chance to plunder. The conquest was supposed to be easy, and many high-ranking officials and aristocrats accompanied Nicephorus, including his son Stauracius and his brother-in-law Michael I Rangabe. The entire army consisted of approximately 60,000 to 80,000 soldiers. Sack of Pliska The army first assembled in May and by 10 July had established a camp at the fortress of Marcelae (present-day Karnobat) near the Bulgarian frontier. Nicephorus intended to confuse the Bulgarians, and over the next ten days, made several feigned attacks. Krum assessed the situation, estimated that he could not repulse an army of such size and offered peace, which Nicephorus haughtily rejected. Theophanes wrote that the Emperor "was deterred from his own ill thoughts and the suggestions of his advisors who were thinking like him." Some of his military chiefs considered the invasion of Bulgaria to be imprudent, but Nicephorus was confident of his ultimate success. Nicephorus moved ahead, invaded the Bulgarian lands, and marched through the Balkan passes towards the capital of Pliska. On 20 July Nicephorus divided the army into three columns, each marching by a different route towards Pliska. They met little resistance. After three days the Byzantines reached Pliska, defended by 12,000 elite Bulgarian soldiers. The Byzantines defeated the Bulgarian defenders and an additional Bulgarian army of 15,000 which was hastily assembled. On 23 July, the Byzantines quickly entered the defenseless capital sacking the city and the surrounding countryside. Krum attempted once again to negotiate a peace. According to the historian Theophanes, Krum's proclamation stated, "Here you are, you have won. So take what you please and go with peace." Nicephorus, overconfident from his success, ignored him believing that all of Bulgaria could be conquered. Michael the Syrian, patriarch of the Syrian Jacobites in the twelfth century, described in his Chronicle the brutalities and atrocities of Nicephorus's troops: "Nicephorus, emperor of the Romans, walked in the Bulgarians' land: he was victorious and killed a great number of them. He reached their capital, took it over, and devastated it. His savagery went to such a point that he had their small children brought out, tied to the ground, and crushed with millstones. The Byzantine soldiers looted and plundered; burnt down the unharvested fields, cut the tendons of the oxen, slaughtered sheep and pigs." The Emperor took over Krum's treasury, locked it and did not allow his troops to reach it. Battle While Nicephorus and his