Battle of Achelous (917)

The Bulgarians obtained a decisive victory which not only secured the previous successes of Simeon I, but made him de facto ruler of the whole Balkan Peninsula, excluding the well-protected Byzantine capital Constantinople and the Peloponnese.Alexander died in the same year and the new government under the Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos made desperate attempts to avoid the war, promising that the infant Emperor Constantine VII would marry one of Simeon's daughters.[citation needed] The spirit of the army was further raised as the troops were paid in advance and a fleet commanded by Romanus Lecapenus set off to the north at the mouth of the Danube.[citation needed] The Byzantine generals planned to outflank the Bulgarian right wing in order to detach Simeon's troops from the Balkan Passes.Leo Phocas was saved by fleeing to Mesembria (modern Nesebar) in Bulgaria, but in the thick of the battle Constantine Lips, John Grapson, and many other commanders (archontes) were cut down along with an enormous number of soldiers and officers.The Byzantine historian Leo the Deacon says that 75 years after this military catastrophe the field at Anchialus was still covered with tens of thousands of Roman skeletons.[32][33] The Byzantines proposed a new peace treaty, and Simeon entered the imperial city and was crowned for a second time as "Tsar" (the Slavonic title for Caesar i.e. Emperor) "of all Bulgarians and Romans".However, in August 918, general Romanus Lecapenus engineered a coup to depose Zoe and confined her to the monastery of St Euphemia-in-Petrium, allowing him to assume the purple.Due to his also heavy casualties, Simeon decided to secure his rear and sent an army from his remaining forces under Marmais and Theodore Sigritsa to destroy them.After his death in 927, however, his successor Peter I was able to secure the hand of Maria Lecapene, the granddaughter of Emperor Romanus I,[36] and with it an annual tribute, the renewed recognition of his imperial title and the autocephaly of the Bulgarian church.
Bulgarian troops seizing Adrianople
Zoe of Byzantium and her son, emperor Constantine VII
The oath of the Byzantine soldiers on the eve of the battle
The Bulgarian victory at Anchialus
Progress of the Battle of Acheloos.
Byzantine–Bulgarian warsByzantine–Bulgarian war of 913–927Achelous riverAnchialusBulgarian EmpireByzantine EmpireSimeon I of BulgariaLeo Phokas1st Constantinople1st Anchialus1st MarcellaeRishki Pass2nd AnchialusLitosoria2nd MarcellaeSerdicaPliskaDebeltosVersinikia1st Adrianople2nd ConstantinopleMesembriaSimeon IWar of 894–896BoulgarophygonWar of 913–927Katasyrtai3rd ConstantinopleSviatoslav's invasion of Bulgaria1st ArcadiopolisDorostolonByzantine conquest of BulgariaTrajan's Gates1st ThessalonicaSpercheiosSkopje2nd Thessalonica3rd ThessalonicaKleidionStrumitsaBitolaSetinaDyrrhachiumUprising of Peter Delyan4th Thessalonica5th ThessalonicaOstrovoSecond Bulgarian EmpireLovechTryavna2nd ArcadiopolisSerresKlokotnitsa2nd AdrianopleUprising of IvayloDevinaSkafidaRusokastroBulgarianBlack SeaPomorieByzantineBalkan PeninsulaConstantinoplePeloponneseMiddle Agesimperial titleBulgarian monarchsLeo VIAlexanderwage a new warNicholas MystikosConstantine VIIbasileusThraceAdrianopleThessalonicaMagyarsPechenegsJohn BogasLeo PhocasAsia MinortagmataRomanus LecapenusDanubeHungariansBosniaDnieper RiverHungarianPechenegIvan DuichevGyula KristóMarmaisMoesiaDobrudzhaAchelousAcheloiBulgariaLeo the DeaconNesebarConstantine LipsmedievalSlavonicCaesarZoe KarvounopsinaSerbiaTheodore SigritsaPeter IautocephalyUniversity of SzegedHaldon, JohnTheophanes Continuatus