When spring was about to start, the emperor planned to stay in the Queen of Cities and so he entrusted command of the army in the east to one of the most eminent of the Romans. Having decided beforehand on the protoproedrus Manuel Komnenos and honored him with the rank of curopalates, he made him general and commander of the army. This decision proved adverse and misfortunate for the Roman Empire.

And so, Manuel once appointed went off to perform his command and although he was young he did nothing immature or puerile. He made a great deal over the provisions of his army gathering together his forces and coming to Caesarea very mightily not only setting the affairs of the army in order but also looking after the war appropriately such that he would punish soldiers who had committed foul deeds and deal out fines for recklessness. In some battles, he proved victorious only extending and increasing his reputation. However, emperor when informed of this victory seemed to be pleased with it, but only pleased because no one could say anything against it (41). Yet, so that the siege of Hierapolis be relieved along with the lack of supplies, gripping the people within, he divided a large contingent of the army off from the rest, ordered it to head for Syria, and so in this way deprived the commander of his might. Next Manuel came to Sebastea along with his remaining forces and made camp near the city, when a mass of Huns came upon him and joined battle with him. There was a mighty battle in which the enemy gave only the illusion of fleeing, since such are their stratagems and battle methods and when the Romans had scattered in pursuit of them they suddenly flipped around and attacked capturing many of them and putting an even larger number to the sword, even capturing Manuel, the commander of the army himself. In addition, their camp was captured and plundered. If the nearby city had not saved the majority of them, then all of Roman youth as had gone on the expedition might have been lost.

When report of this reached the emperor, he was overcome by grief as well as those people who cared for Romans’ situation. The news of this first report had not yet sunk in, when another came announcing that the Turks had seized the city of Chonae and its famous temple [i.e. church] of the Arch-general famous for its wonder and its offerings and sated themselves with the murder and ransom of everything there drunkenly defiling the church, such that not even the caves, which the rivers flowing through carved out by means of the ancient stay of the Arch-general and a divine sign so that the flow of it became gentle and very smooth flowing, could protect and contrive to save the refugees from the danger, since the water rose pulling down and roaring covering utterly all of the refugees seizing even those on land. When this was reported, it caused us much dejection as though these misfortunes had happened due out of divine wrath, since it was not only the enemy but also the elements fighting against us. The emperor tried and struggled to set out with the soldiers about him, but he was prevented from doing so by his counselors, ignorance of the number of his opponents, and the confusion of the forces with the curopalates On this account, he remained unwillingly in the palace(42).

After some days had passed, another report reached the emperor and the Roman body. It said that the commander of the Turks, after waging war on our troops and seizing the army underhand, which had been bought for sums of money by people of that same race, was coming to the emperor only with the commander, more a dear friend to the emperor, than a commander of the Huns. What the report held then came to pass, since he went off taking with him the said commander of the army, who came to live in the capital abandoning his own people and chosen desertion without any set purpose. The cause of it was that the sultan, the ruler of the Persians, was hostile towards him as a deserter sent an army and a commander against him by whom he was seized by fear and made up his mind not so much to fly from danger than to flee to the Roman emperor. Such was what went through his mind as he was received and welcomed unharmed into the house of the curopalates saved by him (43). The emperor was not so easily disposed and would not have an audience with him only many days later. It was only with a gathering of senators beside him and the usual show of pomp that he received him in the chrysotriclinus one morning with the rising of the sun. At this time, everyone assembled with intelligence or greater sense raised his or her voices higher and starting saying what had happened to him was fitting. He was young, nearly dwarfish for his age, a Scythian by sight and graceless because this race is descended from the Scythians inheriting their poor habits and ugliness. The emperor bestowed upon him the honor of proedrus aiming to make him join in the expedition against the Turks.

