Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/238

216 THE DECLINE AND FALL friends and enemies, subjects and rebels, maintained their independence, and laboured to emulate the example of suc- cessful usurpation.^*' Against these domestic enemies, the son of Romanus first drew his sword, and they trembled in the presence of a lawful and high-spirited prince. The fii-st, in the fi'ont of battle, was thrown from his horse, by the stroke of poison or an arrow ; the second, who had been twice loaded with chains, and twice invested with the purple, was desirous [Apru, A.D. of ending in peace the small remainder of his days. As the aged suppliant approached the throne, with dim eyes and faltering steps, leaning on his two attendants, the emperor exclaimed, in the insolence of youth and power, " And is this the man who has so long been the object of our terror ? " After he had confirmed his own authority ^^ and the peace of the empire, the trophies of Nicephorus and Zimisces would not suffer their royal pupil to sleep in the palace. His long and frequent expeditions against the Saracens were rather glorious tlian useful to the empire ; but the final destruction of the [AD. 1018] kingdom of Bulgaria appears, since the time of Belisarius, the most important triumph of the Roman arms.^'^ Yet, instead of applauding their victorious prince, his subjects detested the ^^ [Bardas Sclerus very nearly achieved his design of succeeding to the place of Tzimisces. His rebellion was not aimed at the young Emperors, but at the power of the eunuch Basil, who had consigned him to an honourable banishment as Duke of the frontier theme of Mesopotamia. Very popular with the army, Sclerus carried everything before him in Asia, where he had the support of many of the great landed proprietors, and was also succoured by neighbouring Saracen armies and the bandits of the frontier mountains. He defeated the Imperial general Peter Phocas at Bukulithos (somewhere between Lycandus and Arabissus), and then close to Lycandus (a.D. 976). He also won command of the sea (A.D. 977), but in the following year his fleet was annihilated. But he took Nicaea and threatened the capital. In this extremity his rival Bardas Phocas, who had rebelled against Tzimisces and having been subdued by this same Sclerus was banished to Chios, was recalled from e.xile and placed at the head of an army. But Sclerus defeated him in two great battles, in the plain of Pankalia, on the banks of the Sangarius, and at Basilike Therma, A.D. 978. Next year, however, help supplied by the Iberian prince David enabled Phocas to crush the rebellion in the second battle of Pankalia (March 24, A.D. 979). During the next eight years Phocas was commander-in-chief of the army, hile Sclerus who had fled to the Moslems remained a captive at Bagdad. In A.D. 987, Phocas rebelled, and the Saracens sent against him, as a second pretender, Bardas Sclerus at the head of an army of deserters. Phocas took him prisoner, subjugated Asia Minor, but was defeated (April 989) by the marvellous energ}- of Basil II. with the help of the Roman auxiliaries furnished by Vladimir of Kiev, who was shortly to become his brother-in-law. The best account of these interesting episodes will be found in Schlumberger's L'6pop^e byzantine, &c., chaps, vi., vii., xi.] 59 [Basil completed the assertion of his own authority by banishing his name- sake the eunuch in A.D. 989.] •>" [See chap. Iv.]