himself with astonishment, he
will scarce believe his eyes. But if he perchance espy the
prince sitting in his robe covered with pearls, with a chain of
coins round his neck and bracelets on his wrists, girt about
with a purple girdle and a sword of gold at his side, while on
either hand his nobles are seated with golden chains, girdles,
and bracelets upon them; then will he answer when one asks him
on his return home what he has seen: "I know not how to
describe it; only thine own eyes could comprehend such
splendour."

Under Simeon, art and literature flourished (in a Middle Ages sense) in
Bulgaria; the Cyrillic alphabet--still used in Russia, Bulgaria, and
Servia--had supplanted the Greek alphabet and had added to the growing
sense of national consciousness. Simeon encouraged the production of
books, and tradition credits him with having himself translated into the
Slav language some of the writings of St. Chrysostom.

[Illustration: A WEDDING IN THE RHODOPES]

But all this Bulgarian prosperity had a serious check when Simeon died
in 927 and the Czar Peter ascended the throne. Scarcely was Simeon cold
in his grave before internal struggles had begun, owing to the
jealousies of some of the nobles and their spirit of adventure. The
boyars (knights) of Bulgaria had always had great authority. Now they
took advantage of a monarch who was more suited for the cloister than
the Court to revive old pretensions to independent power. Czar Peter
turned to the Greek Empire for help, and sought to strengthen his
position at home by a marriage with the grand-daughter of the Emperor
Romanus Lecapenus. That policy served until a vigorous Greek Emperor
came to the throne at Constantinople and set himself to avenge the
victories of Simeon. The Greek Emperor called in the aid of the northern
Russians against their kinsfolk the Bulgarian Slavs. There followed a
typical Balkan year of war. The Russians succeeded only too well against
the Bulgarians, and then the Greeks, in fear, joined with the Bulgarians
to resist their further progress. Then the Servians took advantage of
the war to shake off the Bulgarian suzerainty and regain their
independence. An opposition party in Bulgaria, disgusted with the
misfortunes which had befallen their country under Peter, added to these
misfortunes by a revolt, and seceded to found the kingdom of Western
Bulgaria under the boyar Shishman Mokar (963). To add to th