While he was spending the winter in the capital, he enlisted soldiers. Just as spring was starting, he crossed the strait around about the day called the marking of Orthodoxy (44), during which heretics are distinguished as a race from the orthodox and the heterodox are place under anathema by the church, and came to the palace of Erion as it is a custom, having made the yearly philotimia called the roga to the great men of the Senate the day before this one.

The emperor's crossing happened in a new and contrary to custom way, since the emperor did not lay anchor at the gates or an imperial dwelling, nor at Neacoma [New Village] or a spot for the imperial bodyguard or consulship, but instead disembarked at Helenopolis, where the imperial tent had been carried and sent up beforehand causing people to jest off the name of Helenopolis that it should be called to Eleeinopolis [piteous city] (46). For this, the emperor's way of going east from Erion to Helenopolis did not seem a good omen to the people practiced in such things. For what could seem less out of agreement with the name of the place than when imperial tent, after it had been set up, suddenly fell down lacking a wooden pole? However, men's usual stupidity then and poor practices prevented them from putting faith in what was evident and comprehending, instead letting them go on senseless of its meaning without taking action (47).

And so the emperor advanced and went further on east until he reached the so-called province of the Anatolics [the Anatolic theme] now rather than before treating the men about him with parsimony. He made them to camp on wheat fields, which were flowed along by a river choosing and instead stayed on an uphill and narrow village gladdened by homes with roofs over them and escaped having to set up a tent There a bad omen took place no less than the previous ones. Fire started somewhere in those houses where the emperor was settled and with a great bit of clamor burst out. Many people ran up together to extinguish the flames coming to the aid of the emperor's belongings including the emperor's horses, which had the finest things including precious arms, reins, and saddles and were becoming food and drink to the fire. They scarcely able to save one from fury of the flames. Other horses and mules half-burned rode up to the army providing nothing profitable, only testimony to the evil that happened at the capital and its symbolic meaning in it all.

However, the result of all this later came to pass. The emperor then crossed the Sangarius River by the bridge called Zombus(48) and began to gather together the rest of his forces who had been left behind and were all scattered about in the hills, tunnels, refuges, and in caves due to the already-said vehemence(49) of the barbarians. He selected the men as he wanted and sent off a great number of them then taking the road forward with better spirit again separating himself from his army enjoying the hospitality of his own homes, the welcomes of his own properties, and the arrangements of lavish houses. When the army crossed the Halys River, he himself did not cross with them then, but instead remained behind at a newly built fortress constructed at his command where he stayed for several days. Then he crossed to the province of Charsianum and ended his division from the army on his own properties. From here on, he was indivisible from the army, not going into Caesarea, but camping out with the army at the spring called Crya [Cold, i.e. Cold Spring]. This place is on the whole of great service to an army because its water is clear, drinkable, and very cold while it yields up thick forestry along with abundant grass convenient for a camp. It is covered by roses and lilies, with hills that calmly transition to one another such that it is a city-village so to speak and is recognized as a city of the fields through the multiple uses that can be made of it. There the emperor remained encamped several days since he had seen the country mercilessly ravaged by the soldiers and especially the mercenaries and foreigners with all of the plunder untimely seized and the food plundered as well, so stung at the heart, he dealt harshly with some of the so-called Nemitzi, who were previously called by in our narrative the Sauromati. However, they with their boldness, anger, and barbarian lunacy did not accept this and arose to avenge their own and agreed to at the best moment to drive off [or 'kill'] the horses carrying the imperial tent and the emperor himself. When their attack was perceived, a cry went up in the camp, which with the clamor of it all caused the emperor to make ready for war mounting upon his horse and trying to get the army ready for battle only to be astounded to find his own foreigners coming on the scene all in battle order. He made them subservient to him assigning them to the furthest away country for his own security giving them only this in retribution (50).

From there, he came to Sebastea and the areas before it pressing on eagerly to come to Iberia when he came upon two roads leading away to the theme of Colonia, so he decided to take the one on the left only to encounter the sight of many human corpses. For it was here the previous year the battle had taken place between the Romans lead by Manuel Komnenos, the curopalates, and the Turks in which the Roman army had been defeated. For the soldiers encamped there, this provided a compelling sight.

