Romanos V Melissenos

## Romanos V Melissenos Ρωμανός Ε΄ Μελισσηνός

**Romanos V Melissenos** (Greek: Ρωμανός Ε΄ Μελισσηνός, *Rōmanos V Melissenos*, c. 1212, Philadelphia – 18 February 1292, Constantinople), sometimes called **Romanos the Elder** or **Romanos the Old** (*Gerontas*) was a Byzantine general and magnate who was emperor from 1285 to 1292.

Ruling as co-emperor since 1282, he succeeded his grandson-in-law and former ward Skantarios Laskaris as sole emperor following the latter's unexpected death at the Battle of Seleucia. During his brief and unpopular reign, Antioch, northern Cyprus and western Cilicia were regained for the Byzantine Empire. Romanos V enacted a series of administrative reforms which aimed at reorganizing the frontier themes, but his advanced age paralyzed the Byzantine Empire and prevented him from acting on major foreign crises, which would remain unresolved for several years after his passing.

Aged 80 at his death, Romanos V was the third oldest person to have ever occupied the imperial throne, after Anastasius I and Justinian I.

## Life

### Early years (1212–1252)

Romanos was born to an elder patrician family sometime in 1212. He could trace back his ancestry to the eighth century, farther than any other man of his age, and further claimed to be descended from one of the families that had come with Constantine the Great to found his new city.

From an early age, Romanos Melissenos was the spitting image of an aristocrat. He had been born in his family villa in the outskirts of Philadelphia. His mother was a daughter of the extensive Doukid clan, whereas his father Basil competently served in the Eastern armies. He was raised in Asia and trained in arms, as befitting of the only child heir to a vast family legacy. It was said that he slew his first man, a Turkish raider, when he was only twelve, and rode into battle wearing a fully grown man's armor at thirteen. His education was not solely limited to military affairs, although he belonged to the heart of the Anatolian aristocracy. Indeed, at seventeen he was sent to Constantinople and spent there the next four years, taught by the wisest masters in oratory, rhetoric and philosophy, subjects all aspiring Roman aristocrats had to master. He returned to Asia in time to take part in John III's successful campaign that retook Iconium from the Turks, distinguishing himself as one of the most formidable young officers in the war, commanding a detachment of *Scholae* that broke his enemies in many a battle. When his father succumbed to the plague a year later, Romanos, now the family patriarch, was more than able to quickly rise through the ranks.

Upon his return from Iconium, Romanos, an increasingly promising general, settled back at his family estate near Philadelphia. His wife, Sophia Synadena, had given him a son in his absence, named Basil. Two daughters, Eudokia and Glykeria, and two more sons, John and Theodotos, would follow in the coming years, as his family grew in children as well as in wealth and power - for Romanos had exercised his considerable influence in Anatolia to expand his already sizable estate, at the same time as he had reconnected with family cadets in Epirus and Macedonia. Ironically, given the later events of his life, his next campaign came as John III ordered his armies into Armenia, to fight Queen Isabella for the very Cilician plains and highlands that would claim Emperor John's grandson forty years later. Alexios Axouchos, then Domestic of the Eastern Schools, commanded the initially successful incursion, with Romanos as one of his most senior generals. Although John III later withdrew his army from Cilicia to defend against the Mongol menace, the Melissenoi only grew in power and prestige.

Thus, when the Mongols came, Romanos Melissenos was one of the greatest magnates of Phrygia and Lydia. However, even for an experienced general as himself, the Easterners proved to be too much. Too powerful, too numerous, too skilled, too everything. It was with gritted teeth that he witnessed Alexios Axouchos kneel before the barbarian king and swear his obedience to him, rising as Despot of Laodicea and denouncing the Emperor in Constantinople as a farce. When John III was slain and civil war broke out, it is true that Romanos considered declaring himself Emperor and marching on Constantinople, as his ancestor Nikephoros Melissenos had done in the late eleventh century. Instead, he was forced to bow to the Axouch traitor, even as Phrygia was lost to the Turks and the family's property in Europe was ravaged, pillaged and confiscated by the several claimants.

