Romanos IV Diogenes (; ( – 4 August 1072) was Byzantine emperor from 1068 to 1071. Determined to halt the decline of the Byzantine military and to stop Turkish incursions into the empire, he is nevertheless best known for his defeat and capture in 1071 at the Battle of Manzikert, which played a major role in undermining Byzantine authority in Anatolia and allowed for its gradual Turkification.

Son of the general Constantine Diogenes and a prominent member of the Cappadocian Greek military aristocracy, Romanos rose to fame as a successful Akritai commander, serving in Syria and on the Danubian frontier. In 1068, he was crowned Byzantine emperor following his marriage to the dowager empress Eudokia Makrembolitissa. Early in his reign, Romanos campaigned with limited success against the Seljuk Turks in Anatolia and Syria. Domestically, his rule was marked by a series of unpopular policies as well as clashes with the rival Doukas family. In 1071, Romanos undertook another major campaign against the Seljuks. His Byzantine army, beset by years of neglect and poor tactics, was decisively defeated by the forces of Alp Arslan at Manzikert. Romanos himself was taken prisoner.

Taking advantage of his capture, members of the Doukas family declared Romanos deposed and proclaimed Michael VII Doukas as emperor in a palace coup. When released, he was ultimately defeated by the Doukai in Cilicia and forced to surrender. Despite receiving a promise that he would be spared, Romanos was blinded and exiled to a monastery on Prote in the Sea of Marmara, where he died of his wounds in 1072.

Accession to the throne

thumb|Romanos IV pictured in the 15th century [[Mutinensis gr. 122|Codex Mutinensis graecus.]]

Romanos Diogenes was the son of Constantine Diogenes and a member of a prominent and powerful Byzantine Greek family from Cappadocia, the Diogenai, connected by birth to most of the great aristocratic nobles in Asia Minor. His mother was a daughter of Basil Argyros, brother of the emperor Romanos III. Courageous and generous, but also impetuous, Romanos rose with distinction in the army due to his military talents, and he served in Syria and on the Danubian frontier. At that time some parts from the theme of Bulgaria were organized as a new province with the centre at Serdica, and he became a duke of that province in 1067. However, he was eventually convicted of attempting to usurp the throne of the sons of Constantine X Doukas in 1067. She took this course of action primarily due to her concern that unless she managed to find a powerful husband, she could easily lose the regency to any unscrupulous noble, and also because she was infatuated with the popular Romanos. He was, however, “very harsh and violent in his judgments,” says Michael the Syrian, and he once ordered the nose of a soldier to be cut off for stealing the donkey of a Muslim after the emperor had given his peace. "One thing alone satisfied him: that he marched against his foes". He was said to have been very brave, and would often go unarmed and without escort to fight with his enemies which would cause his worried generals to complain. Psellus confirms that Romanus “exposed himself to danger without a thought of the consequences”.

Romanos grew contemptuous of the empress Eudokia for trying to control him.

Campaigns against the Turks

250px|thumb|right|Gold [[histamenon of Romanos IV: Michael VII Doukas flanked by his brothers Andronikos and Konstantios on the obverse, Romanos IV and Eudokia Makrembolitissa crowned by Christ on the reverse]]

Romanos IV was now the senior emperor and guardian of his stepsons and junior co-emperors, Michael VII, Konstantios, and Andronikos Doukas. However, his elevation had antagonised not only the Doukas family, in particular the Caesar, John Doukas who led the opposition of the palace officials to Romanos' authority, but also the Varangian Guard, who openly expressed their discontent at the marriage of Eudokia. Romanos therefore decided that he could only exercise his authority by placing himself at the head of the army in the field, thereby focusing the whole government's attention on the war against the Turks. That winter they camped on the frontiers of the empire and waited for the next year's campaigning season. Romanos was confident of Byzantine superiority on the field of battle, looking on the Turks as little more than hordes of robbers who would melt away at the first encounter. He did not take into account the degraded state of the Byzantine forces,

