Romanos III Argyros - Wikipedia Romanos III Argyros From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search Byzantine emperor from 1028 to 1034 Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans Romanos III Argyros Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans Silver miliaresion of Romanos III Byzantine emperor Reign 15 November 1028 – 11 April 1034 Predecessor Constantine VIII Successor Michael IV and Zoë Co-regent Zoë Porphyrogenita Born 968 (0968) Ierapolis, Thracesian Theme, Byzantine Empire Died 11 April 1034 (1034-04-12) (aged 65/66) Constantinople, Byzantine Empire Spouse Zoë Porphyrogenita Dynasty Macedonian/Argyros Romanos III Argyros (Greek: Ρωμανός Γ΄ Αργυρός; 968 – 11 April 1034), or Romanus III Argyrus, was Byzantine Emperor from 15 November 1028 until his death. He was a Byzantine noble and senior official in Constantinople when the dying Constantine VIII forced him to divorce his wife and marry the emperor's daughter Zoë. Upon Constantine's death three days later, Romanos took the throne. Romanos has been recorded as a well meaning but ineffective emperor. He disorganised the tax system and undermined the military, personally leading a disastrous military expedition against Aleppo. He fell out with his wife and foiled several attempts on his throne, including two which revolved around his sister-in-law Theodora. He spent large amounts on the construction and repair of churches and monasteries. He died after six years on the throne, allegedly murdered, and was succeeded by his wife's young lover, Michael IV. Contents 1 Life 1.1 Family and early career 1.2 Reign 2 See also 3 References 4 Sources 5 Further reading 6 External links Life[edit] Family and early career[edit] Romanos Argyros, born in 968,[1] was the son of an unnamed member of the Argyros family. This may have been either Pothos Argyros who defeated a Magyar raid in 958 (identified by some scholars with an older namesake), or Eustathios Argyros, known only for commissioning a poem in honour of Romanos II in 950.[2] Romanos' grandfather was the son of another Romanos Argyros, who had married Agatha, a daughter of Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos (r. 919–944).[3] Romanos had several siblings: Basil Argyros, who served as general and governor under Basil II (r. 976–1025);[4] Leo, who served under Basil and was killed in Italy in 1017;[5] Pulcheria Argyropoulina, who married the magistros Basil Skleros;[1] a sister who married Constantine Karantenos, who served as doux of Antioch under Romanos;[5] and Maria Argyropoulina, who married Giovanni Orseolo, son of Doge Pietro II Orseolo.[5] Constantine VIII on the reverse of a histamenon He served as krites (judge) in Opsikion, with the rank of protospatharios (one of the highest judicial ranks, usually awarded to senior generals and provincial governors). In this capacity he persecuted heretics at Akmoneia.[6] He was then promoted to the post of quaestor (the senior judicial official for the imperial capital, Constantinople) and became one of the judges of the Hippodrome, the High Court of the Empire. In this role he is mentioned in the Peira, a compendium of legal decisions compiled by the noted jurist Eustathios Rhomaios.[7] He was promoted further to the rank of patrikios and the post of oikonomos (administrator) of the Great Church, while continuing to preside over the High Court.[8] Under Emperor Constantine VIII he held the post of urban prefect of Constantinople, which made him the formal head of the Senate and one of the emperor's chief lieutenants.[8] Reign[edit] Mosaic of Zoë at the Hagia Sophia Late in 1028, Constantine VIII lay on his deathbed. Wishing to secure the Macedonian dynasty, but having no son, he summoned Constantine Dalassenos from Antioch to marry his oldest daughter, Zoë. Dalassenos, the doux of Antioch, was an experienced military commander, influential patrician, and unswervingly loyal to the ruling house. The emperor's advisors preferred not to have a strong military figure as the new emperor, and persuaded the Emperor to choose Romanos instead, as a potentially more pliable and certainly less travelled candidate.[9][10] Constantine VIII forced Romanos to divorce his wife (who was sent to a monastery) and to marry Zoë, aged 50 at the time; Romanos was 60.[11] The marriage took place on 12 November 1028, and three days later Constantine VIII died, leaving Romanos III as emperor.[12] The new emperor was eager to make his mark as a ruler, but was mostly ineffectual in his enterprises. He idealised Marcus Aurelius, aspiring to be a new philosopher king, and similarly sought to imitate the military prowess of Trajan.