In short, the Mongol conquest had been a tragedy for the family, and one that would spur Romanos into seeking the alliance of the emergent victor in the civil war, the savior of Constantinople Theodore II Laskaris. When the new Emperor crossed the Hellespont to bring the Axouchoi to heel, Romanos eagerly watched from the sidelines, keeping the men under his command away from the front, claiming to have to defend Philadelphia and the Despotate's capital of Laodicea from Eastern incursions as the Despot offered battle to the Imperial army. When the tide turned as Theodore II was a day's march from Smyrna, with the Despot and his routed army returned to Laodicea, the time had come for Romanos to act. Taking with him his family's personal guard, he assaulted the despot's palace and dragged out Alexios Axouchos in chains. By his command, the traitor was blinded and executed. Romanos' son Basil was the one to deliver Axouchos' head on a silver platter to Theodore II at Pergamon, and there pledged his obedience.

The meeting between Theodore Laskaris and Romanos Melissenos could not have brought more different people together. The former was a philosopher, who had been shaped by warfare by necessity. The latter was raised a soldier, but required to pursue higher knowledge due to the demands of the time. One was a reformist, who disdained nobility and birthright more than anyone else in the Empire. The other was a bastion of aristocracy and a paragon of virtue, everything that Theodore II wished to destroy. And yet, as irony reigned the Emperor's life, both men needed each other more than any other man living. For Romanos, the Emperor was the promise of prosperity and the full recovery of his family's estates not only in Europe, but especially in Phrygia. For Theodore, the Anatolian magnate was the key to his rule in Asia, and needed to be carefully managed and assimilated, not destroyed as many of the elder patrician families that had suffered Theodore II's harsh judgment at Constantinople. Then, as Romanos Melissenos bloodlessly returned the Despotate of Laodicea and, perhaps most importantly, the respectable remains of the Eastern Tagmata to imperial rule, he was created a *Sebastokrator* and appointed Domestic of the Eastern Schools, an office which gave him senior military jurisdiction over Anatolia at the head of the region's hierarchy. The recently risen *Domestikos tes Anatoles* rode with Theodore II to the Meander Valley and Lake Karallis, where they met the Mongols for a last time in battle at Myriokephalon and sent them screaming away, back to their barbarian lands in the Orient. By 1252, the short-lived Despotate had disintegrated, and the Scythians had been repulsed by God.

### Domestic of the East (1252–1281)

The coming years would see the House of Melissenos thrive and prosper, with the *Sebastokrator* at its top. Following Romanos' urgent counsel, the Emperor would campaign against the beys of Phrygia a few years later. Even as the age of Theodore II's great Asian conquests came to a halt with the surrender of Dorylaeum, the Melissenoi reached their apex and could reincorporate their traditional estates in the retaken province, and it was said that the Domestic's word in Phrygia had more value and weight than the Emperor's appointed governor (who often happened to be connected to the family's interests). At the city of Philadelphia, Romanos built himself a great villa and raised a column to commemorate Theodore II's many victories in Anatolia, of course placing a statuette of himself at the base of the monument. Whereas other aristocratic families suffered under the Emperor's strict regime, the Melissenoi were mostly unaffected, bound to the palace as they were.

Naturally, their influence wasn't boundless. When Romanos proved reluctant to adhere to the Emperor's new military reforms, the commoner George Makrenos was named as governor of the Thracesian theme, even as Leon Spartenos occupied the same office at Attaleia. Both were Theodore II's loyal New Men, the anti-thesis of the old aristocracy, and Romanos Melissenos had to swallow his ancestral pride to maintain his position and imperial favor. When he hesitated to dismiss the many Latin mercenaries in his pay that still composed significant part of the Eastern Tagmata, opposing the Emperor's intention to form an army that was Roman at its core, Theodore II invested a local rival as *Megas Konostaulous*, the commander of all the mercenary regiments, and thus offered firm encouragement for the implementation of his reforms. Of course, Romanos was aware that one of the main instigator of these reforms was George Mouzalon, Theodore II's chief minister and Grand Domestic (an office the Melissenos patriarch coveted for himself), and a strong rivalry soon developed between the two, vying for power and influence at court whilst the Emperor warred in Bulgaria for a decade. Mouzalon was the victor in this struggle, though as we know he would ultimately pay for it with his life.

