244 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



These eastern conquests were not long retained, 

 but on the other hand the semi-independent king 

 dom between the Danube and the Balkan Moun 

 tains became more and more formidable in its 

 rivalry with the imperial government at Constan 

 tinople. In long and obstinate warfare the Bul 

 garians overcame the Serbs, and by the beginning 

 of the tenth century they controlled nearly the 

 whole peninsula from the Black Sea to the Adri 

 atic. At this epoch their kingdom was perhaps 

 as civilized as any in contemporary Europe, if 

 literary culture alone were to be taken as a cri 

 terion. Their noble youth studied Aristotle and 

 Demosthenes in the schools of Constantinople, 

 and the subtleties of theological controversy occu 

 pied their attention no less than the practice of 

 military arts. In a quarrel with the emperor, 

 their Czar Simeon laid siege to the capital and 

 dictated terms of peace at the Golden Horn. But 

 in the next century all this was changed. Such 

 arrogant vassals were not to be tolerated. In a 

 masterly campaign, though sullied by diabolical 

 cruelty, the Emperor Basil II. overthrew the 

 power of the Bulgarians, and, subduing the Serbs 

 likewise, re-established the immediate authority 

 of Constantinople as far as the Danube. 



From this time forth the contest for supremacy 



