登入選單

返回Google圖書搜尋

The Legend of Basil the Bulgar-Slayer

Paul Stephenson

出版	Cambridge University Press, 2003-08-07
主題	Biography & Autobiography / HistoricalHistory / Europe / GeneralHistory / Europe / MedievalHistory / Byzantine Empire
ISBN	05218153049780521815307
URL	http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=Z0PmrXKnczUC&hl=&source=gbs_api
EBook	SAMPLE

註釋

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 new 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 (1904-8) and the Balkan Wars (1912-13).