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,

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 what need was there to urge them to pray for what he himself prayed against, the salvation of the city? But his plan was to make a show of piety and to conceal his 144 desire, so that he might seem to care for the city in all things, if indeed he also wanted prayers on its behalf; and I think also showing that he had brought the city's affairs to such a state that it needed prayers and prayers alone, just as if a doctor, having through some incompetence brought a man to the point of death, then orders a priest to be summoned to provide the dying man with the saving sacrament for his journey. For he was not superficial, but very profound in his jesting, such as to test the man's character for those who are clever at judging the characters of those they meet. Therefore he also feigned this supplication to God, as if the divine could not be appeased. But however the matter stood, he spoke, and the ecclesiastics obeyed. And indeed, as it was necessary for the sweet melodist David to shine forth in the singing of psalms, it occurred to them, in a way that was not at all auspicious for those who were about to pray (it was deep dawn then, at whose shining by the sun we were captured), to choose that psalm which begins, "O God, the nations have come into your inheritance," and is followed by "they have defiled your holy temple, they have given the dead bodies of your servants," and what follows, the prophet and forefather of God all but prophesying through the utterance of those gathered for prayer and saying, "Why should we still need embassies to God, when our fate has been declared by Him?" Thus were these things, supported by many other combinations of the declaration of evil. And so, by the frequency of these things, we all came to our senses, gathering our wits late and rejecting our former rashness, for I would not call that courage, and we reasonably held and understood that for us there was no longer any escape. Therefore, the supplicatory harmonies of the churches had no sooner come to an end than the war, while the psalms were still turning in the mouths of the supplicants, crammed in laments and turned them instead to pitiable wailings and the cries of Hades, and scattered in flight those who had gathered, and arranged such things as I think the living will remember even in their dreams, if it is not only pleasant things that come forth from the imagination in sleep, but no less also those which have shown terror. And so from a private enmity, both that against the emperor Andronikos and that against the duke David, a common evil rushed down