Boris II (Bulgaria)

Triumphal procession in Constantinople 971. The imperial triumphal chariot with the image of the Mother of God drives in front of Emperor Tzimiskes. Behind him rides the defeated Tsar Boris II. Miniature in the Madrid illuminated manuscript of the Skylitz , fol. 220v.

Boris II (Bulgarian: Борис ; * 929 ?; † 977 ) was Tsar of Bulgaria in the 10th century and ruled the Bulgarian Empire from 970 to 977.

He was the son and heir to the throne of Tsar Peter I and Maria-Irene of Byzantium, daughter of Christophoros Lakapenos and granddaughter of the Byzantine emperor Romanos I. It is believed that he belonged to the influential Bulgarian ruling family Dulo (later Krum ). From 963 he was hostage of the Byzantine emperor Nikephorus II Phocas together with his brother Roman . When his father Peter I died in 970, he returned to Bulgaria with his brother. But the eastern part of the Bulgarian Empire was overrun by the Prince of Kiev , Svyatoslav . Under pressure from Knjaz Svyatoslav he had to send part of the Bulgarian army against the new Byzantine emperor Johannes Tzimiskes . When the Byzantine Emperor Johannes Tzimiskes invaded the country in 971 under the pretext of saving Bulgaria from the Russians , he could do little to counteract it. Johannes Tzimiskes struck down the Russians and sacked the Bulgarian eastern provinces with the capital Preslav . The western part of the empire continued to be ruled by the Komitopuli . He took the tsar himself and his brother Roman again into captivity in Constantinople. There Boris II had to publicly surrender his symbols of power and received the usual Byzantine title of Magistros , but he officially remained Tsar of the Bulgarians.

In 977, Tsar Boris II and his brother managed to escape from Constantinople, but the Tsar perished on the Bulgarian-Byzantine border under unexplained circumstances. He was succeeded by his brother, Tsar Roman, who was supported by the Komitopuli.

literature

• Alexander Kazhdan (Ed.): The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium , Volume 1. Oxford University Press, New York 1991, ISBN 0-19-504652-8 , pp. 310-311.
• Detlef Kulman: Boris II. , In: Biographical Lexicon for the History of Southeast Europe . Vol. 1. Munich 1974, p. 238 f.
• Warren Treadgold: A History of the Byzantine State and Society , Stanford University Press, ISBN 0-8047-2630-2
• Friedhelm Winkelmann u. a .: Prosopography of the Middle Byzantine period . 2. Department, Vol. 1, De Gruyter, Berlin 2013, ISBN 3-11-016674-7 , pp. 726–728, no. 21198.

predecessor	Office	successor
Peter I.	Tsar of Bulgaria 970-977	novel