John Cantacuzenus, Histories

to station at the gates of Byzantium mercenaries most loyal to you, having sufficient hoplites to resist the assaults of conspirators. And if even a single obstacle to our reception is found, I will lead the army away, as the enterprise would be impossible. I beg you, therefore, not to be suspicious of my words as if I were disagreeing, and not to neglect to arrange for your safety. For I myself am accurately persuaded from those there, that as soon as we appear, they will receive us.” Such things the young emperor wrote to his grandfather, using one of the most faithful servants of the grand domestic as a courier. But he himself, setting out from Odrysai with fifty thousand horsemen or a little less, as was estimated (for it was not possible to know the number accurately, since many of those not assigned to the army were campaigning with him as a favor to the emperor), proceeded towards Byzantium, making his encampments frequent and continuous, as he was ill. 22. Meanwhile, there came to him from Sfetislav, the king of the Mysians, who was his kinsman by marriage through his sister Theodora, the envoy Martin, leading three hundred Mysian cataphract horsemen, on the pretext of coming to his aid as an ally, since he was in need of assistance because of the war against his grandfather; and they announced that if he should need even a larger army, 1.109 his kinsman would readily provide it; but in truth, so that if they saw the emperor lacking an army, they might seize him and lead him away to Sfetislav. And this became clear from what followed. For when Martin saw the army following the emperor, he immediately withdrew homewards. And the emperor, completing his journey little by little, on the day before Pentecost encamped beside the Melas river. Thereupon, there came to the young emperor Eugenia Palaiologina, a nun, the daughter of the sister of the emperor Michael, the first of the Palaiologoi, and grand domestikissa. She was conveying the following message as an envoy from the emperor: “To speak of the causes from which our previous disagreements arose, I do not think is for the present moment; but for what you wrote before, for which I acknowledge much gratitude, and praising your concern and good will towards me, I demand this one further favor from you: to hold the army where it is, until I can escape the danger by entering one of the monasteries, whichever you yourself should wish; for if it is reported that you are still marching towards us with your army, there is no hope for us of not being destroyed. And yet I myself left nothing undone of what you suggested should be accomplished; but all