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Birth:          ABT  869 Lakape, Hayastan, Armenia (nr Melitene in the Anti-Jarsus)
Death:          15 Jun  948 Isle of Prote, Macedonia

Notes
unclear if Theodora or an unknown first wife is the mother of the children
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanos_I_Lekapenos
Romanos I Lekapenos or Lakapenos (Greek: ??µa??? ?? ?a?ap????, Romanos I 
Lakapenos; c. 870 – June 15, 948), Latinized as Romanus I Lecapenus, was an 
Armenian who became a Byzantine naval commander and reigned as Byzantine 
Emperor from 920 until his deposition on December 16, 944.
Origin[edit]

Romanos Lekapenos, born in Lakape (Laqabin) between Melitene and Samosata 
(hence the name), was the son of an Armenian peasant[1][2][3] with the remarkable 
name of Theophylact the Unbearable (Theophylaktos Abastaktos). Theophylact, as a 
soldier, had rescued the Emperor Basil I from the enemy in battle at Tephrike and had 
been rewarded by a place in the Imperial Guard.[4]

Although he did not receive any refined education (for which he was later abused by 
his son-in-law Constantine VII), Romanos advanced through the ranks of the army 
during the reign of Emperor Leo VI the Wise. In 911 he was general of the naval 
theme of Samos and later served as admiral of the fleet (droungarios tou ploimou). In 
this capacity he was supposed to participate in the Byzantine operations against 
Bulgaria on the Danube in 917, but he was unable to carry out his mission. In the 
aftermath of the disastrous Byzantine defeat at the Battle of Acheloos in 917 by the 
Bulgarians, Romanos sailed to Constantinople, where he gradually overcame the 
discredited regency of Empress Zoe Karvounopsina and her supporter Leo Phokas.

Rise to power[edit]

On 25 March 919, at the head of his fleet, Lekapenos seized the Boukoleon Palace 
and the reins of government. Initially, he was named magistros and megas 
hetaireiarches, but he moved swiftly to consolidate his position: in April 919 his 
daughter Helena was married to Constantine VII, and Lekapenos assumed the new 
title basileopator; on 24 September, he was named Caesar; and on 17 December 919, 
Romanos Lekapenos was crowned senior emperor.[5]

In subsequent years Romanos crowned his own sons co-emperors, Christopher in 921, 
Stephen and Constantine in 924, although, for the time being, Constantine VII was 
regarded as first in rank after Romanos himself. It is notable that, as he left 
Constantine untouched, he was called 'the gentle usurper'. Romanos strengthened his 
position by marrying his daughters to members of the powerful aristocratic families of 
Argyros and Mouseles, by recalling the deposed patriarch Nicholas Mystikos, and by 
putting an end to the conflict with the Papacy over the four marriages of Emperor Leo 
VI.

His early reign saw several conspiracies to topple him, which led to the successive 
dismissal of his first paradynasteuontes, John the Rhaiktor and John Mystikos. From 
925 and until the end of his reign, the post was occupied by the chamberlain 
Theophanes.

War and peace with Bulgaria[edit]

Main article: Byzantine–Bulgarian war of 913–927

The first major challenge faced by the new emperor was the war with Bulgaria, which 
had been re-ignited by the regency of Zoe. The rise to power of Romanos had 
curtailed the plans of Simeon I of Bulgaria for a marital alliance with Constantine VII, 
and Romanos was determined to deny the unpopular concession of imperial 
recognition to Simeon, which had already toppled two imperial governments. 
Consequently, the first four years of Romanos' reign were spent in warfare against 
Bulgaria. Although Simeon generally had the upper hand, he was unable to gain a 
decisive advantage because of the impregnability of Constantinople's walls. In 924, 
when Simeon had once again blockaded the capital by land, Romanos succeeded in 
opening negotiations. Meeting Simeon in person at Kosmidion, Romanos criticized 
Simeon's disregard for tradition and Orthodox Christian brotherhood and supposedly 
shamed him into coming to terms and lifting the siege. In reality, this was 
accomplished by Romanos' tacit recognition of Simeon as emperor of Bulgaria. 
Relations were subsequently marred by continued wrangling over titles (Simeon called 
himself emperor of the Romans as well), but peace had been effectively established.

