Aleppo had been an imperial vassal since the days of Nikephoros II Phokas (r. 963–969), but already in the years before the death of Basil II (r. 976–1025), its emirs had begun to acknowledge the suzerainty of the Fatimid caliphs of Egypt.

After the overthrow of the Hamdanids in 1004, Aleppo had been ruled by several princes nominally subordinate to the Fatimids.

It was from these individuals that Salih ibn Mirdas had taken the town in 1024, by which time Constantinople’s influence over Aleppo and northern Syria in general had declined considerably.

When he died fighting the Fatimid governor of Damascus, al-Duzbari, five years later, his two sons Shibl al-Daula Nasr and Mu'izz al-Daula Thimal had succeeded him.

During an absence from the town, however, Thimal had been removed from power by his brother.

Nasr is hereafter the sole ruler of the Mirdasid territories.

Romanos III, despite his complete lack of military experience, is eager to emulate Basil's military successes, and in March 1030 he departs Constantinople, leading in person a campaign against Aleppo.

His army, some twenty thousand strong, contains many foreign mercenaries.

According to the Byzantine chroniclers, so confident was Romanos of his success that he prepared special crowns for his triumph to come, and staged a grandiose entry into Antioch.

Shibl al-Dawla Nasr, learning of the imperial army’ approach, sends envoys and offers to recognize imperial suzerainty and to restart the payment of tribute.

Romanos's generals counsel him to accept so as to avoid the hazards of campaigning in the arid Syrian desert in summer, especially as their troops are unaccustomed to such conditions and are encumbered by their heavy armor, but Romanos rejects their advice and leads his army towards Azaz.

The imperial troops set up a fortified camp near Azaz, and the Emperor dispatches the Excubitors, under their commander, the patrikios Leo Choirosphaktes, to reconnoiter the area.

Choirosphaktes is ambushed, however, and taken captive, while his men disperse.

This success encourages the Arabs, who begin to harass the imperial camp and prohibit the imperial troops from foraging.

As a result, the invading army begins to suffer from hunger and especially from thirst.

The patrikios Constantine Dalassenos now leads an attack against the Arabs, but is defeated, and flees back to the camp.

The invaders become demoralized, and an imperial council resolves to abandon the campaign and return to imperial territory.

Thus, in the next morning, August 10, 1030, the army departs its camp and makes for Antioch.

The besieging Arabs attack the retreating imperial army.

As most of the troops are too worn out from thirst and dysentery to fight, the imperial army breaks and flees.

Only the imperial bodyguard, the Hetaireia, holds firm, and their brave stand allows Romanos, who is nearly captured himself, to escape.

According to the report of Yahya of Antioch, however, the imperial army suffered remarkably little casualties.

The Arabs take great booty, including the entire imperial army's baggage train, which the army had abandoned in their hasty flight.

Among the spoils is the sumptuous imperial tent with its treasures, which allegedly had to be carried off on seventy camels.

Only the holy icon of the Theotokos, which the emperors habitually carry along on campaigns, has been saved.

The failure of Emperor Romanos III had been partly offset by the victory of George Maniakes, governor of Telouch, against eight hundred Arabs returning from the debacle at Azaz.

The Arabs, emboldened by their victory, had demanded that he evacuate his province.

Maniakes had at first pretended to comply, sending food and drink to the Arabs, but then attacked and overwhelmed them.

Maniakes's success had been followed soon after by a sustained imperial campaign against the Arab border lords, who had risen up against Constantinople’s rule in the aftermath of Azaz.

Romanos himself had departed for Constantinople, leaving behind Niketas of Mistheia and Symeon the protovestiarios as the katepano of Antioch and as Domestic of the Schools respectively.

These two generals had scored a number of successes, taking several fortresses, including Azaz after a short siege in December 1030.

Over the next two years, they will systematically take the hill forts of the local tribes and reduce them to submission, restoring the imperial position in Syria.

In the meantime, Nasr of Aleppo, seeking to conciliate his powerful neighbor, sends his own son 'Amr to Constantinople in April 1031 to ask for a treaty whereby he returns to tributary and vassal status towards the Empire.

The imperial resurgence in the East culminates in the capture of Edessa in 1031 by Maniakes.

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.

The governor of Damascus, al-Duzbari, finds the Mirdasid alliance with Constantinople to be unacceptable and calls for a jihad.

The imperial government announces their desire for a truce with al-Duzbari, causing Nasr to worry that he will be sacrificed by the Greeks to the Fatimids.

He, along with the Numayrids, Marwanids, and the Banu 'l-Djarrah and Kalb Arabs, sends envoys to Constantinople to determine the fate of the Muslims situated between the Fatimids and the Empire.

Nasr declares his submission to Romanos III, who claims Aleppo as under his protection.

The Fatimids refuse to accept this, however, and after Romanos III dies in 1034 his successor Michael IV recommends to Nasr that he accept Fatimid suzerainty.

The Empire signs a thirty years' peace with the Fatimid Caliphate in about 1037, thus ending a period of hostilities.

Constantinople and Cairo each agree not to aid the enemies of the other.

Emperor Michael IV receives permission to renovate the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem at his own expense, and he might have received the right to appoint the patriarch of Jerusalem.

In return, the emperor releases five thousand Muslim prisoners.

John the Orphanotrophos had first comes to historical attention as protonotarios and trusted confidant of Basil II..

He had supported Romanos' interests before the latter became emperor.

After his elevation to the imperial throne, Romanos had created John praepositus sacri cubiculi (head of the imperial household and the highest-ranking eunuch position; this title is probably identical with parakoimomenos) and senator.

With the accession of his brother Michael IV in 1034, John had been able to pursue his goal of furthering his family's interest with vigor.

The chronicler John Skylitzes goes so far as to say that 'with John's help all of his brothers became members of the emperor's household'.

John had ensured that his sister Maria's husband, Stephen, was made admiral, his brother Niketas named Duke of Antioch (succeeded by his brother Constantine), and his brother George named protovestiarios in succession to Symeon, who had resigned from his position in protest at John's behavior and retired to Mount Olympus.

Anthony the Fat, a member of John's extended family, had been named Bishop of Nicomedia.

Although John himself ultimately remains only an orphanotrophos, ("caretaker of orphans"), he effectively runs the state as a sort of prime minister.

John attempts in 1037 to have himself made Patriarch of Constantinople by trying unsuccessfully to have Alexius Studites dismissed from the patriarchate.

John puts Stephen in charge of the fleet bearing George Maniakes and his army to Sicily in 1038.

Harald Hardrada joins the imperial forces in 1038 in George Maniakes's (the sagas' "Gyrge") attempt to reconquer Sicily from the Saracens, who had established an emirate on the island.

During the campaign, Harald fights alongside Norman mercenaries such as William Iron Arm.

According to Snorri Sturluson, Harald captured four towns on Sicily.

John recalls Maniakes and has him imprisoned on charges of treason in 1040 after the disastrous desertions of the Normans, Salernitans, and Varangians from Maniakes' army.