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both his teeth and his money failed him, Robert casts his eyes upon the eyes of William and envying him his sight, deprives him of his eyes.

1.12.1 Having therefore become master of everything, from then on he grew daily and, leaning towards greater tyranny, he added cities to cities and money to money. And in a short time, having risen to the ducal eminence, he was named Duke of all Lombardy. From then on, therefore, all were stirred to envy against him. But he, being a prudent man, sometimes using flattery towards those who opposed him, and sometimes with gifts, smoothed over the disturbances among the populace and skillfully suppressed the envy of the magnates against him, and in other cases by subduing them with arms, he secured for himself all the power of Lombardy and of the neighboring country. 1.12.2 This Robert, always devising something more tyrannical and imagining the empire of the Romans, seizing upon the pretext, as I said, of his family connection with the emperor Michael, fanned the flames of war against the Romans. For we have already said that the emperor Michael, I know not how, had betrothed this tyrant's daughter (her name was Helen) to his son Constantine. 1.12.3 Again, remembering this youth, I am afflicted in my soul and my thoughts are confounded; but I cut short the narrative about him, reserving everything for its proper time. This one thing only I cannot bear not to say, even if I should speak out of season, that that youth was a statue of nature and a masterpiece, so to speak, of the hands of God. For if one had only looked upon him, he would have said that he was an offshoot of the fabled golden race of the Hellenes; so indescribable was his beauty. And I, after so many years, remembering this youth, am filled with tears; yet I hold back my tear and save it for the fitting places, lest by mixing my own laments with the historical narratives I should confuse the history. 1.12.4 For this youth, of whom we have spoken both here and elsewhere, long before our time and before we saw the sun, had become the betrothed of Robert’s Helen, pure and undefiled, and the written contracts concerning her had been drawn up, even if incomplete and only in promises, as the youth was not of age. But it was broken off when the emperor Nicephorus Botaniates ascended the throne. But I have digressed from my story, and I shall return again to the point from which I digressed. 1.12.5 For that Robert, having become famous from a very obscure fortune and having gathered much power around himself, undertook to become emperor of the Romans also, and he fabricated seemingly plausible pretexts for his hostility towards the Romans and for the wars. From this, a twofold story is told. 1.12.6 For one story is rumored and circulates and has reached our ears, that a certain monk named Raiktor impersonated the emperor Michael and deserting to this Robert, his kinsman by marriage, bewailed his own misfortunes. For he, having taken up the Roman scepters after Diogenes and having distinguished himself in the empire for a short time, was deprived of his rule by Botaniates who rose up against him, and he took up the monastic life, and after this he put on the high-priestly robe and the mitre, and, if you will, also the ephod. This the Caesar John advised, his paternal uncle, knowing the fickleness of the then ruler and fearing lest he suffer something more terrible. 1.12.7 This man that aforesaid monk Raiktor impersonated, or rather, so to speak, a most audacious perpetrator of all things everywhere. And he approaches Robert as his supposed kinsman by marriage and tragically recounts the injustices, how he was deposed from the imperial throne and had come into the habit in which he saw him. And because of

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τε ὀδόντες ἐξέλιπον καὶ τὰ χρήματα, ἐπὶ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς Γελιέλμου ἐπιβάλλει τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ὁ Ῥομπέρτος καὶ φθονήσας τούτῳ τῶν ὄψεων ἀποστερεῖ τῶν ὀμμάτων.

