Guide

47. Actually they had already left the church, and a shameful reception awaited them outside. The rabble made fun of them, naturally enough under the circumstances. Sometimes the insults were tempered with laughter, but...

He swore by the Holy Relics and used all manner of persuasion, saying that they would neither suffer any evil nor would he, the Empress’s envoy, treat them with any more severity than the...

The Nobilissimus denied that he was privy to his nephew’s plot against Zoe. He had encouraged him in no other designs. ‘If I had wished to restrain him’, he said, ‘my reward would have...

39. So much for them. Theodora’s companions meanwhile sent a guard for him. The guard commander was one of the nobles**74 and I myself accompanied him (I was a personal friend of the man)....

The Mob is Led Away to the Augusta Theodora36. As I have said, the people revolted against the tyrant, but they were afraid their efforts might be wasted. His force might get the better...

33. The war, therefore, flared up against him all the more bitterly. But the rebels were afraid lest the combined efforts of Michael and Zoe might yet prove their undoing. Most of their supporters...

His retinue were armed with daggers, so that if anyone met them, they could slay him at once. Charging thus through the city they dashed to the gates of the palace and entered it....

29. It was decided first to attack the emperor’s family and tear down their proud and luxurious mansions. With this object they advanced to the general assault, and all was razed to the ground....

How was it this low-born fellow dared to raise a hand against a woman of such lineage? How could he conceive so vile a thought against her? No other soul on earth would dream...

25. Up to this time the emperor had lived in the lap of luxury and he was extremely proud of his achievements. Throughout the city, however, — and I am speaking here of persons...