The Treaty of 716 was an agreement between Bulgaria and the Byzantine Empire. It was signed by the son of the ruling Bulgarian Khan Tervel, Kormesiy [1] and the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius III.
The Treaty of 716 was an agreement between Bulgaria and the Byzantine Empire. It was signed by the son of the ruling Bulgarian Khan Tervel, Kormesiy [1] and the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius III.
In 705 AD, the deposed Byzantine emperor Justinian II asked the Bulgarian khan Tervel for assistance to regain his throne. The Bulgarians sent 15,000-strong army and Justinian entered Constantinople. Tervel was awarded with the title Caesar, a huge amount of gold, silver and garments as well as the region called Zagore to the south of Stara Planina. However, when Justinian II stabilized his position in Constantinople he invaded Bulgaria to retake the lost territory but was defeated in the Battle of Anchialus (708) and later executed by his political rivals. The hostilities continued until 716 when the treaty was signed between the Bulgarians and Byzantines.
The terms of the treaty of 716 were: [1]
The treaty was in Bulgaria's favour but it proved to be vital for the Byzantine Empire. Based on that agreement the Bulgarians sent an army to relieve the Second Arab siege of Constantinople and ambushed an Arab force near the city, another Arab force sent by Caliph Sulayman arrived in 717 under ‘Ubayda ibn Qays Al-‘Uqayli, and met the Bulgars in a victorious battle, Arab sources mention the conquest of a city called “Madīnat al-Saqāliba” (City of The Slavs).
In 719 Tervel withdrew his support for the new pretender for the Byzantine throne Anastasius. The treaty lasted until 756 when the Bulgarian Khan Kormisosh asked for tribute for the newly constructed Byzantine border fortifications but his envoy was ignored. [6] A long period of Byzantine–Bulgarian wars began which lasted with interruptions for more than half a century. Despite the initial Byzantine successes in 792, 811 and 813 they suffered crushing defeats. A year before the battle of Versinikia in 813 Khan Krum offered the Byzantines to reestablish the Treaty of 716. [7] However, his offer was declined because of the third point of the treaty concerning the exchange of political refugees. [6] The Byzantines still had illusions that they could interfere in the Bulgarian internal affairs after the series of weak and short-ruled Bulgarian khans in the second half of the 8th century. [6] After the death of Krum, a new 30-year peace treaty was signed in 815 between the new Khan Omurtag and Leo V the Armenian.
Leo III the Isaurian, also known as the Syrian, was Byzantine Emperor from 717 until his death in 741 and founder of the Isaurian dynasty. He put an end to the Twenty Years' Anarchy, a period of great instability in the Byzantine Empire between 695 and 717, marked by the rapid succession of several emperors to the throne. He also successfully defended the Empire against the invading Umayyads and forbade the veneration of icons.
Anastasius II was the Byzantine emperor from 713 to 715. During his reign he reversed his predecessor's decision to appoint a Monothelete Patriarch of Constantinople. He instead re-elevated Orthodoxy in Constantinople by appointing Germanus I to the position in order to gain Pope Constantine's favor. His reign was spent attempting to reinforce the Empire and bring it into an era of stability. He was deposed by Theodosius during the Byzantine campaign against the Umayyad Caliphate in 715. Four years later, in 719, Anastasius would launch a rebellion against Emperor Leo III with the intent to reclaim the throne. He initially received support in the form of soldiers and funds from Tervel of Bulgaria. But once Anastasius failed to enter Constantinople, the Bulgar forces he had brought complied with a request from Leo III to turn Anastasius and his allies over. Anastasius would then be executed with other members of the rebellion in 719.
