Kievan Rus'
151-612: Samuel (also Samoil or Samuil ; Bulgarian : Самуил , pronounced [sɐmuˈiɫ] ; Macedonian : Самоил/Самуил , pronounced [samɔˈiɫ/sɐmuˈiɫ] ; Old Church Slavonic : Самоилъ; died 6 October 1014) was the Tsar ( Emperor ) of the First Bulgarian Empire from 997 to 6 October 1014. From 977 to 997, he was a general under Roman I of Bulgaria , the second surviving son of Emperor Peter I of Bulgaria , and co-ruled with him, as Roman bestowed upon him
302-532: A consonant and are feminine, as well as nouns that end in –а/–я (most of which are feminine, too) use –та. Nouns that end in –е/–о use –то. The plural definite article is –те for all nouns except for those whose plural form ends in –а/–я; these get –та instead. When postfixed to adjectives the definite articles are –ят/–я for masculine gender (again, with the longer form being reserved for grammatical subjects), –та for feminine gender, –то for neuter gender, and –те for plural. Both groups agree in gender and number with
453-528: A dialect continuum, and there is no well-defined boundary where one language ends and the other begins. Within the limits of the Republic of North Macedonia a strong separate Macedonian identity has emerged since the Second World War, even though there still are a small number of citizens who identify their language as Bulgarian. Beyond the borders of North Macedonia, the situation is more fluid, and
604-463: A geographical term referred to part of the region of modern Thrace . The "Macedonian" emperors of that period were Basil II, called " Bulgar-Slayer ", and his Byzantine relatives from the Macedonian dynasty , originating from the territory of today's European Turkey . Most of the modern region of Macedonia was then a Bulgarian province known as Kutmichevitsa . The area was incorporated into
755-553: A large army to the town and appointed a new governor, Gregorios Taronites , but he was powerless to stop the Bulgarian advance. By 989, the Bulgarian troops had penetrated deep into Byzantine territory, and seized many fortresses, including such important cities as Veria and Servia . In the south, the Bulgarians marched throughout Epirus and in the west they seized the area of modern Durrës (medieval Dyrrhachium or Drach) on
906-564: A large expedition, which eventually defeated Sviatoslav the next year. In 965 or 966, a Bulgarian embassy visited the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros II Phokas (r. 963–969) at Constantinople to receive the annual tribute that had been agreed by the two powers as the price of peace in 927. Phokas, flush and self-confident from a series of victories against the Arabs in the East that had led to
1057-502: A middle ground between the macrodialects. It allows palatalizaton only before central and back vowels and only partial reduction of / a / and / ɔ / . Reduction of / ɛ / , consonant palatalisation before front vowels and depalatalization of palatalized consonants before central and back vowels is strongly discouraged and labelled as provincial. Bulgarian has six vowel phonemes, but at least eight distinct phones can be distinguished when reduced allophones are taken into consideration. There
1208-446: A much smaller group of irregular nouns with zero ending which define tangible objects or concepts ( кръв /krɤf/ 'blood', кост /kɔst/ 'bone', вечер /ˈvɛtʃɛr/ 'evening', нощ /nɔʃt/ 'night'). There are also some commonly used words that end in a vowel and yet are masculine: баща 'father', дядо 'grandfather', чичо / вуйчо 'uncle', and others. The plural forms of the nouns do not express their gender as clearly as
1359-490: A number of phraseological units and sayings. The major exception are vocative forms, which are still in use for masculine (with the endings -е, -о and -ю) and feminine nouns (-[ь/й]о and -е) in the singular. In modern Bulgarian, definiteness is expressed by a definite article which is postfixed to the noun, much like in the Scandinavian languages or Romanian (indefinite: човек , 'person'; definite: човек ът , "
1510-623: A powerful Rus' force, along with many Bulgarians and a Pecheneg contingent, was sent south over the Balkan Mountains. After sacking the city of Philippopolis (modern Plovdiv ) in Thrace, they bypassed the heavily defended city of Adrianople and turned towards Constantinople . The size of the Rus' army, and whether it comprised the entirety of Sviatoslav's forces or just a division, is unclear. John Skylitzes , for instance, implies that this
1661-510: A recent agreement, they may be returned to Bulgaria and buried in the SS. Forty Martyrs Church in Veliko Tarnovo , to rest with the remains of Emperors Kaloyan and Michael Shishman . Samuel's face was reconstructed to restore the appearance of the 70-year-old Bulgarian ruler. According to the reconstruction, he was a sharp-faced man, bald-headed, with a white beard and moustache. Samuel
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#17327647992191812-544: A result of this conflict, the marriage between Gavril Radomir and the Hungarian princess was dissolved. The Hungarians then attacked Ahtum, who had directly backed the pretenders for the Hungarian crown. Stephen I convinced Hanadin, Ahtum's right-hand man, to help in the attack. When the conspiracy was uncovered Hanadin fled and joined the Hungarian forces. At the same time, a strong Byzantine army besieged Vidin, Ahtum's seat. Although many soldiers were required to participate in
1963-531: A special count form in –а/–я , which stems from the Proto-Slavonic dual : два/три стола ('two/three chairs') versus тези столове ('these chairs'); cf. feminine две/три/тези книги ('two/three/these books') and neuter две/три/тези легла ('two/three/these beds'). However, a recently developed language norm requires that count forms should only be used with masculine nouns that do not denote persons. Thus, двама/трима ученици ('two/three students')
2114-530: A stroke and abdicated his throne in 969 (he died the next year). Boris was allowed back to Bulgaria to take his father's throne, restore order and oppose Sviatoslav, but had little success. This was allegedly used by Nicholas and his sons, who were contemplating a revolt in 969. The Rus' invaded Byzantine Thrace in 970, but suffered a defeat in the Battle of Arcadiopolis . The new Byzantine Emperor John Tzimiskes used this to his advantage. He quickly invaded Bulgaria
2265-400: A thick wooden wall in the gorges around the village of Klyuch (also Kleidion , "key") to bar the enemy's way. When Basil II launched his next campaign in the summer of 1014, his army suffered heavy casualties during the assaults on the wall. Meanwhile, Samuel sent forces under his general Nestoritsa to attack Thessaloniki so as to distract Basil's forces away from this campaign. Nestoritsa
2416-635: Is " Ye lena Yankovich" ( Йелена Янкович ). Until the period immediately following the Second World War , all Bulgarian and the majority of foreign linguists referred to the South Slavic dialect continuum spanning the area of modern Bulgaria, North Macedonia and parts of Northern Greece as a group of Bulgarian dialects. In contrast, Serbian sources tended to label them "south Serbian" dialects. Some local naming conventions included bolgárski , bugárski and so forth. The codifiers of
2567-647: Is also a significant Bulgarian diaspora abroad. One of the main historically established communities are the Bessarabian Bulgarians , whose settlement in the Bessarabia region of nowadays Moldova and Ukraine dates mostly to the early 19th century. There were 134,000 Bulgarian speakers in Ukraine at the 2001 census, 41,800 in Moldova as of the 2014 census (of which 15,300 were habitual users of
2718-694: Is among the most renowned Bulgarian rulers. His military struggle with the Byzantine Empire is marked as an epic period of Bulgarian history. The great number of monuments and memorials in Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia, such as the ones in Petrich and Ohrid , signify the trail this historical figure has left in the memory of the people. Four Bulgarian villages bear his name, as well as Samuel Point on Livingston Island , Antarctica . Samuel
2869-496: Is based on a general consensus reached by all major Bulgarian linguists in the 1930s and 1940s. In turn, the 39-consonant model was launched in the beginning of the 1950s under the influence of the ideas of Russian linguist Nikolai Trubetzkoy . Despite frequent objections, the support of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences has ensured Trubetzkoy's model virtual monopoly in state-issued phonologies and grammars since
