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Romanos IV (Latinized as Romanus IV) was Byzantine Emperor from 1068 to 1091. His reign (and primary role in TTL) saw the repelling of the Seljuk Turks from Byzantine territory and the defeat of the Normans in the east.

His role in TTL[]

The premise of this timeline is based on the famous 1071 Battle of Manzikert, and what would occur had there been a Byzantine triumph. In TTL, Emperor Romanos IV continues to pursue the Seljuk sultan, Alp Arslan, instead of halting the Byzantine advance. Alp Arslan flees, but his flight is a costly endeavor: almost all of his army was either taken captive or put to death.

Romanos IV pursues Alp Arslan, defeating him at the battles of Ablat and Ani, decisively breaking his forces and forcing him to sue for peace, ceding Transcaucasia and Ardabil. This secured the defense of the eastern part of the empire and effectively prohibited Seljuk expansion westwards. This made Romanos IV a widely popular emperor by the populace and the nobility.

Andronikos Doukas, who's family exhibited deep resentment and disdain towards the emperor due to Romanos IV effectively ousting the Doukas when he married Eudokia, fled the battle (like in OTL), announcing that the Emperor was deceased and proclaiming a state of rebellion between the Doukas Family and Romanos IV. However, while Romanos was signing the treaty with the Seljuks, the Doukas revolt began to fracture over who would be crowned emperor. By the time Romanos IV had departed from Persia, the Doukid family was already tearing itself apart, and the rebel cause was rapidly collapsing. In the end, Michael Doukas was victorious but had exhausted his armies so much that when Romanos IV faced him at the Battle of Adrianople, his forces didn't put up much of a fight.

With his position as emperor secured and with the Seljuks defeated, Romanos IV proceeded to look to the west. The Normans had not been idle during this period of history, having seizing the Byzantine holdings in southern Italy. Under the command of the formidable and skilled Robert Guiscard and his son, Bohemond of Taranto, the Normans invaded Illyria, capturing the city of Dyrrachium (Durrës) and Corfu and laying siege to Larissa in 1181. Romanos IV proceeded to engage the Normans in a pitched battle, and did so at the Battle of Volos, repelling the Normans and forcing them to fall back to Lassira, which was captured in November. The Normans fled to Vlacha, seeking a defensible position on Mount Koziakas. The two met at the Battle of Kozikas, where, in the biting winter, the Byzantines achieved a costly victory over the Normans.

Soon afterward, the Normans and Byzantines convened to establish peace. The treaty saw Norman territorial concessions to the Byzantines, namely Sicily, Cosenza, and Lecce. These areas would serve as a launchpad for future Byzantine incursions into Italy (though Lecce would be lost in a minor war in 1091).

After the war's conclusion in 1182, Romanos IV spent the rest of his reign consolidating his new territories and waging wars with Paulician and Boogolimist heretics in Thrace, in addition to the Pechenegs. Paulician and Boogolimist zealots rose up in Thrace, causing Romanos to spend the last six years of his last campaigning in Thrace. The disturbances in Thrace allowed the Pechenegs to periodically raid deep into Byzantine territory, finding a common cause with the heretics. The combined heretical-Pecheng forces defeated Romanos at the Battle of Burgas in 1089. Soon after this major setback, Romanos contracted Pneumonia. Due to this infection, he was unable to lead his troops and spent most of his last years as emperor commanding from a chariot.

On October 9, 1091, Nikephoros III received frantic and concerning reports stating that Romanos IV was not responsive, nor breathing. He had been encamped near Sofia after a battle with the Pechenegs, so there were worries that he had been wounded during the battle. No wounds were detected, however, but regardless, the emperor passed away that same day. Nikephoros III was declared emperor, and he would more or less continue the work his father had begun.


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