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yoked together, beautiful young shoots of a beautiful, good olive tree, brothers not more in nature than in character, nor more in character than in your other graces, well-born sharers of the scepters from which you have sprung, and each confirming his own lot not less by his character than by his names, and you, the active mind, Alexios, the beautiful youth, the hoary wisdom, the truly worthy state of your ancestors' fortune, who presents your whole grandfather and emperor as living in yourself more by your character than by the name Komnenos and Alexios, and confirming from your own case the mystery of the succession of nations—for if one should concede to the myth that there were once men, whose other members of the body....., but one of whose shoulders was of ivory, and that this trait from some ancestor was naturally passed on to his descendants by succession, so in turn our own case is far more wondrous than what is told in myths, inasmuch as we confirm the lineage not from one part, and that a bodily one, but both from the whole body and from all the dispositions of the soul—and you too, O scion of the Doukas root, O Charitonymos, the flower of the season, the glory of youth, whom whenever I see I do not fail to call to mind that verse—which one, you will ask? "A form in the first place worthy of rule," I will answer. Rejoice, both of you together and each of you individually, you who have possessed in wealth all the much-storied good fortune and who have confirmed by your own example that which until now was held in disbelief, that all good things can come together in one person.

And if one should wish, I shall demonstrate, at least from a few things, in broad strokes and cursorily, the good fortune of the bridal pair, for if the occasion were not far removed from the wedding festival, I would not have refrained from speaking of all of them, as far as I was able. Now there were two scepters for the Romans, beautifully shining back at each other, the Komnenian a little earlier, and the Doukian immediately at its heels, both fortunate and illustrious and not unworthy of worldly virtue, and then, as if by agreement, they came together into one thing far 347 more manifest and more brilliant, that is, the Komneno-Doukian and ancestral one of the bridal pair. Recall, O you who are present, the rule of Alexios, but so that you do not weep over the wedding, remember that good government in peace, the deeds of valor in battle, but without groaning, O sacred empresses, without groaning out of regard