When the Emperor Basil [II] [976-1025] died, he was buried in the church of his beloved saint John the Theologian in the Hebdomon area, which he had constructed, and he left as heir his brother Constantine, who was already old.
Constantine [VIII] Porphyrogenitos *1[1025-1028] , the brother of Basil, was emperor by himself for three years*2. He was married and had two daughters named Zoe and Theodora*3. He was a coward and weak in wars but in the vulgar enjoyments he was supreme and whomever he suspected of bad intentions towards his government was immediately blinded. When he understood that he was dying, he choose one of the senators, named Romanos Argyropoulos, to marry his daughter, Zoe, and after he proclaimed Romanos [co-]emperor he died.
*1 “Porphrygenitos” means “born in the purple” and refers to members of a royal family who were born to ruling monarch. The “Purple” in question was not a figurative reference, but a room in the Imperial Palace with purple marble walls. To be able to claim such a birth was a matter of prestige.
*2. Constantine VIII had been co-emperor with Basil II for a long time.
Macedonian Dynasty
*3. Both Zoe and Theodora were beyond child-bearing age. For reasons as yet unexplained, the Macedonian Dynasty, which had ruled since 867, allowed itself to have no obvious heirs to the throne. The period from 1028 until 1056 was thus one in which various men acquired legitimacy as emperor by marrying the daughters of Constantine VIII . From 1056 until 1081 various families competed for the throne, with the Komnenoi emerging triumphant.
Romanos [III] Argyropoulos [1028-1034] was emperor for five and half years. Though he married a wife from the imperial family – Zoe, the daughter of Constantine [VIII] – she was unable to bear him children.
This emperor was wise and respectful to God, and he admired the monks who were famous for their virtue, and, just as Romanos [II] Lekapenos [959-963], who had had the same name, had had great respect for the monk Sergios, so Romanos Argyropoulos gave to his spiritual father, the saintly Antony who loved him very much. In his will constructed the church of Theotokos in the famous monastery of Peribleptos where he was buried with royal honors.
Michael [IV] Paphlagon [1034-1041] was emperor for the next seven years, together with his wife Zoe and her sister Theodora who were the daughters of Constantine [VIII] Porphyrogenitos.
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