The Byzantine Return to the Lower Danube (971)
At the end of the 7th decade of the 10th century, the Byzantine-Bulgarian dispute for supremacy in the Balkan Peninsula entered in its final phase. The political-territorial objectives pursued by the Byzantine Empire in the Balkan Peninsula, aimed at destroying the Bulgarian Czardom whose territories were claimed by Constantinople based on its former dominance. In order to achieve its goal, the Byzantine court appealed to the military skill of the great Kiev prince, Sveatoslav I. In 968, he crossed in southern Danube and occupied eastern Bulgaria. His intention to restore his own rule on the Bosphorus led him into a conflict with the Byzantine Empire. The victory obtained by emperor Joannes I Tzimiskes against Sveatoslav in the summer of 971 allowed the basileus to occupy eastern Bulgaria and to restore the Empire’s border on the Lower Danube. The bulgarian offensive against the Byzantine rule, launched after 976, would lead, towards the year 1000, to the reconquest of most part of the eastern Bulgaria territories. The Byzantine Empire would keep its rule only in the northern half of the Danubian-Pontic space (translation by Maria-Alina Streza).
Keywords: The Byzantine Return, the Lower Danube, the Byzantine-Bulgarian dispute, Joannes I Tzimiskes, Sveatoslav I, Preslav, Dristra.