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,

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 was held in honor, even if death knows no grace, according to the tragedian. And Alduinus himself made clear this frequent Latin death, saying, being deeply grieved, that more than three thousand of their great men had fallen from disease. This heap was sweet to us, even if it did not counterbalance the pile from our 150 side. But when those who had fallen in war were also counted, we had a greater consolation. For the same man, blaming our irrational resistance and the resulting damage to the king, lamented that more than three thousand had fallen from the missiles sent down from outside the wall, apart from those falling in forays or in other ways, as the die of war cast and the wheel of justice rolled down, turning nimbly. Famine also carried away many; for their necessities were also constrained. And thus the nectar of consolation dripped upon us with the reduction of the enemy army, which the Latins who had been skillfully befriended by us (for we won over many, dealing in the things of God) revealed had come on foot as more than eighty thousand, of whom five thousand were testified to be trustworthy knights who could run against fifty thousand Roman opposites according to their opinion, and of the rest some were horse-archers, others light-armed troops and others useful with arms. And men of chance, they say, filled out the great number among them, those having received neither pay from the king nor a promise, but having followed the rest of the army, if somehow by taking part in the deeds they might find the good things of fortune. And so many were the infantry, and the navy, but they are manifest in a number of over two hundred ships, along with the pirates, who themselves also, having no royal backing, entrusted themselves to the gifts of fortune; by whom, pressing us on both land and sea, we were squeezed out of life and some of us were dragged away by death, while others, when Hades had closed his mouth, with whom, I think, he was sated, remained half-dead. But here having digressed by the necessity of the narrative, we shall run back again for a little while to reveal both the beggarly and rather gross nature of those who, like a flood, swept away our civic affairs; who sold the precious things foolishly and, as it were, childishly wherever anyone might handle them, and for the rest they set no price or a very small one indeed, and especially for all that equips a hand-to-hand fighting force. But the main roads had them lying about in heaps, the fragrant oils, the perfumed drops, the dry goods, things against diseases, for