DEMETRIOS CHOMATIANOS’ ACCOUNTS OF THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF BULGARIANS AND THE POSSIBLE ORIGIN OF THREE TOPONYMS FROM THE BULGARIAN NORTHERN BLACK SEA COAST

Abstract

This article examines one of the latest and most controversial pieces of information about the origin of the Bulgars . In our attempt to establish its historical credibility, we compared the most important Greek and Old Bulgarian copies of St. Clement of Ohrid’s Life, and suggested a date and possible ideological motives behind the creation of so-called „Moesian legend”. Special attention is paid to the coincidence between the names of the modern Bulgarian cities and towns of Varna, Kavarna and Shabla and the toponyms registered in the Hittite inventory inscriptions of the 2nd millennium BCE.