Ashot Taronites

Ashot Taronites (Greek: Ἀσώτιος Ταρωνίτης, Asōtios Tarōnitēs; Armenian: Աշոտ, Ašot; fl. ca. 995 – ca. 997/8) was a Byzantine nobleman. Captured by the Bulgarians in 995, he was released in 996 and married to Miroslava, daughter of Tsar Samuel of Bulgaria. Appointed governor of Dyrrhachium by Samuel, he and his wife fled to Constantinople and arranged for Dyrrhachium to be handed over to Byzantine rule.

Ashot was the son of Gregory Taronites. Gregory was an Armenian prince of the region of Taron in southern Armenia. When his father, Ashot III of Taron, died in 967/8, Gregory and his brother ceded Taron to the Byzantine Empire in exchange for extensive lands and the title of patrikios. Gregory went to Constantinople, where he married and had at least two children, Ashot and a daughter Irene.

In 991, Emperor Basil II led a campaign in the Balkans, against Samuel of Bulgaria, and appointed Gregory doux of Thessalonica. Ashot accompanied his father to Thessalonica. Some time after this appointment, Ashot was captured and Gregory was killed by the Bulgarians in an ambush near Thessalonica. A raiding party had approached the city, and Gregory sent out Ashot with the vanguard to make contact with them and reconnoitre. The over-eager Ashot engaged the Bulgarians and drove them back, but was drawn into a prepared ambush and encircled with his men. His father, following up with the main Byzantine force, rushed to his rescue, but was killed. The exact date of this event is unknown. The chronology of the account of John Skylitzes seems to place it in 996, while Armenian sources place it in 991. Modern research holds that it must have happened at the latest in mid-995, as John Chaldos is attested as doux of Thessalonica later in the same year.

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