For nearly thirty years, Romanos Melissenos faithfully and brilliantly served the Empire as the Domestic of the East. When Theodore II died, Romanos was already an old man, but he was confirmed in his titles and offices by the young Emperor John IV, a philosopher as his father had been, but with none of his martial skills and seemingly entirely controlled by George Mouzalon. Fortunately for the *Sebastokrator*, he had been awarded Skantarios Laskaris' custodianship before Theodore II's death, and the young eagle had grown close to his family. In spite of Mouzalon's contrary advice, John IV had raised Skantarios to be Co-Emperor, an arrangement that Romanos saw with favorable eyes. Soon enough, he had been betrothed to Maria Melissene, Romanos' granddaughter, and the family would finally be able to claim kinship to the purple for the first time since the days of Alexios I Komnenos. It is common knowledge that the intense rivalry between George Mouzalon and his New Men and Romanos' aristocratic faction would drive a wedge between the two brothers, with both susceptible to the quiet whispering in their ears.

When the situation became untenable for both sides and emperor John IV, under Mouzalon's influence, ordered Romanos' arrest, Melissenos intercepted the emperor's executioners themselves on the way to Philadelphia. The Byzantine historian George Pachymeres records that Romanos submitted the envoys to torture and forced them to confess to young Skantarios that John IV had sent them to arrest him instead. Faced with his alleged arrest, Skantarios traveled to Nymphaion, where he declared himself Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans, counting with the support of the Eastern army under Romanos Melissenos. They were welcomed to Constantinople by Michael Palaiologos, who had staged a palace coup inside the city and overthrown, blinded and imprisoned John IV while Skantarios and Romanos marched on the capital. Skantarios was enraged by his brother's blinding, which he had not commanded; Romanos persuaded the young emperor to spare the children of Michael Palaiologos, although the man himself was sentenced to death and executed.

### As Co-Emperor and Grand Domestic (1281–1285)

Shortly after Skantarios' installation as sole Emperor of the Romans in 1281 and his marriage to Maria Melissene, Romanos was raised to the position of Co-Emperor. Although he was a junior Emperor to Skantarios, Romanos' influence over the new regime cannot be underestimated. His eldest son, Basil Melissenos, succeeded him as Domestic of the East, although the attempt to bestow upon him the prestigious title of *Basileopater* ("the Emperor's father") was unsuccessful given the lasting legend of Theodore II. However, not even the Emperor's memory could save his imperial guard, the *Athantoi* ("Immortals") from dissolution. The former bodyguards, recruited from among the lowborn middle classes, were incorporated as a *Scholae* unit into the army and replaced at the Emperor's side by the *Archontoupoulai* ("Sons of the Princes"), a regiment composed of the aristocracy's finest sons. Tragically, it would be the *Archontoupoulai* who failed to protect Emperor Skantarios at Seleucia, and it was said that every aristocratic family in the Empire lost one of their own at the battle.

Nevertheless, the most significant changes came at court, where many of the late emperor's New Men were dismissed or otherwise demoted in the hierarchy. George Mouzalon and most of the senior ministers of the imperial government had been murdered during the Battle of Blachernae in Michael Palaiologos' coup. With his main rival dead and his court faction of New Men in complete disarray, Romanos was able to place his own men at the highest level of civil and military administration. Despite that, not even as Co-Emperor did Romanos Melissenos score his final victory against George Mouzalon, for the bureaucratic machine that the latter had built would survive the man, and not even Romanos' best efforts could dismantle the system established by Theodore II. Although he held control over the senior ministers and offices, the large Byzantine bureaucracy was still staffed with the New Men, who largely operated under the *cursus honorum* that had been established and consolidated in Theodore II's reign. Romanos had achieved his lifelong ambition and now wore purple, but it was evidently a throne that still belonged to the Laskarids.

