Rise To Power
Becoming increasingly influential at court, Romanos exiled his rivals and strengthened his links with the underage Emperor Constantine VII. In May 919 he married his daughter Helena Lekapene to Constantine and was proclaimed basileopator ("father of the emperor"). On September 14, 920, Romanos was invested as kaisar (Caesar), and finally on December 17 of the same year he was crowned co-emperor, becoming the effective head of the Byzantine Empire.
In subsequent years Romanos crowned his own sons co-emperors, Christopher in 921, Stephen and Constantine in 924, although, for the time being, Constantine VII was regarded as first in rank after Romanos himself. It is notable that, as he left Constantine untouched, he was called 'the gentle usurper'. Romanos strengthened his position by marrying his daughters to members of the powerful aristocratic families of Argyros and Mouseles, by recalling the deposed patriarch Nicholas Mystikos, and by putting an end to the conflict with the Papacy over the four marriages of Emperor Leo VI.
Read more about this topic: Romanos I Lekapenos
Famous quotes containing the words rise to, rise and/or power:
“How will it be with kingdoms and with kings—
With those who shaped him to the thing he is—
When this dumb Terror shall rise to judge the world,
After the silence of the centuries?”
—Edwin Markham (1852–1940)
“The fact is that love is of two kinds—one which commands, and one which obeys. The two are quite distinct, and the passion to which the one gives rise is not the passion of the other.”
—Honoré De Balzac (1799–1850)
“We have imagined ourselves a special creation, set apart from other humans. In the last twentieth century, we see that our poverty is as absolute as that of the poorest nations. We have attempted to deny the human condition in our quest for power after power. It would be well for us to rejoin the human race, to accept our essential poverty as a gift, and to share our material wealth with those in need.”
—Robert Neelly Bellah (20th century)