promising down on his temples, using Caesar his uncle as a rival and the most powerful men and those in high military command, he at once seats himself on his ancestral throne, and drives his mother, groaning and wailing much, unwillingly from the precincts of the palace and makes her a nun, and cuts the locks which the Graces once cultivated with ointments, and shows her, who was formerly golden-robed, in dark robes. But learning that Romanos was again playing the emperor, and again aspiring to the rule from which he had fallen, and raising a warlike sting like a scorpion, he sends men to fight and to capture him. And again, alas, the unfortunate man falls into the snares, he is taken alive and the pupils of his eyes are blinded with soot, he is cast upon a desolate and harsh islet. Michael, having been freed from the present fears, and having received the vessel of the state untroubled by storm, did not even in a dream imagine warlike tumults and the wearing of armor and the din of battle and toils and dangers, but, devoting himself to his books, he passed sleepless nights, he was another Demosthenes or Didymus Chalcenterus, an Alexandrian by birth, whom they so named because in his delight for words he went without food for many days. From this, barbarian incursions broke out, and again storms blew from all directions, and they roared with surges and made splashings; for the admiral who could ward them off was not present, and from the land thorny growths sprang up. For the farmer of the country lived the life of a snail, coming forth a little and again retreating and again coiling up in his home as in a shell, or rather like a deep-dwelling, mud-eating pinna, needing someone to prod him into royal actions and wanting someone to remind him that he ruled the Romans. From this, gaping dragons crept in again, and sucked up every border of the Romans as if it were a chick. There was therefore heavy indignation against the emperor, and all were distressed, seeing the affairs of the Romans not only fallen on their knees nor on their face, but already flowing away and withered. But a certain man of high birth and of the first stock, an elder of great age, another Pylian Nestor (they called him Nikephoros Botaneiates), a man experienced in war, worn down in the flesh as one who had contended in many battles from infancy and had become full of martial Olympiads, won over a countless allied force, seizes Nicaea, sends a letter to the ruler, supposedly of admonition, persuading him to yield the scepter to the old man without bloodshed, and that he, as one unskilled in war, should live in inactivity. And why say much and superfluous things? He reaches the capital, and he himself is adorned with the gold-spangled purple, while the former ruler Michael becomes black-robed, having tasted the imperial power for six years. But this ancient-born old man Nikephoros, forgetting both himself and his old age, is joined in matrimony to the wife of Michael, and this an old man to a delicate woman, an old fool to a youthful one; and him, being aggrieved and discontented, he appoints bishop of the city of the Ephesians. And refraining from the toils of wars, he sat wearing gold, adorned with garments that flashed forth rays of ruddy gold, nurturing a happy old age with baths and drinking parties and luxuries, a golden-winged, one might say, statue-like swan, just when he was about to set and be hidden in the tomb, beginning to take pleasure and delight in life, thrice-old, living softly, extravagant, a voluptuary. And he entrusted affairs to the hands of men barbarous in speech and not speaking correctly, who set up a mixing-bowl all day long and drank, whose race was thrice-servile, and whose grandfathers and fathers were thrice-barbarous, and barbarous in soul and in mind, and babbling Scythian-tongued speeches inexpressibly, as if someone were to entrust a great cargo-ship to ignorant, clumsy, useless helmsmen. But he himself, fastening on gold-gleaming robes and fine-linen, gold-woven, pearl-bearing cloaks, and with dye

