1185-1330 CE
From 1185 to 1330 CE, the Bulgars rose again where Byzantium thought them buried — the Asen brothers raising rebellion in Tărnovo, their successors building a second empire that stretched from the Adriatic to the Black Sea. Under Ivan Asen II, Bulgaria briefly dominated the Balkans, his golden coins minted in defiance of Constantinople. Then Mongol tribute and Serbian ambition bled the tsardom dry.