### Crisis, compromise and accession to the throne (1285–1286)

Perhaps blessedly, age had prevented the Co-Emperor from marching with Skantarios Laskaris to his doom at Seleucia. Instead, he would remain ruling the Empire from Constantinople, ensuring the well functioning of the state as war was waged in Armenia. The news of Emperor Skantarios' death came not only as a public loss to Romanos, but also as a very personal one, for his eldest son and heir Basil Melissenos had also been slain by the Emperor's side. Fortunately, Basil's son Romanos the Younger had been able to rally the army and conquer himself a significant victory on the banks of the Saleph, but the tragedy spelled disaster for the old family patriarch all the same. The late Emperor had left no sons, and there were many whispers and doubts over the succession line, even though none dared to deny his right to become sole Emperor as Romanos V.

His seamless accession did not mean, however, that his reign was secure. The Western army looked with suspicion at the Eastern magnate who now claimed the purple as his own, one who was only distant family to Theodore II. The Byzantine bureaucracy resented the new Emperor, even as uncertainties arose from Epirus as the Serbs invaded the Empire. Meanwhile, many pressured to put an end to the war in Armenia, but Romanos V knew that he would lose the Eastern army's essential support, if he simply surrendered to the Latins who had inflicted such a great trauma upon them. "I will have peace when the patriarch is acclaimed at Antioch, and the Orontes runs red with Frankish blood," he is supposed to have said, then.

The disloyalty of both the Western army and the civilian bureaucracy could be handled carefully and patiently with time, a most precious resource to an Emperor who had just entered his seventy-fourth year of life. Concerns over his health, however, were far from the worst. Emperors had weathered foreign storms time and time again, but none of them had been able to continuously call themselves Emperor for long if the urban mobs and masses of Constantinople did not recognize their right to rule. Already, there were whispers in the forums and churches. "Where is our Emperor?" they would ask, and question why they had to prostate themselves to an Anatolian provincial who had remained behind the safety of the Theodosian Walls as Theodore II's son waged war against the Schismatic barbarians in the far reaches of the Empire. Question followed question, and they soon began asking themselves where the Great Laskarids were.

Pachymeres writes that they clamored for the "noble ladies", and some even dreamed of John IV's return from his monastic exile. Most of their concern was focused on Blachernae, however, where Theodore II's daughters hadn't been seen publicly after black velvet had covered the palace windows. The late Emperor had sired three girls; the eldest, Eirene, was a nun at Pantognostis, but her younger sisters Eudoxia and Sophia were now at Romanos V's mercy. As his rise to the purple was confirmed without word of the sisters' fates, one by one the mobs took to the streets, burning and looting wherever they went, and rioted before the Palace of Blachernae, demanding to set their eyes upon the Laskarids.

The tumult was dispersed when the Dowager Empresses Maria and Theodora came to the palace balcony, accompanied by the sisters Eudoxia and Sophia in mourning dresses, and waved at the crowds. For Romanos V it must have been a great relief, as well as for the numerous Varangians who had been honing their axes behind the palace walls, but it was plain for all to see that the Byzantines would not abandon the Great Laskarids, the offspring of Saint Theodore, to exile and insignificance. The message of the mobs had been taken in, and the next day Romanos V publicly swore his loyalty and commitment to the Laskarid dynasty, from that day until the end of times. Upon the Emperor's grandson Romanos the Younger's triumphal return to Constantinople, carrying the laurels of victory, he was married to Eudoxia Laskarina in a grand ceremony at the Church of Christ Pantognostis, raised by Theodore II to celebrate knowledge and his reign. Next, Romanos and Eudoxia progressed to the Hagia Sophia, where the former was acclaimed Co-Emperor by the People, the Senate and the Army of Rome, and thus invested by his grandfather, the Emperor Romanos V.

