Returning from the Antioch relief in a thoughtful mood after being wined and dined by the Anatolian aristocracy, Basil abolished traditional patrician land privileges, reducing many rich families to poverty and giving Asia Minor's peasants — the backbone of the army — access again to their ancestral lands. Brownworth describes it as breaking aristocratic power in one fell swoop and providing the empire with a wealth of recruits.
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Episode 13 (14 mentions)
Returning from the Antioch relief in a thoughtful mood after being wined and dined by the Anatolian aristocracy, Basil abolished traditional patrician land privileges, reducing many rich families to poverty and giving Asia Minor's peasants — the backbone of the army — access again to their ancestral lands. Brownworth describes it as breaking aristocratic power in one fell swoop and providing the empire with a wealth of recruits.
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