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But Rousselius with the Caesar rode on with a few men. But when their own men had advanced a great distance, another multitude of Turks appeared, numbering very many thousands; and when those who appeared came upon them, they clashed with them even unwillingly. Having been surrounded by the multitude and losing their horses, both the Caesar and Rousselius were captured. But Rousselius's wife bought him beforehand, while the emperor ransomed the Caesar. And he, being led away to the emperor and having arrived in the Propontis, has his hair cut and changes his clothing, putting on a monastic robe; for he was wary lest he suffer something from his nephew because of 712 the proclamation. But Rousselius, having been freed, as was said, from captivity, took his wife with the remaining Franks and went to the Armeniakon theme, in which he had also lived before. The emperor therefore sent against him the proedros Alexios Komnenos, a young man, but a prudent and active one. Who, having arrived near Amaseia, secretly informs the Turks that if they seize and hand Rousselius over to him, he will fill them with much money. So feigning friendship towards Rousselius, they seized the man and exchanged him for a great deal of money; who immediately was led away in bonds by Alexios to Byzantium and, having been fiercely tortured, was locked up as a prisoner in a tower. And when there was a shortage of grain in the days of this emperor, so that not a whole medimnos was given for a nomisma, but a pinakion less, the common misfortune became an epithet for the emperor, so that even to this day this ruler is so called; for no one will otherwise know him unless he calls him Parapinakion. 713 In the third year of his reign the nation of the Croats, whom some indeed also call Serbs, was set in motion, having attempted to seize the land of the Bulgarians. And indeed, though it had seized some of this, by many battles and the destruction of many on both sides it has been driven from what it had seized, and being defeated in war was pushed out of the Roman borders and was forced to remain in its own territories. A certain slave of the father of this emperor, Nestor by name, a vestarches in rank, having been appointed doux of the Paristrian lands, took up arms against the emperor. For having made an alliance with a certain chief of the Patzinaks, who was called Tatous, they arrived at the queen of cities and encamped before it. And when the emperor declared to him that he should lay down his arms, he said he was ready to do this, if the logothete Nikephoros were handed over to him or at