1043 summary: thinking in a manly (or godly) way, she decided to become a nun and entered a convent
Psellos Orationes panegyricae II, 186-191
1025
Certainty: 1 Inadequate plans of Konstantinos VIII for the future of his daughters Certainty: 1
1028
Certainty: 2 Theodora (I) refused to marry Romanos (III), because he was related to her or because he already had a wife Certainty: 2
1042
Certainty: 3 Michael V banished Zoe to Prinkipo
Michael V wrongly believed himself to enjoy popular support and planned his adoptive mother's removal, the son of a caulker setting himself against a purple-born princess to whom he had sworn obedience. He formulated false accusations of witchcraft and poisoning against her, disclosing his plan first to those closest to him, and then to others in widening circles. When some approved and others disapproved, and others advised further investigation, he went to the astrologers (in whose art Psellos claimed expertise); but when their predictions pointed to dejection and blood, he derided them and said his boldness defied augury. Sacrificing his empress to his anger, he had her put on a boat for the isle of Prinkipo in the Propontis, ordering that she be tonsured and her hair brought to him. Psellos talked to her gaolers and learned the details. Zoe, on the boat, turned towards the palace broke out into exclamation and an extempore address to her late uncle emperor Basileios II, recalling his dreams for her and asking for his aid from on high