3020-433: Is common in all modern Slavic languages (e.g. Czech medv ě d /ˈmɛdvjɛt/ "bear", Polish p ię ć /pʲɛ̃tɕ/ "five", Serbo-Croatian je len /jělen/ "deer", Ukrainian нема є /nemájɛ/ "there is not ...", Macedonian пишува ње /piʃuvaɲʲɛ/ "writing", etc.), as well as some Western Bulgarian dialectal forms – e.g. ора̀н’е /oˈraɲʲɛ/ (standard Bulgarian: оране /oˈranɛ/ , "ploughing"), however it
3171-405: Is currently no consensus on the number of Bulgarian consonants, with one school of thought advocating for the existence of only 22 consonant phonemes and another one claiming that there are not fewer than 39 consonant phonemes. The main bone of contention is how to treat palatalized consonants : as separate phonemes or as allophones of their respective plain counterparts. The 22-consonant model
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#17327647992193322-817: Is mainly split into two broad dialect areas, based on the different reflexes of the Proto-Slavic yat vowel (Ѣ). This split, which occurred at some point during the Middle Ages, led to the development of Bulgaria's: The literary language norm, which is generally based on the Eastern dialects, also has the Eastern alternating reflex of yat . However, it has not incorporated the general Eastern umlaut of all synchronic or even historic "ya" sounds into "e" before front vowels – e.g. поляна ( polyana ) vs. полени ( poleni ) "meadow – meadows" or even жаба ( zhaba ) vs. жеби ( zhebi ) "frog – frogs", even though it co-occurs with
3473-626: Is not known. Cometopuli is the nickname used by Byzantine historians which is translated as "sons of the count". The Cometopuli rose to power out of the disorder that occurred in the Bulgarian Empire from 966 to 971. During the reign of Emperor Peter I , Bulgaria prospered in a long-lasting peace with Byzantium. This was secured by the marriage of Peter with the Byzantine princess Maria Lakapina , granddaughter of Byzantine Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos . However, after Maria's death in 963,
3624-479: Is not represented in standard Bulgarian speech or writing. Even where /jɛ/ occurs in other Slavic words, in Standard Bulgarian it is usually transcribed and pronounced as pure /ɛ/ – e.g. Boris Yeltsin is "Eltsin" ( Борис Елцин ), Yekaterinburg is "Ekaterinburg" ( Екатеринбург ) and Sarajevo is "Saraevo" ( Сараево ), although – because of the stress and the beginning of the word – Jelena Janković
3775-478: Is one more to describe a general category of unwitnessed events – the inferential (преизказно /prɛˈiskɐzno/ ) mood. However, most contemporary Bulgarian linguists usually exclude the subjunctive mood and the inferential mood from the list of Bulgarian moods (thus placing the number of Bulgarian moods at a total of 3: indicative, imperative and conditional) and do not consider them to be moods but view them as verbial morphosyntactic constructs or separate gramemes of
3926-401: Is perceived as more correct than двама/трима ученика , while the distinction is retained in cases such as два/три молива ('two/three pencils') versus тези моливи ('these pencils'). Cases exist only in the personal and some other pronouns (as they do in many other modern Indo-European languages ), with nominative , accusative , dative and vocative forms. Vestiges are present in
4077-418: Is that mutable parts of speech vary grammatically, whereas the immutable ones do not change, regardless of their use. The five classes of mutables are: nouns , adjectives , numerals , pronouns and verbs . Syntactically, the first four of these form the group of the noun or the nominal group. The immutables are: adverbs , prepositions , conjunctions , particles and interjections . Verbs and adverbs form
4228-652: Is the Service of Saint Cyril from Skopje (Скопски миней), a 13th-century Middle Bulgarian manuscript from northern Macedonia according to which St. Cyril preached with "Bulgarian" books among the Moravian Slavs. The first mention of the language as the "Bulgarian language" instead of the "Slavonic language" comes in the work of the Greek clergy of the Archbishopric of Ohrid in the 11th century, for example in
4379-659: Is the language of the Bulgarians . Along with the closely related Macedonian language (collectively forming the East South Slavic languages ), it is a member of the Balkan sprachbund and South Slavic dialect continuum of the Indo-European language family . The two languages have several characteristics that set them apart from all other Slavic languages , including the elimination of case declension ,
4530-551: Is the main figure in at least three major Bulgarian novels by authors Dimitar Talev , Anton Donchev and Stefan Tsanev and also stars in the Greek novel "At the Times of the Bulgarian-Slayer" by Penelope Delta , who closely follows the narrative flow of events as presented by St. Runciman. He is mentioned in the verse of Ivan Vazov , Pencho Slaveykov , and Atanas Dalchev as well. Samuel's empire had its heartlands in
4681-399: Is used, and the choice between them is partly determined by their ending in singular and partly influenced by gender; in addition, irregular declension and alternative plural forms are common. Words ending in –а/–я (which are usually feminine) generally have the plural ending –и , upon dropping of the singular ending. Of nouns ending in a consonant, the feminine ones also use –и , whereas
Samuel of Bulgaria - Misplaced Pages Continue
4832-522: The Adriatic Sea . In 989, Phocas was killed and his followers surrendered, and the following year Basil II reached an agreement with Skleros. The Byzantines focused their attention on Bulgaria, and counter-attacked in 991. The Bulgarian army was defeated and Roman was captured while Samuel managed to escape. The Byzantines conquered some areas; in 995, however, the Arabs invaded Asia Minor and Basil II
4983-530: The Aegean coast and Serres . Aaron ruled from Sredets, and was to defend the main road from Adrianople to Belgrade , and to attack Thrace . Samuel ruled northwestern Bulgaria from the strong fortress of Vidin . He was also to organize the liberation of the conquered areas to the east, including the old capital Preslav. Some records suggest that David played a major role in this tumultuous period of Bulgarian history. After John I Tzimiskes died on 11 January 976,
5134-551: The Balkan language area (mostly grammatically) and later also by Turkish , which was the official language of the Ottoman Empire , in the form of the Ottoman Turkish language , mostly lexically. The damaskin texts mark the transition from Middle Bulgarian to New Bulgarian, which was standardized in the 19th century. As a national revival occurred toward the end of the period of Ottoman rule (mostly during
5285-625: The Balkans (with the notable exception of Thrace ) as far as southern Greece . He moved the capital from Skopje to Ohrid , which had been the cultural and military centre of southwestern Bulgaria since Boris I 's rule, and made the city the seat of the Bulgarian Patriarchate . Because of this, his realm is sometimes called the Western Bulgarian Empire . Samuel's energetic reign restored Bulgarian might on
5436-567: The Balkans , and a large part of the Bulgarian nobility appeared to side with the Rus' prince. The emperor, however, was murdered in December 969, and it fell to his successor, John I Tzimiskes (r. 969–976), to deal with the Rus' threat. Sviatoslav now turned his sights on Byzantium, and to John's entreaties for peace he allegedly answered that the Empire should abandon its European territories to him and withdraw to Asia Minor . Tzimiskes himself
5587-714: The Bulgarian Empire introduced the Glagolitic alphabet which was devised by the Saints Cyril and Methodius in the 850s. The Glagolitic alphabet was gradually superseded in later centuries by the Cyrillic script , developed around the Preslav Literary School , Bulgaria in the late 9th century. Several Cyrillic alphabets with 28 to 44 letters were used in the beginning and the middle of
5738-575: The Greek hagiography of Clement of Ohrid by Theophylact of Ohrid (late 11th century). During the Middle Bulgarian period, the language underwent dramatic changes, losing the Slavonic case system , but preserving the rich verb system (while the development was exactly the opposite in other Slavic languages) and developing a definite article. It was influenced by its non-Slavic neighbors in
