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them, saying that he would do much harm both to the emperor and to the Romans, if they were not persuaded to come to terms on some single proposal. They, therefore, cleverly put him off, saying that a little later they would give an answer concerning the things he proposed as an envoy. But the grand duke, when he learned from Arego that the emperor would lead his army away on the third day, announced war against Kantakouzenos to all the Byzantines. And he himself supposedly prepared and enlisted the soldiers, and he ordered supplications in all the divine houses and holy monasteries and for every class and rank of priests, so as to make the divine power propitious to those who would engage with the apostate. He spent that day, therefore, and all the next making preparations. But on the third day, at the hour of breakfast, when he learned from the scouts that the emperor had departed—for he fulfilled what he had promised—he opened the gates and poured out 2.518 with an unrestrained and reckless impulse and drew up both the cavalry and infantry force before the walls. But when the scouts, whom he himself had sent ahead supposedly to observe the enemy, returned and reported that they had gone away at dawn, he was annoyed at the failure and blamed himself greatly for the slowness and the delay and was unbearably vexed. And sending to the patriarch he reported that Kantakouzenos, having perceived the attack and realizing that he would not withstand the force, had run away and departed at dawn. What then is fitting to do, since the enemy has resorted to flight? But the patriarch replied: "The wicked flee when no one pursues; win, but do not win too much." And he ordered them to turn back, having become much stronger than the enemy. And he turned back, grieving because it was not possible to engage with the enemy. But the emperor, since it was not possible to be ignorant of what was being done, as many reported it daily from Byzantium, took both Rhegion by assault and Athyra and Damokraneia and Selymbria. And having ordered Apameia, a certain demolished fortress, to be walled, and having left an army in Rhegion and Apameia and Empyrites and in the city near Lake Derkos, so that they might guard these places, being closer to Byzantium than the others, and make continuous raids and robberies against Byzantium, he himself with the rest of the army withdrew to Didymoteichon; and the army in these fortresses did the greatest harm to the 2.519 Byzantines, though it was small; for nearly both by night and by day they destroyed and plundered everything, having also a small Persian force mixed in with them, who killed many and enslaved them and sold them to