OF THE ROMAIS^ EMPIRE 219 and, at the end of four days, she placed the crown on the head of Michael the Fifth, who had protested, with tears and o.iths, Mkhaeiv. that he should ever reign the first and most obedient of lier A.-D^imT' subjects. The only act of his short reign was his base ingrati- tude to his benefactors, the eunuch and the empress. The dis- grace of the former was })1 easing to tiie public ; but the murmurs, and at length the clamours, of Constantinople deplored the exile of Zoe, the daughter of so many emperors ; her vices were forgotten, and Michael was taught that there is a period in [a.d. 1042, which the patience of the tamest slaves rises into fury and revenge. The citizens of every degree assembled in a formidable tumult, which lasted three days ; they besieged the palace, forced the gates, recalled their Dtothcrs, Zoe from her prison, zoe and TUeo- Theodora from her monastery, jind condemned the son of Cala- i^%^ii*2i phates to the loss of his eyes or of his life. For the first time, the Greeks beheld with surprise the two royal sisters seated on the same throne, presiding in the senate, and giving audience to the ambassadors of the nations. But this singular union subsisted no more than two months ; the two sovereigns, their tempers, interests, and adherents, were secretly hostile to each otiier ; and, as Theodora was still adverse to marriage, the indefatigable Zoe, at the age of sixty, consented, for the public good, to sustain the embraces of a third husband, and the censures of the Greek church.- His name and number were Constantine oonstantiue the Tenth, and the epithet of Monomachits, the single combatant, mM^fii.]. must have been expressive of his valour and victory in somet^eii^' public or private quarrel." But his health was broken by the toi'tures of the gout, and his dissolute reign was spent in the alternative of sickness and pleasure. A fair and noble widow had accompanied Constantine in his exile to the isle of I^esbos, and Sclerena gloried in the appellation of his mistress. After his marriage and elevation, she was invested with the title and pomp of Augusta, and occupied a contiguous apartment in the palace. The lawful consort (such was the delicacy or corruption •-[Much new material for the scandals and intrigues of the court under the regimes of Zoe and Theodora, and the empeiors who were elevated through them, has been revealed in the contemporary History of Psellus (Sathas, Bibl. Gv. Med. Aev. , iv. ; see Appendix i). See Bury, Roman Emperors from Basil II. to Isaac Komnenos, in Eng. Hist. Rev. 4, p. 41 siji/., and 251 sqq. (1889). The chief events of the reign of Constantine IX. were the revolt of Leon Tornikios (which is the subject of a special monograph by R. Schtitte, 1896), an invasion of the Patzinaks, the final schism of the Greek and Latin Churches (see below, chap. l..), and the incorporation of Armenia in the Empire. For the foundation of a school of jurisprudence see Appendix 11.] 83[Monomachus was a surname of the family ; it had no personal application to Constantine. See Psellus, Hist., p. no, ed. Sathas.]
