Zoe

   Empress (q.v.) from 1028 to her death in 1050; co-ruler in 1042 with her younger sister Theodora (q.v.). She was intimately connected with the succession of five emperors (q.v.) during the final decades of the Macedonian dynasty (q.v.). Her father Constantine VIII (q.v.) had no sons, and on his death bed in 1028 arranged for her to marry the eparch of Constantinople (qq.v.), who became Romanos III (q.v.). She plotted with her lover Michael (IV) Paphlagon (q.v.) the assassination of Romanos III in 1034, but when Michael IV took power he had Zoe put away in a monastery. However, before Michael IV was himself forced to retire in 1041, John the Orphanotrophos (q.v.) was able to persuade Zoe to adopt Michael V (q.v.). After Michael V's death she reigned with her sister Theodora in 1042, and then chose Constantine IX (q.v.) as her third imperial husband. Zoe did not outlive him, dying in 1050. The literary portrait of her in the Chronographia of Michael Psellos (q.v.) is unforgettable.