the east for slavery. And in a short time almost everything around Byzantium was rendered uninhabited by them. But the patriarch and the grand duke, knowing that Arego would demand an account concerning the embassy, and being ashamed to openly refuse peace, but having devised a certain way to deceive the Latin, so that they might not seem to be willingly the cause of so great a disaster for the Romans, wrote to the emperor Kantakouzenos as follows: "Since we take great account that the Romans not be destroyed by the war, a little while before we sent an embassy to you, promising to do the very things you yourself requested of the much-longed-for and most genuine grand duke to the emperor. And these were, that having laid aside the imperial office, you would be in safety and expect to suffer no harm because of your ingratitude towards the empress and the calamities which you brought upon the Romans by warring. But you, as it seems, still desiring more slaughter and bloodshed and to increase the calamities for the wretched Romans, in order that you might seem to bring to fulfillment what you chose from the beginning, having been defeated by no one, changing your mind you sent the ambassadors away without success, having denied what you had uttered. At that time, therefore, you lied without possibility of refutation, saying that the 2.520 grand duke had spoken things about you that were not true. But now it is not possible for you to find any such refuge and to resort to delays of what has been said. For both the letters, being yours in our possession, will refute you and the Latin ambassador, who is worthy of trust. What you yourself wrote, therefore,

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αὐτοὺς, πολλὰ ἀδικήσειν φάσκων καὶ βασιλέα καὶ Ῥωμαίους, εἰ μὴ ἐπὶ μιᾷ τινι προκλήσει πεισθεῖεν διαλύεσθαι. ἐκεῖνον μὲν οὖν εὐφυῶς ἀπεσκευάσαντο, φάμενοι ὀλίγῳ ὕστερον ἀποκρινεῖσθαι περὶ ὧν ἐπρέσβευε. δοὺξ δὲ ὁ μέγας, ἐπεὶ πύθοιτο βασιλέα παρὰ Ἀρήγου εἰς τρίτην ἡμέραν ἀπάξοντα τὴν στρατιὰν, πᾶσι Βυζαντίοις πόλεμον κατήγγελλε πρὸς Καντακουζηνόν. καὶ αὐτὸς παρεσκευάζετο δῆθεν καὶ κατέλεγε τοὺς στρατιώτας, πᾶσι δὲ θείοις οἴκοις καὶ φροντιστηρίοις ἱεροῖς καὶ παντὶ γένει καὶ ἀξιώματι ἱερέων παρήγγελλε λιτὰς, ὡς τὸ θεῖον ἱλεωσομένους τοῖς τῷ ἀποστάτῃ συμβαλοῦσιν. ἐκείνην μὲν οὖν τὴν ἡμέραν καὶ τὴν ἐπιοῦσαν πᾶσαν παρασκευαζόμενος διήγαγεν. ἐς τὴν τρίτην δὲ ἐν ἀρίστου τῇ ὥρᾳ, ἐπεὶ πύθοιτο παρὰ τῶν σκοπῶν βασιλέα ἀπηρκότα, ἐπλήρου γὰρ ἐκεῖνος τὰ ὑπεσχημένα, τὰς πύλας ἀνοίξας ἐξεχεῖτο 2.518 μεθ' ὁρμῆς τινος ἀσχέτου καὶ παραβόλου καὶ συνέταττε τήν τε ἱππικὴν καὶ τὴν πεζὴν δύναμιν πρὸ τῶν τειχῶν. ὡς δὲ ἐπανῆκον οἱ σκοποὶ, οὓς αὐτὸς προέπεμπε τοὺς πολεμίους δῆθεν κατασκεψομένους, καὶ ἀπήγγελλον ἅμα πρωῒ ἐκείνους οἰχομένους, ἠνιᾶτο μὲν πρὸς τὴν ἀποτυχίαν καὶ πολλὰ ἑαυτὸν τῆς βραδυτῆτος κατεμέμφετο καὶ τῆς τριβῆς καὶ ἐδυσχέραινεν οὐκ ἀνεκτῶς. πέμψας δὲ καὶ πρὸς πατριάρχην ἐμήνυεν, ὡς Καντακουζηνὸς αἰσθόμενος τὴν ἔφοδον καὶ συνιδὼν ὡς οὐκ ἂν ὑποστησόμενος τὴν δύναμιν, ᾤχετο ἀποδρὰς ἅμα πρωΐ. τί οὖν προσήκει πράττειν, φυγῇ τῶν πολεμίων χρησαμένων; πατριάρχης δὲ ἐμήνυε· «φεύγει ὁ ἀσεβὴς, μηδενὸς διώκοντος· νίκα καὶ μὴ ὑπερνίκα.» καὶ ἐκέλευεν ἀναστρέφειν πολλῷ τῶν πολεμίων κρείττους γενομένους. καὶ ἀνέστρεφε λυπούμενος, ὅτι μὴ συμβαλεῖν ἐξεγένετο τοῖς πολεμίοις. βασιλεὺς δὲ, ἐπεὶ μὴ ἀγνοεῖν τὰ πραττόμενα ἐνῆν, πολλῶν ἐκ Βυζαντίου ὁσημέραι μηνυόντων, τό,τε Ῥήγιον εἷλεν ἐξ ἐφόδου ἐπελθὼν καὶ Ἀθύραν καὶ ∆αμοκράνειαν καὶ Σηλυμβρίαν. κελεύσας δὲ Ἀπάμειαν, φρούριόν τι κατεσκαμμένον, τειχισθῆναι, καὶ στρατιὰν καταλιπὼν ἐν Ῥηγίῳ καὶ Ἀπαμείᾳ καὶ Ἐμπυρίτῃ καὶ τῇ πρὸς τῇ ∆έρκῃ λίμνῃ πόλει, ὡς ἂν ταῦτά τε φρουροῖεν, ἐγγυτέρω Βυζαντίου τῶν ἄλλων ὄντα, καὶ ἐπεκδρομὰς ποιοῖντο συνεχεῖς κατὰ τοῦ Βυζαντίου καὶ λῃστείας, τὴν ἄλλην ἔχων στρατιὰν αὐτὸς ἀνεχώρησεν εἰς ∆ιδυμότειχον· ἡ δὲ ἐν τοῖς φρουρίοις τούτοις στρατιὰ τὰ μέγιστα ἐκάκωσε 2.519 Βυζαντίους, καὶ ὀλίγη οὖσα· σχεδὸν γὰρ νύκτωρ τε καὶ μεθ' ἡμέραν πάντα διέφθειρον καὶ ἐληΐζοντο, ἔχοντες καὶ Περσικὴν ὀλίγην δύναμιν ἀναμεμιγμένην μετ' αὐτῶν, οἳ πολλοὺς ἀπέκτεινον καὶ ἐξηνδραποδίζοντο καὶ πρὸς ἕω ἀπεδίδοντο ἐπὶ δουλείᾳ. καὶ σχεδὸν ἐν ὀλίγῳ χρόνῳ πάντα τὰ περὶ Βυζάντιον ἀοίκητα ὑπ' ἐκείνων ἀπεδείχθη. πατριάρχης δὲ καὶ ὁ μέγας δοὺξ εἰδότες, ὡς Ἀρῆγος ἀπαιτήσει λόγον περὶ τῆς πρεσβείας, καὶ τὴν μὲν εἰρήνην ἀναφανδὸν αἰδούμενοι ἀπαγορεύειν, τρόπῳ δέ τινι σκεψάμενοι τὸν Λατῖνον ἀπατᾷν, ἵνα μὴ δοκοῖεν ἑκοντὶ τοῖς Ῥωμαίοις αἴτιοι αὐτοὶ καθίστασθαι τοσαύτης συμφορᾶς, πρὸς βασιλέα τὸν Καντακουζηνὸν ἔγραψαν τοιάδε· «ὡς ἡμεῖς πολύν τινα λόγον περὶ τοῦ μὴ Ῥωμαίους ὑπὸ τοῦ πολέμου διαφθείρεσθαι ποιούμενοι, ὀλίγῳ πρότερον ἐπέμψαμεν πρός σε πρεσβείαν, ἅπερ αὐτὸς πρὸς τὸν περιπόθητον καὶ γνησιώτατον τῷ βασιλεῖ τὸν μέγαν δοῦκα ᾔτησας ἐπαγγελλόμενοι ποιήσειν. ταῦτα δὲ ἦν, ἀποθέμενον τὴν βασιλείαν, ἐν ἀσφαλείᾳ εἶναι καὶ μηδὲν προσδοκᾷν πείσεσθαι δεινὸν διὰ τὴν ἀγνωμοσύνην τὴν πρὸς βασιλίδα καὶ τὰς συμφορὰς, ἃς ἐπήγαγες Ῥωμαίοις πολεμῶν. σὺ δὲ, ὡς ἔοικεν, ἔτι φόνων καὶ αἱμάτων ὀρεγόμενος πλειόνων καὶ τὰς συμφορὰς τοῖς ταλαιπώροις Ῥωμαίοις αὔξειν, ἵν' ἃ προείλου ἐξαρχῆς, ἡττηθεὶς ὑπ' οὐδενὸς, εἰς τέλος δόξῃς ἀγαγεῖν, μεταβαλὼν ἀπράκτους ἀπέπεμψας τοὺς πρέσβεις, ἠρνημένος ἃ ἐφθέγξω. τότε μὲν οὖν ἀνεξέλεγκτα ἐψεύσω, φάσκων τὸν 2.520 μέγαν δοῦκα εἰρηκέναι περὶ σοῦ μὴ ἀληθῆ. νυνὶ δὲ οὐδεμίαν σοι τοιαύτην ἔξεστι καταφυγὴν εὑρεῖν καὶ πρὸς ἀναβολὰς χωρεῖν τῶν εἰρημένων. τά τε γὰρ γράμματα ἐλέγξουσι τὰ σὰ ὄντα παρ' ἡμῖν καὶ ὁ πρεσβευτὴς Λατῖνος, ἀξιόχρεως ὢν πρὸς πίστιν. ἃ τοίνυν ἔγραψας αὐτὸς,