Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus

Constantine VII, called Porphyrogenitus, who lived from 17 May 905 to 9 November 959, was a Byzantine emperor of the Macedonian dynasty who reigned from 913 to 959, the son of Emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife, Zoe Karbonopsina, and the nephew of his predecessor Alexander. His epithet Porphyrogenitus refers to his birth in the Purple Chamber of the imperial palace, where legitimate children of reigning emperors were traditionally born, a title that emphasized his legitimacy since his mother had not yet married Leo VI at the time of his birth. His full reign ran from 6 June 913 to 9 November 959, though he became sole emperor only from 27 January 945, at age thirty nine, after regency periods first under his mother, to 919, then under Romanos I Lekapenos, from 920 to 944, and his sons; he had been crowned as a two year old on 15 May 908. He earned recognition as an intellectual, commissioning or authoring works including the Geoponika, an agricultural treatise, De Administrando Imperio and De Ceremoniis, texts valuable for understanding Byzantine governance and its neighbors. He married Helena Lekapene, and their children included his successor Romanos II.