About this ebook
Romanos II inherited the wealthiest empire on earth at twenty-one — and promptly handed it to everyone else.
While his generals conquered, his eunuchs administered, and his courtiers schemed, Romanos was at the Hippodrome, in the hunting forests, or in the arms of Theophano — a tavern-keeper's daughter of breathtaking beauty and, rumor had it, bottomless ambition. The aristocracy was scandalized. The empire, somehow, thrived.
In 960, his military commanders launched the largest naval armada in Byzantine history, smashing the Saracen corsairs who had held Crete for over a century. Roman dominance over the Aegean was restored — not by the emperor's hand, but in his name.
Inside the palace, the real war was quieter and far more dangerous.
Theophano moved through the corridors of the Great Palace like a chess player who could see every piece on the board. Around her, eunuchs whispered, generals calculated, and alliances shifted in the dark.
Then, on March 15, 963, Romanos collapsed and died.
He was twenty-five years old.
The rumors of poison spread before the body was cold.
This is the story of an emperor who never wanted power — and the people around him who wanted it far too much.
