Bulgarslayer [OFF]

You wrote: 
>
>Yep, those are the charateristics that made the connection for me - 
>especially the mass blinding bit mentioned earlier.  Also, Stirling 
used a >lot of similar unit/rank designations in that series (Draka).

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?

John M. Atkinson