Sale: CNG 69, Lot: 1874. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 8 June 2005.  Sold For $825. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BASIL II Bulgaroktonos, with CONSTANTINE VIII. 967-1025 AD. AV Histamenon (4.42 gm, 7h). Constantinople mint. Struck 1005-1025 AD. Facing bust of Christ; crescents in upper quarters of nimbus / Crowned facing busts of Basil and Constantine, holding cross with plain shaft between them. DOC III 6a; SB 1800. Good VF. ($500)

Probably the most militant of Byzantine emperors, Basil never married, devoting his entire reign to conducting campaigns against Bulgarians, Fatimids, Georgians, and the western principalities. At the battle of Kleidon in 1014 he acquired his nickname Bulgar-Slayer (Bulgaroktonos) when he captured and blinded 14,000 Bulgarians. The Bulgarian tsar Samuel died of despair when he saw what had been done to his men.