Organization: Penn State University
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 00:11:53 EDT
From: <PXP111@psuvm.psu.edu>  Andronikos Romanos
Newsgroups: soc.culture.europe,soc.culture.yugoslavia
Subject: Re: Quizzes on Macedonia


Temperamental  Luben Boyanov (lb@cs.man.ac.uk)  responds to my
posting <92267. 033821 PXP111@psuvm.psu.edu> in message <6237@
m1.cs.man.ac.uk> dealing with two of my quizzes on Macedonia:

>> Was Tsar Samuel an Armenian, a Bulgarian or Polish?  (Sourses
>> please.)
>
>  Probably the most valuable and accurate references to who was
>  Tzar Samuel (and that he was refered to as Bulgarian, and not
>  Polish, or whatever is there)  are by eminent Byzantium chro-
>  nicles as Cedrin Scylitzes [1] and Michael Psellos [2].
>
>  [1] Georgii Cedreni, "Compendium historiarum", ed. Bonn,  II
>  original in Greek.
>  [2] Michael Psellos, " Chronographie ou histoire d'un siecle
>  de Byzance (976-1077) ", Paris, 1926-28, original in Greek.

In contrast to  some  modern  theories concerning a non-existent
nation in the 980's in the territory of Macedonia, only a Bulga-
rian or an Armenian identity may be founded for the famous oppo-
nent of the Byzantine Emperor Basileios II Macedon.

If I may elaborate here: Strictly speaking Ioannis Scylitzes does
not refer to a Bulgarian,  but to a  son  of a Byzantine military
commander (i.e. "komes")  that had wealth in Bulgaria  <B.347 and
B.435>.

Stephanos of Taron (Asolic) plainly says that the four Kometopou-
loi  ( "Komsajagk" )  were Armenians from the district of Derjan.
(Translation of Gelzer and Burckhardt, 1907).

Scylitzes simply adds that the Tsar of Bulgaria in question  pre-
ferred to have a lot of Armenians even in Ahris  (B.474)  as well
as all his relatives...

The "Polish version" is more or less a strange identity I "threw"
for fun -"inspired" by the account the 15th century Polish histo-
rian Dlugosz.  Do not read more there!

>>  Were the Patriarchic Bulgarophones  of the 1890's  Greeks  or
>>  Bulgarians?
>
> " One of the most comic results of this competitive ethnography
> was a map published some years ago under Athenian auspices  and
> circulated in this country. According to this Macedonia was for
> practical purposes divided into two elements-the Greeks and the
> "Bulgarophone Greeks" - as if some Celtic enthusiast should di-
> vide Britain between the Welsh and the "Anglophone Welsh!" [3].
>             [3] "The Times", October 1st, 1903, Arthur J. Evans

"Analogies from different eras are not necessarily successful in
history."       <Dr.Eugene Borza (Lecture on Historical Methods,
                 5 days ago), Pennsylvania State University.>

"Even the casual acquaintance  with the sweep of European history
gives an unmistakable sense of qualitative  differences among the
traditional periods ( whatever further differences  there  may be
within the periods)."          < M.I.Finley, professor of Ancient
                                History, University of Cambridge:
                                "The Ancient Economy" page 27.>

Luben's excerpt, fancy though it may be, doesn't explain the per-
sistent resistance of a  bulgarophone population  (called "Greco-
mans" by the Bulgarians), as the two captains Gonos and Kotas ag-
ainst the activities of the Bulgarian Committee from August 1902.
To the best of my knowledge and despite the language differentia-
tion both leaders and their men claimed that they were Greeks and
we know that that they sided with the Greek speaking group of ca-
ptain Bagelis Strempenou (killed in May 1904).
After Kotas's execution in June 1904 his bulgarophones and greko-
phones men joined Paulos Melas in August of 1904.  (Date marking
the full-scale resistance of Greeks in Macedonia against the Bul-
garian "Comitajis" and the tactical Turkish army...  During 1906
more such bulgarophones will join them but this is a whole diffe-
rent issue).
I have some evidence that contemporary Bulgarians believed in the
existence of bulgarophones Greeks (Grecomans).  A pamphlet of the
Bulgarian Exarchy in 1885 contained the following:
 " The primal and secondary centers are  completely hellenized by
   the Greeks and the Grecomans. The Greek language appears to be
   gaining ground.. Will we, the Bulgarians, be able to win Mace-
   donia, in case elections were held today? We can say with cer-
   tainty that  the largest portion  of Macedonia will  slip from
   our hands, for most of the habitants  will claim that they are
   Greeks, despite their speaking Bulgarian. "
                   :::::::::::::::::::::::::
                   That is what I found. :-(   :-)

> Best regards
> Luben
                                                       ditto....
                                                       A. Romanos

PS: Did anyone handle the other quizzes?