ABSTRACT
Romanos IV Diogenes was a member of the Byzantine military aristocracy. Byzantine historians establish a direct causal link between Romanos Diogenes' marriage to Empress Eudokia and his accession to the imperial throne on 1 January 1068 and the precarious situation in the East caused by the Turkish raids. Unlike Michael Psellos, who totally rejects the emperor's military endeavors as being ill-prepared and condemned to failure, Michael Attaleiates, despite his critical stance towards Romanos' election, expresses a positive view of his attempts to reorganize the armed forces. Thanks to Attaleiates' detailed report, which can be complemented with additional evidence from Muslim and Eastern Christian sources, the strategy and itinerary of the imperial army during Romanos IV's campaigns can be accurately re-constructed. Sultan Alp Arslan's Syrian campaign of 1070-71, no doubt, brought about profound changes in the political allegiances along the Byzantine-Muslim frontier.
