through intimidation or outright violence. Basil II had been ruthless and successful during his reign at curbing their growing power but after his death, the process recommenced and accelerated. Another issue came in the succession crisis following the death of Basil II brother and successor Constantine VIII. Constantine VIII had no male heirs and as a consequence, the bureaucrats of Constantinople married his daughters Zoe and Theodora to older and incompetent men unfit for rule who were ill-advised and squandered money on trivial things. As a result of the growing power and militancy of the aristocracy and the succession crisis, the policies of the bureaucrats in Constantinople were to weaken the power of this aristocratic class by freeing Anatolian peasants from their military service and turn them into a tax-paying population. Byzantine frontier defenses fell into decay as successive emperors disbanded the large standing armies of previous eras in order to save money. This caused the armies to be even weaker to deal with external raiding. The bureaucrats then hired mercenaries, notably Normans, to replace the professional army and with ageing conscripts to defend the tenuous frontier. However, the untrustworthiness, unruliness, ambitiousness, and sheer expense of these mercenary troops meant that they disrespected state authority and also conducted raiding in the Byzantine Anatolia, even sometimes working with Turkic raiders whom they were employed to fight against. These mercenary bands also took service with Aristocrats revolting against the government. During this time, the conflict with the Armenians broke out again. The state administration, economy, and military system were allowed to fall into neglect, largely through self-inflicted wounds. The picture of the Byzantine state leading up to 1071 was one of near chaos. Following the war with the Seljuk Sultanate, in 1071 Emperor Romanos Diogenes tried to re-assert Byzantine dominance in Anatolia and recapture fortresses lost to the Seljuk Turks by treachery, but was harassed in his way through central and eastern Anatolia by his Armenian subjects. Learning of Byzantine advances towards Manzikert and the reneging of their peace settlement, Seljuk Sultan Alp Arslan turned his army away from attacking the Fatimid Caliphate towards the Byzantine army. The Byzantine army was internally politically divided between rival aristocrats and claimants such as Doukids to the Byzantine monarchy. These Doukids fled the area near Manzikert leaving Emperor Romanos alone to fight Alp Arslan. The battle of Manzikert was not immediately militarily decisive but subsequent