American Institute of Archaeology, Gainesville Chapter, Center for Greek Studies, Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere, Yavitz Fund, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Department of History, Florida Museum of Natural History, UF International Center and Smathers Library present
Mitko B. Panov
(Euro-Balkan in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia)
The legendary struggle between Basil II and
Samuel: Blinding the medieval past in the Balkans
Thursday, October 1st 5pm-7pm
Smathers Library Room 100
The lecture deals with the neglected issue related to the legendary struggle between Basil II and Samuel over the Balkans. It will
explore the complexity of the historiographical problem related to the contested interpretation of Samuel’s State, demonstrating
how the medieval past was and is still used/abused in the modern Balkan politics. Samuel and Basil II acquired significance only
with the rise of the so called “Macedonian question,” related to territorial claims to late 19th and early 20th-century Ottoman Macedonia.
Serbian scholars pushed the concept of the “Slavonic state in Macedonia” or the “Macedonian Slavic State”, Bulgarians promoted the
idea of a “Western Bulgarian Empire” as a mere continuation of the Bulgarian Empire, while Greek historians picked up and recycled
the legend of Basil II the Bulgar-Slayer. As for the Macedonian revolutionaries and intelligentsia, they responded in the early
20th century by inventing an authentically “Macedonian.” Samuel and his state were thus regarded and interpreted in accordance
with the military and political situation and ideological agenda in the Balkans during the Balkan, the First and the Second World wars.
The 1000th anniversary Samuel’s death in 2014 was the occasion for a re-imagining of the struggle between Samuel and Basil II.
The paper will shed on the mechanism of historical “blindness” imposed on this topic.