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The Byzantines in the 9th to the 11th centuries were on an upsurge. After centuries of being on the defensive and having to cleverly make use of diplomacy in order to survive, the Byzantines could finally go on the offensive and establish themselves as hegemons of the Eastern Mediterranean. The Byzantines were themselves not as warlike as their nomadic turned sedentary rivals, the Bulgarians or the adventurous Normans, but they were pragmatic enough to understand that soft power is not enough to run an empire. Hard power is important when you are dealing with rival powers that see your capital as the crowning jewel of the Middle Ages.

One of the questions that I have about this period though is whether the Byzantines would have been able to keep expanding. The Byzantines at this point had more territory than they ever had since the days of Heraclius. However, could have they kept going? There is no way of knowing because history is an ever moving series of events. I have already talked about the quality of leaders after Basil II’s passing in 1025. Many of the leaders after him were generally mediocre. While many of them were not horrible leaders, they were incapable of being able to build on the successes of Basil II. While the empire did not fall apart and actually added some territory, the Byzantines were not able to make any great gains.

Would have it been possible for them to make gains after Basil II beyond the small annexation of the area around Lake Van? I believe that the Byzantines clearly had the capabilities to continue their conquests. Under Michael IV, the Byzantines ordered one of their top generals of the period, George Maniakes, to conquer the Emirate of Sicily from the Arabs. They probably would have been able to continue the conquest of the island had it not been for internal Byzantine rivalries and conflict. The Byzantines had the army and navy available to commit to expeditionary style conquests.

However, one of the greatest issues that was facing the Byzantines during this time was that the aristocracy was resurgent and trying to curtail the power of the Emperor. After Basil II’s great conflicts with the aristocracy, the nobility tried to retain its influence in the affairs of the government. Constantine VIII began the long process of reducing the power of the military, relying more and more on mercenaries which meant the army was getting weaker. At the same time, the navy was relying more and more on its Italian city state allies.

The Byzantines clearly were suffering from internal conflict which was interfering with their ability to carry out conquests. This did not mean that they were not able to gain a small piece here or there, but they were not able to replicate the conquests of Basil II at all. What if they had been able to get their act together and managed to continue the conquests that Basil II had made. Well, let’s see what type of obstacles they would have faced in that pursuit of Mediterranean dominance.

The Seijuk Turks

These are the most prominent enemies of the Byzantines. They were originally a people called the Oghuz Turks group of peoples that founded a great empire in the 11th century. The main founder of the Seijuk dynasty was a man called Seijuk. They eventually ended up converting to Islam in the late 10th century.

When they started fighting the Byzantines, one of the advantages that everyone in Seijuk society contributed to the warfighting effort. They were a people were devoted to war in a way that was not to the familiar to the Byzantines. If I was to make a comparison, the Seijuks are comparable to the great tribal confederations that gave the Romans a hard time in the 4th and 5th centuries.

The Seljuks like the Huns before them, were considered to be a mounted archery civilization. This gave the Eastern Romans a very hard time even though they had adopted the practice when fighting the Sassanid Persians in 6th Century. The mounted archers devastated the Roman armies, especially at the Battle of Manzikert.

Economic Issues and prospects for revival

The Byzantine Army during this period was formed of professional soldiers called tagmata and mercenaries. However, the military was in state of decline due to a variety of factors. The Byzantine economy was no longer in the best of shape due to the fact that the Venetians and the Genoanese were taking over the trade routes.

The Byzantine economy was always on fragile ground with the way how the Muslims were surrounding the empire. It is not surprising that the Byzantine treasury would end up being abused and manipulated by the corrupt bureaucrats who were only looking out for themselves.

In order for the Byzantines to continue expanding in the 11th century, these issues with the economy would need to resolve. The Byzantine population and economy had been growing since the days of Leo III’s reforms in the 8th century. However, it seems that the revolt of the aristocracy after the reign of Basil II seems to have weakened the state and its ability to gain finances for wars and construction of social services. The aristocracy had been steadily losing power for years but during the 11th century, they managed to regain much of their privileges that had been losing for centuries. Constantine VIII, who was the brother of Basil II, spent his short years in power trying to keep the aristocracy at bay with terror and blindings but it didn’t work at all, as the aristocracy were able to keep growing their power. Without the warrior emperors of the past, the Byzantine Empire would simply not be able to reform its economy.

