↑ Basil's blinding of Bulgarian prisoners after the Battle of Kleidion, although it may have been exaggerated, helped give rise to his epithet "the Bulgar Slayer" (กรีก: ὁ Βουλγαροκτόνος).[5]Stephenson (2000, p. 62) and Magdalino (2003, p. 10) believe the epithet to have entered common usage among the Byzantines at the end of the 12th century, when the Second Bulgarian Empire broke away from Byzantine rule and Basil's martial exploits became a theme of Imperial propaganda. It was used by the historian Niketas Choniates and the writer Nicholas Mesarites, and consciously inverted by the Bulgarian ruler Kaloyan, who called himself "Roman-slayer" (กรีก: Ρωμαιοκτόνος).[6]
