The new emperor had shown great eagerness…
1034 CE
The new emperor had shown great eagerness to make his mark as a ruler, but has mostly been unfortunate in his enterprises.
He has spent large sums upon new buildings and in endowing the monks.
His endeavor to relieve the pressure of taxation has disorganized the finances of the state.
Idealizing Marcus Aurelius, Romanos aspires to be a new "philosopher king", and similarly desires to imitate the military prowess of Trajan.
He had resolved in 1030 to retaliate upon the incursions of the Muslims on the eastern frontier by leading a large army in person against the Mirdasids of Aleppo, but by allowing himself to be surprised on the march he had sustained a serious defeat at Azaz, near Antioch.
Although this disaster had been reduced by the capture and successful defense of Edessa by George Maniakes in 1032, and by the sound defeat of a Saracen fleet in the Adriatic, Romanos has never recovered his early popularity.
As a member of the aristocracy, Romanos III had abandoned his predecessors' curtailment of the privileges of the nobility and reduced their taxes, at the same time allowing peasant freeholders to fall into a condition of serfdom.
In a vain attempt to reduce expenditure, Romanos had limited his wife's expenses, which has merely exacerbated the alienation between the two.
At home, Romanos III has faced several conspiracies, mostly centered around his sister-in-law Theodora, as in 1029 and 1030.
Although he had survived these attempts on the throne, his early death in 1034 is supposed to have been due to poison administered by his wife, though it has also been that he was drowned in a bath on his wife's orders.
He is buried in the Church of St. Mary Peribleptos, which he built.
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