Constantine VIII

Born in 960, the younger son of Emperor Romanos II and Empress Theophano, Constantine was named co-emperor at age two in 962. For the next six decades he stood beside a rotating cast — his father, his stepfather Nikephoros II Phokas, his uncle John I Tzimiskes, and finally his brother Basil II — without lifting a finger toward statecraft or military command. When Basil died in 1025, Constantine inherited sole rule at 65. The Byzantine government promptly began to decay under mismanagement and neglect. He left no sons. In 1028, on his deathbed, he married his daughter Zoe to Romanos Argyros, an…