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wanting to have John under his power and making it of the greatest importance to get him out of the way of everything. What provoked him to this was, on the one hand, the people around his sister Eulogia, and on the other, the fact that his son Andronicus was advancing in age, whom he considered it a terrible and unbearable thing not to raise in the manner of emperors; but even more, it was his great ambition and his untimely pride, not being content to remain in a moderate station. The pretext for seeming to desire these things not without reason was the capture of the city, which was considered sufficient for the throne of an empire for the one who had taken it; and proposing that he was the only one called to this, he reasoned that he alone should be emperor. Still, however, the terrible thing was insidious and not easily perceptible to the many, even if somehow those who looked more deeply, from many other things and from the fact that John did not enter the city with him, had no difficulty in suspecting what was being plotted, which indeed, nourished by a wild greed that persuaded him to sin greatly against God by violating his oaths, was raised too high to be overlooked by the one plotting it. And what was done was the beginning of great evils and unbearable turmoil for the Romans. At that time, setting the affairs of the city in order as best he could for greater security, as for the Genoese, seeing that those present and those expected to arrive were very numerous and difficult, so that they would not easily submit to the Romans, but would even be stirred up on any pretext, being haughty and arrogant, he did not think it expedient for them to remain inside the city, but to be settled separately. And at first he settled them near Heraclea in Thrace, but later he decided it was safe to settle them opposite Pera, just by the fortress of Galata. But he deemed it right for the Venetians and Pisans, who were few in number, to remain inside, these also being separated from the others. Therefore, for his own safety, he ordered that both the fortress built inside near the sea-ward part of the market, and the one outside, that of Galata, should be immediately demolished, and that the Genoese should thus dwell in western Pera near Galata, extending themselves over a very long area, and that the rest should be assigned their own places for habitation. And he ordered that each nation should have its own tributes without hindrance.

30. Concerning the emperor's ambassadors to the Pope and the Italians. And he sent an embassy with haste to the Pope, conciliating him with gifts. There were two ambassadors, one called Nikephoritzes, and the other Aloubardes, men who had previously served as under-secretaries to the king of the Latins, Baldwin, but had incurred an accusation of treason towards the Romans; for whom, upon reaching Italy, a grave danger arose, which not even their status as ambassadors could avert. But even if the emperor covered the disgrace of their treason with honors, as they were sent on an embassy from the city to him, those others, being difficult anyway, and being provoked to greater madness by the loss of the city, were eager to take revenge on those sent, on the charge of treason, as they were seen to have stood against them. Therefore, seizing Nikephoritzes, they flayed him alive mercilessly from foot to head, punishing him for the accusation, and at the same time to dishonor the one who sent him; but Aloubardes, foreseeing the plot, fled with all his might. And these things happened in this way to the ambassadors sent to Italy.

229 {THIRD BOOK OF HISTORICAL NARRATIVES}.

How the emperor considered the matter concerning the patriarch Arsenios. And the emperor,

being beset by many thoughts, as otherwise it was not possible without a patriarch for the affairs of the

