Battle of Boulgarophygon

Battle of Boulgarophygon
	Part of the Byzantine-Bulgarian Wars:; War of 894–896
	; The Bulgarians rout the Byzantine army at Boulgarophygon, miniature from the Madrid Skylitzes
Date	Summer of 896
Location	Boulgarophygon, Thrace
Result	Bulgarian victory
Belligerents
Bulgarian Empire	Byzantine Empire
Commanders and leaders
Simeon I of Bulgaria	Leo Katakalon
Strength
Unknown	Unknown
Casualties and losses
Light	Almost the entire army

The Battle of Boulgarophygon (

Medieval Greek: Μάχη του Βουλγαρόφυγου) was fought in the summer of 896 near the town of Boulgarophygon (modern Babaeski, Turkey) between the Byzantine Empire and the First Bulgarian Empire. The result was an annihilation of the Byzantine army which determined the Bulgarian victory in the trade war of 894–896

.

Despite the initial difficulties in the war against the

Magyars, who acted as Byzantine allies, the battle of Boulgarophygon proved to be the first decisive victory of the young and ambitious Bulgarian ruler Simeon I against the Byzantine Empire. Simeon would go on to inflict a number of defeats on the Byzantines in pursuit of his ultimate goal, the throne in Constantinople. The peace treaty that was signed as a result of the battle confirmed the Bulgarian domination in the Balkans

.

Background

During the rule of

Saints Cyril and Methodius, which marked the beginning of the creation and consolidation of the medieval Bulgarian literature and alphabet. Despite a number of military setbacks against most neighbouring countries, Boris I managed to preserve Bulgarian territorial integrity.^[1] During the Council of Preslav in 893, assembled after the unsuccessful attempt of Boris I's eldest son Vladimir-Rasate to restore Paganism, it was decided that Old Bulgarian was to replace Greek as a language of the church and the Byzantine clergy was to be banished and replaced with Bulgarians.^[2]^[3] The Council sealed Boris I's ambitions for cultural and religious independence^[4] and calmed down the concerns among the nobility, who feared any strong Byzantine influence in the internal affairs of Bulgaria. It was also decided that his third son Simeon, born after the Christianization and called child of peace,^[5] was to become the next Prince of Bulgaria.^[6]

These events ruined the Byzantine hopes to exert influence over the newly Christianized country, and Emperor

Byzantine–Bulgarian Treaty of 716.^[8]^[9] The ousting of the merchants from Constantinople, which was a major destination of trade routes from all over Europe and Asia, was a heavy blow for Bulgarian economic interests.^[10] The merchants complained to Simeon I, who in turn raised the issue with Leo VI, but the appeal was left unanswered.^[6] Simeon, who was seeking a pretext to declare war and begin implementing his plans, launched an invasion of Byzantine Thrace,^[11] resulting in what has sometimes been called the first commercial war in Europe.^[7]

Magyar intervention

The Byzantines hastily assembled a large army under the generals Prokopios Krenites and Kourtikios, which included the Imperial Guard that consisted of

Eastern Thrace), probably around Adrianople,^[12] the Byzantines were defeated and their commanders perished. Most of the Khazars were captured and Simeon had their noses cut and "sent them in the capital for shame of the Romans [i.e the Byzantines]".^[13]

The Magyars pursue Simeon I to Drastar, miniature from the *Madrid Skylitzes* note that the Magyars are named above the army Tourkoi (Turks)

Since the main Byzantine forces were engaged in the east against the

Kingdom of Hungary.^[21]

The battle

The Bulgarians rout the Byzantine army at Boulgarophygon, miniature from the *Madrid Skylitzes*

When Simeon I returned to Preslav "proud of the victory",^[22] he broke the negotiations with Choirosphaktes and once again invaded Byzantine Thrace, further encouraged by the death of the capable general Nikephoros Phokas.^[19] The Byzantines transferred "all themes and tagmata",^[22] i. e. all forces that were fighting the Arabs, to Europe. The army was commanded by the Domestic of the Schools Leo Katakalon, who lacked the ability of Phokas.^[19] The two armies clashed at Boulgarophygon in the summer of 896 and the Byzantines were thoroughly routed. A Byzantine historian wrote:^[22]

...the Romans were decisively defeated all down the line and they all perished.

