At the beginning, Pavle ruled as a Bulgarian protégé. This prompted the new Byzantine emperor, Romanos I Lekapenos, to organize a party in 921 to overthrow Pavle. The campaign was headed by Pribislav's son, Zaharija Pribislavljević, who lived in Constantinople at the time, in the Romanos' court. He was defeated and Pavle sent him to Bulgaria as a prisoner. In 923 Pavle turned against his sponsors, the Bulgarians, so Zaharija was again dispatched against him, now by Simeon. This time he was successful, expelling Pavle and taking over the rule himself. But Zaharija soon switched back to his original allies, the Byzantines. Simeon sent an army to conquer the shifty archon. His troops, headed by Theodore Sigritsa and Marmais attacked the Serbs in 924, but were defeated. Both commanders were killed and their heads, so as the confiscated weapons, were sent to the Byzantine emperor as the trophies. Later that year Simeon sent much larger army. Among the soldier was Klonimir's son, Časlav Klonimirović. In front of the much larger Bulgarian army, Zaharija fled to Croatia.