[12] He spent large sums on new buildings and in endowing churches and monasteries.[12] He endeavoured to relieve the pressure of taxation on the aristocracy, which undermined the finances of the state. Previous emperors had attempted to control the privileges of the nobles over the common people. Coming from the aristocracy himself, Romanos III abandoned this policy. This failure to stand up to the aristocrats allowed them to exploit the rural mass of landed peasantry, who increasingly fell into a condition of serfdom. This in turn undermined the traditional recruiting base of the Byzantine army. The combination of a reduced tax base and fewer native-born troops had long-term consequences. As revenue declined, the subsequent impoverishment of the state weakened the military's recruitment power still further.[13] Arab cavalry pursue fleeing Byzantines after the Battle of Azaz In 1030 he resolved to lead an army in person against the Mirdasids of Aleppo, despite their having accepted the Byzantines as overlords, with disastrous results.[14] The army camped at a waterless site and its scouts were ambushed. An attack by the Byzantine cavalry was defeated.[15] That night Romanos held an imperial council at which the demoralised Byzantines resolved to abandon the campaign and return to Byzantine territory. Romanos also ordered his siege engines to be burned.[16] On 10 August 1030 the army departed its camp and made for Antioch. Discipline broke down in the Byzantine army, with Armenian mercenaries using the withdrawal as an opportunity to pillage the camp's stores.[16] The Emir of Aleppo launched an attack and the imperial army broke and fled. Only the imperial bodyguard, the Hetaireia, held firm, but Romanos was nearly captured.[17] Accounts vary on the battle losses: John Skylitzes wrote that the Byzantines suffered a "terrible rout" and that some troops were killed in a chaotic stampede by their fellow soldiers,[15] Yahya of Antioch wrote that the Byzantines suffered remarkably few casualties.[18][19][15] According to Yahya, two high ranking Byzantine officers were among the fatalities, and another officer was captured by the Arabs.[15] After this defeat the army became a "laughing-stock".[17][14] Despite his victory, the Emir of Aleppo opened negotiations and signed a treaty that made Aleppo an Imperial tributary and allowed for a Greek governor to preside over the city.[20] In 1032 the capture and successful defence of Edessa by George Maniakes[21] and the sound defeat of a Saracen fleet in the Adriatic did little to restore Romanos' early popularity. The murder of Romanos III Argyros in a bath, from the Chronicle of John Skylitzes. Romanos faced several conspiracies, mostly centred on his sister-in-law Theodora. In 1029 she planned to marry the Bulgarian prince Presian and to usurp the throne. The plot was discovered, Presian was blinded and tonsured as a monk but Theodora was not punished.[22] In 1031 she was implicated in another conspiracy, this time with Constantine Diogenes, the Archon of Sirmium,[18] and was forcibly confined in the monastery of Petrion.[23] In a vain attempt to reduce expenditure, Romanos limited his wife's expenses, which merely exacerbated the alienation between the two.[13] Romanos took a mistress. Zoë in turn fell in love with Michael, the brother of high-ranking court eunuch John the Orphanotrophos. Romanos, unaware, allowed Michael to become one of his personal servants.[24] Having survived the attempts on his throne by Theodora, his death on 11 April 1034[25] was supposed to have been due to poison administered by his wife.[11] There is also speculation that he was drowned in a bath on his wife's orders.[11] He was buried in the Church of St. Mary Peribleptos, which he built.[26] Zoë and Michael were married on the same day that Romanos III died.[27] The next day the couple summoned the Patriarch Alexios I to officiate in the coronation of the new emperor.[28] Although he initially refused to co-operate, the payment of 50 pounds of gold helped change his mind.[27] He proceeded to crown Michael IV as the new emperor of the Romans.