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some of the city's inhabitants unexpectedly came out and some were harming those from the army, suddenly from this a shout arose, that the gate had been opened by someone from within, and the guarding force followed the shout, and the entire army, armed, advanced with the ruler, and in an instant Thessalonica held all the emperor's men inside. And the emperor stood near the gate of the city facing east and Demetrios's sister Irene, the wife of Asan the Bulgarian, kneeling and beseeching that her brother not suffer the loss of his eyes. But Demetrios had already gone up to the acropolis. But having received sworn guarantees from the emperor, she went to her brother and brought him out to the emperor. He was of the age of a youth, having recently come to it and not yet growing a beard, and handsome in appearance and stature. The emperor honored her, as she feigned humility. For when she dismounted from her horse, then the emperor did as well. Thus the city of Thessalonica came under the emperor John.

46 And the emperor, having left the megas domestikos Palaiologos there, returned victorious to the east, having also left at Melenikon and Serres and the regions around them the son of the megas domestikos, Michael Palaiologos; and he sent another elsewhere for the security of the lands and cities. And Demetrios, whom he had deposed from the rule of the Thessalonians, he imprisoned and guarded in the fortress of Lentiana. And when the megas domestikos fell ill and was tonsured a monk, Theodore Philes was sent in his place. And since Thessalonica and Berroia had come under the emperor, the regions beyond them and to the west beginning from Platamon were subject to the despot Michael, and also the regions around Pelagonia and Achrida and Prilepos; but Bodena and Staridola, Strobos and the regions around them, the father of Demetrios.

47 The emperor, therefore, having wintered in the regions of Nymphaion, when spring appeared, wished to attack Tzurulon and Bizye. And first he arrived at Tzurulon; and there was the wife of Ansel de Caye, Eudokia, the sister of the empress Irene. Ansel de Caye, therefore, did not hold out. But the emperor sat down before the city and set up siege engines and machines for throwing down the battlements, and in a few days he captured it, and sent his sister-in-law to the city of Constantine and those with her. But he also captured the city of Bizye in a short time by sending an army.

48 At that time also the city of Rhodes was taken by the Genoese through stealth. For the one ruling it, John Gabalas, the brother of the kaisar, had gone away with the emperor who was staying near Nicomedia. Therefore, by imperial command, John Kantakouzenos, the epi tou kerasmatos, was dispatched, girded with the command of the Thrakesians, and he entered the island and seized a fortress of it named Phileremon, and fought the Genoese. And having pitched his tents near the city, he besieged the Genoese. And the city of Rhodes would quickly have come under the Romans, if Baldwin, the prince of Achaia and the Peloponnese, leading an alliance to Syria—and he had hoplite knights—and passing through there made agreements with the Genoese and left them one hundred men; which persuaded the Romans to withdraw to Phileremon. The prince’s knights therefore went out and plundered the countryside and created a scarcity of necessities for the Romans. The emperor John, therefore, having reached Nymphaion and having prepared a fleet and three hundred horsemen, and having given them as general the protosebastos Theodore Kontostephanos, sent them out. Who, upon reaching the island

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ἀπροόπτως ἐξελθεῖν τινας τῶν τῆς πόλεως καί τινας λυμαίνεσθαι τῶν ἐκ τοῦ στρατοῦ, ἐξαπίνης ἐκ ταύτης ἐγε γόνει βοή, ὡς ἤνοικται ἡ πύλη παρά τινος τῶν ἐντός, καὶ τῇ βοῇ συνείπετο ἡ παραφυλάττουσα δύναμις, καὶ σύμπαν δὲ τὸ στράτευμα ὁπλισθὲν μετὰ τοῦ κρατοῦντος ἐφοίτα, καὶ ἐν ἀκαρεῖ πάντας εἶχεν ἡ Θεσσαλονίκη τοὺς τοῦ βασιλέως ἐντός. ὁ δὲ βασιλεὺς ἔστη περὶ τὴν πρὸς ἀνα τολὰς βλέπουσαν πύλην τῆς πόλεως καὶ ἡ τοῦ ∆ημη τρίου ἀδελφὴ Εἰρήνη, τοῦ Βουλγάρου Ἀσὰν γαμετή, γο νυπετοῦσα καὶ ποτνιωμένη μὴ παθεῖν τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐ τῆς τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν στέρησιν. ὁ δὲ ∆ημήτριος ἔφθη εἰς τὴν ἀκρόπολιν ἀναβάς. ἐγγύας δὲ ἐνωμότους πρὸς τοῦ βασιλέως λαβοῦσα ἀπῄει περὶ τὸν ἀδελφὸν καὶ πρὸς τὸν βασιλέα τοῦτον ἐξήγαγεν. ἦν δὲ φέρων οὗτος τὴν ἡλικίαν τοῦ μείρακος, προσεχῶς ἐς αὐτὴν παραγγείλας καὶ μήπω χνοάζων τὸ γένειον, ὡραῖος δὲ τὸ εἶδος καὶ τὴν φυήν. τετί μηκε δὲ ταύτην ὁ βασιλεύς, οἷα ἐκείνης σχηματιζόμενος τὴν ταπείνωσιν. ὡς γὰρ ἀπέβη αὕτη τοῦ ἵππου, τηνι καῦτα καὶ ὁ βασιλεύς. ἡ μὲν οὖν πόλις Θεσσαλονίκη οὕ τως ὑπὸ τὸν βασιλέα γέγονεν Ἰωάννην.