efforts are proven to be in vain. And when I, as I said, am in safety from being killed, you yourself shall come to take possession of the city. For what profit is there in my dying?” The young emperor, being all the more swayed by these words, although even before he was moved from within to say and do everything 1.110 so that the emperor his grandfather should not suffer harm, ordered the embassy not to make the words from the emperor clear to anyone, except only to the grand domestic, and that he himself would manage the matter as he might think best. And having ordered an assembly to be held, and when all the officials and the chosen men of the army had gathered together, he came into their midst and spoke as follows: “I think that none of you is unaware that, when a dispute arose between me and the emperor my grandfather, many things were done, and others were still in planning, which placed me in the utmost danger. For which reasons I myself stood apart not so much from the emperor as from the danger, and you are here to help one who is being wronged. But now that what I and you set forth from the beginning is at hand, and the sort of help that was needed has been given, if we seek anything further than these things, it would fall to me to do wrong, and to you to cooperate with a wrongdoer; for I purposed from the beginning neither to slay my father in the manner of an enemy, if it were possible, nor to take away his rule, but, while saving myself from danger, to cause him no trouble on account of his rule. Therefore, to escape the danger God himself has granted by his aid,

Βυζαντίου πύλαις τοὺς μάλιστα εὐνουστάτους σοι ἐπιστῆσαι μισθοφόρους, ἔχοντας ὁπλίτας ἱκανοὺς ταῖς τῶν ἐπιβουλευόντων ὁρμαῖς ἀντιστῆναι. κἄν τι μόνον πρὸς τὸ εἰσδέξασθαι ἡμᾶς κώλυμα εὑρεθῇ, ὡς πρὸς ἀδύνατον τὴν ἐπιχείρησιν ἀπάξω τὴν στρατιάν. δέομαι δὴ μὴ τοὺς λόγους ὑποπτεύσαντα ὡς ἐμοῦ διαφερομένου, ἀποῤῥᾳθυμῆσαι πρὸς τὸ τὴν ἀσφάλειαν ἐξαρτύσασθαι. πέπεισμαι γὰρ αὐτὸς ἀκριβῶς ἐκ τῶν αὐτόθι, ὡς ἅμα τῷ φανῆναι εἰσδέξονται ἡμᾶς.» Τοιαῦτα μὲν ὁ νέος βασιλεὺς ἐπέστελλε τῷ πάππῳ, τῶν πιστοτάτων οἰκετῶν τινι τοῦ μεγάλου δομεστίκου χρησάμενος διακομιστῇ. αὐτὸς δὲ ἄρας ἐξ Ὀδρυσῶν ἅμα πεντακισμυρίοις ἱππεῦσιν ἢ ὀλίγου δέουσιν, ὡς εἰκάζετο, οὐ γὰρ ἐξῆν ἀκριβῶς τὸν ἀριθμὸν εἰδέναι, οἷα δὴ πολλῶν καὶ τῶν μὴ πρὸς στρατιὰν τεταγμένων συστρατευομένων πρὸς χάριν τῷ βασιλεῖ, ᾔει τὴν ἐς Βυζάντιον, πυκνὰς καὶ συνεχεῖς τὰς στρατοπεδείας ποιούμενος οἷα δὴ νοσῶν. κβʹ. Ἐν τούτοις δὲ ἀφικνεῖται πρὸς αὐτὸν καὶ παρὰ Σφεντισθλάβου τοῦ Μυσῶν βασιλέως, ὃς ἦν αὐτῷ κηδεστὴς ἐπὶ Θεοδώρᾳ τῇ ἀδελφῇ, πρέσβις Μαρτῖνος, τριακοσίους ἄγων ἱππέας καταφράκτους Μυσοὺς, πρόφασιν μὲν ὡς συμμαχήσοντας