James Baquet

The Battle of Achelous is another of those little-known affairs of great significance, as well as a truly disastrous occurrence for one side.

Previously, after their victory in the War of 894-896, the Bulgarians forced the Byzantines to pay tribute, which they did for 16 years, until the death of the Byzantine Emperor Leo VI (called “the Wise”) in 912. At that point, his brother and successor, Alexander, refused to pay any further.

Alexander has been characterized as a lecher, a drunkard, a wastrel and an idolater who by some accounts was downright evil. Fortunately for some, he died after only 13 months on the throne (supposedly fulfilling his late brother’s prophecy), from exhaustion after a game of tzykanion (like polo).

But the damage was done. Alexander’s refusal to pay up gave Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria the excuse he needed to reopen the Byzantine-Bulgarian conflict. After various machinations — including an abortive attempt to marry the infant emperor Constantine VII to one of Simeon’s daughters — war broke out in 914.

The Byzantines attempted to form alliances with other groups — Arabs, Magyars and Serbs among them. But Simeon was wise to see through their “Byzantine” ways, and thwarted all diplomatic efforts. The Byzantines had to fight alone.

Still, they were able to field some 30,000 men against the Bulgarians’ 15,000. On Aug. 20, 917, they met on the Achelous River, on the southwest coast of the Black Sea and just over 200 kilometers northwest of Constantinople (modern Istanbul, Turkey) and less than half that distance from the Bulgarian capital of Preslav which, like the battle site, lies in modern Bulgaria.

Simeon outmaneuvered the Byzantines, and slaughtered them by the thousands. He was recrowned, this time as “Tsar of all Bulgarians and Romans” — that is, Eastern Romans or Byzantines — and thus became the de facto ruler of the entire Balkan Peninsula, except for Constantinople itself and the Peloponnese.

Leo the Deacon, a Byzantine historian, visited the battlefield 75 years later and described it as still covered with tens of thousands of Byzantine skeletons.

Vocabulary:

Which words above mean:

1. one who worships “pagan” gods

2. unsuccessful

3. foretelling of the future, prediction

4. complex and somewhat sneaky

5. a game played on horseback

6. an alcoholic

7. crafty plots, intrigues

8. lazy person

9. money paid as the price of peace

10. person with obsessive interest in sex