Romanus II of Byzantium (938-15 March 963) was the Emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 959 to 963, succeeding Constantine VII of Byzantium and preceding Nicephorus II of Byzantium.
Biography[]
Romanus was born in 938 to the House of Makedon, a dynasty of Orthodox Christian Greeks. He succeeded his father Emperor Constantine VII of Byzantium as Emperor of the Byzantine Empire in 959, and he was known as a pleasure-lover, having excesses of women and wine. He left military matters in the capable hands of his brothers Leo and the future Nicephorus II of Byzantium, who seized Crete and Syria for Romanus by 962. He died in 963 while returning from a hunting trip due to illness acquired from alcoholism and his sexual life, and he was succeeded by Nicephorus II of Byzantium.