5889-622: The Magyars when his eldest son and heir, Gavril Radomir, married the daughter of the Hungarian Grand Prince Géza . The beginning of the new millennium saw a turn in the course of Byzantine-Bulgarian warfare. Basil II had amassed an army larger and stronger than that of the Bulgarians: determined to definitively conquer Bulgaria, he moved much of the battle-seasoned military forces from the eastern campaigns against
6040-725: The Pope , which would be a serious blow to the position of the Byzantines in the Balkans and would weaken the influence of the Patriarch of Constantinople , thereby benefiting both the See of Rome and Bulgaria. Samuel possibly received his imperial crown from Pope Gregory V . In 998, Samuel launched a major campaign against the Duklja to prevent an alliance between Prince Jovan Vladimir and
6191-803: The accession of Bulgaria to the European Union on 1 January 2007, Cyrillic became the third official script of the European Union , following the Latin and Greek scripts . Bulgarian possesses a phonology similar to that of the rest of the South Slavic languages, notably lacking Serbo-Croatian's phonemic vowel length and tones and alveo-palatal affricates. There is a general dichotomy between Eastern and Western dialects, with Eastern ones featuring consonant palatalization before front vowels ( / ɛ / and / i / ) and substantial vowel reduction of
Samuel of Bulgaria - Misplaced Pages Continue
6342-445: The person") or to the first nominal constituent of definite noun phrases (indefinite: добър човек , 'a good person'; definite: добри ят човек , " the good person"). There are four singular definite articles. Again, the choice between them is largely determined by the noun's ending in the singular. Nouns that end in a consonant and are masculine use –ът/–ят, when they are grammatical subjects , and –а/–я elsewhere. Nouns that end in
6493-649: The " Big Excursion " of 1989. The language is also represented among the diaspora in Western Europe and North America, which has been steadily growing since the 1990s. Countries with significant numbers of speakers include Germany , Spain , Italy , the United Kingdom (38,500 speakers in England and Wales as of 2011), France , the United States , and Canada (19,100 in 2011). The language
6644-568: The 1960s. However, its reception abroad has been lukewarm, with a number of authors either calling the model into question or outright rejecting it. Thus, the Handbook of the International Phonetic Association only lists 22 consonants in Bulgarian's consonant inventory . The parts of speech in Bulgarian are divided in ten types, which are categorized in two broad classes: mutable and immutable. The difference
6795-464: The 19th century during the efforts on the codification of Modern Bulgarian until an alphabet with 32 letters, proposed by Marin Drinov , gained prominence in the 1870s. The alphabet of Marin Drinov was used until the orthographic reform of 1945, when the letters yat (uppercase Ѣ, lowercase ѣ) and yus (uppercase Ѫ, lowercase ѫ) were removed from its alphabet, reducing the number of letters to 30. With
6946-461: The 19th century), a modern Bulgarian literary language gradually emerged that drew heavily on Church Slavonic/Old Bulgarian (and to some extent on literary Russian , which had preserved many lexical items from Church Slavonic) and later reduced the number of Turkish and other Balkan loans. Today one difference between Bulgarian dialects in the country and literary spoken Bulgarian is the significant presence of Old Bulgarian words and even word forms in
7097-487: The Arabs to the Balkans and Samuel was forced to defend rather than attack. In 1001, Basil II sent a large army under the patrician Theodorokanos and Nikephoros Xiphias to the north of the Balkan Mountains to seize the main Bulgarian fortresses in the area. The Byzantine troops recaptured Preslav and Pliska , putting north-eastern Bulgaria once again under Byzantine rule. The following year, they struck in
7248-520: The Asian army, Bardas Scleros , rebelled in Asia Minor and sent troops under his son Romanus in Thrace to besiege Constantinople. The new Emperor Basil II did not have enough manpower to fight both the Bulgarians and the rebels and resorted to treason, conspiracy and complicated diplomatic plots. Basil II made many promises to the Bulgarians and Scleros to divert them from allying against him. Aaron,
7399-400: The Balkans, even though the Empire was disestablished after his death. Samuel was the fourth and youngest son of count Nicholas , a Bulgarian noble, who might have been the count of Sredets district (modern-day Sofia ), although other sources suggest that he was a regional count of Prespa district in the region of Macedonia . His mother was Rhipsime of Armenia. The actual name of the dynasty
7550-456: The Bulgarian Empire's previous power, Ivan Vladislav himself was killed while attacking Dyrrhachium. After that, the widowed empress Maria and many Bulgarian governors, including Krakra, surrendered to the Byzantines. Presian , Ivan Vladislav's eldest son, fled with two of his brothers to Mount Tomorr , before they too surrendered. Thus the First Bulgarian Empire came to an end in 1018, only four years after Samuel's death. Most of its territory
7701-484: The Bulgarian Empire. In more recent times the same agenda has been maintained in the Republic of Macedonia, (now North Macedonia ). Practically Serbia did not exist at that time. It became independent under Časlav ca. 930, only to fall ca. 960 under Byzantine and later under Bulgarian rule. In fact, that area was taken for the first time by Serbia centuries later, during the 1280s. Moreover, in Samuel's time, Macedonia as
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#17327647992197852-574: The Bulgarian army on the main road to his capital, he used an alternate route. The Byzantines marched south through the Morava valley and reached a key Bulgarian city, Skopje , in 1004. The Bulgarian army was camping on the opposite side of the Vardar River . After finding a ford and crossing the river, Basil II attacked and defeated Samuel's unsuspecting army, using the same tactics employed at Spercheios . The Byzantines continued east and besieged
8003-531: The Bulgarian population of the conquered areas to resettle in the Voleron area between the Mesta and Maritsa rivers. Edessa resisted for weeks but was conquered following a long siege. The population was moved to Voleron and its governor Dragshan was taken to Thessaloniki, where he was betrothed to the daughter of a local noble. Unwilling to be married to an enemy, Dragshan three times tried to flee to Bulgaria and
8154-403: The Bulgarian surrender in 1018, while Samuel is also recorded as having had a bastard son. Another woman, Theodora Kosara , who was wedded to Jovan Vladimir of Duklja and was considered by earlier scholarship as Samuel's daughter, is now regarded to have been simply a relative, perhaps a niece of Agatha. Gavril Radomir married twice, to Ilona of Hungary and Irene from Larissa. Miroslava married
8305-533: The Bulgarian tsar, Peter I , to the negotiating table, agreeing to terms favourable to Byzantium. However, this brief sojourn also awakened in Sviatoslav the desire to conquer Bulgaria and establish his own realm there. He returned in force in July or August 969 and conquered the country within a few months. Nikephoros' scheme had backfired dramatically: instead of peace, a new and formidable foe had appeared in
8456-402: The Bulgarians had suffered in the past four years. The setbacks in the war demoralized some of Samuel's military commanders, especially the captured Byzantine nobles. Samuel's son-in-law Ashot, the governor of Dyrrhachium, made contact with the local Byzantines and the influential John Chryselios , Samuel's father-in-law. Ashot and his wife boarded one of the Byzantine ships that were beleaguering
8607-468: The Bulgarians in Macedonia but ended up joining them. This version is supported by the historian Nicholas Adontz , who analyzed the events and facts of the century and concluded that Samuel had only one brother, David. Asoghik's version is also supported by the historian Jordan Ivanov; furthermore, only one brother is mentioned on Samuel's Inscription . The Arab historian Yahya of Antioch claims that
