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considering it good to choose what is honorable and just; Both all those in authority and the rest of the army, not only because you wished and commanded it, but also spurred on of their own accord, showed great forbearance and kindness toward me. For all of which I myself owe thanks, and others will give praise, as many as this narrative reaches even after a time. What then can be said? That I, having forgotten so many good deeds, 3.143 for no reason chose to make war and repay my benefactors with evil? It would surely be the most absurd thing of all, to be so grateful in word to those who have treated me well, and to choose not to hide their good deeds, but to be ungrateful in deeds and to appear most inconsistent with myself, I who was never seen to hold such an opinion even toward those who had often given offense and had been the cause of great misfortunes. But for this dispute and for the war now stirred up against us, you yourselves have provided the causes from the beginning until now, and I will try to make this clear from the facts. For while I was staying with you, it seemed good to make treaties and oaths for an alliance, and thus to try to provide assistance, you on the one hand asked as payment for the alliance many cities and a territory belonging to the Roman dominion, while I on the other would not concede even one of the most insignificant forts, but demanded to help for free. For it would not only be ignoble and unbefitting a free man for you, and bring upon you great disgrace, to serve not for honor and friendship, but for pay, but it would also be most impossible of all for me, for the sake of my own safety and that of my companions, to abandon the Romans, even if they, acting without judgment, have stirred up the war against me. For my concern from the very beginning and up to now has been not to enslave, but rather to liberate from enemies, 3.144 and I declared at once that, if it seemed good, I would help for the sake of friendship and honor alone; but if not, that I at least would accomplish nothing unbefitting a free man, nor would I appear a traitor to the Romans, my countrymen, but would rather choose to perish myself along with my children and household, than for the sake of a present need to leave behind everlasting monuments of disgrace for the Romans who come after. These things seemed to you also, as you took counsel with your wife and those in authority, to be both just and to bring much honor to me and likewise to you; and we agreed to the treaties and the oaths on these terms, that we be friends and allies to one another for life, and that each should help the other, as he best could when need called; and as for the cities and