Konstantinos IX offered further promotions, donations & promises of improvement

Summary:
On becoming emperor he distributed honours to all the senators and gold to the people, sent messages to all the themes announcing his accession and promising to ensure that good prevailed over all evil. In fact he gave so many and such generous gifts and promotions as to undermine the Roman system, which was based on dignities and money. But at the time there was a sense of renewal, that a quite new kind of emperor had taken over who would shed light everywhere instead of darkness 
Dates:
1042 
Emperor Konstantinos IX Monomachos (Konstantinos 9)
  • Attracted the goodwill of his subjects by offering to almost all imperial offices and grants (:) καὶ πάντας σχεδὸν βασιλικοῖς ἀξιώμασι καὶ δωρήμασι φιλοτίμοις ἀποσεμνύνας Attaleiates: History 18.11-13 / 15.6-8
  • Sent Stephanos 103, the son of Konstantinos 13 Leichoudias, to govern Media-Vaspurakan (:) Skylitzes 446.80-81
  • Crowned by the patriarch (Alexios 11) and having assumed power, he distributed honours to all the senators and gold to the people, sent messages to all the themes announcing his accession and promising to ensure that good prevails over all evil (:) πάντας μὲν τοὺς συγκλητικοὺς βαθμοῖς ἀξιωμάτων κατὰ τὴν ἑκάστου προεβίβασεν ἀξίαν Skylitzes 423.48-54
  • At once conducted neither the honours of dignities nor the distribution of monies with reason or any prudent management (:) Zonaras 17.21.2
  • Both provided honours indiscriminately and granted them to those for whom it was not appropriate, and he reckoned it no matter at all if it came about that the imperial treasures were drained there and then (:) Zonaras 17.21.2
  • Dismissed the charges against all those who had clashed with him when he was a commoner and showed wrath not even to one of them (:) Zonaras 17.21.3
  • On gaining power he governed with neither vigour nor prudence: imagining beforehand a new and unusual prosperity and a sudden transformation of affairs with no order or reason, when he became emperor he at once tried to realize his dreams (:) ἔργῳ τὰς ἀναπλάσεις ποιεῖν εὐθὺς ἐπεχείρησε Psellos: Chronographia VI 29.1-6
  • Although two things, dignities and money, preserve Roman power, together with prudent care of them and reason in their distribution he turned to draining the treasuries at once of money, so as to leave nothing at the bottom (:) τοὺς μὲν τῶν χρημάτων θησαυροὺς αὐτόθεν ἐκχεῖν ἐπιβέβλητο, ὡς μηδὲ τοῖς πυθμέσι καταλιπεῖν τι Psellos: Chronographia VI 29.6-12
  • Affairs did not follow his plan, but waves surged one upon another: civil wars disrupted the realm, barbarian incursions ravaged most of our territory; seizing useful things and all the booty they wanted, they returned to their own lands (:) .. οὐδ᾿ ἐκείνῳ κατὰ σκοπὸν συμβεβήκει τὰ πεπραγμένα, ἀλλ᾿ ἐπ᾿ ἄλλοις ἄλλα διεκυμάνθησαν Psellos: Chronographia VI 72.10-15
  • A great many people at once enjoyed honours indiscriminately, especially those who vulgarly pestered Konstantinos 9 and those who by letting drop apposite remarks stirred him to laughter (:) μάλιστα δὲ οἵ τε φορτικώτερον καταδυσωποῦντες τὸν ἄνδρα, καὶ οἱ πρὸς τὸν καιρὸν τι παραφθεγξάμενοι ὥστε ἐκεῖνον κινῆσαι πρὸς γέλωτα Psellos: Chronographia VI 29.12-15
  • Although there was an order for political honours and an invariable limit imposed on advancement, he confounded the one and abolished the other: he made practically every loafer and vagabond a member of the senate (:) οὗτος ἐκείνην μὲν συγχέας, τοῦτον δὲ ἀφελών Psellos: Chronographia VI 29.15-19
  • He did not favour just one or two, but immediately with a single word he transferred all to magnificent offices (:) οὔ τισιν ἢ πλείους χαρισάμενος, ἀλλ᾿ εὐθὺς ἀπὸ μιᾶς φωνῆς ἅπαντας εἰς τὰς ὑπερηφάνους μετενεγκὼν ἀρχάς Psellos: Chronographia VI 29.20-1
  • His promotions gave rise to ceremonies and festivals and the whole City was buoyed up that such a generous emperor was in charge of affairs; the present seemed not to be compared ith the past (:) ἡ Πόλις ξύμπασα μετεώριστο, ὡς φιλοτιμοτάτου βασιλέως ἐπιστάντος τοῖς πράγμασι Psellos: Chronographia VI 29.22-5
  • He made a brilliant beginning to his reign, giving generous gifts, encouraging talent of all kinds rather than relying on the aristocracy of birth, and enjoying a peaceful reign, in contrast to the horrors of the end of Michael 5 (:) Psellos Robert 67-150
  • At his acceession, he shed new light on all categories of people everywhere in the world to contrast with the previous darkness; each found benefit in a different facet of his beneficent character - in food, finance, justice, letters etc. (:) Psellos Orationes panegyricae V, 27-111