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to withdraw, having used this as a pretext of Patroclus. For he had previously taken hold of this, when the emperor Michael Doukas abdicated the throne, and advised his successor, Nikephoros Botaneiates, to be joined with her in the fellowship of marriage, because she was from a foreign land and a crowd of relatives was not with her, by whom the emperor might be troubled, reporting many things about her lineage and the beauty of her body and praising her often. 3.2.4 For she was tall in stature like a cypress, and her body was white as snow, her face not a perfect circle, but her complexion throughout was a spring flower or a rose indeed. And the radiance of her eyes, what man could describe? Her eyebrows were arched and auburn, her glance bright. Now, a painter’s hand has often imitated the colors of the flowers, as many as the seasons are accustomed to bear, but the beauty of the empress and the grace that shone upon her and the charm and pleasantness of her character appeared beyond description and art; not Apelles, not Phidias nor any of the sculptors ever produced such a statue. And the Gorgon’s head, it is said, made stones out of the men who saw it, but anyone seeing her walking or suddenly encountering her would stand agape and, in the very posture he happened to be in, would stand speechless, so that it seemed his soul and mind were then taken away. For such a proportion of limbs and parts, of the whole to the parts and of these to the whole, no one ever yet had beheld such in a human body; a living statue, and lovely to men who love beauty. For she was Desire itself, as it were, incarnated into this terrestrial world. 3.2.5 With these arguments, then, the Caesar at that time softened and won over the emperor's soul, even though many advised him to marry the empress Eudokia, about whom some were whispering that, desiring the throne again, she had tried to win over Botaneiates by letters when, hastening to be elevated to the imperial dignity, he had reached Damalis. Others said, that it was not for her own sake, but for that of her own daughter, Zoe the porphyrogenita. And perhaps what was being pursued would have been accomplished, if one of her servants had not checked her from this impulse, Leo the eunuch, the Kydoniates, who said many crucial things to her, which it is not right for us to report in detail, since we by nature turn away from slander, but the fabricators of such tales will surely concern themselves with these matters. 