Roman of Bulgaria
Bulgarian ruler
Roman (Bulgarian: Роман; 930s–997) was the emperor (tsar) of Bulgaria from 977 to 991, being in Byzantine captivity thereafter still claiming the title.
Reign
Roman was the second surviving son of Emperor Peter I of Bulgaria by his marriage with Maria (renamed Eirene) Lekapene, the granddaughter of the Byzantine Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos, whose name he was given. It is possible that he had the double name Roman-Simeon, but this may be due to confusion with another man in the sources. He was born around 930, and had probably visited Constantinople with his mother and older brothers soon after 931.
We know nothing about Roman’s life until 968, when he joined his older brother Boris in Constantinople to negotiate a peace agreement between Bulgaria and Byzantium, during which they apparently served as honorary hostages at the Byzantine court. On their father’s abdication in 969, Boris and Roman returned to Bulgaria, where Boris II succeeded as emperor. Roman may have been proclaimed co-emperor in accordance with Byzantine usage, but the evidence for that is vague.
In Bulgaria Roman probably shared his brother’s destiny, becoming first a pawn in the hands of Prince Sviatoslav I of Kiev and then in those of the Byzantine Emperor John I Tzimiskes. After the latter’s victory in 971, Roman was taken to Constantinople together with his brother’s family. To ensure that the Bulgarian dynasty would die out (Boris II apparently had only daughters), the Byzantine emperor had Roman castrated.
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