97

βασιλείᾳ θέλων ἔχειν τὸν Ἰωάννην καὶ τὸ ἐκποδὼν τῶν ὅλων καταστῆσαι διὰ πλείστου ποιούμενος. Ἦν δὲ τὸ μὲν ἐρεθίζον εἰς ταῦτα τῶν μὲν ἀνθρώπων οἱ περὶ τὴν ἀδελφὴν Εὐλογίαν, τῶν δὲ πραγμάτων τὸ τὸν υἱὸν Ἀνδρόνικον τῇ ἡλικίᾳ προκόπτειν, ὃν μὴ κατὰ βασιλέας ἀνάγειν δεινὸν ἐποιεῖτο καί οἱ οὐ φορητὸν ἐνομίζετο, τὸ δὲ πλέον ἡ μεγίστη φιλοτιμία καὶ τὸ ἄκαιρον ὑπερήφανον μένειν ἐπὶ μετρίοις οὐκ ἀρκουμένου. Ἡ δὲ τοῦ δοκεῖν οὐκ ἀλογίστως ταῦτα βούλεσθαι πρόφασις ἡ τῆς πόλεως ἅλωσις, εἰς θρόνον βασι λείας λογιζομένη αὐτάρκης τῷ κατασχόντι· αὐτὸν δ' εἶναι καὶ μόνον τὸν εἰς ταύτην κληθέντα προτείνων, αὐτὸν καὶ μόνον βασιλεύειν συνελογίζετο. Ἔτι δ' ὅμως ὕπουλον ἦν τὸ δεινὸν καὶ τοῖς πολλοῖς οὐκ εὐσύνοπτον, εἰ καί πως οἱ βαθύτερον ἐπιβάλλοντες ἔκ τε πολλῶν ἄλλων καὶ τοῦ μὴ συνεισελθεῖν τὴν πόλιν ἐκείνῳ τὸν Ἰωάννην οὐ δυσχερῶς εἶχον ὑπιδέσθαι τὸ μελετώμενον, ὃ δή, τρεφόμενον ὑπ' ἀγρίας πλεονεξίας, εἰς Θεὸν πειθούσης ἁμαρτάνειν τὰ μέγιστα διὰ τῆς τῶν ὅρκων παραβάσεως, μεῖζον ᾔρετο ἢ ὥστε παρορᾶσθαι τῷ μελετῶντι. Τὸ δ' ἦν ἄρα τὸ τοῖς Ῥωμαίοις μεγάλων ἄρξαν κακῶν καὶ ταραχῆς ἀνυποίστου ῥεχθέν. Τότε δὲ τὰ τῆς πόλεως ὡς οἷόν τε καθιστὰς πρὸς τὸ ἀσφαλέστερον, Γεννουίτας μέν, τούς τ' ὄντας, τούς τε προσδοκωμένους, προσγενέσθαι πλείστους ἐνιδὼν καὶ δυσχερεῖς ἢ ὥστε καὶ ὑποκλίνεσθαι ῥᾳδίως Ῥωμαίοις, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐπὶ ταῖς τυχούσαις προφάσεσιν ὑποκινηθησομένους ἂν ὡς ὑπερ όφρυς καὶ σοβαρούς, ἐντὸς μένειν τῆς πόλεως οὐκ ἐγνώκει συμφέρον, ἰδίᾳ δὲ προσκαθῆσθαι. Καὶ πρότερον μὲν κατὰ τὴν Ἡράκλειαν τῆς Θρᾴκης 227 φέρων κατῴκιζεν, ὕστερον δὲ καταντικρὺ τῆς Περαίας παρὰ μόνον τὸ τοῦ Γαλατᾶ φρούριον ἀσφαλὲς ἐδοκίμαζε κατοικίζειν. Βενετικοὺς δὲ καὶ Πισ σαίους, τὸ κατὰ πλῆθος ὀλίγον, μένειν ἐντὸς ἐδικαίου, ἀποκεκριμένους καὶ τούτους τῶν ἄλλων. Ὅθεν καὶ ἐν ἀκινδύνῳ τῷ καθ' αὑτὸν ἐκέλευε μὲν αὐτίκα τό τ' ἐντὸς ἀνοικοδομηθὲν πρὸς τῷ κατὰ θάλασσαν μέρει τῆς ἀγορᾶς φρού ριον, τό τ' ἐκτός, τὸ τοῦ Γαλατᾶ, ἀμφότερα κατερεῖψαι, καὶ οὕτως Γεννουί τας μὲν κατὰ τὴν πρὸς δύσιν Περαίαν πρὸς τῷ Γαλατᾷ, σφᾶς αὐτοὺς ἐπιμήκιστον παρεκτείνοντας, κατοικεῖν, τοῖς δὲ λοιποῖς ἀποταχθῆναι ἰδίους τόπους πρὸς οἴκησιν. Ἔχειν δ' ἕκαστον γένος τοὺς ἰδίους φόρους ἀκωλύτως προσέταττε.

λʹ. Τὰ κατὰ τοὺς εἰς τὸν πάπαν καὶ τοὺς Ἰταλοὺς πρέσβεις τοῦ βασιλέως. ∆ιεπρεσβεύετο δὲ καὶ πρὸς τὸν πάπαν διὰ ταχέων, ἐκμειλίσσων δώροις. ∆ύο δ' ἦσαν οἱ πρέσβεις, εἷς μὲν ὁ Νικηφορίτζης λεγόμενος, ἅτερος δὲ ὁ Ἀλουβάρδης, ἄνδρες εἰς ὑπογραμματέας μὲν τελοῦντες πρὶν τῷ τῶν Ἰταλῶν βασιλεῖ τῷ Βαλδουίνῳ, αἰτίαν δὲ προδοσίας πρὸς Ῥωμαίους σχόντες· οἷς δὴ καὶ τὴν Ἰταλίαν καταλαβοῦσι κίνδυνος ἐπεισπίπτει βαρύς, ὃν οὐδ' αὐτὸ τὸ σχῆμα τῶν πρέσβεων παρῃτεῖτο. Ἀλλ' εἰ καὶ τὰ τῆς προδοσίας ὀνείδη ταῖς τιμαῖς συνεκάλυπτεν ὁ κρατῶν εἰς αὐτὸν παραπρεσβευόντων ἐκ πόλεως, ἀλλ' ἐκεῖνοι, χαλεποί γε ὄντες καὶ ἄλλως, παρακνιζόμενοι δὲ καὶ τῇ στερήσει τῆς πόλεως εἰς μανίαν μείζονα, κατὰ τῶν πεμφθέντων ἐπ' αἰτίαις τῆς προδοσίας, ὡς ἐπιστάντες ἑωρῶντο, τιμωρεῖν ὥρμηντο. Ὅθεν καὶ τὸν μὲν Νικηφορίτζην κατασχόντες ἐκ ποδῶν ἐς κεφαλὴν ζῶντα ἀνηλεῶς ἐξέδερον, τιμωροῦντες αἰτιασθέντα, ἅμα δὲ καὶ ἐπ' ἀτιμίᾳ τοῦ πέμψαντος· ὁ δ' Ἀλουβάρδης, προγνοὺς τὴν ἐπιβουλήν, ἀνὰ κράτος φεύγει. Καὶ ταῦτα μὲν τόνδε τὸν τρόπον συνέβη τοῖς παρ' Ἰταλίαν πεμφθεῖσι πρέσβεσιν.

229 {ΣΥΓΓΡΑΦΙΚΩΝ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΩΝ ΤΡΙΤΗ}.

Ὅπως ἐσκόπει ὁ βασιλεὺς τὰ κατὰ τὸν πατριάρχην Ἀρσένιον. Ὁ δὲ βασιλεύς,

πολλαῖς στοιχιζόμενος ταῖς ἐννοίαις, ὡς ἄλλως οὐκ ὂν πατριάρχου δίχα τὰ τῆς