When Zoe's appointed time was complete and she was about to die, her physical constitution showed small preliminary signs. Her desire for food faded and this kindled a fatal fever in her. The wasting of her body was a sign that death was near. She immediately thought of good works: helped prisoners, remitted debts, released from misfortune those condemned, opened the imperial treasuries and let the gold in them flow out like a river. But after a short struggle with death and a slight change in her appearance she relinquished this life, after living seventy-two years. With her three imperial husbands, she had reigned a total of 22 years. She died before Konstantinos IX, and before her sister Theodora gained the throne