So I'm listening to the History of Byzantium, and it's clear that Romanos II, who died at the tender age of 24, could easily have survived whatever disease that killed him. At the time Syria was on its knees- Phokas had sacked Aleppo that year and quite plausibly could have completed a reconquest of Syria given a year or three without distraction of the succession crisis. Moreover if Basil II stays Basil II, him coming to power in his thirties or fifties on the tail end of his father's successful reign could leave the Empire easily as strong as OTL. In addition to Syria I could easily imagine a reconquest of Sicily. Moreover the Fatimids are historically rather underwhelming....
Could the Empire use this period to reconquer the east, or at least hold on to the OTL Basil empire plus Syria and Sicily?