Telets 1

Prosopography of the Byzantine Empire
SexM
FloruitM VIII
Dates762 (taq) / 765 (ob.)
Variant NamesTeletzes;
Telessios
EthnicityBulgar
LocationsBulgaria (residence);
Bulgaria (officeplace);
Anchialos (Thrace);
Bulgaria
TitlesRuler of the Bulgars (office)
Textual SourcesList of Old Bulgar Rulers, printed in Runciman, First Bulgarian Empire, Appendix II, p. 273 (list);
Nicephorus, Breviarium Historiae, ed. C. Mango, Nikephoros, Patriarch of Constantinople: Short History; prev. ed. C. de Boor Nicephori ArchiepiscopiConstantinopolitani Opuscula Historica Leipzig 1880 (history);
Theophanes Confessor, Chronographia, ed. C. de Boor, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1883-85, repr. Hildesheim/NewYork, 1980); tr. and comm. C. Mango and R. Scott, The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor, Oxford 1997 (chronicle);
Zonaras = Ioannis Zonarae Epitome Historiarum, libri XIII-XVIII, ed. Th. Büttner-Wobst, (Bonn, 1897) (history)

According to the List of Old Bulgar Rulers, p. 273, his name was Telets 1 and his family name was Ugain; the length of his reign was three years ("Telets three years, his race Ugain, and his years somor altem, he too of another race", i.e. than his predecessor Vinekh 1); Runciman, First Bulgarian Empire, Appendix II, p. 277 (for the chronology). Telets 1 was ruler of the Bulgars from 762 to 765; see Grumel, Chronologie, p. 388, for the dates.

Apparently in or shortly before 763 the Bulgars overthrew their traditional leaders and made Telets 1 their ruler (ἡγεμόνα δὲ ἐφ' ἑαυτοῖς καθιστᾶσιν Τελέσσιον ὄνομα: Nic. Brev. de Boor 69, Mango 76:3-4); according to Nicephorus he was an arrogant man displaying the rashness of youth; according to Theophanes he was then aged thirty and was headstrong (ἄνδρα κακόφρονα, ὀνόματι Τελέτζην, ἐτῶν ὑπάρχοντα λ'); in June 763 the emperor Constantine V (Konstantinos 7) marched against the Bulgars; Telets 1 went to meet him with an army which included many allies from neighbouring tribes (Nicephorus mentions the Slavs); the two forces met near Anchialos on 30 June 763, and after a fierce struggle the Bulgars were defeated with heavy losses; the Bulgars then rebelled against Telets 1 and he was overthrown and killed; his successor was Sabinos 1: Nic. Brev. de Boor 69-70, Mango 76-77, Theoph. AM 6254, cf. Zon. XV 6. 17-19 (the Bulgars overthrew their traditional rulers and appointed Teletzes; he fled after his defeat at Anchialos). See Runciman, op. cit., pp. 37-39.

On Telets 1, see H. Ditten, Zum Verhältnis zwischen Protobulgaren und Slawen vom Ende des 7. bis zum Anfang des 9. Jahrhunderts, in Besonderheiten der byzantinischen Feudalentwicklung. Eine Sammlung von Beiträgen zu den frühen Jahrhunderten, ed. H. Köpstein (Berlin, 1983), p. 87, n. 17.

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