The Klokotnitsa inscription
Original — Middle Bulgarian (Cyrillic)
Въ лѣто ҂ѕ҃ѱ҃л҃и҃ индиктионъ г҃ азъ Іѡанъ Асѣнь въ Христа Бога вѣрьнъ цѣсарь и самодрьжьць блъгаромъ, сынъ стараго Асѣнѣ цѣсарѣ, съзьдахъ отъ основаніа и дописахъ живописаніемь црькъвь сиѫ въ имѧ свѧтыихъ ҃м҃ мѫченикъ, ихъже помощіѫ въ ҃в҃і҃ лѣто цѣсарьства моего изидохъ на Романіѫ на воинѫ и разбихъ грьчьскѫѫ воискѫ и самого цѣсарѣ кѵръ Ѳеодора Комнина ѫхъ съ вьсѣми боляры его, и вьсѫ землѧ попленихъ отъ Одрина и до Драча, грьчьскѫ же еще и алъбаньскѫѫ и сръбьскѫѫ.
Translation
In the year 6738, indiction 3, I, Ivan Asen, in Christ God faithful tsar and autocrat of the Bulgarians, son of the old Tsar Asen, built this church from its foundations and finished it with paintings in the name of the Holy Forty Martyrs, by whose help in the twelfth year of my reign I went out to Romania to war and defeated the Greek army, and took captive the emperor himself, kyr Theodore Komnenos, with all his boyars, and I took all the land from Adrianople to Dyrrachion, the Greek land and also the Albanian and the Serbian.
This transcription has not yet been checked against a facsimile. Treat the reading as provisional.
Note: The year 6738 from the creation of the world is 1230 CE, the year of Klokotnitsa. The list of lands — Adrianople to Dyrrachion, Greek, Albanian and Serbian — is the empire's own statement of its extent, and the reason the inscription is cited in almost every account of the campaign.