The Rise And Fall Of The First Bulgarian Empire 893-972

During the reign of Simeon, second son of Boris, which lasted from 893 to

927, Bulgaria reached a very high level of power and prosperity. Simeon,

called the Great, is looked on by Bulgarians as their most capable monarch

and his reign as the most brilliant period of their history. He had spent

his childhood at Constantinople and been educated there, and he became

such an admirer of Greek civilization that he was nicknamed Hemiargo .

His instructors had done their work so well that Simeon remained

spellbound by the glamour of Constantinople throughout his life, and,

although he might have laid the foundations of a solid empire in the

Balkans, his one ambition was to conquer Byzantium and to be recognized as

basileus--an ambition which was not to be fulfilled. His first campaign

against the Greeks was not very fruitful, because the latter summoned the

Magyars, already settled in Hungary, to their aid and they attacked Simeon

from the north. Simeon in return called the Pechenegs, another fierce

Tartar tribe, to his aid, but this merely resulted in their definite

establishment in Rumania. During the twenty years of peace, which strange

to say filled the middle of his reign (894-913), the internal development

of Bulgaria made great strides. The administration was properly organized,

commerce was encouraged, and agriculture flourished. In the wars against

the Greeks which occupied his last years he was more successful, and

inflicted a severe defeat on them at Anchialo (the modern Ahiolu) in 917;

but he was still unable to get from them what he wanted, and at last, in

921, he was obliged to proclaim himself basileus and autocrat[=o]r of

all Bulgars and Greeks, a title which nobody else recognized. He

reappeared before Constantinople the same year, but effected nothing more

than the customary devastation of the suburbs. The year 923 witnessed a

solemn reconciliation between Rome and Constantinople; the Greeks were

clever enough to prevent the Roman legates visiting Bulgaria on their

return journey, and thereby administered a rebuff to Simeon, who was

anxious to see them and enter into direct relations with Rome. In the same

year Simeon tried to make an alliance with the Arabs, but the ambassadors

of the latter were intercepted by the Greeks, who made it worth their

while not to continue the journey to Bulgaria.



In 924 Simeon determined on a supreme effort against Constantinople and as

a preliminary he ravaged Macedonia and Thrace. When, however, he arrived

before the city the walls and the catapults made him hesitate, and he

entered into negotiations, which, as usual, petered out and brought him no

adequate reward for all his hopes and preparations. In the west his arms

were more successful, and he subjected most of the eastern part of Serbia

to his rule. From all this it can be seen that he was no diplomat, though

not lacking in enterprise and ambition. The fact was that while he made

his kingdom too powerful for the Greeks to subdue (indeed they were

compelled to pay him tribute), yet Constantinople with its impregnable

walls, well-organized army, powerful fleet, and cunning and experienced

statesmen, was too hard a nut for him to crack.



Simeon extended the boundaries of his country considerably, and his

dominion included most of the interior of the Balkan peninsula south of

the Danube and east of the rivers Morava and Ibar in Serbia and of the

Drin in Albania. The Byzantine Church greatly increased its influence in

Bulgaria during his reign, and works of theology grew like mushrooms. This

was the only kind of literature that was ever popular in Bulgaria, and

although it is usual to throw contempt on the literary achievements of

Constantinople, we should know but little of Bulgaria were it not for the

Greek historians.



Simeon died in 927, and his son Peter, who succeeded him, was a lover of

peace and comfort; he married a Byzantine princess, and during his reign

(927-69) Greek influence grew ever stronger, in spite of several revolts

on the part of the Bulgar nobles, while the capital Preslav became a

miniature Constantinople. In 927 Rome recognized the kingdom and

patriarchate of Bulgaria, and Peter was duly crowned by the Papal legate.

This was viewed with disfavour by the Greeks, and they still called Peter

only arch[=o]n or prince (knyaz in Bulgarian), which was the utmost

title allowed to any foreign sovereign. It was not until 945 that they

recognized Peter as basileus, the unique title possessed by their own

emperors and till then never granted to any one else. Peter's reign was

one of misfortune for his country both at home and abroad. In 931 the

Serbs broke loose under their leader [)C]aslav, whom Simeon had captured

but who effected his escape, and asserted their independence. In 963 a

formidable revolt under one Shishman undermined the whole state fabric. He

managed to subtract Macedonia and all western Bulgaria, including Sofia

and Vidin, from Peter's rule, and proclaimed himself independent tsar

(tsar or caesar was a title often accorded by Byzantium to relatives of

the emperor or to distinguished men of Greek or other nationality, and

though it was originally the equivalent of the highest title, it had long

since ceased to be so: the emperor's designations were basileus and

autocrat[=o]r). From this time there were two Bulgarias--eastern and

western. The eastern half was now little more than a Byzantine province,

and the western became the centre of national life and the focus of

national aspirations.