Among the casualties was the protovestiarios Theodosius, the second-in-command of the army, while Leo Katakalon managed to escape with a few other survivors.^[7]^[19] The Byzantine defeat was so grave that one of their soldiers retired from society and became an ascetic under the name of Luke the Stylite.^[19]

Gaining the upper hand, Simeon I led the Bulgarian troops to Constantinople, burning villages en route. According to the Muslim historian

al-Tabari, Leo VI was desperate after the consecutive refusals of peace, and was forced to gather an army of Arab prisoners of war and send them against the Bulgarians with the promise of freedom.^[23] The Bulgarians were stopped just outside Constantinople and Simeon I agreed to negotiate.^[24]

Aftermath

The war ended with a peace treaty which formally lasted until around Leo VI's death in 912, and under which Byzantium was obliged to pay Bulgaria an annual tribute [25] in exchange for the return of allegedly 120,000 captured Byzantine soldiers and civilians.^[26] Under the treaty, the Byzantines also ceded an area between the Black Sea and Strandzha to the Bulgarian Empire,^[27] while the Bulgarians also promised not to invade Byzantine territory.^[23]

Simeon I was content with the results and considered that he had superiority over the Byzantine Empire.

Petar Gojniković as its ruler.^[29]

That was an important move towards reducing Byzantine influence over the Western Balkans.

Simeon also learned the lesson of how vulnerable Bulgaria was to the northern tribes neighbouring his realm, when they were influenced by Byzantine diplomacy.[30] That experience paid off in 917, when Simeon managed to counter the Byzantine efforts to ally with the Serbs or the Pechenegs, and forced them to fight alone in the battle of Achelous, where the Byzantines were soundly defeated in one of the biggest disasters in Byzantine history.^[31]

Footnotes

^ Andreev, pp. 73, 75
^ Zlatarski, pp. 271–273
^ Zlatarski, pp. 261–262
^ Andreev, p. 87
^ Andreev, p. 91
^ ^a ^b ^c Andreev, p. 92
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Mladjov, Ian. "Selections on Byzantium. Selections from the Chronicle of Ioannes Skylitzes, translated and adapted from B. Flusin and J.-C. Cheynet (2003)". Archived from the original on 27 July 2012. Retrieved 21 March 2011.
^ Runciman, p. 144
^ Zlatarski, p. 286
^ Obolensky, p. 105
^ Andreev, pp. 92–93
^ Zlatarski, p. 289
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Andreev, p. 93
^ Zlatarski, pp. 293–294
^ Zlatarski, p. 292
^ ^a ^b Runciman, p. 146
^ Zlatarski, pp. 300–301
^ Zlatarski, p. 301
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Runciman, p. 147
^ Andreev, p. 86
^ Obolensky, p. 106
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Andreev, p. 94
^ ^a ^b Zlatarski, p. 317
^ According to Zlatarski, Simeon I retired without fighting the Arabs, because otherwise al-Tabari would have noted the event. See Zlatarski, p. 317
^ Runciman, p. 148
^ Treadgold, p. 464
^ Zlatarski, pp. 318–321
^ Andreev, pp. 94–95
^ Fine, p. 141
^ Whittow, p. 287
^ Andreev, pp. 99–100

Sources

Andreev, Jordan; Milcho Lalkov (1996). The Bulgarian Khans and Tsars (in Bulgarian). Veliko Tarnovo: Abagar.
ISBN 954-427-216-X
.

ISBN 978-0-351-17644-9
.

Peychev, Atanas; collective (1984). 1300 Years On Guard (in Bulgarian). Sofia: Voenno Izdatelstvo.

OCLC 832687
.

Whittow, Mark (1996). The Making of Byzantium (600–1025).
ISBN 0-520-20497-2
.

Zlatarski, Vasil (1971) [1927]. История на българската държава през средните векове. Том I. История на Първото българско царство, Част II. От славянизацията на държавата до падането на Първото царство (852—1018) [History of Bulgaria in the Middle Ages. Vol. 1. History of the First Bulgarian Empire, Part 2.From the Slavicization of the state to the fall of the First Empire (852—1018)]. Sofia: Nauka i izkustvo.
OCLC 67080314
.