Romanus

a friend of the younger Pliny, to whom several of his letters are addressed (Ep. 4.29, 6.15, 33, 8.8, 9.7). Pliny had two friends of this name, Romanus Firmus and Voconius Romanus, and it is probable that some of the above letters are addressed to one of these persons, but it is impossible to say to which.

a friend and municeps of the younger Pliny, with whom the latter had been brought up, and to whom he addresses one of his letters, in which he offers to give him a sufficient sum of money to raise him to the equestrian rank. (Ep. 1.19.)

one of the friends of the poet Lucan, accused Mela, the father of the poet, after the death of the latter, because Nero was anxious to obtain his property. (Tac. Ann. 16.17.)

a Roman rhetorician, who earned an infamous character by undertaking prosecutions to please the early emperors. He is first mentioned at the commencement of the reign of Tiberius, when he supported the accusation of Caepio Crispinus against Granius Marcellus. In A. D. 62, he accused Seneca as one of the associates of C. Piso, but the accusation was retorted upon him by Seneca (Tac. Ann. 1.74, 16.17). Romanus Hispo constantly occurs as one of the declaimers in the Controversiae of the elder Seneca.

a Roman poet, whose name is prefixed to an epigram on Petronius Arbiter in the Latin Anthology (2.235, ed. Burmann, No. 1544, ed. Meyer). This Julius, however, as Niebuhr points out (Kleine Schriften, p. 347), is not an ancient writer, but Julius Sabinus, otherwise called Julius Pomponius Laetus, who died in the year 1497. (Comp. Meyer, Annot. ad Anthol. Lat. vol. ii. p. 122.)

a fellow-student and an intimate friend of the younger Pliny, was the son of an illustrious Roman eques, and his mother belonged to one of the most distinguished families in Nearer Spain (Plin. Ep. 2.13). If we may trust the testimony of his friend, Voconius was a distinguished orator, and possessed great skill in composition. Several of Pliny's letters are addressed to him. (Ep. 1.5, 2.1, 9.28.)'

(Ῥωμανὸς ὁ Λακαπηνός), Byzantine emperor from A. D. 919-944, was the son of Theophylactus Abastactus, a brave warrior, who had once saved the life of the emperor Basil.

Romanus served in the imperial fleet, distinguished himself on many occasions, and enjoyed the esteem of his fellow-soldiers on account of his rare bravery. One of his men having been attacked by a lion, Romanus, who was near, rushed to his assistance and killed the monster in single combat. When the young Constantine VII. Porphyrogenitus, ascended the throne, Romanus was high admiral, and commanded the fleet on the Danube in the war with the Bulgarians, but as he suddenly withdrew with his ship and made sail for Constantinople. he was accused of treachery by Leo Phocas. It must, however, be understood that both the accused and the accuser aimed at supreme power, and Romanus left the theatre of the war, probably for the purpose of being within reach of the throne, as well as of the man who wanted to place himself thereon. A civil war was on the point of breaking out, when Romanus, patronised and perhaps loved by the dowager empress, seized upon the chamberlain Constantine, one of the most influential adherents of Phocas, who avenged the captivity of his friend by taking up arms. Romanus, who had been appointed Magnus Hetaeriarcha, or commander in chief of the foreign body-guard of the emperor, worsted Phocas, and in reward was made Caesar in September, and crowned as Augustus and emperor on the 17th December, 919. He had previously given his daughter Helena in marriage to the young emperor Constantine, and shortly after his accession he conferred the rank of Augustus and Augusta upon his son Christopher and his wife Theodora. Romanus was now the legitimate colleague of Constantine VII., over whom he exercised such authority as to cause many plots against his life, and sometimes open rebellions, which he succeeded in quelling.

