Romanos boilas

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Romanos Boilas ( Middle Greek Ρωμανὸς Βὀΐλας ; † after 1052) was a Byzantine aristocrat who, in 1051 or 1052, a conspiracy against Emperor Constantine IX. cited.

Life

Romanos Boilas was a member of the respected Boilas family , whose members held high offices in civil and military administration during the Middle Byzantine period . Under Constantine IX. he rose in 1049 - surprisingly quickly for his contemporaries - to senator and commander of the Great Hetaireia (palace guard). The chroniclers convey a contradicting picture of how Romanos so suddenly won the favor of the emperor: while Psellos and Zonaras reduce the courtier's character to a speech-impaired buffoon and hypocritical slobber, Skylitzes portrays him as a thoroughly shrewd and capable, albeit cunning, personality.

In 1051 (or 1052) Romanos Boilas played a central role in a conspiracy against Constantine IX, in which several other senators and the bodyguards were also involved. He allegedly tried to persuade an “Alan” ( Georgian ?) Mistress of the emperor to murder the emperor through violent expressions of love . However, his usurpation intention was betrayed by the co-conspirators. Romanos was arrested and, at the instigation of Empress Theodora and her sister-in-law Euprepia, banished to one of the Prince's Islands . Constantine IX However, ten days later he called his confidante back to the court in Constantinople .

The following year, Romanos Boilas was suspected of having written and circulated a slanderous diatribe on the emperor, but Constantine IX. this time also show mercy against his favorite. His further fate is unknown.

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literature

  • Jean-Claude Cheynet: Pouvoir et contestations à Byzance (963-1210) (= Publications de la Sorbonne. Series Byzantina Sorbonensia. Vol. 9). Reimpression. Publications de la Sorbonne Center de Recherches d'Histoire et de Civilization Byzantines, Paris 1996, ISBN 2-85944-168-5 , pp. 62–63, No. 69.
  • Lynda Garland: Byzantine Empresses. Women and Power in Byzantium, AD 527-1204. Routledge, London / New York NY 1999, ISBN 0-415-14688-7 , p. 165.
  • Lynda Garland: Imperial Women and Entertainment at the Middle Byzantine Court. In: Lynda Garland (Ed.): Byzantine Women: Varieties of Experience 800–1200 (= Publications of the Center for Hellenic Studies, King's College London. Vol. 8 ). Ashgate, Aldershot 2006, ISBN 0-7546-5737-X , pp. 177-192, here: pp. 182-183.
  • Alexios GC Savvides: Romanus Boilas: Court Jester and Throne Counterclaimant in the mid-Eleventh Century. In: Byzantinoslavica. Vol. 56, 1995, ISSN  0007-7712 , pp. 159-164.
  • Alexios G. Savvides, Benjamin Hendrickx (Eds.): Encyclopaedic Prosopographical Lexicon of Byzantine History and Civilization . Vol. 2: Baanes-Eznik of Kolb . Brepols Publishers, Turnhout 2008, ISBN 978-2-503-52377-4 , p. 128.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Romanos boilas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ρωμανὸς Βὀΐλας (Middle Greek)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Byzantine aristocrat and conspirator against Emperor Constantine IX.
DATE OF BIRTH 10th century or 11th century
DATE OF DEATH after 1052