De capta thessalonica 3 a work by eustathios of thessalonica on its hopefully later capture, which had been weakened by a narrative of cachexia during

 Bearable and full of mourning and wanting springs of tears and some such things, but he who, as they say, was sown in a net and, like us, was caught u

 Most people raised their eyes as to mountains, to the acropolis, where they eagerly awaited help would be for them. but what especially accuses the gr

 Having practiced stretching out his hands like a woman to his pursuers, to slip into a fortress and to give trouble to those who ran after him, lest t

 David, who had lost his senses, whom i had previously blessed when he was in his right mind. and i thus also admired the emperor andronikos in other t

 Completely under age, not only unable to rule a very great empire by himself, but not even to be firmly disposed as boys are, of course, he had alread

 The protostrator alexios and john the eparch, and imprisonment held them and before that, things exceedingly dishonorable. but the boiling of anger on

 For should one measure things beyond measure?) a great disturbance of those of the palace, as much as was for god and the truth according to him, of

 But when the illusion proved false and the war was brought to an end in the late afternoon, having cast down many and filled the southern cemetery, th

 Thus men suffer for for the most part we multiply and magnify what we admire, as being unable to be precise because the soul is confounded by astound

 The present evils are fitting. and to recount the terrible things of that time, all that the latins saw, the fire which spread through their quarters,

 Kontostephanos, an energetic and sensible man, and countless others. but these things were unknown to the crowd and they did not know that he raged ag

 And he also sent them into exile into perpetual banishment. and after a short while, having divided those who had been imprisoned, he separated them i

 To be shamed but if not even so he should yield, being stubborn, to try even violence, and they say it is better for that one to suffer what he does

 Moreover and not enduring it if, having just found an opportunity, he would not take wing, like some demonic figure, he himself tries to surpass in ev

 Having said what seemed best, he was quiet. and for the rest, so that i may not chatter on about worldly unpleasantness, a rush of evils takes place t

 Manuel, and he curses, that he would not come to a worthy state of living in peace, that those alone would be grandeurs when his father died. and he b

 The marchese was left to remain in peace, just as neither was the kral of hungary and any other powerful neighbor. and generally, wherever there was m

 A certain boy, who appeared to be of a similar complexion and age to the emperor alexios. and that child was, they say, a peasant boy from somewhere i

 He annihilated the rest. and his knights were so boastful in their nature that each would stand against three hundred men in war, not at all unlike co

 About to happen, inferring it from many signs. we, at least, anticipating the enemy's attack, sent away those who were children of constantinople with

 For the man was truly master of his hands but he provoked the victorious one to exhaust his desire to laugh at the emperor, and drove the matter to a

 Laws of city-takers, in which, on account of their unwieldiness from size, no effect shone forth, but those around the eastern parts, and they were es

 Not to meddle further, unless they should choose to suffer evils. though he was obliged to supply sufficient grain for the city, he neglected it to su

 Having completely withdrawn his skill, lets the ship be dashed against a reef and sink to the bottom with its cargo and men. so too a guard of a fruit

 Of those seated around to release even one stone from a sling, then also to suggest to the sandal-stitchers on the walls to reproach the latins rounda

 The besiegers because the latins had entirely turned to resisting against choumnos, he, having with difficulty opened the gates and having allowed, fo

 To rebuke the general and to join in leading towards the good. and one might call these men, who had undertaken to remain in the city, no longer civil

 Stripping and running down the streets, known to those who saw them, thus giving proof that they were formerly conspirators. and there is no way that

 He wished, and as a result the enemy host was more emboldened, and even more so especially when, after choumnos had joined battle, though it was possi

 Very strongly fortified. we spoke thus, and the speech flowed away at random, itself as well. and the small stone-throwers were vexing the city, casti

 To the enemies. and with the soldiers shouting in a common cry, komnenos, halt and dismount, he, as if snorting back a final mount up and as you

 But i think this was stranger than that, that when rain poured down from what the enemies were scattering, plowing, indeed, but not sowing the beautif

 In blood, i was led about on horseback through heaps of others, the greater part of whom lay strewn before the wall, so densely packed, that my little

 Of the storm. and if it were made useless for the trees, and especially the fig trees, whose unripe fruit was unlawfully served to the savage beasts f

 But this would be judged as bordering on fighting against god. for the barbarians, rushing in even against each one of them, were committing all sorts

 They tore down when they arrived. and the ruler restrained the murders there, but there was no stopping the suffocation of those who fled into the chu

 By the command of the counts. and it was a sabbath, not having a flight, which one might evangelically pray to avert, but the destruction of so great

 Redness. it was therefore a task to recognize even one's dearest friend among them and each man would ask each other who on earth he might be, becaus

 Thus confounding good order and dissolving the sacred harmony. and i spoke reverently about this also to count alduin, if somehow order might be estab

 To crush the man, goading the horse to kick. thus did these men love us, frequently for every word and every deed putting forward as a justification f

 Of the longed for ones the executioners, or may they have pity. for something like this did indeed happen at times, as if a hungry and biting lion, th

 To relate moderate things out of countless ones but the events of the nights, not even they fail to rival these in contention. and for a time, with t

 They grieved those who kept treasure-houses by ransacking them for the sake of wealth, thus themselves implying that they understood hades as plouton.