for this beautiful festival, be reminded of that gentleness, that steadfastness, that other grace. But what is this? At these words I see the senate looking sullen. It is better then to sing of another ornament, and so we now sing. Behold this sacred empress here, the aptly-named Irene, the Doukian scion, who ruled no less over all her passions than over all the Romans; well done, for my audience's spirits are now lifted again. Behold this hand, which you and we always experience as wealth-giving, her love of God, her pity, every other virtue. From such grandparents has this seemly bridal pair been put forth for us; from such great roots have these beautiful fruits been raised up for us. And what of their venerable parents? In speaking of whom, may I by no means fall short of the greatness of the subject, I mean this one, born in the purple and empress, whose roundness of eye, moving from itself toward itself and at once revolving, suggests an elevation of her station toward mind and God, of which we have known the motion to be from themselves and toward themselves, whom, if the Greeks speak any truth, we might add as a fourth Grace to the Graces, and a tenth Muse to the Muses, who initiated herself into the whole of moral philosophy—of which the end is not knowledge but action—through the activity of virtue; then, at once thinking more nobly and more royally, and believing that just as the purple is an ornament for a royal body, so too for a royal soul is the knowledge of what exists, she was initiated into the knowledge of them and the

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μεταζυγέν, καλῆς καλλιελαίου καλὰ νεόφυτα, οὐ μᾶλλον ἀδελφοὶ τὴν φύσιν ἢ τὸ ἦθος, οὐδὲ μᾶλλον τὸ ἦθος ἢ τὰς λοιπὰς χάριτας, τῶν ὧν ἐξώρμησθε σκήπτρων εὐφυεῖς μερισταί, καὶ τὸ οἰκεῖον λάχος ἑκάτερος οὐχ ἧττον τοῖς τρόποις ἢ ταῖς ἐπωνυμίαις πιστούμενοι, σύ τε, ὁ δραστήριος νοῦς, Ἀλέξιε, ἡ καλὴ νεότης, ἡ πολιὰ σύνεσις, τὸ τῆς τῶν προγόνων τύχης ἄξιον ὄντως κατάστημα, ὁ τὸν πάππον ὅλον καὶ βασιλέα τοῖς ἤθεσι μᾶλλον ἢ τῷ Κομνηνῷ καὶ τῷ Ἀλεξίῳ ζῶντα παριστάνων ἐν ἑαυτῷ καὶ πιστούμενος ἐκ τῶν κατὰ σὲ τῆς τῶν ἐθνῶν διαδοχῆς τὸ μυστήριονεἰ γάρ τις καὶ ταῦτα συγχωρήσει τῷ μύθῳ ἀνθρώπους ποτὲ γενέσθαι, τὰ μὲν ἄλλα μέλη τοῦ σώματος κα....., ἅτερον δὲ τῶν ὤμων ἐλεφαντίνη καὶ προγόνου πόθεν φυσιωθῆναι τοῖς ἐξ αὐτοῦ τῇ διαδοχῇ, καὶ οὕτω πάλιν τὰ καθ' ἡμᾶς τῶν μυθευομένων πολλῷ τῷ περιόντι θαυμασιώ τερα, ὅσον οὐκ ἐκ μέρους ἑνὸς καὶ τούτου σωματικοῦ τὸ γένος πιστούμεθα, ἀλλ' ἔκ τε ὅλου τοῦ σώματος ἔκ τε τῶν ψυχικῶν ἁπασῶν διαθέσεωνκαὶ σὺ δέ, ὁ τῆς ∆ουκικῆς ῥίζης ὅρπηξ, ὁ Χαριτώνυμος, τὸ τῆς ὥρας ἄνθος, τὸ τῆς νεότητος ἄγαλμα, ὃν οὐκ ἔστιν ὅτε ἰδὼν οὐκ ἐκεῖνο τοῦ μέτρου κατὰ νοῦν ἐβαλόμην, τὸ ποῖον ἐρεῖς; Τὸ πρῶτον εἶδος ἄξιον τυραννίδος, ἀποκρινοῦμαι. Χαίρετε καὶ κοινῶς ἄμφω καὶ ἰδίᾳ ἑκάτερος, οἱ τὴν πολυθρύλλητον εὐδαιμονίαν ὅλην πλουτήσαντες καί, τὸ μέχρι νῦν ἐν ἀπίστῳ κείμενον, εἰς ἕνα τὰ πάντα συνελθεῖν ἀγαθὰ τοῖς καθ' ἑαυτοὺς πιστωσάμενοι.

