Romanos I Lekapenos

Romanos I Lakapenos or Lekapenos (; 870 – 15 June 948), Latinized as Romanus I Lacapenus or Romanus I Lecapenus, was Byzantine emperor from 920 until his deposition in 944, serving as regent for and senior co-ruler of the young Constantine VII.

Origin Romanos derived his epithet Lekapenos, now usually treated as a family name, from his birthplace of Lakape (later Laqabin) between Melitene and Samosata. It is found mostly as Lakapenos in the sources, although English-language scholarship in particular prefers the form Lekapenos, in large part due to Sir Steven Runciman's 1928 study on the emperor. He was the son of a peasant with the remarkable name of Theophylact "the Unbearable" (Theophylaktos Abaktistos or Abastaktos), who had rescued the Emperor Basil I from the enemy in battle at Tephrike in 872, saving his life, and had been rewarded by a place in the Imperial Guard and received estates as a reward. Theophylaktos is usually identified as Armenian. Byzantinist Anthony Kaldellis contests this, saying that Armenian ancestry is not mentioned in the many Byzantine sources which discuss Romanos, and that Theophylaktos' alleged ethnicity is an assumption based on his being born in humble circumstances in the Armeniac Theme.

Similarly, Romanos re-established peace within the church and overcame the new conflict between Rome and Constantinople by promulgating the Tomos of Union in 920. In 933 Romanos took advantage of a vacancy on the patriarchal throne to name his young son Theophylaktos patriarch of Constantinople. The new patriarch did not achieve renown for his piety and spirituality, but he added theatrical elements to the Byzantine liturgy and was an avid horse-breeder, allegedly leaving mass to tend to one of his favorite mares when she was giving birth.

Romanos was active as a legislator, promulgating a series of laws to protect small landowners from being swallowed up by the estates of the land-owning nobility (dynatoi). The legislative reform may have been partly inspired by hardship caused by the famine of 927 and the subsequent semi-popular revolt of Basil the Copper Hand. The emperor also managed to increase the taxes levied on the aristocracy and established the state on a more secure financial footing. Romanos was also able to effectively subdue revolts in several provinces of the empire, most notably in Chaldia, the Peloponnese, and Southern Italy.

He incorporated the Armenian fortress of Citharizum into the empire in 942 and renamed it Romanopolis (Ρωμανούπολις). In Constantinople, he built his palace in the place called Myrelaion, near the Sea of Marmara. Beside it Romanos built a shrine which became the first example of a private burial church of a Byzantine emperor. Moreover, he erected a chapel devoted to Christ Chalkites near the Chalke Gate, the monumental entrance to the Great Palace.

End of the reign

Romanos' later reign was marked by the old emperor's heightened interest in divine judgment and his increasing sense of guilt for his role in the usurpation of the throne from Constantine VII. On the death of Christopher, by far his most competent son, in 931, Romanos did not advance his younger sons in precedence over Constantine VII. Fearing that Romanos would allow Constantine VII to succeed him instead of them, his younger sons Stephen and Constantine arrested their father on 20 (or 16) December 944, carried him off to the Princes' Islands and compelled him to become a monk. When they threatened the position of Constantine VII, however, the people of Constantinople revolted, and Stephen and Constantine were likewise stripped of their imperial rank and sent into exile to their father. Romanos died on 15 June 948, and was buried as the other members of his family in the church of Myrelaion. Stephanos and Constantine are deposed during lunch with Constantine VII and exiled to a monastery. Having lived long under constant threat of deposition—or worse—by the Lekapenoi family, Constantine VII was extremely resentful of them. In his De Administrando Imperio manual written for his son and successor, Romanos II, he minces no words about his late father-in-law: "the lord Romanus the Emperor was an idiot and an illiterate man, neither bred in the high imperial manner, nor following Roman custom from the beginning, nor of imperial or noble descent, and therefore the more rude and authoritarian in doing most things ... for his beliefs were uncouth, obstinate, ignorant of what is good, and unwilling to adhere to what is right and proper."