1.12.1 Πάντων οὖν ἐγκρατὴς γενόμενος ηὐξάνετό τε τὸ ἐντεῦθεν ὁσημέραι καὶ εἰς τὸ τυραννικώτερον ἀποκλίνων ταῖς πόλεσί τε προσετίθετο πόλεις καὶ τοῖς χρήμασι χρήματα. Καὶ ἐν βραχεῖ πρὸς τὴν δουκικὴν περιωπὴν ἀναβεβηκὼς δοὺξ Λογγιβαρδίας ἁπάσης ὠνομάζετο. Ἐντεῦ θεν οὖν ἅπαντες πρὸς τὸν κατ' αὐτοῦ φθόνον ἠρεθίζοντο. Ὁ δὲ φρενήρης ὢν ἀνὴρ ὅπου μὲν θωπείαις χρησάμενος πρὸς τοὺς ἀντικαθισταμένους αὐτῷ, ὅπου δὲ καὶ δωρήμασι τοὺς μεταξὺ τοῦ πλήθους θορύβους ἐξωμαλίσατο καὶ τὸν κατ' αὐτοῦ φθόνον τῶν μεγιστάνων εὐμηχάνως κατέ στειλεν, ἔστι δ' οὗ καὶ ὅπλοις χειρωσάμενος ἅπαν τὸ κράτος Λογγιβαρδίας τε καὶ τῆς ὁμορούσης χώρας εἰς ἑαυτὸν ἀνεδήσατο. 1.12.2 Ἀεὶ δέ τι ὁ Ῥομπέρτος οὗτος ἐπινοῶν τυραννικώτερον καὶ φανταζόμενος τὴν βασιλείαν Ῥωμαίων προφάσεως, ὡς ἔφην, τῆς πρὸς τὸν αὐτοκράτορα Μιχαὴλ συμπενθερίας ἐπιδραξάμενος τὸν πρὸς Ῥωμαίους ἀνερρίπιζε πόλεμον. Ἔφθημεν γὰρ εἰρηκότες, ὅτι Μιχαὴλ ὁ αὐτοκράτωρ οὐκ οἶδ' ὅπως τὴν τοῦ τυράννου τούτου θυγατέρα (Ἑλένη δὲ αὕτη προσηγορεύετο) τῷ υἱῷ Κων σταντίνῳ κατηγγυήσατο. 1.12.3 Πάλιν δὲ μεμνημένη τοῦ νεανίσκου τούτου παθαίνομαι τήν τε ψυχὴν καὶ τοὺς λογισμοὺς συγχέομαι· ἀνακόπτομαι δὲ τὴν ἀμφὶ τοῦτον διήγησιν φυλάττουσα πάντα καιρῷ τῷ προσήκοντι. Τοῦτο δὲ μόνον οὐχ ὑπομένω μὴ λέγειν, κἂν ἔξω τοῦ καιροῦ λέγοιμι, ὡς ἄγαλμα φύσεως ἦν ὁ νεανίας ἐκεῖνος καὶ Θεοῦ χειρῶν, ὡς οὕτως εἰπεῖν, φιλοτίμημα. Εἰ γὰρ καὶ μόνον ἐθεάσατό τις αὐτόν, εἶπεν ἂν ὡς τοῦ παρ' Ἕλλησι μυθευο μένου χρυσοῦ γένους ἀπορροή· οὕτως ἀμήχανον εἶχε τὸ κάλλος. Ἐγὼ δὲ μετὰ τοσούτους ἐνιαυτοὺς μεμνημένη τοῦ νεανίου τούτου δακρύων ἐμπίπλαμαι· ἐπέχω δὲ ὅμως τὸ δάκρυον καὶ ταμιεύω πρὸς τοὺς ἐπικαίρους τῶν τόπων, ἵνα μὴ τὰς μονῳδίας τῶν ἐμῶν ἀναμιγνῦσα ταῖς ἱστορικαῖς διηγήσεσι τὴν ἱστορίαν συγχέοιμι. 1.12.4 Οὗτος γὰρ ὁ νεανί σκος, περὶ οὗ κἀνταῦθα καὶ ἀλλαχόσε εἰρήκειμεν, προ χρόνιος πρὸ ἡμῶν καὶ πρὶν ἡμεῖς τὸν ἥλιον ἴδοιμεν, μνηστὴρ ἐγεγόνει τῆς τοῦ Ῥομπέρτου Ἑλένης καθαρὸς καὶ ἀμόλυντος, καὶ τὰ ἔγγραφα συναλλάγματα ἐπ' αὐτῇ ἐγεγρά φεισαν κἂν ἀτέλεστα καὶ ἐν ἐπαγγελίαις μόνον, ἀτελοῦς τὴν ἡλικίαν ὄντος τοῦ νεανίσκου. ∆ιεσπάσθη δὲ ἅμα τῷ τῆς βασιλείας ἐπιβῆναι τὸν βασιλέα Νικηφόρον τὸν Βοτα νειάτην. Ἀλλ' ἐξετραπόμην τοῦ λόγου, ἐπανελεύσομαι δ' αὖθις ἀφ' οὗπερ ἐξετραπόμην. 1.12.5 Ὁ γάρ τοι Ῥομπέρτος ἐκεῖνος ἐξ ἀφανοῦς πάνυ τύχης περιφανὴς γεγονὼς καὶ πολλὴν δύναμιν ἀθροίσας περὶ αὑτὸν ἐπεβάλετο καὶ Ῥω μαίων αὐτοκράτωρ γενέσθαι, καὶ προφάσεις εὐλόγους δῆθεν ἐπλάττετο τῆς πρὸς Ῥωμαίους δυσμενείας καὶ τῶν πολέ μων. ∆ιττὸς δὲ ἐντεῦθεν φέρεται λόγος. 1.12.6 Ὁ μὲν γὰρ φημίζεταί τε καὶ διαρρεῖ καὶ μέχρι τῆς ἡμετέρας ἀκοῆς ἔφθασεν, ὅτι τις μοναχὸς Ῥαίκτωρ ὀνομαζόμενος ὑπεκρίθη τὸν βασιλέα Μιχαὴλ καὶ πρὸς τὸν Ῥομπέρτον τοῦτον καὶ συμπένθερον αὐτομολήσας τὰς οἰκείας συμφορὰς ὠλοφύ ρετο. Οὗτος γὰρ μετὰ τὸν ∆ιογένην τῶν σκήπτρων Ῥωμαίων ἐπειλημμένος καὶ βραχύν τινα χρόνον διαπρέψας τὴν βασι λείαν παρελύθη μὲν τῆς ἀρχῆς ὑπὸ τοῦ Βοτανειάτου ἐπα ναστάντος αὐτῷ, τὸν δὲ τῶν μοναχῶν ὑπέδυ βίον, μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα τὸν ἀρχιερατικὸν ποδήρη καὶ τὴν κίδαριν ἠμφιέσατο, εἰ βούλει δέ, καὶ τὴν ἐπωμίδα. Τοῦτο δὲ συνεβούλευσεν ὁ καῖσαρ Ἰωάννης, ὁ πρὸς πατρὸς αὐτῷ θεῖος, τὸ κοῦφον εἰδὼς τοῦ τηνικαῦτα κρατοῦντος καὶ μή τι πάθοι δεινό τερον δεδιώς. 1.12.7 Τοῦτον ὑπεκρίθη ὁ εἰρημένος μοναχὸς ἐκεῖνος Ῥαίκτωρ ἢ καὶ ὡς οὕτως εἰπεῖν ῥέκτης τῶν ἁπαν ταχοῦ τολμηρότατος. Πρόσεισί τε τῷ Ῥομπέρτῳ ὡς δῆθεν συμπενθέρῳ καὶ τὰ τῆς ἀδικίας ἐκτραγῳδεῖ, ὡς καθαιρεθείη μὲν τῶν βασιλικῶν θρόνων καὶ εἰς ὅπερ σχῆμα τοῦτον ὁρώῃ περιελθεῖν. Καὶ διὰ