A map of the Eastern Roman Empire as of january 976, right before the death of John I. Tzimiskes and the coronation of Basil II.
Basicly after the war with the Kievan Rus over Bulgaria, John Tzimiskes proclaimed to have annexed "all" of Bulgaria, when in reality he only controlled the eastern half of it. Right after this he got the Principality of Serbia to join the empire, becoming the Catepanate of Ras. So basicly his entire claim to having power over Serbia was literally "Trust me bro we will take over the western half of Bulgaria soon too". Then he suddenly died on january 10 976, and so soon after Serbia just broke away from the empire again.
Excellent explanation. Thanks!
John I annexed Bulgaria, so that’s what I would assume. The spot where modern Bulgaria sits was referred to as Thrace at that time.
That’s not Bulgaria though. It’s part of modern day Serbia, Montenegro and a bit of Bosnia
Bulgarian here. Tzimiskes did annex the eastern part of Bulgaria when he took the capital of Preslav, but the western part was not under his control and a new dynasty (the Kometopuli, possibly related by marriage to Simeon's dynasty) was established in Serdica and then moved to Ohrid. Serbia was a vassal to the Eastern Roman empire for a while, if I recall.
The bulgars thougt they where safe......
At that point no, they didn't.
What’s with the random exclave in the Balkans not connect to the sea or the rest of their empire?