Justinian II, nicknamed "the Slit-Nosed", was the last Byzantine emperor of the Heraclian dynasty, reigning from 685 to 695 and again from 705 to 711. Like his namesake, Justinian I, Justinian II was an ambitious and passionate ruler who was keen to restore the Roman Empire to its former glories. However, he responded brutally to any opposition to his will and lacked the finesse of his father, Constantine IV. Consequently, he generated enormous opposition to his reign, resulting in his deposition in 695 in a popular uprising. He only returned to the throne in 705 with the help of a Bulgar and Slav army. His second reign was even more despotic than the first, and it too saw his eventual overthrow in 711. He was abandoned by his army, who turned on him before killing him.
Theodosius III was Byzantine emperor from c. May 715 to 25 March 717. Before rising to power and seizing the throne of the Byzantine Empire, he was a tax collector in Adramyttium. In 715, the Byzantine navy and the troops of the Opsician Theme, one of the Byzantine provinces, revolted against Emperor Anastasius II, acclaiming the reluctant Theodosius as emperor. Theodosius led his troops to Chrysopolis and then Constantinople, the capital, seizing the city in November 715. Anastasius did not surrender until several months later, accepting exile in a monastery in return for safety. Many themes viewed Theodosius to be a puppet of the troops of the Opsician Theme, and his legitimacy was denied by the Anatolics and the Armeniacs under their respective strategoi (generals) Leo the Isaurian and Artabasdos.
Khan Tervel also called Tarvel, or Terval, or Terbelis in some Byzantine sources, was the khan of Bulgaria during the First Bulgarian Empire at the beginning of the 8th century. In 705 Emperor Justinian II named him caesar, the first foreigner to receive this title. He was raised a pagan like his grandfather Khan Kubrat, but was later possibly baptised by the Byzantine clergy. Tervel played an important role in defeating the Arabs during the siege of Constantinople in 717–718.
Tiberius III, born Apsimar, was Byzantine emperor from 698 to 705 AD. Little is known about his early life, other than that he was a droungarios, a mid-level commander, of the Cibyrrhaeots. In 696, Tiberius was part of an army sent by Byzantine Emperor Leontius to retake the city of Carthage in the Exarchate of Africa, which had been captured by the Arab Umayyads. After seizing the city, this army was pushed back by Umayyad reinforcements and retreated to the island of Crete; some of the officers, fearing the wrath of Leontius, killed their commander, and declared Tiberius emperor. Tiberius swiftly gathered a fleet, sailed for Constantinople, and deposed Leontius. Tiberius did not attempt to retake Byzantine Africa from the Umayyads, but campaigned against them along the eastern border with some success. In 705 former emperor Justinian II, who had been deposed by Leontius, led an army of Slavs and Bulgars from the First Bulgarian Empire to Constantinople, and after entering the city secretly, deposed Tiberius. Tiberius fled to Bithynia, but was captured a few months later and beheaded between August 705 and February 706. His body was initially thrown into the sea, but was later recovered and buried in a church on the island of Prote.
Krum, often referred to as Krum the Fearsome was the Khan of Bulgaria from sometime between 796 and 803 until his death in 814. During his reign the Bulgarian territory doubled in size, spreading from the middle Danube to the Dnieper and from Odrin to the Tatra Mountains. His able and energetic rule brought law and order to Bulgaria and developed the rudiments of state organization.
Tsar SimeonI the Great ruled over Bulgaria from 893 to 927, during the First Bulgarian Empire. Simeon's successful campaigns against the Byzantines, Magyars and Serbs led Bulgaria to its greatest territorial expansion ever, making it the most powerful state in contemporary Eastern and Southeast Europe. His reign was also a period of unmatched cultural prosperity and enlightenment later deemed the Golden Age of Bulgarian culture.
The Battle of Pliska or Battle of Vărbitsa Pass was a series of battles between troops, gathered from all parts of the Byzantine Empire, led by the Emperor Nicephorus I, and the First Bulgarian Empire, governed by Khan Krum. The Byzantines plundered and burned the Bulgar capital Pliska which gave time for the Bulgarians to block passes in the Balkan Mountains that served as exits out of Bulgaria. The final battle took place on 26 July 811, in some of the passes in the eastern part of the Balkans, most probably the Vărbitsa Pass. There, the Bulgarians used the tactics of ambush and surprise night attacks to effectively trap and immobilize the Byzantine army, thus annihilating almost the whole army, including the Emperor. After the battle, Krum encased the skull of Nicephorus in silver, and used it as a cup for drinking. This is one of the most documented instances of the custom of the skull cup.
