Simeon’s Campaigns for Imperial Recognition, 894–927

Abstract

The middle phase of the hegemonic wars encompassed the reign of Bulgarian Tsar Simeon I (893–927). The conflicts opened with him launching a war on Byzantium over trade issues and subsequently defeating a Byzantine-Magyar alliance in 894–895. In 913 he was crowned Bulgarian emperor by a weak Byzantine regency, but successive governments refused to recognize the act, leading to Simeon initiating annual anti-Byzantine campaigns (914–924) in Thrace, against Constantinople, and in Greece to force them to do so. Each is related in detail, with the battle at Aheloi (917) given particular attention. Also given attention is the meeting between Simeon and Byzantine Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos in 924, which resulted in a military truce and Simeon receiving the qualified imperial recognition for which he fought.

The following works provided the basic informational framework for the text of this chapter treating Knyaz/Tsar Simeon: Bozhilov and Gyuzelev, pt. 3, chap. 4; Zlatarski, IBDSV 1/2, 280–494; id., “Politicheskiyat zhivot na Bŭlgariya pri tsar Simeona,” Bŭlgariya 1000 godini, 927–1927 1 (Sofia, 1930), 3–49; Mutafchiev, IBN 1, chap. IX; IB 2, pt. III, chap. 3; IB 5 VI, 89–96; M. Nikolov, “Pohodite na tsar Simeon kŭm Konstantinopol,” in Velikotŭrnovskiyat universitet “Sv. sv. Kiril i Metodii” i bŭlgarskata arheologiya 1, B. Borisov, ed. (Veliko Tŭrnovo, 2010), 497–504; Iv. Venedikov, “Voennata deinost na tsar Simeona,” Bŭlgariya 1000 godini 1: 51–60; K. Velyanov, Voinite na tsar Simeon. Stranitsi ot nai-vŭrnoto i svetlo tsaruvane v bŭlgarska istoriya, 893–927 (Sofia, 1937); S.G. Kashev, Pohodite na tsar Simeon (Sofia, 1927); Tzvetkov, 129–138; Runciman, A History, bk. III, chap. I; id., The Emperor Romanus Lecapenus and His Reign: A Study of Tenth-Century Byzantium, (Cambridge, 1929), chap. V, and passim; Browning, Byzantium and Bulgaria, 57–69; id., Byzantine Empire , 100–107; Fine, Early Medieval Balkans, chap. 5; Curta, Southeastern Europe, 213–227; NCMH 3, 567–578; Obolensky, Byzantine Commonwealth, 97–115; Vlasto, 168–179; P. Stephenson, Byzantium’s Balkan Frontier: A Political Study of the Northern Balkans, 900–1204 (Cambridge, 2000), 18–28; Whittow, 285–292; Treadgold, A History, chaps. 14–15; Ostrogorsky, History, chap. IV, sect. 3; Jenkins, Imperial Centuries, chaps. 15–18; C. Wells, Sailing from Byzantium: How a Lost Empire Shaped the World (New York, 2006), 200–209.