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)
Samuel’s State in Byzantine ideology:
Basil II and the construction of identity
Tuesday, September 29th 5pm-7pm
Friends of Music Room, University Auditorium
The purpose of this lecture is a critical examination of the Byzantine sources, in an attempt to offer an alternative approach
to the scholarly debate regarding Samuel’s State and its struggle with Byzantium. Not only was the physical blinding of the
prisoners taken by the Byzantines regarded as authentic (despite clear evidence of the legendary character of the story), but the
political and ideological “blindness” of the Byzantine sources regarding Samuel’s State was further reproduced in the scholarly
discourse. However, the terminology applied by Byzantine writers for Samuel’s State is a direct reflection of the
political and ideological concepts in use in Byzantium. After the final victory in 1018, Basil II promoted a new terminology,
the purpose of which was to demonstrate the continuity of the Byzantine political and ideological domination in the Balkans.
Thus, the memory of Samuel and of his achievements was maintained by the Byzantines at the same time Basil ΙΙ incorporated it into
a model for future emperors and a standard for measuring their political performance. The invented traditions and the terminology
created at the time of Basil ΙΙ were then used and appropriated by the rulers of the Second Bulgarian Empire and by the late
12th- and early 13th-century papacy, in order to find a way to legitimize their own political aspirations in the Balkans