EVE NEKOLKU IZVADOCI OD TOLKUVANJATA NA "GRCKATA" STRATEGUIJA ZA PRISVOJUVANJE NA SE STO E MAKEDONSKO:

"This was the megali idea-the "great idea." "Nature," said an early nationalist, "has set limits to the aspirations of other men, but not to those of the Greeks. The Greeks were not in the past and are not now subject to the laws of nature." The megali idea (the word "megalomania" comes from the same root) was made up of dreams and fantasies, of a reborn empire reflecting the golden age when Greek had been spoken from Rome to the Crimea."

The Legend of Basil the Bulgar-Slayer

"Paul Stephenson's short monograph is not a biography in the traditional sense of that word. As the author points out in the introduction, his book is "a survey from the time of his death to the present, of Basil's reputation as the 'Bulgar-slayer'" (1). The eight chapters are well integrated, although each one of them may be used separately as a solid essay on such diverse themes as "Victory and its representations" or "Basile apres Byzance."

The first chapter surveys the political and military background that is much more thoroughly discussed in chapter 2 (11-21) and 3 (32-48). Chapter 4 is concerned with the representation in both texts and visual arts of the kind of military triumph that Basil purportedly celebrated after the conquest and annexation of Bulgaria in 1018. Chapter 5 examines the image of Basil II coming out of texts written between the early eleventh century (after Basil's death) and the twelfth century.

In Chapter 6, Stephenson ably demonstrates that the legend of the Bulgar-Slayer is a byproduct of the tensions created in the Balkan provinces of the Empire in the late 1100s, as Byzantine authority was challenged first by Bulgarians and Vlachs, then by the Fourth Crusade. In chapter 7, Stephenson then follows the myth-making process during the Tourkokratia and the nineteenth century, following the creation of an independent Greek state.

Finally, chapter 8 is dedicated to the use and abuse of the legend in the context of the "Macedonian question," especially during the Second Balkan War. Stephenson offers a fascinating discussion of the relation between scholarly research in Byzantine studies and nation building, a process that is still on its way in some of the countries in the region, especially in the newly-established Macedonia, a country known by the odd name of FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia).

To modern nationalists, Basil II was a ruthless tyrant, eager to shed the blood of the Slavic enemy in order to promote a Greek empire."