Passing day by day on that road, he came to Theodosiopolis, which had been abandoned and become inhabitant-less previously due to its nearness to the city of Artze, but whose city's good placement had caused its people to immigrate and settle there a great city for all sorts of business with Persia, India, and the rest of Asia, boasting a population not easily numbered. Theodosioupolis was resettled and fortified with a trench around it and walls due to un-hoped for Turkish neighbors due to whose raids the city of Artze had been massacred and captured. The emperor therefore remained there no small number of days ordering everyone to pile up provisions for two months since they were about to pass through an uninhabited country which had been trampled by those nations. Everyone did as they were ordered with especial zeal, while the emperor sent some Scythian mercenaries on a foraging and plundering expedition of Chliat having done this previously, then sending off some Germans called Franks along with their commander, a mighty man in battle, Ruselius by name. He then with the rest of the army marched up behind them and did not meet with the soldiers he had sent as he was approaching Chliat. However, since the year before the ruler of the Persians (sultan as he is called in their tongue) had taken the Roman city called Mantzikiert and garrisoned it with a fair amount of Turks along with Dilimiti [?], the emperor had decided therefore previously to besiege this city, strengthen it, and recover it for the Romans and then attack the other cities meaning Chliat lying not a very great distance away. Supposing that the enemy garrisoned at Mantzikiert was not capable of withstanding his assault, he divided off another large part of the army and entrusted command of it to one of his most eminent commanders, the magister Joseph Tarchaniotes giving him a body of foot soldiers not easily reckoned. The body of soldiers handed over to him was elite and unconquerable having hazarded and fought many battles and wars claiming victory, while in number they much outdid the soldiers under the emperor's command. In the preceding battles no such need had arisen for the Romans stationed with the emperor for his contingent so-called customarily the allagion to hazard and fight a battle; however, whereas the others had seized victory before, the companies hanging about the emperor remained devoid of battle glory trying to forget a flight from raging battle.

Tarchaniotes then taking command of those elite solders, as it was said, set out from there and got on the road for Chliat to aid the previously dispatched Scythians and Franks (it was reported that they had been beset with myriads of enemy soldiers) and at the same time protect the produce outside of the city so that it should not be seized by the Chliatians within and carried in so that when the emperor arrived their his army should encounter want of supplies spending time there besieging the city and the action take double the time since they would encounter starvation. This was what the emperor was concerned with when he divided his army up hoping to capture Mantzikiert quickly, as it happened, and set it in order in a short amount of time and then meet up again with his forces, while if they met with a battle inconceivably, he could easily summon them with speed runners since they were not a great distance away. His plans were drive the sultan back to Persia. For this purpose, his division of the army was not unreasonable and it was not devoid of strategic reasoning, unless something happened, or rather some divine, secret reason should make things turn out contrary and bring about an end to his plans, a withdrawal, and the sultan waylay the divided army in a short space of time unannounced and so foil his plans. Many people ignorant of the reason for the division of the army blame him, not for dividing the army out of fear, but they have some cause for it beyond us in their minds with no thought behind it.

