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,

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 for their evil-doing that they had captured us by the sword, not speaking human words, but as a lion having seized its prey wishes to tear it apart, not because it is hungry and desires flesh, but by the right of holding it in its claws. In these circumstances we were not allowed to groan, nor even to look gloomy, things which are permitted to those in a tempest of misfortunes for the release of the soul's burden. For they were very prone here to say, "Devil, why are you groaning?". For they wanted us to be unfeeling and out of our minds, so as to rejoice in the evils we were suffering. But if by chance it happened that someone began to laugh or smile, this too was bitter gall to the Latin who saw it. For he thought, as it seems, either that we were mocking the deeds of the Latins, or that, expecting good things, we were spitefully rejoicing, or even that having suffered, we were exulting, which he took as a sign of enmity. And so they would clench their fingers into a fist and, making their hand round, they prepared to strike with it, stammering, "Why do you laugh, O devil?", and thus they would turn the clear sky of a smile into a tearful cloud, or, to put it another way, they would change the laughing Democritus into the weeping Heraclitus. The folds of the garments of passersby were also searched by them and emptied, if they carried any money at all, even if it was a small amount. They also searched their thighs, lest they had knives attached. And if any sort of dagger was found, the temples of the one carrying it received blows, and the Latin took the knife. It was also necessary for us all to be clothed in rags; for if anyone was dressed in an intact garment, he who had not stripped the man was cursed among them. But when they would pass over other things, they plotted against everyone's heads, equally hating those with uncut hair and those with deep beards. And it was not possible to see 132 a man or a boy of any fortune whatsoever not shorn in a circle, such as, I suppose, the proverbial haircut of Hector, or that of Theseus in the front; since, on the contrary, the ancient locks were thick like the Abantes and not like these Latins, rounded in a circle and, so to speak, with hair only on top. And for this purpose, the Latins, who were overseers of hair, used sometimes a razor, sometimes a knife, and the more fervent ones even a sword; and immediately the beard of the man thus shorn was also lightened. And it was everywhere rare to see a Roman man with his head intact. For they had the opposite of "not a hair of