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Stravoromanos, having then become great hetaireiarch, to question the man where his money was hidden. But those around the emperor, whom the account has already related to have feared the presence of the logothete, persuade Stravoromanos to do away with the man by any means. And he, having arrived at the island where he was confined, tortured the man so fiercely that he expired during the very tortures, and this despite his promising that he would give everything in writing if he were to escape the torture. Thus, then, he perished; but the Komnenoi, Isaac and Alexios, were exceedingly honored and loved by the emperor, and he named them successors to the empire. For this reason they were fiercely envied by those around Botaneiates, and especially by his two aforementioned servants, who also slandered the men to him, alleging that they were plotting a tyranny, and they undermined and 727 shook the emperor's disposition toward them. When they realized this and, being alarmed lest they suffer some harm, and as the story goes, having long nourished in themselves a love for the empire, and having shared their plan with others whom they trusted, they went out of the city and, having seized the city of Adrianople, drew to themselves almost the entire army. And Alexios was proclaimed emperor, being preferred to his elder brother, both because the soldiers were more attached to him as being more skilled in strategy and because they were won over by the zeal and promises of those around him. Thus proclaimed, Alexios, with Isaac not being very displeased at the proclamation, seized the capital and was prepared for a siege; but Botaneiates set guards on the walls. And there were, near a certain tower by the gate of the city which is called Charisios, guards who were Nemitzes (the Nemitzes are a Celtic nation); these men secretly communicated with the circle of the Komnenoi about the betrayal of the city. At dawn, then, on the great Thursday of the week of the saving passion of our Savior, the men of the Komnenoi attacked, according to a signal, the outer wall opposite the tower held by the Ne728mitzes, and those stationed on it were shooting at the attackers and preventing them from approaching closely. But when those on the wall were shot at by the Nemitzes from the tower, being unable both to resist those outside and to fight off those inside, who were hurling javelins at them from a superior position, they gave way from their charge. The besiegers immediately went up to the wall with ladders and, cutting through the bolts of the gates with axes, provided an unimpeded entrance for the conspirators. When