in reverse upon the one who had judged that many common matters should find their correction through certain private enmities, and no joyful day, but one of utter destruction, burst upon us. A day which I wished might be cut out at once from the fulfillments of the good year, such as the suffering and patient Job also prayed, but He who commanded the sun to define the things of the year according to the sequence from the ages will surely nullify this prayer, having taught us to pray otherwise, more humanly. For to kneel thus in supplications would not be the act of a soul not carried away by what it suffers; 146 whence it is also pardonable, if we speak thus. For here stones would not suffer, and all that is like them. For how could a man not, where even of the enemies those who seemed to know God and to have some pity and were not beast-like wept and lamented, seeing such a city so disfigured and deprived of its beauties, which, if they had been distributed, would have furnished the greatest part of the inhabited world for happiness? For it was not simply a city, but a land of the blessed, which one who has known it could not forget; which, ever flourishing with worldly beauties, then blossomed with unburied corpses, whose bodies still lie unburied in hidden places, of men, women, infants, the young, the middle-aged, the old, to say the most merciless thing, of the paralyzed or those who suffered some other harm by a defect of nature, and indeed of those being nursed for any reason, whom neither wall saw nor weapon wore down. For running into the ecclesiastical hospice, those terrible men who act bravely even against shadows, first

διὰ πάντων ἡμῶν καὶ προμηθέστατος. Μηνύεται γοῦν ἡμῖν παννυχίδας ἀγρυπνητὰς ἐπιτάξαι περὶ τοὺς μεγάλους ναούς, παίζων ἐκεῖνος κἀνταῦθα. Τί γὰρ καὶ ἔδει προτρέπειν εὔχεσθαι ὅπερ ἐκεῖνος ἀπηύχετο, τὴν σωτηρίαν τῆς πόλεως; Ἦν δέ οἱ ἐπίνοια ὁσιοῦσθαι τὸ εὐσεβεῖν καὶ ἐπικρύπτειν τὴν 144 ὄρεξιν, ἵνα δοκῇ πάνυ περιποιεῖσθαι τὴν πόλιν ἐφ' ἅπασιν, εἴ γε θέλει καὶ εὐχάς, τὰς ὑπὲρ αὐτῆς· οἶμαι δὲ καὶ ἐνδεικνύμενος οὕτω καταστῆσαι τὰ τῆς πόλεως, ὡς εὐχῶν καὶ μόνων αὐτὴν δέεσθαι, ὅμοιον ὡσεὶ καὶ ἰατρὸς κατεργασάμενος ἔκ τινος φαυλότητος ἐπὶ θανάτῳ ἄνθρωπον, εἶτα ἐπιτάσσει προσκαλεῖσθαι ἱερέα, ἐφοδιάσοντα ἤδη θνήσκοντα σωστικῷ ἁγιάσματι. Οὐδὲ γὰρ ἦν ἐπιπόλαιος, ἀλλὰ καὶ λίαν βαθὺς εὐτραπελεύεσθαι, ὅσα γε πειράσασθαι τοῦ ἀνδρὸς τοὺς δεινοὺς γνωματεύειν ἤθη τῶν οἷς ἂν περιτύχωσι. ∆ιὸ καὶ ταύτην προσεποιεῖτο τὴν θεοκλύτησιν, ὡς οὐκ ἂν τὸ θεῖον θεραπεύοιτο. Ὅπως δ' ἂν εἶχε τὸ πρᾶγμα, ὁ μὲν εἶπεν, οἱ δ' ἐκκλησιαστικοὶ ἐπήκουον. Καὶ δὴ χρεὼν προλάμπειν τοῦ ψάλλειν τὸν γλυκὺν μελῳδὸν ∆αυΐδ, ἐπῆλθεν οὔτι κατὰ αἴσιον τοῖς δεησομένοις (ἦν δὲ βαθὺς