beyond sea; but he perished in the siege, and with him fell the last hopes of the kingdom of Ochrida. In 1018 the work of conquest was completed, and Basil celebrated his victory by a splendid triumph at Constantinople. The populace greeted the relentless conqueror with the surname of ‘Slayer of the Bulgarians’ [βουλγαροκτόνος]. Basil then turned his arms against the Armenians, but his success in pushing forward his eastern frontier at the expense of a Christian kingdom did not atone for the impolicy of weakening a natural ally against the Mohammedans. Conscious perhaps of this, he prepared to divert his arms against the infidel by a new expedition to Sicily. Death overtook him in the midst of his preparations, when he was sixty-eight years old, and had reigned for sixty-two years. No Emperor since Justinian had succeeded so well in enlarging the bounds of the Empire. But with him expired all the glories of the Macedonian dynasty. [Sidenote: Sole rule of Constantine VIII., 1025–1028.] Basil II. left no son, and his brother Constantine VIII. (1025–1028) therefore became sole Emperor. Though nominal Emperor since 963, Constantine had never taken any real part in political affairs, and he was now too old and careless to change his habits. He lived like an Oriental despot, secluded in his palace, amusing himself with musicians and dancing-girls, while six favourite eunuchs of the household relieved him from all cares of state. Great indignation was excited among the nobles, but Basil II. had humbled them too thoroughly for them to take any effective action. However, Constantine died in 1028, before he could do much harm. He was the last man of the Macedonian house, and his only heirs were his daughters Zoe and Theodora, under whose weak and contemptible rule the Basilian dynasty came to an end. [Sidenote: Zoe and her husbands. Romanus III., 1028–1034.] From 1028 to 1054 the husbands and dependants of Zoe governed the Byzantine Empire. First came Romanus III. (1028–1034), to whom she had been married at her father’s death-bed. But Zoe was hard, greedy, and self-seeking, and allowed her husband little real share of power. On his death she married a handsome young courtier, Michael IV. the Paphlagonian (1034–1041), who, though an epileptic invalid, did good work against the Saracens before his early death in 1041. [Sidenote: Michael IV., 1034–1041.] His brother John the Orphanotrophos [minister of charitable institutions], a monk and a eunuch, who had procured Michael’s marriage, conducted the internal government with great dexterity and cunning, but the time of his rule marks an epoch of deterioration in Byzantine finance. By constantly increasing the taxes, and devising more arbitrary and oppressive methods for their collection, he did much to sap the foundations of the industrial supremacy of the Empire. [Sidenote: Michael V., 1041–1042.]