Bulgarslayer [OFF]

> You wrote:

Ah. Well, some further background on the blinding. Basil II had suffered a
humiliating defeat by the Bulgars in 986 and swore to return to avenge it. He
did so in 1000 AD and gained about half of the Balkan peninsula in four years.
The next ten years there is little info on, and then in 1014, a battle was
fought near a place called Cimbalongus, which I named a Destroyer after, and
15,000 prisioners were captured. Of each hundred prisioners, 99 were blinded,
the 100th left one eye. At the beginning of October the army found its way to
Prespa, where the Tsar Samuel collapsed in a fit. The Bulgars fought for four
more years, but were basically defeated. This war gave him the title
"Bulgaroctonus", and you may have noticed I named a tank after him.

It is interesting to note that although Basil was brutal in war, he was
extrodinarily moderate in administering the new territories he captured. Taxes
were low and payable in kind, the Bulgardian Church was permitted to remain
autocephalus (i.e. answered to no one but Emperor), and parts were permitted
to retain their own leadership. The Bulgar aristocracy was allowed into the
Roman social and official hierarchy. The Bulgars revolted in 1040 but
dissolved into internal
squabbling among themselves--one of the leaders attacked and mutilated
the other. They remained part of Empire until 1190, a century after Manzikert
and after the Sicilians had attacked the City itself.

In my background, the mass blinding is in response to a Romanoff unit
resorting to nerve gas. This actually doesn't bother the troops that
much--sealed combat vehicles and powered armor are impervious, but
takes a heavy toll on the civillian population. So the Rhomaioi get a little
upset and take it out on the few thousand survivors of the enemy corps.

Does anyone know of a Rhomaioi discussion list?