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,

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 to the most glorious temple of Christ the Savior of the Chalke, and an acclamation of Andronikos as emperor against his will, as both they and he would say; then also force upon him, as if saying "even if unwilling, become our leader," and the putting on of the imperial insignia of the sandals, with him not placing his feet still, and the clothing with the diadem, and the casting off of the smoky head-covering, which had its origin from Lazica as a symbol of the things he was about to mix with smoke, having burned everything, and in its place the wearing of a red one, signifying how many heads' blood he was about to condemn. And from then on he sits with the emperor Alexios and sits before him, for from this point he was instantly superior to him, and he honors with him those whom he himself chose and appoints to offices, from the very starting gates having cast forward the chariot of his own reign. And the great evil is mixed with the small good. 52 A short time in between and he prevails; and so that I might not become the leader of a great lament for the friends of Alexios, or rather the friends of the emperor, by dissecting a coarse gloom, he removes the co-emperor from his feet. And having shaken Alexios from the yoke, whether by strangulation with a bowstring, as the more common account has it, or in some other way, as he and his fellow evil-doers know, he substitutes his son John, junior to Manuel, not because he was better, but because Manuel detested his father's actions and somehow looked to the future and was secretly saying that God would repay the evils being done, while John approved and rejoiced in the transgressions, taking part in them. And the things which Andronikos did from then on, I do not say he sinned or transgressed, for the more passionate would name them otherwise, require a youthful tongue to tell and before it a deep reasoning of one able to strike unerringly against whatever it attacks; which things we, having lost them to old age, say this much in summary: that, as one having practiced to turn out like David in the matter of Uriah and his wife, he sends the husband, the emperor Alexios, down below, having removed him from life, and then entrusted him to the depth of the sea, as some say, though I would not investigate it, utterly detesting this wicked circumstance. And in this way he made away with the boy emperor, even if some accounts later falsely reported his being alive; about which Andronikos, joking, blurted out something sharp; who, hearing that Alexios was being cared for royally somewhere around Sicily, laughed sweetly and said, "Truly, he is an excellent swimmer, if after diving into the deep sea in Constantinople he passed through without breathing to the strait over there." And having thus sent the husband Alexios away, he brings into his own house his betrothed—oh, what an evil that was too!