country_of_citizenship moses of bulgaria
Byzantium (" Byzántion ") was an ancient Greek colony on the site that later became Constantinople , and later still Istanbul . Byzantium was colonised by the Greeks from ___MASK66___ in . Petar I ( died 30 January 970 ) was emperor ( tsar ) of ___MASK48___ from 27 May 927 to 969 . The ___MASK40___ ( Old ) was a medieval Bulgarian state that existed in southeastern Europe between the 7th and 11th centuries AD . It was founded circa 681 when Bulgar tribes led by Asparukh moved to the northeastern Balkans . There they secured Byzantine recognition of their right to settle south of the Danube by defeating  possibly with the help of local South Slavic tribes  the Byzantine army led by Constantine IV . At the height of its power , Bulgaria spread from the Danube Bend to the Black Sea and from the Dnieper River to the Adriatic Sea . An emperor ( through Old French " empereor " from ) is a monarch , usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial ___MASK54___ . Empress , the female equivalent , may indicate an emperor ' s wife (" empress consort "), mother (" empress dowager "), or a woman who rules in her own right (" empress regnant "). Emperors are generally recognized to be of a higher honour and rank than kings . In Europe the title of Emperor was , since the Middle Ages , considered equal or almost equal in dignity to that of Pope , due to the latter ' s position as visible head of the Church and spiritual leader of Western Europe . The Emperor of Japan is the only currently reigning monarch whose title is translated into English as " Emperor ". Constantinople was the capital city of the Roman / ___MASK88___ ( 330  1204 and 1261  1453 ), and also of the brief Latin ( 1204  1261 ), and the later Ottoman ( 1453  1923 ) empires . It was reinaugurated in 324 AD from ancient Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine the Great , after whom it was named , and dedicated on 11 May 330 AD . An empire is defined as " an aggregate of nations or people ruled over by an emperor or other powerful sovereign or government , usually a territory of greater extent than a kingdom , as the former ___MASK98___ Empire , French Empire , Brazilian Empire , Russian Empire , Ottoman Empire , Byzantine Empire or Roman Empire ." An empire can be made solely of contiguous territories such as the Austro - Hungarian Empire , or of territories far remote from the homeland , such as a colonial empire . Samuel ( also Samuil , representing Bulgarian "  ", pronounced ) was the Tsar (" Emperor ") of the ___MASK40___ from 997 to 6 October 1014 . From 977 to 997 , he was a general under Roman I of Bulgaria , the second surviving son of Emperor Peter I of Bulgaria , and co - ruled with him , as Roman bestowed upon him the command of the army and the effective royal authority . As Samuel struggled to preserve his country ' s independence from the Byzantine Empire , his rule was characterized by constant warfare against the Byzantines and their equally ambitious ruler Basil II . The ___MASK88___ , also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire , was the continuation of the Roman Empire in the East during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages , when its capital city was Constantinople ( modern - day Istanbul , which had been founded as Byzantium ). It survived the fragmentation and fall of the ___MASK94___ in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 . During most of its existence , the empire was the most powerful economic , cultural , and military force in Europe . Both " ___MASK88___ " and " Eastern Roman Empire " are historiographical terms created after the end of the ___MASK54___ ; its citizens continued to refer to their empire as the " Roman Empire " ( tr . ), or " Romania ", and to themselves as " Romans ". In the history of Europe , the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century . It began with the fall of the ___MASK94___ and merged into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery . The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history : classical antiquity , the medieval period , and the modern period . The medieval period is itself subdivided into the Early , High , and Late Middle Ages . Istanbul ( or ), historically known as Constantinople and Byzantium , is the most populous city in ___MASK72___ and the country ' s economic , cultural , and historic center . Istanbul is a transcontinental city in Eurasia , straddling the Bosphorus strait ( which separates Europe and Asia ) between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea . Its commercial and historical center lies on the European side and about a third of its population lives on the Asian side . The city is the administrative center of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality ( coterminous with Istanbul Province ), both hosting a population of around 14 . 7 million residents . Istanbul is one of the world ' s most populous cities and ranks as the world ' s 7th - largest city proper and the largest European city . The ___MASK99___ ( Koine and Medieval Greek :    , tr . ) was the post - ___MASK6___ period of the ancient Roman civilization , characterized by government headed by emperors and large territorial holdings around the Mediterranean Sea in Europe , Africa and Asia . The city of Rome was the largest city in the world BC AD , with Constantinople ( New Rome ) becoming the largest around 500 AD , and the Empire ' s populace grew to an estimated 50 to 90 million inhabitants ( roughly 20 % of the world ' s population at the time ). The 500 - year - old republic which preceded it was severely destabilized in a series of civil wars and political conflict , during which Julius Caesar was appointed as perpetual dictator and then assassinated in 44 BC . Civil wars and executions continued , culminating in the victory of Octavian , Caesar ' s adopted son , over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the annexation of ___MASK81___ . Octavian ' s power was then unassailable and in 27 BC the Roman Senate formally granted him overarching power and the new title " Augustus ", effectively marking the end of the ___MASK6___ . Late Antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages in mainland Europe , the Mediterranean world , and the Middle East . The development of the periodization has generally been accredited to historian Peter Brown , after the publication of his seminal work " The World of Late Antiquity " ( 1971 ). Precise boundaries for the period are a continuing matter of debate , but Brown proposes a period between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD . Generally , it can be thought of as from the end of the ___MASK99___ ' s Crisis of the Third Century ( c . 235  284 ) to , in the East , the early Islamic period ( 7th  9th centuries ), following the Muslim conquests in the mid  7th century . In the West the end was earlier , with the start of the Early Medieval period typically placed in the 6th century , or earlier on the Western edges of the empire . Moses ( Bulgarian :  ) ( died 976 ) was a Bulgarian noble , brother of Emperor Samuel of ___MASK48___ and second son of komes Nicholas . After the fall of the eastern parts of the Empire under Byzantine occupation in 971 , he and his brothers David , Aron and Samuel continued the fight to the west . They ruled together and divided the ___MASK54___ into four parts . His lands were centred on Strumitsa , from where he had to launch attacks against the Aegean regions of the Byzantine Empire . In 976 the Bulgarian armies undertook a major assault from all borders and Moses lead his troops to Serres . During the siege of the town , he was mortally hit by a stone and then slain by an enemy sword . David and Aron also perished in the same year and the whole power fell in the hands of Samuel , who became Emperor in 997 after the death of last ruler from the previous dynasty , Roman .