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,

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 justice will not pursue them. And such a Latin is thus brought together with the truth, and is otherwise not able to lie; but Aboudimos Manuel, a man concerned with the price of fish, now a green old man, but once celebrated for being great of hand and mighty in bringing it down upon his opponents, whose well-proportioned body still proclaims the strength which the man is said to have once possessed in abundance, he himself revealed that Thessalonica, renowned for its glory throughout the world, was betrayed. For it was not yet full day at the time of the capture, but still the twilight of dawn, during which the eastern wall was still inaccessible to the enemy, and he, having risen from sleep and left his house behind to attend to his duties, found five German men, armed and on horseback, standing together and talking about what they thought best. And he was passing them by as if on his way, but they called him over and, as he approached them, after many things in between they took away his right hand, unfortunately for the man; for one of them, having drawn a sword and brought it down, struck it off. But he was not able to harm him further, as he took flight as if on wings. Such also was the treachery of the German contingent, whose scouts the previous afternoon, three of them, leaped down from the western gates of the city and, in full view of everyone there, mingled in a friendly way with the barbarians. And the appearance of Theophanes Probatas inside the city two days before the capture, on the fifth day of the week in the deep evening, who as a friend was conspiring with the Latins from Dyrrachium, whom would it not bring to a treacherous thought, upon learning 94 of it? A certain Leo, a good keeper of horses, the Hagioeuphemites, seeing this and looking into it, and though struck with anger, but not having anything he could do, performed a holy service of defense for his fatherland by reporting the evil to those who did not dare to say anything to David, who was fearsome in the midst of common misfortune. But let these things be thus necessarily inserted by us or rather let them have been stated beforehand. The enemy, however, pressed hard against the eastern parts of the city, from the parts along the shore up to the Asomatoi gates. And on the fifteenth of August, as was previously stated, having brought their ships into harbor, the next day from early morning they stuck to what they had planned, and with quick hands they carried out the business of war. And one could see, according to the Muse of Herodotus, clouds of missiles, both of stones and of arrows, through which the air was shadowed. And