The Houses of Macedonia and Nicaea
The Macedonian dynasty (Greek: Μακεδονική Δυναστεία) ruled the Eastern Roman Empire (also known as the Byzantine Empire) from 867 to 1056, expanding the empire's power and ushering in the Macedonian Renaissance in letters and arts. The dynasty was named for its progenitor, Emperor Basil I "the Macedonian". His name was a reflection of his homeland - the theme of Macedonia. However, his ethnic origin is unknown. It is a topic of dispute whether Emperor Leo VI "the Wise" was actually Basil's biological son, or whether he was the son of Basil's predecessor, Michael III (the last member of the Amorian dynasty, which Basil overthrew).
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The history of the Macedonian dynasty can be divided into two periods of differing significance and duration. The first extends from 867 to 1025, the year of the death of Emperor Basil II; the second extends from 1025 to the death of Empress Theodora in 1056.
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The first period saw a resurgence in the political, militaristic, and intellectual fortunes of the Roman Empire. Rome managed important strategic victories in the east and the north against Arabs, Bulgarians, and Russians. This military activity reached a high point in the reign of Basil II: separatist movements in Asia Minor were suppressed, Roman influence in Syria was strengthened, Armenia was in part annexed to the Empire and in part reduced to vassal dependence, and Bulgaria was transformed into a Roman province. Russia, meanwhile, adopted Christianity from Rome, and entered into closer religious, political, commercial, and cultural relations with the Empire.
This period was the most glorious in all of the Eastern Roman Empire's history. The intensive legislative work, expressed in the publication of a gigantic code, the Basilics, along with intellectual advances associated with the names of Patriarch Photius and Constantine Porphyrogenitus, add further glory and significance to the first period of the Macedonian dynasty.
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After the year 1025, when the powerful figure of Basil II disappeared from the historical stage, the Empire entered a time of frequent court revolutions and anarchy which led to the troubled period of 1056-81. With the accession of the first of the Comneni, who seized the throne in 1081, the Empire regained its strength. Internal order was re-established, and for some time intellectual and artistic activity flourished once more.
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The House of Laskaris or Lascaris (Greek: Λάσκαρις, later Λάσκαρης) was a Byzantine Greek noble family which rose to prominence during the Late Byzantine period. The members of the family formed the ruling dynasty of the Empire of Nicaea, a Byzantine rump state that existed from the 1204 sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade until the restoration of the Empire under the Palaeologan dynasty in 1261.
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Upon the sack of the Byzantine capital by the Crusaders, Alexios V Doukas was overthrown and the Latin Empire was established in most of his former lands. Byzantine nobility would flee the Latin territories and establish the three independent Greek states that rivaled the Crusaders. After a successful resistance in Asia Minor, Theodore I Laskaris founded the Empire of Nicaea and laid claims to the Byzantine throne, along with the Angelos family of Epirus and the Komnenoi of Trebizond.
The Byzantine Greek population of Asia Minor sought refuge to Theodore's empire, which gradually acquired control over much of western Anatolia. The empire was further strengthened after the military victories of Theodore's successor, John III Vataztes. John's son, Theodore II Laskaris, maintained the empire's strength until the throne was passed to his underage son, John IV Laskaris. In 1259 John fell victim to an aristocratic conspiracy which managed to establish Michael Palaiologos as his regent and co-emperor.
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The Nicaeans recaptured Constantinople in 1261 and Michael established the Palaiologos family as the new imperial dynasty. Under the Palaeologan rule, the Lascarids remained among the senior nobility up to the dissolution of the Byzantine empire, when the remainder of the family emigrated to Europe.
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