 Through all of us and most provident. for it is reported to us that he ordered all-night vigils around the great churches, he jesting even then. for w

 They busied their swords upon them, and afterwards they left completely empty what it contained within, both things for healing and with which the suf

 They cast our people in, and declaring blessed not them but the disease, and now perhaps even death according to the people of gades, among whom hades

 Is fitting, but only by thanksgivings and glory to the most high, from whom and through whom are our affairs. what then prevents me from ceasing after

 Mercilessness towards those who offend in some small way, from which came the merciless thing that just now cast us down, a most just thing, since we,

David, who had lost his senses, whom I had previously blessed when he was in his right mind. And I thus also admired the emperor Andronikos in other things—whom, having descended to this topic, I could not praise in everything—stating selectively whatever of the better qualities shone in him. For I do not write antiphons in the manner of the base sophists. But for this historical narrative I cannot hide those things which now happen in sequence, since the other kind of rhetoric, that of mere praise, seems, like the wise bee itself, to compose for itself the confection of its sweetness not only from sweet flowers and other useful things, but also somehow from things that are not such. For indeed that creature even makes its honeycomb from excretions not easily borne away, selecting the things that contribute, as those skilled in beekeeping know from observation; and it gathers something from there too, for the purpose of making the combs astringent and holding them together; such things, subject to the bees of Hermes, both David and Andronikos possessed, and especially Andronikos, that man of every kind and great variety, and this not in the manner of a chameleon 16 or an octopus, but rather of Proteus, and especially like Empusa, who presented herself in frightful apparitions. And he was also full of shifts like the Euripus straits and, like the primeval, formless matter, he submitted himself multiformly to all forms, of which some might be praised, but others not. And it is possible to apply to him that there was some pity in him, but also great wrath. And it is possible to reconcile also that “all things were together in him,” and that there was in him a certain union of many mixed things and a concord of things thinking apart, not, however, from which the virtue of harmony is composed, but the vice of confusion. For the man was a much-turning creature and of abundant resource for those skilled in writing on either side of a subject. And one might be led also to compare him to a sphere, not to the one partaken of for generation according to the ancient marvel, but for the variety of his character. And if one were to say that in his case two jars stood, one full of good things, the other of bad, from which he, drawing and mixing, would measure out to those under him, but the greater part from the jar of evils alone, one would be alluding most fittingly; for he was a mixture and, as for pure grace, he was not unmixed, nor indeed well-mixed. But let these things thus have been a digression, opportunely, I think, and not at all unsystematically. But I shall go back a little to David, who was once, a long time ago, worthy of some friendship, but is now worthy of universal hatred. Quickly you turned your back, O most noble at fleeing, and more quickly you ran to face them, not for battle-array, but for enslavement, having persisted in flight just long enough to display an unmanly turn, so that no trace of nobility might be found in you, neither in the siege, which you were somehow even praying would be brought to a head more quickly, as we shall hint in what follows, nor after the capture, in which you belied both the one playing the man and the one fleeing, since having turned to flee you have given yourself over to those who were not even pursuing. For other things were on their minds, things necessary for them before the deed, 18 and of you, I think, they would not even have had a memory, if you had not shown yourself. For those who are nobly brave know to utterly despise a general who is not such, just such a one as I judged you to be, from what they had experienced of your folly. But why, carried away by emotion and by things that have just happened before my eyes, do I lead astray the one who will someday later hear, from knowing historically the affairs among us from the beginning to the very end, so that by following along he might know from what sort of past events came the present ones, and might be affected by some, and otherwise wonder at others, and might also, if he should wish, learn through a history that selects whatever is useful for present circumstances? And why do I not set a certain head, as to a body, upon this narrative, through which, descending in my account, I might proceed prosperously to where the end is, having started from there? It seems it was destined, as it was well-pleasing to God, that when the Komnenian emperor Manuel fell, whatever was upright among the Romans should also fall with him, and as when that sun was eclipsed, all our world should become dim. Therefore he departed to where he had to, leaving a succession of his line not of the kind he ought. For a child a little past the age of

ἀλλοφρονήσαντα τὸν ∆αυΐδ, ὃν σωφρονοῦντα φθάσας εὐλόγουν. Ἐγὼ δὲ οὕτω καὶ τὸν βασιλέα Ἀνδρόνικον, ὃν ὑποκαταβὰς οὐκ ἂν εὖ λέγειν εἰς τὸ πᾶν ἔχοιμι, ἐν ἄλλοις ἐθαύμασα, φράσας ἐπιλέγδην ὅ τι τῶν κρειττόνων ἐκείνῳ ἐνέλαμπεν. Οὐ γάρ τι κατὰ τοὺς φαύλους τῶν σοφιστῶν ἀναγράφω ἀντίφωνα. Πρὸς δὲ συγγραφικὴν ταύτην ἱστορίαν οὐκ ἔχω κρύπτειν ὅσα τοῖς ἄρτι πρὸς εἱρμὸν συμβαίνουσιν, ὡς ἥ γε λοιπὴ ῥητορεία, ἡ πρὸς ψιλὸν ἔπαινον, δοκεῖ κατὰ τὴν σοφὴν καὶ αὐτὴ μέλισσαν οὐ μόνον ἐξ ἀνθέων γλυκέων καὶ λοιπῆς χρησιμότητος ἑαυτῇ συγκροτεῖν τὸ μυρέψημα τοῦ γλυκάσματος ἀλλά που καὶ ἐκ μὴ τοιούτων. Καὶ γάρ τοι καὶ ἐκ περιττωμάτων οὐκ εὐαποφόρων ἐκείνη τιθαιβώσσει, ἐκλεγομένη τὰ συντείνοντα, καθὰ παρατετηρηκότες οἱ δεξιοὶ σιμβλοποιεῖν οἴδασι· καί τι συναγείρει κἀκεῖθεν, εἰς ὅσον τὰ κηρία στύφεσθαι καὶ συνέχεσθαι· ὁποῖα δή τινα μελίτταις Ἑρμοῦ ὑποκείμενα καὶ ὁ ∆αυῒδ εἰχέτην καὶ ὁ Ἀνδρόνικος, καὶ μάλιστα ὁ Ἀνδρόνικος, παντοδαπὸς ἐκεῖνος ἄνθρωπος καὶ παμποίκιλος, καὶ τοῦτο οὐ χαμαιλέοντος δίκην 16 εἴτε πολύποδος, Πρωτέως δὲ μᾶλλον, καὶ μάλιστα κατὰ Ἔμπουσαν, ἣ φρικτὰ ἐφάνταζεν. Ὁ δ' αὐτὸς καὶ κατὰ εὐρίπους πολύστροφος ἦν καὶ κατὰ τὴν ἀρχέγονον ἀνείδεον ὕλην ἅπασιν ὑποτέθειτο εἴδεσι πολυειδῶς, ὧν τὰ μὲν ἐπαινοῖτο, τὰ δ' οὐκ ἄν. Ἔστι δ' ἐπ' αὐτοῦ προσαρμόσαι καὶ τὸ εἶναι μέν τινα παρ' αὐτῷ οἶκτον, εἶναι δὲ καὶ θυμὸν μέγαν. Ἔστι δὲ συμβιβάσαι καὶ τὸ «ἦν ὁμοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ χρήματα πάντα», καὶ ὡς πολυμιγέων ἕνωσις ἦν τις καὶ παρ' αὐτῷ καὶ δίχα φρονεόντων συμφρόνασις, οὐ μὴν ὅθεν συγκροτεῖται ἁρμονίας ἀρετή, ἀλλὰ κακία συγχύσεως. Πολύτροπον γάρ τι χρῆμα ὁ ἀνὴρ καὶ πολυπόριστον τοῖς ἐφ' ἑκάτερα γράφειν δεινοῖς. Ἐναχθείη δ' ἄν τις καὶ σφαίρῳ αὐτὸν παρεικάσαι, οὐ τῷ μεταλαμβανομένῳ πρὸς γένεσιν κατὰ παλαιὰν τερατείαν, ἀλλὰ πρὸς ποικιλίαν ἠθῶν. Εἰ δὲ καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ δύο πίθους ἑστάναι τις φαίη, τὸν μὲν ἀγαθῶν πλήρη, κακῶν δὲ τὸν ἕτερον, ὧν ἀρυόμενος καὶ καταμιγνύων ἐκεῖνος ἐπεμέτρει τοῖς ὑπ' αὐτόν, τὰ πλείω δέ γε μόνου τοῦ τῶν κακῶν, αἰνίξαιτο ἂν προσφυέστατα· ἦν γὰρ σύμμικτος καὶ πρὸς ἀκραιφνῆ χάριν οὐκ ἄκρατος, οὐδὲ μὴν εὔκρατος. Ἀλλ' οὕτω μὲν ταῦτα παρεκβεβάσθω καιρίως, οἶμαι, καὶ οὐδὲ πάνυ τι ἀμεθόδως. Ἐγὼ δὲ βραχύ τι ἄνειμι πρὸς τὸν ἦν μὲν ὅτε, ὃ μακράν, τινὸς φιλίας ∆αυΐδ, νῦν δὲ μίσους παγκοσμίου ἄξιον. Ταχὺ μὲν ἔστρεψας νῶτα, ὦ γενναιότατε φεύγειν, θᾶττον δὲ ἀντιμέτωπος οὐκ εἰς ἀντιπαράταξιν, ἀλλ' εἰς δούλωσιν ἔδραμες, εἰς τοσοῦτον τῇ φυγῇ προσμείνας, εἰς ὅσον ἄνανδρον τὴν στροφὴν ἐπιδείξασθαι, ἵνα μηδέν τι γενναιότητος ἴχνος ἐν σοὶ εὑρίσκηται, μήτ' ἐν τῇ πολιορκίᾳ, ἣν καὶ εὐχόμενός που ἦσθα συγκεφαλαιωθῆναι τάχιον, ὡς ἐν τοῖς ἐφεξῆς ὑποκρουσόμεθα, μήτε μετὰ τὴν ἅλωσιν, ἐν ᾗ ἐψεύσω καὶ τὸν ἀνδριζόμενον καὶ τὸν φεύγοντα, οἷς φεύγειν τραπεὶς ἐπιδέδωκας σεαυτὸν τοῖς μηδὲ διώκουσιν. Αὐτοῖς γὰρ ἄλλα ἐν φρεσὶ μεμέλητο, τὰ πρὸ ἔργου καὶ 18 ἀναγκαῖα σφίσι, σοῦ δὲ οὐκ ἄν, οἶμαι, οὐδὲ μνήμην ἔσχον, εἰ μὴ ἐνεφάνισας σεαυτόν. Οἴδασι γὰρ οἱ εὐγενῶς ἀνδρεῖοι ἐξαθερίζειν τὸν μὴ τοιοῦτον στρατηγόν, ὁποῖον δή τινα κατέγνων καὶ σέ, οἶς τῶν τῆς σῆς ἀβελτηρίας πεπείραντο. Ἀλλὰ τί δὴ παρενεχθεὶς ὑπὸ τοῦ πάθους καὶ τῶν ἄρτι καὶ ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς γενόμενος ἀποπλανῶ τὸν χρόνῳ ποθ' ὕστερον ἀκουσόμενον τοῦ συγγραφικῶς εἰδέναι τὰ τῶν καθ' ἡμᾶς ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἄχρι καὶ πέρατος, ἵνα παρακολουθῶν εἰδείη ἐξ οἵων τῶν πάλαι οἷα τὰ νῦν, καὶ τὰ μὲν παθαίνοιτο, τὰ δὲ ἄλλως θαυμάζοι, τὰ δὲ καί, εἴπερ ἐθέλοι, μανθάνοι καθ' ἱστορίαν, ἐπιλεγομένην ὅσα τοῖς νῦν συγκυρήμασι χρήσιμα; Τί δὲ μὴ κεφαλήν τινα ἐφιστῶ, καθά τινι σώματι, τῇ συγγραφῇ ταύτῃ, δι' ἧς καταβαίνων τῷ λόγῳ προποδίσω εὐόδως ἔνθα τὸ ἔσχατον, ἔνθεν ἑλών; Μέλλον εἶναι φαίνεται, καθὰ θεῷ εὐηρέστητο, πεσόντι τῷ Κομνηνῷ βασιλεῖ Μανουὴλ συγκαταπεσεῖν καὶ εἴ τι ἐν Ῥωμαίοις ὄρθιον καὶ ὡς οἷα ἡλίου ἐκείνου ἐπιλιπόντος ἀμαυρὰν γενέσθαι πᾶσαν τὴν καθ' ἡμᾶς. Οὐκοῦν ἀπῆλθεν ἐκεῖνος ἔνθα ἐχρῆν, διαδοχὴν ἀφεὶς γένους οὐχ οἵαν ἐχρῆν. Παῖδα γὰρ μικρόν τι παρηλλαχότα τὸν