those from the walls were also being shot at, and how could they not be? Since Enyalius is common to all, but very few of our men were harmed, while very many of the enemy were. For God greatly favored not only the soldiers, but also the other children of the city, who were successful in hitting the enemy and in shooting their arrows to a very great distance, so that from this the enemy archers, falling back, shot at us ineffectively from a long distance. For example, arrows shot from bows from the Golden Gate, which is in the west, kept their feathers aloft as far as the once beautiful monastery which the great myrrh-gusher Nicholas protected, and they fell into the tents of the barbarians, and immediately these were moved. And some similar things were happening also around the other part, where the naval station was. And the sailors, holding back the ships that were being attacked, hastily moved them away. And that our men were running out, leaping down from the walls, as the peace-loving general would not know, many of them bare of arms, and were acting heroically, among whom were also children of the Myrrh-gusher, and others assigned to him from among the Serbs, and that they despised the enemy and how they seized and drove off animals from the very tents of the barbarians and how they defended themselves against those who came out against them, chasing, shooting, throwing, and how from this an immense anger and eagerness entered the soldiers, so as to weigh down the general with their bothering him to let them sally forth, and how he, having once and for all impressed upon his soul the fall of the city, no longer to erase the impression of battle

γυμνώσαντες καὶ κατατρέχοντες τὰς ἀμφόδους, γνωστοὶ τοῖς βλέπουσι, πίστιν οὕτω διδόντες καὶ πρῴην ἐπίβουλοι εἶναι. Καὶ οὐκ ἔσθ' ὅπως οὐ μετελεύσεται ἡ δίκη αὐτούς. Καὶ ὁ μὲν τοιοῦτος Λατῖνος ὧδε συγκροτεῖται πρὸς ἀλήθειαν, καὶ ἄλλως οὐχ οἷός τε ὢν ψεύσασθαι· ὁ δὲ Ἀβούδιμος Μανουήλ, ἀνὴρ ἰχθύων τιμῆς μελόμενος, νῦν μὲν ὠμογέρων, πάλαι δέ ποτε περιᾳδόμενος μέγας εἶναι τὴν χεῖρα καὶ βριαρὸς αὐτὴν κατενεγκεῖν τῶν ἀνθισταμένων, οὗ καὶ τὸ κατὰ σῶμα εὐσταλὲς ἔτι κατηγορεῖ τὴν ῥώμην, ἣν λέγεταί ποτε πλουτεῖν ὁ ἄνθρωπος, αὐτὸς δὴ ἐφανέρωσε πρόδοτον εἶναι τὴν πανταχοῦ γῆς περιφόρητον τῷ κλέει Θεσσαλονίκην. Οὔπω γὰρ ἀκραιφνὴς ἡμέρα ἡ κατὰ τὴν ἅλωσιν, ἀλλ' ἔτι νὺξ ἀμφιλύκη, καθ' ἣν ἔτι καὶ τὸ ἑῷον τεῖχος ἀπρόσβατον ἐχθροῖς ἦν, καὶ αὐτὸς τοῦ ὕπνου ἀνεθεὶς καὶ τὴν οἰκίαν ἀφεὶς ὀπίσω, ἵνα ἔργων ἅπτοιτο, εὗρε πέντε ἄνδρας Ἀλαμανοὺς ἐνόλπους ἐφίππους, ὁμοῦ συνεστῶτας καὶ ὁμιλοῦντας τὰ σφίσι δοκοῦντα. Καὶ ὁ μὲν παρῴχετο ἐκείνους ὁδοῦ λόγῳ, οἱ δὲ προσεκαλέσαντο καί, ὡς ἐπέλασεν αὐτοῖς, μετὰ πολλὰ τὰ ἐν μέσῳ ἀπήγαγον αὐτοῦ τὴν δεξιὰν χεῖρα δυστυχῶς τῷ ἀνδρί· γυμνώσας γὰρ εἶς