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=                        Romanos III Argyros                         =
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                             Introduction                             
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Romanos III Argyros (; Latinized Romanus III Argyrus; 968 - 11 April
1034), or Argyropoulos was Byzantine Emperor from 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.


 Family and early career 
=========================
Romanos Argyros, born in 968, was the son of Marianos, a member of the
Argyros family. Other hypotheses about his father are 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. Romanos' father, Marianos, was
the son of another Romanos Argyros, who had married Agatha, a daughter
of Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos (r. 919-944).

Romanos had several siblings: Basil Argyros, who served as general and
governor under Basil II (r. 976-1025); Leo, who served under Basil and
was killed in Italy in 1017; Pulcheria Argyropoulina, who married the
'magistros' Basil Skleros; a sister who married Constantine
Karantenos, who served as 'doux' of Antioch under Romanos; and Maria
Argyropoulina, who married Giovanni Orseolo, son of Doge Pietro II
Orseolo.

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. 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. 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. 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.


 Reign 
=======
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.
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. The
marriage took place on 9 November 1028, and on the same ceremony
Romanos was proclaimed 'caesar'. Three days later, on 11 November,
Constantine died of illness.

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.  He spent large sums on new buildings and
in endowing churches and monasteries. 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.
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. The army camped at a waterless site and its
scouts were ambushed. An attack by the Byzantine cavalry was defeated.
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. On
10August 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.
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. 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, Yahya of Antioch wrote that the Byzantines suffered
remarkably few casualties. According to Yahya, two high ranking
Byzantine officers were among the fatalities, and another officer was
captured by the Arabs. After this defeat the army became a
"laughing-stock".
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. In 1032 the capture and
successful defence of Edessa by George Maniakes and the sound defeat
of a Saracen fleet in the Adriatic did little to restore Romanos'
early popularity.
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. In 1031 she was implicated in another conspiracy, this time
with Constantine Diogenes, the Archon of Sirmium, and was forcibly
confined in the monastery of Petrion.
In a vain attempt to reduce expenditure, Romanos limited his wife's
expenses, which merely exacerbated the alienation between the two.
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.
Having survived the attempts on his throne by Theodora, his death on
11 April 1034 was supposed to have been due to poison administered by
his wife. There is also speculation that he was drowned in a bath on
his wife's orders. He was buried in the Church of St. Mary
Peribleptos, which he built.
Zoë and Michael were married on the same day that Romanos III died.
The next day the couple summoned the Patriarch Alexios I to officiate
in the coronation of the new emperor.  Although he initially refused
to co-operate, the payment of 50 pounds of gold helped change his
mind. He proceeded to crown Michael IV as the new emperor of the
Romans.


                               See also                               
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* List of Byzantine emperors


                            External links                            
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*
* [http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/byz/romanus_III/t.html Romanos'
coinage]
*[https://www.degruyter.com/database/PMBZ/entry/PMBZ28989/html
Romanos' profile] on the 'Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen
Zeit'
*[https://pbw2016.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/person/108214/ Romanos' profile] on
the 'Prosopography of the Byzantine World'


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Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanos_III_Argyros