20,000 on the river bank and 1,000 Cumans in the forests 20,000 Byzantine soldiers Krum's campaigns Simeon I's campaigns Sviatoslav's invasion of Bulgaria Byzantine conquest of Bulgaria Uprising of Peter Delyan Second Bulgarian Empire The Battle of Klokotnitsa (Bulgarian: Битката при Клокотница, Bitkata pri Klokotnitsa) occurred on 9 March 1230 near the village of Klokotnitsa (today in Haskovo Province, Bulgaria) between the Second Bulgarian Empire and the Empire of Thessalonica.Around 1221–1222 Emperor Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria made an alliance with Theodore Komnenos Doukas, the ruler of Epirus.Theodore thought that Bulgaria was the only obstacle left on his way to Constantinople and in the beginning of March 1230 he invaded the country, breaking the peace treaty and without a declaration of war.When the Bulgarian tsar learned that the state was invaded, he gathered a small army of a few thousand men (including Cumans, that Akropolites describes as Scyths[1]) and quickly marched southwards.Among all existing documents the text of this inscription is the most accurate evidence of the outcome and the aftermath of the battle: "In the Year of the World 6738 (1230), third indiction.