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,

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 roundabout, whom he defended himself against only so much, who were stitching evils for us and laughing at what they heard. And those around him said, mocking him, that sitting inside the walls down in the shade and seeing arrows flying about outside, he was accustomed to say, "Yes, good sir, things here are bad," and immediately leaping up, he would move his seat to some inviolable and unmolested shady spot, inclining, as they say, toward the strong wall, and ensuring he lived outside the range of arrows. And being such a man, the agreeable gnawers pecked at his very heart, or to put it more clearly, those skilled in flattery did not cease fawning on him. And the light scale of the balance inclined toward them, holding the fates, according to the poets, that nod towards Tartarus. These heart-pecking flatterers also kindled hatred against the city among themselves, with whom they wickedly conspired, hating the city. And upon them was the saying of the rhetor from Paeania, which he, making a maxim about theft, brought around in a circle, fashioned somehow thus: 84 to you, O David, the friendly act is a treacherous one, if it was like you. But being so peaceful, did he permit others to do what was necessary for battle? Not at all, but he himself also completely fettered Ares in our midst, I know not which of the sons of Aloeus he was, perhaps Ephialtes or maybe Epialtes, the one who among the Asclepiads grievously oppresses those lying down, as he is also the throttler. For he could not be called Otus, he who gave his ears to none of those who spoke well, unless perhaps according to some proverbial jest, about foolishness; for the proverb, having tested them, holds such birds, the horned owls, to be so. Therefore, he neither wished to be active himself, and he prevented the others by forcibly restraining them. At any rate, he was so far from making any sort of sortie against the enemy that, I think, the Sicilian, if he had any nose for wit, would have pretended he was a benefactor, since he guarded the army for him like the apple of his eye, so that not one of them should perish, as far as it depended on him, even if certain soldiers, and not least the children of Thessalonica, those who remained after the fugitives, acting like lions as it were with zeal for their fatherland, performed terrible deeds daily against the enemy, acting with a zeal one would not expect. And one could see here the wickedness of a base man and his profound sophistry. For when he was summoned to open the city gates for war and did not obey, and then