The Lekapenos brothers threaten the position of Constantine VII, and the people of Constantinople, fearing only that the Porphyrogenitus emperor might be included in the purge accompanying the seizure of power, riot until Constantine appears at a window of the palace.
This show of loyalty emboldens him to banish Romanus' sons on January 27, 945.
Stephen and Constantine are likewise stripped of their imperial rank and sent into exile to their father.
Having never exercised executive authority, Constantine remains primarily devoted to his scholarly pursuits and relegates his authority to bureaucrats and generals, as well as to his energetic wife Helena Lekapene, the daughter of Emperor Romanos I and his wife Theodora.
Romanos II is a son of Emperor Constantine VII and Helena Lekapene.
Named after his maternal grandfather, Romanos had been married, as a child, to Bertha, the illegitimate daughter of Hugh of Arles, King of Italy, who changes her name to Eudokia after her marriage.
Constantine crowns his son Romanos co-emperor on April 6, 945.
John Kourkouas, although considered by some of his contemporaries "a second Trajan or Belisarius," is dismissed after the fall of the Lekapenoi in 945.
Nevertheless, his campaigns in the East have paved the way for the even more dramatic reconquests in the middle and the second half of the tenth century.
Constantine, now thirty-nine, will rule alone from this point forward.
He appoints to the highest army commands four members of the Phokas family, which had been in disgrace under the Lekapenoi, but takes no further reprisals, except for an incidental remark, in De ceremoniis, that Romanus Lecapenus was neither an aristocrat nor a cultured man.
That he does not depart from the admiral's basic policy-at home, maintaining a delicate balance among civil and military officers, landed aristocrats, and peasant soldiers; abroad, friendship with the Rus, peace with the Bulgarians, a limited commitment in Italy, and a resolute offensive against the Muslims—may be ascribed to statesmanship as well as to timidity.
The policy continues to be effective.
The Chersonese Greeks had alert the emperor about the approaching Kievans, who fled in 944/945.
This time, Constantinople hastens to buy peace and concludes a treaty with Kievan Rus'.
Its text is quoted in full in the Primary Chronicle.
The Emperor had sent gifts and offered tribute in lieu of war, and the Rus’ had accepted.
Envoys are sent between the Rus’, Constantinople, and the Bulgarians in 945, and a peace treaty is completed.
The agreement again focused on trade, but this time with terms less favorable to the Rus’, including stringent regulations on the conduct of Rus’ merchants in Cherson and Constantinople and specific punishments for violations of the law.
Constantinople may have been motivated to enter the treaty out of concern of a prolonged alliance of the Rus', Pechenegs, and Bulgarians against them, though the more favorable terms further suggest a shift in power.
