John Chryselios was a Byzantine

Byzantine

Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...

 provincial magnate in late 10th-century Dyrrhachium, and the father-in-law of Tsar Samuel of Bulgaria.

Chryselios was the "leading man" (proteuon) of Dyrrhachium. At some point the Bulgarian tsar Samuel married Chryselios' daughter Kosara

Kosara of Bulgaria

Kosara or Cossara was a Bulgarian Empress, the wife of Tsar Samuel of Bulgaria. She married about 970.Her father was John Chryselios from Dyrrhachium. His name and his heresy drive us towards the middle of the Armenians Paulicians....

, thereby acquiring control over the strategically important Adriatic port city. It is likely that this marriage occurred in the 970s. After the Battle of Spercheios

Battle of Spercheios

The Battle of Spercheios took place in 997 AD, on the shores of the river of the same name in present-day central Greece. It was fought between a Bulgarian army led by Tsar Samuil, that in the previous year had penetrated far south into Greece, and a Byzantine army under the command of Nikephoros...

 in 997, Samuel made his son-in-law Ashot Taronites, a Byzantine captive who had married his daughter Miroslava

Miroslava of Bulgaria

Miroslava was one of the daughters of tsar Samuil of Bulgaria and Kosara of Bulgaria. Princess Miroslava fell in love with the Byzantine noble captive Ashot Taronites, who was of Armenian origin, and threatened to commit suicide if she was not allowed to marry him...

, governor of the city. In ca. 1005 however, Ashot and Miroslava, with the connivance of Chryselios, fled on a Byzantine ship to Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

, bearing a letter by Chryselios that promised to hand over the city to the Byzantines in exchange for the rank and title of patrikios for himself and his sons Theodore and Nicholas. Soon a Byzantine squadron appeared off the city under Eustathios Daphnomeles

Eustathios Daphnomeles

Eustathios Daphnomeles was a Byzantine strategos and patrician who distinguished himself in the Byzantine conquest of Bulgaria. Along with Nikephoros Ouranos and Nikephoros Xiphias, he ranks as one of the most prominent and successful generals of Emperor Basil II against Samuel of Bulgaria,...

, and the city returned to Byzantine rule. It is however possible that this episode actually took place as late as 1018, at the end of the Bulgarian wars, since the chronology of our primary source, John Skylitzes

John Skylitzes

John Skylitzes, latinized as Ioannes Scylitzes was a Greek historian of the late 11th century. He was born in the beginning of 1040's and died after 1101.- Life :Very little is known about his life...

, is unclear.

Sources