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 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, then life will pity or release the one being tortured. But some of those suffering thus the torturers also removed from life in another way, fearing that, having discovered a great treasure from the one being punished, the find would be taken from them by the counts, as had been agreed. For instance, a certain Constantine, surnamed Kekalesmenos, a good and open-handed man, imagining his own property, to which his heart 134 was attached, and thus being ensnared by longing for his home, and being hung up and worn down with a myriad of blows, and at each hanging having spewed forth money and brought it to a great sum, then, suffering from a lightness of mind and being deluded in his attempt to get something from there, and threatening to report the matter to the counts, he no longer had a head, but it, having been cut off, was buried somewhere, while the rest of Constantine was cast out as a helpless corpse. And this evil also took on another intensification. For the barbarians, having thus been sweetened by the profit from the householders, lay in wait inside the gates, and if they saw anyone passing by who gave the appearance of a man once wealthy, they would snatch him inside, like some fierce beasts from a den, and using violence they would tyrannize him, until they should accomplish something of their aim. But if some also wished to live together with captives, this too had a certain burden, as those who seemed to fare well related, yet it was somehow mutually affectionate and more humane. It was not possible then even for the divine temples to be celebrated with hymns without being molested, but even this good work was met with insolence. And at first, for a good number of days, they were neither locked, nor was there the customary assembly for God to be hymned, but only if somewhere for shelter and repose from captivity, as much as happened in private houses. But when at length some license appeared and the divine gates were closed and the mystical light was kindled and psalms were harmonized and a priest officiated and our people had leisure according to their strength, then the demon worked against it, as the wicked Latins ran in and plotted against the sacred voices, babbling and barking their usual sounds, to see if they could somehow interrupt the continuity of the good. These same men also wished to prohibit the wooden plank, which is suited to signify to the people the gathering for church, like a herald. So when at the beginning this was struck at the cathedral toward evening for vespers, the barbarians, bearing swords, were immediately upon the one striking it, in the twinkling of an eye or with the speed of lightning, and, chewing