Kuber (also Kouber or Kuver) was a Bulgar leader who, according to the Miracles of Saint Demetrius, liberated a mixed Bulgar and Byzantine Christian population in the 670s, whose ancestors had been transferred from the Eastern Roman Empire to the Syrmia region in Pannonia by the Avars 60 years ea…
Born date unknownLast edited Oct 15, 2026, 4:07 PM
According to the Byzantine scholar, Theophanes the Confessor,4 Kubrat's (unnamed) fourth son, who left the Pontic steppes after his father's death around 642, became "the subject of the [Khagan] of the Avars in Avar Pannonia and remained there with his army".5 According to a scholarly theory, first proposed by the Bulgarian historian Vasil Zlatarski, Kuber was the fourth son of Kubrat, the Christian ruler of the OnogurBulgars in the steppes north of the Black Sea.6 Kuber's story is continued in the second book of the . The book is a hagiographic work, written in in the 680s or 690s. Denis Sinor wrote "The Avar Kaghan entrusted Kuber and his suite with the governing of the descendants of the Christian Byzantine prisoners of war, carried off sixty years ago, who were living mixed with Avars and Bulgars north of the Danube, not far from the former province of Pannonia Sirmiensis." Nevertheless, Kuber's people soon liberated the POWs and led them south to the region of modern . The American historian writes that, if Zlatarski's theory is correct, Kuber was named for his father, because Kuber and Kubrat are most probably two Greek versions of the same name. However, others suggest Kuber is but a reference to Asparukh's own branch of Kubrat's where "Kubi-ar" may mean "fair haired". Finally, Croatian researchers have proposed that Kubrat of Onoguria's five sons correspond to the five brothers from who took Avaria in 677, whereby Kuber would be .
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Kuber was the ruler of a mixed population in the Avar Khaganate, including the descendants of the prisoners of war whom the Avars had captured in the Balkan Peninsula and settled around Sirmium.6416 He was made governor by the khagan.917 Historian Samuel Szádeczky-Kardoss – who accepts Kuber's identification as Kubrat's son and thus a scion of the royal Dulo clan – writes that Kuber became governor of that region, because the Khagan wanted to separate him from his Bulgar subjects who had followed him from the Pontic steppes.6 Kuber's subjects called themselves Sermesianoi,17 but the Byzantines regarded them as "Bulgars".18 They preserved their Christian traditions, although their ancestors had been taken to the Avar Khaganate about 60 years before Kuber's appointment.4
The Sermesianoi did not cease to dream of their return to their ancestors' homes.4 Taking advantage of his subjects' feelings, Kuber rose up in open rebellion against the Khagan "in our times", according to the Miracles of Saint Demetrius.19 Modern historians say that Kuber's rebellion occurred in the 670s or early 680s.171820 Around 70,00021Sermesianoi joined him and departed for the Byzantine Empire.9 The khagan attempted to hinder their migration, but they routed the Avars in five or six battles and crossed the river Danube.9
In Byzantine Macedonia
Kuber and his people moved as far as the region of Thessaloniki.922 He decided to settle together with the Sermesianoi in a plain and sent his envoy to the Byzantine Emperor, whom the Miracles of Saint Demetrios did not name, to request his permission.9 The emperor gave his consent and ordered the nearby Slavic tribe of the Dragovites to supply Kuber and his people with food.917 However, Kuber's people still wanted to go back to their ancestral homes and started to disperse.9 Fearing of the decline of his power base, Kuber asked the emperor to forbid the Sermesianoi to leave the plain and to confirm Kuber's position as their ruler.9 His request seems to have been rejected, because he attempted to seize Thessaloniki, taking advantage of a civil war in the city.9 However, Saint Demetrius unmasked Kuber's agents who tried to open the gates of Thessaloniki, hindering him from entering the city, according to the saint's hagiography.9
There is no more information about Kuber's life in the Miracles.23 However, he is linked to the ambush and defeat of Byzantine Emperor Justinian II at the hands of the Bulgars in 689, on his return to Constantinople from a campaign "to subjugate the Bulgars and the Sclavinians" around Thessaloniki.242526 According to Veselin Beshevliev, based on an inscription on the Madara Rider, Kuber may have also had help from Khan Asparukh's son, Tervel, who is said to have cooperated against Justinian II with his "uncles in the region of Thessaloniki".2728Walter Pohl rejected this theory, arguing that it is highly doubtful, since it relied on circular reasoning and contradicts other historical evidence.29 Eventually, Kuber's attempted "statelet" proved ephemeral, and his Bulgars are assumed to have quickly been assimilated by the surrounding Slavs.30 Other historians reject the theory.31
The Macedonian archaeologist Ivan Mikulčić attributes the treasures found at Vrap and Ersekë to Kuber's people, thus argues that Kuber's Bulgars moved to those areas after the failed attempt to capture Thessaloniki.32
The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor: Byzantine and Near Eastern History, AD 284–813 (Translated with Introduction and Commentary by Cyril Mango and Roger Scott with the assistance of Geoffrey Greatrex) (2006). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-822568-3.
Hupchik, Dennis P (2002). The Balkans. From Constantinople to Communism. Palgrave MacMillans. ISBN 1-4039-6417-3.
Микулчиќ, Иван (1996). Средновековни градови и тврдини во Македонија [Medieval towns and castles in the Republic of Macedonia]. Makedonska akademija na naukite i umetnostite. ISBN 9989-649-08-1.
Ostrogorsky, George (1968). History of the Byzantine State. Oxford: Oxford: Basil Blackwell. ISBN 9780631110705.
Szymański, Wojciech; Dąbrowska, Elżbieta (1979). Awarzy. Węgrzy [Avars. Hungarians]. Ossolineum. ISBN 83-04-00246-9.
Szádeczky-Kardoss, Samuel (1990). "The Avars". In Sinor, Denis (ed.). The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia (Volume I. Cambridge University Press. pp. 206–228. ISBN 0-521-24304-1.
Fine 1991, p. 72 "Although the source account is too brief to allow certainty about which Bulgars attacked Justinian,... attributing the attack to Kuver is more plausible than ascribing it to Isperikh". ↩
Hupchik 2002, p. 35 "Although he succeeded in subduing a number of Slav tribes, he was ambushed by Kuber and lost most of his army, prisoners, and booty. Asparuh, at peace with the empire, did not intervene in the campaign". ↩
Ostrogorsky 1968, p. 136 "As early as 687/688 he [Justinian] transferred cavalry from Asia Minor to Thrace, in order, as Teophanes says 'to subjugate the Bulgars and the Sclavinias'". ↩
Веселин Бешевлиев, "Първобългарски надписи", Издателство на Българската академия на науките, София, 1979, стр. 94 / "Protobulgarian inscriptions", Publishing house of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, 1979, p. 94 ↩
[...] of Bulgars [...] and came to Tervel. My uncles in Thessaloniki region didn't credit to the slit-nosed Emperor (Justinian Rhinotmetus) and returned to Kisinas [...] his one [...] through treaty the ruler Tervel gave to the Emperor [...] five thousand [...] the Emperor together with me won well.↩
Fine 1991, p. 72 "Kuver's Bulgars... in the decades that followed were assimilated by the more numerous Slavs and disappeared as any sort of coherent unit or semistate". ↩
Kardaras, Georgios (2019). "Byzantium and the Avars, 6th–9th Century AD: Political, Diplomatic and Cultural Relations". In Curta, Florin; Župka, Dušan (eds.). East and Central Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450-1450. Vol. 51. Brill. p. 136. ISBN 978-90-04-38226-8. ↩
According to the Byzantine scholar, Theophanes the Confessor,4 Kubrat's (unnamed) fourth son, who left the Pontic steppes after his father's death around 642, became "the subject of the [Khagan] of the Avars in Avar Pannonia and remained there with his army".5 According to a scholarly theory, first proposed by the Bulgarian historian Vasil Zlatarski, Kuber was the fourth son of Kubrat, the Christian ruler of the OnogurBulgars in the steppes north of the . Kuber's story is continued in the second book of the . The book is a hagiographic work, written in in the 680s or 690s. Denis Sinor wrote "The Avar Kaghan entrusted Kuber and his suite with the governing of the descendants of the Christian Byzantine prisoners of war, carried off sixty years ago, who were living mixed with Avars and Bulgars north of the Danube, not far from the former province of Pannonia Sirmiensis." Nevertheless, Kuber's people soon liberated the POWs and led them south to the region of modern . The American historian writes that, if Zlatarski's theory is correct, Kuber was named for his father, because Kuber and Kubrat are most probably two Greek versions of the same name. However, others suggest Kuber is but a reference to Asparukh's own branch of Kubrat's where "Kubi-ar" may mean "fair haired". Finally, Croatian researchers have proposed that Kubrat of Onoguria's five sons correspond to the five brothers from who took Avaria in 677, whereby Kuber would be .