The following are the principal events of his reign. The great schism of the church, which had lasted ever since the deposition of the patriarch Euthymius and the famous fourth wedlock of the emperor Leo VI., was at last healed, in 920, through the intervention of Pope John X.; and by an edict of Constantine VII. of the same year, a fourth marriage was declared anti-canonical, and made punishable. In 921 another of those interminable wars with the Bulgarians, or perhaps only a fresh and formidable invasion, drew the attention of Romanus towards the Danube, but the Bulgarians saved him the trouble of going so far away from Constantinople by advancing thither with all their force, and ravaging the country. This war became still more formidable when Simeon, the king of the Bulgarians concluded, in 923, an alliance with the Arabs. But we purposely refrain from giving the details of these barbarous wars, presenting little more than an uninterrupted series of bloodshed and devastations without profit to either party. A remarkable interview between Romanus and Simeon, which took place in 926, under the walls of Constantinople, put a temporary end to these troubles. In the previous year the patrician John Radinus worsted and destroyed the fleet of the famous pirate chief Leo, of Tripolis, who had sacked Thessalonica twenty-two years previously. In 927 King Simeon died, after having ruined Bulgaria through his very victories, and was succeeded by his son Peter, who was less warlike, though not less courageous than his father; for he entered the Byzantine territory at the head of a strong army, proposing to the emperor to choose between war and peace, on condition of his giving him his grand-daughter in marriage, a proposition which Romanus the more eagerly accepted, as he wanted all his forces to check the progress of the Arabs. His possessions in Italy also required protection against the petty Lombard princes. In 901 Christopher died, the eldest son of Romanus and husband of Sophia, the daughter of Nicetas magister palatii, who a short time previously had been sent into a convent for a conspiracy against the emperor, Romanus, so wise in many respects, compromised himself extremely in 933, by making his son Theophylactus, a lad of sixteen, patriarch of Constantinople, after first obtaining the approbation of Pope John XI. Theophylactus proved a very miserable prelate. From 934 to 940 the empire enjoyed an almost universal peace, Italy excepted, where the petty warfare with the Lombard princes went on as before. But in 941 Constantinople was in terror at the sudden appearance of a Russian fleet of 10,000 boats, commanded by Prince Ingor, who cast anchor at the very entrance of the Bosporus, and whose troops ravaged the neighbouring country. Romanus, however, equipped in all haste a small number of galleys (15?) lying in the Golden Horn, with which Theophanes boldly attacked the Russians, destroyed a great number of their boats, and compelled Ingor to fly. Theophanes soon afterwards obtained a second victory over the rest of the fleet on the coast of Thrace, and of this formidable armada very little came back to Russia. Ingor died soon afterwards, and in 945 his wife Olga came to Constantinople to receive baptism: she was christened Helena, and is held in the utmost veneration in the Russian church.

Down to this period Constantine Porphyrogenitus, although the legitimate emperor by descent, had only enjoyed the title of his rank, and he now resolved upon having the power also. To this effect he excited the ambition of the two surviving sons of Romanus, Stephanus and Constantine, both Augusti, who in their turn were tired of the autocracy of their aged father. A conspiracy was set on foot, headed by Stephanus, who had the assistance of several energetic and distinguished men. Sure of success, he suddenly seized upon the person of his father, and with secret despatch had him carried to the island of Protea, at the entrance of the Propontis, where Romanus was thrown into a convent and had his head shaved forthwith, as he was thus rendered incompetent to reign (20th of December, 944). The sons of Romanus, however, did not reap the fruits of their treachery, for Constantine VII. was proclaimed sole emperor, after the unnatural children of the deposed emperor had enjoyed the title of co-emperors during the short space of five weeks. They were then arrested and sent to Protea, where a touching interview took place between them and their unfortunate father. Stephanus died nineteen years afterwards in exile, and Constantine survived his captivity only two years, when he was massacred in an attempt at making his escape. Romanus lived a quiet monkish life in his convent, and died a natural death on the 15th of June, 948. Further Information

