Plate I — Romanos IV Diogenes (11th Century)

Romanos IV Diogenes ruled during a period of mounting frontier pressure and internal political strain. His reign unfolded within an empire that remained institutionally coherent, yet increasingly tested along its eastern marches.

Romanos IV became emperor in 1068, inheriting a state whose military and administrative structures were still formally intact. His reign is frequently remembered through the events that followed it, yet he governed within the continuing framework of Roman imperial authority shaped by centuries of institutional continuity.

This reconstruction draws upon surviving eleventh-century representations of the emperor, including manuscript imagery preserved in the Codex Mutinensis graecus and numismatic depictions from his reign, alongside the contemporary account of Michael Attaleiates, who described him as surpassing others in his qualities and as pleasing in appearance. Medieval imperial portraiture was highly formalised and symbolic rather than naturalistic. This plate therefore synthesises textual description, material culture, and court convention to present a historically grounded visualisation of the emperor within the aesthetic language of his time.

Romanos IV is depicted here within the ceremonial and political framework of the Roman court, reflecting the hieratic conventions and material culture appropriate to the eleventh century.

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