At the death of Basil II, Byzantium was the most powerful polity in the
easternMediterranean. Imperial advances in the Balkans, as in the east, had
been consolidated by the construction of fortifications and imposition of
garrisons, but stability was ensured by securing the allegiance of peripheral
potentates, who lived in fear of imperial retribution should they err, and
enjoyed the prestige and prizes of office when they remained loyal.123 As
the eleventh century proceeded, troops were withdrawn from the periphery,
and fear of retribution was allowed to dissipate.Moreover, a thirst for gold to
service the state economy led bureaucrats in Constantinople to tax subject
peoples too harshly, provoking rebellions by the Bulgarians. Authority was
recovered, but on each occasion with greater difficulty.
From the middle of the twelfth century the Balkan peoples, courted
and threatened from both sides, were offered unprecedented choices. The
Dalmatians welcomed the return of Byzantine patronage, which was lavish
compared to that of the Venetians orHungarians, but the Serbs made overtures
on various occasions to theHungarian and SicilianNorman kings and
the German emperor, showing an informed preference for a more distant
suzerain. Byzantine efforts to maintain authority in the Balkan periphery
involved balancing a multitude of internal and external interests, forces
and factors.Manuel I Komnenos’ policy became increasingly elaborate and
expensive, and his agents roamed ever more widely. AfterManuel’s death in
1180, the empire was without an emperor able to maintain this delicate balance,
and unwilling to commit substantial resources to the periphery. The
empire endured a series of short reigns punctuated by rebellions. Increasingly,
Balkan potentates saw no reason to tie their own interests to those
of eastern emperors who were unable even to control their own kin. The
Vlachs, Bulgarians and Serbs all rebelled and resisted attempts to restore
Byzantine suzerainty. The titles and stipends offered by Constantinople,
which had seduced all in the 1020s and 1030s, lacked magnetism in the
1180s and 1190s. After the sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade
in 1204, the emperor in Constantinople would never again enjoy political
control across the Balkan peninsula.
World History