The debasement of the Currency

Roman currency was popular all throughout the world and had a legendary status. The Romans were well known for using their currency greatly in trade. The Eastern Romans were no different. In many ways, the Roman coin remained the monetary lingua franca of Western Europe for many years. Even in empires that minted their own coins, like Charlamagne’s Carolingian Empire, used the imagery of the Roman state with Charlamagne appearing as a Roman Emperor.

However, unlike one of the many mistakes made by the Byzantine emperors was that they debased the currency, reducing its value and causing for it to be harder for the military to be paid and for taxes to be collected in a reasonable manner.

If the Byzantines were going to keep conquering and building their empire, then the currency would have not be devalued and debased by the emperors. Had this continued, the Byzantine army would have been paid and the wars would have been able to continue getting funding due to the fact that the taxation would have been efficient and effective.

The Continuation of the Macedonian Dynasty

The Macedonian Dynasty was one of the most successful dynasties that ever managed to rule the Roman Empire. However, by the time of Empress Theodora in 1056, the dynasty was winding down and lacked the legitimacy to go forward and continue. One of the major issues for the Byzantine Empire during the 11th century was that the government lacked legitimacy among the aristocracy. This led to many occasions where the generals became incredibly powerful and being able to rebel against the authority of the Emperor. There was nothing like the concept of primogeniture in the Byzantine Empire. Every family had to fight for favor with the emperor and it was not a matter of one dynasty being able to control things. The lack of legitimacy in the 11th century weakened the state and made it difficult for them to control the army, which is important in being able to project power.

Schisms with the Latin Catholics

The Byzantines before the Schism of 1054 had always been looked up to by the Catholics of the West. However, with the Schism of 1054, the Byzantine Empire began looking eastward and became somewhat isolated in its religious outlook. The Byzantine Empire during this time would increasingly find itself having to fight multiple enemies on different fronts without the help of the Latin Christians. While they would come to their aid in the Crusades, the Byzantines would always be otherized by the Latin Christians who saw them following a different type of Christianity compared to them. This would lead to distrust between the both of them and this would culminate in the great sacking of Constantinople in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade. For the Byzantines to be able to continue expanding in the 11th century, they would need to have better relationship with Latin Europeans so that they could call upon them for aid whenever they needed help with their reconquests of Muslim lands.

The overall prospects for a revival in fortunes

It is quite possible that the Byzantines could have been able to continue their conquests after Basil II, but it would require a certain set of circumstances that would allow it. The Byzantine state, while powerful, did not have the resources that would allow it to continue expanding indefinitely. This wasn’t the behemoth empire of the 3rd Century that was reunited under the reign of Aurelian. The Byzantines were aiming for a middle kingdom that sought to prefect Christian ideals in the real world. It was not meant to be an empire that was looking for stretching out for sea to shining sea.

The Byzantine Empire was not rotting from the inside by the time of Basil II. While his conquests may have overextended the empire in some ways, he did not create an empire that was incredibly unstable and unviable in many ways. The empire was better integrated than that of Justinian’s empire in the 6th century. The main issue was that both rulers were followed by incompetent or mediocre rulers who were unable to maintain the empire.

Interestingly, both of the empires of Justinian and Basil II reached their peaks and began to fall within 40 years. They both got heroes who swoop in and manage to save them. However, the Empire of Basil II was on stronger footing than that of the Justinian. In spite of this, the Byzantine Empire began falling apart when it did not have strong leadership to guide it through the 11th century. In order for the Byzantines to have continued their conquests, they would need to have visionary leader, who would be able to have a cohesive economic and military policy that would be able to cohesive and be able to continue the conquests of the previous emperors. Only through this way would the Byzantines be able to continue expanding.