"If, therefore, you desire to be called Emperor of the Rhomaioi, you are free, if you wish, to proclaim yourself lord of the whole earth as well, even though you have never possessed so much as the smallest part of it as your dwelling, if such grand pretensions please you. If you prefer, you may even style yourself commander (amermoumnen/emir) of the Saracens, so that you may appear all the more formidable to those who hear of you. I say this not merely in jest, but like the woman in the fable who named her child Long-lived (Polychronios) 😅, though he died shortly thereafter.

But if anyone ought to be called Emperor of the Rhomaioi and the Bulgarians, it is rather we who ought to bear that title, for we received it from God Himself and believe that it is from Him that we have been entrusted with imperial authority, not you, who strive to acquire it through bloodshed and slaughter.

Yet what advantage is there in all this? What benefit or gain accrues to us if we adorn ourselves with titles that properly belong to others? Do not imagine, spiritual brother, that even if you were to conquer the entire West and take all its inhabitants captive, you would thereby deserve to be called Emperor of the Rhomaioi. They did not voluntarily submit themselves to you; rather, they were subjugated by force and war. Escaping from your dominion, they flee to us as to their own kinsmen. There are, in fact, some twenty thousand Bulgarians who have fled to the peaceful dominion of our Empire, having rejected your war-loving disposition and your irreconcilable policy.

What then? Shall we, on that account, call ourselves Emperors of the Rhomaioi and the Bulgarians? May the Lord never permit us to abandon our own rightful title in order to glorify ourselves with the names of others, and thereby incur condemnation as unjust men and usurpers.

And of which Rhomaioi do you call yourself emperor? Of those whom you have subdued? Or of those who have been handed over to unbelieving nations and condemned to slavery? As for the rest, you are not ignorant of what they think and say about you.

Therefore, listen rather to me, spiritual brother, than to the false prophets and diviners around you, who deceive you and lead your mind astray. They have been exposed as liars and will be exposed still more clearly, as your affairs continue to decline, if only you are willing to see it.

But I fear that, while calling yourself Emperor of the Rhomaioi, you may even lose your own kingdom. Then you will remember well the wisdom I have offered you, wisdom which you mocked and ridiculed by calling it πανουργία ("craftiness"), while you yourself remain blind to the Scriptures."

Credit to @AlYunan00 on X!

Btw the HREboos, Ottomanboos and other LARPers should take notes.

Romanos Lekapenos dissed wannabe Romans (LARPers) in a letter to Bulgarian Tsar Simeon I who claimed the title "Emperor of the Bulgarians and the Romans"