Romanos I Lekapenos

Leo of Tripoli defeats the naval expedition of 911-912, led by general Romanos and Admiral Himerios.

A protracted struggle with the supporters of Euthymios had followed the restoration of Nicholas to the patriarchate about the time of the accession of Leo VI's brother Alexander to the throne in May 912; the struggle will not end until the new Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos promulgates the Tomos of Union in 920.

In the meantime Alexander had died in 913 after provoking a war with Bulgaria, and the underage Constantine VII had succeeded to the throne.

Simeon I of Bulgaria, intending to reduce the Empire by force—his goal, as always, the throne—seizes Albania, Macedonia, and the imperial stronghold of Adrianople in 914, then proceeds to take most of the Balkan peninsula.

Petar of Serbia, although allied to Simeon, has become increasingly disgruntled by the fact that he is essentially subordinate to him.

Peter’s expansion toward the coast facilitates contacts with the Empire, by way of the strategos of Dyrrhachium.

Searching for allies against Bulgaria, Constantinople has showered Peter with gold and promises of greater independence if he will join their alliance.

Petar might have been planning an attack on Bulgaria with the Magyars, showing that his realm had stretched north to the Sava river.

However, Michael of Zachumla has forewarned Simeon of this plan, since Michael is an enemy of Peter, and a loyal vassal of Simeon.

Simeon attacks Serbia in 917 and deposes Peter, placing Pavle Branović (a grandson of Mutimir) as Prince of Serbia, subordinate to Simeon (although some scholars suggest that Symeon took control over Serbia directly at this time.)

The Empire, after a series of successful campaigns, has stabilized its eastern borders by 917, and the generals John Bogas and Leo Phokas are able to gather additional troops from Asia Minor, to reinforce the imperial tagmata and the European thematic troops, gathering a force of some thirty thousand to sixty-two thousand men.

This is a very large army by contemporary standards, and its goal is the elimination of the Bulgarian threat from the north.

The troops are paid in advance and a fleet commanded by Romanos Lekapenos sets off to the north at the mouth of the Danube.

The Greeks had tried to pay some Pecheneg tribes to attack, but Romanus will not agree to transport them across the Danube, and instead they attack Bulgarian territory on their own.

The imperial army marches northwards and sets its camp in the vicinity of the strong fortress of Anchialus.

Leo Phokas intends to invade Moesia and meet the Pechenegs and Lekapenos's troops in Dobrudzha.

Simeon swiftly concentrates his army on the heights around the fortress.

On the morning of August 20, 917, the battle between the Bulgarians and the Greeks begins by the river Achelous near the modern village Acheloi, eight kilometers to the north of Anchialus (modern Pomorie) on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast.

The imperial generals plan to outflank the right Bulgarian wing in order to detach Simeon's troops from the Balkan Passes.

The Bulgarian ruler concentrates his most powerful forces in the two wings and leaves the center relatively weak in order to surround the enemy when the center would yield to the imperial attack.

Simeon himself is in charge of large cavalry reserves hidden behind the hills which are intended to strike the decisive blow.

The imperial attack is fierce and it is not long before the Bulgarians begin slowly to retreat.

The enemy cavalry charges the infantry in the center, killing many Bulgarians.

The Bulgarian position becomes desperate as they cannot manage to hold the heights to the south of the river and begin a hasty retreat to the north.

Elated, the imperial troops give chase and their battle formations soon begin to break, especially as a rumor spreads that their commander, Leo Phokas, has been killed.

At this point, Simeon, who has detected the disarray in the imperial formation, orders his army to stand, and, at the head of his heavy cavalry corps, attacks the imperial left wing from behind the hills.

With an irresistible onslaught, the cavalry bears down on the confused enemy, who immediately bend under their attack, panic and take to their heels.

Some imperial officers try to repulse the cavalry charge but they are also attacked by the infantry.

Tsar Simeon personally takes part in the fight, his white horse killed at the height of the battle.

The imperial army is completely routed.

Leo Phokas is 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) are cut down along with an enormous number of soldiers and officers.

By the end of the day, the Bulgarians overwhelm the defenders of Mesembria and capture the town.

Leo Phocas barely escapes by boarding a ship.

The Byzantine historian Leo the Deacon says that seventy-five years after this military catastrophe the field at Anchialus was still covered with tens of thousands of Roman skeletons.

The battle is among the bloodiest of medieval history.

The remainder of the imperial army flees all the way back to Constantinople, followed by the Bulgarians.

Several days later, Phokas is defeated once more at Katasyrtai, where the last imperial troops are routed after a night fight.

The way to Constantinople is clear.

The Empire proposes a new peace treaty, and Simeon enters the imperial city and is crowned for a second time as "Tsar" (the Slavonic title for Caesar i.e.

Emperor) "of all Bulgarians and Romans".

The Battle of Achelous, one of the most important battles in the long Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars, has foiled Constantinople’s designs on Bulgaria, secured the concession of the Imperial title to the Bulgarian rulers, and thereby firmly established Bulgaria's role as a key player in Europe.

