page_title: Kuber
section_title: In Macedonia
hierarchical_section_title: Kuber / In Macedonia
caption_attribution_description: English: Lead seal of Mauros, patrikios and archon of the Sermesianoi and of the Boulgaroi Български: Оловен печат на Маврос, патриций и архонт на Сермесианите и Българите
context_page_description: Kuber was a Bulgar leader who according to the Miracles of Saint Demetrius liberated a mixed Bulgar and Byzantine Christian population in the 670s, whose ancestors had been transferred from the Eastern Roman Empire to the Syrmia region in Pannonia by the Avars 60 years earlier. According to a scholarly theory, he was a son of Kubrat, brother of Khan Asparukh and member of the Dulo clan.
context_section_description: Kuber and his people moved as far as the region of Thessaloniki. He decided to settle together with the Sermesianoi in a plain and sent his envoy to the Byzantine Emperor, whom the Miracles of Saint Demetrios did not name, to request his permission. The emperor gave his consent and ordered the nearby Slavic tribe of the Dragovites to supply Kuber and his people with food. However, Kuber's people still wanted to go back to their ancestral homes and started to disperse. Fearing of the decline of his power base, Kuber asked the emperor to forbid the Sermesianoi to leave the plain and to confirm Kuber's position as their ruler. His request seems to have been rejected, because he attempted to seize Thessaloniki, taking advantage of a civil war in the city. However, Saint Demetrius unmasked Kuber's agents who tried to open the gates of Thessaloniki, hindering him from entering the city, according to the saint's hagiography.
  There is no more information of Kuber's life. Some modern historians – including Zlatarski and Cankova-Petkova – say that he established a Bulgar state in Macedonia which existed in parallel with Khan Asparukh's Bulgarian Empire. They also write that the Byzantine Emperor Justinian II who had subjugated the Slavic tribes around Thessaloniki was ambushed and defeated by the Bulgars from Kuber's state on his return to Constantinople in 689. Asparukh's son, Tervel, cooperated with his "uncles in the region of Thessaloniki" against the Byzantine Emperor Justinian II, according to the inscription on the Madara Rider. The Macedonian archaeologist, Ivan Mikulčić, who attributes the treasures found at Vrap and Ersekë to Kuber's people, says that archaeological findings confirm their presence in Macedonia and eastern Albania.
caption: Seal of Mauros, one of Kuber's chief associates, from 684–685 AD. The inscription says: "Of Mauros, patrikios and archon of the Sermesianoi and Bulgaroi".
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