—the young daughter of the king of Francia, who was reluctant, as it is sung everywhere, for the union. For she was already becoming full of sense and, having experienced besides the smoothness of a lover, she detested the rough one. And once, they say, having imagined the young man in her sleep and crying out "Oh, Alexios," she herself knows what she suffered. And perhaps he would have been moderate in his wickedness, if after coming to this point he had ceased from wrongdoing and turned to the true man, having done wrong for an empire and obtained a great thing. But he, on the contrary, being transformed into a great terror by his savagery, works what is fearful against all; and he ceases to be a father, as it were gentle, and chooses instead to rage no longer tolerably. And as if he did small evils, when he had the pretext of the care of the emperor Alexios, 54 he multiplies them on behalf of himself and his child John, and brings the hill of his madness to such a conspicuous peak that even John, looking up once, suffered from dizziness. And so he once revealed to his father his soul's suffering and showed that he had fear for the future, at those things in which his father was now being reckless. And he weeps rather softly, but does not wear down his father from acting manfully in evils and wishing terrible things. Wherefore, proclaiming that good counsel beforehand, he called his sons women, weaving into this also

ὑπειπὼν τὰ δοκοῦντα ἡσύχαζε. Καὶ τοῦ λοιποῦ, ἵνα μὴ τὴν κοσμικὴν ἀηδίαν ἀδολεσχῶ, γίνεται τῶν κακῶν δρόμος εἰς τὸν περίδοξον ναὸν τοῦ σωτῆρος Χριστοῦ τοῦ Χαλκίτου καὶ εὐφημία τοῦ Ἀνδρονίκου ἄκοντος εἰς βασιλέα, ὡς ἂν καὶ αὐτοὶ καὶ ἐκεῖνος εἴποιεν· εἶτα καὶ βία εἰς ἐκεῖνον, ὡς «καὶ μὴ ἐθέλων ἀρχηγὸς ἡμῶν γενοῦ», καὶ περίθεσις παρασήμων τῇ βασιλείᾳ πεδίλων, ἐκείνου μὴ καθιστῶντος τοὺς πόδας, καὶ περίδυσις διαδήματος καὶ ῥίψις μὲν καπνικοῦ καλύμματος τοῦ περὶ κεφαλήν, ὅπερ Λαζόθεν εἶχε τὴν ἀφορμὴν εἰς σύμβολον ὧν ἔμελλε καπνῷ φῦραι, κατεμπρήσας τὸ πᾶν, ἀντιφόρησις δὲ ἐρυθροῦ, αἰνιττομένη ὅσων κεφαλῶν καταψηφιεῖσθαι μέλλει αἵματα. Καὶ συγκάθηται τὸ ἐντεῦθεν τῷ βασιλεῖ Ἀλεξίῳ καὶ προκάθηται, ὑπερέκειτο γὰρ αὐθωρὸν ἐκείνου τὸ ἀπὸ τοῦδε, καὶ συντιμᾷ οὓς αὐτὸς ἐπέκρινε καὶ προβάλλεται ἀρχά, ἐξ αὐτῶν βαλβίδων τὸ τῆς κατ' αὐτὸν βασιλείας ἅρμα πρόσθεν βαλών. Καὶ τὸ μέγα κακὸν τῷ μικρῷ καλῷ συγκίρναται. 