Cedren. p. 614, &c.; Leo. Diacon. p. 492, &c.; Manass. p. 111, &c.; Zonaras, vol. ii. p. 186, &c.; Glycas, p. 300, &c. all in the Paris editions. [W.P]

or the Younger, Byzantine emperor from A. D. 959-963, the son and successor of Constantine VII. Porphyrogenitus, was born in 939, and succeeded his father on the fifteenth of November 959. His short reign offers a few events of note. Endowed with great personal beauty and bodily strength, he preferred gymnastics, hunting, and other pleasures to the duties of an emperor, which he left to his minister Bringas. His wretched wife Theophano, who had persuaded him to poison his father, was no sooner independent than she excited Romanus against his own family; his five sisters were compelled to leave the palace, and confined in the same convent where Sophia, the widow of Christophorus Augustus had then been during thirty years; but the empress dowager, Helena, possessed too much energy to yield to her daughter-in-law, and she accordingly remained in the palace, but she died soon afterwards of a broken heart. Although Romanus never showed himself in the field, he had two renowned generals by whom some glorious deeds were done, namely, the two brothers Nicephorus and Leo Phocas. Nicephorus recovered the flourishing island of Creta, after a long siege of its capital Candia, and after the Arabs had ruled there during 150 years (961); and Leo was successful against the Arabs in Asia. After the fall of Candia, and the splendid triumph of Nicephorus in Constantinople, the two brothers joined their forces against the Arabs, and obtained most signal victories over them. A rumour having spread of the death of Romanus, Nicephorus approached the capital through fear of Bringas; but the rumour was false, and Nicephorus remained in Asia, observing Constantinople. Events showed the prudence of this step; for Romanus, already exhausted by his mode of life, was despatched by poison administered to him by his own wife Theophano. He died on the 15th of March, 963, at the age of twenty-four. Ambition, and perhaps the secret advice of the eunuch Bringas, urged Theophano to commit the foul deed. Romanus married first Bertha, afterwards called Eudoxia, the natural daughter of Hugo, king of Italy, who died a child before the marriage was consummated. By his second wife Anastasia, afterwards called Theophano, a woman of base extraction, he left two sons, Basil II. and Constantine VIII., who followed him on the throne, and two daughters, Theophano, who married Otho II. emperor of Germany, an excellent woman, who became the ancestress of most of the reigning houses in Europe, and Anna Posthuma, who married Wladimir, first Christian prince of Russia. Further Information

Cedren. p. 642, &c.; Zonar. vol. ii. p. 196, &c.; Manass. p. 115, Glyc. p. 304; Leo Diacon. p. 500, &c. in the Paris editions. [W.P]

or Argyropu'lus (Ῥωμανὸς ὁ Ἀργυρὸς or ὁ Ἀργυρόπουλος), Byzantine emperor from A. D. 1028-1034, was the son of Leo Argyrus Dux, and belonged to a distinguished family. Romanus obtained such military glory in the reign of Constantine VIII., that this prince appointed him his successor, and offered him the hand of one of his daughters, a few days before he died. Romanus was married to Helena, a virtuous woman, whom he tenderly loved, and declined both the crown and the bride. Constantine, however, left him the choice between his offer, or the loss of his eyes. Even then Romanus did not yield to the temptation, and would have declined it again but for the prayers of his own wife, who implored him to accept both, and rather sacrifice her than the empire. Their marriage was accordingly dissolved ; and Romanus, now married to the princess Zoe, succeeded Constantine on the 12th of November, 1028. He was a brave, well-instructed man, perhaps learned; but he over-valued himself, and thought himself the best general and the best scholar of his time. Numerous acts of liberality and clemency gained him the hearts of his new subjects at the very beginning of his reign, but did not prevent some court conspiracies. At the same time his arms met with disgrace in Sicily and Svria, nor did he retrieve his fortune when he took the field in person. The Arabs worsted him near Azar in Syria, and he only escaped captivity by shutting himself up in Antioch (1030), whence he hastened to Constantinople. His lientenants Nicetas and Simeon, and especially Theoctistes, however, soon restored the honour of the Greek armnies. Their success so mortified Argyrus that he became the prey of a deep melancholy, and only occupied himself with building churches and convents, his wife Zoe seizing the reins of the enipire. Meanwhile the war with the Arabs was carried on with varying success, till at last the Greeks obtained great advantages in a decisive naval engagement, and by the conquest of Edessa. which was obliged to surrender in 1033. But the plague ravaged the provinces, and in the North the Patzinegues and other barbarians made de structive inroads. These disasters roused Romanus from his indolence. But it was too late: he had made himself unpopular for ever, and his own family had become strangers to him. The more his generals were successful against the Arabs, the more the nation became convinced that without him still greater advantages light be obtained. Hence arose a criminal intrigue betweeen Zoe, an ambitious and voluptuous wife, though past fifty, and the general Michael, surnamed Paphlago. Zoe administered a slow poison to her husband, in of which he died a lingering death (1034), which was accelerated by the cruel deed of Zoe assistants, who held the enfeebled emperor, who was taking a bath, under water till life was nearly gone. Half dead, he was taken out and placed on a bed, when his wife despatched him by a dose of active poison. Romans died at the age of sixty-six, and was succeeded by Michael IV. the Paphlagonian, who married Zoe. It is certain that Romanus left no issue by Zoe, and it is doubtful whether he had any by Helena; but his family continued to flourish in Constantinople down to its capture by the Turks, and more than 150 years afterwards. (Cedren. p. 722, &c.; Zonar. vol. ii. p. 229, &c.; Manass. p. 123; Glyc. p. 311 &c.) [W.P]

