Empress Zoe
Zoe Porphyrogenneta was a daughter of Constantine VIII and granddaughter of Romanos II, the last empress of the Macedonian dynasty to wield real power, however indirectly, over the Byzantine state. She was kept unmarried until her father's death, when the court scrambled to find her a husband who could provide male rule while she supplied Macedonian legitimacy. She married three times - Romanos III Argyros, Michael IV, and Constantine IX Monomachos - and co-ruled with her sister Theodora briefly in 1042 after the fall of Michael V. Zoe herself seems to have been more interested in her laboratories, where she reportedly distilled perfumes and cosmetics with genuine passion, than in governance, yet her figure was politically indispensable. The uprising against Michael V in 1042, which the crowd launched specifically to avenge her exile, showed how powerfully the Macedonian bloodline still commanded popular loyalty. Michael Psellos, who knew her personally, left a memorable portrait of a woman who was vain, generous, emotionally volatile, and devoid of political ambition. She died in 1050.
- Lived: 978 CE – 1050 CE
- Nationality: byzantine
- Roles: empress, head_of_state
