Editing Romanos II (section)

==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, wife of Romanos I|Theodora]].{{sfn|Reuter|McKitterick|1999|p=699}} 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.{{sfn|PmbZ|loc="Romanos II (#26834)"}} Named after his maternal grandfather, Romanos was married, as a child, to {{ill|Bertha-Eudokia of Provence|el|Βέρθα-Ευδοκία της Προβηγκίας|lt=Bertha}}, 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">{{Cite book|title=History of Byzantine|last=Ostrogorsky|first=George|publisher=[[Rutgers University Press]]|year=1968|isbn=0-8135-0599-2|location=New Brunswick|pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyofbyzanti00ostr/page/283 283]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofbyzanti00ostr/page/283}}</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 [[coronation of the Byzantine emperor|crowned his son co-emperor]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Skylitzes|first=John|url=https://archive.org/details/JohnSkylitzes.ASynopsisOfByzantineHistorytrans.ByJ.Wortley2010/page/n258|title=Synopsis of Histories|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=c. 1057|isbn=9780511779657|page=228|translator-last=John Wortley|author-link=John Skylitzes}}</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 (born Anastaso)|Theophano]].

In November 959, Romanos&nbsp;II succeeded his father on the throne amidst rumors that he or his wife had poisoned him.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire|last=Gibbon|first=Edward|publisher=Ballantyne, Hanson & CO.|year=1904|location=London|pages=247|others=According to Gibbon, "after a reign of four years, she mingled for her husband the same deadly draught which she had composed for his father."|volume=V}}</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|thumb|The [[Byzantine bureaucracy and aristocracy|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 II Phokas|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.{{sfn|McMahon|2021|p=67-69}} 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 [[Hungarian people|Magyar]] incursions into the Byzantine Balkans.
[[File:Phokas captures Halep 962.jpg|thumb|The army under Nikephoros Phokas captures [[Aleppo]].]]
After a lengthy hunting expedition Romanos&nbsp;II took ill and died on 15 March 963.<ref>''[[Georgius Cedrenus]]'' − ''[[Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae|CSHB]]'' '''9''': [https://books.google.com/books?id=nbkVAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA344 344]: "Anno mundi [[963|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|right|thumb|240x240px|Death of Romanos&nbsp;II]]
Romanos&nbsp;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 I Tzimiskes|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.