Kardamos 1 | Prosopography of the Byzantine Empire |
| Sex | M |
| Floruit | L VIII/E IX |
| Dates | 777 (taq) / 803 (ob.) |
| PmbZ No. | 3626 |
| Ethnicity | Bulgar |
| Locations | Bulgaria (residence); Bulgaria; Thrace; Markellai (Thrace); Bersinikia; Probaton (Thrace) |
| Titles | Ruler (office) |
| Textual Sources | 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); Zonaras = Ioannis Zonarae Epitome Historiarum, libri XIII-XVIII, ed. Th. Büttner-Wobst, (Bonn, 1897) (history) |
Kardamos 1 was ruler of the Bulgars from 777/778 to 803; see Grumel, Chronologie, p. 388. Ruler of Bulgaria (ὁ κῦρις Βουλγαρίας, or similar): Theoph. AM 6283 (τῷ κυρῷ Βουλγαρίας), Theoph. AM 6284 and AM 6288 (both ὁ κῦρις Βουλγαρίας), cf. Zon. XV 12. 3, 23 (Καρδάμου, ὃν ὁ λόγος τῶν Βουλγάρων ἐγνώρισεν ἀρχηγόν or similar). In April 791 Kardamos 1 and his forces encountered those of the emperor Constantine VI (Konstantinos 8) at a stream named after St George near the fort of Probaton (in Thrace, north of Adrianople); there was a skirmish in the late evening, after which both sides appear to have retired to avoid further contact: Theoph. AM 6283, Zon. XV 12. 3. On 20 July 792 Kardamos 1 defeated Konstantinos 8 at the battle of Markellai, inflicting very heavy losses and capturing a vast amount of booty including the emperor's own tent and equipment: Theoph. AM 6284, Zon. XV 12. 8. In 796 he threatened the devastation of Thrace if the emperor failed to fulfil his agreements with the Bulgars; the emperor defied him and assembling an army marched to Bersinikia (in Thrace, north of Probaton); Kardamos 1 advanced to a nearby forest but avoided contact and eventually withdrew: Theoph. AM 6288, Zon. XV 12. 23-24. See also Runciman, First Bulgarian Empire, pp. 48-50.
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