This is the first book-length study in English of the Byzantine emperor Basil II, the "Bulgar-slayer." Basil presided over a Byzantium which was the superpower of the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East in the century before the Crusades. Catherine Holmes peels away the layers of later interpretations to reveal an empire that was governed by a potent mixture of subtle persuasion and brute force. " Basil II and the Governance of Empire marks a major advance in the understanding of the late tenth and early eleventh century...[A] fundamental and balanaced monograph..."-- Speculum The first book to study the governing style of a superpower in the Byzantine empire, Basil II Catherine Holmes is Tutor and Fellow in Medieval History, University College, University of Oxford.