Another factor which militated against the internal progress of Bulgaria

was the spread of the Bogomil heresy in the tenth century. This remarkable

doctrine, founded on the dualism of the Paulicians, who had become an

important political force in the eastern empire, was preached in the

Balkan peninsula by one Jeremiah Bogomil, for the rest a man of uncertain

identity, who made Philippopolis the centre of his activity. Its principal

features were of a negative character, and consequently it was very

difficult successfully to apply force against them. The Bogomils

recognized the authority neither of Church nor of State; the validity

neither of oaths nor of human laws. They refused to pay taxes, to fight,

or to obey; they sanctioned theft, but looked upon any kind of punishment

as unjustifiable; they discountenanced marriage and were strict

vegetarians. Naturally a heresy so alarming in its individualism shook to

its foundations the not very firmly established Bulgarian society.

Nevertheless it spread with rapidity in spite of all persecutions, and its

popularity amongst the Bulgarians, and indeed amongst all the Slavs of the

peninsula, is without doubt partly explained by political reasons. The

hierarchy of the Greek Church, which supported the ruling classes of the

country and lent them authority at the same time that it increased its

own, was antipathetic to the Slavs, and the Bogomil heresy drew much

strength from its nationalistic colouring and from the appeal which it

made to the character of the Balkan Slavs, who have always been intolerant

of government by the Church. But neither the civil nor the ecclesiastical

authorities were able to cope with the problem; indeed they were apt to

minimize its importance, and the heresy was never eradicated till the

arrival on the scene of Islam, which proved as attractive to the

schismatics as the well-regulated Orthodox Church had been the reverse.



The third quarter of the tenth century witnessed a great recrudescence of

the power of Constantinople under the Emperor Nikiphoros Phokas, who

wrested Cyprus and Crete from the Arabs and inaugurated an era of

prosperity for the eastern empire, giving it a new lease of vigorous and

combative life. Wishing to reassert the Greek supremacy in the Balkan

peninsula his first act was to refuse any further payment of tribute to

the Bulgarians as from 966; his next was to initiate a campaign against

them, but in order to make his own success in this enterprise less costly

and more assured he secured the co-operation of the Russians under

Svyatoslav, Prince of Kiev; this potentate's mother Olga had visited

Constantinople in 957 and been baptized (though her son and the bulk of

the population were still ardent heathens), and commercial intercourse

between Russia and Constantinople by means of the Dnieper and the Black

Sea was at that time lively. Svyatoslav did not want pressing, and

arriving with an army of 10,000 men in boats, overcame northern Bulgaria

in a few days (967); they were helped by Shishman and the western Bulgars,

who did not mind at what price Peter and the eastern Bulgars were crushed.

Svyatoslav was recalled to Russia in 968 to defend his home from attacks

by the Tartar Pechenegs, but that done, he made up his mind to return to

Bulgaria, lured by its riches and by the hope of the eventual possession

of Constantinople.



The Emperor Nikiphoros was by now aware of the danger he had imprudently

conjured up, and made a futile alliance with eastern Bulgaria; but in

January 969 Peter of Bulgaria died, and in December of the same year

Nikiphoros was murdered by the ambitious Armenian John Tzimisces,[1] who

thereupon became emperor. Svyatoslav, seeing the field clear of his

enemies, returned in 970, and in March of that year sacked and occupied

Philippopolis. The Emperor John Tzimisces, who was even abler both as

general and as diplomat than his predecessor, quietly pushed forward his

warlike preparations, and did not meet the Russians till the autumn, when

he completely defeated them at Arcadiopolis (the modern Lule-Burgas). The

Russians retired north of the Balkan range, but the Greeks followed them.

John Tzimisces besieged them in the capital Preslav, which he stormed,

massacring many of the garrison, in April 972. Svyatoslav and his

remaining troops escaped to Silistria (the Durostorum of Trajan) on the

Danube, where again, however, they were besieged and defeated by the

indefatigable emperor. At last peace was made in July 972, the Russians

being allowed to go free on condition of the complete evacuation of

Bulgaria and a gift of corn; the adventurous Svyatoslav lost his life at

the hands of the Pechenegs while making his way back to Kiev. The triumph

of the Greeks was complete, and it can be imagined that there was not much

left of the earthenware Bulgaria after the violent collision of these two

mighty iron vessels on the top of it. Eastern Bulgaria (i.e. Moesia and

Thrace) ceased to exist, becoming a purely Greek province; John Tzimisces

made his triumphal entry into Constantinople, followed by the two sons of

Peter of Bulgaria on foot; the elder was deprived of his regal attributes

and created magistros, the younger was made a eunuch.