When the emperor got to Mantzikiert, he ordered the encampment to be set up with nearly all of the baggage and a palisade to be erected as it is a custom, while he went with a select body of the army to espy the city for where it would be easy to make their assaults against the wall and bring up the siege towers. These were made from all sorts of and great wooden beams and could carry thousands of men no problem. He also corralled myriads of herds of cattle to feed the army. The enemy within the city raised the alarm, unsheathed their swords, and made ready their catapults, while the emperor riding along the wall with his shield returned to the encampment. The Armenian infantrymen then approached the acropolis wall making many assaults on it and seized it with a single shout of victory when the sun was setting in the west. The emperor was pleased with the happening though the ambassadors came from the enemy asking for sympathy, the concession of their own property, and to surrender the city to the emperor. He agreed to this and honored the ambassadors with gifts then sending an agent/man to take control of the city (51). However, the people within the city did not welcome them inside at that time lest something misfortunate befall their opponents during the night, so they decided to disregard and ignore the agreements they had made. For this reason, the emperor sounded the war horn and came forth from the encampment with all of the army and approached the city walls. The Turks were astonished by this and tried to make peace again pledging an even greater ransom sum and came forth from the city with their own baggage and bowed down on their knees before the emperor not with empty hands but with their swords in hand and the greater part of them approached him naked of all panoply. At this time, I myself was present and did not advise the emperor to appear so simple without even a breast plate when he met them between the dead men and those filled with boldness and stupidity.

Something else happened as well, which revealed the emperor's justice since he meted out unequal and unsightly punishment. One of the soldiers was accused of having stolen a Turkish mule and was brought before the emperor in bonds, who meted him out punishment beyond his crime ordering that he was not to suffer a monetary penalty but the cutting off of his nose. The man begged and begged, he offered up everything of his, and even called on the revered icon of much revered Virgin Mother of God of Blachernae, which usually accustoms pious emperors on campaign as an unconquerable weapon, but the emperor could not be swayed by pity even by the inviolability of the divine image, which saw everything and was taken away when the poor wretch had his nose cut off letting out a great cry and gasping deeply. From this moment on, I knew great divine retribution was in store for us.

When this news reached the emperor and the army, they were instilled with fear and foreboding of danger since the wounded had to be brought back in litters and were afflicted with grievous wounds. The emperor was forced to march out with the rest of the army into plain sight of their attackers ready to fight should battle be given. He stood upon the crests of the tall hills until the late afternoon though he did not see any opposition on the Turks' part (the Turks with knavery and inventiveness by design and fabrication for victory were keeping away), so he returned to the encampment just as the sun was setting. However, then in a stratagem the Turks came up from behind and surrounded the Scythians and the vendors outside the encampment attacking furiously letting off intelligible cries and showers of arrows bearing down upon them with their horses slaughtering numerous men and causing peril. At this, the men bearing down their attack were forced to go inside the palisade. They forcefully entered in en masse fleeing from the pursuit each man for himself thereby causing the men within the camp to fall into confusion supposing that their opponents had fallen upon them and that the entire encampment along with their baggage had fallen prey to them. It was a moonless night not permitting any distinction between the fleeing and the pursuing, while some joined with the opposing army and the Scythian mercenaries, who resemble overall the Turks, had their loyalty put it doubt. Then it was truly terrible all of the terrible fright, ill-boding talk, indeterminate noise, unintelligible sound of striking, and all of the confusion and peril. Anyone would long to die rather than see such a moment as this. That one not witness it, one would reckon it fortunate and deem fortunate he/she did not see such a moment.

However, while the Romans were in all of this distress, the enemy was not able to break within the palisade because they were hesitant, the danger of it, and because they were fighting amongst themselves over it. They did not retreat, but remained all night long surrounding the roads into and around the Roman encampment loosing arrows and vexations making their howls heard in every quarter instilling fear of them making us spend all night with open and sleepless eyes. For who could go to sleep with danger just a scimitar away?

Not on the following day did the enemy stop riding about and their call to battle in addition to eagerly taking possession of the river flowing out of the camp to beat the Romans with thirst. On that same day, a Scythian contingent under its commander named Tamin deserted to the enemy(56) causing no small upheaval to the Romans as all the remaining soldiers of that nation became subject to suspicion since they because of this seemed in cahoots with the enemy and about to join with them on their side of the battle. Some of the foot soldiers also marched out with some archers and killed many Turks causing them to leave the encampment alone. The emperor wanted then and there to end the battle with hand-to-hand combat and resistance, but since he was waiting on his soldiers away at Chliat, who were not easily numbered and practiced in the pyrrhic dance [i.e. experienced in war], he had to forego this combat. When he realized that something was stopping them from coming, in despair of their aid, he decided therefore on the following day to march out with his men and zealously give battle. His hope was that they would just be late coming on the following day(57), since he was ignorant that their commander on learning the sultan was approaching the emperor had set out with his men and fled ignobly through Mesopotamia to Roman territory, the cowardly man not even sending a message to his master or doing any befitting.