luxury, for dyeing, the other things by which a clean life is managed. To find fragrant wood, for instance, was to them like seeing a mere wood-chip, the noble raisin appeared to them as a piece of extinguished charcoal, the drop of rose-oil was classed as useless water, and the other things were somehow misunderstood in this way, so that by elaborating further on their brutish rusticity 152 I might not seem to be acting inhumanely. And it was a wonder how they took care of iron rings and distaffs and little knives and fire-strikers and small needles, as if they were great things, but gave the otherwise valuable things to be trampled underfoot. But their inexperience and their being unaccustomed to a civilized and civic life resolved the wonder. Therefore, according to the Corcyraean proverb, one could shamefully apply to our city as well the abominable "free", as if it were permitted in this city also for anyone who wished to defecate wherever he wanted. And one might not ineptly say of it that the great city is a great desert, and a desert not of Scythians, nor indeed of the conquering Latins, but of ourselves, who, chilled by the heaviest winter of sins, left so great a city desolate and brought upon ourselves the Sicilian Scylla. If only it were Scylla, who would have harmed us with but a few heads, but now Charybdis from there has dragged us down, sucking us up to our destruction. And here there was for me a place to begin laments and to bewail the evils upon us; but such things are not readily available to an old man, nor does a bishop of God engage in such words

ἐκεῖνοι τοὺς ἡμετέρους ἐνέρριψαν, καὶ μακαρίζοντες οὐκ αὐτοὺς ἀλλὰ τὴν νόσον, ἤδη δέ που καὶ τὸν θάνατον κατὰ τοὺς ἀπὸ Γαδείρων, παρ' οἷς ὁ Ἅιδης ἐκτετίμητο, εἰ καὶ μηδεμίαν χάριν οἶδε θάνατος κατὰ τὸν τραγῳδόν. Τὸν δὲ συχνὸν τοῦτον λατινικὸν θάνατον αὐτὸς ὁ Ἀλδουΐνος ἐτράνωσε περίλυπος φάμενος ὑπὲρ χιλιάδας τρεῖς μεγάλων αὐτοῖς ἀνθρώπων ἐκ νόσου πεσεῖν. Σωρὸς οὗτος ἡδὺς ἡμῖν, εἰ καὶ μὴ ἀντεσήκου πρὸς τὴν ἐξ ἡμῶν στοι 150 βήν. Συναριθμουμένων δέ γε καὶ τῶν ἐν πολέμῳ πεπτωκότων, εἴχομεν παραμυθίαν πλείονα. Ὁ αὐτὸς γάρ, αἰτιώμενος ἄλογον ἀντιστασίαν ἡμῶν καὶ ζημίαν ἐντεῦθεν τοῦ ῥηγός, ἐξετραγῴδησεν ὑπὲρ τρισχιλίους πεσεῖν ὑπὸ τῶν ἐκ τοῦ τείχους ἔξω καταπεμπομένων βελῶν, δίχα γε τῶν ἐν προνομαῖς πιπτόντων ἢ καὶ ἄλλως, ὡς ὁ τοῦ πολέμου κύβος ἔρριπτε καὶ ὁ τῆς δίκης τροχὸς κατεκύλιεν εὔστροφα περιφερόμενος. Πολλοὺς δὲ καὶ λιμὸς ἀπῆγεν· ἐστενοχωρεῖτο γὰρ καὶ σφίσι τὰ ἀναγκαῖα. Καὶ οὕτως ἡμῖν ἐπεσταλάττετο νέκταρ παραμυθίας τῇ ὑποκαταβάσει τῆς πολεμίου στρατιᾶς, ἣν οἱ δεξιῶς φιλιωθέντες ἡμῖν Λατῖνοι, πολλοὺς γὰρ ὑπηγόμεθα πραγματευόμενοι τὰ ἐκ Θεοῦ, ἐξεκάλυπτον ὑπὲρ ὀγδοήκοντα χιλιάδας