BASIL II. (c. 958-1025), known as BULGAROKTONOS (slayer of Bulgarians), Roman emperor in the East, son of Romanus II. and Theophano, and great-great-grandson of Basil I., born about 958 and crowned on April 22, 96o. After their father's death (963) he and his younger brother Constantine were nominal emperors during the actual reigns of Nicephorus Phocas, their stepfather, and John Tzimisces. On the death of the latter (Jan. 10, 976) they assumed the sovereignty without a colleague, but throughout their joint reign Constantine exercised no power. Basil did not at first display the full extent of his energy. The administration remained in the hands of the eunuch Basileios. Basil waited and watched without interfering, and devoted him self to learning the details of administrative business and in structing himself in military science. During this time the throne was endangered by the rebellion of an ambitious general, Bardas Sclerus, on the eastern frontier. To oppose him, Bardas Phocas, another general who had revolted in the previous reign, was re called and suppressed the revolt (979). Phocas remained general in the East till 987, when he was proclaimed emperor by his troops, apparently with the connivance of Basileios. Basil advanced to Abydos, which Phocas was besieging, but before a battle could be fought, the rebel died suddenly, and the rising collapsed. Basileios was exiled and his property confiscated.
Basil made ruthless war upon the system of immense estates which had grown up in Asia Minor and which his predecessor, Romanus I., had endeavoured to check. (For this evil and the legislation which was aimed at it see ROMAN EMPIRE, LATER.) He sought to protect the lower and middle classes.
Basil gained some successes against the Saracens (995) ; but his most important work in the East was the annexation of Armenia. He created in those highlands a strongly fortified frontier, which, if his successors had been capable, should have proved an effective barrier against the invasions of the Seljuk Turks. The greatest achievement of the reign was the subjuga tion of Bulgaria. After the death of Tzimisces (who had reduced only the eastern part of the Bulgarian kingdom), the power of Bulgaria was restored by the tsar Samuel who extended his rule along the Adriatic coast and imposed his lordship on Serbia. War was renewed in 996, and Eastern Bulgaria was recovered in b000; but the war continued till 1014, when the Bulgarian army suffered an overwhelming defeat. Basil blinded 15,000 prisoners, leaving a one-eyed man to every hundred to lead them to their tsar, who fainted at the sight and died two days later. The last sparks of resistance were extinguished in 1018, and the great Slavonic realm lay in the dust. The power of Byzantium controlled once more the Illyrian peninsula. Basil died in Dec. 1025 in the midst of preparations to send a naval expedition to recover Sicily from the Saracens.
Basil's reign marks the highest point of the power of the Eastern empire since Justinian I. Part of the credit is due to Nicephorus and Tzimisces, but the greater part belongs to him. He dedicated himself unsparingly to the laborious duties of ruling, and he had to reckon throughout with the ill-will of a rich and powerful section of his subjects. He was hard and cruel, without any refinement or interest in culture. In a contemporary psalter (preserved in the library of St. Mark at Venice) there is a por trait of him, with a grey beard, crowned and robed in imperial costume.