The Armenian roots of this dynasty were recorded by the Emperor (and historian) Constantine VII (the grandson of Basil I) and other Greek historians, and the most prominent Byzantine historians also considerthem firm fact. Bury remarks about Emperor Basil I: "His Armenian origin is so firmly established that there are no doubts about this matter." 76 Charles Diehl, Gelzer, Rambaud and Schlumberger also agree. 77 Oswald Spengler, in his turn, calls the Macedonian dynasty the "Armenian military dynasty" 78 According to Bussel, shortly after Basil sat on the Byzantine throne, his first action was to express his love for his fatherland, Armenia. 79
Apart from Basil I and his successors, whose ethnical origins were Armenian, several of the glorious persons of the Byzantine Empire, were also Armenians, among others Romanus Lecapenus, Nicephorus Phocas and John Tzimiskes, who worked in Constantinople as advisors and assistants to the emperor. 80 Rambaud writes: "One noticeable issue which displays the advantage of these Armenians over the old Byzantine main figures was that they never put away the imperial sceptre. After the murder of the half-Armenian emperor Michel III, Basil I founded a dynasty which was entirely Armenian and which survived for more than two centuries. During the 10th century there were only three interruptions in the rule of the dynasty and three guardians ruled instead of their three princes: Lecapenus, Phocas and John Tzimiskes, who also were Armenians." 81
Charles Diehl describes the important and versatile role of this dynasty, which made its imprint on the entire history of Byzantine in the following interesting way: "The Byzantine Empire which for 150 years, between 867 and 1025, was ruled by this dynasty, reached an unforeseen greatness. For one and a half centuries the empire had a continuous dynasty of emperors, who were for the most part distinguished personalities. They were not of the calibre one might imagine for a Byzantine emperor. On the contrary, they were rigid men a with will of steel and scruples and often without compassion; often subscribing to an unnecessary strictness in order to deter their subjects from being affectionate. Nevertheless, they were committed politicians, dedicated to the expansion of their empire and brave and courageous military leaders who spent their lives on the battlefields and among their soldiers and considered these men as the source of their power and government. At the same time they were dedicated leaders who took seriously the provision of welfare for the citizens of the empire and were merciless in this matter, not letting anything encroach on their decided decrees. With their thoughts fixed on glory and their hearts filled with ambition, their wish was always to create the largest empire in the East and transform it into a model of the Hellenic and Orthodox world, a dream which they realized with the help of the strength of weapons, the soft skill of diplomacy and also the power of arranged marriage. From the end of the 9th century onwards, the empire undertook a bold and unreserved expansive policy at all fronts and borders. In Asia the Arabs were driven back to the shores of the Euphrates and the victorious armies of the empire took Cilicia, Syria and Palestine, and John Tzimiskes leads his riders all the way to the walls of Jerusalem. In Europe, the mighty Bulgarian Empire torn to shreds by Basil II and fell. During this dynasty the Byzantine Empire ruled with an incredible power over an enormous area, a power which had not been seen since the time of Emperor Justinianus. The empire stretched from Syria to Danube and from Armenia to southern Italy, which had been re-conquered." 82
|
