Annales Quedlinburgenses

 In the official Annals of Quedlinburg (Annales Quedlinburgenses), where chroniclers meticulously recorded all foreign delegations paying homage to Emperor Otto I in March 973, the envoys of Samuel and his brothers were documented using the following Latin term:

"…legati Cometulorum" or, in translation: "Envoys of the Cometuli / Sons of the Comes."

The word "Cometuli" is a Latinised form of Cometopuli (the sons of Comes Nikola – David, Moses, Aaron, and Samuel).

This specific record is crucial for two key historical reasons:

Complete separation from Bulgaria: At that very same assembly in Quedlinburg, the German chroniclers separately recorded the envoys from Bulgaria ("legati Bulgariorum"). This means that to the German court and the European public of the time, the envoys of the Bulgarians and the envoys of the Cometopuli were two entirely different delegations representing distinct political entities.

Diplomatic rank: The chroniclers list Samuel's envoys in the same rank as the emissaries of the most powerful European nations of that era – the Romans (Byzantines), Italians, Hungarians, Danes, and Russians. This demonstrates that Samuel’s state, even in its inception (973 AD), was treated as a significant international factor.

A Shared Border

There was a period when a shared border or immediate neighborly contact existed between the two empires.

After Otto I the Great founded the Holy Roman Empire, German borders rapidly expanded eastward toward the Hungarian plains. At the same time, following the fall of the Eastern Bulgarian Kingdom under Byzantine rule in 971, the state of the Cometopuli (the core of the future Samuil's Empire) quickly expanded to the north.

Samuel captured the regions around Belgrade, Braničevo, and Srem (present-day Sremska Mitrovica). Consequently, his state reached the Danube River, directly bordering the March of Austria (Ostarrîchi), which was then a part of the German Empire.

This geographical proximity is the primary reason why it was of vital importance for Samuel to send diplomats to Quedlinburg. His objective was to secure the northern and western fronts through an alliance with the Germans while waging war to the south against Byzantium.