Byzantium's silver age began with a spirited horse. Emperor Michael III's favorite hobby was racing horses, and in 858 he had one that no one could ride. When all attempts to tame it failed, Michael became depressed and started drinking; this put those around him in peril, for this emperor committed acts of cruelty, and even ordered sudden executions, when frustrated or provoked. To save the day, one of the emperor's courtiers put himself at risk, by announcing that one of his servants was a strong and gifted Macedonian peasant named Basil, and he could probably handle the animal. Michael summoned Basil, who turned out to be twenty-two years old and a magnificent physical specimen.
Under the emperor's gaze, Basil approached the horse. He grabbed the horse's bridle with a powerful hand and forced the animal to stand still; with the other hand he gripped the horse's ear and spoke softly into it. Whatever he said, it had an amazing effect; one moment later the untameable horse was a docile servant of the emperor. Michael was overjoyed, and promptly drafted Basil into the imperial palace guard.
This was the first step in a remarkable rise to power. Basil had come to Constantinople with nothing but the clothes on his back, and up to this point had gotten where he was by luck and his physical abilities. Now he got involved in the intrigue which made up Byzantine politics. Soon after Basil entered imperial service, the imperial high chamberlain was fired, and Basil took his job; then Michael gave his sister Thecla to become Basil's mistress.
Michael cared little for matters of state, and devoted most of his time to bedrooms, carousing and horseracing. Fortunately, his uncle, Bardas, was a very dedicated and incorruptible administrator, and he took care of the Empire for the emperor. His foreign accomplishments are still with us today: he sent to the Slavs St. Cyril and St. Methodius, who invented the Cyrillic alphabet used in eastern Europe today, while other missionaries sent by him converted the Bulgars. Yet the powers and privileges given by an unstable emperor can just as easily be taken away. One day in 866, while Bardas and Michael were planning to lead a naval expedition against Arab-ruled Crete, Basil convinced the emperor that Bardas was plotting to take the throne. At the next council of war, Michael and Bardas were reviewing army preparedness, when Basil and his henchmen suddenly attacked the imperial uncle and hacked him to death. Michael approved of the killing but was apparently shocked by the violence of it; he adopted Basil as his son and heir after that, aware that he had no true ally but his protegι.
During the next few months, Michael sank deeper into debauchery, and Basil got a chilling warning that even his position was not secure. After winning a horse race, the emperor threw a party, and a new acquaintance, a boatman, flattered him; Michael invited the fellow to remove Michael's royal red boots and try them on. Basil objected to this unseemly behavior, and the furious emperor turned on him and spat, "I made you emperor, and have I not the power to create another emperor if I will?" Unlike Bardas, Basil did not simply hope that things would turn out all right; the next time the emperor drunk himself into a stupor, Basil helped him to bed, like he had done so many times before, but left the bedroom door unlocked and came back with eight accomplices to finish him off.
Despite the treachery used by Basil to rise to the top, his reign (867-886) accomplished so much that now we call him "Basil the Magnificent." Remembering his peasant origins, he made the collection of taxes more fair by punishing venal officials and greedy landowners, and expressed clearly what the tax rates were so that taxpayers would know what was expected of them. He also recodified the civil law, which had not been revised since the time of Justinian. On the military front he lost the Sicilian city of Syracuse to the Moslems, but expelled a Moslem invasion of the mainland and took back south-central Italy from the Lombards. This was the Empire's first territorial gain in more than two centuries, and more would follow.
Basil's reign ended on a tragic note. His favorite son and heir, Constantine, died in 879, and he never got over that. The emperor was so grief-stricken that he had to leave the affairs of government to others, while he tried to forget in sorrows by hunting. On a hunting trip in 886, a huge stag cornered by the hunting party impaled the emperor on its antlers and carried him off; the antlers caught under Basil's belt. A servant chased after them and freed the emperor by cutting off the belt, but Basil died of internal bleeding nine days later.
Ο ΤΟΛΜΩΝ ΝΙΚΑ