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ἐπαγγελλόμενος ἰούλου τοῖς κροτάφοις, τῷ Καίσαρι χρησάμενος τῷ θείῳ συνερίθῳ καὶ τοῖς ὑπερισχύουσι καὶ τοῖς ἐν στραταρχίαις, ἐγκαθιζάνει μὲν εὐθὺς τοῖς θρόνοις τοῖς πατρῴοις, καὶ τὴν τεκοῦσαν στένουσαν πολλὰ καὶ γοωμένην τῶν περιβόλων τῆς ἀρχῆς ἄκουσαν ἀπελαύνει καὶ τίθησι μονάστριαν, καὶ κείρει τοὺς πλοκάμους οὓς χάριτες ἐμόσχευόν ποτε μυραλοιφίας, καὶ σκοτεινόπεπλον τὴν πρὶν χρυσόπεπλον δεικνύει. μαθὼν δὲ καὶ τὸν Ῥωμανὸν πάλιν βασιλειῶντα, καὶ πάλιν ἧς ἐκπέπτωκεν ἀρχῆς ὀρεκτιῶντα, καὶ μάχιμον ἐγείροντα κεντρίον ὡς σκορπίον πέμπει τοὺς πολεμήσοντας καὶ τοὺς συλληψομένους. καὶ πάλιν φεῦ ὁ δυστυχὴς θηράτροις περιπίπτει, ζωγρεῖται καὶ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν τοὺς κύκλους ἀσβολοῦται, ἐν λυπρογαίῳ καὶ σκληρῷ ῥιπτεῖται νησιδίῳ. Ἀπαλλαγεὶς δὲ Μιχαὴλ τῶν παρεστώτων φόβων, ἀχείμαστόν τε τῆς ἀρχῆς παραλαβὼν τὸ σκάφος, θορύβους μὲν ἀρεϊκοὺς καὶ θωρακοφορίας καὶ θροῦν τὸν ἐνυάλιον καὶ μόχθους καὶ κινδύνους οὐδ' ὄναρ ἐφαντάζετο, σχολάζων δὲ ταῖς βίβλοις νύκτας ἀΰπνους ἴαυεν, ἄλλος ἦν ∆ημοσθένης ἢ ∆ίδυμος χαλκέντερος, Ἀλεξανδρεὺς τὸ γένος, ὃν οὕτως ἐπωνόμασαν ὡς ἐν τῷ χαίρειν λόγοις ἀπόσιτον γενόμενον ἡμέρας ἐπὶ πλείους. ἐντεῦθεν ἀνερράγησαν ἐπίρροιαι βαρβάρων, καὶ πάλιν ἐφυσήθησαν λαίλαπες πανταχόθεν, καὶ φλοίσβους ἀνωρύοντο καὶ παφλασμοὺς ἐποίουν· οὐ γὰρ παρῆν ὁ ναύαρχος ὁ ταύτας ἀλεξήσων, καὶ γῆθεν ἀνεφύησαν βλαστήσεις ἀχερδώδεις. ὁ γὰρ τῆς χώρας γεωργὸς ἔζη κοχλίου βίον, ὀλίγα προερχόμενος καὶ πάλιν ὑποφεύγων καὶ πάλιν ἐλυτρούμενος τοῖς δόμοις ὡς ὀστράκοις, ἢ μᾶλλον ὡς βυθότροφος πίννα χωματοφάγος, δεόμενος τοῦ νύξοντος εἰς βασιλείους πράξεις καὶ χρῄζων ὑπομνήσοντος ὅτι Ῥωμαίων ἄρχει. ἐντεῦθεν πάλιν εἵρπυσαν δράκοντες χασματίαι, καὶ πᾶν Ῥωμαίων ὅριον ἐρρόφουν ὡς νοσσίον. ἦν οὖν βαρὺς σχετλιασμὸς κατὰ τοῦ βασιλέως, καὶ πάντες ἐπαθαίνοντο βλέποντες τὰ Ῥωμαίων οὐκ ἐπὶ γόνυ κείμενα μόνον οὐδ' ἐπὶ στόμα, ἀλλ' ἤδη διαρρεύσαντα καὶ καταμαρανθέντα. εἷς δέ τις μεγαλογενὴς καὶ τῶν ἐκ πρώτης ῥίζης, γεραίτερος μακρόβιος, Πύλιος ἄλλος Νέστωρ (Βοτανειάτην ἔλεγον ἐκεῖνον Νικηφόρον), ἐμπειροπόλεμος ἀνήρ, καταβελὴς τὰς σάρκας ἅτε πολλαῖς ἐνηθληκὼς μάχαις ἐξέτι βρέφους καὶ γεγονὼς ἀρεϊκῶν μεστὸς Ὀλυμπιάδων, χεῖρα προσεταιρίζεται μυρίαν συμμαχίδα, καταλαμβάνει Νίκαιαν, πέμπει πρὸς τὸν κρατοῦντα γράμμα παραινετήριον δῆθεν, αὐτὸν συμπεῖθον ἀναιμωτὶ τῷ γέροντι τῶν σκήπτρων ὑπεκστῆναι, αὐτὸν δ' ὡς ἀπειρόμαχον ζῆν ἐν ἀπραγμοσύνῃ. καὶ τί πολλὰ καὶ περιττά; φθάνει τὴν βασιλίδα, καὶ πορφυρίδι μὲν αὐτὸς κοσμεῖται χρυσοπάστῳ, ὁ πρὶν δὲ κράτωρ Μιχαὴλ γίνεται μελαμφόρος, ἔτεσιν ἓξ γευσάμενος τοῦ βασιλείου κράτους. ἀλλὰ γὰρ ἐκλαθόμενος αὑτοῦ τε καὶ τοῦ γήρως ὁ γέρων ὁ παλαιγενὴς οὗτος ὁ Νικηφόρος τῇ γαμετῇ τοῦ Μιχαὴλ ζεύγνυται νόμῳ γάμου, καὶ ταῦτα γέρων τρυφερᾷ, πέμπελος νεαζούσῃ· αὐτὸν δὲ βαρυνόμενον καὶ δυσανασχετοῦντα τῆς Ἐφεσίων πόλεως ποιμένα καθιστάνει. καμάτων δ' ἀπεχόμενος τῶν κατὰ τοὺς πολέμους ἐκάθητο χρυσοφορῶν, κοσμούμενος ἀμφίοις ἀκτῖνας ἀπαυγάζουσι πυρράζοντος χρυσίου, λουτροῖς καὶ πότοις καὶ τρυφαῖς εὐδαῖμον γῆρας βόσκων, χρυσόπτερος, ἂν εἴποι τις, κύκνος ἀγαλματίας, ὁπότε δύνειν ἔμελλε καὶ κρύπτεσθαι τῷ τάφῳ, ἀρχόμενος ἡδύνεσθαι κεὐφραίνεσθαι τῷ βίῳ, τριγέρων ἁπαλόβιος, σπάταλος, τρυφητίας. καὶ τὰ μὲν πράγματα χερσὶν ἐπίστευεν ἀνθρώπων βαρβαριζόντων τὴν φωνὴν μηδ' ὀρθορρημονούντων, κρατῆρα πανημέριον ἱστάντων καὶ πινόντων, οἷς ἦν τὸ γένος τρίδουλον, καὶ πάπποι καὶ πατέρες τριβάρβαροι, καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν βάρβαροι καὶ τὴν γνώμην, καὶ σκυθογλώσσους λαλιὰς δυσφράστως λαλαγοῦντες, ὡς εἴ τις μεγαλόφορτον πιστεύσειε φορτίδα ἀνεπιστήμοσι σκαιοῖς ἀχρείοις κυβερνήταις. αὐτὸς δ' ἐπιπορπούμενος χρυσεοστίλβους πέπλους καὶ βύσσινα χρυσοϋφῆ μαργαροφόρα φάρη, καὶ βάμματι

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