least removed, as a common disaster and a public evil. But when the emperor did not do this, he withdrew from the city, and plunders the lands of the Thracians 714 and the Macedonians and those parts of Bulgaria adjacent to them and withdraws to the land of the Patzinaks. And when a son was born to him from Maria of the Alans, whom he crowned empress, he named him Constantine after his father and royally diademed him, and sending to Robert, the ruler of Lombardy, he betrothed his daughter to his son, who upon being brought was renamed Helen. And at that time a child was born in Byzantium, having one eye in the middle of its forehead and goat-legged. However, with the barbarians plundering the east and putting to the sword whomever they met, the Asians fled and came to the city of Constantine. But with no one taking thought for the common good (for the emperor was occupied with rhetoric and was being taught by Psellos to compose iambics), a grain shortage afflicted those in the city. And that I may dramatize the suffering more vividly, the evil was openly a famine, and this was accompanied by a plague, and from this resulted deaths, both frequent and successive, so that the living were unable to give burial to the dying. For they were so many 715 that often many were carried out on a single bier, and in the streets many lay unburied. From this, everything was filled with dejection, both because of these things and because the

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Ῥουσέλιος δὲ μετὰ τοῦ Καίσαρος σὺν ὀλίγοις ἐπήλαυνον. ἤδη δὲ τῶν οἰκείων ἐκμηκυνθεῖσι πολὺ ἑτέρα πληθὺς ἀνεφάνη Τούρκων εἰς πολλὰς πάνυ χιλιάδας ἀριθμουμένη· ὡς δ' ἐπῆλθον αὐτοῖς οἱ φανέντες καὶ ἄκοντες αὐτοῖς συνερράγησαν. περιειληθέντες δ' ὑπὸ τοῦ πλήθους καὶ τοὺς ἵππους ἀποβαλόντες ἑάλωσαν ὅ τε Καῖσαρ καὶ ὁ Ῥουσέλιος. ἀλλὰ τὸν μὲν Ῥουσέλιον ἡ σύνευνος προλαβοῦσα ἐπρίατο, τὸν δὲ Καίσαρα ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐλυτρώσατο. ὁ δὲ ἀπαγόμενος πρὸς τὸν βασιλέα καὶ ἐν τῇ Προποντίδι γενόμενος κείρεται τὴν τρίχα καὶ μεταμφιέννυται τὴν στολήν, ῥάκος μοναχικὸν περιθέμενος· ηὐλαβεῖτο γὰρ μή τι πάθῃ πρὸς τοῦ ἀνεψιοῦ διὰ 712 τὴν ἀνάρρησιν. ὁ δέ γε Ῥουσέλιος λυθείς, ὡς εἴρηται, τῆς αἰχμαλωσίας, τὴν γυναῖκα μετὰ τῶν περιλειφθέντων Φράγγων λαβὼν εἰς τὸ τῶν Ἀρμενιακῶν θέμα ἐγένετο, ἐν ᾧ διῆγε καὶ πρότερον. στέλλει τοίνυν ὁ βασιλεὺς κατ' αὐτοῦ τὸν πρόεδρον Ἀλέξιον τὸν Κομνηνόν, νέον μὲν ὄντα, ἄνδρα δὲ συνετὸν καὶ δραστήριον. ὃς γενόμενος κατὰ τὴν Ἀμάσειαν δι' ἀπορρήτων δηλοῖ τοῖς Τούρκοις ὡς εἰ κατασχόντες τὸν Ῥουσέλιον παραδοῖεν τοῦτον αὐτῷ, πολλῶν αὐτοὺς ἐμπλήσει χρημάτων. φιλίαν γοῦν ὑποκριθέντες ἐκεῖνοι πρὸς τὸν Ῥουσέλιον