WI: Simeon I captures Constantinople in 925

let's say somehow Tsar Simeon I of the First Bulgarian Emperor manages to capture Constantinople in 925 and crown himself the Byzantine Emperor (probably with Constantine VII as co-emperor).... what would happen next?

would Bulgaria be eventually integrated into Byzantium (maybe after Simeon's weaker sons get the throne)?

would Byzantium decay from there, with Bulgaria seizing much of the European empire and Greek warlords breaking free in Anatolia?

what else?
 
And how is Symeon passes through the HUGE walls of Constantinople in order to capture it??

the walls did not deter him from attacking at least six times during his life... presumably he had some strategy to capture it... I don't know though.

Let's assume somehow Simeon does get past the walls.
 
money is the root of all evil....
Love of Money is the Root of all Evil

As his power Base would be his control of Bulgaria, He would use Byzantine resources to secure his Northern Border. [?expand?]

This would give the Byzantines a much larger Black Sea Presence.
 
Did he actually crave the title of Basileus? Or was he simply a Bulgarian nationalist?

I'm inclined to think the latter, he wanted the Byzantine throne.



but so this doesn't get bogged down, assume Simeon uses treachery to capture the city then. what happens next?
 
Actually in order to get rid of Symeon Patriarch Nicholas I (who was a Regent for Constantine VII too) played a trick on him...
They were met in a church outside Constantinople near Blachernai where they concluded a peace treaty and he performed a weird ceremony in which he crowned him not with a Crown but with his own Mitre... Symeon believed that he was crowned co-Emperor while Patriarch Nicholas had only crowned him Emperor of Bulgarians... Patriarch Nicholas and all the participants kept it a secret which was revealed only when Constantine VII removed Nicholas I from power...
 
let's say that doesn't happen, Simeon successfully gets the throne.

would (as the first replier posted) his sons be excluded from succession, and Bulgaria is integrated into Byzantium a century early? or could his dynasty have held co-emperorship for a while, making Byzantium into a kind of dual monarchy?
 
Hate to bump:

Reading a timeline (A Song of Roland.... I think) had Simeon capture Constantinople and the Arabs invade Anatolia in response. Would that be a likely outcome, do you think?
 
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