Romanos II

Romanos II (Template:Langx; 938 – 15 March 963) was Byzantine Emperor from 959 to 963. He succeeded his father Constantine VII at the age of twenty-one and died suddenly and mysteriously four years later. His wife Theophano helped their sons Basil II and Constantine VIII to ultimately succeed him in 976.

Life

Romanos II was a son of the Emperor Constantine VII and Helena Lekapene, the daughter of Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos and his wife Theodora.Template:Sfn The Theophanes Continuatus states that he was 21 years old at the time of his accession in 959, meaning that he was born in 938.Template:Sfn Named after his maternal grandfather, Romanos was married, as a child, to Template:Ill, the illegitimate daughter of King Hugh of Italy, to bond an alliance. She had changed her name to Eudokia after their marriage, but died an early death in 949, which caused the dissolution of the alliance.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref>

On 27 January 945, Constantine VII succeeded in removing his brothers-in-law, the sons of Romanos I, assuming the throne alone. On 6 April 945 (Easter), Constantine crowned his son co-emperor.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> With Hugh out of power in Italy and dead by 947, Romanos secured the promise from his father that he would be allowed to select his own bride. Romanos chose a woman named Anastaso, whom he married in 956 and renamed Theophano.

In November 959, Romanos II succeeded his father on the throne amidst rumors that he or his wife had poisoned him.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Romanos purged his father's courtiers of his enemies and replaced them with friends. To appease his bespelling wife, he excused his mother, Empress Helena, from court and forced his five sisters into convents. Nevertheless, many of Romanos' appointees were able men, including his chief adviser, the eunuch Joseph Bringas.

File:Ioannikios betrays to Romanos II a plot to murder him.png

The courtier Ioannikios informs Romanos of a plot against him.

The pleasure-loving sovereign could also leave military matters in the adept hands of his generals, in particular the brothers Leo and Nikephoros Phokas. In 960 Nikephoros Phokas was sent to Crete with a fleet that was considered by contemporary historians as notably large, but probably not comprising more than 25,000-30,000 soldiers and sailors in total.Template:Sfn After a difficult campaign and nine-month Siege of Chandax, Nikephoros successfully re-established Byzantine control over the entire island in 961. Following a triumph celebrated at Constantinople, Nikephoros was sent to the eastern frontier, where the Emir of Aleppo Sayf al-Dawla was engaged in annual raids into Byzantine Anatolia. Nikephoros took Cilicia and even Aleppo in 962, sacking the palace of the Emir and taking possession of his treasures. In the meantime Leo Phokas and Marianos Argyros had countered Magyar incursions into the Byzantine Balkans.

File:Phokas captures Halep 962.jpg

The army under Nikephoros Phokas captures Aleppo.

After a lengthy hunting expedition Romanos II took ill and died on 15 March 963.<ref>Georgius Cedrenus − CSHB 9: 344: "Anno mundi 6471 mortuus est Romanus imperator, 15 die Martii mensis. indictione 6, annos natus 24. imperavit annos 3, menses 4, dies 5." [10 November 959 − 15 March 963]</ref> Rumor attributed his death to poison administered by his wife Theophano, but there is no evidence of this, and Theophano would have been risking much by exchanging the secure status of a crowned Augusta with the precarious one of a widowed regent of her very young children.

File:Death of Romanos II.png

Death of Romanos II

Romanos II's reliance on his wife and on bureaucrats like Joseph Bringas had resulted in a relatively capable administration, but this built up resentment among the nobility, which was associated with the military. In the wake of Romanos' death, his Empress Dowager, now regent to the two co-emperors, her underage sons, was quick to marry the general Nikephoros Phokas and to acquire another general, John Tzimiskes, as her lover, having them both elevated to the imperial throne in succession. The rights of her sons were safeguarded, however, and eventually, when Tzimiskes died at war, her eldest son Basil II became senior emperor.

Family

Romanos' first marriage, in September 944,<ref>Theophanes Continuatus records the marriage in September 944 of "Hugonem regem Franciæ...filiam" and "Romanus imperator...Romano Constantini generi sui filio", stating that she lived five years with her husband, although he confuses the identity of Bertha's father. Theophanes Continuatus, VI, Romani imperium, 46, p. 431.</ref> was to Template:Ill, illegitimate daughter of King Hugh of Italy. She changed her name from Bertha to Eudokia after her marriage.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> She died in 949, her marriage unconsummated.<ref>Byzantine historian George Kedrenos recorded that that "filia Hugonis", married to "Romano", died a virgin. Liudprandi Antapodosis III.39, Monumenta Germaniæ Historica Scriptorum III, p. 312.</ref>

By his second wife Theophano he had at least four children:

• Helena, born Template:C. 955Template:Sfn
• Basil II, born in 958Template:Sfn
• Constantine VIII, born in 960Template:Sfn
• Anna Porphyrogenita, born 13 March 963Template:Sfn

Gallery

• Constantine VII with Romanos II.png

  Gold solidus depicting Constantine VII with Romanos II, 945–959.

• Romanos et Eudoxie.JPG

  The Romanos Ivory, 945–949.

• Byzantine cross ivory BZ.1937.18 (detail).jpg

  Depiction of a young Romanos II on an Ivory plaque, Template:Circa 945–959.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

• Romanos II solidus.png

  Solidus of Romanos II as sole ruler, 959–963.

See also

• List of Byzantine emperors

References

• Leo the Deacon, Histories
• Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700 By Frederick Lewis Weis, Line 147-20
• Template:Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite journal
• Template:Cite book
• John Julius Norwich (1991). Byzantium: The Apogee. Template:ISBN
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite encyclopedia

Attribution

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