrogenetos); the administration was highly centralized in Constantinople and was unique for its efficiency; the treasury was full and continued to draw income from taxes, customs, and monopolies; the army and navy were both at the peak of their development, with excellent organization and leadership; the provinces were governed by the strategoi; there were by this time 30 themes (18 in Asia and 12 in Europe), but throughout this period there was a steady growth in the number and power of the provincial magnates (dynatoi), feudal barons who acquired more and more of the small holdings and exercised an ever greater influence, even challenging the emperor himself. All the legislation of the Macedonian emperors failed to check this development. | 13 |
| The Church was closely connected with the throne, but during this period it too became more and more wealthy and gradually produced a clerical aristocracy. The union with Rome, when it existed, was a purely formal thing. The Greek patriarchate in practice resented the Roman claim to primacy, and the popular dislike of the Latins made any real cooperation impossible. | 14 |
| Economic life. This was closely controlled by the state, which derived much of its income from the customs and monopolies. Yet it was a period of great commercial development, Constantinople serving as the entrepôt between east and west. It was also a great center of the industry in luxuries (organization of trades in rigid guilds, etc.). | 15 |
| Learning. The university of Constantinople (opened c. 850) had quickly become a center of philosophical and humanistic study, in which the emperors took a direct interest. In the 11th century there appeared the greatest of the Byzantine scholars, Psellus, reviver of the Platonic philosophy and universal genius. In the field of literature there was a conscious return to the great Greek models of the early Byzantine period, historians Constantine Porphyrogenetos, Leo the Deacon, and others. The great popular epic Digenis Akritas, describing the heroic life of the frontier soldiers (Akritai), dates from the 10th century. | 16 |
| Art. The period was one of extensive construction, especially in Constantinople; full exploitation of the St. Sophia type in church architecture; mosaics; ikons; gold and silver work. Byzantine influence in this period permeated the entire Mediterranean world, Muslim as well as Christian. (See The Byzantine Empire) | 17 |
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