Even though Romanos the Lesser was the junior Emperor, Eudoxia Laskarina Melissene was likewise crowned as Empress of the Romans in that very own ceremony, breaking a millennial protocol, and invested with the title of *Augusta*, usually reserved for the most senior lady of the court. It would come as no surprise when Emperor Skantarios' widow, Maria Melissene, retired to a monastery, undoubtedly encouraged by her grandfather, who could reasonably fear that any man who married her might have posed a challenge to his rule. More surprising, however, was when Theodore II's own widow, Theodora Megali Komnena, was returned the title of *Augusta*, which had been stripped from her by Emperor Skantarios in favor of his wife upon his marriage. Thus, Romanos V honored the Laskarid women with imperial dignity and preeminence, and ensured that Theodore II's grandson would not only succeed to the purple, but would also be able to choose between the names of Melissenos and Laskaris for himself.

## Reign (1285–1292)

Following his grandson's marriage to Eudoxia Laskarina, few doubted Romanos V's legitimacy to rule. After all, he had been raised to Co-Emperor before Skantarios Laskaris' tragic death in battle, and there were no other claimants to dispute his ascension to the throne. However, legitimacy not always led to popularity. For the proud, urban and sophisticated inhabitants of Constantinople, the sight of the ancient Anatolian general wearing the Imperial *chlamys* was not an easy one, especially after having enjoyed decades of patronage under the shrewd administration of George Mouzalon. For the Empire at large, Emperor Skantarios' death had come as a shock and had served to only further the sympathies held for the Great Laskarids. In spite of his marriage relations, Romanos Melissenos was not a Laskaris, and he would suffer for it accordingly. A compromise was crafted with his grandson's union to Eudoxia Porphyrogenneta and his elevation to the status of Co-Emperor, but it could never be enough. For the Roman masses, and even the aristocracy, Romanos V walked on a fine line between legitimacy and usurpation, and his reign was conceived as an unpleasant, if necessary, time of transition. For Emperor Romanos himself, his reign was the fulfillment of an impossible lifelong ambition, and he would not let the naysayers spoil it. For nearly a decade, the Eastern magnate stubbornly clung to life, defying all expectations.

### Foreign relations

The first order of business, once his reign had been secured, was the so-called Syrian question. Emperor Skantarios had died in the Battle of Seleucia, but Romanos V's grandson Romanos the Younger had taken command of the Eastern army and pushed eastwards, occupying much of Cilicia. In this he had the support of most of the Armenian nobility, who had risen in rebellion against Bohemond II following the imprisonment of Theodora of Antioch, a Byzantine noblewoman turned his wife and an ally of the Armenian nobles whom he had arrested shortly after his return to Antioch from Ravenna. The outrage in Constantinople at Queen Theodora's imprisonment paled in comparison to the revenge fantasies entertained by the Byzantine elites following the death of emperor Skantarios, who had been the first emperor to be killed in battle since Nikephoros I in the ninth century. Therefore, Romanos V was faced with a choice at the beginning of his reign: satisfy his supporters' need for revenge and justice against the Latins, or negotiate a peace agreement that was honorable for both sides, eventually allowing for the reconstruction of trust between Antioch and Constantinople and a reforging of their natural alliance against the Mamluks.

Instead of risking mining his popularity among the common people and the Byzantine aristocracy so soon into his reign, Romanos V decided to follow the hardliners and enforce short term gains at the expense of the former Latin Empire. A diplomatic delegation headed by Nikephoros Choumnos was sent to negotiate a peace agreement at the Byzantine military port of Caesarea Maritima. The resulting Peace of Caesarea enforced harsh terms on the Latins; the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia was to have their independence recognized as a client state of Constantinople, Bohemond's imperial regalia was to be surrendered to the Byzantines, and the city of Antioch, capital of the erstwhile empire, was to be ceded and directly annexed into the empire. The favorable peace terms (Antioch had not even been under Byzantine occupation by the time of the agreement) afforded Romanos V much needed domestic popularity and legitimacy. He immediately ordered the construction of celebratory columns for the late martyred emperor Skantarios in Antioch, Seleucia and Constantinople, while sharing the spoils of the Antiochene conquest with the Eastern army.