our head shall perish". For our great sin, for which we have been punished early, according to him who boasted that in the mornings he would kill the sinners of the earth and destroy from the city of the Lord those who work iniquity, brought the evil upon us to a climax even to our very hairs, so that, being stripped bare even on our heads, we might shudder completely. And if somewhere a beard had escaped someone and was hanging down gracefully, as was its nature, these wicked barbers, taking hold of it with one hand, and the hair of the head with the other, would say that the latter was good, but the former, the beard, was bad, joking about no joking matter. But while they thus loved our assimilation to themselves in such matters, they nevertheless abhorred our living with them; wherefore they did not choose to live together with us. But when one of the householders, wandering here and there, recalled his house to mind and imagined his own things and desired to go there and drew near and peeked inside and was asked who he was to do so and said that he himself was once the master of the house, he was received gladly and, being led up as if in honor, he went inside delicately and had a greeting and a seat of honor and food and drink, but after these things, the man's receptions from the barbarians were deadly: for there were hangings and torments and smoke from chaff and other newfangled evils for the revealing and giving of money. When this was given, there was a cycle of the same things again; for there were hangings of the wretched man and heavy inflictions of blows, until they were either sated

συντρῖψαι τὸν ἄνθρωπον, κεντρίζων τὸν ἵππον εἰς κατασκίρτημα. Οὕτως ἐφίλουν ἡμᾶς οἱ ἄνθρωποι, συχνὰ πρὸς πάντα λόγον καὶ πρὸς πᾶν ἔργον προϊσχόμενοι εἰς δικαίωσιν τοῦ κακουργεῖν τὸ ἀπὸ σπάθης ἡμᾶς ἑλεῖν, οὐκ ἀνθρώπινα λαλοῦντες, ἀλλ' ὡσεὶ καὶ λέων ἄγραν ἑλὼν ἐθέλει διασπᾶν αὐτήν, οὐχ ὅτι πεινῴη καὶ ποθοίη σάρκας, ἀλλὰ δικαίῳ τοῦ συσχεῖν αὐτὴν ὄνυξιν. Οὐκ ἦν ἐπὶ τούτοις οὐδὲ ὑποστένειν ἡμᾶς, οὔκουν οὐδὲ κατ' ὄψιν σκυθρωπάζειν, ἃ δὴ τοῖς ἐν κλύδωνι συμφορῶν ἀνεῖται πρὸς ἐκβολὴν τοῦ κατὰ ψυχὴν ἄχθους. Πολὺ γὰρ αὐτοῖς ἐνταῦθα τὸ «διάβολε, τὶ στενάζεις;». Ἐβούλοντο γὰρ ἀναισθητεῖν ἡμᾶς καὶ φρενοβλαβεῖν, ὡς καὶ χαίρειν ἐφ' οἷς κακῶς ἐπάσχομεν. Εἰ δέ πῃ ξυμπεσὸν ὧδε γελᾶν εἴτε μειδιᾶν ἐπέλθοι τινί, χολὴ καὶ τοῦτο δριμεῖα τῷ κατιδόντι Λατίνῳ. Ἐνόμιζε γάρ, ὡς ἔοικεν, ἢ καταγελᾶν ἡμᾶς τῶν λατινικῶν πράξεων ἢ ἀγαθὰ καραδοκοῦντας ὁ χαιρέκακος εἴτε καὶ πεπονθότας ἀγαλλιᾶσθαι, ὃ τοῖς ἐχθροῖς ἀπενέφαινε. Καὶ τοίνυν δακτύλους εἰς γρόνθον ἔπτυσσον καὶ τὴν χεῖρα γογγυλίζοντες ἐρρύθμιζον πὺξ πλήττειν, «τί γελᾷς, ὦ διάβολε» βατταρίζοντες, καὶ οὕτω τὴν αἰθρίαν