Samuil (Bulgaria)

Samuil's army takes Edessa .

Forensic facial reconstruction of the suspected corpse at Lake Prespa.

Samuil ( Bulgarian Самуил or Samuel and Samoil , * 958 - 6 October 1014 ) was one of the last tsars of the first Bulgarian empire from 997 to 1014 . During his reign, Ohrid became the capital of the Bulgarian Empire on the lake of the same name .

Life

According to the Samuis inscription from 993, one of the oldest Cyrillic inscriptions, Samuil was a son of the Bulgarian comitologist from Serdica Nikola and Ripsimia. His brothers David, Moses and Aron founded the Bulgarian Athos monastery in Zographou in the 10th century. According to Cedrenus, David murdered nomadic Wallachians in the mountains (Epirus) between Kastoria and Prespa at a place called "beautiful oaks". Moses fell against the Byzantines in defense of Seres. Aron was later executed for treason against Byzantium on the orders of his youngest brother Samuil.

Samuil waged a war that lasted 40 years and was devastating for Byzantium, in which the Byzantine Emperor Basil II prevailed from 977 as a military leader and from 997 as Tsar of Bulgaria . For years, several battles secured Samuil a military advantage in which he restored the Bulgarian Empire to the northeast and expanded it to the southwest as far as Larissa and Thessaloniki. The decisive battle of Kleidion took place in 1014 in the Strymontal in the Belasiza Mountains. 15,000 Bulgarian warriors were captured, blinded and sent to Samuil's residence at Prespa . At the sight of the blinded, Tsar Samuil is said to have had a stroke; in any case, he died shortly afterwards. From now on, Basil II is known in historical sources as Bulgaroktónos (Bulgarian slayer ). Bulgaria was soon divided into five Byzantine themes (provinces) and this division was maintained until the restoration of Bulgaria in 1185.

Under the reign of Tsar Samuil, the Archdiocese of Ohrid was named a Bulgarian Orthodox Patriarchate Church. Patriarch was Germanus I. After the conquest by Byzantium, the patriarchate of Ohrid was reduced to an archbishopric again, but remained autocephalous .

tomb

The remains of the " Agios Achillios " basilica .

In 1969 the Greek archaeologist Professor Nikolaos Moutsopoulos led the excavations in the basilica " Agios Achillios " on the island of the same name in the Little Prespa Lake in northern Greece. He discovered four sarcophagi in the right naos of the basilica, which had been richly buried, but were robbed by grave robbers in the Middle Ages. Although there are no inscriptions, Moutsopoulos assumed that they were the three tombs of the last tsars of the First Bulgarian Empire: Samuil, Ivan Wladislaw and Gawril Radomir . According to Moutsopoulos, the fourth sarcophagus is the burial place of Ivan Vladimir , brother-in-law of Ivan Wladislaw.

The remains of the people from the sarcophagi are now in the professor's laboratory in Thessaloniki . He has offered them to the Bulgarian state several times if he would get some Byzantine writings in return.

meaning

Southeast Europe around the year 1000

As with other national symbols in the region, both Bulgaria and - since the 1990s - Macedonia each claim Tsar Samuil for themselves. The discussion about whether Samuil was ruler of a Macedonian ( western Bulgarian ) or a Bulgarian state is ahistorical, however, as it represents an attempt to project ethnic ideas of the present into the past. On the adjoining map, the Southeast Europe shows around the year 1000, can be seen also a region which throughout the Middle Ages (10th-13th century.) The name "Macedonia" (on the map English Macedonia contributes): the Byzantine Macedonia around Adrianople ( eastern Thrace ). The geographical location of this region at that time did not coincide with either ancient Macedonia or today's Republic of Macedonia . In green you can see the Bulgarian Empire under Samuil on the map as Bulgaria , which included today's Macedonia, but also large areas beyond. Archaeological evidence of Bitola and Ohrid belonging to the Bulgarian state of Samuils contains the Bitola inscription by Tsar Ivan Wladislaw from 1015/16, found in 1956 during the destruction of the Caush Mosque in Bitola. The inscription comes from the Samuils fortress in Bitola and names the names of Samuils and his parents and Bulgarian affiliation of the fortress and country. The marble tablet was kept secret in the museum depot until the 1990s. There is no accompanying inscription in the Museum of Bitola. The Bitola inscription from 1015/16, the Samuils inscription from Prespa from 993, the grave inscription of Chargubil Mostic from Preslav from 950 and the inscription from Varosch from 996 are among the oldest Cyrillic inscriptions.