the devil as was their custom to our insult, they said, "What is this?" and forbade the action at that time. And their will spread, through the fear 136 on our part, even to the others who sang psalms in this way. And after not many days, when the feast of the Exaltation of the all-honorable Cross was to be celebrated by us on the next day, the sacred heralds went up to the roof of our cathedral, to perform the customary rites in brief; for it was not possible to draw them out, since the praise was not without offense. And when they signaled the feast more distinctly with the wooden plank, again came the barbarians with naked swords, and swift were their ascents, and interrogations and searches of the surroundings, as if tracking something, lest some deceit might be concealed. And when, after being meddlesome and speaking abusively and making threats, they found those around us to be steadfast interpreters of the matter, they were calmed and came down tame and no longer bothered us anywhere, as though their perplexity had truly been resolved. Then indeed it occurred to us to wonder why on earth they do not suspect the large bells for signaling the chanting up around the church of the Myrrh-gusher, but they take so hard the wooden plank at the metropolitan church which signals the sacred assembly. And we considered, as was likely, that not just any Latins were displeased, but some of those from the Great City, who, having been present at the holy war previously described in the history, and having learned that in the great church at that time such pieces of wood were rattled, summoning Andronikos as it were to the aid of the church's people, thought that we too were contriving some such thing here. And such were our daily evils, from

τῶν ποθουμένων οἱ δήμιοι ἢ ἐλεήσωσιν. Ἐγίνετο γάρ ποτε καὶ τοιόνδε τι, ὡσεὶ καὶ λέων πεινῶν καὶ ἐνδακών, εἶτα ἐλεήσει ἢ ἀφήσει τὸν αἰκιζόμενον ἡ ζωή. Τῶν τινας δὲ οὕτω πασχόντων καὶ ἄλλως τοῦ ζῆν μετέστησαν οἱ αἰκιζόμενοι, δείσαντες μὴ πολὺν θησαυρὸν ἐκ τοῦ κολαζομένου ἐξευρηκότες ἀφαιρεθῶσι πρὸς τῶν κομήτων τὸ εὑρημένον, καθὰ συνέκειτο. Κωνσταντῖνος γοῦν τις, ᾧ ἐπίκλην Κεκαλεσμένος, ἀνὴρ ἀγαθὸς καὶ πλήθων τὰς χεῖρας, φαντασάμενος τὰ οἰκεῖα, οἷς τὴν καρ 134 δίαν κεκόλλητο, καὶ οὕτω πόθῳ τοῦ οἴκου ἀγρευθεὶς καὶ ἀπαιωρηθεὶς καὶ μυρίας πληγὰς ἐντριβεὶς καὶ κατὰ ἑκάστην ἀπαιώρησιν ἐξεράσας χρήματα καὶ εἰς πολλὰ κορυφώσας αὐτά, εἶτα καὶ ἐλαφρίαν παθὼν λογισμοῦ καὶ ἐν τῷ ζητῆσαι λαβεῖν τι ἐκεῖθεν παρακρουσθεὶς καὶ ἀπειλησάμενος καταμηνῦσαι τὸ πρᾶγμα τοῖς κόμησιν, οὐκ ἔσχεν ἔτι κεφαλήν, ἀλλ' αὐτὴ μὲν κατεχώσθη που ἐκκοπεῖσα, ὁ δὲ λοιπὸς Κωνσταντῖνος ἐξερρίφη νεκρὸς ἀβοήθητος. Ἔσχε δὲ καὶ τοῦτο τὸ κακὸν ἑτεροίαν ἐπίτασιν. Γλυκανθέντες γὰρ οὕτω τῷ κέρδει τῶν οἰκοδεσποτούντων οἱ βάρβαροι, ἐνελόχων ἔσω πυλῶν καί, εἴ τινα παροδεύοντα ἴδοιεν δόκησιν ἀνδρὸς πέμποντα πλουτοῦντός ποτε, ἥρπαζον αὐτὸν ἔσω, οἷά τινες δεινοὶ θῆρες ἐκ φωλεοῦ, καὶ βιαζόμενοι ἐτυράννουν, ἕως τι τῶν κατὰ σκοπὸν ἀνύσαιεν. Εἰ δέ τινες καὶ συμβιοτεύειν αἰχμαλώτοις ἤθελον, εἶχε μέν τι καὶ τοῦτο βάρος, ὡς οἱ εὖ πάσχειν δοκοῦντες περιηγοῦντο, ἦν δέ πως φιλάλληλον αὐτὸ καὶ ἀνθρωπικώτερον. Οὐκ ἧν οὐδὲ τοὺς θείους ναοὺς ὕμνοις ἀσκύλτως περιᾴδεσθαι τότε, ἀλλ' εἶχε καὶ τὸ καλὸν ἔργον τοῦτο ἐπήρειαν. Καὶ τὰς μὲν ἀρχὰς ἱκαναὶ ἡμέραι καὶ οὔ τε ἐκλείοντο οὔτε σύναξις ἦν ἡ ἐθάς, ὡς ὑμνεῖσθαι Θεόν, ἀλλ' εἴ που ὡς ἐπὶ σκέπῃ καὶ ἀναπαύσει αἰχμαλωσίας, ὅσα καὶ κατ' οἴκους. Ὅτε δέ ποτε καί τις ἄδεια ἐξεφάνη καὶ θεῖοι πυλεῶνες ἐκλείσθησαν καὶ φῶς μυστικὸν ἀνήφθη καὶ ἡρμόσθησαν ψαλμοὶ καὶ ἱερεὺς ἐτέλει καὶ λαὸς ἡμέτερος εἶχε σχολὴν κατὰ ἰσχύν, τότε ὁ δαίμων ἀντέπραττε, τῶν φαύλων Λατίνων εἰστρεχόντων καὶ ταῖς ἱεραῖς φωναῖς ἐπιβουλευόντων καὶ λαλαγούντων καὶ συνήθη βαϋζόντων, εἴ πως ἐγκόπτουσι τὴν συνέχειαν τοῦ καλοῦ. Οἱ δ' αὐτοὶ καὶ τὸ ξύλον, ὅπερ εὔθετόν ἐστι κήρυκος δίκην σημαίνειν τῷ λαῷ τὴν ἐπ' ἐκκλησίας ἄθροισιν, κωλύειν ἤθελον. Ὅτε γοῦν τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐκρούσθη τοῦτο περὶ τὴν καθολικὴν πρὸς δείλην ἑσπερινήν, ξιφήρεις αὐτίκα ἐπὶ τὸν κρούσαντα κατὰ ῥιπὴν ὀφθαλμοῦ ἢ τάχος ἀστραπῆς οἱ βάρβαροι, καὶ τὸν διάβολον συνήθως μασώμενοι καθ' ὕβριν ἡμετέραν «τί τοῦτο;» ἔλεγον καὶ ἐκώλυσαν τότε τὸ ἔργον. Καὶ διέβη τὸ τούτων θέλημα κατὰ φόβον τὸν 136 ἐξ ἡμῶν καὶ εἰς τοὺς λοιπούς, ὅσοι οὕτως ἔψαλλον. Μετὰ δὲ οὐ πολλὰς ἡμέρας, τῆς ἑορτῆς ἡμῖν ἐσαύριον ἀχθησομένης τῆς Ὑψώσεως τοῦ παντίμου σταυροῦ, ἀνῆλθον μὲν οἱ ἱεροκήρυκες εἰς τὴν τοῦ καθ' ἡμᾶς καθολικοῦ ἱεροῦ κορυφήν, τὰ συνήθη τελέσοντες ἐν ἐπιτομῇ· οὐδὲ γὰρ ἐξῆν πλατῦναι διὰ τὸ τῆς εὐφημίας οὐκ ἀπρόσκοπτον. Καὶ ὡς ἐσήμαναν τῷ ξύλῳ τὴν ἑορτὴν τρανέστερον, πάλιν οἱ βάρβαροι ξίφη γυμνὰ καὶ ἄνοδοι αὐτῶν ἐντρεχεῖς καὶ ἀνακρίσεις καὶ ἔρευναι τῶν κύκλῳ κατά τινα ἰχνηλάτησιν, μὴ καί τις δόλος ὑποκρύπτοιτο. Ὡς δὲ καὶ πολυπραγμονήσαντες καὶ κακολογήσαντες καὶ ἀπειλησάμενοι σταθεροὺς ἑρμηνευτὰς τοῦ πράγματος εὗρον τοὺς περὶ ἡμᾶς, ἐπραΰνθησαν καὶ κατῆλθον ἥμεροι καὶ οὐκέτι ἐνώχλησαν οὐδαμοῦ, οἷα λελυμένου τοῦ ἀπόρου σφίσι πρὸς ἀλήθειαν. Τότε δὴ καὶ ἐπῆλθεν ἡμῖν ἀπορῆσαι τί δήποτε τοὺς μὲν ἄνω περὶ τὸν τοῦ Μυροβλύτου ναὸν σημαντικοὺς τοῦ ψάλλειν μεγάλους κώδωνας οὐχ ὑποπτεύουσι, τὸ δὲ περὶ τὴν μητρόπολιν συνθηματίζον ξύλον τὴν ἱερὰν σύναξιν βαρέως φέρουσι. Καὶ διενοησάμεθα, ὡς εἰκός, μὴ τοὺς τυχόντας Λατίνους δυσαρεστηθῆναι, ἀλλὰ τῶν τινας ἐκ τῆς Μεγαλοπόλεως, οἳ τῷ ἱερῷ παρατυχόντες πολέμῳ, τῷ προεκτεθειμένῳ εἰς ἱστορίαν, καὶ μαθόντες ἐν τῷ μεγάλῳ ναῷ τότε ξύλα τοιαῦτα κροταλιζόμενα καὶ τὸν Ἀνδρόνικον προκαλούμενα ὡς εἰς ἐπικουρίαν τῶν τῆς ἐκκλησίας, ᾠήθησαν κἀνταῦθα ἡμᾶς τοιοῦτόν τι μηχανᾶσθαι. Καὶ τοιαῦτα μὲν ἡμῖν τὰ ἡμερινὰ κακά, ἐξ