Constantine IX Monomachos

1000 – 1055 · Generation XXVI · Emperor (r. 1042–1055) · Macedonian

Constantine (AD 1000 – 1055). Emperor (r. 1042–1055). Married Zoe around AD 1042. Of the Monomachos family; ruled as third husband of empress Zoe. Few reigns of the empire's stormy eleventh century mattered more, or divide historians more sharply. Constantine depleted the treasury Basil II had filled, debased the gold coinage for the first lasting time since its introduction under Constantine the Great, and spent lavishly on gifts and religious projects while swelling the aristocracy with titles. Yet he also attempted genuine reform: a law school under a nomophylax, and a new office set over the rising civil judges. He put down two civil wars and a naval raid by the Kievan Rus' and annexed the Armenian kingdom of Ani, yet suffered humiliation against the Pechenegs and could not halt the Seljuk advance. The Great Schism of 1054 broke on his watch. He died of an infection tied to chronic arthritis, and recent scholarship treats him as the Macedonian Renaissance's final emperor of real effectiveness.

One of 16 people of Macedonian (811–1057) in this archive. The empire’s widest reach — a house of soldier-emperors and scholars.

Partners

Married Zoe (978 – 1050) in 1042

Life

1000 — Born
1042 — Married Zoe
1055 — Died