Romanos II

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Romanos II Ρωμανός
Emperor of the Byzantine Empire
Gold solidus with Romanos II and his father, Constantine VII
Reign	November 959 – 15 March 963
Coronation	6 April 945 as co-emperor
Born	c. 938
Died	15 March 963 (aged c. 25)
Predecessor	Constantine VII
Successor	Nikephoros II
Consort to	Eudokia of Italy Theophano
Issue	Basil II Constantine VIII Anna Porphyrogenita
Father	Constantine VII
Mother	Helena Lekapene

Romanos (or Romanus) II (Greek: Ρωμανός Β΄, Rōmanos II) (938 – 15 March 963) was a Byzantine Emperor. He succeeded his father Constantine VII in 959 at the age of twenty-one and died suddenly in 963.

Life

Romanos II was a son of Emperor Constantine VII and Helena Lekapene, the daughter of Emperor Romanos I and his wife Theodora. Named after his maternal grandfather, Romanos was married, as a child, to Bertha, the illegitimate daughter of Hugh of Arles, King of Italy, who changed her name to Eudokia after her marriage. On January 27, 945, Constantine VII succeeded in removing his brothers-in-law, the sons of Romanos Lekapenos, assuming the throne alone. On April 6, 945, Constantine crowned his son Romanos co-emperor. With Hugh out of power in Italy and dead by 947, and Bertha herself dying in 949, Romanos secured the promise from his father that he would be allowed to select his own bride. Romanos chose an innkeeper's daughter 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. Romanos purged his father's courtiers of his enemies and replaced them with friends. Among the persons removed from court were the Empress Mother, Helena, and her daughters, all of them being sent to a nunnery. Nevertheless, many of Romanos' appointees were able men, including his chief adviser, the eunuch Joseph Bringas.

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 with a fleet of 1,000 dromons, 2,000 chelandia, and 308 transports (the entire fleet was manned by 27,000 oarsmen and marines) carrying 50,000 men to recover Crete from the Muslims.^[1] 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 liberated Cilicia and even Aleppo in 962, sacking the palace of the Emir and taking possession of 390,000 silver dinars, 2,000 camels, and 1,400 mules. In the meantime Leo Phokas and Marianos Argyros had countered Magyar incursions into the Byzantine Balkans.

Death of Romanos II

After a lengthy hunting expedition Romanos II took ill and died on March 15, 963. 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. 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 II probably never consummated his first marriage to Bertha of Italy (daughter of Hugh of Italy, King of Italy, renamed Eudokia as empress). By his second wife Theophano he had at least there children:

Basil II, born in 958
Constantine VIII, born in 960
Anna Porphyrogenita, born 13 March 963

and Theophanu (possibly), wife of Emperor Otto II, daughter in law of Emperor Otto I "the Great".

Notes

↑ The above numbers are disputed. Most historians accept 100 dromons, 200 chelandia, 308 transports and a total of 77,000 men. The Byzantine navy was the continuation of the Roman navy.

References

Leo the Deacon, Histories
Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700 By Frederick Lewis Weis, Line 147-20
The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press, 1991.
George Ostrogorsky, History of the Byzantine State, 1969.
John Julius Norwich, Byzantium: The Apogee, 1991.

Attribution

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "II, Romanus". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press

External links

Media related to Romanus II at Wikimedia Commons

Regnal titles
Romanos II Macedonian Dynasty Born: 938 Died: 963
Preceded by Constantine VII	Byzantine Emperor 959–963 (with Basil II)	Succeeded by Nikephoros II Phokas

v t e Roman emperors

Principate 27 BC – 235 AD	Augustus Tiberius Caligula Claudius Nero Galba Otho Vitellius Vespasian Titus Domitian Nerva Trajan Hadrian Antoninus Pius Marcus Aurelius with Lucius Verus Commodus Pertinax Didius Julianus Septimius Severus Caracalla Geta Macrinus with Diadumenian Elagabalus Alexander Severus

Crisis 235–284	Maximinus Thrax Gordian I and Gordian II Pupienus and Balbinus Gordian III Philip the Arab Decius with Herennius Etruscus Hostilian Trebonianus Gallus with Volusianus Aemilianus Valerian Gallienus with Saloninus Claudius Gothicus Quintillus Aurelian Tacitus Florianus Probus Carus Carinus Numerian

Dominate 284–395	Diocletian Maximian Constantius Chlorus Galerius Severus Maxentius Maximinus Daia Licinius with Valerius Valens and Martinianus Constantine the Great Constantine II Constans I Constantius II with Vetranio Julian Jovian Valentinian I Valens Gratian Valentinian II Theodosius I

Western Empire 395–480	Honorius with Constantine III Constantius III Joannes Valentinian III Petronius Maximus Avitus Majorian Libius Severus Anthemius Olybrius Glycerius Julius Nepos Romulus Augustulus

Eastern/ Byzantine Empire 395–1204	Arcadius Theodosius II Marcian Leo I the Thracian Leo II Zeno Basiliscus Anastasius I Justin I Justinian I Justin II Tiberius II Constantine Maurice Phocas Heraclius Constantine III Heraklonas Constans II Constantine IV Justinian II Leontios Tiberios III Philippikos Anastasios II Theodosios III Leo III the Isaurian Constantine V Artabasdos Leo IV the Khazar Constantine VI Irene Nikephoros I Staurakios Michael I Rangabe Leo V the Armenian Michael II the Amorian Theophilos Michael III Basil I the Macedonian Leo VI the Wise Alexander Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos Romanos I Lekapenos Romanos II Nikephoros II Phokas John I Tzimiskes Basil II Constantine VIII Zoe Romanos III Argyros Michael IV the Paphlagonian Michael V Kalaphates Constantine IX Monomachos Theodora Michael VI Bringas Isaac I Komnenos Constantine X Doukas Romanos IV Diogenes Michael VII Doukas Nikephoros III Botaneiates Alexios I Komnenos John II Komnenos Manuel I Komnenos Alexios II Komnenos Andronikos I Komnenos Isaac II Angelos Alexios III Angelos Alexios IV Angelos Alexios V Doukas

Empire of Nicaea 1204–1261	Constantine Laskaris Theodore I Laskaris John III Doukas Vatatzes Theodore II Laskaris John IV Laskaris

Eastern/ Byzantine Empire 1261–1453	Michael VIII Palaiologos Andronikos II Palaiologos Michael IX Palaiologos Andronikos III Palaiologos John V Palaiologos John VI Kantakouzenos Matthew Kantakouzenos Andronikos IV Palaiologos John VII Palaiologos Andronikos V Palaiologos Manuel II Palaiologos John VIII Palaiologos Constantine XI Palaiologos

Persondata
Name	Romanos Ii
Alternative names
Short description	Byzantine emperor
Date of birth	938
Place of birth
Date of death	963
Place of death

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