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perceiving that the barbarians were already drawing near, said. The empress was still with the emperor, fearful as was natural, but nevertheless holding to his opinion. But when the sovereigns were hurrying to luncheon, another man, covered in blood, arrived, and throwing himself at the emperor’s feet, swore that the danger was hanging over their heads, with the barbarians already overtaking them. 15.2.2 The emperor immediately permitted the empress the return to Byzantium. And she, though terrified, nevertheless kept her fear in the recesses of her heart and revealed it neither in words nor in appearance. For being courageous and steadfast in mind, just like that woman celebrated in the proverbs of Solomon, she displayed nothing womanish or timid in her character, such as we see most women experiencing whenever they hear something dreadful. Even their very complexion betrays the cowardice of their soul, and they often cry out lamentably as if the terrors were standing right beside them. But that queen, even if she was afraid, was afraid for the emperor, lest some terrible thing happen to him; and secondarily she was afraid for herself. So at that time she suffered nothing unworthy of her own nobility, but parted from the emperor unwillingly, frequently turning back toward him and often looking at him, yet, by composing and, as it were, steeling herself, she with difficulty departed from the king. And from there, having gone down to the sea and then embarked on the single-banked galley assigned to the empresses, sailing along the coast of the Bithynians, when a sea-swell held her back, she moored the ship at the shores of Helenopolis and lodged there for the time being. 15.2.3 But so much for the Augusta; the emperor, with the soldiers and kinsmen who were with him, was immediately under arms. And indeed, all having mounted, they proceeded toward Nicaea. But the barbarians, having captured a certain Alan and learned from him of the king's attack against them, returned fleeing by the same paths by which they had come. But Strabobasileios and Michael Stypeiotes (and let one hearing Stypeiotes not think of the half-barbarian; for that one had been a slave bought with silver by this one and was later presented to the king as a gift; but rather one of the greater fortune), these men, most warlike and of those celebrated of old, [these men] lingering on the ridges of the Germia and scouting the passes, to see if the barbarians might somewhere fall into their snares like some wild beast and be caught, when they learned of their coming, went up to the plains so-called ... and undertaking the war with them, they joined in a fierce battle, defeating them decisively. 15.2.4 And the emperor, having reached the often-mentioned fortress of Georgios, and from there again a certain town called locally Sagudaus, and although not encountering the Turks, having learned what had happened to them from the already mentioned noble men, I mean Stypeiotes and Strabobasileios, and having approved of the daring from the very beginning and the victory of the Romans, at that point he himself pitched his camp somewhere outside this small fort. On the next day, having gone down to Helenopolis, he met the queen, who was still lodged there because the sea was unnavigable. Therefore, having recounted what had happened to the Turks, and how in their desire for victory they had met with disaster, and imagining they were conquering they were rather conquered, and found the opposite of what they expected, and having restored her from her great despondency, he departed for Nicaea. 15.2.5 And there, having learned of an attack by other Turks, he comes to Lopadion; where, having spent a little time, and having learned that a large Turkish army was seizing Nicaea, he took up his forces and departed

