# John Chryselios

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/John_Chryselios
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/John_Chryselios.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Chryselios
> Source revision: 1354811768
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

'''John Chryselios''' ({{langx|el|{{lang|grc|Ἰωάννης Χρυσήλιος}}}}) was a provincial magnate in late 10th-century [Dyrrhachium](/source/Dyrrhachium), and the father-in-law of Tsar [Samuel of Bulgaria](/source/Samuel_of_Bulgaria) ({{reign|997|1014}}).

==Biography==
An [Albanian](/source/Albanians) or a [Bulgarian](/source/Bulgarians) in origin, Chryselios was the "leading man" (''proteuon'') of Dyrrhachium.{{sfn|PmbZ|loc=Ioannes Chryselios (#23183)}} According to another opinion, his name is not Bulgarian and there is no evidence that Chryselios was Bulgarian; it is suggested that he could have been of Armenian Paulician or of Bogomil origin.<ref>[Nicholas Adontz](/source/Nicholas_Adontz). ''Samuel l'Armenien, Roi des Bulgares''. In: Etudes Armeno-Byzantines. Publisher: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Lisbon, 1965, p. 395, 396.</ref> His title, ''Protevon'', reveals that he had been elected to lead the [commune](/source/Medieval_commune) of Dyrrhachium, apparently a ''Protaton''-republic operating within the imperial institutions of the [Dyrrhachium Theme](/source/Dyrrhachium_(theme)), like e.g. an elected ''Protevon'' had been governing the maritime city of [Kherson](/source/Chersonesus) within the institutions of the [Kherson Theme](/source/Cherson_(theme)), and later on within the [Perateia](/source/Perateia) territory, until 1299.

According to a note on the history of [John Skylitzes](/source/John_Skylitzes), the Bulgarian tsar Samuel married Chryselios's daughter [Agatha](/source/Agatha_(wife_of_Samuel_of_Bulgaria)), who was taken captive after Samuel sacked the city of [Larissa](/source/Larissa).{{sfn|PmbZ|loc=Ioannes Chryselios (#23183)}} It is possible that thereby Samuel managed to acquire control over the strategically important [Adriatic](/source/Adriatic) port city.{{sfn|Stephenson|2003|pp=17–18, 34–35}}  

After the [Battle of Spercheios](/source/Battle_of_Spercheios) in 997, Samuel made his son-in-law [Ashot Taronites](/source/Ashot_Taronites), a Byzantine captive who had married his daughter [Miroslava](/source/Miroslava_of_Bulgaria), governor of the city. In circa 1005, however, Ashot and Miroslava, with the connivance of Chryselios, fled on a Byzantine ship to [Constantinople](/source/Constantinople), bearing a letter by Chryselios that promised to hand over the city to the Byzantine emperor, [Basil II](/source/Basil_II) ({{reign|976|1025}}), in exchange for the rank of ''[patrikios](/source/patrikios)'' for himself and his two sons. Soon, a Byzantine squadron appeared off the city under [Eustathios Daphnomeles](/source/Eustathios_Daphnomeles), and the city returned to Byzantine rule, but Chryselios had died in the meantime.{{sfn|PmbZ|loc=Ioannes Chryselios (#23183)}}{{sfn|Stephenson|2003|pp=17–18, 34–35}}{{sfn|Holmes|2005|pp=103–104}} It is, however, possible that this episode actually took place as late as 1018, at the end of the [Bulgarian war](/source/Byzantine_conquest_of_Bulgaria), since the chronology of the war's primary source, John Skylitzes, is unclear;{{sfn|Holmes|2005|pp=104–105, 497–498}} while the Italian chronicle of [Lupus Protospatharius](/source/Lupus_Protospatharius) gives a completely different date for the recovery of Dyrrhachium, 1004/5, and does not mention Chryselios at all.{{sfn|PmbZ|loc=Ioannes Chryselios (#23183)}}

==Family==
Apart from his daughter Agatha, modern Bulgarian scholars equate a ''patrikios'' Nicholas Chryselios or Nicholas the Bulgarian, recorded by Skylitzes as being active under [Romanos III Argyros](/source/Romanos_III_Argyros) ({{reign|1028|1034}}), with one of John Chryselios' sons.{{sfn|PmbZ|loc=Ioannes Chryselios (#23183)}} A certain Theodoretos, who was the father of [Theodora Kosara](/source/Theodora_Kosara), the wife of Prince [Jovan Vladimir](/source/Jovan_Vladimir) of [Duklja](/source/Duklja), has also been suggested by modern scholarship as one of Chryselios' sons.{{sfn|PmbZ|loc=Ioannes Chryselios (#23183)}}

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==Sources==
*{{cite book|last=Holmes|first=Catherine|title=Basil II and the Governance of Empire (976–1025)|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2005|isbn=978-0-19-927968-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_h3_c0U1jVoC}}
*{{cite encyclopedia | editor1-last = Lilie | editor1-first = Ralph-Johannes | editor2-last = Ludwig | editor2-first = Claudia  | editor3-last = Zielke | editor3-first = Beate | editor4-last = Pratsch | editor4-first = Thomas | encyclopedia = Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit Online. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Nach Vorarbeiten F. Winkelmanns erstellt | language = German | publisher = De Gruyter | year = 2013 | url = http://www.degruyter.com/view/db/pmbz | ref = {{harvid|PmbZ}} | title = Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit Online }}
*{{cite book|last=Stephenson|first=Paul|title=The Legend of Basil the Bulgar-Slayer|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2003|isbn=978-0-521-81530-7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z0PmrXKnczUC}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chryselios, John}}
Category:10th-century Bulgarian people
Category:10th-century Byzantine people
Category:History of Durrës
Category:Bulgarian people of the Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [John Chryselios](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Chryselios) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Chryselios?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.