τοῦ μειδιάματος εἰς νέφος δακρυόεν μετέστρεφον ἤ, καὶ ἑτέρως εἰπεῖν, τὸν γελῶντα ∆ημόκριτον εἰς Ἡράκλειτον μετεποίουν δακρύοντα. Ἀνεψηλαφῶντο παρ' αὐτῶν καὶ τὰ τῶν παροδευόντων προκόλπια καὶ ἐξεκενοῦντο, εἴ τί που καὶ ἔφερον χρηματισμοῦ, εἰ καὶ βραχύ τι ἐκεῖνο ἦν. Περιειργάζοντο καὶ μηρούς, μή που μαχαίρας παρήρτηνται. Καὶ εἴ που εὑρεθείη ἐγχειρίδιον ὁποιονοῦν, αἱ μὲν κόρσαι τοῦ φέροντος εἶχον πληγάς, ὁ δὲ Λατῖνος τὴν μάχαιραν. Ἔδει καὶ διερρηγμένα πάντας ἡμᾶς περιδεδύσθαι· εἰ γάρ τις ἱματίζετο εἰς ἀκέραιον, ἀνεθεματίζετο παρ' αὐτοῖς ὁ μὴ λωποδυτήσας τὸν ἄνθρωπον. Ὅτε δὲ τἆλλα παρήσουσιν, ἐπεβούλευον ταῖς ἑκάστων κεφαλαῖς, ἐπίσης μισοῦντες τούς τε ἀκειρεκόμας, τούς τε βαθυπώγωνας. Καὶ οὐκ ἦν ἰδεῖν 132 ἄνδρα εἴτε καὶ παῖδα τύχης τῆς οἱασοῦν μὴ κουρίαν κατὰ κύκλον, ὁποία τις οἶμαι καὶ ἡ παροιμιαζομένη ἑκτόρειος κουρά, εἴτ' οὖν ἡ κατὰ Θησέα τὰ πρόσθια· ὡς τό γε ἀντίθετον βαθεῖαι ἦσαν αἱ πάλαι κόμαι κατὰ τοὺς Ἄβαντας καὶ οὐ κατὰ τοὺς Λατίνους τούτους, κύκλωθι τροχαλαὶ καί, ὡς [εἰς] εἰπεῖν, ἀκρόκομοι. Καὶ ὑπούργει πρὸς ταῦτα τοῖς τῶν τριχῶν ἐπιστρόφοις Λατίνοις πῇ μὲν ξυρός, πῇ δὲ μάχαιρα, τοῖς δὲ θερμοτέροις καὶ ξίφος· καὶ αὐτίκα καὶ ὁ πώγων ἠλαφρύνετο τῷ οὕτω κειραμένῳ ἀνδρί. Καὶ ἦν πάντῃ σπάνιον ἰδεῖν ἄνδρα Ῥωμαῖον ἄρτιον τὴν κεφαλήν. Εἶχον γὰρ ἀνάπαλιν τῷ «θρὶξ ἐκ τῆς κεφαλῆς ἡμῶν οὐ μὴ ἀπόληται». Ἡ γὰρ πολλὴ ἁμαρτία, δι' ἣν καὶ πρωῒ πεποινηλατήμεθα, κατὰ τὸν αὐχήσαντα τὰ εἰς τὰς πρωΐας ἀποκτένειν τοὺς ἁμαρτωλοὺς τῆς γῆς καὶ ἐξολοθρεύειν ἐκ πόλεως κυρίου τοὺς ἐργαζομένους τὸ ἄνομον, μέχρι καὶ ἐς αὐτὰς τρίχας τὸ κακὸν ἡμῖν ἐκορύφωσεν, ἵνα εἰς τὸ πᾶν ῥιγῶμεν ἐψιλωμένοι καὶ τὰς κεφαλάς. Κἂν εἴ που διεκπέφευγέ τινι πώγων καὶ ἦν καθιέμενος κοσμίως, ὡς εἶχε φύσεως, ἁπτόμενοι τούτου οἱ φαῦλοι κουρεῖς τῇ ἑτέρᾳ χειρί, θατέρᾳ δὲ τῶν κατὰ κεφαλὴν τριχῶν, ταῦτα μὲν εἶναι καλὰ ἔλεγον, ἐκεῖνα δὲ κακά, τὰ τοῦ πώγωνος, ἀστεϊζόμενοι ἐν οὐ παικτοῖς. Στέργοντες δὲ οὕτω τὴν ἐπὶ τοιούτοις πρὸς αὑτοὺς ἡμετέραν ἐξομοίωσιν, τὸ συζῆν αὐτοῖς ὅμως ἀπέστεργον· διόπερ οὐδὲ συμβιοτεύειν ἡμῖν ᾑροῦντο. Ἀλλ' ὅτε τις τῶν οἰκοδεσποτούντων ὧδε καὶ ἐκεῖ πλαζόμενος ἀναπολήσει τὴν οἰκίαν εἰς νοῦν καὶ φαντάσεται τὰ ἑαυτοῦ καὶ ἐπιθυμήσει παρελθεῖν ἐκεῖ καὶ ἐγγίσει καὶ παρακύψει ἐντὸς καὶ ἐρωτηθείη τίς ὢν οὕτω ποιεῖ καὶ ἐξείπῃ αὐτὸς τοῦ οἴκου κύριός ποτε εἶναι, παρελαμβάνετο μὲν ἡδέως καὶ ὑπανεχόμενος ὡς ἐπὶ τιμῇ ἔβαινεν ἁβρὸς ἔσω καὶ εἶχεν ἀσπασμὸν καὶ προεδρίαν καὶ βρῶσιν καὶ τὸ πιεῖν, τὰ δ' ἐπὶ τούτοις τῷ ἀνδρὶ ἐκ τῶν βαρβάρων δεξιώματα θανατηρά· κρεμάθραι γὰρ καὶ αἰκισμοὶ καὶ ἐξ ἀχύρων καπνοὶ καὶ ἕτερα καινότροπα κακὰ ἐπὶ χρημάτων ἐκφάνσει καὶ δόσει. Ὧν διδομένων πάλιν κύκλος ἐν τοῖς αὐτοῖς· ἀναρτήσεις γὰρ τοῦ ἀθλίου καὶ καταφοραὶ βαρεῖαι πληγῶν, ἕως ἂν ἢ ἐμπλησθῶσι