Asparuch 1

Prosopography of the Byzantine Empire
SexM
FloruitM VII/E VIII
Dates642 (taq) / 702 (ob.)
PmbZ No.654
Variant NamesAsparouch;
Isperikh
EthnicityBulgar
LocationsMaeotis (Lake) (officeplace);
Oglon (officeplace);
Oglon (residence);
Bulgaria (birthplace);
Maeotis (Lake) (residence);
Maeotis (Lake);
Oglon;
Thrace
TitlesRuler (office)
Textual SourcesList of Old Bulgar Rulers, printed in Runciman, First Bulgarian Empire, Appendix II, p. 273 (list);
Nicephorus, Breviarium Historiae, ed. C. Mango, Nikephoros, Patriarch of Constantinople: Short History; prev. ed. C. de Boor Nicephori ArchiepiscopiConstantinopolitani Opuscula Historica Leipzig 1880 (history);
Theophanes Confessor, Chronographia, ed. C. de Boor, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1883-85, repr. Hildesheim/NewYork, 1980); tr. and comm. C. Mango and R. Scott, The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor, Oxford 1997 (chronicle)

In the List of Old Bulgar Rulers Asparuch 1 is called Isperikh and the length of his reign is given as sixty one years: Runciman, First Bulgarian Empire, Appendix II, pp. 273 ("Isperikh, prince, 60 years and 1 year, his race Dulo, his years ber enialem"), 277 (for the chronology). For his dates, 681(from the foundation of the Bulgar State, cf. below) to 702, see Grumel, Chronologie, p. 388.

The Greek sources call him Asparouch. Asparuch 1 began to rule in 643 (his father Kobratos 1's reign ended in 642), led his people westwards from near the Don in 645, eventually to reach the Danube region, and from there moved South into Thrace, fighting and defeating the Empire in 680 and 681 (see Ostrogorsky, tr. Hussey, (1968), p. 126, n.4); he died in 702. He was the third of the five sons of Kobratos 1, who succeeded their father as rulers of the Bulgars living near lake Maeotis; disregarding their father's advice to remain true to their traditions, Asparuch 1 led his section of the people across the Dniestr and the Dniepr and settled with them in the area known as Oglon, lying between those rivers and the Danube and protected from attack by the rivers and by marshes; it was apparently as the result of raids by him into Roman territory that Constantine IV (Konstantinos 2) mounted an ill-fated campaign which resulted in a Roman defeat and a peace treaty unfavourable to the Romans and an expansion of Bulgar influence and power in the area of Thrace (in 681, see above): Theoph. AM 6171, Nic. Brev. de Boor 34-5, Mango. 35-6. See further Runciman, op. cit., pp. 25-30. Cf. also Bezmer 1 and Runciman, op. cit., pp. 17, 273.

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