20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

746 Radu BĂltĂŞiu & Emil Ţîrcomnicuwhich reminded him of his Latin origin: “For we too have heard that yourancestors draw their origin from the noble kind of the Roman city”. Inanother letter the Pope addresses Caloian thusly: “And it brings us backto the memory of the blood and of our country from which we descend”.Ioaniţiu Caloian is crowned by the Papal Nuncio on the 4th of November1204 with the title of “Dominus Blacorum et Bulgarorum”, the catholicreligion being acknowledged by all of the churches in the empire. Afterthe conquest and devastation of Constantinople by the IV th crusade and thecrowning of Balduin of Flanders, the diplomatic relationship between theemperor Ioaniţiu and the Pope deteriorated. Ioaniţiu vanquished Balduinde Flandra’s army in the battle of Adrianople (15 April 1205) and severedhis ties with the Pope (thus reverting to Orthodoxy). In the year 1218 IoanAsan the II nd , the son of Asan, was crowned emperor. He ruled until 1241,and after his death the empire began its decline, finally disappearing afterthe Turks conquered Târnovo (in 1393). During his reign he managed tobring the relic of Saint Parascheva to Târnovo.Nicolae Iorga has stated that the Romanian-Bulgarian empire wasactually Romanian (despite the fact that his statement is contested byBulgarian historians, who state that it was Bulgarian in origin): “This statewas founded by Romanians, probably with certain Albanian elements,and this State, which we have christened without any sense whatsoever«Romanian-Bulgarian», took from the Bulgarians, in its beginnings, onlyone thing, and that is its political form. In the Balkans, during that age,you were either «Roman», Byzantine, or, if you were an opponent to the«Roman», you were a Bulgarian, the second political form possible. It isthe same as, from a religious point of view, in the Balkans, up until recently,a great many coined themselves as Greek, not because they were Greek,but because they pertained to the Greek Patriarchate, and others wereconsidered Bulgarians, not because they were Bulgarians, but because theybelonged to the Bulgarian Patriarchate, such as, again, one was considereda Serbian if the was linked to the Serbian Bishop”. (Iorga, 1922: 17)In conclusion, the Romanian state appeared simultaneously bothSouth and North of the Danube, the southern state possessing thefollowing succession: The Romanian-Bulgarian Empire founded by theWallachians Petru and Asan (year 1186) and even southern (voivodatesand principalities), in the centuries X-XIII: Greater Wallachia (Thessaly,Fotida, Pelasgiotida, Locrida), Lesser Wallachia (Epir, Tesproţia) andUpper Wallachia (Dolopia)