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,

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 in Vagentia, but he, having been taught such a sophism for our sins, attended quite servilely upon that low-born child and washed his feet and performed all other services as if for an emperor, acting unscrupulously in his wickedness. And having instructed him to call himself emperor, and having encouraged him and urged him to give orders to him as to a slave and to threaten him harshly, and having thus set up for him an imperial stage, he took him around from nation to nation, and especially to those whom Andronikos had treated badly, and he wept quite tragically and, staging a great injustice as having been done to this imperial child, to whom faithful friendship was owed by good Christians, he called them to his defense, pointing out as well the likely signs: the fairness of his hair, the lack of a tooth, such as the true Alexios had the misfortune to have, the gravity of his gaze, as if it were indeed imperial, a well-built frame of body, in which rustic stock is especially well-favored, and certain other things. And those who were moved were disposed to grief and felt pity, as they were unable to investigate accurately, since for the peoples 62 the wrath against Andronikos obstructed the discernment of the signs. Whence also, being persuaded without guile to see the boy as Alexios, which this boy from the peasants was also appointed to be called, they bowed down in homage, they embraced him, they carried him aloft, they welcomed him with many gifts, which the monk indeed consumed, becoming exceedingly wealthy from the profits he made by trafficking the boy commercially. And so the truth, being hidden, was kept indoors, but the falsehood, having triumphed, enraged the nations to his defense; who, coming forward, bound themselves with oaths of allegiance to both Manuel and to his son and successor Alexios. And such a counterfeit emperor was also brought to the king of Sicily. And Alexios Komnenos, the one who had incited the Sicilian, exposed this peasant boy, and so too did those with him; but those from the nations affirmed that they knew very well and accurately that he was that very son of Manuel, for whom they would even die. In the end, the Sicilian, even if he recognized the truth, they say, nevertheless having his own stubbornness and desiring the throne of Constantinople, while the foreign peoples, bearing the image of emperor Alexios before their imagination, (for Sicily holds the aforesaid boy, who has been exposed as a creature of the field), and raging to establish the phantom as emperor for the citizens of the Great City, they move against us with great boldness, and