Isaac I.,

Isaac I., COMNENUS, emperor of Constantinople, was the first of the Comneni who attained to that dignity. Under the successors of Basil II. Isaac served in the army, winning the hearts of officers and men by his prudence and uprightness, and on the deposition of Michael VI. in 1057 was elevated to the throne. He established the finances of the empire on a sounder and more stable footing, and, braving the patriarch's threat of excommunication, even laid the clergy under contribution at the tax-collections. He repelled the Hungarians attacking his northern frontier; and then, resigning the crown (1059), retired to a convent, where he lived two years longer. He was one of the most virtuous and able emperors of the East. There are extant from his pen scholia and other works on Homer.