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of the old quality. And when the oath has been fulfilled by your nobility, the remaining two hundred and sixteen thousand coins and the payment for the twenty dignities granted will be sent to you through Vagelardos, most faithful to your authority, whenever you go down to Lombardy. 3.10.5 How, however, the oath ought to be fulfilled has already been made known in every way to your nobility, and Constantine the protoproedros and katepano will report it yet more clearly, who was also instructed by our majesty concerning each of the articles which are to be demanded and confirmed by the oath to be taken by you. For when the agreement was made between my majesty and the ambassadors sent by your nobility, some of the more necessary articles were mentioned; but because the men of your nobility said that they had no instruction concerning these, for this reason my majesty also suspended her oath. Therefore, let the oath be fulfilled by your nobility, as your faithful Albert confirmed under oath to my majesty, and as our majesty demands by way of a more necessary addition to it. 3.10.6 The delay of your most faithful and most noble count Voulchardos came about because my majesty wished my dearest nephew, the son of the most fortunate sebastokrator and much-beloved brother of my majesty, to be seen by him, so that coming he might report to you the understanding of the boy, which is advanced for his tender age. For my majesty considers external and physical matters of secondary importance, even if in these he has a great abundance. For your ambassador will report to you how, having come to the great city, he saw the child and spoke what was fitting. And since God has not yet granted a child to my majesty, but this dearest nephew holds for me the place of a legitimate child, God willing there is nothing to prevent us from being united by the blood of kinship and having friendly feelings toward each other as Christians, and also becoming intimate with each other's affairs as relatives, so that from this, being strengthened each by the other, we may be fearsome to our adversaries and, with God, invincible. 3.10.7 To your nobility have now been sent as gifts a golden pectoral with pearls, a gilded case containing inside relics of different saints, each of which is identified by the parchment placed upon each of them, a sardonyx cup and a drinking vessel of crystal, a thunderstone bound with gold, and balsam oil. 3.10.8 May God lengthen your life, broaden the borders of your authority, and give you all your opponents for reproach and for trampling. Peace be to your authority and may the sun of tranquility shine upon all your subjects, and may all your enemies be brought to destruction by the mighty power from above which grants to you invincibility over all, who so loves His true name and arms your hand against His enemies.” 3.11.1 Having thus managed the affairs of the west, he himself prepared for the pressing and imminent danger that threatened, still persevering in the queen of cities, considering how by every method he might stand against the enemies who were clearly advancing. And since, as the account has already shown, he saw the most godless Turks lingering around the Propontis, with Solyman ruling all the east and encamped around Nicaea (where his sultanate was, which we would call a palace) and continually sending out foragers and plundering all the lands around both Bithynia and Thynia, and making cavalry charges and raids as far as the Bosphorus itself, at the place now called Damalis, and carrying off much booty and all but attempting to leap over the sea itself. Seeing whom, the Byzantines

