Battle of Boulgarophygon

The Battle of Bulgarophygon took place near the present-day northwestern Turkish city Babaeski in the summer of 896.

Prehistory

893 gave the Byzantine emperor Leo VI. , At the instigation of his father Stylianos Zautzes, the trade monopoly with Bulgaria at two Greek merchants. Then moved the merchants, without consultation with the Bulgarians, the Bulgarian market for imported goods from Constantinople to Thessaloniki Opel and increased tariffs.

As peaceful means to rectify this state were not successful, the Bulgarian ruler Simeon I. 894 the Byzantines attacked without warning. The hastily assembled Byzantine army led by strategists Krinites was defeated in Thrace. Since the war broke out without any preparation, Simeon withdrew. For the further course of the fighting the Byzantines were able to win the Magyars under Árpád as allies in the fight against Simeon. The Byzantine fleet allowed them passage over the Danube, and together with the Byzantine army that invaded Thrace, they took 895 Simeon in the pliers. Simeon, who was prepared only on an invasion in the South, finally asked for peace.

After the withdrawal of the Byzantines, and even during the peace negotiations, Simeon turned to the north. Since the Magyars fought at that time in Pannonia, the Bulgarian Tsar 896 allied with the living on the Dniester Pechenegs and defeated the Magyars devastating. After the defeat of the Magyars left forever their territories in Bessarabia and moved on towards the west, where they settled in the upper Tisza region and thus for the time being posed no more threat to the Bulgarian Empire.

After the Magyar danger was averted, Simeon I collected in the summer of 896 his troops in Thrace.

The decisive battle in which the Byzantine army was defeated, took place at Bulgarophygon.

Follow

After the heavy defeat the Byzantines, the Bulgarian army had little to counter so that the Bulgarians easily Nordthessalien could conquer the Epirus and large parts of present-day Macedonia. The Byzantines, who were caught in a difficult situation again because of the thrust of the Arabs in the East, the annual tribute to the Bulgarians committed themselves again to pay and assign more areas in the Black Sea, Epirus and Südthessalien. The Bulgarians rose to become the most important military factor in the southeast of Europe, which almost ruled the entire Balkan peninsula and the " most privileged economic nation " of the Byzantine Empire. All economic restrictions have been lifted and the Bulgarian market was relocated again to Constantinople Opel back. This peace treaty lasted until 913

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