(Ῥωμανὸς ὁ Διογένης), Byzantine emperor from A. D. 1067-1071, was the son of one Constantine Diogenes, a by the rather extravagantt character, who conspired against the emperor Romanus Argyrus, but escaped pursuit by leaping out of a high window. Romallnus Diogenes was the grand-nephew of Romanus Argyrus, through his mother; and enjoying the patronage of the court notwithstanding his either's conduct, soon rose to the dignities of patrician and duke of Sardica or Triaditza. In the reign of Constantine X. Ducas, he solicited the place of Magnus Vestiarius, and having received the answer: "Deserve it through your merite," forth with returned to sardica, sallied out with the garrison, and routed a party of Patzinegue marauders, of whose heads he sent a collection to Constantinople. The emperor returned the compliment by granting him desired appointment, adding: "You owe your preferment not to me, but to your sword." This piqued Romanus; and from that time he entertained schemes of rebellion and of raising himself to the throne. After the death of Conistantine, and duiring the reign of his widow Eudoxia, he became bolder; but his manoeuvres were seen through, and he was arrested, tried, and sentenced to death. Previous to execution he was presented to the empress; and as he had obtained great military renown, and was besides a remarkably handsome man, he made such a visible impression upon Endoxia, that his judges thought it convenient to annul their sentence, in consequence of which he was sent into nominal exile in his native country Cappadocia. Two days after his departure he was ioined by some messengers of the empress, who ordered him to return to Constantinople. At his arrival there he was immediately appointed commander-in-chief of the army. The end of this farce was his marriage with the empress, and his proclamation as emperor three days after their marriage. Constantine X., however, had left three sons, who considered themselves prejudiced through the accession of Romrnanus, and entered into a dantgerouse gerous plot against his life; but their mother scceeded in pacifying them, and submitting them to her authority. There remained, however, a strong party of malcontents at the court, composed of eminent stand hihii-born men. Romans, active and energetic, not only counteracted their plans, but introduced measures of radical reform into the corrupted administration, and freed himself from the authority of his wife, by leaving Constantinople aud keeping his court on the Asiatic side of the Bosporus.

