The following year the Bulgarians took by storm the Black Sea stronghold of Mesembria (present-day Nessebur), which was considered impregnable, after which they once again routed the troops of the Byzantine Emperor in Eastern Thrace. The tireless Bulgarian ruler was preparing for a decisive attack against the Byzantine capital itself when death interfered with his plans.

Khan Kroum stood at the head of the Bulgarian state for a little over a decade, but during his short rule he laid the sound foundations for a lasting upsurge of the Bulgarian state. His successor Omourtag (814-831) expanded the boundaries of the state to the north-west as far as the River Drava (in present-day Yugoslavia). The administrative restructuring of the state on the territorial principle was ended under him. The autonomy of the Slav princes was definitely done away with and they became district rulers appointed solely by the Khan. Omourtag un-folded unprecedented in scope buiLding activities and left at his death a centralized state with a modern for its time organizational structure.

Omourtag's successors Malamir and Pressian con-tinued the policy of uniting the Balkan Slavs and annexed Central and part of Southern Macedonia to their state. This accelerated still further the process of assimilation of the smalL number of Proto-Bulgarians by the enormous Slav masses.

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