Basil II later secured the annexation of the sub-kingdoms of Armenia and a promise that its capital and surrounding regions would be willed to Byzantium following the death of its king Hovhannes-Smbat. In 1021, he also secured the cession of the Kingdom of Vaspurakan by its king Seneqerim-John, in exchange for estates in Sebasteia.Basil created a strongly fortified frontier in those highlands. Other Byzantine forces restored much of Southern Italy, which had been lost during the previous 150 years.

Basil was preparing a military expedition to recover the island of Sicily when he died on 15 December 1025, having had the longest reign among any Byzantine or Roman emperor. At the time of 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.