To these domestic quarrels the Turks put a sudconsequence den end. Their sultan, Alp-Arslàn, approached by rapid marches from the shores of the Caspian and the highlands of northern Persia, while one of his lieutenants attacked Syria. Romanus took the field against them with his usual energy and promptitude. His intention was to cover Syria, and he was already on its frontiers when he was informed of the progress of the Turkish arms in the North. He consequently left Syria to his generals, and marched to Pontus with such rapidity, that he surprised and routed several Turkish bodies stationed on its fiontier. This was sufficient to keep the main body of the Turks within Persia. Ro. manus therefore hastened hack to Syria. He made a successful campaign down to Antioch and up again along the Euphrates. and wherever he carried his arms the enemy was worsted. One of his generals, less fortunate, or less skilful, was surprised The Turks, and lost the day and half of his army. Romanus flew to his support; and in a nocturnal engagement, took the camp of the Turks and routed them with great slaughter (20th of November, 1068). He then marched again up the Euphrates as far as Ara, constantly annoyed by the light troops of the enemy; but he placed his troops in good and safe winter-quarters, and returned to the capital. Eudoxia, reconciled to her husband, had meanwhile governed the state with wisdom; and, in acknowledgment of the vicitories of the emperor, presented him with a sort of miscellaneous work, entitled "Ionia," which she had just finished. The campaign was renewed in 1069, and the imperial arms were again successful, though not uniformly so, as the Turks succeeded in taking and pillaging Iconium. The third campaingn in 1070, was carried on under the commandin-chief of Manuel Comnenus, the emperor requir ing repose after so many fatigues. Ere long, news reached the court that Manuel had been defeated and taken prisoner. The emperor was artfully persuaded by some false friends to refrain from taking the command once more, and matters would have taken a bad turn, but for the rare shrewdness of Manuel. It happened that Chrysoscul, the victorious Tcrkish general, pretended to have a better right to the sultanship than Alp-Arslán, and Manuel was no sooner aware of it than, a real Comnene as he was, he persuaded him to desert the sultan, and fly with him to Constantinople, promising him the assistance of the emperor for the recovery of his rights. The vanquished thus led his victor to Constantinople, to the utmost astonishment of the court. Romanus took as much advantage of this strange incident as circumstances would allow; and, in 1071, again set out in person against Alp-Arsldn. But little acquainted with human baseness, line left many of his real friends at home, and took with him many a secret enemy invested with high power. He penetrated as far as the Araxes, not without a manly resistance from the Turks and many a partial defeat of his generals. His position in those wild regions became dangerous, but he stoutly refused the peace offered to him by the sultan. Upon this a pitched battle was fought at Manzicert on the Araxes (26th of August, 1071); and owing to the treachery of some of his officers, no less than to the valour of Alp-Arslán, Romanus lost the day and his liberty. It nas been said that the noble sultan ill-treated his captive, but this is not true, on the contrary he received him well, and discoursed with him as a friend. "What would you have done with me," asked the sultan, "if I had been your prisoner ?" "Beaten you to death," was the By zantine's answer. "I will treat you differently," replied the barbarian infidel, "and according to the precepts of your own religion, which commands humanity and forgiveiess of injuries." Alp-Arslán accordingly gave him 10,000 pieces of gold, and all those prisoners whom the emperor chose to pick out. Upon this a peace was concluded on equitable terms, except a ransom of 1,500,000, and an annual tribute of 360,000 pieces of gold. Ronmanus shed tears when he took leave of his noble victor, who allowed him to return to Constantinople betore the conditions of the treaty of peace were fulfilled. The news of this disaster caused a complete revolution in the capital, so that when Ronmanus appeared at its gates, he was refused admittance. Michael Parapinaces had been raised to the imperial dignity, but Romanus did his utmost to crush him and recover his throne. He was not successful. Twice defeated in pitched battles, he at last surrendered, and was put to death by order of Michael. Romanus left three sons, of whom Nicephorus made himself conspicuous in after years. The reign of Romanus Diogenes, though short, is full of highly interesting events, especially of military adventures, such as those of the noble Scot Ursel or Russell Baliol; but space forbids us to enter upon these details. Further Information

Zonar. vol. ii. p. 277, &c.; Glycas, p. 326, &c.; Manass. p. 131; Bryenn. p. 112, &c., in the Paris editions. [W.P]

• Roma, of Rome, Roman: populusR.(always in this order; usu. written P. R.): cives, C.: urbs, i. e. Rome, L.: Iuno (opp. Argiva), C.: lingua, Latin, O., Ta.: ludi, i. e. ludi magni, the most ancient in Rome, annually celebrated on the4th of September, C., L.: Romano more, i. e. frankly: minime arte Romanā, L.: et facere et pati fortia Romanum est, L.—As substm., the Roman(sc. imperator), L.: Romani, the Romans, L.—Singcollect., the Romans, L.—As substf., a Roman woman, L.