8. Of MACREMBOLIS, wife of the emperors Constantine XI. (Ducas)
and Romanus IV. (Diogenes). She was married to Constantine while he was yet in a private
station, and bore him two sons, Michael and Andronicus, before his accession in A. D. 1059, and one son, Constantine. born afterwards; they had also two
daughters, Theodora and Zoe. On the accession of Constantine she received the title of Augusta
and on his death, A. D. 1067, he bequeathed the empire to her and to
their three sons, Michael VII. (Parapinaces), Andronicus I., and Constantine XII.
(Porphyrogenitus). He bound Eudocia by an oath not to marry again. Eudocia had in fact the
management of the government, the children being all young. Perceiving that the protection of
the eastern frontier, which was threatened with invasion, required a stronger hand, she
married Romanus IV. (Diogenes). Romanus, who was eminent for his fine figure, strength, and
warlike qualities, had, on the death of Constantine XI., prepared to seize the throne, but was
prevented by Eudocia, who threw him into prison, and exiled him; but, either for reasons of
state, or from affection, soon recalled him, and raised him to the command of the army. Her
oath not to marry had been given in writing, and committed to the custody of the patriarch of
Constantinople; but by a trick she recovered it, and, within eight months after her husband's
death (A. D. 1068), married Romanus, and raised him to be colleague
in the empire with herself and her sons. She had hoped to govern him, but was disappointed,
and his assertion of his own will led to quarrels between them. During the captivity of
Ronmanus, Joannes or John Ducas, brother of the late Constantine, who had been invested with
the dignity of Caesar, declared Michael Parapinaces sole emperor, and banished Eudocia to a
convent which she had herself built on the shore of the Propontis. On the death of Diogenes,
who on his release had fallen into the hands of Andronicus, the eldest son of Joannes Ducas,
and died from the cruel usage he received, A. D. 1071 [ROMANUS IV. (DIOGENES)], Eudocia buried her
unhappy husband with great splendour. She appears to have long survived this event. (Zonaras,
Annales, vol. iii. pp. 218-226, ed. Basil, 1557; Michael Glycas, Annales, pars iv. p. 606, &c., ed. Bonn.)
Works
Dictionary of History and Mythology
Eudocia compiled a dictionary of history and mythology, which she called Ἰωνιά, i. e.
Collection or bed of Violets. It
was printed for the first time by Villoison, in his Anecdota
Graeca, 2 vols. 4to. Venice, 1781. It is prefaced by an address to her husband
Romanus Diogenes, in which she describes the work as " a collection of genealogies of gods,
heroes, and heroines, of their metamorphoses, and of the fables and stories respecting them
found in the ancients; containing also notices of various philosophers." The sources from
which the work was compiled are in a great degree the same as those used in the
Lexicon of Suidas. The sources are examined and described by Meineke in his Observationes in Eudociae Violetum, in the fifth and sixth volumes of
the Bibliothek der allen Litteratur und Kunst, Göttingen, 1789.