Tsar Samuil in literature

The biography and epoch in which Tsar Samuil lived has inspired a number of writers and artists. The trilogy of the author Dimitar Talew Самуил - цар български (to German about Samuil-Bulgarian Tsar) is based both on historical facts, as well as on the author's point of view.

The battle of Belasitsa is mentioned in the poem The Landwehr soldiers on Shipka (Bulgarian Опълченците на Шипка) by Ivan Wasow . The poem by Pencho Slawejkow Цар Самуил (in German: Tsar Samuil) is also associated with the battle . The poet Atanas Daltschew mentions the "deluded soldiers of Samuil" (from the Bulgarian ослепелите бойци на Самуила ) in his work Към родината (in German roughly: To the homeland).

See also

• List of rulers of Bulgaria
• Samuel Point , a headland named after Samuil on Livingston Island in Antarctica

literature

• Paul Meinhard Strässle: War and Warfare in Byzantium. The wars of Emperor Basil II against the Bulgarians. (976-1019), Böhlau Verlag, Cologne 2006, ISBN 978-3-412-17405-7 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Brockhaus , 2006, Volume 23, ISBN 3-7653-4123-1
2. ^ Ohrid in Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages , Routledge, 2000, ISBN 1-57958-282-6
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Lexicon of the Middle Ages , 2002, Volume VII., ISBN 3-423-59057-2
4. ↑ "Synopis Istorion" Georgii Cedrenus, Paris, 1864
5. ^ "History of the Bulgarians", Constantin Jirecek, Prague, 1876
6. ^ ^{A b} Samuel of Bulgaria in The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
7. ↑ Nikolaos Moutsopoulos: Базиликата "Свети Ахилий" в Преспа. Един исторически паметник-светиня (in English: The Basilica of Agios Achillios in Prespa. A historical site), Sofia, 2007.
8. ↑ в. "Стандарт" , January 14, 2007, Държат в шкаф костите на Самуил
9. ↑ Проф. Казимир Попконстантинов: Предложението за размяна на самуиловите кости е провокация от Гъреция , от Гърециц , от Гърециц , от Гърециц , от Гърециц , от Гъреция , February 15, 2007. Retrieved April 28, 2007. 
10. ^ Macedonia in Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
11. ↑ Димитър Талев, " Самуил - цар български ". Volume 1, Sofia, 1998, p. 361 ISBN 954-584-238-5 : За своя роман "Самуил-цар български" and аз използувах почти всички устокти всички устанана каички факти, каички факти, каички ускти, каички факти, каички сванасв ваички свачан ваички. Исках моят роман да има познавателно значение, да бъде щит на историческата правда и съкрушително оръжие срещу някои лъжеисторици в Скопие , които се опитват да фалшифицират историята [...] В този роман е поставен един голям за нас , българите, въпрос - въпросът за държавата. Там са вложени много от ония неща, които са валидни и днес за отношението на нашия човек към държавата и отношението на държавата към човека [...] Романът е наситен с много от големите и малки въпроси за човека и за неговия живот , за човешките страсти и падения, за душевната мощ в човека, за неговите благородни пориви, за все ое нему ... все още немов ...
12. ↑ Ivan Wasow, "The Landwehr Soldiers on Shipka" (Bulgarian)
13. ↑ Pentscho Slawejkow, "Цар Самуил"
14. ↑ Atanas Daltschew, An die Heimat (Bulgarian) ( Memento of the original from July 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

predecessor	Office	successor
novel	Tsar of Bulgaria 997-1014	Gavril Radomir