Bulgaria

Anciently Mœsia , now part of European Turkey. The Bulgarians were a Slavonian tribe, who hara ed the Eastern empire and Italy from 499 to 678, when they established a kingdom. They defeated Just in i an II., 687; but were subdued, after several conflicts, by the emperor Basil in 1018. After defeating them in 1014, having taken 15,000 Bulgarian prisoners, he caused their eyes to be put out, leaving one eye only to every hundredth man, to enable him to conduct his countrymen home. The kingdom was re-established in 1086; but after many changes, was annexed to the Ottoman empire, 1396.