Kuber was the ruler of a mixed population in the Avar Khaganate, including the descendants of the prisoners of war whom the Avars had captured in the Balkan Peninsula and settled around Sirmium.6416 He was made governor by the khagan.917 Historian Samuel Szádeczky-Kardoss – who accepts Kuber's identification as Kubrat's son and thus a scion of the royal Dulo clan – writes that Kuber became governor of that region, because the Khagan wanted to separate him from his Bulgar subjects who had followed him from the Pontic steppes.6 Kuber's subjects called themselves Sermesianoi,17 but the Byzantines regarded them as "Bulgars".18 They preserved their Christian traditions, although their ancestors had been taken to the Avar Khaganate about 60 years before Kuber's appointment.4
The Sermesianoi did not cease to dream of their return to their ancestors' homes.4 Taking advantage of his subjects' feelings, Kuber rose up in open rebellion against the Khagan "in our times", according to the Miracles of Saint Demetrius.19 Modern historians say that Kuber's rebellion occurred in the 670s or early 680s.171820 Around 70,00021Sermesianoi joined him and departed for the Byzantine Empire.9 The khagan attempted to hinder their migration, but they routed the Avars in five or six battles and crossed the river Danube.9
In Byzantine Macedonia
Kuber and his people moved as far as the region of Thessaloniki.922 He decided to settle together with the Sermesianoi in a plain and sent his envoy to the Byzantine Emperor, whom the Miracles of Saint Demetrios did not name, to request his permission.9 The emperor gave his consent and ordered the nearby Slavic tribe of the Dragovites to supply Kuber and his people with food.917 However, Kuber's people still wanted to go back to their ancestral homes and started to disperse.9 Fearing of the decline of his power base, Kuber asked the emperor to forbid the Sermesianoi to leave the plain and to confirm Kuber's position as their ruler.9 His request seems to have been rejected, because he attempted to seize Thessaloniki, taking advantage of a civil war in the city.9 However, Saint Demetrius unmasked Kuber's agents who tried to open the gates of Thessaloniki, hindering him from entering the city, according to the saint's hagiography.9
There is no more information about Kuber's life in the Miracles.23 However, he is linked to the ambush and defeat of Byzantine Emperor Justinian II at the hands of the Bulgars in 689, on his return to Constantinople from a campaign "to subjugate the Bulgars and the Sclavinians" around Thessaloniki.242526 According to Veselin Beshevliev, based on an inscription on the Madara Rider, Kuber may have also had help from Khan Asparukh's son, Tervel, who is said to have cooperated against Justinian II with his "uncles in the region of Thessaloniki".2728Walter Pohl rejected this theory, arguing that it is highly doubtful, since it relied on circular reasoning and contradicts other historical evidence.29 Eventually, Kuber's attempted "statelet" proved ephemeral, and his Bulgars are assumed to have quickly been assimilated by the surrounding Slavs.30 Other historians reject the theory.31
The Macedonian archaeologist Ivan Mikulčić attributes the treasures found at Vrap and Ersekë to Kuber's people, thus argues that Kuber's Bulgars moved to those areas after the failed attempt to capture Thessaloniki.32
The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor: Byzantine and Near Eastern History, AD 284–813 (Translated with Introduction and Commentary by Cyril Mango and Roger Scott with the assistance of Geoffrey Greatrex) (2006). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-822568-3.
Hupchik, Dennis P (2002). The Balkans. From Constantinople to Communism. Palgrave MacMillans. ISBN 1-4039-6417-3.
Микулчиќ, Иван (1996). Средновековни градови и тврдини во Македонија [Medieval towns and castles in the Republic of Macedonia]. Makedonska akademija na naukite i umetnostite. ISBN 9989-649-08-1.
Ostrogorsky, George (1968). History of the Byzantine State. Oxford: Oxford: Basil Blackwell. ISBN 9780631110705.
Szymański, Wojciech; Dąbrowska, Elżbieta (1979). Awarzy. Węgrzy [Avars. Hungarians]. Ossolineum. ISBN 83-04-00246-9.
Szádeczky-Kardoss, Samuel (1990). "The Avars". In Sinor, Denis (ed.). The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia (Volume I. Cambridge University Press. pp. 206–228. ISBN 0-521-24304-1.
Fine 1991, p. 72 "Although the source account is too brief to allow certainty about which Bulgars attacked Justinian,... attributing the attack to Kuver is more plausible than ascribing it to Isperikh". ↩
Hupchik 2002, p. 35 "Although he succeeded in subduing a number of Slav tribes, he was ambushed by Kuber and lost most of his army, prisoners, and booty. Asparuh, at peace with the empire, did not intervene in the campaign". ↩
Ostrogorsky 1968, p. 136 "As early as 687/688 he [Justinian] transferred cavalry from Asia Minor to Thrace, in order, as Teophanes says 'to subjugate the Bulgars and the Sclavinias'". ↩
Веселин Бешевлиев, "Първобългарски надписи", Издателство на Българската академия на науките, София, 1979, стр. 94 / "Protobulgarian inscriptions", Publishing house of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, 1979, p. 94 ↩
[...] of Bulgars [...] and came to Tervel. My uncles in Thessaloniki region didn't credit to the slit-nosed Emperor (Justinian Rhinotmetus) and returned to Kisinas [...] his one [...] through treaty the ruler Tervel gave to the Emperor [...] five thousand [...] the Emperor together with me won well.↩
Fine 1991, p. 72 "Kuver's Bulgars... in the decades that followed were assimilated by the more numerous Slavs and disappeared as any sort of coherent unit or semistate". ↩
Kardaras, Georgios (2019). "Byzantium and the Avars, 6th–9th Century AD: Political, Diplomatic and Cultural Relations". In Curta, Florin; Župka, Dušan (eds.). East and Central Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450-1450. Vol. 51. Brill. p. 136. ISBN 978-90-04-38226-8. ↩