At the same time, with the Great Latin War officially over, Romanos V set out to negotiate terms with the Venetians and the Serbians. The former had invaded Western Cyprus during the war, expelling its Catholic monarch from the throne. The Byzantine fleet, which had been using the city of Nea Constantia as a base of operations during the war, quickly took control of Eastern Cyprus. The agreement negotiated with Venice dictated that Northern Cyprus, including the cities of Nea Constantia and Leukosia, would remain under Byzantine control, whereas Southern Cyprus, including Limassol and Paphos, would become Venetian territory.

Romanos V responded to the Serbian invasion of Albania more harshly, refusing to negotiate and instead demanding immediate withdrawal from Albania, the payment of tribute and, when called upon, military service. Further pressure was placed on Serbia with the marriage of Romanos V and Lydia of Görlitz, a granddaughter of Vladislaus II of Bohemia and grand-niece of Ottokar II. Their marriage had been proposed by the Bohemians, who wished closer ties with Constantinople following their conflict with Pope Nicholas III. Romanos V accepted the match, believing that an alliance with the courts in Prague and Vienna would not only place pressure on Serbia to accept its ultimatum, but also protect the Byzantine Empire from Western retaliation to the harsh Peace of Caesarea and the dissolution of the Latin Empire. Indeed, following the marriage Stefan II of Serbia agreed to withdraw from Albania and pay a five year tribute to Constantinople, which Romanos V deemed acceptable. In spite of Romanos V's marriage to Lydia of Görlitz, rechristened as Irene, relations with the Latin West would remain frosty for the decades to come.

In matters of Anatolian policy, Romanos V abandoned the former Laskarid policy of alliance with the Emirate of Nicaea. Although he did not break the peace, neither did he come to the support of Osman when the self-proclaimed Sultan of Rum was attacked by a coalition of Mamluk and Syrian forces. Instead, Romanos V allowed the Nicaeans to spend themselves against the Mamluk-led coalition. Foreseeing a collapse of the Nicaean emirate, Romanos V ordered the construction of several border fortifications along the Anatolian frontier, in anticipation of future military campaigns into Bithynia and Central Anatolia, which never came to pass during his reign.

#### The conversion of the Ilkhans

Early in Romanos V's reign, the Byzantine court received envoys from the ruler of the Ilkhanate, Baydu Khan, who had recently converted to Eastern Christianity and desired a noble Christian Byzantine bride for himself. The conversion of Baydu Khan was met with astonishment at Constantinople. For decades, the Mongols had been existential enemies to the Byzantine Empire; that the Ilkhan had converted to Christianity and now sought an alliance with Constantinople was perceived as a near miracle, and a sign from God that He had personally blessed the reign of Romanos V and the Melissenid dynasty. Romanos V himself quickly seized the opportunity that was given to him; he had lived through the Mongol invasions and knew that an alliance with the Ilkhanate could replace the defunct alliance with Bohemond II of Syria in the containment of the Mamluk threat.

The principal term for the conversion and alliance was the marriage of Romane Melissene to Baydu Khan. Romane was one of several granddaughters of Romanos V. She was sent to the capital of the Ilkhanate alongside a delegation of one hundred Byzantine priests, scholars and theologians, intended to educate the Ilkhanate court, which had been flirting with Nestorianism, on the Orthodox creed and Byzantine customs and practices. Although the conversion would ultimately prove to be futile and the alliance non-practical in the future, at the time Romane's marriage and Baydu Khan's conversion were seen as a great victory and as the herald of a new era.

### Territorial and military reform

Following the recent conquests and the foreign vulnerability of the Byzantine Empire during the Great Latin War, Romanos V sought to reform the military administration of the empire by redrawing the border of the themes, creating new themes when necessary and securing the far-flung regions of Cilicia, Antioch and Cyprus under Byzantine control.