At any rate, the emperor made ready his troops for battle on the morrow and arranged their positions about him and was still seated in the imperial tent when I gave counsel to him to put aside his suspicion of the Scythians and bind them under oath to himself. He took my counsel and immediately put me in charge of doing so. My plans were to bind them under the rule of their fathers making them keep to their pledges to the emperor and the Romans without treachery. I did not fail to hit the mark with my plans, because none of them was associated with the enemy in this war.

In the midst of all this, while the soldiers were being arranged in their ranks and lines and mounting upon their horses, ambassadors came from the sultan seeking peace between the two of them. The emperor welcomed them and spoke to them after the manner of ambassadors, though he did altogether receive them very warmly (58). Yet he did assent to them and give them the sign of obeisance so that by his exhibition they might return to the sultan unharmed carrying tidings that the sultan might assent to. For what he sent, induced by the hopelessness of the situation was that the sultan would leave the place and make camp further away from his encampment, while the emperor would set up camp at that place where the Turks had had their encampment and would come to terms with him. He would secretly through a token of victory give victory to his opponents, as those in the know had agreed to, since it ought not take a battle to remove the token from himself to the enemy(59).

From here, our account becomes adverse because of the irksomeness and exceedingly shamefulness of the misfortunes as well as the most terrible fortune that befell the Romans.

The ambassadors had not yet departed when some of the men closest to the emperor persuaded him to renounce the truce since it wronged their work and betrayed rather than helped their interests. They said the sultan was afraid that he did not have a force sufficient enough and to wait for the men coming up behind him and seized the moment with the pretence of peace and so defeat the force. This caused the emperor to go through with the war. The Turks were to effect peace, but the emperor sounded the war trumpet and so marched out to battle miscalculating. Report of this astonished his opponents. They put on their arms and drove the worst part of the army to the back while they at the front gave only an illusion of resistance. For the most part, they took flight that the Romans all-arranged in their lines, order, war positions took note of. They were pulling back, so the emperor pursued behind them with all the army until it was late in the afternoon, when since the emperor could not catch the opposing force and he realized that the encampment was bare of soldiers and defenders because there were not enough troops to leave behind there with the most part of his men already out in the field, as it was said, he decided not to continue the pursuit any further lest the Turks should form their lines and attack his unguarded camp. Furthermore, he perceived that if he continued the pursuit any further, night would fall upon him while he was heading back and then the Turks might backpedal and begin shooting on them from behind. For these reasons, he ordered the imperial standard to be turned signaling to return home. However, the soldiers at the front of the phalanxes seeing the turning of the imperial standard took it to mean the emperor had fallen in defeat. Many of them readily believed what one of his kinsmen, the cousin of his step-son Michael(60), who was involved in a plot against him beforehand, spread amongst them swiftly taking his own men (by the magnanimity of the emperor he had been entrusted with no small number of soldiers) and fleeing back to the encampment. The soldiers nearby imitated him taking flight one after the other. And so, the emperor seeing the unexpected flight from the battle of those men including even his own men, as natural, started trying to call them back. Nobody was there to hear him. The enemy soldiers standing upon the crests of the hills witnessing the Roman’s sudden mischance sent word to the sultan of the happening and urged him to turn about. Then and there he turned about and gave battle to the emperor suddenly who commanded the men about him not to give way or get soft and defended himself mightily for a long time. There was noise all around, aimless running about, and no one could say precisely what was happening. Some people were saying that the emperor was resisting mightily with the soldiers who remained behind with him and turning the barbarians to flight, some people announced he had been killed or captured, while others said other things and pronounced a victory averted on both sides until many of the Cappadocians started to come up there in bands of men. Even that I myself amongst the fleeing had to fight many opponents yielding in retreat of the defeat, let other people remark. After that, many of the imperial cavalry returned with the cavalry having not seen the emperor only to be asked what had happened. It was almost like an earthquake, the lamenting, the grief, the irrestrainable fear, and the clouds of dirt until in the end the Turks surrounded us all over and each took flight thinking only to save himself trusting in his own impulse, zeal, or strength. Our opponents pursued us killing some, taking some captive, and trampling others underfoot. It was incredibly painful and beyond all grief and lamentation. What could be more piteous than the flight and defeat of the entire imperial army by inhuman and harsh barbarians, the emperor surrounded by barbarian soldiers, and the seizure of the emperor’s, his generals’ and the soldiers’ tents by those men while witnessing the entire Roman army in chaos and realizing that the empire had fallen in a moment?

