Ето какво пише един британец за Симеон I Велики .
THE idea of a man coming from abroad or somewhere obscure to save Bulgaria is not new. According to historical events, it appears that this country is destined to be ruled by people who were not originally expected to rule it. If Simeon Saxe-Coburg appears to be the most obvious example, the king who became a prime minister, we should take a look at the history of Bulgaria to find another appropriate case, that of another Simeon, called the Great, who ruled Bulgaria 11 centuries ago.
Simeon was born in 863 (864 according to some historians) and was son of Prince Boris I, the ruler that converted Bulgarians to Christianity. One can imagine the responsibility of the man that inherited the throne from Boris I, who was considered sacred by Bulgarians and in later times was proclaimed a saint.
However, as he was the third son of Boris, Simeon was never expected to be the new king. In fact, he was supposed to become a patriarch, or head of the newly established Bulgarian church. Therefore he was sent to be educated in the Byzantine Empire, at that time the most developed part of the world's civilisation.
At the beginning of the ninth century, the model of that time, the Magnaura School, had been established in Constantinople. It was named after the palace of Magnaura where its classes were held. There they taught everything known at the time: grammar, rhetoric, logic (trivium), and mathematical sciences like arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, as well as music (the subject was called quadrivium). In the Middle Ages those were the so-called "seven liberal arts".
Ninth century culture had a specific purpose. Magnaura was the place of education only for those involved in government: top officials in the imperial and church administration. Among them was Simeon, who studied to become a patriarch but eventually became a king and emperor.
After 37 years on the throne, in 889, Boris I voluntarily abdicated in favour of his oldest son Vladimir, called Rasate. When the latter tried to reintroduce paganism in Bulgaria, however, he was overthrown by Boris himself in 893 and blinded. Simeon, who came to replace his punished and blinded brother, received a rich legacy from his father, a legacy that gave uncountable fruit during his long reign, but - unlike most great people's descendants - he did not remain in his father's shadow.
Simeon was educated in the traditions of the new religion. The first decade of his rule saw the integration of the Slavs into the Bulgarian state. Leading four wars against Byzantium, the young Bulgarian ruler proved skilful enough both with strong Bulgarian weaponry and the superb Byzantine diplomacy acquired in the Constantinople school. In 904 the Bulgarian army reached Solun (Thessaloniki), and the Byzantine Empire had to recognise its defeat, to sign a peace treaty, as well as to recognise Simeon's rule over lands in Thrace and Macedonia annexed by him to Bulgaria.
The achievements in the tenth century made it known in history as the Golden Age of the Bulgarian (namely Slavonic Christian) culture. The writings created at that time were of major importance in the history of Bulgaria. Simeon spared no efforts to build schools and libraries, collect whole armies of translators, and improve the alphabet. His goal was Constantinople. Simeon wanted to rule over the whole Christian world. He established unions with Serbians, Pechenegs and others in the hope of securing victory on all sides.
When the Bulgarian and Byzantine armies met on August 20, 917 along the Acheloi river (near the town of Pomorie on the Black Sea), the Byzantines suffered a terrible defeat. Simeon decided to take for himself the title that he deserved after realising that Byzantium would never give up the emperor's crown. In 918 he called a meeting in Preslav (at that time the capital of Bulgaria) nominating a Bulgarian patriarch. Shortly after that, the newly nominated patriarch crowned the Bulgarian ruler as Emperor of all Bulgarians and Byzantines at a festive ceremony. Only a few months later, Simeon the Great died.
Simeon's rule, very often referred to as "pax Simeonica" (Simeon's peace) opened the cultural-symbolic heritage of Byzantium to Bulgarian rival claims. It marked the beginning of long-lasting attempts to replace or imitate the Byzantine Empire, which outlined the unique specific features of the orthodox Bulgarian Middle Ages.
At the end of the ninth and the beginning of the tenth centuries, having lost a great deal of its mystic powers, Byzantium still remained for Bulgarians a golden dream, the real centre of the universe, and Constantinople remained the magic capital, full of treasures and riches, a bright symbol of power, beauty and glory. The adoption of Christianity and the sincere orthodoxy of Bulgarians gave them an incredible boost and turned Bulgaria into one of the most powerful empires of the Middle Ages.
To mark his success, Simeon the Great built a new capital in the town of Preslav. The entire complex of churches, palaces and other buildings was considered a real wonder of these lands.
"When a mortal and poor man, or a stranger comes from far away to reach the fortress towers of the prince's palace (the capital Preslav) and sees them, he astounds himself. And when he reaches the gates, he wonders and asks. And when he enters inside, he sees many buildings, decorated with stone, and wood and others. And when he goes inside the palace and sees the high courts and churches, richly decorated with stone and wood and colours, with marble and copper, with silver and gold; he does not know what to compare them with, as he has never seen in his own land anything else but straw huts. The poor begins to lose his mind and to astound himself..."
- John Exarches
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