Hello everyone and welcome to the history of Byzantium. Episode 184. Act 2. Begin.

Last time we were all together, Michael IV had put down a Bulgarian uprising and failed

in his attempt to capture Sicily, imprisoning his most fearsome general, George Maniakis,

in the process. For those of you who haven't got round to buying

Episode 183 yet, you missed the death of Michael IV from natural causes, the swift fall of his

nephew Michael V and the return of Maniakis to Italy. The younger Michael had tried to remove Zoe

from the picture, and the people of Constantinople did not stand for it. They besieged the palace

over through the Paflegonian regime and not only reinstalled Zoe, but insisted that her sister

Theodora rule with her. This brought to an end what I'm calling Act 1 of our century of narrative.

What we've dealt with so far are largely problems left over from Basel II's reign.

The expanded and uncertain borders and the absence of a capable successor. Act 2 sees the

Empire's problems deep and white. Today we will meet Constantine IX, who will rule for the next

13 years, seemingly providing us with a bit of stability at the top. But the rise of our sixth

new regime in 17 years will actually encourage more instability. More coups and civil wars are on the

way. Meanwhile the Empire will encounter new enemies, Normans, Petschnegs and Turks, who didn't play

by established rules. As I said though, the fall of the Paflegonians had left two women in charge

of the Empire with no male counterpart. A unique situation in the history of the Roman world.

This unprecedented state of affairs lasted for about three months before Zoe would marry again,

both women agreeing that a man was needed to handle the business of government.

It sort of feels like a missed opportunity, a chance for two women to make positive changes to

Roman life. But according to Selos, neither woman had any inclination towards administration.

Both had been kept away from power throughout their youth, and this doesn't seem to have stoked

...