8758-602: The Byzantine Emperor his byname Boulgaroktonos ("Bulgar-slayer" in Greek : Βουλγαροκτόνος ). Some historians theorize it was the death of his favourite commander that infuriated Basil II to blind the captured soldiers. The battle of Kleidion had major political consequences. Although Samuel's son and successor, Gavril Radomir, was a talented military leader, he was murdered by his cousin Ivan Vladislav, who, ironically, owed his life to him. Unable to restore
8909-536: The Byzantine Empire in 1018 as a new province called Bulgaria . Bulgarian language Rup Moesian Bulgarian ( / b ʌ l ˈ ɡ ɛər i ə n / , / b ʊ l ˈ -/ bu(u)l- GAIR -ee-ən ; български език , bŭlgarski ezik , pronounced [ˈbɤɫɡɐrski] ) is an Eastern South Slavic language spoken in Southeast Europe , primarily in Bulgaria . It
9060-545: The Byzantine side differ on the preliminaries of the battle: Leo the Deacon reports that Skleros sent a scouting detachment ahead under the patrikios John Alakaseus, and then gave battle after only a day, but the later chronicle of Skylitzes reports that for a few days, Skleros with his men remained within the walls of Arcadiopolis as the Rus' encamped nearby, and refused to come out and meet them in battle despite their repeated challenges for him to do so. According to Skylitzes,
9211-450: The Byzantines ultimately captured the fortress, allegedly due to betrayal by the local bishop. The commanders of the town had repulsed all previous attempts to break their defence, including the use of Greek fire . While Basil's forces were engaged there, Samuel struck in the opposite direction: on 15 August he attacked Adrianople and plundered the area. Basil II decided to return to Constantinople afterwards, but, fearing an encounter with
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#17327647992199362-459: The Byzantines. When the Bulgarian troops reached Duklja, the Serbian prince and his people withdrew to the mountains. Samuel left part of the army at the foot of the mountains and led the remaining soldiers to besiege the coastal fortress of Ulcinj . In an effort to prevent bloodshed, he asked Jovan Vladimir to surrender. After the prince refused, some Serb nobles offered their services to the Bulgarians and, when it became clear that further resistance
9513-517: The Cometopuli (described by Thietmar of Merseburg simply as the Bulgarians ) sent envoys to the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I in Quedlinburg in an attempt to secure the protection of their lands. The brothers ruled together in a tetrarchy . David ruled the southernmost regions and led the defense of one of the most dangerous border areas, around Thessaloniki and Thessaly . The centres of his possessions were Prespa and Kastoria . Moses ruled from Strumitsa , which would be an outpost for attacks on
9664-428: The Cometopuli and submitted to their rule. The Byzantine army was defeated and retreated to Crimea . Any Bulgarian nobles and officials who had not opposed the Byzantine conquest of the region were executed, and the war continued north of the Danube until the enemy was scattered and Bulgarian rule was restored. After suffering these defeats in the Balkans, the Byzantine Empire descended into civil war. The commander of
9815-415: The Cometopuli launched an assault along the whole border. Within a few weeks, however, David was killed by Vlach vagrants and Moses was fatally injured by a stone during the siege of Serres. The brothers' actions to the south detained many Byzantine troops and eased Samuel's liberation of northeastern Bulgaria. A local Bulgarian uprising broke there , led by two boyars – Petar and Boyan, who became allies of
9966-493: The Greeks bought him off with a rich tribute. According to Byzantine sources, the Russians suffered a crushing defeat and Svyatoslav later retreated to Bulgaria. Most scholars, including Russian scholars, have agreed with the version of the Byzantine primary sources. Byzantine sources also describe the events of the battle in more detail, which makes the scholars think that these sources are more authoritative. Russian historians Andrey Sakharov and Mikhaïl Suzumov believe that
10117-522: The Hungarians in the 930s. Ahtum commanded a strong army and firmly defended the northwestern borders of the Empire. He also built many churches and monasteries through which he spread Christianity in Transylvania . Although Gavril Radomir's marriage to the daughter of the Hungarian ruler had established friendly relations between the two strongest states of the Danube area, the relationship deteriorated after Géza's death. The Bulgarians supported Gyula and Koppány as rulers instead of Géza's son Stephen I . As
10268-400: The Pecheneg's helmet and cuirass. The loss of the Pecheneg commander turned the battle into a complete rout, and panic spread to the Bulgarian contingent following behind the Pechenegs, which also suffered heavy casualties in the general chaos. The Byzantine casualties in the battle were low (Skylitzes speaks of 25 dead and Leo of 55) although they lost many horses to the Pecheneg arrows, while
10419-403: The Peloponnese, devastating everything on their way. As a response, a Byzantine army under Nikephorus Uranos was sent after the Bulgarians, who returned north to meet it. The two armies met near the flooded river of Spercheios. The Byzantines found a place to ford, and on the night of 19 July 996 they surprised the unprepared Bulgarian army and routed it in the battle of Spercheios . Samuel's arm
10570-404: The Rus' force at Arcadiopolis included significant numbers of Bulgarians, as well as allied contingents of Pechenegs and "Turks" (i.e. Magyars ). Skleros then quickly assembled a force of ten to twelve thousand men and set out to meet the Rus'. The two armies met near Arcadiopolis (modern Lüleburgaz in Turkish Thrace ), some 80 km west of Constantinople . The two primary accounts on
10721-451: The Rus' quickly became convinced that the imperial army was too afraid to face them; consequently they roamed about the countryside plundering, neglected their camp defences, and spent their nights in heedless revelry. Skleros eventually set out from the city, and divided his forces into three groups: two divisions were placed in ambush on the wooded sides of the road leading towards the Rus' camp, while another, probably some 2,000–3,000 men,
10872-494: The Rus', Skleros prepared an ambush and attacked the Rus' army with a portion of his force. The Byzantines then feigned retreat , and succeeded in drawing off the Pecheneg contingent into the ambush, routing it. The remainder of the Rus' army then suffered heavy casualties from the pursuing Byzantines. The battle was important as it bought time for the Byzantine emperor John I Tzimiskes to settle his internal problems and assemble
11023-473: The ambush, Bardas ordered the trumpets blown and the two concealed Byzantine divisions attacked the Pechenegs from the flanks and the rear. Cut off from aid and surrounded, the Pechenegs began to panic and flee. One of their leaders tried to rally his men, but he was attacked by Bardas Skleros himself, who killed him with a single sword-blow that reportedly cut him in two from his head down to the waist, through
11174-504: The captive Jovan Vladimir. The couple married after gaining Samuel's approval, and Jovan returned to his lands as a Bulgarian official along with his uncle Dragomir, whom Samuel trusted. Meanwhile, Princess Miroslava fell in love with the Byzantine noble captive Ashot, son of Gregorios Taronites , the dead governor of Thessaloniki, and threatened to commit suicide if she was not allowed to marry him. Samuel conceded and appointed Ashot governor of Dyrrhachium. Samuel also sealed an alliance with
11325-516: The captured Byzantine noble Ashot Taronites . After the fall of Bulgaria, Samuel's descendants assumed important positions in the Byzantine court after they were resettled and given lands in Asia Minor and Armenia. One of his granddaughters, Catherine, became empress of Byzantium. Another (supposed) grandchild, Peter II Delyan , led an attempt to restore the Bulgarian Empire after a major uprising in 1040 – 1041 . Two other women of
11476-548: The city walls, Sviatoslav conceded defeat and abandoned Bulgaria. In Hungarian historiography, the Battle of Arcadiopolis is considered as the final chapter of the Hungarian invasions of Europe , a series of plundering raids both westward and southward since the end of the 9th century. Following that the new Grand Prince, Géza consolidated his authority and also supported Christian missionaries from Western Europe (experiencing
