Samuel and the Byzantine Empire

Byzantine christian church had developed a strained relationship with the roman catholic christian church governed from Rome. The western bulgarians appealed to the pope to recognize the remaining bulgarian state as an authentic nation. David and moses lost their lives during these skirmishes. And when basil the second took control of the byzantine empire, he attempted to befriend aaron in order to turn him against samuel  and subjugate the remainder of the bulgarians. This plot seemed to fail, as samuel would turn out to become the sole ruler of western bulgaria. Sam el would make it his business to defy the byzantines by raiding their