He was a Byzantine noble and senior official in Constantinople when the dying Constantine VIII forced him to divorce his wife and marry the emperor's daughter Zoë.

He died after six years on the throne, allegedly murdered, and was succeeded by his wife's young lover, Michael IV.

[8] He was then promoted to the post of quaestor (the senior judicial official for the imperial capital, Constantinople) and became one of the judges of the Hippodrome, the High Court of the Empire.

In this role he is mentioned in the Peira, a compendium of legal decisions compiled by the noted jurist Eustathios Rhomaios.

[9] He was promoted further to the rank of patrikios and the post of oikonomos (administrator) of the Great Church, while continuing to preside over the High Court.

Wishing to secure the Macedonian dynasty, but having no son, he summoned Constantine Dalassenos from Antioch to marry his oldest daughter, Zoë.

Dalassenos, the doux of Antioch, was an experienced military commander, influential patrician, and unswervingly loyal to the ruling house.

He idealised Marcus Aurelius, aspiring to be a new philosopher king, and similarly sought to imitate the military prowess of Trajan.

This failure to stand up to the aristocrats allowed them to exploit the rural mass of landed peasantry, who increasingly fell into a condition of serfdom.

[18] In 1030 he resolved to lead an army in person against the Mirdasids of Aleppo, despite their having accepted the Byzantines as overlords, with disastrous results.

[25] In 1032 the capture and successful defence of Edessa by George Maniakes[26] and the sound defeat of a Saracen fleet in the Adriatic did little to restore Romanos' early popularity.

[27] In 1031 she was implicated in another conspiracy, this time with Constantine Diogenes, the Archon of Sirmium,[23] and was forcibly confined in the monastery of Petrion.

[29] Having survived the attempts on his throne by Theodora, his death on 11 April 1034 was supposed to have been due to poison administered by his wife.