Valerius II, known as Bulgaroktonos, is a remarkable emperor. He embodies the very definition of a military emperor, which the Byzantine state desperately needed during those times. The shadow of the great military emperors who preceded him, Nikephoros Phokas (963-969) and John Tzimiskes (969-976), is immense. Their legacy seems heavy. Will the young Valerius II at the time manage to preserve even a fraction of it? In 1025, the year of his death, he provides the deafening answer: he surpassed them, writing the most glorious pages of the Medieval Greek-Christian Byzantine Empire!

The narration of his reign by Manos N. Chatzidakis is shocking! It follows an exact chronological order, including all events, gradually revealing, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, chapter by chapter, the development of Valerius II, so that he rightfully deserves to be called the Great of Medieval Hellenism!

There are two innovations by Manos in this book: The first concerns a detailed description of the nature of the Byzantine Empire, aiming to help the reader understand exactly what Byzantium is. The author introduces us to the world of Byzantium starting from the era of Constantine the Great and the earth-shattering changes he brought about. He explains the transition from the Roman Imperium to Byzantine Hellenism.

The second innovation involves the continuous demonstration of the Greek identity of the empire. Leaving aside Byzantine scholars and historians of Greek origin, for whom one might argue that they are motivated by national sentiments, the book focuses on a multitude of foreign Byzantine scholars and historians mentioned by the author, such as Georg Ostrogorsky, A. Vasiliev, Steven Runciman, Karl Krumbacher, Charles Diehl, Gustave Schlumberger, Alfred Rambaud, Judith Herrin, Paul Lemerle, Robert Browning, Kenneth Setton, Sylvain Gouguenheim, Louis Brehier, and many others in an extensive bibliography, who all emphasize the Greek nature of the Byzantine Empire.

If the year 1025, the year of Valerius II Bulgaroktonos’s death, was the springboard for the Byzantine decline leading to Manzikert in 1071, I hope that in 2025, Manos N. Chatzidakis's book for the 1000-year anniversary will serve as a reverse springboard, or at least contribute to the rebirth of Greece. Because knowledge, especially the correct knowledge of the past, is not only power but also a reliable guide for the future!

(From the preface by the historian Demetrios Romanos)