Family

Romanos I's only named wife is Theodora, who died in 922. However, genealogical and chronological considerations have led to the hypothesis that his three eldest children may have been born from an otherwise unattested first marriage. Romanos had at least eight legitimate and at least one illegitimate children, leading to numerous aristocratic descendants and connections in the Middle Byzantine period, including every emperor for the next century. Christopher, co-emperor from 921 to 931 (foremost co-emperor from 927); he married the augusta Sophia (died after 944), daughter of the magistros and patrikios Niketas Helladikos; they were parents of: Maria (renamed Eirene, "Peace"), died before 967 (963?); she married 927 Emperor Peter I of Bulgaria; they were parents, among others, of: Boris II, emperor of Bulgaria, died 977; he married and left issue Roman, emperor of Bulgaria, died 997 Romanos, crowned co-emperor around 924, died in childhood before 927. Only briefly mentioned by Michael Psellos and Joannes Zonaras. Michael Porphyrogennetos, born after 921, possibly given quasi-imperial honors before 945, subsequently magistros and raiktor, died after 963; he married and was the father of: Helene; she married Konstantinos Radenos, protospatharios; left issue Sophia; she married Pankratios Taronites, patrikios; left issue unnamed daughter, who died after 961; she married Romanos Saronites, magistros; they were the parents of two unnamed children unnamed daughter; she married (Alexios?) Mousele, who died in 922; they were the parents of: Romanos Mousele, magistros; left issue Theophylaktos, born 913, castrated as child, patriarch of Constantinople from 933 to 956. Stephen Porphyrogennetos, born c. 920, co-emperor from 923 to 945, died 963; he married (in 934?) Anna, daughter of Gabalas; they were the parents of: Romanos, sebastophoros, logothete of the envoys, castrated 945, died 975 Constantine Porphyrogennetos, born c. 921, co-emperor from 923 to 945, died between 945 and 948; he married (1) Helena, daughter of the patrikios Adrianos, and (2), 941? Theophano Mamas; he and his first wife were the parents of: Romanos, patrikios and praipositos, born after 934, castrated 945, died 971 Helena, b. c. 907, died 961; she married Emperor Constantine VII; they were the parents of: Leo, born before 939, died 944 or 945 Emperor Romanos II, born 937–939, died 963; he married (1) 944 Bertha (renamed Eudokia), daughter of Hugh of Provence, king of Italy, died 949; (2) c. 956 Anastaso (renamed Theophano), daughter of Krateros, died after 978; they were the parents of: Emperor Basil II, born 958, died 1025 Emperor Constantine VIII, born 960 or 961, died 1028; he married c. 976 Helena, daughter of Alypios, died c. 989; they were the parents of: Eudokia, nun Empress Zoe, born c. 978, died 1050; she married (1) 1028 Emperor Romanos III Argyros, died 1034; (2) 1034 Emperor Michael IV, died 1041; (3) 1042 Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos, died 1055; no issue, but adopted Emperor Michael V Empress Theodora, born c. 980 (or 989?), died 1056 Anna, born 963, died 1011; she married 989 Vladimir I of Rus'; they were the parents of: Feofana; she married Ostromir, posadnik of Novgorod, died c. 1057; left issue Zoe, nun since 959 Theodora, nun 959; married 970 Emperor John I Tzimiskes, died 976 Agatha, nun 959 Theophano, nun 959 Anna, nun 959 Agatha, born c. 908?; she married in 921-922 Romanos Argyros; they were the parents of: (Marianos?) Argyros; he married and was the father of: Emperor Romanos III Argyros, died 1034; he married (1) Helena, nun 1028; (2) the Empress Zoe, died 1050 Basil Argyros, called Mesardonites, protospatharios, patrikios, katepano, died 1034; married and was the father of: unnamed Argyros unnamed Argyre; she married Constantine Diogenes, protospatharios, katepano, doux, died 1032; they were the parents of: Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes, died 1072; he married (1) unnamed daughter of Alusian of Bulgaria; (2) in 1068 Eudokia Makrembolitissa; they were the parents of: Constantine Diogenes, by the first marriage, died c. 1074; he married Theodora Komnene, sister of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos Leo Diogenes, by the second marriage, born c. 1069, died 1087 Nikephoros Diogenes, by the second marriage, born c. 1070, died after 1094 Helena Argyre; she married after 1028 King Bagrat IV of Georgia; no issue unnamed Argyre; she married King Hovhannes-Smbat III of Armenia Leon Argyros, katepano, killed 1017 Maria Argyre, died 1006 or 1007; she married Giovanni Orseolo, son of Doge Pietro II Orseolo; they were the parents of: Basilio Orseolo, died 1006 or 1007 Pulcheria Argyre, born c. 965, died c. 1034; she married Basil Skleros, patrikios, magistros; they were the parents of: unnamed Skleraina, died before 1042;