(sold for $18.0)

1913, Kingdom of Greece, Constantine I. Bronze "2nd Balkan War" Merit Medal. XF-

Mint Year: 1913 Medallist: G Iakovidis   Denomination: Merit Medal - 2nd Balkan War Condition: Removed suspension loop at 12 o'clock, light scratches in fields, otherwise F-VF! Weight: 12.23gm Diameter: 30mm Material: Bronze

Obverse: Uniformed bust of Constantine I left. Date (1913) below, legend in Greek around.

Reverse: Crowned bust of Basil II left. Bibliographical dates (976-1025) below.

The First Balkan War (Bulgarian: Балканска война; Greek: Αʹ Βαλκανικός πόλεμος; Serbian: Први балкански рат, Prvi Balkanski rat; Turkish: Birinci Balkan Savaşı), lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and comprised actions of the Balkan League (the kingdoms of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro) against the Ottoman Empire. The combined armies of the Balkan states overcame the numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies and achieved rapid success.

As a result of the war, the League captured and partitioned almost all remaining European territories of the Ottoman Empire. Ensuing events also led to the creation of an independent Albania. Despite its success, Bulgaria was dissatisfied over the division of the spoils in Macedonia, which provoked the start of the Second Balkan War.

The Second Balkan War was a conflict which broke out when Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First Balkan War, attacked its former allies, Serbia and Greece, on 16 (O.S.) / 29 (N.S.) June 1913. Serbian and Greek armies repulsed the Bulgarian offensive and counter-attacked, entering Bulgaria. With Bulgaria also having previously engaged in territorial disputes with Romania, this war provoked Romanian intervention against Bulgaria. The Ottoman Empire also took advantage of the situation to regain some lost territories from the previous war. When Romanian troops approached the capital Sofia, Bulgaria asked for an armistice, resulting in the Treaty of Bucharest, in which Bulgaria had to cede portions of its First Balkan War gains to Serbia, Greece and Romania. In the Treaty of Constantinople, it lost Edirne to the Ottomans. The political developments and military preparations for the Second Balkan War attracted an estimated 200 to 300 war correspondents from around the world.

Constantine I (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Αʹ, Konstantínos I; 2 August [O.S. 21 July] 1868 – 11 January 1923) was King of Greece from 1913 to 1917 and from 1920 to 1922. He was commander-in-chief of the Hellenic Armyduring the unsuccessful Greco-Turkish War of 1897 and led the Greek forces during the successful Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, in which Greece expanded to include Thessaloniki, doubling in area and population. He succeeded to the throne of Greece on 18 March 1913, following his father's assassination.

His disagreement with Eleftherios Venizelos over whether Greece should enter World War I led to the National Schism. Constantine forced Venizelos to resign twice, but in 1917 he left Greece, after threats of the Ententeforces to bombard Athens; his second son, Alexander, became king. After Alexander's death, Venizelos' defeat in the 1920 legislative elections, and a plebiscite in favor of his return, Constantine was reinstated. He abdicated the throne for the second and last time in 1922, when Greece lost the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, and was succeeded by his eldest son, George II. Constantine died in exile four months later, in Sicily.

Basil II (Greek: Βασίλειος Β΄, Basileios II; 958 – 15 December 1025) was a Byzantine Emperor from the Macedonian dynasty who reigned legally as senior emperor but effectively as sole ruler from 10 January 976 to 15 December 1025, having been associated with the throne since 960. He was known in his time as Basil the Porphyrogenitus and Basil the Young to distinguish him from his supposed ancestor, Basil I the Macedonian. He was the second longest reigning emperor after his brother Constantine VIII, who was named co-emperor with him in 962,  but who outlived him by three years.

The early years of his long reign were dominated by civil wars against powerful generals from the Anatolian aristocracy. Following their submission, Basil oversaw the stabilization and expansion of the eastern frontier of the Byzantine Empire, and above all, the final and complete subjugation of Bulgaria, the Empire's foremost European foe, after a prolonged struggle. For this he was nicknamed the Bulgar Slayer (Greek: Βουλγαροκτόνος, Boulgaroktonos), by which he is popularly known. At his death, the Empire stretched from southern Italy to the Caucasus and from the Danube to the Levant, which was its greatest territorial extent since the Muslim conquests four centuries earlier. His reign is therefore often seen as the medieval apogee of the Empire.

Despite near-constant warfare, Basil also distinguished himself as an administrator, reducing the power of the great land-owning families who dominated the Empire's administration and military, while filling the Empire's treasury. One of the most important decisions during his reign was to offer the hand of his sister Anna Porphyrogenita to Vladimir I of Kiev[6] in exchange for military support. This led to the Christianization of the Kievan Rus'and the incorporation of later successor nations of Kievan Rus' within the Byzantine cultural and religious tradition. 

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