On the death of Simeon in May 927, Bulgaria's new emperor, Peter I, made a show of 
force by invading Byzantine Thrace, but he showed himself ready to negotiate for a 
more permanent peace. Romanos seized the occasion and proposed a marriage 
alliance between the imperial houses of Byzantium and Bulgaria, at the same time 
renewing the Serbian-Byzantine alliance with Caslav of Serbia, returning 
independence the same year. In September 927 Peter arrived before Constantinople 
and married Maria (renamed Eirene, "Peace"), the daughter of his eldest son and co-
emperor Christopher, and thus Romanos' granddaughter. On this occasion Christopher 
received precedence in rank over his brother-in-law Constantine VII, something which 
compounded the latter's resentment towards the Lekapenoi, the Bulgarians, and 
imperial marriages to outsiders (as documented in his composition De Administrando 
Imperio). From this point on, Romanos' government was free from direct military 
confrontation with Bulgaria. Although Byzantium would tacitly support a Serbian revolt 
against Bulgaria in 931, and the Bulgarians would allow Magyar raids across their 
territory into Byzantine possessions, Byzantium and Bulgaria remained at peace for 40 
years, until Sviatoslav's invasion of Bulgaria.

Campaigns in the East[edit]

Romanos appointed the brilliant general John Kourkouas commander of the field 
armies (domestikos ton scholon) in the East. John Kourkouas subdued a rebellion in 
the theme of Chaldia and intervened in Armenia in 924. From 926 Kourkouas 
campaigned across the eastern frontier against the Abbasids and their vassals, and 
won an important victory at Melitene in 934. The capture of this city is often 
considered the first major Byzantine territorial recovery from the Muslims.
 
In 941, while most of the army under Kourkouas was absent in the East, a fleet of 15 
old ships under the protovestiarios Theophanes had to defend Constantinople from a 
Kievan raid. The invaders were defeated at sea, through the use of Greek fire, and 
again at land, when they landed in Bithynia, by the returning army under Kourkouas. In 
944 Romanos concluded a treaty with Prince Igor of Kiev. This crisis having passed, 
Kourkouas was free to return to the eastern frontier.

In 943 Kourkouas invaded northern Mesopotamia and besieged the important city of 
Edessa in 944. As the price for his withdrawal, Kourkouas obtained one of Byzantium's 
most prized relics, the mandylion, the holy towel allegedly sent by Jesus Christ to King 
Abgar V of Edessa. John Kourkouas, although considered by some of his 
contemporaries "a second Trajan or Belisarius," was dismissed after the fall of the 
Lekapenoi in 945. Nevertheless, his campaigns in the East paved the way for the 
even more dramatic reconquests in the middle and the second half of the 10th 
century.

Internal policies[edit]
 
Romanos I Lekapenos attempted to strengthen the Byzantine Empire by seeking 
peace everywhere that it was possible—his dealings with Bulgaria and Kievan Rus' 
have been described above. To protect Byzantine Thrace from Magyar incursions 
(such as the ones in 934 and 943), Romanos paid them protection money and pursued 
diplomatic venues. The Khazars were the allies of the Byzantines until the reign of 
Romanos, when he started persecuting the Jews of the empire. According to the 
Schechter Letter, the Khazar ruler Joseph responded to the persecution of Jews by 
"doing away with many Christians", and Romanos retaliated by inciting Oleg of 
Novgorod (called Helgu in the letter) against Khazaria.[6]

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.

In Constantinople, he built his palace in the place called Myrelaion, near the Sea of 
Marmara. Beside it he 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[edit]

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 in December 944, carried 
him off to the Prince's 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 in June 948, and was buried as the 
other members of his family in the church of Myrelaion. 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, Romanus 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."[7]

Family[edit]

By his marriage to Theodora (who died in 922), Romanos had six children, including:
Christopher Lekapenos, co-emperor from 921 to 931, who was married to the Augusta 
Sophia and was the father of Maria (renamed Irene), who married Emperor Peter I of 
Bulgaria; Christopher's son Michael Lekapenos may have been associated as co-
emperor by his grandfather.
Stephen Lekapenos, co-emperor from 924 to 945, died 967.
Constantine Lekapenos, co-emperor from 924 to 945, died 946.
Theophylaktos Lekapenos, patriarch of Constantinople from 933 to 956.
Helena Lekapene, who married Emperor Constantine VII.
Agatha Lekapene, who married Romanos Argyros; their grandson was Emperor 
Romanos III.

Romanos also had an illegitimate son, the eunuch Basil, who remained influential at 
court, particularly during the period 976–985.

Parents
____ Theophylaktos (ABT  840 - )
----- ----- ()

Siblings
LEKAPENOS Romanos I (ABT  869 - 15 Jun  948)

Marriage To ____ Theodora (ABT  874 - 20 Feb  923)
    m. ABT  889 his 1st

Notes


Children by ____ Theodora ABT  874 - 20 Feb  923
LEKAPENOS Christopher (ABT  890 -  931)
LEKAPENA Agatha (ABT  903 - )
LEKAPENE Helena (Eleni) (ABT  906 - 19 Sep  961)

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