πεζῇ ἐπελθεῖν, ὧν χίλιοι μὲν πεντάκις φερέγγυοι ἐμαρτυροῦντο ἱππόται εἶναι πεντήκοντα χιλιάσι ῥωμαϊκαῖς ἐναντίαι κατὰ τὴν ἐκείνων δόξαν ἀντιδραμεῖν, τῶν δὲ λοιπῶν οἱ μὲν ἱπποτοξόται ἦσαν, οἱ δὲ ψιλῆται καὶ ἄλλως δὲ μεθ' ὅπλων χρήσιμοι. Συνεπλήρουν δὲ τὸν πολὺν ἐν αὐτοῖς ἀριθμὸν καὶ ἄνδρες, φασί, τοῦ ῥιζίκου, μήτε διάρια λαχόντες ἐκεῖνοι ἐκ τοῦ ῥηγὸς μήθ' ὑπόσχεσιν, ἐπακολουθήσαντες δὲ τῷ λοιπῷ στρατῷ, εἴ πως τῶν ἔργων συναιρόμενοι τὰ ἐκ τύχης εὕροιεν ἀγαθά. Καὶ τοσοῦτοι μὲν τὸ πεζόν, τὸ δὲ ναυτικόν, ἀλλ' αὐτοὶ δῆλοι κατ' ἀριθμὸν τὸν ὑπὲρ διακοσίας νεῶν, σύν γε τοῖς πειραταῖς, οἳ καὶ αὐτοὶ μηδὲν ῥηγικὸν ἔχοντες τύχης δώροις ἐπέτρεψαν ἑαυτούς· ὑφ' ὧν, κατὰ γῆν τε καὶ θάλασσαν πιεσάντων ἡμᾶς, ἐξεθλίβημεν τῆς ζωῆς καὶ οἱ μὲν θανάτῳ κατεσπάσθημεν, οἱ δέ, τοῦ Ἅιδου τὸ στόμα συγκλείσαντος οἷς, οἶμαι, κεκόρεστο, ἡμιθνῆτες ἐμείναμεν. Ἀλλ' ἐνταῦθα παρεκβεβηκότες καθ' ἱστορίας ἀνάγκην, ἀναδραμούμεθα πρὸς μικρὸν αὖθις ἐκφῆναι τὸ καὶ πτωχικὸν καὶ ὑπόπαχυ τῶν κατακλυσμοῦ δίκην παρασυράντων τὰ πολιτικά· οἳ τὰ μὲν τίμια εὐήθως καὶ ὡς οἷα βρεφικῶς ἀπεδίδοντο οὗ ἄν τις αὐτοῖς χειρίσειε, τῶν δὲ λοιπῶν οὐδὲν ἢ βραχύ τι παντελῶς ἀνθίστων τίμημα, καὶ μάλιστα τῶν ὅσα ἐξοπλίζει χειρομάχαν πληθύν. Ἀλλ' εἶχον αὐτὰ εἰς χύμα προκείμενα αἱ λεωφόροι, τὰ ἐλαιώδη εὐώδη, τὰ στακτὰ εὔοδμα, τὰ ξηρά, τὰ κατὰ νόσων, τὰ πρὸς τρυφήν, τὰ πρὸς βαφήν, τἆλλα οἷς διοικονομεῖται βίος καθάρειος. Ξύλον γοῦν εὔοδμον εὑρεῖν, ἐκπελέκημά τι αὐτοῖς ἦν ἰδεῖν, ἡ εὐγενὴς ἀσταφὶς ἄνθρακος ἐσβεσμένου τμῆμα ἐφάνταζεν ἐκείνοις, τὸ ῥόδεον στάγμα εἰς ὕδωρ ἀχρεῖον ἐτάσσετο, καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ὧδέ πη παρενοοῦντο, ἵνα μὴ διασκευάζων εἰς πλέον θηριώδη ἀγροι 152 κίαν δοκοίην ἀπανθρωπίζεσθαι. Καὶ ἦν θαυμάζειν ὡς κρίκων μὲν σιδηρέων καὶ ἡλαρίων καὶ μαχαιριδίων καὶ πυρείων καὶ βελονίων ἐπιμελῶς εἶχον, ὡσεὶ καὶ μεγάλων τινῶν, τὰ δὲ ἄλλως ἁδρὰ ποσὶν ἐδίδουν πατεῖσθαι. Ἔλυε δὲ τὸ θαῦμα ἡ κατ' αὐτοὺς ἀπειρία καὶ τὸ πρὸς βίον ἥμερον καὶ πολιτικὸν ἀνέθιστον. Ἐντεῦθεν οὖν κατὰ τὴν κερκυραίαν παροιμίαν ἦν ἐπιλέγειν αἰσχρῶς καὶ τῇ καθ' ἡμᾶς πόλει τὸ ἀπευκταῖον ἐλεύθερον, ὡς ἐξὸν ὂν καὶ ἐν ταύτῃ ἀποπατεῖν, ὅποι ἐθέλει, τὸν βουλόμενον. Οὐκ ἂν δέ τις ἐπ' αὐτῆς ἀφυῶς εἴποι καὶ ἐρημίαν μεγάλην εἶναι τὴν μεγαλόπολιν, καὶ ἐρημίαν οὐ Σκυθῶν, οὐ μὴν οὐδὲ Λατίνων τῶν ἑλόντων, ἀλλ' ἡμῶν αὐτῶν, οἵ, ψυγέντες ἁμαρτιῶν βαρυτάτῳ χειμῶνι, ἔρημον τηλικαύτην πόλιν ἀφέντες ἐθέμεθα καὶ τὴν σικελικὴν Σκύλλαν ἐπηγαγόμεθα. Εἴθε μὲν οὖν Σκύλλαν, ὀλίγαις ἡμᾶς κεφαλαῖς ζημιώσουσαν, ἄρτι δὲ Χάρυβδις ἡ ἐκεῖθεν κατέσπακεν ἡμᾶς, ὀλέθριον ἀναρροιβδήσασα. Καὶ ἦν μὲν ἐνταῦθά μοι τόπος θρήνων κατάρξαι καὶ ἀποιμώξασθαι τὰ ἐφ' ἡμᾶς κακά· οὔτε δὲ γέροντι τὰ τοιαῦτα προσευπορεῖται καὶ οὐδὲ Θεοῦ ἐπίσκοπος τοιούτοις λόγοις