9. – Bulgaria at the time of Simeon and Peter.

Nearly all possessions on the other side of the Danube had already been severed from the Bulgarian Empire during the first years of reign of the renowned ruler of the Bulgarians, Simeon (893-927). The Magyars, having been asked for help against the Bulgarians by the Byzantine emperor Leo VI, "the philosopher", had conquered them. The Magyars succeeded to settle down in the valley between Theiss and Danube, whilst the Petschenegs. who followed them, took possession of today's Wallachia and Bessarabia. In consequence of these great territorial losses Simeon turned his full attention to the south and south-west. After the Bulgaro-Phigonic peace-treaty (896) according to which the Byzantine Empire agreed to pay a war-indemnity, and not to call again upon other nations for help against the Bulgarians, Simeon, taking advantage of the difficult state of things in the Byzantine Empire. annexed in a peaceful way South-Albania and a part of North-Epirus; and, after the treaty of 904 Bulgaria got access to the Adriatic Sea and won a seaway to countries outside of the Balkan peninsula, free of Byzantine control. During the continuous wars of Simeon against the Byzantine Empire, he was enabled to conquer most of the Byzantine possessions in the Balkan peninsula. As his aim, however, was the conquest of Constantinople, he declined a durable peace wlch Byzantium; therefore the gained territories could not be aggregated. On the other hand Simeon meanwhile took the opportunity to settle accounts with the Servians because of their perfidious policy, and he subjected them in the year 924. It was not until after Simeon's death (May 27, 927) that the political and ecclesiastical boundaries were finally fixed with the treaty which his successor Peter, agreed with Byzantium on the 8^th of October 927.

Thls map delineates the boundaries of Bulgaria according to the sense of this treaty, and the north-westerly, white-hatched part shows the subjected Servia.