3.2.6 However, the Caesar John, having approached him in every way, brought the matter to a conclusion by persuading him to be joined with the empress Maria, as the account has already more clearly shown, and from then on he had great freedom of speech with her. And since these things were being accomplished in some days, with the Komnenoi not wishing to expel her from the palace all at once, since they had received many benefits from her during the whole time of her reign, and no less because of the familiarity they had with her on the pretext of the kinship that had arisen between both sides, many words were strung together by many, proclaiming different opinions, some taking what was being done one way, and others another, according as each had goodwill or hatred towards her, of those who are accustomed to judge matters by predisposition and not as they are. And so, for the time being Alexios is crowned alone by the right hand of the high priest Kosmas. For in the fourth year of the reign of Michael Doukas, son of the emperor Constantine, when the most holy patriarch John Xiphilinos had died on the second of the month of August, in the thirteenth indiction, this man, of sacred bearing and full of holiness, was then ordained. 3.2.7 But the fact that the empress had not yet been deemed worthy of the imperial diadem greatly frightened the Doukai; nevertheless, they also insisted that the empress Irene be deemed worthy of the crown. There happened to be a certain monk, Eustratios by name, Garidas by surname, whose dwelling

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ὑποχωρῆσαι, Πάτροκλον πρόφασιν ταῦτ' ἐσχηκώς. Ἔφθασε γὰρ ἀντιλαβέσθαι ταύτης, ὁπηνίκα ὁ βασιλεὺς Μιχαὴλ ὁ ∆ούκας τῆς βασιλείας ἐξέστη, καὶ τῷ μετ' αὐτὸν βεβασιλευκότι Νικηφόρῳ τῷ Βοτανειάτῃ συμ βουλεύσασθαι συναφθῆναι ταύτῃ πρὸς γάμου κοινωνίαν, ὅτι ἐξ ἀλλοδαπῆς ἐστι καὶ συγγενῶν ὄχλος οὐ προσῆν αὐτῇ, δι' ὧν ὁ βασιλεὺς ὀχλοῖτο, περί τε τοῦ γένους καὶ τῆς τοῦ σώματος ὥρας ἀπαγγέλλων πολλὰ καὶ πολλάκις ἐπαινῶν αὐτήν. 3.2.4 Καὶ γὰρ ἦν εὐμήκης μὲν τὴν ἡλικίαν καθαπερεὶ κυπάριττος, λευκὴ δὲ τὸ σῶμα ὡσεὶ χιών, πρόσ ωπον κύκλον μὲν οὐκ ἀπαρτίζον, τὸ δὲ χρῶμα δι' ὅλου ἄνθος ἠρινὸν ἢ ῥόδον ἄντικρυς. Τὰς δὲ τῶν ὀμμάτων αὐγὰς τίς ἀνθρώπων ἐξείποι; Ὀφρῦς ὑπερανεστηκυῖα καὶ πυρσή, βλέμμα χαροπόν. Ζωγράφου μὲν οὖν χεὶρ τὰ τῶν ἀνθέων πολλάκις ἐμιμήσατο χρώματα, ὁπόσα ὧραι φέρειν εἰώθασι, τὸ δὲ τῆς βασιλίδος κάλλος καὶ ἡ ἐπι λάμπουσα αὐτῇ χάρις καὶ τὸ τῶν ἠθῶν ἐπαγωγόν τε καὶ εὔχαρι ὑπὲρ λόγον καὶ τέχνην ἐφαίνετο· οὐκ Ἀπελλῆς, οὐ φειδίας οὐδέ τις τῶν ἀγαλματοποιῶν τοιοῦτόν ποτε παρή γαγεν ἄγαλμα. Καὶ ἡ μὲν τῆς Γοργοῦς κεφαλὴ λίθους ἐξ ἀνθρώπων τοὺς ὁρῶντας ἐποίει, ὡς λέγεται, τὴν δὲ ἰδὼν ἄν τις βαδίζουσαν ἢ αἴφνης ὑπαντιάσας ἐκεχήνει τε καὶ ἐπὶ ταὐτοῦ σχήματος ἐφ' ᾧ ἔτυχεν ὤν, ἵστατο ἐννεός, ὡς ἀφῃρῆσθαι τηνικαῦτα δοκεῖν καὶ ψυχὴν καὶ διάνοιαν. Ἀναλογίαν γὰρ τοιαύτην μελῶν καὶ μερῶν, τοῦ ὅλου πρὸς τὰ μέρη καὶ τούτων πρὸς τὸ ὅλον, οὐδεὶς οὐδέπω τοιαύτην ἐν ἀνθρώπου σώματι ἐθεάσατο· ἄγαλμα ἔμψυχον καὶ ἀνθρώποις φιλοκάλοις ἐράσμιον. Ἵμερος γὰρ ἄντικρυς ἦν σωματωθεὶς οἷον εἰς τόνδε τὸν περίγειον κόσμον. 3.2.5 Τού τοις οὖν ὁ καῖσαρ συγχρησάμενος τότε τὴν τοῦ βασιλέως καταμαλάττει καὶ χειροῦται ψυχήν, κἂν πολλοὶ αὐτῷ συνεβούλευον τὴν βασιλίδα ἀγαγέσθαι Εὐδοκίαν, περὶ ἦς ὑπετονθόρυζόν τινες, ὡς τῆς βασιλείας καὶ αὖθις ἱμειρο μένη τὸν Βοτανειάτην, ὁπηνίκα τὴν ∆άμαλιν κατέλαβεν ἐπειγόμενος εἰς τὴν βασίλειον ἀναχθῆναι περιωπήν, διὰ γραμμάτων ἐσφετερίζετο. Οἱ δέ, ὅτι οὐ χάριν ἑαυτῆς, ἀλλὰ τῆς ἰδίας θυγατρὸς Ζωῆς τῆς πορφυρογεννήτου. Καὶ τάχα διηνύκει ἂν τὸ σπουδαζόμενον, εἰ μή τις τῶν θερα πόντων τῆς ὁρμῆς ταύτην ἀνέκοψε, Λέων ἐκτομίας ὁ Κυδωνιάτης, πολλὰ καὶ καίρια πρὸς αὐτὴν εἰρηκώς, ἃ κατὰ μέρος ἡμῖν ἀπαγγέλλειν οὐ θέμις φύσει τὸ διαβάλλειν ἀποστρεφομένοις, τοῖς δὲ τῶν τοιούτων λογοποιοῖς πάντως καὶ περὶ τούτων μελήσει. 3.2.6 Ὁ μέντοι καῖσαρ Ἰωάννης παντοίως αὐτὸν μετελθὼν πέρας δέδωκε τῇ βουλῇ πείσας συναφθῆναι τῇ βασιλίδι Μαρίᾳ, καθὼς ὁ λόγος σαφέστερον φθάσας ἐδήλωσε, κἀντεῦθεν παρρησίαν πολλὴν ἐσχήκει πρὸς αὐτήν. Ἐπεὶ δ' ἔν τισιν ἡμέραις ταῦτ' ἐτελεῖτο, μὴ βουλομένων τῶν Κομνηνῶν ἀθρόον τῶν βασιλείων αὐτὴν ἀπελάσαι, ἅτε πολλῶν αὐτῆς εὐεργετημάτων τυχόντων παρ' ὅλον τὸν τῆς βασιλείας αὐτῆς χρόνον, οὐχ ἧττον δὲ καὶ δι' ἣν πρὸς αὐτὴν ἔσχον συνήθειαν τῇ προφάσει τῆς ἐξ ἀμφοτέρων τῶν μερῶν ξυμπεσούσης συγγενείας, πολλοὶ ἐκ πολλῶν συνείροντο λόγοι νοημάτων διαφόρων ἐξαγγελ τικοί, τῶν μὲν ἄλλως ἐκλαμβανομένων τὰ πραττόμενα, τῶν δὲ ἑτέρως, ὡς ἕκαστος εὐνοίας ἢ μίσους εἶχε τὰ πρὸς αὐτὴν τῶν εἰωθότων ἐκ προαιρέσεως καὶ μὴ ὡς ἔχουσι κρίνειν τὰ πράγματα. Καὶ δὴ στέφεται τέως ὁ Ἀλέξιος μόνος παρὰ τῆς δεξιᾶς τοῦ ἀρχιερέως Κοσμᾶ. Καὶ γὰρ τῷ τετάρτῳ ἔτει τῆς βασιλείας Μιχαὴλ τοῦ ∆ούκα τοῦ υἱοῦ Κωνσταντίνου αὐτοκράτορος τελευτήσαντος τοῦ ἱερωτάτου πατριάρχου Ἰωάννου τοῦ Ξιφιλίνου μηνὸς Αὐγούστου δευτέραν ἄγοντος ἐπινεμήσεως τρισκαιδεκάτης χειροτονεῖται τηνικαῦτα οὗτος ἀνὴρ ἱεροπρεπὴς καὶ πλήρης ἁγιωσύνης. 3.2.7 Τοὺς ∆ούκας δὲ τὸ μήπω τὴν βασιλίδα τῆς βασιλικῆς ταινίας ἀξιωθῆναι ἐπὶ πλέον ἐξεδειμάτου· ἐνίσταντο δὲ ὅμως καὶ τὴν βασιλίδα Εἰρήνην τοῦ στέφους ἀξιωθῆναι. Ἔτυχε δέ τις μοναχὸς Εὐστρά τιος τὴν κλῆσιν, Γαριδᾶς τὴν ἐπωνυμίαν, τὰς οἰκήσεις