Jan. 24, 2012 at 5:56pm with 5 notes

cephiedvariable asked: I would like to know about your favourite historical slash. I think we broached the subject once, but let's get in depth here.

Well, there’s the Great Gay Romance Novel (With Murder In) that is the story of the Byzantine emperors Michael III and Basil I. It goes like this, in much-abbreviated and more-humorous-than-strictly-kosher version:

The emperor Michael III, being a dissolute sort of young man, much given to hunting, drinking (latter-day historians conveniently calling him ὀ Μέθυσος, ‘the Drunkard’), pursuit of various forms of eros, and incidentally doing a rather decent job of stabilizing the Byzantine frontier and encouraging cultural efflorescence — or at least letting his uncle, Bardas Caesar, do those last bits — found himself in the Imperial Stables one fine evening, where he witnessed a stableboy with the appellation Basil exercising the horses. By ‘a stableboy’ picture ‘a strapping young man with an excellent beard’ and by ‘exercising’ we probably mean playing petty politics so that he would be in full view of the Emperor. Basil’s a smart cookie, and ambitious, and rather amoral.

Anyway, Michael is all break me off a piece of that, pretty much, and brings Basil to court as his friend and advisor, granting him all sorts of titles in all sorts of positions — erm. I mean, and all sorts of positions. Turns out that Basil’s a damn good politician, and he gets his very own faction at court (much to Bardas Caesar’s distress, I’ll note), and he’s quite useful to Michael in ways outside the bedroom: Michael hands off his mistress, Eudokia Ingerina (side-note: Ingerina’s a Viking! Her father’s the captain of the Varangian Guard. Look at the last names.) to Basil to marry, so that Michael has a cover for keeping Ingerina at court. Enterprising man. Anyhow, Basil’s so useful and so — good at what he does, that in 867 CE Michael makes him co-emperor and basically designates him his heir. (Michael’s not got any male heirs of his own; his wife, also named Eudokia, this one Eudokia Dekapolissa, is childless, and no one knows if Ingerina’s first kid is his or Basil’s.)

Basil seems like he’s got this whole thing sewn up, but turns out that Michael’s fickle, and he finds a younger man, a courtier named Basiliskianos (of all things) to hang about with, and Basil gets fed up —

and assassinates him in his bedroom.

Delightful story really.

Basil goes on to be one of the best emperors of the Middle Byzantine Period, and inaugurate the longest Byzantine dynasty. Terrible man. Good king.

Someday when I have tenure I will write this up as loosely-veiled historical fiction, I think.

  1. megkips said: …..please i would read this historical fiction SO HARD that it’s embarrassing.
  2. byzantienne posted this