this with no very firm hindrance appearing from the better counselors, as was possible, both the hierarch, they say, of Palermo in Sicily and the one of Messina there and others, as many as saw what was proper, and by the measure of their sagacity setting themselves straight to foresee that it would not be possible for the Sicilian count, who was once subject to Constantinople as a doux, to be enrolled as a secular emperor, and that the pretext for the battle was not even reasonable. For why, if the one governing Constantinople should err by murdering or acting as a tyrant, should he pay the penalty to the spurious king among the Sicilians? Unless perhaps every kingdom, stumbling in some way in its course, must run the risk of being called to account by one who is covetous, as if it were being tutored or mastered. And yet, with Alexios Komnenos having strongly asserted that it would be easy to hand over Constantinople to the king of Sicily, as if the helpless one held it in his hands, a multi-national movement arises, choosing the Sicilian and designating him as its leader. And treasures are emptied out in vain for him who did not even have such great revenues; and to the sea he entrusted more than two hundred long ships, both of other kinds and for transporting horses, while on land he marshaled elite cavalry, not only from those he assembled himself, but also another allied force of all 64 kinds. And it is said that as, for instance, a hundred from somewhere streamed in for the alliance and then again from another place more, or as many, or even a lesser number, separating a few of them from there,

τινα παῖδα, ἐς ὅμοιόν τι καὶ χρόας καὶ ἡλικίας ἥκειν φαινόμενον τῷ βασιλεῖ Ἀλεξίῳ. Καὶ ἦν μέν, φασίν, ἐκεῖνο παιδίον ἀγροικικὸν ἔκ ποθεν Βαγεντίας, αὐτὸς δὲ ταῖς ἡμῶν ἁμαρτίαις τὸ τοιοῦτον σόφισμα διδαχθεὶς καὶ παρίστατο δουλικώτερον τῷ ἀγεννεῖ ἐκείνῳ παιδίῳ καὶ τοὺς πόδας ἔνιπτε καὶ ὅσα ἄλλα πρὸς ὑπηρεσίαν ἐτέλει ὡς ἐπὶ βασιλεῖ, ῥᾳδιουργῶν κατὰ πονηρίαν. Καὶ ἀναδιδάξας ἐκεῖνον βασιλέα ἑαυτὸν ἐπιλέγειν καὶ θαρρύνας καὶ ἐγκελεύεσθαι τούτῳ ὅσα καὶ δούλῳ καὶ ἀπειλεῖσθαι δριμύτερον καὶ βασιλικὴν αὐτῷ σκηνὴν οὕτω πηξάμενος, περιέφερεν ἐξ ἔθνους εἰς ἔθνος, καὶ μάλιστα εἰς ὅσα κακῶς διέθετο ὁ Ἀνδρόνικος, καὶ συνέκλαιε τραγικώτερον καὶ σκηνοβατῶν ἀδικίαν μεγάλην ὡς ἐπὶ βασιλικῷ τούτῳ παιδί, ὀφειλομένῳ πιστὴν φιλίαν ὑπὸ Χριστιανῶν ἀγαθῶν, προεκαλεῖτο εἰς ἄμυναν, ὑποδεικνὺς κατὰ τὸ εἰκὸς καὶ σημεῖα, τριχῶν ξανθότητα, ὀδόντος λεῖψιν, ὁποίαν τινὰ καὶ ὁ ἀληθὴς Ἀλέξιος ἐκεῖνος δυσπραγεῖν εἴληχε, βλέμματος ἐμβρίθειαν, ὡσεὶ καὶ βασιλικοῦ, πλάσιν σώματος εὐπαγῆ, καθ' ἣν μάλιστα τὸ ἀγροτικὸν εὐδοκίμως ἔχει, καὶ ἄλλα τινά. Καὶ οἱ δυσωπούμενοι διετίθεντο πρὸς πένθος καὶ ἠλέουν, οἷα μὴ ἐξακριβοῦν ἔχοντες