Upon the death of his brother Leo on 11 May 912, Alexander succeeded as senior emperor alongside Leo's young son Constantine VII. He was the first Byzantine emperor to use the term "autocrator" (αὐτοκράτωρ πιστὸς εὑσεβὴς βασιλεὺς) on coinage to celebrate the ending of his thirty-three years as co-emperor.[14] Alexander promptly dismissed most of Leo's advisers and appointees, including the admiral Himerios, the patriarch Euthymios, and the Empress Zoe Karbonopsina, the mother of Constantine VII whom he locked up in a nunnery.[14] The patriarchate was again conferred on Nicholas Mystikos, who had been removed from this position because he had opposed Leo's fourth marriage.
During his short reign, Alexander found himself attacked by the forces of Al-Muqtadir of the AbbasidCaliphate in the East, and provoked a war with Simeon I of Bulgaria by refusing to send the traditional tribute on his accession. Alexander died soon after, allegedly because of a stomach disease caused by excessive eating and alcohol.[15]
The sources are uniformly hostile towards Alexander, who is depicted as lazy, lecherous, drunk, and malignant, including the rumor that he planned to castrate the young Constantine VII in order to exclude him from the succession. At least that charge did not come to pass, but Alexander left his successor a hostile regent (Nicholas Mystikos) and the beginning of a long war against Bulgaria. The sources also accused the Emperor of idolatry, including making pagan sacrifices to the golden statue of a boar in the Hippodrome, and providing it with new teeth and genitals, in hope of curing his impotence.[16]
^There is some evidence that Alexander was already crowned by August 879, but most sources agree that he was appointed co-emperor following the death of his brother Constantine.[1][2] He was certainly made co-emperor before November 879.[3]
^Alexander is most commonly not assigned a regnal number.[6][7][8] If assigned one, he is rarely regarded as Alexander II, after Severus Alexander (r. 222–235)[9] or even more rarely as Alexander III[10] after both Severus Alexander and Domitius Alexander (r. 308–310). He has also been called Alexander I (though there was no later emperor by the name).[11]
^Skylitzes, Ioannes (2010) [1100]. Synopsis of History. Translated by John Wortley. p. 190. [Alexander] came down to play ball (tzykanion). A pain arose in his entrails which had been overloaded with an excess of food and excessive drinking. He went back up into the palace haemorrhaging from his nose and his genitals; after one day he was dead.
Granier, Thomas (2018). "Rome and Romanness in Latin southern Italian sources, 8th–10th centuries". In Pohl, Walter; Gantner, Clemens; Grifoni, Cinzia (eds.). Transformations of Romanness: Early Medieval Regions and Identities. Berlin: De Gruyter. ISBN978-3-11-059838-4.