Tsar Samoil and the Archbishopric of Ohrid in Macedonia

[Carlin]

Vlach Military Units in the Byzantine Army, in Samuel's State and Byzantium: History, Legend, Tradition, Heritage. Proceedings оf the International Symposium "Days of Justinian I" (Skopje, 17-18 October, 2014), Edited by Mitko B. Panov, Skopje, 2015, 47-55

URL:

http://www.academia.edu/18072996/Vla...pje_2015_47-55

[Amphipolis]

Originally Posted by Carlin

...in Samuel's State ...

Hmmm... so this is how they call it now in local conferences.

[Liberator of Makedonija]

Originally Posted by Philosopher

This is strange, considering we have documents from the 1500s and 1600s that speak of a Macedonian ethnicity and consciousnesses. But I guess historians have overlooked those documents.

Modern Romantic Nationalism is indeed a recent construction. Its roots date back to the late 18th century but it didn't really florish until the late 19th and early 20th centuries in most parts of the world. Any references to an ethnic identity prior to the late 18th century is likely an example of an earlier non-romantic form of Nationalism. I suppose you could call it 'Proto-Nationalism'

[Carlin]

''Greek'' and ''Greeks'' in the Works of Theophylact of Ohrid Written During his Stay in Macedonia, BY Grigori Simeonov

URL:
http://www.academia.edu/18135486/Gre...y_in_Macedonia

[maco2envy]

A really good podcast on Samuel and Basil II:
https://thehistoryofbyzantium.com/20...ing-the-blind/

Goes over theories concerning the number of prisoners blinded and Basil II's captive policies. All rather surprising.

[Liberator of Makedonija]

Anyone ever notice how the Bitola inscription refers to the army of Basil II as "Greek". Odd as the term doesn't seem to have been very common at the time.

[maco2envy]

Good observation, it's probably fabricated like the other inscription.

[Liberator of Makedonija]

Originally Posted by maco2envy

Good observation, it's probably fabricated like the other inscription.

There have been doubts about the Bitola inscription since the authenticity of the Voden inscription were debunked. I do find it odd that the inscription refers to "Greeks", given that at the time (to my knowledge) that wasn't a term often used.

Maybe someone can clarify on the use of the term "Greek" during this period and if the term was used in Old Church Slavonic.

[Amphipolis]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatalar_Inscription

[maco2envy]

You're right that the term "Greek" in reference to a nation would have been unusual at that time, since the "Roman" designation was arguably at its strongest. I'd assume that Slavic speakers whom were a large component of the multi-ethnic Byzantine empire and its periphery would have referred to them accordingly i.e Romans or something similar. It was typically western sources at that time (i.e that had weak contact with the Byzantine empire) that exchanged the term "Roman" for "Greek".

Although, there is a Bulgar inscription that was found in Bulgaria proper in the 800's that uses the term Greeks ("ΓΡΙΚΟΥC") in reference to the Romans:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatalar_Inscription
So the usage of the term is pretty confusing.