[29][30] See also[edit] Byzantine Empire portal List of Byzantine emperors References[edit] ^ a b Cheynet & Vannier 2003, p. 68. ^ Cheynet & Vannier 2003, pp. 64–65. ^ Cheynet & Vannier 2003, pp. 63–64, 68. ^ Cheynet & Vannier 2003, pp. 72–73. ^ a b c Cheynet & Vannier 2003, p. 73. ^ Cheynet & Vannier 2003, p. 69. ^ Cheynet & Vannier 2003, pp. 69–70. ^ a b Cheynet & Vannier 2003, p. 70. ^ Patlagean 2007, pp. 131–132. ^ Treadgold 1997, p. 584. ^ a b c Duggan 1997, p. 145. ^ a b c Ostrogorsky 1969, p. 322. ^ a b Ostrogorsky 1957, p. 286. ^ a b Shepard 2010, p. 102. ^ a b c d Wortley 2010, pp. 359–360. ^ a b Zakkar 1971, p. 116. ^ a b Norwich 1991, p. 273. ^ a b The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press, 1991 ^ Sewter 1966, p. 43. ^ Stevenson 1968, p. 256. ^ Angold 2004, p. 224. ^ Garland 1999, pp. 161–162. ^ Finlay 1853, p. 471. ^ Norwich 1991, p. 276. ^ Ostrogorsky 1969, p. 324. ^ Norwich 1991, pp. 279–80. ^ a b Garland, Zoë Porphyrogenita ^ Norwich, pg. 279 ^ Treadgold, pg. 586 ^ Finlay, pg. 478 Sources[edit] Angold, Michael (2004). "The Byzantine Empire, 1025–1118". In Luscombe, David; Riley-Smith, Jonathan (eds.). The New Cambridge Medieval History, Volume 4, c.1024–c.1198, Part 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 217–253. ISBN 9781139054034. Cheynet, J.-C.; Vannier, J.-F. (2003). "Les Argyroi" (PDF). Zbornik Radova Vizantološkog Instituta (in French). 40: 57–90. doi:10.2298/ZRVI0340057C. ISSN 0584-9888. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-23.  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Romanus". Encyclopædia Britannica. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 583–584. Duggan, Anne J., ed. (1997). Queens and Queenship in Medieval Europe. Rochester: The Boydell Press. ISBN 978-0-85115-657-6. Finlay, George (1853). History of the Byzantine Empire: from 716 to 1057. Edinburgh. OCLC 906577940. Garland, Lynda (1999). Byzantine Empresses: Women and Power in Byzantium AD 527–1204. London, New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-61944-8. Norwich, John (1991). Byzantium: the Apogee. London: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-670-80252-4. Ostrogorsky, George (1957). History of the Byzantine State. Translated by Hussey, Joan. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. OCLC 2221721. Ostrogorsky, George (1969) [1957]. History of the Byzantine State. Translated by Hussey, Joan. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-0599-2. Patlagean, Évelyne (2007). Un Moyen Âge Grec: Byzance, IXe–XVe siècle (in French). Paris, France: Albin Michel. ISBN 978-2-226-17110-8. Sewter, Edgar Robert Ashton, ed. (1966). The Chronographia of Michael Psellus. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. OCLC 314287374. Shepard, Jonathan (2010). "Battle of Azaz". In Rogers, Clifford J. (ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology. Vol. 1. Oxford University Press. p. 102. ISBN 978-0-19-533403-6. |volume= has extra text (help) Stevenson, William B. (1968). Tanner, J.R.; Previte-Orton, C.W.; Brooke, Z.N. (eds.). The Cambridge Medieval History:The Contest of Empire and Papacy. Vol. V. Cambridge University Press. OCLC 1001099260. |volume= has extra text (help) Treadgold, Warren (1997). A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-2630-2. Wortley, John, ed. (2010). John Skylitzes: A Synopsis of Byzantine History, 811–1057. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-76705-7. Zakkar, Suhayl (1971). The Emirate of Aleppo: 1004–1094. Aleppo: Dar al-Amanah. OCLC 977126570. Michael Psellus, Chronographia. Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991). The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-504652-8. Further reading[edit] Thurn, Hans, ed. (1973). Ioannis Scylitzae Synopsis historiarum. Berlin-New York: De Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-002285-8. Lauritzen, F. (2009). "The Miliaresion Poet: the dactylic inscription on a silver coin of Romanos III Argyros". Byzantion. 79: 231–240. ISSN 0378-2506. External links[edit] Media related to Romanos III Argyros at Wikimedia Commons Romanus coinage Romanos III Argyros Macedonian dynasty Born: 968 Died: 11 April 1034 Regnal titles Preceded by Constantine VIII Byzantine emperor 15 November 1028 – 11 April 1034 Succeeded by Michael IV and Zoë v t e Roman and Byzantine emperors and ruling empresses Principate 27 BC – AD 235 Augustus Tiberius Caligula Claudius Nero Galba Otho Vitellius Vespasian Titus Domitian Nerva Trajan Hadrian Antoninus Pius Marcus Aurelius Lucius Verus Commodus Pertinax Didius Julianus (Pescennius Niger) (Clodius Albinus) Septimius Severus Caracalla Geta Macrinus Diadumenian Elagabalus Severus Alexander Crisis 235–285 Maximinus Thrax Gordian I Gordian II Pupienus Balbinus Gordian III Philip the Arab Philip II Decius Herennius Etruscus Hostilian Trebonianus Gallus