Basil II The Bulgar Slayer + Constantine VIII AR Miliaresion.

a coin I got a little while ago

Basil II Bulgaroktonos (The Bulgar Slayer), with Constantine VIII. 976-1025.
AR Miliaresion. Constantinople mint. Struck AD 977-989.
Obverse:Cross crosslet with central X set on globus atop four steps, between crowned facing busts of Basil and Constantine
Reverse: + ЬASIL/ C CWҺSTAҺ/ ΠORFVROS/ ΠISTV/ ЬAS’/ RWMAIW’ in five lines; ornament above and below.
DOC 18a.1; SB 1811.
2.9g 23mm


Basil II The Bulgar Slayer + Constantine VIII. 976-1025. AR Miliaresion.

Basil II spent his nearly 50 year reign constantly on campaign fighting rebellious military commanders, Khazars, Bulgarians + Fatamiids...

He is most famous for having 15,000 captured Bulgarians blinded after the Battle of Kleidion...
1 out of every 100 were allowed to keep 1 eye so he could lead the others home.. When the Bulgarian leader Samuel saw his blinded soldiers, he was said to have have had a heart attack + died 2 days later.

meanwhile Basil's brother Constantine VIII (on the right) supposedly did very little and "spent his life in the search of pleasure and entertainment, including spectator sports at the Hippodrome of Constantinople, or amusing himself with riding and hunting."


The Empire at the beginning + at the end of Basil II's reign

 

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Nice coin, I like it.

 

Gotta love Basil II.

 

Cool coin! Weird story about the blinded Bulgarians. I suppose they should be thankful they didn't go up against Vlad the Impaler.

 

Basil II was truly a great Roman Emperor. Very cool looking coin !

 

Thanks for sharing the fine coin. At 1025 the empire was in full regeneration mode, however by 1100 and the coming of the Crusades plus the Seljuk Turks things took a turn for the worse.

 

The battle that resulted in the blinded Bulgarians was 29 July 1014 so we are fast approaching its 1003rd anniversary. How long does it take to blind 15,000 men?

Many of us like historical fantasy fiction. TV is not ready for the real history.

 

What a cool coin!!!.......and an interesting, albeit brutal historical note

 

Very attractive coin! The story... not so attractive

 

Nice

 

I have two coins of Basil II; both are fourrees. If you are blinded for being Bulgarian wha might be the punishment for counterfeiting?

 

Great coin and great write-up @arnoldoe If only there had been a few more emperors of the caliber of Basil II directly following him. Sadly, the Macedonian dynasty produced some pretty mediocre rulers after Basil II.

 

that's a great looking coin @arnoldoe i'd LOVE to get a byzantine AR coin...high on my list!

yeah, the logistic of this morbid affair is baffling.

 

I would guess they would have divided the prisoners up into groups of 100 + task a few soldiers with blinding x number of people + a short time later you have a few thousand blinded Bulgarians (some sources say it may have only been 8-10,000 blinded)

supposedly they used various methods for blinding at different periods, from hot irons/needles to eye scoops or knives or various pointy objects


The blinding of Leo Phokas the Elder. (who failed in a revolt in the 10th century)

 

Great coin! I haven't seen very many late silver coins that nice.

 

A nice one!

 

Beautiful coin, arnoldoe! Fascinating and tragic story! Being blinded with non sterile instruments would have been a death sentence for those unfortunate men. Had Basil II lived during World War II he would have been tried as a war criminal for such a atrocity.

 

Haha, I'm sure blindings didn't happen exactly like that, y'know, with the everyone smiling, and the guy being blinded laying down nice and calmly while 3 guys sit on top of him with peaceful expressions on their faces. XD

 

Oh yes. – Miliaresions from the reigns of John Tzemiskes and Basil II Boulgarslayer seem to be struck in numerous quantities as they are the most common miliearesions for sale alongside with 2 other emperors from Isaurian dynasty(from 717 CE).

Here are mine in which most of you probably have seen before, the first one very corroded and the other one in a such fantastic shape as Kate Perry:

I have labelled mine as sear 1810:


1,8gram and 23mm:





3,0gram and 24mm:




The eyes-thing is very disgusting detail. Was it better if he had killed them just as Caesar did towards the Tencteri and Usipetes tribes? – I really don’t know. Could Basil II not just have incorporated them into the Byzantine army? Did he do that to prevent them from being a threat again? – I am glad that I live in a peaceful era where wars are not common.

 

And this is one of the many reasons why I could never be a a member of the military during these times (or any time, for that matter).