Καὶ εἰ βούλοιτό τις, ἀπ' ἐνίων γοῦν παχυμερῶς καὶ ἐπιδρομάδην τὸ εὔδαιμον ἐπιδείξομαι τῶν νυμφίων, ὡς εἰ μὴ πόρρω τῆς γαμηλιακῆς τὸ πρᾶγμα ἦν πανηγύρεως, οὐδ' ἂν τῶν ἁπάντων, ὡς οἷός τε ἦν, ἐφει σάμην. ∆ύο μὲν οὖν ἤστην σκῆπτρα Ῥωμαίοις ἀλλήλοις καλὸν ἀνταυγάζοντα, τὸ μὲν μικρῷ πρότερον τὸ Κομνηνικόν, τὸ δ' εὐθὺς παρὰ πόδας ἐκείνου τὸ ∆ουκικόν, ἄμφω εὐτυχῆ καὶ περιφανῆ καὶ κοσμικῆς ἀρετῆς οὐκ ἀνάξια, κἆτα ὥσπερ ἐκ συμφωνίας συνεληλυθέτην εἰς ἓν πολλῷ 347 φανότερον καὶ λαμπρότερον, τοῦτο δὴ τὸ Κομνηνοδουκικὸν καὶ παππικὸν τοῖν νυμφίοιν. Ἀνεμνήσθητε, ὦ παρόντες, τῆς Ἀλεξιακικῆς ἐξουσίας, πλὴν ἀλλ' ὅπως μὴ τοῦ γάμου καταδακρύσητε, ἐνθυμήθητε τὴν ἐν εἰρήνῃ εὐνομίαν ἐκείνην, τὰς ἐν μάχαις ἀνδραγαθίας, ἀστενακτὶ μέν, ὦ ἱεραὶ βασιλίδες, ἀστενακτὶ φειδοῖ τῆς καλῆς πανηγύρεως, ὑπομνήσθητε τῆς πραότητος ἐκείνης, τῆς εὐσταθείας, τῆς λοιπῆς χάριτος. Ἀλλὰ τί τοῦτο; Σκυθρωπὴν ἐπὶ τούτοις τὴν γερουσίαν ὁρῶ. Ἄμεινον οὖν κόσμον ἄλλον ἀεῖσαι καὶ ἤδη ἀείδομεν. Ἴδετέ μοι τὴν ἱερὰν ταυτηνὶ βασιλίδα τὴν φερώνυμον Εἰρήνην, τὸν ∆ουκικὸν ὅρπηκα, τὴν οὐδὲν ἧττον τῶν ὅλων παθῶν ἢ τῶν ὅλων Ῥωμαίων κρατήσασαν· εὖγε, διεχέθη γάρ μοι πάλιν τὰς ψυχὰς τὸ ἀκροατήριον. Ἴδετε τὴν χεῖρα ταύτην, ἧς ἀεὶ πειρᾶσθε καὶ πειρώμεθα πλουτοδότιδος, τὴν φιλοθείαν, τὸν οἶκτον, τὴν ἄλλην ἅπασαν ἀρετήν. Ἐκ τοιούτων ἡμῖν τῶν πάππων οἱ εὐπρεπεῖς οὗτοι νυμφίοι προβέβληνται· ἐκ τηλικούτων ἡμῖν τῶν ῥιζῶν οἱ ὡραῖοι καρποὶ οὗτοι ἀνατετράφηνται. Τί δὲ αὐτοῖς οἱ σεμνοὶ γεννήτορες; Οὓς πάντως εἰπὼν μὴ οὐχὶ τοῦ μεγέθους τῶν πραγμάτων ἐλαττωθῇ, τὴν ἐκ πορφύρας λέγω ταύτην καὶ βασιλίδα, ἧς τὸ κυκλοειδὲς τοῦ ὄμματος καὶ ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ πρὸς ἑαυτὸ κινούμενον ὁμοῦ καὶ περιφερόμενον τὴν πρὸς νοῦν καὶ Θεὸν ἡλικὴν ὑπεμφαίνει ἀνάτασιν, ὧν ἐξ ἑαυτῶν καὶ πρὸς ἑαυτὰ τὴν κίνησιν ἔγνωμεν, ἥν, εἴ τί που καὶ ἀληθεύουσιν Ἕλληνες, τετάρτην μὲν ταῖς Χάρισι Χάριτα, δεκάτην δὲ ταῖς Μούσαις Μοῦσαν προσεπιθείημεν, ἣ τὴν μὲν κατ' ἦθος ὅλην φιλοσοφίαν, ἧς οὐ γνῶσις ἀλλὰ πρᾶξις τὸ τέλος, αὐτὴ ἑαυτὴν διὰ τῆς κατ' ἀρετὴν ἐνεργείας ἐμυσταγώγησεν· ἔπειτα γενναιότερόν τε ὁμοῦ φρονήσασα καὶ βασιλικώτερον καὶ κόσμον οἰηθεῖσα ὥσπερ βασιλικοῦ σώματος τὴν πορφύραν, οὕτω καὶ ψυχῆς βασιλικῆς τὴν ἐπιστήμην τῶν ὄντων, τὴν γνῶσιν αὐτῶν ἐτελέσθη καὶ τὴν