The History of the Byzantine Empire

A Turkic peoples called the Bulgars migrated westwards around the northern perimeter of the Black Sea, before settling on the northern Balkan fringes of the Byzantine Empire. The new lands for the Bulgars would incorporate large populations of Slavs that had been displaced by the Panonian Avars. During the 8th century the Byzantines began to lose their grip on northern Italy to the Lombards when the Lombards took control of the city of Ravenna. With the papacy in the Byzantine Empire now at odds with each other the Pope would look to the Franks for protection. Pepin the Short was crowned as the first Carolingian ruler of the Franks and went from strength to strength