Ohrid

   City in southwestern Macedonia, key position on the Via Egnatia (qq.v.); archbishopric; capital of Bulgaria under Samuel of Bulgaria (qq.v.). Perhaps most importantly, it became a center for the diffusion of Byzantine culture throughout the region. Kliment of Ohrid (q.v.) laid the foundations for this by training a Slavonic-speaking clergy and helping to create a Slavonic literature. The city had several learned archbishops (q.v.), including Theophylaktos (patriarch from ca. 1090-ca. 1108), and Demetrios Chomatenos (qq.v.). Theophylaktos was a student of Michael Psellos (q.v.), and a theologian whose correspondence is an important source of information about the region during the reign of Alexios I Komnenos (q.v.). The extant literary works of Demetrios Chomatenos are the chief source for the internal history of the Despotate of Epiros (to which Ohrid belonged) during the first half of the 13th century.