learning of some more vehement things and remaining the same again, and being questioned as to why he so spared the enemy, first he put forward that he was observing a royal command, which ordered him to guard the castle. But when he learned that to be a castle-guard is not this, to be shut up inside the wall, but to do everything by which one might harm the enemies and thus guard the castle, unless someone would also call a guard of a house or a vineyard or a temple the one who is huddled up inside and sitting at home, and if there is some plot from outside, lets it be, until something destructive creeps inside, he, ceasing to justify himself for the future, made accusations, saying that he was afraid lest some, being let out of the gates to go forth, would rush out to flee, and thus the city's affairs would suffer from a greater lack of men. And the good generals and the soldiers were annoyed on hearing this, but they bore it nonetheless if a base head is set over the fair body of a city, and they did not dare to attempt to dissolve the harmony prescribed for them, obeying not for a good end. But when at one time he himself 86 decided to yield to persuasion, he acts unscrupulously thus. When Choumnos, being confident along with the military contingent around him, to fall upon those fighting from the eastern gates and having attempted to do so, even if the outcome turned out unfortunately on account of the baseness of those who joined battle with him, and with both the foreign soldiers and the children of the city, who had been left here after the fugitives, being troublesome, to run out with haste against the

περικαθημένων ἀφεῖναι καὶ λίθον ἕνα ἐκ σφενδόνης, εἶτα καὶ ὑποθέσθαι τοῖς ἐπὶ τῶν τειχέων πεδίλων ῥαφέας ἐξονειδίζειν τοὺς πέριξ Λατίνους, οὓς καὶ τοσοῦτον ἠμύνατο, κακὰ ἡμῖν ῥάπτοντας καὶ ἐγγελῶντας οἷς ἤκουον. Ἔλεγον δὲ οἱ ἀμφ' αὐτὸν σκώπτοντες ἐκεῖνον καὶ ὅτι καθήμενος ἔσω τειχέων κάτω περὶ σκιὰν καὶ βέλη βλέπων ἔξωθεν ἐπιπεταννύμενα εἰώθει λέγειν ὡς «ναί, καλέ, κακὰ τὰ ὧδε», καὶ εὐθὺς ἀναπηδῶν μετεκάθιζεν εἰς ἄσυλόν τινα σκιατραφίαν καὶ ἄσκυλτον πρὸς τὸν εὖ ἔχοντα τοῖχον μεταρρέπων, ὅ φασι, καὶ ζῆν κυρώσας ἔξω βελῶν. Καὶ τοιοῦτον ὄντα ἐκόλαπτον ἐς καρδίαν αὐτὴν οἱ τρῶκται ἄρεσκοι, καθαρώτερον δ' ἐκφῆναι, οὐκ ἀνίεσαν θωπεύοντες οἱ τὴν κολακείαν περίεργοι. Καὶ ἔρρεπε πρὸς αὐτοὺς τῷ κούφῳ ἡ πλάστιγξ, κῆρας ἔχουσα κατὰ τὰς ποιητικάς, νευούσας εἰς Τάρταρον. Οἳ δὴ καρδιοκολάπται κόλακες καὶ παρηύγαζον ἐν σφίσιν αὐτοῖς κατὰ τῆς πόλεως μῖσος, οἷς τῷ τὴν πόλιν μισοῦντι κακοήθως συνδιετίθεντο. Καὶ ἦν ἐπ' αὐτοῖς τὸ τοῦ Παιανιέως ῥήτορος, ὅπερ ἐκεῖνος περὶ κλοπῆς γνωματεύων κυκλικῶς περιήγαγεν, ὧδέ πως παρατεκτή 84 νασθαι· σοὶ μὲν ὦ ∆αυΐδ, προδοτικὸν τὸ φιλικόν, εἴπερ ἦν ὅμοιόν σοι. Ἆρα δὲ οὕτως εἰρηναῖος ὤν, ἐπέτρεπεν ἄλλοις ποιεῖν τὸ δέον εἰς μάχην; Οὔκουν, ἀλλ' εἰς παντελὲς καὶ αὐτὸς τὸν Ἄρην ἐπέδησεν ἔν γε ἡμῖν, οὐκ οἶδα τίς ποτε τῶν ἐξ Ἀλωέως ὤν, τάχα δ' ἂν Ἐφιάλτης εἴτ' οὖν Ἐπίαλτος, ὁ παρὰτοῖς Ἀσκληπιάδαις ἐπαχθῶς τοὺς ἀνακειμένους βαρύνων, οἷα καὶ πνιγαλεὺς ὁ αὐτός. Ὦτος γὰρ οὐκ ἂν λεχθείη, ὃς οὐδενὶ τῶν εὖ λεγόντων ἐδίδου ὦτα, εἰ μὴ ἄρα κατά τι σκῶμμα παροιμιῶδες, τὸ ἐπὶ εὐηθείᾳ· τοιούτους γὰρ τοὺς ὤτους ὄρνιθας ἡ παροιμία ἔχει δοκιμάσασα. Οὔτε τοίνυν αὐτὸς ἤθελε δραστήριος εἶναι καὶ τοὺς λοιποὺς δὲ ἀπεκώλυε κατάγχων εἰς βίαν. Ἐκδρομὴν γοῦν θέσθαι τὴν τυχοῦσαν κατὰ τῶν ἐχθρῶν εἰς τοσοῦτον ἐδέησεν ὥστε, οἶμαι, ὁ Σικελός, εἴπερ εἶχε μυκτῆρά τινα νεύοντα πρὸς ἀστεϊσμόν, εἰς εὐεργέτην αὐτὸν προσεποιήσατο ἄν, ἐπείπερ οἷα καὶ ὀφθαλμοῦ κόρην ἐκείνῳ διεφυλάξατο τὴν στρατιάν, ὡς μηδένα γοῦν ἐξ αὐτῶν ἀπολέσθαι, τό γε εἰς αὐτὸν ἧκον, εἰ καὶ στρατιῶταί τινες, οὐχ ἥκιστα δὲ τὰ τῆς Θεσσαλονίκης τέκνα, οἱ μετὰ τοὺς φυγάδας περίλοιποι, ἀπολεοντωθέντες οἷον τῷ ὑπὲρ τῆς πατρίδος θυμῷ, δεινὰ ἐποίουν ὁσημέραι κατὰ τῶν πολεμίων, ὡς οὐκ ἄν τις ἐλπίσειε δραστηριούμενοι. Καὶ εἶδεν ἄν τις ἐνταῦθα πονηρίαν ἀνδρὸς φαύλου καὶ σοφιστείαν βύθιον. Παρακλητευόμενος γὰρ ἀνοίγεσθαι τὰς πολιτικὰς πύλας ἐπὶ πολέμῳ καὶ μὴ ὑπακούων, εἶτα καί τινα σφοδρότερα μανθάνων καὶ ὁ αὐτὸς αὖθις μένων, καὶ ἀνακρινόμενος ἐφ' ᾧ τῶν πολεμίων οὕτω φείδεται, πρῶτα μὲν προβάλλεται βασίλειον τηρεῖν κέλευσμα, καστροφυλακεῖν ἐπιτάσσον αὐτῷ. Μανθάνων δὲ ὡς οὐ τοῦτό ἐστι καστροφύλακα εἶναί τινα, τὸ ἔσω τείχους ἐγκεκλεῖσθαι, ἀλλὰ τὸ πάντα ποιεῖν, δι' ὧν ἂν τοὺς ἐχθροὺς βλάψειε καὶ τὸ κάστρον οὕτω φυλάξειεν, εἰ μή τις καλοίη καὶ οἴκου ἢ ἀμπέλου ἢ νεὼς φύλακα τὸν ἔσω ἐγκορδυληθέντα καὶ οἰκουρικῶς καθήμενον, εἴ τί που δὲ ἔξωθεν ἐπίβουλον, ἀλλ' ἐκεῖνο ἀφιέντα εὖ ἔχειν, ἕως καὶ ἐντὸς παρεισδύσεται ὀλέθριον, ὁ δὲ δικαιολογεῖσθαι τοῦ λοιποῦ ἀφείς, διέβαλλε λέγων δεδιέναι μὴ τῶν πυλῶν ἀφεθέντες τινὲς προελθεῖν ἐκπετασθήσονται εἰς τὸ φυγεῖν, καὶ οὕτως ἐπὶ πλέον λειπανδρήσῃ τὰ τῆς πόλεως. Καὶ ἐδυσχέραινον μὲν οἱ ἀγαθοὶ στρατηγοὶ ἀκούοντες τοῦτο καὶ οἱ στρατιῶται, ἔφερον δ' ὅμως εἰ σώματι πόλεως καλῷ φαύλη ἐφίσταται κεφαλή, καὶ οὐκ ἐτόλμων ἐγχειρεῖν λύειν τὴν ἐπιτεταγμένην ἁρμονίαν αὐτοῖς, πειθαρχοῦντες οὐκ ἐπ' ἀγαθῷ. Ἀλλ' ὅτε ποτὲ καὶ αὐτὸς 86 ἐκύρωσε πειθοῖ εἶξαι, ῥᾳδιουργεῖ οὕτω. Τοῦ Χούμνου τεθαρρηκότος ἅμα τῷ περὶ αὑτὸν στρατιωτικῷ λάχει ἐπεισπεσεῖν τοῖς ἐκ τῶν ἑῴων πυλῶν πολεμοῦσι καὶ ἐγκεχειρηκότος οὕτως, εἰ καὶ δυστυχῶς ἀπέβη τὸ τέλος διὰ φαυλότητα τῶν συναραμένων αὐτῷ τῆς μάχης, καὶ ὀχλούντων τῶν τε ἐπηλύδων στρατιωτῶν καὶ τῶν τῆς πόλεως δὲ τέκνων, ἃ ταύτῃ περιελείφθησαν μετὰ τοὺς φυγαδίας, κατὰ σπουδὴν ἐκδραμεῖν ἐπὶ τοὺς