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καταλαβὼν ἐγγίζειν ἤδη τοὺς βαρβάρους ἔλεγεν. Ἡ δὲ αὐτοκρατόρισσα ἔτι συμπαρῆν τῷ αὐτοκράτορι, δειλιῶσα μὲν ὡς εἰκός, ἐξεχομένη δὲ ὅμως τῆς ἐκείνου γνώμης. Ἐπὰν δὲ πρὸς ἄριστον οἱ βασιλεῖς ἠπείγοντο, ἕτερος ᾑμαγμένος καταλαβών, προσουδίσας τοῖς ποσὶ τοῦ αὐτοκράτορος ἑαυτὸν ὑπὲρ κεφαλῆς τὸν κίνδυνον ἵστασθαι ἐπώμνυτο, τῶν βαρβάρων ἤδη ἐπικαταλαμβανόντων. 15.2.2 Ὁ δὲ αὐτοκράτωρ εὐθὺς τὴν πρὸς τὸ Βυζάντιον ἐπά νοδον τὴν αὐτοκρατόρισσαν ἐπέτρεψεν. Ἡ δὲ πτοηθεῖσα ἐν μυχοῖς καρδίας ὅμως εἶχε τὸν φόβον καὶ οὔτε λόγοις οὔτε σχήμασι τοῦτον ἐνέφαινεν. Ἀνδρεία γὰρ καὶ στάσιμος οὖσα τὴν φρένα καθάπερ <ἡ> παρὰ τοῦ Σολομῶντος ἐν παροιμίαις ὑμνουμένη ἐκείνη γυνὴ οὐ γυναικῶδές τι ἐνε δείξατο καὶ ἀθαρσὲς ἦθος, οἷα τὰ πολλὰ τὰς γυναῖκας ὁρῶμεν πασχούσας, ἐπειδάν τι φοβερὸν ἀκούσωσι. Καὶ αὐτὸ τὸ χρῶμα κατηγορεῖ τῆς ψυχῆς τὴν δειλίαν, καὶ συχνάκις ἀνακωκύουσι γοερὸν ὥσπερ ἐκ τοῦ σχεδὸν αὐταῖς τῶν δεινῶν ἐφεστηκότων. Ἀλλ' ἥ γε βασιλὶς ἐκείνη, κἂν ἐδεδοίκει, περὶ τῷ αὐτοκράτορι ἐδεδοίκει, μή τι πάθῃ ἄτοπον· δευτέρως δὲ περὶ ἑαυτῆς ἐπεφόβητο. Οὐ τοίνυν ἐκείνη κατ' ἐκεῖνο καιροῦ ἀνάξιόν τι τῆς ἑαυτοῦ γενναιό τητος ἐπεπόνθει, ἀλλ' ἐχωρίζετο μὲν τοῦ αὐτοκράτορος ἄκουσα καὶ πυκνὰ περιστρεφομένη πρὸς ἐκεῖνον καὶ θαμὰ προσβλέπουσα, ὅμως μέντοι συντείνασα ἑαυτὴν καὶ οἷον τονώσασα μόγις ἀπηλλάγη τοῦ βασιλέως. Κἀκεῖθεν κατα βᾶσα πρὸς θάλασσαν κἄπειτα εἰς τὸ ταῖς βασιλίσιν ἀποτε ταγμένον μονῆρες εἰσεληλυθυῖα, τὴν ᾐόνα τῆς Βιθυνῶν παραπλέουσα, θαλαττίου κλύδωνος αὐτὴν κατασχόντος ταῖς ἀκταῖς τῆς Ἑλενουπόλεως τὴν ναῦν προσορμίσασα κεῖθι τέως αὐλίζεται. 15.2.3 Ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν τὰ περὶ τὴν Αὔγουσταν· ὁ δὲ αὐτοκράτωρ μετὰ τῶν συνόντων στρατιω τῶν τε καὶ συγγενῶν εὐθὺς ἐπὶ τοῖς ὅπλοις ἦν. Καὶ δὴ ἐποχηθέντες ἅπαντες τὴν πρὸς Νίκαιαν ὥδευον. Οἱ δὲ βάρβαροι Ἀλανόν τινα κατασχόντες καὶ τὴν τοῦ βασιλέως κατ' αὐτῶν ἔφοδον δι' αὐτοῦ μεμαθηκότες, δι' ὧν ἦλθον ἀτραπῶν, διὰ τούτων ἐπανῄεσαν φεύγοντες. Ὁ δέ γε Στραβοβασίλειος καὶ Μιχαὴλ ὁ Στυπειώτης (Στυπειώτην δὲ ἀκούων τις μὴ τὸν μιξοβάρβαρον νοείτω· ἀργυρώνητος γὰρ τούτου ἐκεῖνος δοῦλος γεγονὼς ἐς ὕστερον τῷ βασιλεῖ ὡς δῶρόν τι πρὸς αὐτὸν προσενήνεκται· ἀλλά τινα τῶν τῆς μείζονος τύχης), ἄνδρες οὗτοι μαχιμώτατοι καὶ τῶν πάλαι ὑμνουμένων, [οὗτοι] κατὰ τὰς ἀκρολοφίας τῶν Γερμίων ἐνδιατρίβοντες καὶ τὰς ἀμφόδους περισκο ποῦντες, εἴ που ταῖς ἄρκυσιν αὐτῶν καθάπερ τις θήρα οἱ βάρβαροι περιπεσόντες ἁλῷεν, ὡς τὴν τούτων ἔλευσιν μεμαθήκεισαν, παρὰ τὰς πεδιάδας τὰς οὕτω καλουμένας ... ἀνελθόντες καὶ ἀναδεξάμενοι τὸν μετ' αὐτῶν πόλεμον μάχην συνεστήσαντο καρτερὰν ἡττήσαντες τούτους κατὰ κράτος. 15.2.4 Καταλαβὼν δὲ ὁ αὐτοκράτωρ τὸ πολλάκις εἰρημένον φρούριον Γεωργίου, κἀκεῖθεν αὖθις κωμόπολίν τινα Σαγουδάους ἐγχωρίως καλουμένην, καὶ τοῖς Τούρκοις μὲν μὴ ἐντυχών, μεμαθηκὼς δὲ τὰ συμβάντα τούτοις παρὰ τῶν ἤδη ῥηθέντων γενναίων ἀνδρῶν, τοῦ τε Στυπειώτου καὶ τοῦ Στραβοβασιλείου φημί, καὶ ἀποδεξάμενος τὴν ἐξ αὐτῆς ἀρχῆς τόλμαν καὶ νίκην τῶν Ῥωμαίων, τηνικαῦτα ὁ αὐτὸς αὐτοῦ που ἔξωθεν τουτουῒ τοῦ καστελλίου τὸν χάρακα πήγνυται. Τῇ δὲ μετ' αὐτὴν ὡς παρὰ τὴν Ἑλενού πολιν κατελθὼν τῇ βασιλίδι ἐντετυχήκει ἔτι αὐλιζομένῃ διὰ τὸ τῆς θαλάττης ἄπλωτον. ∆ιηγησάμενος οὖν τὰ συμ βάντα τοῖς Τούρκοις καὶ ὡς νίκης ἐπιθυμοῦντες συμφορᾷ προσεπέλασαν καὶ κρατεῖν φανταζόμενοι μᾶλλον κεκράτην ται καὶ τἀναντία τῶν προσδοκηθέντων ἐφεύροσαν, καὶ τῆς πολλῆς ἀθυμίας ἀνακτησάμενος αὐτὴν ἄπεισιν ὡς πρὸς Νίκαιαν. 15.2.5 Ἐκεῖσε δὲ ἔφοδον ἑτέρων μεμαθηκὼς Τούρκων ἔρχεται πρὸς τὸ Λοπάδιον· ἐν ᾧ μικρὸν χρο νοτριβήσας καί, μεμαθηκὼς τὴν Νίκαιαν καταλαμβάνειν πολὺ τουρκικὸν στράτευμα, τὰς δυνάμεις ἀναλαβόμενος ἀπονεύει