οἷς ἐπεπρό 62 σθει τῇ διακρίσει τῶν σημείων τοῖς ἔθνεσιν ἡ κατὰ τοῦ Ἀνδρονίκου μῆνις. Ὅθεν καὶ ἀπανούργως πειθόμενοι τὸν παῖδα βλέπειν Ἀλέξιον, ὃ καὶ ὁ ἐξ ἀγροιωτῶν οὗτος παῖς ἐτέθη καλεῖσθαι, κατέκυπτον εἰς προσκύνησιν, ἠσπάζοντο, μετέωρον ἦγον, δώροις ἐδεξιοῦντο πολλοῖς, ἃ δὴ κατέσπα ὁ μοναχός, ἀπεκβαίνων βαρύπλουτος οἷς ἐμπορικῶς τὸν παῖδα καπηλεύων ἐχρηματίζετο. Καὶ ἡ μὲν ἀλήθεια οὕτω λαθοῦσα ἐνδόμυχος ἦν, τὸ δὲ ψεῦδος ἐκνικῆσαν ἐξεθύμωσε τὰ ἔθνη πρὸς ἄμυναν· οἳ φθάσαντες ἐνέδησαν αὑτοὺς ὅρκοις εἰς πίστιν τῷ τε Μανουὴλ καὶ τῷ διαδεξαμένῳ αὐτὸν υἱῷ Ἀλεξίῳ. Ἤχθη δὲ καὶ πρὸς τὸν ῥῆγα Σικελίας ὁ τοιοῦτος πλαστὸς βασιλεύς. Καὶ ὁ μὲν Κομνηνὸς Ἀλέξιος, ὁ τὸν Σικελὸν ἐρεθίσας, ἤλεγχε τὸν ἀγροιώτην τοῦτον παῖδα, ναὶ δὲ καὶ οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ· οἱ δὲ ἐκ τῶν ἐθνῶν ἐβεβαιοῦντο εὖ ὅτι μάλα καὶ ἀπηκριβωμένως ἐπίστασθαι αὐτὸν ἐκεῖνον εἶναι τὸν παῖδα τοῦ Μανουήλ, ὑπὲρ οὗ καὶ ἀποθανεῖσθαι αὐτούς. Τέλος δὲ ὁ μὲν Σικελός, εἰ καὶ ἐπέγνω, φασί, τὸ ἀληθές, ὅμως πεισμονὴν ἰδίαν ἔχων καὶ τοῦ θρόνου Κωνσταντινουπόλεως ἐφιέμενος, οἱ δὲ ἐθνικοὶ Ἀλεξίου βασιλέως εἴδωλον πρὸ τῆς φαντασίας φέροντες, τὸν γὰρ δηλωθέντα παῖδα ἡ Σικελία ἔχει ἀπελεγχθέντα θρέμμα εἶναι ἀγροῦ, καὶ ἐγκαταστῆσαι τὴν φαντασίαν εἰς βασιλέα τοῖς Μεγαλοπολίταις φρυαττόμενοι, κινοῦνται καθ' ἡμῶν θάρσει πολλῷ, καὶ ταῦτα κωλύμης οὔτι μάλα μὴ σταθερᾶς, ὡς ἐξῆν, ἀναφαινομένης ἐκ τῶν κρειττόνων συμβούλων, τοῦ τε ἱεράρχου, φασί, τοῦ κατὰ Σικελίαν Πανόρμου καὶ τοῦ τῆς ἐκεῖσε Μεσσήνης καὶ ἑτέρων, ὅσοι τὸ δέον συνεώρων, ἀγχινοίας τε στάθμῃ ἀπορθοῦντες ἑαυτοὺς εἰς προόρασιν τοῦ μὴ ἂν ἐξεῖναι τὸν Σικελὸν κόμητα εἰς κοσμικὸν ἐγγραφήσεσθαι βασιλέα, ὅς ποτε τῇ Κωνσταντινουπόλει δοὺξ ὑπέκειτο, καὶ τὸ μηδὲ εὖ ἔχειν λόγου τὴν τῆς μάχης πρόφασιν. Τί γάρ, εἴπερ ὁ τὴν Κωνσταντινούπολιν διέπων ἐξαμαρτάνοι φονεύων ἢ τυραννῶν, δίκας ἂν διδοίη τῷ παρεγγράπτῳ ῥηγί, τῷ ἐν Σικελοῖς; Εἰ μὴ ἄρα πᾶσα βασιλεία, πταίουσά τι κατὰ βίον, εὐθύνεσθαι κινδυνευτέα πρὸς τοῦ ὠρεγμένου, ὡς εἰ καὶ ἐπαιδαγωγεῖτο ἢ ἐδεσπόζετο. Καὶ ὅμως τοῦ Κομνηνοῦ Ἀλεξίου ἀπισχυρισαμένου τὴν Κωνσταντινούπολιν παραδοῦναι ῥᾷον τῷ ῥηγὶ Σικελίας, ὡς εἰ καὶ ἐν χεροῖν αὐτὴν ἔσφιγγεν ὁ ἀπάλαμνος, γίνεται κίνησις πολυεθνής, ἐπιλεγομένη τῷ Σικελῷ καὶ αὐτὸν προγράφουσα κεφαλαιωτήν. Καὶ ἐκκενοῦνται θησαυροὶ ἐν κενοῖς τῷ μηδὲ μεγάλας οὕτω τι τὰς προσόδους ἔχοντι· καὶ τῇ μὲν θαλάσσῃ ἐπίστευσε νῆας μακρὰς ἑτεροίας τε καὶ ἱππαγωγοὺς ὑπὲρ τὰς διακοσίας, τῆς δὲ γῆς κατεκρόαινεν ἱππικὸν ἐπίλεκτον, οὐ μόνον ἐξ ὧν συνεκροτεῖτο αὐτός, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἄλλο παντο 64 δαπὸν συμμαχικόν. Καὶ λέγεται ὡς ἑκατόν ποθεν λόγου χάριν ἐπιρρεόντων εἰς συμμαχίαν καὶ αὖ ἑτέρωθεν πλειόνων ἢ καὶ τοσούτων ἢ καὶ εἰς ἔλαττον ὑποβιβαζομένων, βραχεῖς τινας ἐκεῖθεν ἀποκρίνων,