Constantine VIII had been engaged as a…
December 1025 CE
Constantine VIII had been engaged as a youth to a daughter of Emperor Boris II of Bulgaria, but in the end he married a Byzantine aristocrat named Helena, daughter of Alypius.
By her he had three daughters: Eudokia, who became a nun, Zoe, future empress, and Theodora.
Constantine VIII had been crowned with his brother by their father in 962, when he was still an infant.
However, for some sixty-three of the sixty-eight years of his life he had been eclipsed by other emperors, including Nikephoros II Phokas, John I Tzimiskes, and Basil II.
Even when his elder brother became senior emperor, Constantine had been perfectly content to enjoy all the privileges of Imperial status without concerning himself with state affairs.
On occasion, Constantine had participated in his brother's campaigns against rebel nobles.
He had acted as mediator between Basil II and Bardas Skleros in 989.
Otherwise, he has spent his life in the search of pleasure and entertainment, including spectator sports at the Hippodrome of Constantinople, or amusing himself with riding and hunting.
The myth of the universal Roman Empire dies hard.
Emperor Basil II had attempted to establish a Greek pope in Rome and to unite in marriage the German (though by birth half Greek) ruler Otto III with Basil's favorite niece, Zoë.
Both schemes had failed, but he has restored order in southern Italy and preparations are being made for the reconquest of Sicily when he dies on December 15, 1025.
Basil seems never to have married or had children.
On his death, there is no able military aristocrat or other leader to take the situation in hand, and thus Basil's work is to be rapidly undone.
Constantine VIII, now 65, will allow the administration to fall into the hands of others.
Physically Constantine is tall and graceful, where Basil had been short and stocky.
He is a superb horseman.
By the time he becomes emperor, he has chronic gout and can hardly walk.
Locations
Groups
Commodities
Subjects
Regions
Southeast Europe
View →Subregions
