Hello everyone and welcome to the history of Byzantium.

Episode 155.

The Year 1000.

Last time we discussed Basil's first few years of campaigning, now that the civil

wars were behind him.

He struggled to get to grips with Samuel, the new ruler of Bulgaria, but fed better

in Syria where he pushed out a fatament force that was besieging Aleppo.

Basil returned to the capital in 996 and appointed a new patriarch.

The office had sat vacant for the past five years, which was very unusual.

He also took the opportunity to issue a vital piece of legislation.

This was the decree which I mentioned a couple of episodes ago.

The part I told you about was the Emperor's demand that anything he'd signed during

his great uncle's tenure should be brought before him again for confirmation.

But that was only part of the decree.

The bulk of the text was a new addition to the land laws.

And by that I mean the series of rulings handed down by Romana Sleikapinos, Constantine

VII, and Nysephara's focus.

As you probably remember, this was central to our discussion of the landed magnates.

After a terrible winter and some bad harvest, Romana issued a law demanding that the wealthy

hand-backed properties they'd bought during the crisis.

What he was hearing was that the rich took advantage of their neighbor's desperation

to buy up their farms on the cheap.

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