Since the Asen revolt of 1185-1186 the country between the Haemus (Balkan range) and the plain of Adrianople has been raided almost every year by Vlachs, Bulgarians and their Cuman allies from beyond the Danube; Choniates asks who could count the Cuman and Vlach raids of these years and the lands ruined toward the Haemus.
The last dated raid before 1 January 1200 came on the feast of St George, 23 April 1199, when Vlach and Cuman raiders crossed the Danube and the Haemus, fell on the towns near Mesene and Tzouroulos, rode down to the coast at Rhaidestos and seized the pilgrims at Kouperion, before troops from Bizye caught part of them. No truce is in force: Kaloyan is at war with the empire and allied with the rebel Ivanko. Cumans and Vlachs broke in again in the autumn of 1199 (English Wikipedia, Kaloyan, after Madgearu; places not given).
The next great raid comes in the Byzantine year 1200-1201. The belt drawn is the strip on the imperial side of the mountains where farming and settlement cannot be kept up: the lower Tundzha, the Sakar hills and the northern Strandzha.
Who raids here
Kaloyan's Vlachs and Bulgarians and their Cuman allies from north of the Danube.
Raided
The imperial districts of Adrianople, Vrysis, Bizye, Arkadiopolis and the Gulf of Burgas, and in deep raids the Ergene plain and the Marmara coast.
Anchors on each side
Emperor: Adrianople, Konstanteia, Vrysis, Bizye, Anchialos, Develtos. Bulgarians: the Haemus passes and the towns of the Tundzha valley beyond (bul).
Last campaign
Autumn 1199 (undated in detail), after the Kouperion raid of 23 April 1199; the next raids are dated to 1200-1201.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: The raiding of 1186-1201 is well attested in Choniates; the last raid before 1 January 1200 came in the autumn of 1199 and none is dated to the winter itself, so the belt shows a war frontier without a truce rather than a campaign in progress that morning. Its course is our estimate.
On the map: A frontier zone, not a line; the bounds are estimates.
Sources and studies
- Niketas Choniates, History (Historia), trans. H. J. Magoulias, O City of Byzantium: Annals of Niketas Choniates (Detroit 1984), the reign of Alexios III, book pages 249-296 (full text read through the archive.org search of the scan)
- Wikipedia: Kaloyan of Bulgaria
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.