Volusianus Aemilianus Valerian Gallienus Saloninus Claudius Gothicus Quintillus Aurelian Ulpia Severina Tacitus Florian Probus Carus Carinus Numerian Gallic emperors Postumus (Laelianus) Marius Victorinus (Domitianus II) Tetricus I with Tetricus II as caesar Palmyrene emperors Vaballathus Zenobia Septimius Antiochus Dominate 284–395 Diocletian Maximian Galerius Constantius I Severus Constantine the Great Maxentius Licinius Maximinus Daza (Valerius Valens) (Martinian) Constantine II Constantius II Constans I Magnentius Vetranio Julian Jovian Valentinian I (west) Valens (east) Gratian (west) Valentinian II (west) Theodosius I Magnus Maximus Victor (Eugenius) Western Empire 395–480 Honorius Constantine III with son Constans II 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 Leo II Zeno Basiliscus Marcus Anastasius I Dicorus Justin I Justinian I Justin II Tiberius II Constantine Maurice with son Theodosius as co-emperor Phocas Heraclius Constantine III Heraklonas Constans II Constantine IV with brothers Heraclius and Tiberius and then Justinian II as co-emperors Justinian II (first reign) Leontios Tiberius III Justinian II (second reign) with son Tiberius as co-emperor Philippikos Anastasios II Theodosius III Leo III the Isaurian Constantine V Artabasdos Leo IV the Khazar Constantine VI Irene Nikephoros I Staurakios Michael I Rangabe with son Theophylact as co-emperor Leo V the Armenian with Symbatios-Constantine as junior emperor Michael II the Amorian Theophilos Michael III Basil I the Macedonian Leo VI the Wise Alexander Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos Romanos I Lekapenos with sons Christopher, Stephen and Constantine as junior co-emperors Romanos II Nikephoros II Phokas John I Tzimiskes Basil II Constantine VIII Zoë (first reign) and Romanos III Argyros Zoë (first reign) and Michael IV the Paphlagonian Michael V Kalaphates Zoë (second reign) with Theodora Zoë (second reign) and Constantine IX Monomachos Constantine IX Monomachos (sole emperor) Theodora Michael VI Bringas Isaac I Komnenos Constantine X Doukas Romanos IV Diogenes Michael VII Doukas with brothers Andronikos and Konstantios and son Constantine Nikephoros III Botaneiates Alexios I Komnenos John II Komnenos with Alexios Komnenos as co-emperor Manuel I Komnenos Alexios II Komnenos Andronikos I Komnenos with John Komnenos as co-emperor Isaac II Angelos Alexios III Angelos Alexios IV Angelos Nicholas Kanabos (chosen by the Senate) Alexios V Doukas Empire of Nicaea 1204–1261 Constantine Laskaris Theodore I Laskaris John III Doukas Vatatzes Theodore II Laskaris John IV Laskaris Byzantine Empire 1261–1453 Michael VIII Palaiologos Andronikos II Palaiologos with Michael IX Palaiologos as co-emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos John V Palaiologos John VI Kantakouzenos with John V Palaiologos and Matthew Kantakouzenos as co-emperors John V Palaiologos Andronikos IV Palaiologos John VII Palaiologos Andronikos V Palaiologos Manuel II Palaiologos John VIII Palaiologos Constantine XI Palaiologos Italics indicates a junior co-emperor, while underlining indicates a usurper. Authority control General VIAF 1 WorldCat (via VIAF) National libraries Croatia Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Romanos_III_Argyros&oldid=1027187458" Categories: 11th-century Byzantine emperors 968 births 1034 deaths Argyros family Macedonian dynasty Urban prefects of Constantinople Burials at the Church of St. Mary Peribleptos (Constantinople) Patricii Byzantine officials Protospatharioi Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata Good articles EngvarB from April 2018 Articles containing Greek-language text CS1 French-language sources (fr) Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica CS1 errors: extra text: volume CS1: long volume value Commons category link from Wikidata Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with NSK identifiers Wikipedia articles with WorldCat-VIAF identifiers Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikimedia Commons Languages Afrikaans العربية Aragonés Azərbaycanca تۆرکجه Български Català Čeština Deutsch Ελληνικά Español Euskara فارسی Français Galego 한국어 Hrvatski Bahasa Indonesia Italiano עברית ქართული Latina Magyar Македонски मराठी مصرى Nederlands 日本語 Norsk bokmål Polski Português Română Русский Slovenčina Slovenščina Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Türkçe Українська Tiếng Việt 吴语 Zazaki 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 6 June 2021, at 16:14 (UTC). 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