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In 1079 Oleg Svjatoslavič was ruler of Tmutorokan and a single man when he was captured by the Khazars and shipped to Constantinople. [9] Abbot Daniil, on his trip to the Holy Land early in the twelfth century, noted that Oleg had lived on the island of Rhodes for two years. [10] Oleg appears in the PVL again four years later, when he makes his successful return to Tmutorokan in 1083 and does away with his enemies. [11] After his return from exile, most likely, he had a child named Vsevolod, indication that there was a woman involved in his life, but who she was exactly is unknown.
There are theories that postulate a wife for Oleg, particularly a Byzantine one named Theophano Mouzalonissa, based upon a few pieces of evidence. [12] A copy of the Ljubei Sinodik records a Michael (Oleg's Christian names) [13] of Černihiv married to a Theophano, and a seal bearing the inscription, "Theophano Mualonissa, archontissa of Rus'" have provided the basis for the identities of those involved in this marriage. [14] Alexander Každan, whose analysis of Rus'-Byzantine marriages is an important corrective to Baumgarten's Byzatine inflation, disagrees with the very existence of this marriage, however. [15] In his analysis of the marriage Každan admits that he once accepted the marriage, but that he ultimately could not maintain that opinion due to three main factors. One was the character and quality of Loparev’s scholarship. The second was problems with the Sinodik itself, including the late date of the version of the Sinodik in which the name “Michael” was found, its accompanying absence in earlier versions of the Sinodik, and the identification in another Sinodik of Theophano and a Michael being married in the thirteenth century. Third is the Byzantine evidence, or lack thereof; for instance, the marriage itself is absent in any Byzantine source; the fact that the Mouzalon family was prominent in the thirteenth century, not the eleventh; and that the seal actual reads “Rosia” which has been identified both with Rus´ and with a “settlement near Matracha. [16] For all of these reasons, persuasively stated and argued, Každan was unable to accept the existence of this marriage. In sum, I accept Každan’s analysis of the problems inherent in this marriage, despite Dimnik’s own fascinating arguments about this marriage, especially in regard to the dynastic importance of Oleg and the Svjatoslaviči line. [17] Due to the widespread acceptance of this marriage, I have included a note about it here to explain its absence from the genealogical tables of part 2.