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Zoe was one of the few Byzantine empresses born into the purple (that is, as the legitimate child of an reigning emperor). She was daughter of Constantine VIII of the Byzantine Empire, who had become co-emperor in 976, and sole emperor in 1025. He reigned for only three years between December 15, 1025 and November 15, 1028.

Before dying Constantine had married Zoe to his chosen heir Romanus III Argyrus, the eparch of Constantinople, on November 12November 12 is the 316th day of the year (317th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 49 days remaining. Events 764 Tibetan troops occupy Chang'an, the capital of the Chinese Tang Dynasty, for fifteen days. 1028 Future Byzantine empress Zoe marri, 1028. Constantine hoped that Romanus would help his daughter to control the government, but Romanus proved to be an unfaithful husband and an ineffective emperor. He was found murdered in his bath in 1034Events April 11 Empress Zoe of Byzantium marries her chamberlain and elevates him to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire as Michael IV. Franche-Comte becomes subject to the Holy Roman Empire. Births Emperor Go-Sanjo of Japan Deaths April 11 Romanus III. Zoe immediately remarried, even before his body was removed from the bath. Zoe's second husband was Michael IVMichael IV "the Paphlagonian," (in Greek , meaning "from the province of Paphlagonia") was Byzantine emperor from April 11, 1034 to December 10, 1041. He owed his elevation to Empress Zoe, daughter of Constantine VIII and wife of Romanus III, but becoming "the PaphlagoniaPaphlagonia was an ancient area on the northern central Black Sea coast of Anatolia, situated between Bithynia and Pontus, separated from Galatia by a prolongation to the east of the Bithynian Olympus. According to Strabo, the river Parthenius fromed then," who reigned until his death in 1041.

Her next co-ruler was her adoptive son Michael V Calaphates, nephew of her second husband, whose short reign lasted only into the next year. For two months in 1042, Zoe shared the government with her sister, Theodora, until she could find yet another husband, her third and the last she was permitted according to the rules of the Orthodox Church. Her choice fell upon Constantine IX Monomachus (reigned 1042- 1055) who outlived her by four years. Zoe died in 1050.