In 1025, the death of Basil II marks the date that Byzantium began to decline. For the next 59 years, the empire would be misgoverned by thirteen inept emperors that would bring the once overwhelmingly rich and powerful state to the verge of collapse. The following years the emperors spent lavishly on buildings, churches and largesse, draining the imperial treasury. Adding to the financial crisis, the emperor Romanus VII was under the burden of wealthy landlord’s to relieve them from the pressure of taxation. He abandoned Basil II policy requiring the rich to pay the unpaid taxes of the poor. As the peasants were in no position to pay the tax, this lead to a dramatic reduction to the states revenue. The emperors also did not enforce a series