52 Βραχὺς ὁ ἐν μέσῳ χρόνος καὶ περιγίνεται· καὶ ὡς ἂν μὴ θρήνου μεγάλου ἔξαρχος καθισταίμην τοῖς φιλαλεξίοις εἴτ' οὖν φιλοβασιλεῦσι λεπτοτομῶν παχεῖαν σκυθρωπότητα, ἐκ ποδῶν ἀπάγει τὸ συμβασιλέα. Καὶ τοῦ ζυγοῦ τὸν Ἀλέξιον ἐκτινάξας εἴτε πνιγμῷ τῷ δι' ἀγχόνης, ὡς διαρρέει λόγος ὁ πλείων, εἴτε καὶ ἄλλως, ὡς ἐκεῖνος οἶδε καὶ οἱ συγκακοῦργοι, ἀντεμβάλλει τὸν υἱὸν Ἰωάννην, τὸν τοῦ Μανουὴλ ὕστερον, οὐχ ὅτι καλλίων ἦν, ἀλλ' ὅτι ὁ μὲν Μανουὴλ ἀπεστύγει τὰ τοῦ πατρὸς καί πως ἔβλεπεν εἰς τὸ μέλλον καὶ τὸν Θεὸν ἐπίστροφον εἶναι τῶν γινομένων κακῶν ὑπελάλει, ὁ δὲ Ἰωάννης ἔστεργε καὶ τοῖς πλημμελουμένοις ἔχαιρε συνεφαπτόμενος. Ἃ δὲ τὸ ἐντεῦθεν ὁ Ἀνδρόνικος, οὐ λέγω ἥμαρτεν ἢ ἐπλημμέλησεν, ἄλλως γὰρ οἱ θερμότεροι ὀνομάσαιεν ἄν, γλώττης δεῖται νεανικῆς φράζειν καὶ πρὸ αὐτῆς λογισμοῦ βαθέος καὶ οἵου εὔστοχα βάλλειν καθ' ὧν ἂν ἐπιβαλεῖ· ἅπερ ἡμεῖς ἀπολωλεκότες τῷ γήρᾳ τοσοῦτόν φαμεν ἐπιτέμνοντες ὅτι, ὁποῖά τις ∆αυῒδ μεμελετηκὼς ἀπεκβῆναι ἔν γε τῷ κατὰ τὸν Οὐρίαν καὶ τὴν γαμετήν, τὸν μὲν ἄνδρα βασιλέα τὸν Ἀλέξιον προϊάπτει κάτω, παραστείλας τοῦ ζῆν, εἶτα καὶ βυθῷ θαλάσσης πιστεύσας, καθά τινές φασιν, ὡς οὐκ ἂν ἐγὼ ἀνακρίναιμι, καθάπαξ ἀπεστυγηκὼς τὴν φαύλην ταύτην περίστασιν. Καὶ ἐκεῖνος μὲν οὕτω τὸν παῖδα βασιλέα συνέστειλεν, εἰ καὶ λόγοι τινὲς ὕστερον ζωὴν ἐκείνου κατεψεύσαντο· εἰς ὃ παίζων ὁ Ἀνδρόνικος ἐξελάλησέ τι δριμύ· ὅς, ἀκούσας περί που τὰ κατὰ Σικελίαν τημελεῖσθαι τὸν Ἀλέξιον βασιλικῶς, ἡδὺ γελάσας «ἦ δή, ἔφη, ἄριστος κολυμβητής, εἴπερ ἐν Κωνσταντινουπόλει κατακυβιστήσας εἰς βαθεῖαν θάλασσαν ἀπνευστὶ διεξέδυ περὶ τὸν ἐκεῖσε πορθμόν.» Ἀποικίσας δὲ οὕτω τὸν ἄνδρα Ἀλέξιον, εἰσοικίζεται τὴν αὐτῷ μνηστήν, ὢ καὶ ἐκείνου κακοῦ, νεάνιδα θυγατέρα τοῦ τῆς Φραγγίας ῥηγός, ὀκνοῦσαν μέν, ὡς περιᾴδεται, τὴν συναφήν. Ἤδη γὰρ καὶ φρενῶν ὑπεπίμπλατο καὶ πεπειραμένη δὲ ἄλλως λειότητος ἐραστοῦ τὸν τραχὺν ἀπέστεργε. Καί ποτε, φασί, καθ' ὕπνους φαντασαμένη τὸν νεανίαν καὶ «ὦ Ἀλέξιε» ἀνακράξασα, οἷα ἔπαθεν οἶδεν αὐτή. Καὶ ἦν μὲν ἴσως μέτριος τὴν κακίαν, εἴπερ ἐνταῦθα ἐλθὼν ἀδικήματος ἔληξε καὶ ἐστράφη πρὸς τὸν ἀληθῶς ἄνθρωπον, ἀδικήσας εἰς βασιλείαν καὶ μεγάλου τυχὼν πράγματος. Ὁ δ' ἀλλὰ πρὸς δεινὸν μέγα μεταπλασθεὶς τῇ θηριωδίᾳ τὸ κατὰ πάντων φοβερὸν πραγματεύεται· καὶ ἀφίησι μὲν πατὴρ ὡς ἤπιος εἶναι, ἀνθαιρεῖται δὲ μαίνεσθαι οὐκέτ' ἀνεκτῶς. Καὶ ὡς εἴπερ μικρὰ ἐποίει κακά, ὅτε πρόφασιν εἶχε τὴν τοῦ βασιλέως Ἀλεξίου περι 54 ποίησιν, πολλαπλασιάζει τὰ ὑπὲρ ἑαυτοῦ καὶ τοῦ παιδὸς Ἰωάννου, καὶ εἰς οὕτως ἄποπτον ἐκκορυφοῖ τὸν τῆς μανίας κολωνόν, ὡς καὶ τὸν Ἰωάννην ἀναβλέψαντά ποτε παθεῖν ἴλιγγον. Καὶ τοίνυν καὶ ἀνεκάλυψέ ποτε τῷ πατρὶ καὶ ἐκεῖνος τὸ κατὰ ψυχὴν πάθος καὶ ἔδειξε φόβον ἔχειν εἰς τὸ μέλλον, ἐφ' οἷς ὁ πατὴρ ἄρτι θρασύνεται. Καὶ ὑποκλαίει μὲν μαλθακώτερον, οὐκ ἀποκναίει δὲ τὸν πατέρα τοῦ ἐν κακοῖς ἀνδρίζεσθαι καὶ δεινὰ βούλεσθαι. ∆ιὸ καὶ προαναφωνῶν τὸ καλὸν ἐκεῖνος βούλευμα γυναῖκάς τε τοὺς υἱοὺς προσέφη, ἐπιπλέξας ἐνταῦθα καὶ