page_title: Basil II
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Basil II / Early life
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Palazzo Massimo alle Terme
context_page_description: Basil II Porphyrogenitus, nicknamed the Bulgar Slayer, was the senior Byzantine Emperor for almost 50 years, having been a junior colleague to other emperors since 960. He and his brother Constantine were named as co-rulers before their father Romanos II died in 963. The throne went to two generals, Nikephoros Phokas then John Tzimiskes, before Basil became senior emperor. His influential great-uncle Basil Lekapenos was the de facto ruler of the Byzantine Empire until 985. Basil II then held power for forty years.
  The early years of Basil's reign were dominated by civil wars against two powerful generals from the Anatolian aristocracy; first Bardas Skleros and later Bardas Phokas, which ended shortly after Phokas' death and Skleros' submission in 989. Basil then oversaw the stabilization and expansion of the eastern frontier of the Byzantine Empire and the complete subjugation of the First Bulgarian Empire, its foremost European foe, after a prolonged struggle. Although the Byzantine Empire had made a truce with the Fatimid Caliphate in 987–988, Basil led a campaign against the Caliphate that ended with another truce in 1000.
context_section_description: Basil II was born c. 958. He was a porphyrogennetos ("born into the purple"), as were his father Romanos II and his grandfather Constantine VII; this was the appellation used for children who were born to a reigning emperor. Basil was the eldest son of Romanos and his Laconian Greek second wife Theophano, who was the daughter of a poor tavern-keeper named Krateros and may have originated from the city of Sparta. He may have had an elder sister named Helena (born c. 955). Romanos succeeded Constantine VII as sole emperor upon the latter's death in 959. Basil's father crowned him as co-emperor on 22 April 960, and his brother Constantine (born 960 or 961, eventually to rule as sole emperor Constantine VIII in 1025–1028) in 962 or 963. Only two days after the birth of his youngest child Anna, Romanos II died on 15 March 963 at 24 years of age. His unexpected death was commonly thought at the time to be the result of poisoning with hemlock; the chroniclers Leo the Deacon and John Skylitzes imply that Theophano was responsible, and according to Skylitzes, she had been complicit in an earlier attempt by Romanos II to poison Constantine VII.
  Basil and Constantine were too young to rule in their own right when Romanos died in 963. Therefore, although the Byzantine Senate confirmed them as emperors with their mother as the nominal regent, de facto power passed for the time into the hands of the parakoimomenos Joseph Bringas. Theophano did not trust Bringas, however, and another enemy of the powerful parakoimomenos was Basil Lekapenos, an illegitimate, eunuch son of Emperor Romanos I – Basil's great-grandfather. Lekapenos himself had been parakoimomenos to Constantine VII and megas baioulos to Romanos II. Yet another enemy of Bringas was the successful and widely popular general Nikephoros Phokas, who had just returned from his conquest of the Emirate of Crete and a highly successful raid into Cilicia and Syria, which culminated in the sack of Aleppo. Phokas was proclaimed emperor by his men in July and marched on Constantinople. Bringas tried to bring in troops to stop his rival's advance, but the capital's populace supported Nikephoros. Bringas fled, leaving his post to Lekapenos, and on 16 August 963 Nikephoros Phokas was crowned emperor.
  On 20 September, Phokas married Theophano, but problems resulted; it was a second marriage for each spouse and Nikephoros was thought to be the godfather of Basil or his brother, perhaps both. Although Polyeuctus, the patriarch of Constantinople, disapproved of the marriage, the Church declared it to be valid. With it, Nikephoros secured his legitimacy and became the guardian of Romanos' sons. He was murdered in December 969 by Theophano and his nephew John Tzimiskes, who then became emperor John I and exiled Theophano. John married Theodora, a sister of Romanos II. Basil II acceded to the throne as effective ruler and senior emperor when John died on 10 January 976. He immediately had his mother brought back from her convent.
caption: Coin of Nikephoros II (left) and Basil II (right)
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