lands of modern Serbia and Montenegro and efficiently eliminated the Magyar threat from the north. Counted among Bulgaria's greatest leaders, Simeon was a benefactor of literature and the arts; his reign is considered the "Golden Age" of medieval Bulgarian culture because of Bulgaria's literary influence over contemporary Slavic Europe. The city of Preslav was made the capital of Bulgaria early in Simeon's reign, partly because of the former capital Pliska's association with pre-Christian paganism. Simeon turned Preslav into a cultural centre, a true rival to Constantinople. Some of the most eminent scholars of Bulgaria's Golden Age worked at the Preslav Literary School. Intended more as a royal residence and a showcase of cultural power than a fortress, the city boasted impressive architecture, including a large number of characteristic palaces and dozens of churches. Among them the Round Church, regarded as "one of the most impressive monuments of medieval Bulgarian architecture" and an "expression of the highest achievements of Old Bulgarian culture", stood out. Identification and history The Round Church is popularly identified with the "new golden church" referenced in a colophon to an Old Bulgarian translation of Athanasius of Alexandria's Orations Against the Arians. The text says that the translation was done on the order of Prince Simeon by Constantine of Preslav and copied by Theodore Dox, "at the mouth of the Ticha in the [Byzantine] year 6415 indiction 14 [907 AD], where the same prince had the holy new golden church built". It is uncertain whether the "mouth of the Ticha" refers to a narrow section of the river, to the Ustie pass near the city, or possibly to a certain location next to the outer city walls and in the direct vicinity of the Round Church ruins. This problem aside, if "golden" is to be taken literally, the source is also unclear as to whether the church is the new one among the city's golden churches, or the single golden one among the new churches in Preslav. Scholar Stancho Vaklinov considers the identification of the Round Church as the "new golden church" from literature "incontestable", while art historian Nikola Mavrodinov is of the opinion that it is probable. On the other hand, historian A. P. Vlasto believes this identification to be "not absolutely certain". If the church from the marginal note is equated with the Round Church, then it can be conclusively dated to no more than a