11627-475: The command of the army and the effective royal authority. As Samuel struggled to preserve his country's independence from the Byzantine Empire , his rule was characterized by constant warfare against the Byzantines and their equally ambitious ruler Basil II . In his early years, Samuel managed to inflict several major defeats on the Byzantines and to launch offensive campaigns into their territory. In
11778-412: The completion of the action of the verb and form past perfective (aorist) forms; imperfective ones are neutral with regard to it and form past imperfective forms. Most Bulgarian verbs can be grouped in perfective-imperfective pairs (imperfective/perfective: идвам/дойда "come", пристигам/пристигна "arrive"). Perfective verbs can be usually formed from imperfective ones by suffixation or prefixation, but
11929-545: The country capitulated, ending the five decades-long Byzantine–Bulgarian conflict . Samuel was considered "invincible in power and unsurpassable in strength". Similar comments were made even in Constantinople , where John Kyriotes penned a poem offering a punning comparison between the Bulgarian Emperor and Halley's comet , which appeared in 989. During Samuel's reign, Bulgaria gained control of most of
12080-474: The defenders well. They fought until the Byzantines penetrated the walls and forced them to surrender. Nikulitsa was taken to Constantinople and given the high court title of patrician, but he soon escaped and rejoined the Bulgarians. He attempted to retake Servia, but the siege was unsuccessful and he was captured again and imprisoned. Meanwhile, Basil II's campaign reconquered many towns in Thessaly. He forced
12231-548: The defense of the town, Ahtum was occupied with the war to the north. After several months he died in battle when his troops were defeated by the Hungarians. As a result of the war, Bulgarian influence to the northwest of the Danube diminished. The Byzantines took advantage of the Bulgarian troubles in the north. In 1003, Basil II led a large army to Vidin, northwestern Bulgaria's most important town. After an eight-month siege,
12382-401: The development of a suffixed definite article , and the lack of a verb infinitive . They retain and have further developed the Proto-Slavic verb system (albeit analytically). One such major development is the innovation of evidential verb forms to encode for the source of information: witnessed, inferred, or reported. It is the official language of Bulgaria , and since 2007 has been among
12533-411: The dynasty became Byzantine empresses, while many nobles served in the army as strategos or became governors of various provinces. There is another version of Samuel's origin: the 11th-century historian Stepanos Asoghik wrote that Samuel had only one brother, stating they were both Armenians from the district of Derjan , an Armenian land incorporated into the Byzantine Empire. They were sent to fight
12684-704: The earth with your gold-shining chariot, tell the great soul of the Caesar: The Danube [Bulgaria] took the crown of Rome . The arrows of the Moesians broke the spears of the Avzonians." John Kyriotes Geometres on the battle of the Gates of Trajan . After the defeat, the rebellion of Bardas Phocas diverted the efforts of the Byzantine Empire into another civil war. Samuel seized the opportunity and began to exert pressure on Thessaloniki. Basil II sent
12835-564: The eastern dialects prevailed, and in 1899 the Bulgarian Ministry of Education officially codified a standard Bulgarian language based on the Drinov-Ivanchev orthography. Bulgarian is the official language of Bulgaria , where it is used in all spheres of public life. As of 2011, it is spoken as a first language by about 6 million people in the country, or about four out of every five Bulgarian citizens. There
12986-400: The eldest living Cometopulus, was tempted by an alliance with the Byzantines and the opportunity to seize power in Bulgaria for himself. He held land in Thrace, a region potentially subject to the Byzantine threat. Basil reached an agreement with Aaron, who asked to marry Basil's sister to seal it. Basil instead sent the wife of one of his officials with the bishop of Sebaste. However, the deceit
13137-785: The fate of the Bulgarian patriarchate after John Tzimiskes's campaign against Bulgaria, when it lost its independence), which led to the Christianization of the Magyars and the establishment of the Christian Kingdom of Hungary by the beginning of the new millennium. According to the Russian chronicles, Svyatoslav's army defeated the Greeks and began to ravage the whole of Thrace, and the outskirts of Constantinople. But
13288-473: The following year, defeated the Rus, and conquered the Bulgarian capital Preslav. Boris II of Bulgaria was ritually divested of his imperial insignia in a public ceremony in Constantinople and he and his brother Roman of Bulgaria remained in captivity. Although the ceremony in 971 had been intended as a symbolic termination of the Bulgarian Empire, the Byzantines were unable to assert their control over
13439-399: The fortress of Pernik . Its governor, Krakra , was not seduced by Basil's promises of a noble title and wealth, and successfully defended the fortress. The Byzantines withdrew to Thrace after suffering heavy losses. In the same year, Samuel undertook a march against Thessaloniki. His men ambushed and captured its governor, Ioannes Chaldus, but this success could not compensate for the losses
13590-544: The group of the verb or the verbal group. Nouns and adjectives have the categories grammatical gender , number , case (only vocative ) and definiteness in Bulgarian. Adjectives and adjectival pronouns agree with nouns in number and gender. Pronouns have gender and number and retain (as in nearly all Indo-European languages ) a more significant part of the case system. There are three grammatical genders in Bulgarian: masculine , feminine and neuter . The gender of
13741-400: The guards. Roman was taken to Vidin, where he was proclaimed Emperor of Bulgaria. Samuel became his first lieutenant and general and together they gathered an army and fought the Byzantines. During his captivity, Roman had been castrated on the orders of John I Tzimiskes so that he would not have heirs. Thus Samuel was certain to eventually succeed Roman. The new emperor entrusted Samuel with
13892-489: The historical yat vowel or at least root vowels displaying the ya – e alternation. The letter was used in each occurrence of such a root, regardless of the actual pronunciation of the vowel: thus, both ml ya ko and ml e kar were spelled with (Ѣ). Among other things, this was seen as a way to "reconcile" the Western and the Eastern dialects and maintain language unity at a time when much of Bulgaria's Western dialect area
14043-420: The important fortress of Larissa , which controlled the key routes in Thessaly, and from 977 to 983 the town was blockaded. After starvation forced the Byzantines to surrender, the population was deported to the interior of Bulgaria and the males were forced to enlist in the Bulgarian army. Although Basil II sent forces to the region, they were defeated. With this victory, Bulgaria had gained influence over most of
14194-725: The language), and presumably a significant proportion of the 13,200 ethnic Bulgarians residing in neighbouring Transnistria in 2016. Another community abroad are the Banat Bulgarians , who migrated in the 17th century to the Banat region now split between Romania, Serbia and Hungary. They speak the Banat Bulgarian dialect , which has had its own written standard and a historically important literary tradition. There are Bulgarian speakers in neighbouring countries as well. The regional dialects of Bulgarian and Macedonian form
14345-576: The language, but its pronunciation is in many respects a compromise between East and West Bulgarian (see especially the phonetic sections below). Following the efforts of some figures of the National awakening of Bulgaria (most notably Neofit Rilski and Ivan Bogorov ), there had been many attempts to codify a standard Bulgarian language; however, there was much argument surrounding the choice of norms. Between 1835 and 1878 more than 25 proposals were put forward and "linguistic chaos" ensued. Eventually
14496-558: The late 10th century, the Bulgarian armies conquered the Serb principality of Duklja and led campaigns against the Kingdoms of Croatia and Hungary . But from 1001, he was forced mainly to defend the Empire against the superior Byzantine armies. Samuel died of a heart attack on 6 October 1014, two months after the catastrophic battle of Kleidion . His successors failed to organize a resistance, and in 1018, four years after Samuel's death,
