The resourceful and shifty Peter Deljan (whose name Psellos takes as Dolianos ["treacherous"]) escaped his master in Constantinople and wandered through Bulgaria (or Serbia and Croatia according to Skylitzes Continuatus). Knowing that an illustrious family background was considered a prerequisite to rule, he claimed in Morabos & Belgrade a kinship with the former Bulgarian king Samuel (either as his nephew by Tsar Aaron, according to Zonaras, or as his grandson by Radomir and the daughter of the Hungarian kral, according to Skylitzes). He was successful in this, and the Bulgarians, discontented by the tyrannical taxation of Ioannes the orphanotrophos, hailed him as tsar and sole ruler of their nation, following him in revolt against Byzantium. They marched through Naissus and Skopje, acclaiming him and killing any Roman they happened to meet