46 Ὁ δὲ βασιλεὺς ἀφεὶς ἐκεῖσε τὸν μέγαν δομέστικον τὸν Παλαιολόγον νικητὴς ἐπανέζευξεν εἰς τὴν ἕω, ἀφεὶς καὶ εἰς Μελενίκον καὶ Σέρρας καὶ τὰ περὶ αὐτὰ τὸν τοῦ μεγά λου δομεστίκου υἱὸν Μιχαὴλ τὸν Παλαιολόγον· ἄλλον τε ἀλλαχοῦ ἐπαφῆκεν εἰς ἀσφάλειαν τῶν χωρῶν τε καὶ πόλεων. τὸν δὲ ∆ημήτριον, ὃν τῆς Θεσσαλονικέων ἀρχῆς καθεῖλεν, ἐν τῷ φρουρίῳ καθείρξας τῶν Λεντιανῶν ἐφρούρει. τοῦ δὲ μεγάλου δομεστίκου νοσήσαντος καὶ ἀποκαρέντος, ἀπε στάλη ἀντ' αὐτοῦ Θεόδωρος ὁ Φιλῆς. καὶ ἐπεὶ ὑπὸ τὸν βασιλέα ἐγεγόνει Θεσσαλονίκη καὶ Βέρροια, καὶ τὰ ἐκεῖθεν αὐτῶν καὶ πρὸς δυσμὰς ἀπὸ τοῦ Πλαταμῶνος ἀρχόμενα ὑπὸ τὸν Μιχαὴλ τὸν δεσπότην ἐτέλουν, ἔτι τε τὰ περὶ Πελαγονίαν καὶ Ἀχρίδου καὶ Πρίλαπον· τοὺς δὲ Βοδηνοὺς καὶ Σταρίδολα, Στροβός τε καὶ τὰ περὶ ταῦτα ὁ τοῦ ∆ημη τρίου πατήρ.

47 Ὁ οὖν βασιλεὺς ἐν τοῖς τοῦ Νυμφαίου παραχειμάσας, ἦρος φανέντος τῇ Τζουρολῷ καὶ τῇ Βιζύῃ ἐπιθέσθαι τεθέ ληκε. καὶ πρῶτον ἀφίκετο ἐν τῇ Τζουρολῷ· ἦν δὲ ἐκεῖσε ἡ τοῦ Ἀσὲλ δὲ Κάε γυνή, ἀδελφὴ τῆς βασιλίδος Εἰρήνης Εὐδοκία. ὁ μὲν οὖν Ἀσὲλ δὲ Κάε οὐκ ἐκαρτέρησεν. ὁ δὲ βασιλεὺς παρεκάθισε τῷ ἄστει καὶ ἑλεπόλεις ἔστησε καὶ μη χανήματα καταβλητικὰ τῶν ἐπάλξεων, καὶ διὰ μετρίων ἡμε ρῶν ἐχειρώσατο τοῦτο, καὶ τὴν αὐτοῦ γυναικαδελφὴν εἰς τὴν Κωνσταντίνου ἀπέστειλε καὶ τοὺς σὺν αὐτῇ. ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ τῆς Βιζύης ἄστυ στρατιὰν ἐκπέμψας διὰ βραχέος κεχείρωκε.

48 Τότε καὶ τὸ ἄστυ Ῥόδου ἑάλω ὑπὸ Γενουϊτῶν κλοπῇ. ὁ γὰρ κρατῶν αὐτὸ Ἰωάννης ὁ Γαβαλᾶς ὁ τοῦ καίσαρος ἀδελφὸς ἀποδεδημήκει μετὰ τοῦ βασιλέως περὶ Νικομήδειαν διάγοντος. εὐθὺς οὖν βασιλικῇ προσταγῇ στέλλεται ὁ ἐπὶ τοῦ κεράσματος Ἰωάννης ὁ Καντακουζηνός, τὴν Θρᾳκησίων ἐζωσμένος ἀρχήν, καὶ εἰσῆλθε τὴν νῆσον καὶ κατέσχε φρού ριον ταύτης ὠνομασμένον Φιλέρημον, καὶ ἐμάχετο Γενουίταις. ἐγγὺς δὲ τοῦ ἄστεος πηξάμενος τὰς σκηνὰς ἐπολιόρκει τοὺς Γενουίτας. καὶ τάχος μὲν ἂν τὸ τῆς Ῥόδου ἄστυ ὑπὸ Ῥωμαίους ἐγένετο, εἰ μὴ ὁ τῆς Ἀχαΐας καὶ Πέλοπος πρίγγιψ Βαλδουῖνος εἰς Συρίαν ἐπάγων συμμαχίαν-καὶ ὁπλίτας εἶχεν ἱππότας-κἀκεῖθεν διιὼν συνθήκας μετὰ Γενουϊτῶν ἐποίησε καὶ ἀφῆκεν αὐτοῖς ἄνδρας ἑκατόν· ὃ τοὺς Ῥωμαίους ἔπεισεν ὑποχωρῆσαι εἰς τὸ Φιλέρημον. ἐξήρχοντο οὖν οἱ τοῦ πρίγγιπος ἱππεῖς καὶ τὴν χώραν ἐληίζοντο καὶ σπάνιν τῶν ἀναγκαίων Ῥωμαίοις ἐποίουν. ὁ μὲν οὖν βασιλεὺς Ἰωάννης τὸ Νύμφαιον καταλαβὼν καὶ στόλον συσκευασάμε νος καὶ τριακοσίους ἱππεῖς, καὶ δοὺς αὐτοῖς στρατηγὸν τὸν Κοντοστέφανον τὸν πρωτοσεβαστὸν Θεόδωρον ἐξαπέστειλεν. οἳ τῇ νήσῳ ἐπιόντες