14647-409: The latter. Russian loans are distinguished from Old Bulgarian ones on the basis of the presence of specifically Russian phonetic changes, as in оборот (turnover, rev), непонятен (incomprehensible), ядро (nucleus) and others. Many other loans from French, English and the classical languages have subsequently entered the language as well. Modern Bulgarian was based essentially on the Eastern dialects of
14798-481: The literary norm regarding the yat vowel, many people living in Western Bulgaria, including the capital Sofia , will fail to observe its rules. While the norm requires the realizations vidyal vs. videli (he has seen; they have seen), some natives of Western Bulgaria will preserve their local dialect pronunciation with "e" for all instances of "yat" (e.g. videl , videli ). Others, attempting to adhere to
14949-408: The losses of the Rus' force, although certainly lower than Leo's claimed 20,000, were still significant, probably running into several thousands. The Byzantines were unable to exploit this victory or pursue the remnants of the Rus' army, since Bardas Phokas rose in revolt in Asia Minor. Bardas Skleros and his men were consequently withdrawn to Asia Minor, whilst Sviatoslav restricted his forces to
15100-420: The low vowels / ɛ / , / ɔ / and / a / in unstressed position, sometimes leading to neutralisation between / ɛ / and / i / , / ɔ / and / u / , and / a / and / ɤ / . Both patterns have partial parallels in Russian, leading to partially similar sounds. In turn, the Western dialects generally do not have any allophonic palatalization and exhibit minor, if any, vowel reduction. Standard Bulgarian keeps
15251-399: The masculine ones usually have –и for polysyllables and –ове for monosyllables (however, exceptions are especially common in this group). Nouns ending in –о/–е (most of which are neuter) mostly use the suffixes –а, –я (both of which require the dropping of the singular endings) and –та . With cardinal numbers and related words such as няколко ('several'), masculine nouns use
15402-478: The modern region of Macedonia , west and southwest of the city of Ohrid, this earlier cultural center of the First Bulgarian Empire . After the area was taken in 1913 after five centuries Ottoman rule by the Kingdom of Serbia , (later Yugoslavia ), this led to assertions by the nationalist-driven historiography there. Its main agenda was that Samuel's empire was a "Serbian"/"Macedonian Slavic" state, distinct from
15553-477: The most significant exception from the above are the relatively numerous nouns that end in a consonant and yet are feminine: these comprise, firstly, a large group of nouns with zero ending expressing quality, degree or an abstraction, including all nouns ending on –ост/–ест -{ost/est} ( мъдрост /ˈmɤdrost/ 'wisdom', низост /ˈnizost/ 'vileness', прелест /ˈprɛlɛst/ 'loveliness', болест /ˈbɔlɛst/ 'sickness', любов /ljuˈbɔf/ 'love'), and secondly,
15704-445: The mountains around Ihtiman and besieged Sredets in 986. The Byzantines assaulted the city for 20 days, but their attacks proved fruitless and costly: the Bulgarians came out of the city several times, killed many enemy soldiers and captured draught animals and horses . Eventually, the Bulgarian troops burned the siege equipment of the Byzantine army, forcing Basil II to withdraw to Thrace, but on 17 August 986, while passing through
15855-606: The mountains, the Byzantine army was ambushed and routed at the Trajan's Gates Pass . This was a significant blow for Basil, who was one of the few to return to Constantinople; his personal treasure was captured by the victors. "Even if the sun would have come down, I would have never thought that the Moesian [Bulgarian] arrows were stronger than the Avzonian [Roman, Byzantine] spears. ... And when you, Phaethon [Sun], descend to
16006-572: The newspaper Makedoniya : "Such an artificial assembly of written language is something impossible, unattainable and never heard of." After 1944 the People's Republic of Bulgaria and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia began a policy of making Macedonia into the connecting link for the establishment of a new Balkan Federative Republic and stimulating here a development of distinct Macedonian consciousness. With
16157-447: The norm, will actually use the "ya" sound even in cases where the standard language has "e" (e.g. vidyal , vidyali ). The latter hypercorrection is called свръхякане ( svrah-yakane ≈"over- ya -ing"). Bulgarian is the only Slavic language whose literary standard does not naturally contain the iotated e /jɛ/ (or its variant, e after a palatalized consonant /ʲɛ/ , except in non-Slavic foreign-loaned words). This sound combination
16308-417: The north of the Balkan Mountains. In the spring of the next year, however, with Phokas' rebellion subdued, Tzimiskes himself, at the head of his army, advanced north into Bulgaria. The Byzantines took the Bulgarian capital Preslav , capturing the Bulgarian tsar Boris II , and confined the Rus' in the fortress of Dorostolon (modern Silistra ). After a three-month siege and a series of pitched battles before
16459-659: The noun can largely be inferred from its ending: nouns ending in a consonant ("zero ending") are generally masculine (for example, град /ɡrat/ 'city', син /sin/ 'son', мъж /mɤʃ/ 'man'; those ending in –а/–я (-a/-ya) ( жена /ʒɛˈna/ 'woman', дъщеря /dɐʃtɛrˈja/ 'daughter', улица /ˈulitsɐ/ 'street') are normally feminine; and nouns ending in –е, –о are almost always neuter ( дете /dɛˈtɛ/ 'child', езеро /ˈɛzɛro/ 'lake'), as are those rare words (usually loanwords) that end in –и, –у, and –ю ( цунами /tsuˈnami/ ' tsunami ', табу /tɐˈbu/ 'taboo', меню /mɛˈnju/ 'menu'). Perhaps
16610-994: The noun they are appended to. They may also take the definite article as explained above. Pronouns may vary in gender, number, and definiteness, and are the only parts of speech that have retained case inflections. Three cases are exhibited by some groups of pronouns – nominative, accusative and dative. The distinguishable types of pronouns include the following: personal, relative, reflexive, interrogative, negative, indefinitive, summative and possessive. A Bulgarian verb has many distinct forms, as it varies in person, number, voice, aspect, mood, tense and in some cases gender. Finite verbal forms are simple or compound and agree with subjects in person (first, second and third) and number (singular, plural). In addition to that, past compound forms using participles vary in gender (masculine, feminine, neuter) and voice (active and passive) as well as aspect (perfective/aorist and imperfective). Bulgarian verbs express lexical aspect : perfective verbs signify
16761-473: The official languages of the European Union . It is also spoken by the Bulgarian historical communities in North Macedonia , Ukraine , Moldova , Serbia , Romania , Hungary , Albania and Greece . One can divide the development of the Bulgarian language into several periods. Bulgarian was the first Slavic language attested in writing. As Slavic linguistic unity lasted into late antiquity,
16912-470: The oldest manuscripts initially referred to this language as ѧзꙑкъ словѣньскъ, "the Slavic language". In the Middle Bulgarian period this name was gradually replaced by the name ѧзꙑкъ блъгарьскъ, the "Bulgarian language". In some cases, this name was used not only with regard to the contemporary Middle Bulgarian language of the copyist but also to the period of Old Bulgarian. A most notable example of anachronism
17063-537: The opposite direction, marching through Thessaloniki to tear off Thessaly and the southernmost parts of the Bulgarian Empire. Although the Bulgarian commander of the fortress of Veroia, Dobromir, was married to one of Samuel's nieces, he voluntarily surrendered the fort and joined the Byzantines. The Byzantines also captured the fortress of Kolidron without a fight, but its commander Dimitar Tihon managed to retreat with his soldiers and join Samuel. The next town, Servia, did not fall so easily; its governor Nikulitsa organized
17214-429: The past pluperfect subjunctive. Perfect constructions use a single auxiliary "be". The traditional interpretation is that in addition to the four moods (наклонения /nəkloˈnɛnijɐ/ ) shared by most other European languages – indicative (изявително, /izʲəˈvitɛɫno/ ) imperative (повелително /poveˈlitelno/ ), subjunctive ( подчинително /pottʃiˈnitɛɫno/ ) and conditional (условно, /oˈsɫɔvno/ ) – in Bulgarian there
