“Such carnage in one place had not occurred before in Byzantium”

In the year 1025, Byzantium was at the height of its imperial glory; to the contemporaries, it appeared as the most powerful and imposing sovereign state in Europe, the Middle East, and the whole of the Mediterranean Basin. Romania — or Rhomaion politeia, its official name — had recently defeated or subdued its traditional enemies and subsequently extended its borders in the Balkans and in the East, incorporating new, extensive geographical regions. The foregoing factors were catalytic for the gestation of the 1057 military movement, led by a high-ranking Eastern army officer, a powerful land magnate, and a soon-to-be emperor named Isaakios (I) Komnenos. The military uprising of 1057 divided deeply the (Eastern) Roman state, the imperial army, and the contemporary Byzantine society. The complexity, the development, the outcome, and the repercussions of the stasis greatly impressed all contemporaries.