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παλαιᾶς ποιότη τος. Καὶ τελειουμένου τοῦ ὅρκου παρὰ τῆς εὐγενείας σου σταλήσονταί σοι καὶ αἱ ὑπόλοιποι διακόσιοι δεκαὲξ χιλιάδες τῶν νομισμάτων καὶ ἡ ῥόγα τῶν δοθέντων εἴκοσιν ἀξιωμά των διὰ τοῦ πιστοτάτου τῇ σῇ ἐξουσίᾳ Βαγελάρδου, ὁπηνίκα εἰς Λογγιβαρδίαν κατέλθῃς. 3.10.5 Ὅπως μέντοι ὀφείλει τελεσθῆναι ὁ ὅρκος, προεδηλώθη πάντως τῇ εὐγε νείᾳ σου, ἀπαγγελεῖ δ' ἔτι σαφέστερον καὶ ὁ πρωτοπρόε δρος Κωνσταντῖνος καὶ κατεπάνω, ὃς καὶ παρὰ τοῦ κράτους ἡμῶν ἐνταλθεὶς ἕκαστον τῶν κεφαλαίων, ἅπερ μέλλουσι ζητηθῆναι καὶ διὰ τοῦ γενησομένου παρὰ σοῦ ὅρκου βεβαιωθῆναι. Ὁπηνίκα γὰρ ἡ συμφωνία ἀναμεταξὺ τῆς βασιλείας μου καὶ τῶν παρὰ τῆς εὐγενείας σου ἀποστα λέντων πρέσβεων ἐγίνετο, διεμνημονεύθησάν τινα τῶν ἀναγκαιοτέρων κεφάλαια· ὅτι δὲ περὶ τούτων μὴ ἔχειν πρόσταξιν εἶπον οἱ τῆς εὐγενείας σου ἄνθρωποι, κατὰ τοῦτο καὶ ἡ βασιλεία μου τὸν ὅρκον αὐτῆς ἀνήρτησε. Τοίνυν καὶ τελεσθήτω ὁ ὅρκος παρὰ τῆς εὐγενείας σου, ὡς ὁ πιστός σου Ἀλβέρτης ἐνωμότως τῇ βασιλείᾳ μου ἐβεβαίωσε, καὶ ὡς τὸ ἡμέτερον κράτος κατὰ προσθήκην ἀναγκαιοτέραν αὐτοῦ ζητεῖ. 3.10.6 Ἡ δὲ βραδυτὴς τοῦ πιστοτάτου καὶ εὐγενεστάτου σου κόμητος τοῦ Βουλχάρ δου γέγονε διὰ τὸ τὴν βασιλείαν μου βούλεσθαι τὸν φίλτα τόν μοι ἀνεψιόν, τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ πανευτυχεστάτου σεβαστο κράτορος καὶ περιποθήτου αὐταδέλφου τῆς βασιλείας μου, θεαθῆναι παρ' αὐτοῦ, ὡς ἂν ἐλθὼν ἀπαγγείλῃ σοι τὴν ἐν ἡλικίας ἁπαλῷ καταστήματι βεβηκυῖαν σύνεσιν τοῦ παι δός. Τὰ γὰρ ἔξω καὶ σωματικὰ δευτέρου τίθεται λόγου ἡ βασιλεία μου, εἰ καὶ ἐν τούτοις πολὺ ἔχει τὸ περιούσιον. Ὡς γὰρ τῇ μεγαλοπόλει ἐνδημήσας ἐθεάσατο τὸ παιδίον καὶ ὅσα εἰκὸς ὡμίλησεν, ἀπαγγελεῖ σοι ὁ πρέσβυς σου. Καὶ ἐπεὶ παιδίον μὲν οὔπω ὁ Θεὸς τῇ βασιλείᾳ μου ἐχαρί σατο, τόπον δέ μοι γνησίου παιδὸς ὁ φίλτατος οὗτος ἐπέχει ἀδελφιδοῦς, Θεοῦ εὐδοκοῦντος οὐδέν ἐστι τὸ κωλῦον ἑνωθῆναι ἡμᾶς δι' αἵματος συγγενικοῦ καὶ φίλα μὲν ἀλλήλοις φρονεῖν ὡς Χριστιανοῖς, οἰκειοῦσθαι δὲ καὶ τὰ ἀλλήλων ὡς συγγενεῖς, ἵν' ἐντεῦθεν δι' ἀλλήλων ἕκαστος δυναμούμενοι φοβεροὶ τοῖς ἐναντίοις ὦμεν καὶ ἀήττητοι μετὰ Θεοῦ. 3.10.7 Τῇ μέντοι εὐγενείᾳ σου νῦν ἀπεστάλησαν δεξιωμάτων ἕνεκεν ἐγκόλπιον χρυσοῦν μετὰ μαργαρι ταρίων, θήκη διάχρυσος ἔχουσα ἔνδον τμήματα διαφόρων ἁγίων, ὧν ἕκαστον διὰ τοῦ ἐφ' ἑκάστῳ αὐτῶν ἐντεθέντος χαρτίου γνωρίζεται, καυκίον σαρδονύχιον καὶ ἐμπότης κρύος, ἀστροπέλεκιν δεδεμένον μετὰ χρυσαφίου καὶ ὀπο βάλσαμον. 3.10.8 Μακρύναι ὁ Θεὸς τὴν ζωήν σου, πλατύναι τὰ τῆς ἐξουσίας σου ὅρια καὶ θείη σοι πάντας τοὺς ἀντιπίπτοντας εἰς ὀνειδισμὸν καὶ εἰς καταπάτημα. Εἰρήνη εἴη τῇ ἐξουσίᾳ σου καὶ γαλήνης ἥλιος ἐπιλάμψοι πάσῃ τῇ ὑπηκόῳ σου, καὶ γένοιντό σοι ἅπαντες εἰς ἀφανισμὸν οἱ ἐχθροὶ τῆς ἄνωθεν κραταιᾶς ἰσχύος κατὰ πάντων σοι χαριζομένης τὸ ἄμαχον τοσοῦτον τὸ ἀληθινὸν αὐτοῦ ὄνομα ἀγαπῶντι καὶ κατὰ τῶν ἐχθρῶν ἐκείνου τὴν χεῖρα ὁπλί ζοντι.»

3.11.1 Οὕτω μὲν οὖν τὰ κατὰ τὴν ἑσπέραν οἰκονομήσας αὐτὸς πρὸς τὸ κατεπεῖγον καὶ ὑπόγυον τὸν κίνδυνον ἀπει λοῦν ἡτοιμάζετο ἐγκαρτερῶν ἔτι τῇ βασιλίδι τῶν πόλεων, σκοπῶν ὅπως διὰ παντοίας μεθόδου τοῖς εἰς προὖπτον ἐπικειμένοις ἐχθροῖς ἀντικατασταίη. Καὶ ἐπεί, ὡς ὁ λόγος φθάσας ἐδήλωσε, τοὺς μὲν ἀθεωτάτους Τούρκους περὶ τὴν Προποντίδα ἑώρα ἐνδιατρίβοντας, τοῦ Σολυμᾶ τῆς ἑῴας ἁπάσης ἐξουσιάζοντος καὶ περὶ τὴν Νίκαιαν αὐλιζομένου (οὗ καὶ τὸ σουλτανίκιν ἦν, ὅπερ ἂν ἡμεῖς βασίλειον ὀνομά σαιμεν) καὶ προνομεῖς συνεχῶς ἀποστέλλοντος καὶ λῃζο μένου ἅπαντα τά τε περὶ τὴν Βιθυνίαν διακείμενα καὶ Θυνίαν, καὶ μέχρις αὐτῆς Βοσπόρου τῆς νῦν καλουμένης ∆αμάλεως ἱππηλασίας καὶ ἐπιδρομὰς ποιουμένους καὶ λείαν πολλὴν ἀφαιρουμένους καὶ μόνον οὐ ὑπεράλλεσθαι καὶ αὐτῆς ἐπιχειροῦντας τῆς θαλάσσης. Οὓς οἱ Βυζάντιοι ὁρῶντες