Victory at Battle of Achelous

Date: August 20, 917 • Location: Obshtina Harmanli, Bulgaria

Byzantine–Bulgarian wars: Bulgarian forces led by Tsar Simeon I drove the Byzantines out of Thrace with a decisive victory at the Battle of Achelous.

The Byzantine–Bulgarian wars were a series of conflicts fought between the Byzantine Empire and the Bulgarian Empire which began already in the late 5th century when the Bulgars defeated a 15.000 Roman army led by Magister Aristus. The Bulgars permanently conquered parts of the Balkan Peninsula after 680 AD. The Byzantine and First Bulgarian Empire continued to clash over the next century with varying 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.