Byzantine emperor, coemperor with his brother Basil II from c. 962 to 1025 and sole ruler from 1025 to 1028. He was a pleasure-loving man who allowed the administration to fall into the hands of others. He had no male heir, and on his deathbed he arranged that his second daughter, Zoe, should succeed him and marry the eparch of Constantinople, Romanus III Argyrus.