Editing Constantine VIII (section)

==Family==
[[Image:Romanos et Eudoxie.JPG|thumb|left|upright|Constantine VIII's father (left) in the [[Romanos Ivory]]]]
Constantine was born in 960, two years after his brother [[Basil II|Basil]]. Their parents were [[Romanos II]], the sixth Byzantine emperor of the [[Macedonian dynasty]], and his second wife [[Theophano (born Anastaso)|Theophano]], an innkeeper's daughter described by contemporaries as ambitious and amoral.{{sfn|Norwich|1991|p=174}} Aged eight, Constantine was engaged to a daughter of Emperor [[Boris II of Bulgaria]] but in the end, he married a Byzantine aristocrat, [[Helena, daughter of Alypius]]. Of their three daughters, Eudokia became a nun after contracting [[smallpox]], [[Zoe Porphyrogenita|Zoe]] was empress for 22 years, and [[Theodora Porphyrogenita (11th century)|Theodora]] reigned for 18 months as the last monarch of the Macedonian line.{{sfn|Garland|1999|pp=165–66}}