Monument of Tsar Samuil

Samuel was the Tsar (Emperor) of the First Bulgarian Empire from 997 to 1014. From 977 until 997, he served as a commander under Roman I of Bulgaria, the second surviving son of Emperor Peter I of Bulgaria, and co-ruled with him, as Roman conferred leadership of the army and effective royal power onto him. As he fought to save his country’s independence from the Byzantine Empire, Samuel’s reign was marked by incessant conflict against the Byzantines and their equally ambitious king, Basil II.

Samuel was able to inflict numerous severe losses on the Byzantines and start aggressive assaults into their realm during his early years. Bulgarian soldiers seized the Serb principality of Duklja and launched battles against the Kingdoms of Croatia and Hungary in the late 10th century. However, beginning in 1001, he was primarily tasked with defending the Empire against the stronger Byzantine army. On October 6, 1014, Samuel died of a heart attack, two months after the disastrous battle of Kleidion. His successors were unable to mount a resistance, and the kingdom capitulated in 1018, four years after Samuel’s death, bringing an end to the five-decade-long Byzantine–Bulgarian struggle.

Samuel was said to be “invincible in might and unrivaled in strength.” Similar remarks were made at Constantinople, where John Kyriotes wrote a poem that drew a witty parallel between the Bulgarian Emperor and Halley’s comet, which emerged in 989. During Samuel’s reign, Bulgaria achieved control of the majority of the Balkans (with the noteworthy exception of Thrace) and reached as far south as southern Greece. He relocated the capital from Skopje to Ohrid, which had previously served as the cultural and military center.