Such was what happened to the rest of the army. As for the emperor beset by enemy soldiers having no easy lot but experienced as a soldier and a warrior facing many perils, he mightily fought the soldiers closing in about him and killed many of them until in the end he was wounded by a blade in the hand and toppled from his horse by arrows though still he fought on on foot. Yet towards the evening, he was captured and taken prisoner, alas the grief of it! That night, the same as many others he slept on the earth dishonorably and in agonizing pain, washed all around with tens of thousands of unbearable swells of men by the considerations and the vexations before his eyes. On the following day, the capture of the emperor was announced to the sultan (61) providing him immense joy and inspiring him with distrust, thinking how truly great and beyond measurement it was to have defeated the emperor and taken him captive. Thus the Turks with humanity and with good sense received their victory neither boasting as men are want to when coming upon good fortune, nor attributing it to their own might but offering it all up to God since they had received a victory greater than their own strength. For this reason, when the emperor was brought before the sultan in the cheap garb of a soldier, he again was in doubt and sought testimony if it was him, but when he was informed by other men and the ambassadors that had gone to him that it was the emperor of the Romans standing before him(62), he rose up straightaway and embraced him, "Do not fear", he said, "O emperor, but be of good cheer, since you will suffer no bodily harm and shall be honored worthy of the excellence of your majesty. Foolish is he who does not reverence the unexpected fortunes he is given (63)." Then he ordered a tent be allotted for him and the appropriate care and immediately made him a companion at his table and one of his intimates, not seated at beside him the table, but a next to him enthroned at the head of the table and honored him as though he was of the same faith. He spent two days in this way chatting with him comforting him on his change of fate in life with words and distractions. In all, he spent eight days like that exchanging many words with him, not even using a single cutting word on him only reminding him of errors in advancing his army, when the judgment of God justly and impartially decides between men. For not only others, but also a conquered emperor, he can decide might be conquered, if he does not respect the law of God with his enemies using a natural and fair disposition, since the all-seeing eye does not lend its might to the arrogant, but to the humble and sympathetic, since lacking respect for other people is as Saint Paul says contrary to God. In a discussion with the emperor, the sultan the sultan asked him, "What would you have done if you had taken me prisoner?" Without any dissimulation or flattery, he replied, "Know that I would have inflicted many blows to your body." "However", he said, "I will not imitate your harshness and severity." They stayed there together for the said number of days and drew up treaties and terms of peace and even agreed on a marriage between their own children with the sultan showing great parting pomp when they took leave of one another and freeing him with a great embrace and appropriate honor to return to his own empire with as many Romans as he asked for and ambassadors from amongst his own men (64).

