Simeon I the Great: The Golden Age of the First Bulgarian Empire

Simeon I the Great ruled the First Bulgarian Empire from 893 to 927, the period often called Bulgaria’s golden age. A scholar educated in Constantinople, he fought a series of wars with the Byzantine Empire, claimed the title of emperor (tsar) and extended Bulgarian power across much of the Balkans. At his capital Preslav he also sponsored a flowering of Slavonic literature that shaped Orthodox culture across Eastern Europe.

Early life and accession

Simeon was born around 864-865, the third son of Boris I, the ruler who converted Bulgaria to Christianity. He was sent to Constantinople, probably as a boy, and received a thorough Byzantine education. The Italian bishop Liudprand of Cremona later wrote that Simeon was called “half-Greek” because he had studied rhetoric and Aristotle there.

Simeon was intended for a Church career and became a monk. In 889 Boris retired to a monastery and handed power to his eldest son, Vladimir-Rasate, who reportedly tried to restore paganism. In 893 Boris left the monastery, deposed and blinded Vladimir, and placed Simeon on the throne. An assembly held at Preslav the same year is traditionally linked with the adoption of Slavonic as the language of the Bulgarian Church and the move of the capital from Pliska to Preslav.

Wars with Byzantium, 894-913

The first conflict arose over trade. In 894 the Byzantine government of Leo VI moved the market for Bulgarian merchants from Constantinople to Thessalonica, where they faced higher duties. Simeon invaded Byzantine Thrace and defeated an imperial army.

Byzantium responded by encouraging the Magyars (Hungarians), then living north of the Black Sea, to attack Bulgaria from the north, and they ravaged the country in 895. Simeon allied with the Pechenegs, a steppe people, who attacked the Magyar homeland. The Magyars were forced west into the Carpathian Basin, a key step in the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin. In 896 Simeon defeated the Byzantines at Boulgarophygon in Thrace and won a peace that obliged Byzantium to pay an annual tribute.

The struggle for an imperial crown

When Leo VI died in 912, his brother Alexander refused to pay the tribute. Alexander died in 913, leaving the child emperor Constantine VII under a regency led by Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos. Simeon marched to Constantinople in August 913. In a ceremony outside the walls, the patriarch placed some form of crown on his head, and it was agreed that Simeon’s daughter would marry the young emperor. Historians still debate exactly what title Simeon was granted.

The agreement collapsed when Constantine VII’s mother, Zoe, took power in 914 and rejected it. War resumed. On 20 August 917 Simeon won a crushing victory over the Byzantine army of Leo Phokas near the river Achelous, close to Anchialos on the Black Sea, followed by another success at Katasyrtai near Constantinople.

In 919 the admiral Romanos Lekapenos seized power in Constantinople and married his own daughter Helena to Constantine VII, and in 920 he was crowned co-emperor, ending Simeon’s hopes of becoming the emperor’s father-in-law. Simeon campaigned repeatedly in Thrace and Greece and styled himself “emperor of the Bulgarians and the Romans”. In 924 he met Romanos outside Constantinople, but no lasting peace was achieved. Without a fleet, he could not take the city.

What did Simeon want?

Historians have long debated Simeon’s goals. One view holds that he aimed to replace the Byzantine emperor and rule a combined Bulgarian-Roman empire from Constantinople. Lead seals bearing the inscription “Simeon, emperor of the Romans” have been found, and Byzantine letters written to him by Nicholas Mystikos and Romanos I show that his claim to the imperial title deeply alarmed the court.

Another view sees his aims as more limited: recognition of Bulgaria as an equal empire, secure borders, regular tribute and a dynastic link with the Byzantine ruling family. The fact that he never launched a serious assault on Constantinople’s walls, even when its armies had been destroyed, supports this more cautious interpretation.

Key people

• Boris I (r. 852-889), Simeon’s father, converted Bulgaria to Christianity and welcomed the disciples of Methodius.
• Leo VI the Wise (r. 886-912) was the Byzantine emperor during Simeon’s first war, which ended with Byzantium paying tribute.
• Nicholas Mystikos, patriarch of Constantinople, crowned Simeon in 913 and later wrote him many letters urging peace.
• Romanos I Lekapenos (r. 920-944) blocked Simeon’s ambitions by marrying his daughter to Constantine VII.
• Peter I (r. 927-969), Simeon’s son and successor, made the lasting peace of 927.

Serbia and Croatia

Simeon also fought for control of the western Balkans. After years of conflict with Serbian princes backed by Byzantium, his forces occupied Serbia around 924. In 926 a Bulgarian army sent against Croatia, then ruled by Tomislav, was heavily defeated. Simeon died at Preslav on 27 May 927, reportedly while planning new campaigns.

The golden age of Bulgarian literature

Simeon’s reign was also a cultural turning point. Disciples of Cyril and Methodius, expelled from Moravia in the 880s, had found refuge in Bulgaria. Under Simeon they and their students made Bulgaria the centre of Slavonic Christian learning.

At Preslav, writers such as John the Exarch, Constantine of Preslav and Chernorizets Hrabar, author of the treatise “On the Letters”, translated and adapted Byzantine theology, sermons, chronicles and science. Clement of Ohrid led a second major centre in the south-west. The Cyrillic alphabet, based on Greek letters with additions for Slavic sounds, is thought to have developed in this environment.

Preslav itself was rebuilt with palaces, churches and monasteries, and grew into one of the largest cities in the Balkans. Simeon himself took part in literary work: a large collection of translated texts, known as the Simeon Miscellany, was compiled for him and survives in a Rus copy made in 1073 for Prince Sviatoslav of Kyiv. The most famous building of Preslav, the Round or Golden Church, was decorated with glazed ceramic tiles, a speciality of Preslav workshops.

Legacy

At Simeon’s death Bulgaria was the largest state in south-eastern Europe, stretching from the Black Sea to the Adriatic and from the Danube towards the Aegean. His son Peter I made peace with Byzantium in 927, receiving recognition as emperor, a Byzantine princess as wife and an independent patriarch for the Bulgarian Church.

The empire weakened in the following decades and was conquered by Byzantium by 1018. Yet the literature produced under Simeon passed to Serbia and Rus and became the foundation of Orthodox Slavic culture. Bulgarians remember Simeon as one of their greatest rulers, the successor of the warrior khans who had earlier defeated Byzantium at the Battle of Pliska.

Timeline

• c. 864-865: Birth of Simeon, son of Boris I.
• 893: Simeon becomes ruler after the deposition of Vladimir-Rasate.
• 894: War with Byzantium over the Bulgarian trade market.
• 896: Victory at Boulgarophygon; Byzantium agrees to pay tribute.
• 913, August: Simeon at Constantinople; crowned by Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos.
• 917, 20 August: Bulgarian victory at the Battle of Achelous.
• 924: Meeting with Romanos I outside Constantinople; Serbia occupied.
• 926: Bulgarian defeat in Croatia.
• 927, 27 May: Death of Simeon at Preslav.

Why it matters

Simeon turned Bulgaria into a power that could challenge Byzantium for leadership of the Orthodox world. His lasting achievement, however, was cultural: the translations and writings of his reign made Old Church Slavonic a full literary language and spread the Cyrillic script that is still used by many nations today.