Basil II (Civ6)/Vikings, Traders, and Raiders!/Civilopedia

Basil II – also known as Basil Porphyrogenita (“born in the purple”) and Basil Bulogaroctonus (“slayer of the Bulgars”) – was born eldest son to the Byzantine emperor Romanos II in 958 AD, and himself reigned as emperor from 976 to 1025. The early years of his reign were dominated by a lengthy civil war. Basil turned to Vladimir of the Viking settlement in Kiev for assistance, and Vladimir was rewarded with the hand of Basil’s sister Anna (on the condition that he adopt Christianity). After the fighting died down, many of the Northmen remained in Byzantine service, forming the initial cadre of the famed Varangian Guards.
After his victory in the civil war, around 989, the rest of his reign was marked by a state of near-constant war. Basil II aimed to extend and consolidate his holdings, building a buffer around the tottering empire. The sometime theaters of this were in Syria, Armenia and Georgia to the east. He is, however, best known for his persistent and victorious campaigns against the revived kingdom of Bulgaria under its last tsar Samuel. With the fall of its capital Ochrida, Bulgaria was incorporated into the empire. At Basil’s death, he was overseeing preparations for the Byzantine reconquest of Sicily.