ὄρθρος τότε, οὗ λαμφθέντος ἡλίῳ ἑάλωμεν) ἐπιλέξασθαι ψαλμὸν ἐκεῖνον, οὗ κατάρχει μὲν τὸ «ὁ Θεός, ἤλθοσαν ἔθνη εἰς τὴν κληρονομίαν σου», ἐφέπεται δὲ τὸ «ἐμίαναν τὸν ναὸν τὸν ἅγιον σου, ἔθεντο τὰ θνησιμαῖα τῶν δούλων σου», καὶ τὸ ἑξῆς, μονονοὺ χρησμῳδοῦντος τοῦ προφήτου καὶ θεοπάτορος δι' ὑποφητείας τῶν ἠθροισμένων εἰς δέησιν καὶ λέγοντος «τί ἂν ἔτι δεοίμεθα πρεσβειῶν εἰς Θεόν, ἔνθα ἐκείνῳ τὰ καθ' ἡμῶν ἀποπέφανται;» Εἶχεν οὕτω ταῦτα, πλείοσιν ἑτέροις παρασπιζόμενα συγκροτήμασι τῆς τοῦ κακοῦ δηλώσεως. Καὶ τοίνυν τῷ συχνῷ τούτων ἅπαντες ἀνεφρονοῦμεν, ὄψιμον συνάγοντες νοῦν καὶ τὸ πρῴην θράσος ἀποποιούμενοι, οὐ γὰρ ἂν ἐκεῖνο θάρσος εἴποιμι, ἐλλόγως εἴχομεν καὶ ἐνοοῦμεν οὐκέθ' ἡμῖν εἶναι φυκτά. Οὔκουν ἔφθησαν καταντῆσαι εἰς πέρας αἱ τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν δεητήριοι ἁρμονίαι καὶ ὁ πόλεμος, ἔτι τῶν ψαλμῶν εἰλουμένων ἐν τοῖς τῶν δεομένων στόμασι, θρήνους παρέβυσε καὶ εἰς γόους οἰκτροὺς καὶ ἀλαλαγμοὺς Ἅιδου ἀντιπεριέστησε καὶ εἰς φυγὴν αὐτοὺς ἀθροισθέντας ἔπτυρε καὶ τοιαῦτα διέθετο ὧνπερ ὀΐω μεμνήσεσθαι τοὺς ζῶντας ἔν περ ὀνείροις, εἴπερ οὐ τὰ ἡδέα μόνον προπίπτουσι τῆς καθ' ὕπνον φαντασίας, ἀλλ' οὐδὲν ἧττον καὶ τὰ φόβον ἐνδειξάμενα. Καὶ οὕτω ἐξ ἰδίας ἔχθρας, τῆς τε κατὰ τὸν βασιλέα Ἀνδρόνικον καὶ τῆς κατὰ τὸν δοῦκα ∆αυΐδ, κοινὸν κακὸν κατέσκηψεν ἀνάπαλιν τῷ γνωματευσαμένῳ πολλὰ τῶν κοινῶν κατά τινας ἰδίας ἔχθρας λαγχάνειν ἐπανόρθωσιν, καὶ οὐκ εὐφραδὴς ἡμέρα, ἡ τῆς πανωλεθρίας, κατερράγη ἡμῖν. Ἣν ἤθελον μὲν ἐκ τῶν τοῦ καλοῦ ἐνιαυτοῦ ἀναπληρωμάτων αὐτίκα ἐκκοπῆναι, ὁποῖόν τι λελυπημένος καὶ ὁ καρτερικὸς Ἰὼβ εὔξατο, ἀλλ' ὁ ἐπιτάξας τῷ ἡλίῳ ὁρίζειν τὰ τοῦ ἐνιαυτοῦ καθ' εἱρμὸν τὸν ἀπ' αἰώνων ἐξουδενώσει πάντως τὸ τῆς εὐχῆς ταύτης, πεπαιδευκὼς ἄλλως εὔχεσθαι, ἀνθρωπικώτερον. Τὸ γὰρ οὕτω γονυπετεῖν ἐν δεήσεσιν οὐκ ἂν εἴη ψυχῆς μὴ παραφερομένης οἷς παθαί 146 νεται· ὅθεν καὶ συγγνωστά, εἰ καὶ οὕτω λαλοῦμεν. Λίθοι γὰρ ἐνταῦθα οὐκ ἂν παθήναιντο καὶ ὅσα κατ' αὐτούς. Πῶς γὰρ ἄνθρωπος, ἔνθα καὶ τῶν πολεμίων οἱ φαινόμενοι Θεὸν εἰδέναι καί τι ἔχειν οἴκτου καὶ ἀθηρίωτοι ἐδάκρυον καὶ κατεστέναζον, βλέποντες πόλιν τοιαύτην οὕτω κατῃκισμένην καὶ ἐζημιωμένην καλοῖς, ἅπερ, εἰ διενεμήθη, πλείστην ἂν τῆς οἰκουμένης εἰς εὐδαιμονισμὸν ἐξήρτυσαν; Οὐ γὰρ πόλις ἦν ἡ ἁπλῶς, ἀλλὰ μακάρων γῆ, ὁποίαν ὁ μαθὼν οὐκ ἂν ἔχοι λαθέσθαι αὐτῆς· ἣ θάλλουσα ἐσαεὶ τοῖς κατὰ κόσμον καλοῖς ἐξήνθησε τότε ἀτημελήτοις νεκροῖς, ὧν καὶ εἰσέτι σώματα ἀκηδέα κεῖται ἐν παραβύστοις, ἀνδρῶν, γυναικῶν, νηπίων, ἀκμαίων, μεσαιπολίων, γερόντων, εἰπεῖν τὸ ἀνηλεέστερον, παρειμένων ἢ καὶ ἄλλο τι σίνος παθόντων ἀποτυχίᾳ φύσεως, καὶ αὐτῶν δὴ τῶν ὁπηδήποτε νοσοκομουμένων, οὓς οὔτε τεῖχος εἶδεν οὔθ' ὅπλον ἔτριψε. Τὸν γοῦν ἐκκλησιαστικὸν ξενῶνα εἰσδραμόντες οἱ δεινοὶ καὶ κατὰ σκιῶν ἀνδρίζεσθαι, πρῶτον