In 996, however, Samuel, following his escape from the disastrous Battle of Spercheios, released Ashot and married him to his daughter Miroslava. According to the Byzantine historian John Skylitzes, the latter had fallen deeply in love with the captive Byzantine, and threatened to kill herself if Samuel did not allow them to be married. Samuel sent the couple to Dyrrhachium, where Ashot became governor. Once there, Ashot established contacts with the Byzantine government, aided by the city's leading magnate, John Chryselios, who offered to surrender the city in exchange for titles for himself and his sons. Ashot and Miroslava fled to Constantinople on board a Byzantine warship, and soon after, a Byzantine squadron appeared off Dyrrhachium under Eustathios Daphnomeles, and the city returned to Byzantine rule. At Constantinople, Emperor Basil named Ashot "magistros" and his wife a "zoste patrikia". Nothing further is known of them. The dating of this episode is unclear; it is usually dated shortly after 997/8 according to the narrative of Skylitzes. It is, however, possible that this episode actually took place as late as 1018, at the end of the Bulgarian war, since the chronology of Skylitzes is often unreliable; while the Italian chronicle of Lupus Protospatharius gives a completely different date for the recovery of Dyrrhachium, 1004/5, and does not mention Ashot.