Basil, now in his fifties, seems to suffer fits of derangement toward the end of his life.

He is cruelly biased against his son, Leo, by his second wife, Eudocia Ingerina, his son Constantine by his first wife having died at the age of twenty in 879.

(As Eudocia had been the mistress of Michael III before marrying Basil, Leo may actually have been sired by the murdered emperor.

In 883, Leo had been accused of treason, imprisoned, and come close to being blinded.

The people had rioted over Leo's imprisonment, and after three years Basil releases him.

The emperor had ordered a recodification of imperial law similar to that of Justinian I, but only two abridged versions see completion before his death on August 29, 886, three days after Leo’s release.

Basil had received a mortal wound on the hunting field, rumored to have been inflicted by friends of Leo, who succeeds the the throne as Leo VI, continuing the so-called Macedonian dynasty inaugurated by his father.

Leo forces Photios to retire before the year is out, and names his brother Stephen as Patriarch.