Roman Svyatoslavich or Roman the Handsome ( 1052 – 2 August 1079) was prince of Tmutarakan in

Kievan Rus' Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus,. * was the first East Slavs, East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical At ...

. The starting year of his reign is uncertain, but he reigned his principality from around 1073 or 1077. His former allies, the

Cumans The Cumans or Kumans were a Turkic people, Turkic nomadic people from Central Asia comprising the western branch of the Cumania, Cuman–Kipchak confederation who spoke the Cuman language. They are referred to as Polovtsians (''Polovtsy'') in Ru ...

killed him after their unsuccessful joint campaign against his uncle,

Vsevolod I of Kiev Vsevolod I Yaroslavich (; – 13 April 1093) was Grand Prince of Kiev from 1078 until his death in 1093. Early life He was the fifth and favourite son of Yaroslav I the Wise by Ingigerd Olafsdottir. He was born around 1030. On his seal f ...

Life

Roman was the son of Sviatoslav Iaroslavich,

Prince of Chernigov The Prince of Chernigov () was the ''kniaz'', the ruler or sub-ruler, of the Rus' people, Rus' Principality of Chernigov, a lordship which lasted four centuries straddling what are now parts of Ukraine, Belarus and the Russian Federation. List of ...

and his first wife, Killikiya. The order of seniority of Sviatoslav's four sons by Killikiya is uncertain: Roman might have been the second or fourth among them. According to historian Martin Dimnik, he was born around 1052. He was named after his father's saintly uncle, Boris whose baptismal name was Roman. The starting year of Roman's reign in

Tmutarakan Tmutarakan (, ; ) was a medieval principality of Kievan Rus' and trading town that controlled the Cimmerian Bosporus, the passage from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov, between the late 10th and 11th centuries. Its site was the ancient Greek col ...

cannot certainly be determined. According to Martin, he seems to have succeeded his brother

Oleg Oleg (), Oleh (), or Aleh () is an East Slavic given name. The name is very common in Russia, Ukraine, and Belаrus. Origins ''Oleg'' derives from the Old Norse ''Helgi'' ( Helge), meaning "holy", "sacred", or "blessed". The feminine equival ...

who moved to

Vladimir Vladimir (, , pre-1918 orthography: ) is a masculine given name of Slavic origin, widespread throughout all Slavic nations in different forms and spellings. The earliest record of a person with the name is Vladimir of Bulgaria (). Etymology ...

after their father became

Grand Prince of Kiev The Grand Prince of Kiev (sometimes also Grand Duke) was the title of the monarch of Kievan Rus', residing in Kiev (modern Kyiv) from the 10th to 13th centuries. In the 13th century, Kiev became an appanage principality first of the grand prin ...

in 1073. However, no source makes mention of Oleg's or Roman's reign in Tmutarakan in this period. The ''

Russian Primary Chronicle The ''Primary Chronicle'', shortened from the common ''Russian Primary Chronicle'' (, commonly transcribed ''Povest' vremennykh let'' (PVL), ), is a chronicle of Kievan Rus' from about 850 to 1110. It is believed to have been originally compile ...

'' writes that

Boris Vyacheslavich Boris Vyacheslavich (died 1078) was Prince of Chernigov for eight days in 1077. He was the son of Vyacheslav Yaroslavich, Prince of Smolensk. Following his father's death in 1057, the child Boris was debarred from his inheritance. He died fighti ...

"fled to join Roman in Tmutorakan" after reigning in Chernigov for eight days in May 1077. In less than a year, Roman's brother, Oleg also settled in Tmutarakan. Boris and Oleg allied with the

against their uncle,

Vsevolod Vsevolod or Wsewolod ( ; ) is a Slavic male first name. Its etymology is from Slavic roots 'vse' (all) and 'volodeti' (to rule) and means 'lord-of-everything/everybody', (similar to another princely name, "Vladimir" or "Volodymyr"). It is equiva ...

, who had seized Chernigov. However, they were defeated on 25 August. In the summer of 1079, Roman made an alliance with the Cumans against Vsevolod. They advanced as far as the confluence of the rivers Sula and Dnieper, but Vsevolod made a peace with the Cumans, forcing Roman to withdraw. While he was returning to Tmutarakan, the Cumans murdered him on 2 August. No source makes mention of Roman's marriage or his descendants, implying that he never married and died childless. The ''

Lay of Igor's Campaign ''The Tale of Igor's Campaign'' or ''The Tale of Ihor's Campaign'' () is an anonymous epic poem written in the Old East Slavic language. The title is occasionally translated as ''The Tale of the Campaign of Igor'', ''The Song of Igor's Campaign'' ...

'' mentions him as "handsome Roman, son of Sviatoslav".The Lay of Igor's Campaign (Invocation), p. 170.

References

Sources

Primary sources

*"The Lay of Igor's Campaign" In ''Medieval Russia's Epics, Chronicles, and Tales: Revised and Enlarged edition'' (Edited by Serge A. Zenkkovsky) (1974). Penguin Books. pp. 167–192. . *''The Russian Primary Chronicle: Laurentian Text'' (Translated and edited by Samuel Hazzard Cross and Olgerd P. Sherbowitz-Wetzor) (1953). Medieval Academy of America. .

Secondary sources

* * {{Refend 1050s births 1079 deaths 11th-century princes from Kievan Rus' Princes of Tmutarakan Sviatoslavichi family