| Title:
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THE LEGEND OF BASIL THE BULGAR-SLAYER
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| By: |
Paul Stephenson |
| Format: |
Hardback |
| List price:
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£72.00 |
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it.
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| ISBN 10: |
0521815304 |
| ISBN 13: |
9780521815307 |
| Publisher: |
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS |
| Pub. date: |
7 August, 2003 |
| Pages: |
182 |
| Description: |
An illustrated revisionary account of the reign of the Byzantine emperor Basil II (976-1025). |
| Synopsis: |
The reign of Basil II (976-1025), the longest of any Byzantine emperor, has long been considered as a 'golden age', in which his greatest achievement was the annexation of Bulgaria. This, we have been told, was achieved through a long and bloody war of attrition which won Basil the grisly epithet Voulgartoktonos, 'the Bulgar-slayer'. In this 2003 study Paul Stephenson argues that neither of these beliefs is true. Instead, Basil fought far more sporadically in the Balkans and his reputation as 'Bulgar-slayer' was created only a century and a half later. Thereafter the 'Bulgar-slayer' was periodically to play a galvanizing role for the Byzantines, returning to centre-stage as Greeks struggled to establish a modern nation state. As Byzantium was embraced as the Greek past by scholars and politicians, the 'Bulgar-slayer' became an icon in the struggle for Macedonia (1904-1908) and the Balkan Wars (1912-1913). |
| Illustrations: |
15 b/w illus. 7 colour illus. 3 maps |
| Publication: |
UK |
| Imprint: |
Cambridge University Press |
| Returns: |
Returnable |