Constantine Diogenes

980 – 1032 · Generation XXVI

Constantine. General under Basil II; father of Romanos IV. From a noble Cappadocian family, he fought at Kleidion in 1014 and then took command at Thessalonica as the empire’s second-ranking general in the Balkans. In the last years of the Bulgarian war he plundered Pelagonia, pursued Tsar Ivan Vladislav and, after 1018, secured Sirmium — cutting down its ruler Sermon with a hidden sword at a supposedly peaceful parley on the Sava. Later made supreme commander of conquered Bulgaria, he repelled a large Pecheneg invasion in 1027. Marriage to a niece of Romanos III did not keep him loyal: accused in 1029 of plotting with the princess Theodora, he was beaten, paraded along the Mese and forced into the Stoudios Monastery. When a fresh plan to escape to the Balkans was betrayed in 1032, he threw himself from a wall at Blachernae rather than name his accomplices under torture.

Place in the family

• The archive records 3 of his descendants, across 2 generations.

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Children

• Romanos IV Diogenes (1030 – 1072)