A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

ROMANUJS. ROMANUS. t6155
of the Greeks. (Plut. Romnul. 1; Tzetz. ad Ly- his ship and made sail for Constantinople, he was
coph. 921.) accused of treachery by Leo Phocas. It must,
3. A daughter of Italus and Lucania, or a however, be understood that both the accused and
daughter of Telephus. In some traditions she was the accuser aimed at supreme power, and Romanus
said to have been the wife of Aeneas or Ascanius, left the theatre of the war, probably for the purand to have given her name to the city of Rome. pose of being within reach of the throne, as well
(Plut. Romul. 2.) [L. S.] as of the man who wanted to place himself thereon.
ROMA'NUS, a friend of the younger Pliny, A civil war was on the point of breaking out,
to whom several of his letters are addressed (Ep. when Romanus, patronised and perhaps loved by
iv. 29, vi. 15, 33, viii. 8, ix. 7). Pliny had two the dowager empress, seized upon the chamberlain
friends of this name, Romancus Firmnus and FToco- Constantine, one of the most influential adherents of
nius Romanus, and it is probable that some of the Phocas, who avenged the captivity of his friend by
above letters are addressed to one of these persons, taking up arms. Romanus, who had been appointed
but it is impossible to say to which. Magnus Hetaeriarcha, or commander in chief of the
ROMA'NUS, FIRMUS, a friend and muni- foreign body-guard of the emperor, worsted Phocas,
ceps of the younger Pliny, with whom the latter and in reward was made Caesar in September,
had been brought up, and to whom he addresses and crowned as Augustus and emperor on the
one of his letters, in which he offers to give him a 17th December, 919. He had previously given
sufficient sum of money to raise him to the eques- his daughter Helena in marriage to the young emtrian rank. (Ep. i. 19.) peror Constantine, and shortly after his accession
ROMA'NUS, FA'BIUS, one of the friends of he conferred the rank of Augustus and Augusta
the poet Lucan, accused Mela, the father of the upon his son Christopher and his wife Theodora.
poet, after the death of the latter, because Nero Romanus was now the legitimate colleague of
was anxious to obtain his property. (Tac. A2n. Constantine VII., over whom he exercised such
xvi. 17.) authority as to cause mainy plots against his life,
ROMA'NUS HISPO, a Roman rhetorician, and sometimes open rebellions, which he succeeded
who earned an infamous character by undertaking in quelling.
prosecutions to please the early emperors. He is The following are the principal events of his
first mentioned at the commencement of the reign reign. The great schism of the church, which had
of Tiberius, when he supported the accusation of lasted ever since the deposition of the patriarch
Caepio Crispinus against Granius Marcellus. In Euthymius and the famous fourth wedlock of the
A. D. 62, he accused Seneca as one of the associates emperor Leo VI., was at last healed, in 920,
of C. Piso, but the accusation was retorted upon through the intervention of Pope JohnX.; and by
him by Seneca (Tac. Ann. i. 74, xvi. 17). Ro- an edict of Constantine VII. of the same year, a
manus Hispo constantly occurs as one of the fourth marriage was declared anti-canonical, and
declaimers in the Controversiae of the elder made punishable. In 921 another of those interSeneca. mninable wars with the Bulgarians, or perhaps only
ROMA'NUS, JU'LIUS, a Roman poet, whose a fresh and formidable invasion, drew the attention
name is prefixed to an epigram on Petronius Ar- of Romanus towards the Danube, but the Bulbiter in the Latin Anthology (ii. 235, ed. Bur- garians saved him the trouble of going so far away
mann, No. 1544, ed. Meyer). This Julius, how- from Constantinople by advancing thither with all
ever, as Niebuhr points out (Kleine Schriften, their force, and ravaging the country. This war
p. 347), is not an ancient writer, but Julius Sa- became still.more formidable when Simeon, the
binus, otherwise called Julius Pomponius Laetus, king of the Bulgarians concluded, in 923, an alwho died in the year 1497. (Comp. Meyer, Annot. liance with the Arabs. But we purposely refrain
ad Anthol. Lat. vol. ii. p. 122.) from giving the details of these barbarous wars,
ROMA'NUS, VOCO'NIUS, a fellow-student presenting little more than an uninterrupted series
and an intimate friend of the younger Pliny, was of bloodshed and devastations without profit to
the son of an illustrious Roman eques, and his either party. A remarkable interview between
mother belonged to one of the most distinguished Romlanus and Simeon, which took place in 926,
families in Nearer Spain (Plin. Ep. ii. 13). If under the walls of Constantinople, put a temporary
we may trust the testimony of his friend, Voco- end to these troubles. In the previous year the
nius was a distinguished orator, and possessed patrician John Radinus worsted and destroyed the
great skill in composition. Several of Pliny's let- fleet of the famous pirate chief Leo, of Tripolis,
ters are addressed to him. (Ep. i. 5, ii. 1, ix. who had sacked Thessalonica twenty-two years pre28.) viously. In 927 King Simeon died, after having
ROMA'NUS I., LECAPE'NUS ('Pwjaav3s o ruined Bulgaria through his very victories, and was
AacKai7rrvos), Byzantine emperor from A. D. 919 succeeded by his son Peter, who was less warlike,
-944, was the son of Theophylactus Abastactus, though not less courageous than his father; for he
a brave warrior, who had once saved the life of entered the Byzantine territory at the head of a
the emperor Basil. Romanus served in the im- strong army, proposing to the emperor to choose
perial fleet, distinguished himself on many occa- between war and peace, on condition of his giving
sions, and enjoyed the esteem of his fellow-soldiers him his grand-daughter in marriage, a proposition
on account of his rare bravery. One of his men which Romanus the more eagerly accepted, as he
having been attacked by a lion, Romanus, who wanted all his forces to check the progress of the
was near, rushed to his assistance and killed the Arabs. His possessions in Italy also required promonster in single combat. When the young tection against the petty Lombard princes. In 901
Constantine VII. Porphyrogenitus, ascended the Christopher died, the eldest son of Romanus and hus.
throne, Romanus was high admiral, and com- band of Sophia, the daughter of Nicetas magister
manded the fleet on the Danube in the war with palatii, who a short time previously had been sent
flue Bulgarians, but as he suddenly withdrew with I into a convent for a conspiracy against the emperor.