κατέσχον τὸν ἄνδρα καὶ πολλῶν αὐτὸν χρημάτων ἠλλάξαντο· ὃς αὐτίκα παρὰ τοῦ Ἀλεξίου δέσμιος ἀπήχθη πρὸς τὸ Βυζάντιον καὶ σφοδρῶς αἰκισθεὶς εἰς πύργον δέσμιος κατεκέκλειστο. Σίτου δὲ γενομένης ἐνδείας ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις τοῦ βασιλέως τούτου, ὥστε μὴ ὅλον μέδιμνον εἰς νόμισμα ἀποδίδοσθαι, ἀλλὰ παρὰ πινάκιον, εἰς ἐπώνυμον τῷ βασιλεῖ τὸ κοινὸν δυστύχημα ἐχρημάτισεν, ὡς καὶ μέχρι τοῦδε οὕτω καλεῖσθαι τοῦτον τὸν ἄνακτα· οὐ γάρ τις ἄλλως γνωριεῖ τοῦτον εἰ μὴ τὸν Παραπινάκιον εἴποι. 713 Τῷ τρίτῳ δ' ἔτει τῆς βασιλείας αὐτοῦ τὸ τῶν Χροβάτων ἔθνος, οὓς δὴ καὶ Σέρβους τινὲς καλοῦσι, κεκίνητο, τὴν τῶν Βουλγάρων χώραν ἐπικεχειρηκὸς κατασχεῖν. ἀλλὰ μὴν καί τινα ταύτης κατεσχηκός, πολλαῖς δὲ μάχαις καὶ φθορᾷ πολλῶν ἑκατέρωθεν τῶν τε κατισχημένων ἐκπέπτωκε καὶ καταπολεμηθὲν τῶν Ῥωμαϊκῶν ὁρίων ἐξώσθη καὶ εἰς τὰ σφέτερα ἤθη μένειν ἠνάγκαστο. ∆οῦλος δέ τις τοῦ πατρὸς τούτου τοῦ αὐτοκράτορος Νέστωρ ὄνομα, βεστάρχης δὲ τὸ ἀξίωμα, δοὺξ τῶν Παριστρίων προχειρισθεὶς ἦρεν ὅπλα κατὰ τοῦ βασιλέως. ὁμαιχμίαν γὰρ θέμενος μετά τινος ἀρχηγοῦ Πατζινάκων, ὃς ἐκαλεῖτο Τατούς, εἰς τὴν τῶν πόλεων βασιλεύουσαν παρεγένοντο καὶ παρενέβαλον πρὸ αὐτῆς. καταθέσθαι δὲ τὰ ὅπλα τοῦ βασιλέως δηλοῦντος αὐτῷ, ἐκεῖνος ἕτοιμος εἶναι ποιῆσαι τοῦτο ἔλεγεν, εἰ αὐτῷ ὁ λογοθέτης Νικηφόρος ἐκδοθείη ἢ τέως ἐκ μέσου γένηται, ὡς κοινὴ συμφορὰ καὶ κακὸν ἐπιδήμιον. τοῦτο δὲ τοῦ βασιλέως μὴ ποιοῦντος, ἀπανίσταται μὲν τῆς πόλεως, τὰ τῶν Θρᾳκῶν 714 δὲ καὶ τὰ τῶν Μακεδόνων ληίζεται καὶ ὅσα τούτοις τῆς Βουλγαρίας παράκεινται καὶ εἰς τὴν τῶν Πατζινάκων μεταχωρεῖ. Υἱοῦ δὲ τεχθέντος αὐτῷ ἐκ τῆς ἐξ Ἀλανῶν Μαρίας, ἣν βασίλισσαν ἔστεψε, Κωνσταντῖνον αὐτὸν ὠνόμασεν ἐπὶ τῷ πατρὶ καὶ βασιλικῶς ἐταινίωσε καὶ στείλας πρὸς τὸν Λογγιβαρδίας ἡγεμονεύοντα Ῥομπέρτον τὴν ἐκείνου θυγατέρα τῷ υἱῷ ἐμνηστεύσατο, ἣν καὶ ἀχθεῖσαν Ἐλένην μετωνόμασεν. ἐτέχθη δὲ τότε ἐν τῷ Βυζαντίῳ παιδίον, ἕνα ἔχον κατὰ τὸ μέτωπον ὀφθαλμὸν καὶ τραγοσκελές. τῶν μέντοι βαρβάρων τὴν ἑῴαν ληιζομένων καὶ οἷς ἐντύχοιεν ἔργον τιθεμένων μαχαίρας, φεύγοντες οἱ Ἀσιανοὶ τῇ Κωνσταντίνου προσῄεσαν. μή τινος δὲ προνοουμένου τῶν κοινῇ συμφερόντων (ὁ γὰρ βασιλεὺς περὶ λόγους ἠσχόλητο καὶ ἰάμβους συντιθέναι πρὸς τοῦ Ψελλοῦ ἐδιδάσκετο), σιτοδεία τοὺς ἐν τῇ πόλει ἐπίεζεν. ἵνα δ' ἐκφαντικώτερον τὸ πάθος ἐκτραγῳδήσαιμι, λιμὸς ἦν ἄντικρυς τὸ κακόν, τῷ δὲ παρείπετο καὶ λοιμός, κἀκ τούτου συνέβαινον θάνατοι καὶ οὗτοι συχνοί τε καὶ ἀλλεπάλληλοι, ὥστε ἀδυνατεῖν τοὺς ζῶντας ταφῇ παραδιδόναι τοὺς θνήσκοντας. τοσοῦτοι 715 γὰρ ἦσαν ὡς πολλάκις πολλοὺς ἐν μιᾷ κλίνῃ ἐκφέρεσθαι, κἀν ταῖς ἀμφόδοις δὲ ἀτάφους κεῖσθαι πολλούς. ἐντεῦθεν πάντα κατηφείας μεμέστωτο διά τε ταῦτα καὶ ὅτι καὶ ἀδίκοις εἰσπράξεσιν ἐπιέζετο τὸ