Simeon I of Bulgaria
Simeon I the Great ruled Bulgaria from 893 to 927. During his reign, Bulgaria spread over a territory between the Aegean, the Adriatic and the Black Sea. His reign was also a period of unmatched cultural prosperity and enlightenment later deemed the Golden Age of Bulgarian culture.
About Simeon I of Bulgaria in brief
Simeon I the Great ruled Bulgaria from 893 to 927. He was the third son of Knyaz Boris I of Krum’s dynasty. Simeon was a Christian all his life. During his reign, Bulgaria spread over a territory between the Aegean, the Adriatic and the Black Sea. The newly independent Bulgarian Orthodox Church became the first new patriarchate besides the Pentarchy. Bulgarian Glagolitic and Cyrillic translations of Christian texts spread all over the Slavic world of the time. His reign was also a period of unmatched cultural prosperity and enlightenment later deemed the Golden Age of Bulgarian culture. Halfway through his reign he assumed the title of Emperor, having prior to that been styled Prince. SimeON was born in 864 or 865, as the third daughter of Boris I. Boris was the ruler who Christianized Bulgaria in 865. His eldest brother Vladimir was designated heir to the Bulgarian throne, and sent him to the leading University of Constantinople to receive theological education when he was 13 or 14. He took the name SIMEon as a novice in a monastery in Constantinople. Around 888, he settled at the newly established royal monastery of Preslav. He engaged in active translation of important religious works from Greek to Medieval Bulgarian, aided by other students from Constantinople. He is speculated to have been tutored by Patriarch Photios I of Constantinople, but this is not supported by any source. He also learned fluent Greek, to the extent that he was referred to as ” the half-Greek” in Byzantine chronicles.
The Byzantine Emperor Leo VI the Wise, allegedly acting under pressure from his mistress Zoe Zaoutzaina and her father Stylianos Zaoutzes, moved the marketplace for Bulgarian goods from Constantinople to Thessaloniki, where the Bulgarian merchants were heavily taxed. The Bulgarians sought protection by Simean, who in turn complained to Leo. The Byzantines convinced the Magyars to attack Bulgaria, promising to transport them across the Danube using the Byzantine navy. In 895, the talented commander Nikephoros Phokas was called from a separate army with the mere intention to lead back against Bulgaria in southern Italy. Instead of engaging the two armies but not engage in a fight, he did not engage the two forces, intending to hold it off until he had dealt with ropes and chains. Despite the problems they encountered, they encountered the problems because they did not trust the trust of the Bulgarians, but intentionally did not notify him of the planned Magyar attack. He ordered the Byzantine naval’s envoy to prison and after sending him to prison, ordered him to close off the route, sending him after him to hold off the military action until he could hold it until he closed off the ropes and hold it in place. This was done at an assembly in Preslav which also proclaimed Bulgarian as the only language of state and church and moved the Bulgarian capital from Pliska to Preslav, to better cement the recent conversion.
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This page is based on the article Simeon I of Bulgaria published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 04, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