In the Eastern frontier, Romanos V organized Antioch and its Syrian environs as a *katepanikon*. Unlike ordinary themes, a *katepanikon* was a military province headed by a *katepano*, or Catepan. In the exercise of his office, the Catepan accumulated all civilian, military and judicial power in his hands (unlike in the ordinary themes, which saw the *protonotarios* at the head of civilian administration, the *doux* at the head of military administration, and justice carried out by judges). The purpose of reorganizing Antioch as a Catepanate was to promote a quick and forceful integration of the city and the surrounding territory into the Byzantine Empire, as well as allow for a more efficient immediate response in the case of foreign invasion. John Synadenos, an in-law, was appointed as the first Catepan of Antioch.

Meanwhile, Northern Cyprus was reorganized as a *doukaton* and granted to the high admiral Alexios Doukas Philanthropenos, one of Theodore II's chief New Men who had distinguished himself as commander of the Byzantine naval forces in the war against the Latin Empire. Unlike a theme and a catepanate, a *doukaton*, ruled by a *megas doux* (Megaduke), was granted for life and transmitted from father to son. Cyprus became only the second *doukaton* of the Byzantine Empire (the first being Chaldia, under the Komnenid dynasty). Since its inception, it served the empire as a fundamentally military province, providing men, services and resources especially for the Byzantine fleet. Its strategic importance stemmed from its privileged geographic position in the Eastern Mediterranean, guarding the sea routes to Byzantine-held Antioch and Caesarea Maritima.

At the same time, Romanos V ordered the creation of a local military command in Albania, which would eventually evolve into the Theme of Dyrrachium under his successor. The city of Dyrrachium, long vulnerable to foreign attack (having been conquered by foreign forces in 1081, 1244 and 1284 before a response could be mobilized), was fortified with double walls, a fortified harbor and the construction of a citadel to serve as the central military command and a last line of defense in case of invasion. Furthermore, from Dyrrachium Romanos V made efforts to enforce Byzantine control over the notoriously autonomous Albanian countryside, which was a hotbed for dissent and a security vulnerability in times of war in the Balkans or against the Latin West.

In terms of military doctrine, Romanos V restored the ancient practice of rotating the Domestics of the East and West every two years. Under Theodore II, this policy had been abandoned in favor of longer-serving commanders (Romanos Melissenos himself in the East, Nikephoros Karyanites and George Nestongos in the West). Having experienced first-hand the accumulation of power that such a policy had permitted, Romanos V went back to the earlier policy.

### Decline and Death

Due to his advancing age and declining health, the latter half of Romanos V's reign proved to be one of general stagnation. The aging emperor insisted on concentrating all power and administration in his person, forbidding his grandson and co-emperor Romanos VI from making important policy decisions without consulting him. Romanos V distrusted his chief ministers, often rotating them so that none could wield enough influence to challenge his ailing rule. The result of the emperor's declining health was the stagnation of his earlier reform-oriented reign, with government policy slowing down to a halt. However, the consequences of Romanos V's growing incapacity were more clearly visible beyond the borders of the Byzantine Empire, as successive foreign crises that demanded Byzantine intervention went unanswered. Traditional Byzantine allies, such as Sicily, Georgia and the Emirate of Nicaea collapsed to foreign invasion. At the same time, the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia fell into civil war and the Catholic Teutonic Order made brutal advances in Wallachia, to the north of the Danube, causing a migratory crisis in Bulgaria and becoming the most grievous security concern to the Byzantine Empire in the European frontier.

On February 18th, 1292, Romanos V Melissenos, at long last Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans, passed away in the Palace of Blachernae after a prolonged illness that had let him incapacitated in the twilight of his life. He was eighty years old. Among Roman Emperors, only Anastasius I and Justinian the Great had lived longer, although Romanos' reign had been painfully shorter. The mourning period at Constantinople was suspiciously joyful, as the emperor had never been popular, in spite of his successful reign. He was buried in the Pantognostis monastery, in a mausoleum specifically built to host himself and his dynasty, away from the Laskarid cemetery in the same monastic complex.

