In the Shackles of the Evil One: The Portrayal of Tsar Symeon I the Great (893–927) in the Oration ‘On the Treaty with the Bulgarians’

The year 927 brought a peace treaty between Byzantium and Bulgaria, which ended many years of military struggle between both the states . On this occasion Theodore Daphnopates delivered a speech praising the newly concluded agreement . The blame for the accursed war was to put on (already dead) Symeon I (893–927), the then Bulgarian ruler, and his ungodly aspirations to the crown of the Byzantine Empire . It was his personal ambitions that were a real infringement on the God’s earthly order, and it was only and exclusively Symeon, who lead to the appearance of a crack on the House of the Lord . The Bulgarian ruler Златният век . . ., p . 159–160; П . АНГелов, op . cit ., p . 191; M .J . Leszka, Wizerunek..., p . 122, an . 165 . 148 H . Ahrweiler, L’ideologie politique de l’Empire byzantin, Paris 1975, p . 129–147; P . Stephenson, Byzantium’s Balkan Frontier..., p . 35; C . Mango, Introduction, [in:] The Oxford History of Byzantium, ed . idem, Oxford 2002, p . 16; И . БожИлов, Византийският..., p . 177–178 . emphasised once again just how defiled a man was the Bulgarian ruler . It could be said that in his belligerence he went so far that he was unable to return to the way of peace . Additionally, according to the orator, God personally made sure that he could not repent, which was clearly to be a warning for the future enemies of Byzantium, who should remember on whose side the Most High is, and what are the consequences of going against the empire . Undoubtedly . However, by weaving into his statement the analogy with David, whom God forbade to build the temple, Daphnopates tried to explain to himself and to his listeners Symeons obduracy in the matter of concluding the peace141 . What was the ultimate end of Symeon according to the Byzantine orator is not difficult to guess . In pursuing the vanities of this world (the crown, Byzantine throne and their transient, earthly glory142), he loses from sight the really important, eternal matters . He ends like rebellious Lucifer, cast out from the place of haughtiness and pride, like Typhon, defeated by Zeus and cast into Tartarus . In our source, these are only suggestions that can be plucked out from the context of the whole oration . Whereas in the letters from Lekapenos to Symeon, Daphnopates is clearly warning the tsar about the consequences of persisting in the rebellion and continuing war . Through the lips of the Byzantine ruler he reminds him of the Last Judgement and the punishment of wicked deeds143 . In turn, from the content of the oration, it appears that Symeon can be counted among those who love discord and war . He can be included among the killers, who likened themselves, as Daphnopates wrote, to Cain and Lamech, and so the archetypes of the wicked men, in the Scripture called directly the children of the Evil One144 . And with them, among those who found themselves on the left hand side of the Christ’s throne of judgement, in the place of the goats, among those who have been crossed out from the Book of the Redeemed (ἀπαλeιφῇ δὲ τῆς βίβλου τῶν σωζομένων)145, to go into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels146 . In the context of Symeon’s fall one could mention other characters named by the rhetorician – the haughty Xerxes, Eteocles and Polinices, sons of Oedipus who fighting for the control over Thebes killed each other, Cyrus the Younger, who was not satisfied with his own inheritance, Antaeus murdering his own guests and the greedy Alexander the Great, the great conqueror and murderer of his loved ones . All of them, for their love of hostility and war, received a worthy pay – an ignominious end147 . 141 One of the letters of Romanos Lekapenos testifies about this obduracy – Daphnopates, 5, p . 67, 135–136 . 142 Vide e .g . Isa 40, 6–8; 1 Petr 1, 24 . 143 Daphnopates, 7, p . 83, 44 – 85, 74 . Cf . e .g . Nicholas, 11, p . 78, 94–100 . 144 Gen 4, 1–24; Sap 10, 3; Mt 23, 35; 1 Io 3, 12–13; Iudae 11 . 145 Συμβάσeι, 9, p . 268, 240–270, 269 . 146 Mt 25, 31–46 . 147 Συμβάσeι, 20–21, p . 282, 448–284, 468 . Vide also И . БожИлов, Цар Симеон Велики (893–927):