534

having cast off the purple and the crimson-dyed sandals, and having put on private attire, he goes down. And this certainly would have happened as he himself wished and the metropolitans promised, if at the time of his abdication he had departed, leaving the palace; but having held out until war, and having endured to see so great a fall of his fellow countrymen, then having been crushed and shaken by the citizens and unwillingly withdrawing from the empire, I do not know if he will receive the heavenly kingdom as a reward for his earthly one. But this indeed, as is dear to God, will be. And while this was happening in his house on the acropolis on the fourth day, the thirty-first of the month of August, of the tenth indiction, Kekaumenos the curopalates, honored by Komnenos, enters with not a few nobles at the fifth hour in the morning by dromon, and having entered he seizes the palace. And Komnenos comes around late afternoon, and enters into them, and on the next day, the first of the month of September, of the 11th indiction, of the year #22φξʹ, having made a public 2.638 procession he goes to the great church, and there from the top of the ambo by the hands of the patriarch he is bound with the imperial diadem and is proclaimed emperor and autocrat of the Romans.

534

τὴν πορφύραν ἀποβαλὼν καὶ τὰ κοκκοβαφῆ πέδιλα, καὶ ἰδιωτικὴν ἐσθῆτα ἀμφιασάμενος, κάτεισι. τοῦτο δὲ πάντως ἐγένετο ἂν ὡς ἐκεῖνός τε ἐβούλετο καὶ οἱ μητροπολῖται ὑπέσχοντο, εἰ ἅμα τῇ ἀποστασίᾳ ᾤχετο λιπὼν τὰ βασίλεια· ἐγκαρτερήσας δὲ ἄχρι πολέμου, καὶ ἀνασχόμενος τοσαύτην πτῶσιν ἰδεῖν ἀνδρῶν ὁμοφύλων, εἶτα θραυσθεὶς καὶ κατασεισθεὶς ὑπὸ τῶν πολιτῶν καὶ ἄκων τῆς βασιλείας ὑπεξερχόμενος, οὐκ οἶδα εἰ ἀντιμισθίαν κομιεῖται τῆς ἐπιγείου βασιλείας τὴν ἐπουράνιον. ἀλλὰ τοῦτο μέν, ὅπῃ τῷ θεῷ φίλον, γενήσεται. τοῦ δὲ κατὰ τὴν ἐν τῇ ἀκροπόλει οἰκίαν αὐτοῦ γενομένου ἡμέρᾳ τετράδι, τριακοστὴν πρώτην ἄγοντος τοῦ Αὐγούστου μηνός, τῆς δεκάτης ἐπινεμήσεως, εἰσέρχεται ὁ Κεκαυμένος κουροπαλάτης ὑπὸ τοῦ Κομνηνοῦ τιμηθεὶς μετά τινων οὐκ ὀλίγων εὐπατριδῶν τῇ εʹ πρωΐας διὰ δρόμωνος, καὶ εἰσελθὼν κρατεῖ τὰ ἀνάκτορα. ἔρχεται δὲ περὶ δείλην ὀψίαν καὶ ὁ Κομνηνός, καὶ εἴσεισιν ἐν αὐτοῖς, καὶ τῇ ἐπαύριον, πρώτην ἄγοντος τοῦ Σεπτεμβρίου μηνός, τῆς ιαʹ ἐπινεμήσεως, τοῦ #22φξʹ ἔτους, δημοσίαν ποιησάμενος 2.638 πρόοδον ἄπεισιν εἰς τὴν μεγάλην ἐκκλησίαν, κἀκεῖσε ἄνωθεν τοῦ ἄμβωνος διὰ τῶν χειρῶν τοῦ πατριάρχου τῷ βασιλικῷ ταινιοῦται διαδήματι καὶ βασιλεὺς αὐτοκράτωρ Ῥωμαίων ἀναγορεύεται.