ROMANUS III., Argyrrus, Emperor of the East, was living in 1028 an unambitious and married life, when a strange fortune called him to the throne. One day in the midst of his conjugal felicity a mandate came to him from the dying Constantine VIII., commanding him to repair to the palace, in order that he might be made the husband of the princess Zoë, and the successor of the emperor. He refused to leave his present spouse; but the alternative of losing his eyes was held up to him. He then preferred to suffer that penalty; but his self-sacrificing wife prevailed upon him not to forego his own welfare for her sake. The crown thus forced upon Romanus was the cause of nothing but evil. A repulse which the Arabs gave him in Syria produced a discontent among his subjects. The repeated successes of his generals against the same foe increased his unpopularity. Taking advantage of the public feeling, his faithless wife formed a conspiracy against him. At length, in 1034, she poisoned him, and gave her hand and the empire to her paramour Michael the Paphlagonian.