## Legacy

The legacy inherited by his grandson Romanos VI Melissenos was a mixed one. For all his unpopularity and inadequacy to preside over the immense civilian bureaucracy, or even the Western armies, Romanos V had ruled well. His reign had begun with the disaster at Seleucia, the high point of a long and gruesome war against former Latin allies, whose betrayal caused a great wave of anti-Western sentiment at Constantinople and the Empire at large, only made worse by Emperor Skantarios' death. The terms dictated by the new Emperor were harsh, as they needed to be. The Latins withdrew from Cilicia, where a client would be crowned as King of Armenia. All territory north of the Taurus mountains and west of Seleucia was integrated into direct imperial administration and the Cilician Gates would be occupied by Roman forces in perpetuity. At sea, the northern half of Cyprus was won back, in common accord with the Venetians, essential to the defense of Caesarea Maritima. However, his crowning glory came with the return of Antioch on the Orontes to the Empire, a feat that not even the Komnenids had been able to achieve. The restitution of Patriarch Theodosius V to the city and its complete reincorporation was a massive victory for Romanos V, one that is remembered in the reliefs upon his sarcophagus.

The war against Serbia was swiftly concluded through tribute, although its ramifications could be felt years later with the marriage between the old Emperor and the young Princess Lydia of Görlitz, re-baptized and most commonly known as Irene of Bohemia. The match promised a profitable alliance with Ottokar of Austria, also as a means of discouraging future Serbian aggression. Surprisingly, the marriage yielded a daughter, Anna, but it did little to alleviate the general distrust against Latins at Constantinople.

The later years of Romanos V's reign were spent in a wise effort of consolidation of his early conquests, with the reorganizations of the themes of Arbanon and Anatolia, as well as the establishment of the Catepanate of Antioch and the Grand Duchy of Cyprus. In particular, warily watching the rebellions in Osman's lands, Romanos V refortified the border, correctly anticipating a war that was sure to come. On the other hand, the Turkish rebellions were a symptom of the foreign questions that plagued Romanos V's rule, and tarnished his legacy, even if those were events beyond his control. The collapse of Sicily, the Teutonic crusade across the Danube, the Armenian civil war, the Jochid incursions and the Venetian adventures - all were signs of intolerable Roman weakness, and the ancient Emperor could muster only little response.

In modern times, evaluation of Romanos V's reign has been mostly positive. He is praised for taking control of the Byzantine Empire in a time of crisis following the Battle of Seleucia. The peaceful transition into his reign stabilized the empire and allowed the Byzantines to consolidate the new conquests with Romanos V's military reforms. At the same time, however, his critics have pointed out the role he played in the downfall of John IV Laskaris and the setback to the rationalization of the Byzantine bureaucracy that his fall had represented. Although Theodore II's *cursus honorum* would hold for the lower and middle bureaucracy, Romanos V restored the practice of political appointments to the most senior offices of the imperial administration. Moreover, the unnecessarily harsh Peace of Caesarea would directly lead to the collapse of the Crusader States in 1295, which can be regarded as a Byzantine strategic defeat given the loss of the Western alliance and of the important Crusader buffer state between the empire and the Mamluks.

## Family

Romanos V married firstly Sophia Synadena, a daughter of an important Anatolian family of the military aristocracy. They had five children:

1. Basil, who succeeded his father as Domestic of the East. He married Theochariste Petraliphaina and was the father of Romanos VI Melissenos. He died prematurely in the Battle of Seleucia.
2. Eudokia, who married the Anatolian general Constantine Maleinos.
3. Glykeria, who married Nikephoros Karyanites, a general of Theodore II's inner circle and Domestic of the West.
4. John, father of St. Romane of the Parthians.
5. Theodotos, who had a church career and was Metropolitan Bishop of Philadelphia.

Romanos V married secondly to Lydia of Görlitz, a great-niece of Ottokar II, who was re-baptized as Irene of Bohemia. They had one daughter:

1. Anna Melissene Porphyrogenneta, who married the Grand Prince of Rascia.