territory under the Romans, as much of it as you yourself, while Emperor Andronicus was still alive, or your ancestors took away from former emperors, you were to hold securely, and I was to stir up no war concerning it, even if I were able to take it away; and that those still remaining up to that time you would try in no way, neither by artifice, nor by any device, to take away, but that you would help me conquer the Roman dominion as far as possible by warring against those who opposed me, and that those cities which were captured or came over to my side while I was present, I was to have without question; but if it ever happened in my absence that either you yourself, or one of the powerful men under you, were to take a city subject to the Ro 3.145 mans, either by treachery, or by siege, or by corrupting those within with money or in some other way, you were to give them all back to me, and no pretext would suffice for withholding any of them, and of these things it is possible to provide clear proof from these written oaths, which you then made to me in the treaties, in the presence of your archbishop and of these distinguished men under you who are now present here. Let us consider, then, which of us has abided by these oaths, whether it is I who am accused of much ingratitude and ungraciousness and of being wicked toward my friends and am being prosecuted for greed, or you who desire nothing of what belongs to others, but are steadfast toward your friends, and who pursue as a way of life not to change easily with the times, nor to undo with fickleness of character what has once been decided. It seems to me, on the one hand, that I neither of keeping my oath

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ἡγουμένους τὸ τὰ καλὰ καὶ δίκαια αἱρεῖσθαι· οἵ τε ἐν τέλει πάντες καὶ ἡ ἄλλη στρατιὰ οὐ διὰ τὸ σὲ βούλεσθαι μόνον καὶ κελεύειν, ἀλλὰ καὶ οἴκοθεν ὡρμημένοι, μεγάλην ἐπεδείξαντο τὴν ἐπιείκειαν καὶ τὴν εὐγνωμοσύνην εἰς ἐμέ. ὧν ἁπάντων αὐτός τε χάριτας ὀφείλω, καὶ οἱ ἄλλοι ἐπαινέσονται, ὅσοις εἰς ἀκοὰς ἀφίξεται καὶ μετὰ χρόνον τὸ διήγημα. τί οὖν ἔστιν εἰπεῖν, ὅτι τῶν τοσούτων ἀγαθῶν 3.143 ἀμνήμων ἐγὼ γεγενημένος, ἐξ οὐδεμιᾶς αἰτίας εἱλόμην πολεμεῖν καὶ κακοῖς ἀμείβεσθαι τοὺς εὐηργετηκότας; πάντων μεντἂν εἴη ἀτοπώτατον, γλώττῃ μὲν οὕτως εἰδέναι χάριν τοῖς εὐπεποιηκόσι, καὶ μὴ συγκρύπτειν αἱρεῖσθαι τἀγαθὰ, ἔργοις δὲ ἀχαριστεῖν καὶ ἑαυτῷ φαίνεσθαι ἐναντιώτατον, ὃς οὐδὲ πρὸς τοὺς πολλὰ προσκεκρουκότας καὶ μεγάλων γεγενημένους αἰτίους συμφορῶν τοιαύτην οὐδέποτε γνώμην ὤφθην ἔχων. ἀλλὰ καὶ τῆς τοιαύτης διαφορᾶς καὶ τοῦ κεκινημένου πρὸς ἡμᾶς νυνὶ πολέμου αὐτοὶ τὰς αἰτίας ἐξαρχῆς καὶ ἄχρι νῦν παρέσχεσθε, καὶ τοῦτο πειράσομαι ποιεῖν ἐκ τῶν πραγμάτων ἐναργές. ὡς γὰρ διατρίβοντί μοι παρ' ὑμῖν ἐδόκει σπονδὰς καὶ ὅρκους ἐπὶ συμμαχίᾳ τίθεσθαι, καὶ οὕτω παρέχεσθαι πειρᾶσθαι τὴν ὠφέλειαν, σὺ μὲν μισθὸν τῆς συμμαχίας ᾔτεις πόλεις πολλὰς καὶ χώραν τῇ Ῥωμαίων προσήκουσαν ἡγεμονίᾳ, ἐγὼ δὲ οὐδ' ἑνὸς τῶν φαυλοτάτων τινὸς φρουρίου παρεχώρουν, ἀλλ' ἠξίουν προῖκα βοηθεῖν. οὐ γὰρ ὑμῖν εἶναι μόνον ἀγεννὲς καὶ ἀνελεύθερον καὶ ἀδοξίαν προστριβόμενον πολλὴν, μὴ διὰ φιλοτιμίαν καὶ φιλίαν, ἀλλὰ μισθῷ δουλεύειν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐμοὶ τῶν πάντων ἀδυνατώτατον, διὰ τὴν ἐμαυτοῦ καὶ τῶν συνόντων σωτηρίαν καταπροΐεσθαι Ῥωμαίους, εἰ καὶ ἀγνωμονοῦντες ἐκεῖνοι τὸν πόλεμον κεκινήκασι τὸν πρὸς ἐμέ. οὐ γὰρ καταδουλοῦν, ἀλλ' ἐλευθεροῦν ἀπὸ τῶν πολεμίων μᾶλλον ἐξαρχῆς τε εὐθὺς καὶ ἄχρι νῦν μά 3.144 λιστα σπουδὴν ποιοῦμαι, εὐθύς τε ἀπεφαινόμην, ὡς, εἰ μὲν δοκοίη, διὰ φιλίαν μόνην καὶ φιλοτιμίαν βοηθεῖν· εἰ δὲ μὴ, ἀλλ' αὐτόν γε καταπράξεσθαι ἀνελεύθερον οὐδὲν, οὐδὲ προδότην φανεῖσθαι Ῥωμαίων τῶν ὁμοφύλων, ἀλλ' αἱρήσεσθαι μᾶλλον αὐτὸς ἀπόλλυσθαι καὶ τέκνα καὶ οἰκείους, ἢ διὰ τὴν ἐν τῷ παρόντι χρείαν ἀδοξίας ἀείμνηστα μνημεῖα τοῖς εἰσέπειτα Ῥωμαίοις καταλείπειν. ἃ ἐδόκει καὶ σοὶ μετὰ γυναικὸς βουλευομένῳ καὶ τῶν ἐν τέλει δίκαιά τε εἶναι καὶ πολλὴν οἴσοντα φιλοτιμίαν ἐμοί τε ὁμοίως καὶ ὑμῖν· καὶ συνεθέμεθα τὰς σπονδὰς καὶ τοὺς ὅρκους ἐπὶ τούτοις, ὥστε φίλους ἀλλήλοις εἶναι καὶ συμμάχους διὰ βίου, καὶ βοηθεῖν ἑκάτερον ἑτέρῳ, ὡς ἂν μάλιστα ἔχοι καλούσης χρείας· πόλεις δὲ καὶ χώραν τὴν ὑπὸ Ῥωμαίοις, ὅσης μὲν αὐτὸς βασιλέως ἔτι περιόντος Ἀνδρονίκου ἢ οἱ πρόγονοι ἀφείλοντο ἐκ τῶν προτέρων βασιλέων, ταύτην ἔχειν ἀσφαλῶς, καὶ μηδένα πόλεμον ἐμὲ κινεῖν περὶ αὐτῆς, κἂν δύνωμαι ἀφαιρεῖσθαι· τὰς ἔτι δὲ ὑπολειπομένας ἄχρι τότε μηδενὶ τρόπῳ, μήτε τέχνῃ, μήτε μηχανῇ μηδεμιᾷ πειρᾶσθαι ἀφαιρεῖσθαι, ἀλλ' ἐμοὶ τὴν Ῥωμαίων ἡγεμονίαν συγκατακτᾶσθαι ἄχρι καὶ τοῦ δυνατοῦ πολεμοῦντα τοῖς ἐμοὶ ἀνθεστηκόσι, καὶ τὰς μὲν ἁλισκομένας ἢ προσχωρούσας ἐμοῦ παρόντος, ταύτας ἔχειν ἐμὲ ἀνενδοιάστως· εἰ δέ ποτε συμβαίη καὶ ἀπόντος, ἢ αὐτὸν, ἢ τῶν ὑπὸ σὲ τελούντων δυνατῶν τινα πόλιν κατασχεῖν ὑπήκοον Ῥω 3.145 μαίοις, ἢ προδοσίᾳ, ἢ πολιορκίᾳ, ἢ διαφθείραντα τοὺς ἔνδον χρήμασιν ἢ τρόπῳ δή τινι ἑτέρῳ, πάσας ἐμοὶ ἀποδιδόναι, καὶ μηδεμίαν πρόφασιν ἀρκεῖν ἐπὶ μηδεμιᾶς ἀποστερήσει, καὶ τούτων ἔξεστιν ἀπόδειξιν παρέχειν ἐναργῆ ἐκ τῶν ἐγγράφων ὅρκων τουτωνὶ, οὓς ἐποιήσω τότε πρὸς ἐμὲ ἐν ταῖς συνθήκαις, παρόντος ἀρχιεπισκόπου τοῦ σοῦ καὶ τῶν νυνὶ παρόντων ἐνθάδε τουτωνὶ τῶν ὑπὸ σὲ ἐπιφανῶν. σκεψώμεθα δὴ οὖν, ὁπότερος ἐνέμεινε τοῖς ὅρκοις τούτοις, ἆρ' ὁ πολλὴν ἀγνωμοσύνην καὶ ἀχαριστίαν κατηγορούμενος ἐγὼ καὶ κακὸς περὶ τοὺς φίλους καὶ ἀπληστίας δίκην φεύγων, ἢ σὺ ὁ τῶν ἀλλοτρίων μηδενὸς ἐπιθυμῶν, ἀλλὰ βέβαιος περὶ τοὺς φίλους, καὶ ὥσπερ πολιτείαν διὰ βίου μετιὼν τὸ μὴ συμμεταβάλλεσθαι ῥᾳδίως τοῖς καιροῖς, μηδὲ τὰ εἰσάπαξ ἐψηφισμένα τρόπων εὐκολίᾳ διαλύων. ἐμοὶ μὲν δοκεῖ, μήτ' εὐορκίας ἐμὲ