Romanos Kourkouas

Romanos Kourkouas
Allegiance	Byzantine Empire
Rank	strategos of several themes, Domestic of the Schools
Relations	John Kourkouas, Theophilos Kourkouas, John Tzimiskes

Romanos Kourkouas (Greek: Ῥωμανός Κουρκούας) was a Byzantine aristocrat and senior military leader of the mid-10th century.

Romanos was a scion of the Kourkouas family, a clan of Armenian origin that had established itself as one of the chief families among the Anatolian military aristocracy by the early 10th century.

He was the son, and along with his sister Euphrosyne, the only known child of the great general John Kourkouas, who held the post of Domestic of the Schools (commander-in-chief of the Byzantine army) for 22 years and led the Byzantine armies against the Muslim border emirates in the period 926–944. As an infant, he was reportedly saved from a heavy fever by the intervention of the Virgin Mary, at the Church of Pege, and as a result he served in the church as a depotatos (a junior aide) until his coming of age.

Like most male members of his family, Romanos pursued a military career, about which little is known. The Byzantine historians Theophanes Continuatus and John Skylitzes merely mention that he held command in the East against the Muslims, conquered many fortresses, was named patrikios and governed several themes. On the basis of sigillographic evidence, he may likely have served as governor (strategos) of the theme of Mesopotamia, a post which was also held by his uncle Theophilos Kourkouas and his nephew John Tzimiskes.

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