Some problems in the chronology of the Bulgarian-Byzantine military conflicts between 976 and 1014
Some problems in the chronology of the Bulgarian-Byzantine military conflicts between 976 and 1014

Summary/Abstract: This article treats the difficulties of establishing a relatively accurate chronology of military actions involved in the warfare between Komitopuli-led Bulgaria and Byzantium, from the initial outbreak of the fighting through the reign of Tsar Samuil. The available primary sources for those operations are limited in number, frequently generalized in scope, and often internally marred by such issues as intentional summarization, topicality, or outright mythology. Thus any attempt to compile a reliable chronological record of military events between the initial eruption of hostilities and the Byzantine campaign of 1014 (after which the chronological record is more reliably documented) must, of necessity, encompass a mix of certain accepted facts, spotty factual detail when a more general record is lacking, and doses of reasonable hypothesis bridging evidentiary gaps and contradictions. Numerous facets of the chronological narrative for the period remain murky or completely unknown, and scholars have attempted bridge them by advancing commonly accepted hypotheses. The article attempts to highlight and analyze the problematic aspects in the military chronology of these struggles within the context of the known documentation and hypotheses and to advance some reasonable interpretations regarding them, when possible. After a brief overview of the sources, the study delves into specific chronological problems, beginning with the date of the initial outbreak of hostilities – soon after 971 or 976? – and the earliest Bulgarian operations against Byzantium's Balkan themes through the fall of Larisa to Samuil. Matters such as: Emperor Basil II's reasons for attacking Sredets in 986; Samuil's conquest of the Danubian Plain; the murder of Samuil's brother Aron; and the fall of Dyrrakhion to Samuil, are examined. The campaigns of Basil II against Bulgaria, beginning in 991 and continuing, at intervals, through 1003, are studied and shown to be highly opaque chronologically. Also considered is the possibility that some sort of accommodation – a treaty or truce – may have been struck between Samuil and Basil II around the year 1005. Once warfare re-erupted between the two sides in 1014, the authenticity of Basil blinding 14–15,000 Bulgarian prisoners and Samuil dying as a result of that enormity is analyzed, with the conclusion that the stories probably are mostly fictional – the blinded prisoners may have numbered in the hundreds rather than thousands and Samuil most likely died of natural causes compounded by old age.

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