17365-456: The peoples living further north, in modern-day Ukraine , against Bulgaria. He sent an ambassador, the patrikios Kalokyros , to Sviatoslav , ruler of the Rus' with whom the Byzantines had maintained close relations. Sviatoslav enthusiastically responded, and invaded Bulgaria in 967 or 968 in a devastating raid, before returning home to defend his capital against a Pecheneg attack. This forced
17516-604: The pockets of speakers of the related regional dialects in Albania and in Greece variously identify their language as Macedonian or as Bulgarian. In Serbia , there were 13,300 speakers as of 2011, mainly concentrated in the so-called Western Outlands along the border with Bulgaria. Bulgarian is also spoken in Turkey: natively by Pomaks , and as a second language by many Bulgarian Turks who emigrated from Bulgaria, mostly during
17667-704: The proclamation of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia as part of the Yugoslav federation, the new authorities also started measures that would overcome the pro-Bulgarian feeling among parts of its population and in 1945 a separate Macedonian language was codified. After 1958, when the pressure from Moscow decreased, Sofia reverted to the view that the Macedonian language did not exist as a separate language. Nowadays, Bulgarian and Greek linguists, as well as some linguists from other countries, still consider
17818-471: The recovery of Crete , Cyprus , and Cilicia , refused to comply, and even had the envoys beaten up. He followed this up with a show of military strength, by sending a small force to raze a number of Bulgarian border posts in Thrace . It was a clear declaration of war, but Nikephoros' forces were largely preoccupied in the East. Thus the emperor turned to the traditional Byzantine expedient of turning one of
17969-466: The resultant verb often deviates in meaning from the original. In the pair examples above, aspect is stem-specific and therefore there is no difference in meaning. In Bulgarian, there is also grammatical aspect . Three grammatical aspects are distinguishable: neutral, perfect and pluperfect. The neutral aspect comprises the three simple tenses and the future tense. The pluperfect is manifest in tenses that use double or triple auxiliary "be" participles like
18120-525: The singular ones, but may also provide some clues to it: the ending –и (-i) is more likely to be used with a masculine or feminine noun ( факти /ˈfakti/ 'facts', болести /ˈbɔlɛsti/ 'sicknesses'), while one in –а/–я belongs more often to a neuter noun ( езера /ɛzɛˈra/ 'lakes'). Also, the plural ending –ове /ovɛ/ occurs only in masculine nouns. Two numbers are distinguished in Bulgarian– singular and plural . A variety of plural suffixes
18271-536: The son of Samuel, Gavril, was assassinated by the leader of the Bulgarians, son of Aaron, because Aaron belonged to the race that reigned over Bulgaria. Asoghik and Yahya clearly distinguish the race of Samuel from the one of Aaron or the race of the Cometopuli from the royal race. According to them, Moses and Aaron are not from the family of the Cometopuli. David and Samuel were of Armenian origin and Moses and Aaron were Armenian on their mother's side. Samuel's grave
18422-541: The southwestern Balkans, although it did not occupy some of these territories. From Larissa, Samuel took the relics of Saint Achilleios , which were laid in a specially built church of the same name on an island in Lake Prespa . The Bulgarian successes in the west raised fears in Constantinople, and after serious preparations, Basil II launched a campaign into the very centre of the Bulgarian Empire to distract Samuel from southern Greece. The Byzantine army passed through
18573-428: The standard Bulgarian language, however, did not wish to make any allowances for a pluricentric "Bulgaro-Macedonian" compromise. In 1870 Marin Drinov , who played a decisive role in the standardization of the Bulgarian language, rejected the proposal of Parteniy Zografski and Kuzman Shapkarev for a mixed eastern and western Bulgarian/Macedonian foundation of the standard Bulgarian language, stating in his article in
18724-535: The state administration and became occupied with church and religious affairs. As the main effort of Basil II was concentrated against the rebel Skleros, Samuel's armies attacked the European possessions of the Byzantine Empire. Samuel invaded not only Thrace and the area of Thessaloniki , but also Thessaly , Hellas and the Peloponnese . Many Byzantine fortresses fell to the Bulgarians. Samuel wanted to seize
18875-408: The state were held by Samuel and the danger of an internal conflict was eliminated. However, another theory suggests that Aaron participated in the battle of the Gates of Trajan which took place ten years later. According to that theory Aaron was killed on 14 June 987 or 988. After the Byzantine plan to use Aaron to cause instability in Bulgaria failed, they tried to encourage the rightful heirs to
19026-455: The surviving Bulgarians, but the Byzantines were defeated in an ambush by Gavril Radomir, who personally killed Botaniates. After the Battle of Kleidion, on the order of Basil II the captured Bulgarian soldiers were blinded; one of every 100 men was left one-eyed so as to lead the rest home. The blinded soldiers were sent back to Samuel who reportedly had a heart attack upon seeing them. He died two days later, on 6 October 1014. This savagery gave
19177-432: The throne, Boris II and Roman, to oppose Samuel. Basil II hoped that they would win the support of the nobles and isolate Samuel or perhaps even start a Bulgarian civil war. Boris and Roman were sent back in 977 but while they were passing through a forest near the border, Boris was killed by Bulgarian guards who were misled by his Byzantine clothing. Roman, who was walking some distance behind, managed to identify himself to
19328-530: The town and fled to Constantinople. Meanwhile, Chryselios surrendered the city to the Byzantine commander Eustathios Daphnomeles in 1005, securing the title of patrician for his sons. In 1006–1007, Basil II penetrated deep into the Bulgarian-ruled lands and in 1009 Samuel's forces were defeated at Kreta , east of Thessaloniki. During the next years, Basil launched annual campaigns into Bulgarian territory, devastating everything on his way. Although there
19479-401: The truce had been shaken and it was at this time or later that Peter I sent his sons Boris and Roman to Constantinople as honorary hostages, to honor the new terms of the peace treaty. During these years the Byzantines and Bulgarians had entangled themselves in a war with Kievan Rus' Prince Sviatoslav , who invaded Bulgaria several times. After a defeat from Sviatoslav, Peter I suffered
19630-484: The various Macedonian dialects as part of the broader Bulgarian pluricentric dialectal continuum . Outside Bulgaria and Greece, Macedonian is generally considered an autonomous language within the South Slavic dialect continuum. Sociolinguists agree that the question whether Macedonian is a dialect of Bulgarian or a language is a political one and cannot be resolved on a purely linguistic basis, because dialect continua do not allow for either/or judgements. In 886 AD,
19781-535: The verb class. The possible existence of a few other moods has been discussed in the literature. Most Bulgarian school grammars teach the traditional view of 4 Bulgarian moods (as described above, but excluding the subjunctive and including the inferential). There are three grammatically distinctive positions in time – present, past and future – which combine with aspect and mood to produce a number of formations. Normally, in grammar books these formations are viewed as separate tenses – i. e. "past imperfect" would mean that
19932-457: The verb is in past tense, in the imperfective aspect, and in the indicative mood (since no other mood is shown). There are more than 40 different tenses across Bulgarian's two aspects and five moods. Battle of Arcadiopolis (970) Krum 's campaigns Simeon I 's campaigns Sviatoslav's invasion of Bulgaria Byzantine conquest of Bulgaria Uprising of Peter Delyan Second Bulgarian Empire The Battle of Arcadiopolis
20083-547: The western provinces of Bulgaria. Count Nicholas, Samuel's father, who had close ties to the royal court in Preslav , died in 970. In the same year "the sons of the count" (the Cometopuli) David , Moses , Aaron and Samuel rebelled. The series of events are not clear due to contradicting sources, but it is sure that after 971 Samuel and his brothers were the de facto rulers of the western Bulgarian lands. In 973,
