Basil II, Bulgaroctonus c.958-1025
Byzantine emperor

He came to the throne as sole ruler in 976. A revolt (989), involving the army and aristocracy, was quelled with the support of Vladimir I, who married Basil's sister Anna and converted to Christianity. Vladimir's Russian troops became the core of the future Varangian Guard, the �lite unit of the Byzantine army. Thereafter Basil supported the peasantry at the expense of the great landowners. His 15-year war against the Bulgarians culminated in victory in the Belasica Mountains. Fourteen thousand prisoners were blinded and in groups of a hundred, each led by a one-eyed man, sent back to their tsar, Samuel, who died of shock (1015). Bulgaria was annexed to the empire by 1018, while the eastern frontier was extended to Lake Van in Armenia. Austere and irascible, he died unmarried, and left no leader to consolidate his work.