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they strike and kill them. And for these reasons, having become colder 241 in their hope and withdrawn, they both granted a truce to the war and kept to themselves. 19. Then the emperor also, sending for their appointed leader, summoned him with the greatest possible cheerfulness, and when he arrived with others under the appropriate safe-conduct, he reproached him for his irrational impulses, and he set forth as a clear charge the violation of the agreements made with the empire by them, and he judged their setting fire to the houses of Romans, who were counted among friends, to be an excess of madness. But he, saying many things to the emperor and making excuses, gained nothing more than to seem to have acted badly and contrary to what was reasonable. Nevertheless, from there he sends an embassy to their assembly, with them having taken the one appointed as ambassador on their own ships. He was Nikephoros of Crete, a venerable and honorable man, chosen for this for many reasons, but more so because the Venetians were likely to see him as their own archbishop, so to speak; for Crete was under their control, of which he had been proclaimed archbishop, even if he lived far from it because of the domination of the Italians. But the emperor himself, roused to fitting indignation, 242 and especially because of the appearance of having been treated with contempt, seizing the Venetians in the city, held sufficient funds, up to eighty thousand, as security on account of the burned houses, both those of the Italians on the other side and those of the Romans; for it was also necessary to defend those of the Italians because of the agreements between the emperor and them. And it seems to me that the Genoese were also later roused against the Venetians in the city for the same reason.

(20) For in the same year, at the end of the month of Skirophorion, having incited themselves for some random reason, and with the king of Armenia himself happening to be in the city, who was indeed staying with the Italian friars, although he for the most part was both shaming them and mediating, a great many savage men attacked a few tame ones, overpowering even the imperial authority itself, they dare to do the most unholy things, using rage as a fellow soldier and anger from the memory of yesterday's events, they draw their swords, and having sharpened their teeth in the manner of boars, they mercilessly kill that very day men who were bowing to them and begging earnestly out of greatest necessity, slaughtering them inside their houses in the manner of sacrificial animals. For starting with their own bailo, whom, being locked in, they let themselves down from the roof and butcher, they attack the rest 243 wherever they might find them, so that many were buried together and the tombs became mass graves. So, with the prominent men having perished in this way, those who were left, being certain craftsmen and shoemakers and chest-makers and masters of every other trade, at that time, slipping away under the cover of darkness, escape the sword, but later, being in fear, they decided to move back to their own country and the community of their people.

(21) For the emperor, as soon as these things happened, becoming concerned lest he should be accused of having colluded, so to speak, having selected as ambassadors the monk Maximos Planoudes and the orphanotrophos Leo, learned and intelligent men, sent them to Aquileia, apologizing to their common council and asserting his own blamelessness in what had been done. And when they arrived, they were in immediate danger, as the relatives of the slain rose up against them. And with difficulty, having sought out and found the surviving kinsmen, they proposed it was time to deliberate about the peace with the Romans, now as before. However, they did not send back ambassadors at that time, but through them bitterly reproached the emperor and the Romans, how, within their hands, their enemies had involved their kinsmen in such calamities, which were not tolerated by their 244 custom. Indeed, they demanded back the property of the Venetians even more forcefully (which was what the emperor had previously seized as security for the burned houses) on the grounds that the treaties would not be possible, if

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ἐκείνων βαλόντες φονεύουσιν. καὶ διὰ ταῦτα ψυ 241 χρότεροι τῆς ἐλπίδος ἀποχωρήσαντες ἀνακωχήν τε τῷ πολέμῳ ἐδίδουν καὶ κατ' αὐτοὺς ἦσαν. 19. Τότε καὶ βασιλεὺς πέμψας τὸν εἰς κεφαλὴν τεταγμέ νον ἐκείνων μετακαλεῖται μεθ' ὅτι πλείστης τῆς ἱλαρότητος, καὶ ὑπὸ τῇ προσηκούσῃ ἀσφαλείᾳ σὺν ἑτέροις καταλαβόντι ὠνείδιζέ τε τὰς παραλόγους ὁρμάς, καὶ τὴν τῶν συγκειμένων τῇ βασιλείᾳ μετὰ τούτων παραβασίαν εἰς φανερὰν ἐτίθει αἰτίαν, τὸ δὲ καὶ πῦρ ἐνιέναι Ῥωμαίων οἰκίαις ταττομένοις ἐν φίλοις ὑπερβολὴν μανίας ἔκρινεν. ὁ δὲ πόλλ' ἄττα πρὸς βασιλέα λέγων τε καὶ ἀπολογούμενος οὐδὲν πλέον τοῦ κακῶς δόξαι πράττειν καὶ παρὰ τὸ εἰκὸς ἀπηνέγκατο. ὅμως δ' ἐξ αὐτῆς πρεσβείαν μὲν στέλλει πρὸς τὴν ἐκείνων συναγωγήν, αὐτῶν γε λαβόντων ἐπὶ τῶν ἰδίων νεῶν τὸν εἰς πρεσβευτὴν ταχθέντα. ὁ δ' ἦν ὁ Κρήτης Νικηφόρος, ἀνὴρ γεραρὸς καὶ τίμιος καὶ διὰ πολλὰ μὲν προκριθεὶς εἰς τοῦτο, πλέον δὲ καὶ ὅτι ὡς οἰκεῖον δῆθεν ἀρχιερέα ἔμελλον βλέ πειν Βενετικοί· Κρήτη γὰρ ὑπὸ τούτους ἦν, ἧς ἐκεῖνος ἀρχιερεὺς ἐπικεκήρυκτο, εἰ καὶ πόρρω διῆγε ταύτης διὰ τὴν τῶν Ἰταλῶν ἐπικράτειαν. αὐτὸς δὲ βασιλεὺς εἰς ἀγανάκτησιν τὴν πρέπουσαν 242 προηγμένος, καὶ μάλιστα διὰ τὴν τοῦ καταφρονηθῆναι δόξαν, ἐπισχὼν τοὺς ἐν τῇ πόλει Βενετικοὺς ἱκανοῖς χρήμασι μέχρι δὴ καὶ εἰς χιλιάδας ὀγδοήκοντα ἐνεχύραζε τῶν πυρποληθεισῶν οἰ κιῶν χάριν, ὅσαι τε Ἰταλῶν κατὰ τὴν περαίαν ἦσαν καὶ ὅσαι Ῥωμαίων· καὶ γὰρ καὶ τὰς τῶν Ἰταλῶν χρεὼν ἦν δεφενδεύειν διὰ τὰ συγκείμενα βασιλεῖ τε καὶ σφίσι. δοκοῦσι δέ μοι καὶ Γεν νουῗται τῆς αὐτῆς χάριν αἰτίας ἐς ὕστερον τῶν ἐν τῇ πόλει κατε παρθῆναι Βενετικῶν.

