Under Basil II, a son of Romanus II and an emperor of the Macedonian Dynasty which had ruled since 867, the Byzantine Empire attained a degree of domestic political consolidation that enabled an exercise of power abroad the like of which had not been seen since the reign of Justinian I. Like his brother Constantine VIII, Basil II lived in the shadow of extra-dynastic emperors, Nicephorus II Phocas (963–969) and John I Tzimisces (969–976), following …