ἐκείνων ξίφος καὶ καταγαγὼν ἀπήραξεν αὐτήν. Οὐκ ἔσχε δὲ καὶ εἰς πλέον βλάψαι, πτερωθέντα οἷον εἰς φυγήν. Τοιοῦτον καὶ τὸ τοῦ Ἀλαμανικοῦ τάγματος προδοτικόν, οὗ πρόδρομοι τὴν χθὲς δείλην τρεῖς τῶν δυσμικῶν πυλῶν τῆς πόλεως κατεπήδησαν καὶ πάντων τῶν ἐκεῖ βλεπόντων τοῖς βαρβάροις φιλίως συνέμιξαν. Ἡ δὲ πρὸ δυοῖν ἡμέραιν τῆς ἁλώσεως περὶ πέμπτην τῆς ἑβδομάδος βαθείας ἑσπέρας ἐπιφάνεια Θεοφάνους τοῦ Προβατᾶ ἔσω πόλεως, ὃς ἐκ ∆υρραχίου συνωμάρτει τοῖς Λατίνοις φίλιος, τίνας οὐκ ἂν εἰς νοῦν προδοτικὸν ἐναγάγῃ μαθόντας 94 αὐτήν; Ἣν Λέων τις, ἵππων ἀγαθὸς μελητής, ὁ Ἁγιοευφημίτης, ἰδὼν καὶ περιεργασάμενος, καὶ θυμῷ μὲν βληθείς, οὐκ ἔχων δ' ὅ,τι καὶ δράσειεν, ὡσιώσατο ἄμυναν τῇ πατρίδι, ἐξειπὼν τὸ κακὸν τοῖς μὴ τολμῶσι λαλεῖν τι πρὸς τὸν ἐπὶ δυσπραγίᾳ κοινῇ φοβερὸν ∆αυΐδ. Ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν οὕτως ἡμῖν ἀναγκαίως ἐπεμβεβλήσθω ἢ μάλιστα προειλήφθω. Οἱ δὲ πολέμιοι στερεῶς κατὰ τῶν ἑῴων μερῶν τῆς πόλεως τῶν κατ' αἰγιαλὸν ἕως καὶ τῶν κατὰ τοὺς Ἀσωμάτους πυλῶν ἐπέκειντο. Καὶ κατὰ τὴν πέμπτην καὶ δεκάτην, ὡς προέκκειται, τοῦ Αὐγούστου τὰς νῆας λιμενίσαντες, τῇ αὔριον πρωΐθεν ὧν ἐβουλεύσαντο εἴχοντο, καὶ ὀξυχειρίας ἐπιβαλόντες ἐποίουν τὰ τοῦ πολέμου. Καὶ ἦν ἰδεῖν κατὰ τὴν Ἡροδότειον Μοῦσαν νέφη βελῶν, τῶν τε κατὰ πέτρας τῶν τε κατὰ ὀϊστούς, δι' ὧν ὁ ἀὴρ ἐσκιάζετο. Καὶ ἐβάλλοντο μὲν καὶ οἱ ἐκ τῶν τειχέων, καὶ πῶς γὰρ οὔ; εἴγε ξυνὸς ὁ Ἐνυάλιος, ἐβλάπτοντο δὲ τῶν μὲν ἡμετέρων ἥκιστοι, τῶν δὲ ἐναντίων πλεῖστοι. Πάνυ γὰρ ἐδεξίωσεν ὁ Θεὸς οὐ τοὺς στρατιώτας μόνους, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ τέκνα τῆς πόλεως, οἳ καὶ βάλλειν τοὺς πολεμίους εὐτύχουν καὶ εἰς μῆκος δὲ πολὺ ὅσον ἀφιέναι τὰ βέλη, ὡς ἐντεῦθεν τοὺς ἐχθροὺς τοξότας ἀναποδίζοντας ἄπρακτα βάλλειν καθ' ἡμῶν ἐκ μακρᾶς ἀποστάσεως. Ἀπὸ γοῦν τῆς Χρυσῆς Πύλης, τῆς περὶ δυσμάς, ἀφιέμενα βέλη ἐκ τόξων ἐφύλασσον μετέωρον τὸ πτερὸν ἕως καὶ εἰς τὸ καλόν ποτε σεμνεῖον, ὃ περιεῖπεν ὁ μυροβλύτης μέγας Νικόλαος, καὶ ἐνέπιπτον ταῖς τῶν βαρβάρων σκηναῖς, καὶ εὐθὺς ἐκεῖναι μεθίσταντο. Ὅμοια δέ τινα ἐγίνοντο καὶ περὶ θάτερον μέρος, ἔνθα τὸ ναύλοχον. Καὶ οἱ πλώϊμοι τὰς ἐπηρεαζομένας νῆας ἀνακωχεύοντες κατὰ σπουδὴν ἐξέστελλον. Ὅτι δὲ ἐξέτρεχον οἱ ἡμέτεροι καταπηδῶντες ἐκ τῶν τειχέων, ὡς οὐκ ἂν εἰδείη ὁ εἰρηνικὸς στρατηγός, ψιλοὶ ὅπλων οἱ πολλοί, καὶ ἠνδραγαθίζοντο, ἐν οἷς καὶ παῖδες τοῦ Μυροβλύτου, ἄλλοι τε καὶ ἐκ τῆς τῶν Σέρβων τεθέντες αὐτῷ, καὶ ὅτι περιεφρόνουν τοὺς ἐχθροὺς καὶ ὡς ἐξ αὐτῶν τῶν βαρβαρικῶν σκηνῶν ἁρπάζοντες ἀπήλαυνον ζῷα καὶ ὡς τοὺς ἀντεπεξιόντας ἠμύνοντο διώκοντες, βάλλοντες, ῥίπτοντες, καὶ ὅπως ἐντεῦθεν θυμὸς καὶ προθυμία τοὺς στρατιώτας ὑπεδύετο ἄπλετος, ὡς καὶ τὸν στρατηγὸν βαρύνειν οἷς ὤχλουν ἀφιέναι αὐτοὺς ἐξορμᾶν, καὶ ὡς ἐκεῖνος καθάπαξ ἐντυπωσάμενος ἐς ψυχὴν τὴν κατάδυσιν τῆς πόλεως οὐκέτι τὸ ἐμμαχθὲν ἐξαλείφειν