(20) τοῦ γὰρ αὐτοῦ ἔτους, μηνὸς Σκιρ ροφοριῶνος λήγοντος, ἔκ τινος εἰκαίας αἰτίας παρακροτήσαντες ἑαυτούς, καὶ αὐτοῦ τοῦ ῥηγὸς Ἀρμενίας τυχόντος ἐν πόλει, ὃς δὴ καὶ κατὰ φρερίους Ἰταλοὺς διῆγε, τὰ πλεῖστα γοῦν καὶ αὐτοῦ δυσωποῦντος καὶ μεσιτεύοντος, πλεῖστοι ὀλίγοις καὶ ἡμέροις ἄγριοι ἐπιθέμενοι, δυναστεύσαντες καὶ αὐτὴν τὴν βασιλικὴν ἐξουσίαν, τολμῶσι τὰ ἀνοσιώτατα πράττειν, θυμῷ τε συστρα τιώτῃ χρησάμενοι καὶ ὀργῇ ἐκ μνήμης τῶν χθὲς συμπεσόντων σπάθας τε γυμνοῦσι, καὶ συῶν τρόπῳ ὀδόντας θήξαντες ἄνδρας ὑποκλινομένους σφίσι καὶ λιπαρῶς ἐξ ἀνάγκης δεομένους μεγίστης ἀνηλεῶς αὐθημερὸν κτείνουσιν, ἐντὸς οἰκιῶν κατασφάττοντες ἱερείων νόμῳ. ἀπὸ γὰρ τοῦ σφῶν μπαϊούλου ἀρξάμενοι, ὃν ἐγ κεκλεισμένον ἀπὸ τέγους χαλασθέντες κρεανομοῦσι, τοῖς λοιποῖς 243 ὅπου τύχοιεν ἐπιτίθενται, ὡς καὶ συχνοὺς ἅμα τεθάφθαι καὶ γε νέσθαι τὰ μνήματα πολυάνδρια. τῶν γοῦν ἐπιφανῶν οὕτως ὀλωλότων ἀνδρῶν οἱ ἐλλελειμμένοι, βάναυσοί τινες ὄντες καὶ σκυ τοτόμοι καὶ κιβωτῶν τέκτονες καὶ πάσης ἄλλης ἐπήβολοι τέχνης, τότε μὲν ὑπὸ σκότον δύντες τὸ ξίφος ἐκφεύγουσιν, ὕστερον δὲ διὰ δέους ὄντες μετοικεῖν εἰς τὴν ἰδίαν χώραν καὶ τὴν τοῦ γένους συναγωγὴν ἔγνωσαν.

(21) ὁ γὰρ βασιλεὺς ἅμα μὲν τῷ ταῦτα γενέσθαι δι' ἐννοίας γενόμενος μὴ αἰτίαν σχοίη ὡς συμπράξειε δῆθεν, πρέσβεις ἐκλεξάμενος τόν τε μοναχὸν Μάξιμον τὸν Πλα νούδην καὶ τὸν ὀρφανοτρόφον Λέοντα, ἄνδρας ἐλλογίμους καὶ συνετούς, ἐπ' Ἀκουϊλίας ἀπέστειλεν, ἀπολογούμενος τῷ κοινῷ συνεδρίῳ τούτων καὶ παριστῶν τό οἱ ἐπὶ τοῖς τετελεσμένοις ἀναί τιον. οἳ καὶ παραγεγονότες ἐν χρῷ κινδύνου κατέστησαν, τῶν προσγενῶν τῶν φονευθέντων σφίσιν ἐπαναστάντων. μόλις δὲ τοὺς περιόντας οἰκείους ζητήσαντες καὶ λαβόντες, περὶ τῆς μετὰ τῶν Ῥωμαίων εἰρήνης τῆς νῦν ὡς πάλαι καιρὸν ἐτίθουν βουλεύε σθαι. οὐ μὴν δὲ καὶ πρέσβεις ἀντεπέστελλον τότε, ἀλλὰ δι' αὐ τῶν περιαλγῶς ἐξωνειδίζοντο βασιλεῖ τε καὶ Ῥωμαίοις, ὅπως ἐν τὸς χειρῶν ἐκείνων τοιαύταις συμφοραῖς μὴ χωρουμέναις τῷ 244 ἐκείνων ἔθει τοὺς οἰκείους οἱ ἐχθραίνοντες περιέβαλον. τὰ μέν τοι γε πράγματα τῶν Βενετικῶν καὶ σφοδρότερον ἀνταπῄτουν (τὰ δ' ἦσαν ἃ φθάσας ὁ βασιλεὺς ἀντὶ τῶν πυρποληθεισῶν οἰκιῶν ἐνεχύραζεν) ὡς οὐχ οἵων τε τῶν σπονδῶν γενήσεσθαι, εἰς