Campaign of 1068

The first military operations of Romanos did achieve a measure of success, reinforcing his opinions about the outcome of the war. Antioch was exposed to the Saracens of Aleppo who, with help from Turkish troops, began an attempt to reconquer the Byzantine province of Syria. Romanos began marching to the southeastern frontier of the empire to deal with this threat, but as he was advancing towards Lykandos, he received word that a Seljuk army had made an incursion into Pontus and had plundered Neocaesarea. Immediately he selected a small mobile force and quickly raced through Sebaste and the mountains of Tephrike to encounter the Turks on the road, forcing them to abandon their plunder and release their prisoners, though a large number of the Turkish troops managed to escape.]]

Plans for the following year's campaigning were initially thrown into chaos by a rebellion by one of Romanos' Norman mercenaries, Robert Crispin, who led a contingent of Frankish troops in the pay of the empire. Possibly due to Romanos not paying them on time, they began plundering the countryside near where they were stationed at Edessa, and attacking the imperial tax collectors. Although Crispin was captured and exiled to Abydos, the Franks continued to ravage the Armeniac Theme for some time. He ordered a relief fleet to set sail, containing sufficient provisions and troops to enable them to hold out for much longer. The fleet was intercepted, however, and defeated by a Norman squadron under the command of Roger, the younger brother of Robert Guiscard,

Meanwhile, Romanos was undertaking a number of unpopular reforms at home. He reduced the public salaries paid to much of the court nobility, as well as reducing the profits of tradesmen. His preoccupation with the military had also made him unpopular with the provincial governors and the military hierarchy, as he was determined to ensure they could not abuse their positions, especially through corrupt practices. He incurred the displeasure of the mercenaries by enforcing much needed discipline. Romanos was also deeply unpopular with the common people, as he neglected to entertain them with games at the hippodrome, nor did he alleviate the burdens of the peasants in the provinces.

Nevertheless, he did not forget his principal target, the Turks. Being unable to go on campaign himself, He managed to engage the Turks in battle, but was defeated and taken prisoner by a Turkish general named Khroudj. Manuel convinced Khroudj to go to Constantinople and see Romanos in person to conclude an alliance, which was soon completed. Romanos, in return, offered to officially exchange Manzikert and Archesh for Hieropolis in Syria, which Romanos had taken three years previously.]]

Early in the spring of 1071, whilst conducting negotiations with Alp Arslan over Manzikert, It was soon evident that the army had a serious discipline problem, with soldiers regularly pillaging the area around their nightly camps. When Romanos attempted to enforce some stricter discipline, a whole regiment of German mercenaries mutinied, which the emperor only managed to control with the greatest difficulty. Believing that Alp Arslan was nowhere near Manzikert, he decided to divide his army. One part of the army he dispatched to attack Akhlat, at that time in possession of the Turks. Romanos himself advanced with the main body of the army on Manzikert, which he soon recaptured. Arslan had no desire to take on the Byzantine army, so he proposed a peace treaty with favourable terms for Romanos.

The emperor, eager for a decisive military victory, rejected the offer, and both armies lined up for a battle, which took place on 26 August 1071. The battle lasted all day without either side gaining any decisive advantage, until the emperor ordered a part of his centre to return to camp. The order was misunderstood by the right wing, however, and Andronikos Doukas, who commanded the reserves, and was the son of Caesar John Doukas, took advantage of the confusion to betray Romanos. Claiming that Romanos was dead, he marched away from the battle with some 30,000 men, instead of covering the emperor's retreat.

When Romanos discovered what had happened, he tried to recover the situation by making a defiant stand. He fought on valiantly after his horse was killed under him, killing many enemies and causing others to flee, but he received a wound in the hand, which prevented him from wielding a sword, and he was soon taken prisoner.

A number of other sources speak of the valor shown by Romanos at Manzikert: Romanos “launched himself into the thick of the battle. He knocked down several very valiant Persian fighters and caused disarray in their ranks,” according to a contemporary Armenian account. Michael Psellus, who was normally critical, begrudgingly writes, “According to my several informants he actually killed many of them and put others to flight”

According to a number of Byzantine historians, including John Skylitzes, Arslan at first had difficulty believing the dusty and tattered warrior brought before him was the Roman emperor. Romanos and Arslan never expected to meet each other under such circumstances. He then stepped down from his seat and placed his foot on Romanos' neck. After this sign of ritual humiliation, however, Arslan raised Romanos from the ground and ordered him to be treated like a king. From then on he treated him with extreme kindness, never saying a cruel word to him during the Emperor's eight-day stay in his camp.

Other Muslim sources claim Alp Arslan treated Romanos in a harsh and petty way. “You are too trivial in my view for me to kill you,” the sultan is said to have declared before his Turks in Muslim sources. “Take him to the person who pays most.” When no one reportedly wanted to purchase the “Dog of the Romans,” Alp Arslan scoffed that that was “because the dog is better than he is!” “He struck him three or four blows with his hand and when Romanos collapsed he kicked him a similar number of times”; he “put him in chains and fettered his hand to his neck”; he pulled his hair and put his face to the ground, while informing him, “your troops are food for the Muslims.”

Betrayal

In the meantime, the opposition faction scheming against Romanos IV decided to exploit the situation. Declaring Romanos as deposed, Michael VII was proclaimed emperor on 1 October 1071, although Eudokia co-ruled with Michael VII for a month before being dispatched to a monastery. A month later, the caesar John Doukas and Michael Psellos forced Eudokia to retire to a monastery. Romanos soon returned, and he and the Doukas family gathered troops. A battle was fought between Constantine, Andronikos Doukas and Romanos. Romanos was defeated and retreated to the fortress of Tyropoion, and from there to Adana in Cilicia. Pursued by Andronikos, he was eventually forced to surrender by the garrison at Adana upon receiving assurances of his personal safety. Before leaving the fortress, he collected all the money he could lay his hands on and sent it to the Sultan as proof of his good faith, along with a message: "As emperor, I promised you a ransom of a million and a half. Dethroned, and about to become dependent upon others, I send you all I possess as proof of my gratitude".

Andronikos stipulated that his life would be spared if he resigned the purple and retired into a monastery. Romanos agreed, and this agreement was ratified at Constantinople. However, John Doukas reneged on the agreement and sent men to ambush and have Romanos cruelly blinded on 29 June 1072 in Kotyaion. He finally died, praying for the forgiveness of his sins, and his widow Eudokia was permitted to honor his remains with a magnificent funeral. This marriage was arranged by Anna Dalassena after the death of Romanos IV, but it was short-lived, as Constantine perished under the walls of Antioch in 1073 while serving with his brother-in-law Isaac Komnenos.

By his second wife, the Empress Eudokia Makrembolitissa, he had:

  • Leo Diogenes – born in 1069, and according to Anna Comnena was made co-emperor during his father's reign. In the reign of Alexius I, he was taken into the imperial palace and given various high commands. He died in Alexius's campaigns against the Pechenegs in 1087.
  • Nikephoros Diogenes – born in 1069, made Co-emperor upon his birth.

A highly fictionalized version of Romanos IV was portrayed by Nikolai Kinski in the 2022 Netflix series Vikings: Valhalla. The series is mostly set decades before Romanos acceded to the throne.

See also

  • List of Byzantine emperors

Notes

References

Bibliography

Primary sources

Secondary sources

  • Çoban, R. V. (2020). The Manzikert Battle and Sultan Alp Arslan with European Perspective in the 15st Century in the Miniatures of Giovanni Boccaccio's "De Casibus Virorum Illustrium"s 226 and 232. French Manuscripts in Bibliothèque Nationale de France. S. Karakaya ve V. Baydar (Ed.), in 2nd International Muş Symposium Articles Book (pp. 48–64). Muş: Muş Alparslan University. Source

Further reading

  • Romanos IV Diogenes
  • History of Michael Attaliates