The Days of the Warlords: A History of the Byzantine Empire: A.D. 969-991

University Press of America
Paul A. Blaum
ISBN: 0819196576
price: $33.50   paperback

This book deals comprehensively with the struggles of two Byzantine warlords, Bardas Sclerus and Bardas Phocas, against the legitimate Byzantine emperor Basil II. The author emphasizes that the civil wars that resulted form the context for several major world events. In addition to the conversion of Russia in 988, this lucid book describes the way that the civil wars also blunted a hitherto successful Byzantine advance against the Muslim world.