Kormesiy or Kormesii was a ruler (khan) of Danubian Bulgaria in the first half of the 8th century. Western chronicles name Kormesiy "the third ruler over the Danube Bulgars", and he is sometimes considered the direct successor of Tervel.
Kuber,, was a Bulgar leader who, according to the Miracles of Saint Demetrius, liberated a mixed Bulgar and Byzantine Christian population in the 670s, whose ancestors had been transferred from the Eastern Roman Empire to the Syrmia region in Pannonia by the Avars 60 years earlier. According to a scholarly theory, he was a son of Kubrat, brother of Khan Asparukh and member of the Dulo clan.
The First Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgar-Slavic and later Bulgarian state that existed in Southeastern Europe between the 7th and 11th centuries AD. It was founded in 680–681 after part of the Bulgars, led by Asparuh, moved south to the northeastern Balkans. There they secured Byzantine recognition of their right to settle south of the Danube by defeating – possibly with the help of local South Slavic tribes – the Byzantine army led by Constantine IV. During the 9th and 10th century, Bulgaria at the height of its power spread from the Danube Bend to the Black Sea and from the Dnieper River to the Adriatic Sea and became an important power in the region competing with the Byzantine Empire. It became the foremost cultural and spiritual centre of south Slavic Europe throughout most of the Middle Ages.
The Battle of Versinikia was fought in 813 between the Byzantine Empire and the Bulgarian Empire, near the city of Adrianople (Edirne) in what is now modern-day Turkey.
The Byzantine–Bulgarian wars were a series of conflicts fought between the Byzantines and Bulgarians which began when the Bulgars first settled in the Balkan peninsula in the 5th century, and intensified with the expansion of the Bulgarian Empire to the southwest after 680 AD. The Byzantines and Bulgarians continued to clash over the next century with variable success, until the Bulgarians, led by Krum, inflicted a series of crushing defeats on the Byzantines. After Krum died in 814, his son Omurtag negotiated a thirty-year peace treaty. Simeon I had multiple successful campaigns against the Byzantines during his rule from 893 to 927. His son Peter I negotiated another long-lasting peace treaty. His rule was followed by a period of decline of the Bulgarian state.
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The Battle of Marcellae was fought in 792 between the forces of the Byzantine Empire, led by Constantine VI, and those of the First Bulgarian Empire under Kardam. The Byzantines were routed and forced to retreat to Constantinople. Fighting took place at Marcellae (Markeli), near the modern town of Karnobat in southeastern Bulgaria, the same site as an earlier battle in 756.
The battle of Marcellae took place in 756 between the armies of the First Bulgarian Empire and the Byzantine Empire at Markeli, near the town of Karnobat in south eastern Bulgaria. The result was a Byzantine victory.
The Treaty of 815 was a 30-year peace agreement signed in Constantinople between the Bulgarian Khan Omurtag and the Byzantine Emperor Leo V the Armenian.
The Byzantine–Bulgarian war of 894–896 was fought between the Bulgarian Empire and the Byzantine Empire as a result of the decision of the Byzantine emperor Leo VI to move the Bulgarian market from Constantinople to Thessalonica which would greatly increase the expenses of the Bulgarian merchants.
The Byzantine–Bulgarian war of 913–927 was fought between the Bulgarian Empire and the Byzantine Empire for more than a decade. Although the war was provoked by the Byzantine emperor Alexander's decision to discontinue paying an annual tribute to Bulgaria, the military and ideological initiative was held by Simeon I of Bulgaria, who demanded to be recognized as Tsar and made it clear that he aimed to conquer not only Constantinople but the rest of the Byzantine Empire, as well.