ROMANUS IV., Diogenes, Emperor of the East, was raised to the purple in 1067 by a very romantic incident. He had been sentenced to death for treason against the Empress Eudoxia. On the eve of his execution that princess ordered him to be brought into her presence. The manly beauty of the ill-fated felon immediately won her heart. His sentence was repealed; and in a few days afterwards he found himself the husband of the empress. Romanus wore the crown worthily. Taking the field soon after his coronation, he boldly attacked the Turks, who, under the able Sultan Alp-Arslan, had encroached as far westward as Phrygia. His movements became rapid, precise, and energetic. The scattered hordes of the enemy felt themselves checked and driven back at every point. Defeat was followed by defeat, until, at the end of the third campaign, they were swept beyond the River Euphrates.
Rombouts The fourth campaign, however, in 1071, was ruinous to Romanus. His plans were disconcerted at the outset by the dexterous manoeuvres of Alp-Arslan. He was forced to fight at a disadvantage on the banks of the Araxes. There, after struggling during a long autumn day, his troops were completely cut to pieces. He himself, fighting like a lion among the slain bodies of his attendants, was overpowered by numbers, and taken prisoner. It is true that his brave foe treated him generously, and released him under certain conditions. But on returning to his dominions he found that his subjects had rebelled. In vain did he employ force to regain his crown. He was twice defeated, was compelled to surrender, and was at last put to death with most diabolical cruelty. (See Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.)