Adrianople

   The most important Byzantine city in Thrace (q.v.). Its position astride the main military road from Belgrade to Constantinople (qq.v.) meant that it was often besieged by invaders from the north, including Avars, Bulgars, Serbs, and Pechenegs (qq.v.). At the famous Battle of Adrianople (378), Goths killed the emperor Valens (qq.v.) and routed his army. The city's vulnerability to attacks from Bulgaria (Krum [q.v.] occupied the city briefly) turned it into a strategic center for military expeditions against Bulgaria (q.v.). Frederick I Barbarossa (q.v.) seized Adrianople briefly in 1190 during the Third Crusade (q.v.), and after the Fourth Crusade (q.v.) Baldwin of Flanders (q.v.) was defeated there (1205). John III Vatatzes (q.v.) occupied the city from 1242-1246. It was finally lost to Byzantium (q.v) around 1369 when the Ottomans (q.v.) captured it. Soon thereafter it became their capital, and it remained such until the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453.