Agatha ( bg, Агата, gr, Άγάθη; ) was the

wife A wife (plural, : wives) is a female in a marital relationship. A woman who has separated from her partner continues to be a wife until the marriage is legally Dissolution (law), dissolved with a divorce judgement. On the death of her partner, ...

of Emperor

Samuel of Bulgaria Samuel (also Samuil; bg, Самуил, ; mk, Самоил/Самуил, ; Old Church Slavonic: Самоилъ; died October 6, 1014) was the Tsar (''Emperor'') of the First Bulgarian Empire from 997 to 6 October 1014. From 977 to 997, he was a ...

Biography

According to a later addition to the history of the late-11th-century

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

historian

John Skylitzes John Skylitzes, commonly Latinized as Ioannes, la, Johannes, label=none, la, Iōannēs, label=none Scylitzes ( el, Ἰωάννης Σκυλίτζης, ''Iōánnēs Skylítzēs'', or el, Σκυλίτση, ''Skylítsē'', label=none ; la, ...

, Agatha was a captive from Larissa, and the daughter of the magnate of Dyrrhachium, John Chryselios. Skylitzes explicitly refers to her as the mother of Samuel's heir Gavril Radomir, which means that she was probably Samuel's wife. On the other hand, Skylitzes later mentions that Gavril Radomir himself also took a beautiful captive, named Irene, from Larissa as his wife. According to the editors of the ''

Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit The Prosopography of the Byzantine World (PBW) is a project to create a prosopographical database of individuals named in textual sources in the Byzantine Empire and surrounding areas in the period from 642 to 1265. The project is a collaboration b ...

'', this may have been a source of confusion for a later copyist, and Agatha's real origin was not Larissa, but Dyrrhachium. According to the same work, it is likely that she had died by ca. 998, when her father surrendered Dyrrhachium to the Byzantine emperor

Basil II Basil II Porphyrogenitus ( gr, Βασίλειος Πορφυρογέννητος ;) and, most often, the Purple-born ( gr, ὁ πορφυρογέννητος, translit=ho porphyrogennetos).. 958 – 15 December 1025), nicknamed the Bulgar S ...

. Only two of Samuel's and Agatha's children are definitely known by name: Gavril Radomir and Miroslava. Two further, unnamed, daughters are mentioned in 1018, while Samuel is also recorded as having had a bastard son. Agatha is one of the central characters in

Dimitar Talev Dimitar Talev ( bg, Димитър Талев) (1 September 1898 – 20 October 1966) was a Bulgarian writer, journalist, political prisoner, and member of the Bulgarian National Assembly. Biography Born in Prilep, in the Manastir Vilayet of t ...

's novel ''Samuil''.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Agatha 990s deaths People from Larissa Bulgarian consorts 10th-century births 10th-century Bulgarian women 10th-century Byzantine women