Simeon has also demanded that his daughter be married Constantine VII, the son of empress Zoe Karbonopsina, but Zoe had refused and allied with Serbia and Hungary against him, which had postponed the decisive assault of Constantinople.

Simeon, deciding to secure his rear, had sent an army under Marmais and Theodore Sigritsa to destroy them.

His generals had captured the Serb prince but that had given the Empire precious time to recover.

Romanos Lekapenos, born in Lakape (Laqabin) between Melitene and Samosata (hence the name), was the son of an Armenian peasant with the remarkable name of Theophylact the Unbearable.

Theophylact, as a soldier, had rescued the Emperor Basil I from the enemy in battle at Tephrike and had been rewarded by a place in the Imperial Guard.

Although he did not receive any refined education (for which he will later be abused by his son-in-law Constantine VII), Romanos had advanced through the ranks of the army during the reign of Emperor Leo VI the Wise.

In 911, he was general of the naval theme of Samos and later served as admiral of the fleet (droungarios tou ploimou).

In this capacity, he was supposed to have participated in the operations against Bulgaria on the Danube in 917, but had been unable to carry out his mission.

In the aftermath of the disastrous imperial defeat at the Battle of Acheloos, Romanos had sailed to Constantinople, where he is gradually overcoming the discredited regency of Empress Zoe and her supporter Leo Phokas.

Zoe’s attempted alliance with Serbia and the Magyars has failed to produce any concrete results, and the Arabs, encouraged by the empire's weakness, renew their raids.

A humiliating treaty with the Arabs of Sicily, who are asked to help subdue revolts in Italy, does little to improve the position of Zoe and her supporters.

Rumors have begun to circulate that Leo Phokas, whose army lies encamped across the Bosporus from Constantinople, and his brother-in-law Constantine the Paphlagonian are planning to seize the throne from the young emperor Constantine VII.

Zoe herself (according to Steven Runciman) may have planned to marry the general and solidify her own position.

The Emperor's tutor, however, a certain Theodore, had turned to Romanos Lekapenos; although the admiral carries a great share of the blame for the failure of the Bulgarian campaign, Romanos remains a powerful factor as his fleet is intact and ready at hand.

The parakoimomenos Constantine tries to neutralize this threat by disbanding the fleet, but he is arrested by Lekapenos when he arrives to supervise the discharge of the crews.

With this stroke, Zoe loses all control of the situation, and at Theodore's urging, the young Emperor appoints the Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos as regent.

The Patriarch's first act is to dismiss Phokas from his post as Domestic and replace him with John Garidas.

Phokas tries to secure his position by forcing the Patriarch to appoint some of his relatives to command the Hetaireia, the imperial bodyguard.

The Patriarch at first agrees, but almost immediately dismisses them.

At this point, Phokas turns to Lekapenos and offers him a marriage alliance.

Lekapenos agrees and concludes a pact with him, allowing Phokas to return to his troops at Chrysopolis.

Pjokas apparently believes that Lekapenos, in view of his lowly origins, could never possibly put forward a credible claim for the imperial throne.

Events prove that he had severely miscalculated his new ally: on March 25, 919, Lekapenos manages to gain entrance to the imperial palace, occupies it and secures his appointment as magistros and commander of the Hetaireia.

A few weeks later, he marries his daughter Helena to the young Emperor and assumes the title of basileopator, becoming the virtual ruler of the Empire.

Phokas is now sent a letter, in the Emperor's name, in which he is bidden not to react to these events.

Inevitably, the outmaneuvered general rises in revolt, but fails to secure the loyalty of his troops: they begin to desert to the imperial camp, especially after a letter from the young Constantine VII, which acclaims Lekapenos as his protector and denounces Phokas's rebellion, reaches the rebel camp and is read aloud to them.

Eventually, Phokas is forced to flee, but is captured and blinded by the Emperor's agents in Bithynia.

Following the discovery of a plot by some of his friends a few months later, Phokas suffers a final humiliation, being paraded through the streets of Constantinople on a mule.

His fate hereafter is unknown.

Lekapenos engineers a coup to depose Zoe in August 919 and confines her to the monastery of St Euphemia-in-Petrium.

Constantinople, unhappy with Simeon’s intervention in Serbia, sends Zaharije Prvoslavljevic in 920 to oust his cousin Pavle, but he fails and is sent to Bulgaria as prisoner.

Constantinople, after several years of combining diplomacy and successful defense, finally succeeds in inducing Simeon to settle for recognition as emperor of the Bulgarians only.

Romanos, the strategist of this success, has become increasingly influential at court, exiling his rivals and strengthening his links with the underage Emperor Constantine VII.

Romanos is invested as kaisar (Caesar) on September 14, 920, and finally on December 17 of the same year he is crowned co-emperor, becoming the effective head of the Empire, which is largely what Simeon had planned to do.

Constantine, just short of reaching nominal majority, is thus eclipsed by a senior emperor.

Simeon's forces appear before Constantinople in 921, when they demand the deposition of Romanos and capture Adrianople.