αὐτῷ ἐπικουρίας δεομένῳ διὰ τὸν πόλεμον τὸν πρὸς τὸν πάππον· ἐπηγγέλλοντό τε, ὡς εἰ δέοιτο καὶ πλείονος στρατιᾶς, 1.109 ἑτοίμως παρέξοντος τοῦ κηδεστοῦ· τῇ δ' ἀληθείᾳ, ὡς, ἂν ἴδωσι τὸν βασιλέα στρατιᾶς ἀποροῦντα, συλλαβόντας πρὸς αὐτὸν ἀπαγαγεῖν. δῆλον δὲ γέγονεν ἐκ τῶν μετὰ ταῦτα. ἰδὼν γὰρ ὁ Μαρτῖνος τὴν ἑπομένην τῷ βασιλεῖ στρατιὰν, ἀνεχώρησεν εὐθὺς ἐπ' οἴκου. ὁ βασιλεὺς δὲ τὴν ὁδὸν διανύων κατὰ μικρὸν, τῇ πρὸ τῆς πεντηκοστῆς ἐστρατοπέδευσε παρὰ τὸν Μέλανα ποταμόν. ἐνταῦθα δὴ ἀφικνεῖται πρὸς τὸν νέον βασιλέα Εὐγενία μοναχὴ Παλαιολογίνα, ἡ βασιλέως ἀδελφῆς Μιχαὴλ, τοῦ πρώτου τῶν Παλαιολόγων, παῖς, μεγάλη δομεστίκισσα. διεπρεσβεύετο δὲ παρὰ τοῦ βασιλέως τοιαῦτα· «περὶ μὲν τῶν προγεγενημένων πρὸς ἡμᾶς διαφορῶν ἐκ τίνων ἤρξαντο λέγειν αἰτιῶν, οὐ τοῦ παρόντος εἶναι καιροῦ νομίζω· ἐφ' οἷς δὲ πρότερον ἐπέσταλκας πολλὴν χάριν ὁμολογῶν, καὶ τῆς εἰς ἐμὲ κηδεμονίας καὶ ἀγαθῆς προαιρέσεως ἐπαινῶν, ἔτι μίαν παρὰ σοῦ ταύτην ἀπαιτῶ χάριν, τὴν στρατιὰν αὐτόθι μένουσαν κατασχεῖν, ἄχρις ἂν εἰς ἓν τῶν φροντιστηρίων, ὅπουπερ ἂν ἐθέλῃς αὐτὸς, καταδὺς τὸν κίνδυνον διαφύγω· ἂν γὰρ ἔτι σε μετὰ τοῦ στρατοπέδου ἀπάραντα πρὸς ἡμᾶς βαδίζειν ἀγγελθῇ, οὐδεμία πρὸς τὸ μὴ διαφθαρήσεσθαι ἡμᾶς ἐλπίς. καίτοι γε οὐδὲν αὐτὸς ἀπέλιπον ὧν ὑπέθου τὸ μὴ οὐ καταπράξασθαι· ἐλέγχονται δ' ἅπαντα σπουδαζόμενα εἰκῆ. ἐμοῦ δ', ὥσπερ ἔφην, ἐν ἀσφαλείᾳ γενομένου τοῦ μὴ ἀποθανεῖν, αὐτὸς ἐλεύσῃ παραληψόμενος τὴν πόλιν. ποία γάρ τις ὄνησις ἐκ τοῦ ἐμὲ ἀποθανεῖν;» Τούτοις τοῖς λόγοις ἐπὶ μᾶλλον ὁ νέος ἐπικαμφθεὶς βασιλεὺς, καίτοι καὶ πρότερον πάντα καὶ λέγειν καὶ πράττειν ὑπὲρ τοῦ 1.110 μὴ τὸν βασιλέα καὶ πάππον κακῶς παθεῖν οἴκοθεν ὡρμημένος, πρὸς μὲν τὴν πρεσβείαν ποιουμένην μηδενὶ καταδήλους ἐκέλευε ποιεῖν τοὺς παρὰ βασιλέως λόγους, ὅτι μὴ μόνῳ τῷ μεγάλῳ δομεστίκῳ, αὐτὸς δ' ὡς ἂν οἴηται συμφέρειν οἰκονομήσει τοὺς λόγους. ἐκκλησίαν δὲ κελεύσας γενέσθαι, καὶ τῶν ἐν τέλει πάντων καὶ τῶν λογάδων τῆς στρατιᾶς εἰς ἓν γενομένων, παρελθὼν εἰς μέσους, ἔλεξε τοιάδε· «οὐδένα ὑμῶν οἴομαι ἀγνοεῖν ὡς, διαφορᾶς ἐμοὶ πρὸς τὸν βασιλέα καὶ πάππον γεγενημένης, πολλὰ τὰ μὲν ἐπράχθη, τὰ δὲ καὶ ἐν μελέτῃ ἔτι ἦσαν, ἐμὲ πρὸς ἔσχατον κινδύνου καθιστῶντα. δι' ἅπερ αὐτός τε ἀπέστην οὐ μᾶλλον τοῦ βασιλέως ἢ τοῦ κινδύνου, καὶ ὑμεῖς πάρεστε βοηθήσοντες ἀδικουμένῳ. νυνὶ δὲ ἐμοί τε παρόντος ὃ προὐθέμην ἐξ ἀρχῆς καὶ ὑμῖν, τῆς βοηθείας ὁποίας ἐχρῆν γεγενημένης, ἄν τι περαιτέρω τούτων ζητῶμεν, ἐμοὶ μὲν τὸ ἀδικεῖν, τὸ ἀδικοῦντι δὲ συμπράττειν ὑμῖν ἂν περισταίη· προὐθέμην δὲ ἐξ ἀρχῆς, οὔτ' ἐν πολεμίου μοίρᾳ τὸν πατέρα κατασφάττειν, ἄν περ ἐξῇ, οὔτε τὴν ἀρχὴν ἀφαιρεῖσθαι, ἀλλ' ἐμαυτὸν διασώζοντα τοῦ κινδύνου, μηδὲν ἐκείνῳ τῆς ἀρχῆς ἕνεκα παρενοχλεῖν. τὸ μὲν οὖν τὸν κίνδυνον διαφυγεῖν θεὸς αὐτὸς συναράμενος παρέσχε,