There were certain factors that made her influence with them all-powerful: the fact that she had been born in the purple; her gentle character; the sad circumstances of her former life. The emperor was seriously perturbed by this news and he became more ill than ever, but as a restoration to normal health and the making of any sensible plan were equally out of the question now, he plunged once more into deep meditation. His eyes closed; his mind and tongue wandered. He did rally for a brief interval, enough to realize the seriousness of his condition. Then he died, cursing his fate.
203. So passed the emperor Constantine Monomachus, after a reign of twelve years.**153 In public life, he had, for the most part, covered himself with glory; in his private habits too, he had set a fine example to those who cultivate the good life. I say this, because apart from his quick temper, he was in other respects the mildest of men. His history appears to be somewhat inconsistent, on account of his moodiness: the changes in himself and the various phases of his character are reflected in my record of his reign. It is a true record, not a rhetorical exercise — a sympathetic picture of the emperor as he really was.
The Reign of The Empress Theodora
1. When he died, supreme power passed into the hands of Theodora, the daughter of Constantine (VIII). Everybody expected that she would entrust the actual government to one of the leading noblemen, but contrary to all opinion and belief, she took on her own shoulders the duties of Roman sovereign. The truth is, she knew that there is no man on earth so ungrateful as one who finds himself emperor through the generosity of someone else: his greatest benefactor, indeed, is the last person to whom he shows his indebtedness.
She had good reason to believe this, not only from her own experience but from that of her immediate predecessor, and she had before her examples of it in the case of her sister. She had no desire, therefore, to establish anyone else on the throne. The Empire was her inheritance and hers alone, and she herself superintended all the affairs of state. She was supported in this resolution by her retinue and palace officials, men who from long experience understood imperial policy and knew how the administration of the Empire functioned.**154
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