those guarding the inner circuit saw this, being a mixed crowd of men and most of them unskilled in warfare, or rather gathered from the marketplaces and the common populace, some went down and departed, while others fled, even casting themselves down dangerously from the precipice. Wherefore, in the great absence of anyone to prevent them, the men of the Komnenoi took the inner circuit as well, and throwing open its gates in like manner, they made the city accessible to everyone; and immediately those who entered rushed to the plunder of money, 729 being a mixed crowd composed of Thracians and Macedonians and other Romans and barbarians, behaving no better than enemies toward their own countrymen. For the evil proceeded even to the shedding of blood, and virgins consecrated to God were impiously defiled, and women joined to husbands were violently outraged, and divine temples were plundered of their adornment, and they did not even keep their hands from the holy chalices, but the all-daring men seized even these and the sacred patens full of the bloodless and awesome sacrifice, pouring the holy things upon the ground. And whomever of the senate they met, they dragged them from their mules, and stripping some of them, left them half-naked and on foot in the middle of the streets. And these things were done throughout the whole day, and the terror had reached as far as the Forum of the Ox, becoming common and universal, and already some even as far as the Philadelphion or even further

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Στραβορωμανός, μέγας ἑταιρειάρχης τότε γενόμενος, ἐρωτήσων τὸν ἄνθρωπον ὅπῃ αὐτῷ τὰ χρήματα κέκρυπται. οἱ δὲ περὶ τὸν βασιλέα, οὓς καὶ δεδοικέναι τὴν τοῦ λογοθέτου παρουσίαν ὁ λόγος προδιηγήσατο, πείθουσι τὸν Στραβορωμανὸν ἀνελεῖν τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἐκ τρόπου παντός. ὃς καὶ γενόμενος κατὰ τὴν νῆσον, ἐν ᾗ περιώριστο, ἐτάζει τὸν ἄνθρωπον οὕτω σφοδρῶς ὡς ἐν αὐταῖς ταῖς βασάνοις ἐναποψύξαι, καὶ ταῦτα ὑπισχνούμενον ὡς πάντα δοίη ἐνυπογράφως εἰ τὸν ἐτασμὸν διαφεύξοιτο. Ὁ μὲν οὖν οὕτως ἀπόλωλεν· οἱ δὲ Κομνηνοὶ ὁ Ἰσαάκιος καὶ ὁ Ἀλέξιος ὑπερβαλλόντως πρὸς τοῦ βασιλέως καὶ τετίμηντο καὶ ἐστέργοντο, καὶ διαδόχους αὐτοὺς τῆς βασιλείας ὠνόμαζε. διὸ καὶ παρὰ τῶν περὶ τὸν Βοτανειάτην σφοδρῶς ἐβασκαίνοντο καὶ μᾶλλον παρὰ τῶν εἰρημένων δύο δούλων αὐτοῦ, οἳ καὶ πρὸς ἐκεῖνον τοὺς ἄνδρας διέβαλλον ὡς τυραννίδα μελετῶντας καὶ τὴν εἰς αὐτοὺς τοῦ βασιλέως διάθεσιν ὑπώρυττόν τε καὶ 727 παρεσάλευον. ὃ γνόντες οὗτοι καὶ μή τι πάθωσι πτοηθέντες, ὡς δὲ λόγος, καὶ πάλαι παρ' ἑαυτοῖς τὸν τῆς βασιλείας τρέφοντες ἔρωτα, καὶ ἄλλοις οἷς ἐθάρρουν τὸ βούλευμα κοινωσάμενοι, ἐξῆλθον τῆς πόλεως καὶ τὴν πόλιν Ἀδριανοῦ κατειληφότες εἰς ἑαυτοὺς τὸ στρατιωτικὸν ξύμπαν σχεδὸν ἐπεσπάσαντο. καὶ ἀναγορεύεται βασιλεὺς ὁ Ἀλέξιος, τοῦ μείζονος προτιμηθεὶς ἀδελφοῦ, ὅτι τε προσέκειντο τούτῳ οἱ στρατιῶται μᾶλλον ὡς στρατηγικωτέρῳ καὶ ὅτι σπουδῇ τε καὶ ὑποσχέσεσι παρὰ τῶν περὶ αὐτὸν μεθειλκύσθησαν. οὕτως οὖν ἀναρρηθεὶς ὁ Ἀλέξιος καὶ τοῦ Ἰσαακίου μὴ πάνυ τι πρὸς τὴν ἀνάρρησιν δυσχεράναντος, τὴν βασιλίδα καταλαμβάνει καὶ πρὸς πολιορκίαν ἡτοίμαστο· ὁ δὲ Βοτανειάτης τοῖς τείχεσιν ἐπέστησε φύλακας. ἦσαν δὲ περί τινα πύργον πρὸς τῇ πύλῃ τῆς πόλεως, ἣ Χαρσίου καλεῖται, φυλάσσοντες Νέμιτζοι (ἔθνος δ' οἱ Νέμιτζοι Κελτικόν)· οὗτοι λάθρᾳ τοῖς περὶ τοὺς Κομνηνοὺς ἐκοινολογήσαντο περὶ προδοσίας τῆς πόλεως. ἕωθεν οὖν κατὰ τὴν μεγάλην πέμπτην τῆς ἑβδομάδος τοῦ σωτηρίου πάθους τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν οἱ μὲν περὶ τοὺς Κομνηνοὺς τῷ κατ' ἀντικρὺ τοῦ παρὰ τῶν Νε728 μίτζων κατεχομένου πύργου ἐξωτέρῳ τείχει προσέβαλον κατὰ σύνθημα, οἱ δ' ἐφεστῶτες αὐτῷ τοὺς προσβάλλοντας ἔβαλλον καὶ ἀπεῖργον τοῦ προσιέναι ἀγχοῦ. ὡς δ' ὑπὸ τῶν Νεμίτζων ἐκ τοῦ πύργου οἱ ἐν τῷ τείχει ἐβάλλοντο, μὴ οἷοί τε ὄντες καὶ πρὸς τοὺς ἐκτὸς ἀνθίστασθαι καὶ πρὸς τοὺς ἐντὸς ἀπομάχεσθαι, ἐξ ὑπερδεξίων εἰς αὐτοὺς ἀκοντίζοντας, ἐνέδωκαν τῆς ὁρμῆς. οἱ δὲ τειχομαχοῦντες κλίμαξιν αὐτίκα πρὸς τὸ τεῖχος ἀνῄεσαν καὶ τὰ κλεῖθρα τῶν πυλῶν διατεμόντες πελέκεσιν ἄνετον τοῖς συνωμόταις παρέσχον τὴν εἴσοδον. ὅπερ ἰδόντες οἱ τὸν ἐντὸς τηροῦντες περίβολον, σύγκλυδες ἄνθρωποι καὶ πολέμων οἱ πλείονες ἀδαεῖς ἢ μᾶλλον ἐξ ἀγοραίων ἀθροισθέντες καὶ πληθύος δημότιδος, οἱ μὲν κατιόντες ᾤχοντο, οἱ δὲ καὶ ἑαυτοὺς ἐπισφαλῶς κατακρημνίζοντες ἔφευγον. ὅθεν κατὰ πολλὴν τοῦ κωλύσοντος ἐρημίαν καὶ τὸν ἐντὸς περίβολον οἱ περὶ τοὺς Κομνηνοὺς παρειλήφασι καὶ τὰς τούτου πύλας ὁμοίως ἀναπετάσαντες βατὴν τὴν πόλιν παντί που παρέσχοντο· καὶ αὐτίκα πρὸς διαρπαγὴν χρημάτων οἱ εἰσελθόντες ὡρμή729 κασι, σύμμικτον πλῆθος ἐκ Θρᾳκῶν τε καὶ Μακεδόνων καὶ Ῥωμαίων ἄλλων καὶ βαρβάρων συνεστηκός, οὐδὲν ἄμεινον πολεμίων πρὸς τοὺς ὁμοφύλους διατιθέμενοι. καὶ μέχρι γὰρ ἐκχύσεως αἱμάτων προὐχώρησε τὸ κακόν, καὶ παρθένοι δὲ τῷ θεῷ καθιερωμέναι ἀσεβῶς ἐμιάνθησαν, καὶ γυναῖκες ἀνδράσι συνεζευγμέναι πρὸς βίαν ὑβρίσθησαν, καὶ θεῖοι ναοὶ τὸν κόσμον αὐτῶν ἐσυλήθησαν, καὶ οὐδὲ τῶν ἁγίων κρατήρων ἀπέσχοντο, ἀλλὰ καὶ τούτους οἱ πάντολμοι καὶ τὰς ἱερὰς φιάλας τῆς ἀναιμάκτου καὶ φρικώδους θυσίας πλήρεις διήρπαζον, ἐκχέοντες τὰ ἅγια κατὰ γῆς. καὶ ὅσοις δὲ τῆς γερουσίας συνήντων, κατασπῶντες τῶν ἡμιόνων αὐτούς, ἐνίους δέ γε καὶ ἀποδύοντες, ἐν μέσαις ταῖς ἀγυιαῖς εἴων ἡμιγύμνους τε καὶ πεζούς. καὶ ταῦτα καθ' ὅλην τὴν ἡμέραν ἐπράττετο, καὶ τὸ δεινὸν ἄχρι τοῦ Βοὸς ἐπεφθάκει γενόμενον κοινόν τε καὶ πάνδημον, ἤδη δέ τινες καὶ μέχρι τοῦ Φιλαδελφίου ἢ καὶ προσωτέρω