20234-603: The whole territory of Bulgaria, so that the Byzantines did not dare to approach it". "Above the comet scorched the sky, below the Cometopoulos (Samuel) burns the West." John Kyriotes Geometres Constantinople would not recognize the new emperor, as for the Byzantines Boris II's abdication symbolized the official end of Bulgaria and Samuel was considered a mere rebel. Instead Samuel sought recognition from
20385-461: The yat alternation in almost all Eastern dialects that have it (except a few dialects along the yat border, e.g. in the Pleven region). More examples of the yat umlaut in the literary language are: Until 1945, Bulgarian orthography did not reveal this alternation and used the original Old Slavic Cyrillic letter yat (Ѣ), which was commonly called двойно е ( dvoyno e ) at the time, to express
20536-584: Was defeated near the city by its governor Botaniates, who later joined the main Byzantine army near Klyuch. After several days of continuous attempts to break through the wall, one Byzantine commander, the governor of Plovdiv Nicephorus Xiphias , found a by-pass and, on 29 July, attacked the Bulgarians from the rear. Despite the desperate resistance the Byzantines overwhelmed the Bulgarian army and captured around 14,000 soldiers, according to some sources even 15,000. Basil II immediately sent forces under his favourite commander Theophylactus Botaniates to pursue
20687-430: Was controlled by Serbia and Greece , but there were still hopes and occasional attempts to recover it. With the 1945 orthographic reform, this letter was abolished and the present spelling was introduced, reflecting the alternation in pronunciation. This had implications for some grammatical constructions: Sometimes, with the changes, words began to be spelled as other words with different meanings, e.g.: In spite of
20838-415: Was dangerous to leave the throne vacant for long, and Samuel was chosen as the new Emperor of Bulgaria because he had the closest relations to the deceased emperor and was Roman's long-standing military commander. The presbyter of Duklja also marked the event: "By that time among the Bulgarian people rose one Samuel, who proclaimed himself emperor. He led a long war against the Byzantines and expelled them from
20989-549: Was eventually executed. The Byzantine–Bulgarian conflict reached its apex in 1003, when Hungary became involved. Since the beginning of the 9th century, the Bulgarian territory had stretched beyond the Carpathian Mountains as far as the Tisza River and the middle Danube. During the reign of Samuel, the governor of these northwestern parts was duke Ahtum , the grandson of duke Glad , who had been defeated by
21140-399: Was fierce and bloody, taxing the discipline and endurance of the small Byzantine force. According to Leo the Deacon, at one point one of the Pechenegs charged Bardas himself and delivered a sword blow on his helmet, which was deflected by the metal without doing harm. Bardas' young brother Constantine came to his rescue, killing the Pecheneg. When the two opposing forces reached the place of
21291-433: Was forced to move many of his troops to combat this new threat. Samuel quickly regained the lost lands and advanced south. In 996, he defeated the Byzantines in the battle of Thessaloniki . During the battle, Thessaloniki's governor, Gregorios, perished and his son Ashot was captured. Elated by this success, the Bulgarians continued south. They marched through Thessaly, overcame the defensive wall at Thermopylae and entered
21442-442: Was fought in 970 between a Byzantine army under Bardas Skleros and a Rus' army, the latter also including allied Bulgarian , Pecheneg , and Hungarian (Magyar) contingents. In the preceding years, the Rus' ruler Sviatoslav had conquered northern Bulgaria , and was now menacing Byzantium as well. The Rus' force had been advancing through Thrace towards Constantinople when it was met by Skleros' force. Having fewer men than
21593-657: Was found in 1965 by Greek professor Nikolaos Moutsopoulos in the Church of St Achillios on the eponymous island in Lake Prespa . Samuel had built the church for the relics of the saint of the same name. What is thought to have been the coat of arms of the House of Cometopuli, two perched parrots , was embroidered on his funeral garment. His remains are kept in the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki, but according to
21744-831: Was fruitless, the Serbs surrendered. Jovan Vladimir was exiled to Samuel's palaces in Prespa . The Bulgarian troops proceeded to pass through Dalmatia , taking control of Kotor and journeying to Dubrovnik . Although they failed to take Dubrovnik, they devastated the surrounding villages. The Bulgarian army then attacked Croatia in support of the rebel princes Krešimir III and Gojslav and advanced northwest as far as Split , Trogir and Zadar , then northeast through Bosnia and Raška and returned to Bulgaria. This Croato-Bulgarian War allowed Samuel to install vassal monarchs in Croatia. Samuel's relative Theodora Kosara fell in love with
21895-522: Was incorporated within the new Theme of Bulgaria , with Skopje as its capital. In the extreme northwest, the duke of Syrmia , Sermon , was the last remnant of the once mighty Empire. He was deceived and killed by the Byzantines in 1019. Samuel's wife was called Agatha , and was the daughter of the magnate of Dyrrhachium John Chryselios . Only two of Samuel's and Agatha's children are definitely known by name: Samuel's heir Gavril Radomir and Miroslava . Two further, unnamed daughters, are mentioned after
22046-462: Was placed under himself (or Alakaseus in Skylitzes' account) and went forth to attack the Rus' host. The Byzantine detachment quickly came into contact with the Rus' army, and charged the Pecheneg contingent. The Byzantines executed a gradual orderly retreat, turning at intervals to charge back at the pursuing Pechenegs, who had thus become separated from the main body of the Rus' army. This conflict
22197-546: Was preoccupied with consolidating his position and with countering the unrest of the powerful Phokas clan and its adherents, and delegated the war in the Balkans to his brother-in-law, the Domestic of the Schools Bardas Skleros , and to the eunuch stratopedarches Peter . They were to winter in Thrace and raise an army, whilst sending spies to discover Sviatoslav's intentions. At the news of this,
22348-524: Was still no decisive battle, it was clear that the end of the Bulgarian resistance was drawing nearer; the evidence was the fierceness of the military engagements and the constant campaigns of both sides which devastated the Bulgarian and Byzantine realms. In 1014, Samuel resolved to stop Basil before he could invade Bulgarian territory. Since the Byzantines usually used the valley of the Strumitsa River for their invasions into Bulgaria, Samuel built
22499-513: Was the entire Rus' army, numbering an incredible 308,000 men, but the contemporary Leo the Deacon reports that it was a detachment of "over 30,000 men"; conversely, the Russian Primary Chronicle gives the entire Rus' army under Sviatoslav at some 30,000, whilst numbering the Rus' at Arcadiopolis at only 10,000, faced with 100,000 Byzantines. It is clear, however, that the Byzantines were considerably outnumbered, and that
22650-627: Was uncovered and the bishop was killed. Nonetheless, negotiations proceeded and concluded in a peace agreement. The historian Scylitzes wrote that Aaron wanted sole power and "sympathized with the Romans". Samuel learned of the conspiracy and the clash between the two brothers was inevitable. The quarrel broke out in the vicinity of Dupnitsa on 14 June 976 and ended with the annihilation of Aaron's family. Only his son, Ivan Vladislav , survived because Samuel's son Gavril Radomir pleaded on his behalf. From that moment on, practically all power and authority in
22801-418: Was wounded and he barely escaped captivity; he and his son allegedly feigned death. After nightfall they headed for Bulgaria and walked 400 kilometres (249 mi) home. Research of Samuel's grave suggests that the bone in his arm healed at an angle of 140° but remained crippled. In 997, Roman died in captivity in Constantinople, ending the line of rulers started by Krum . Because of the war with Byzantium, it
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