Many of the Romans first started to flee to the walled city of Mantzikiert and occupied it. As the emperor was beginning his march home, some of them fled leaving it by another road in the night. Of them, some of them fell to the enemy, while others sought refuge on their own property. The emperor first went down with the army to Theodosiopolis(65), where he was received very generously, and after spent several days there nursing his hand, resting, recuperating, renewing the Roman train, and manufacturing success for the coming march on Roman lands. Setting out from their with the imperial train and escort, he passed through Iberian villages catching up with a couple of soldiers fleeing from the battle, who he joined with him and the soldiers that had been free with him. The rest of the number with him was collected from local people neighboring the villages and cities there. He was also accompanied by the sultan’s ambassadors who provided him with supplies.

We heard this report with our own ears when we had gotten to Trebizond planning to make the sea passage, believing it at the time to be impossible and unbelievable, so we took the sea road without turning back, having hired out several local skiffs. At the imperial court were gathered together some of the chief men of Senate, who had unexpectedly fled the danger like us. Others of them had been cut down in the course of the war and the flight among whom were Leo the ὁ ἐπὶ δεήσεων, a most illustrious man in both reason and judgment, the magister Eustathius, and the first asecretis Choirosphaktus. The protosvestes Basil Maleses, who bore news to the emperor and was in the office of logothetes of the waters, who excelled before many people in reason and experience, was also taken.

Up until here our account has been unconfused and without any, one part sticking out but gone on fairly evenly, even if there have been difficult, wretched explanations. From here, who would wish to narrate the multitude of difficulties that came to pass? The matters at hand were not only not easy for us, but also exceedingly difficult because of the great distastefulness of the happenings.

And so, the emperor marched from the east to the west until Colonia. Then after he had gotten within Melissopetrius, which is a castle situated upon a hill, he began to meet with misfortune. Since his counselor and first in the commanding of armies, the proedrus Paul, who the emperor had summoned from the catepanate of Edessa in the war against the Persians, he found in Theodosiopolis acting as its governor because the duke had been taken along with the emperor, and since everything seemed in order to him, Paul had shirked his duties and went to the Queen of Cities in the night learning of happenings and the Augusta’s decision (66). For she, on giving up on the release of the emperor from captivity, had sent for the brother of her first husband and emperor, the Caesar John, and his two sons, one of whom, Andronicus, was newly come in flight from the expedition, and dispatched orders to all the provinces commanding them to have absolutely no recourse with Diogenes or give him any of the imperial obeisance and honor due. However, the Caesar, on coming to the city along with his two sons and meeting with the empress in the palace, found her will turned against the disinheriting and pursuit of her husband. Because of this, they proclaimed her first-born son, whom she had had through her union with Ducas, emperor and despot, enthroning him on the imperial throne in the chrysotriclinus and handing over to him the office of monarch. As for the empress his mother, they deposed her with great vehemence and put her in a boat and sent her off in exile near the eastern strait, which the people of the city call Stenos [Narrow Way] because of its characteristics, installing her in the monastery she founded there called Piperude adorned in black with shorn hair enrolled in the monastic legion [i.e. she became a nun]. (67)

Diogenes advanced until the Armeniac theme, where he was informed of the orders about him, and that he had been disinherited by the citizens of the city and the emperors, so he set up camp there near a place called Docia. The Caesar and his newly enthroned nephew then set everything about as they wanted it bringing over to his cause the senators with honors and publicly speaking to the people in the forum [τοὺς τῆς ἀγορᾶς] saying that by God’s choice his father‘s empire belonged to himself and giving them high hopes with philanthropic promises, and so thus it was that they planned to send an expedition against Diogenes. As commander-and-chief of the army, they selected one of the Caesar’s sons, Constantine by name and protoproedrus by rank, and handed over to him experienced soldiers and sent him away from the city in haste. He also collected other soldiers from the provinces and added them to his own army by imperial letters, and thereby made a formidable force with which he set up camp next to Diogenes’ refuge of Docia. The greater part of the Franks then deserted to Diogenes because they expected him to prevail. After that, there were some transitory clashes between the two sides, so Diogenes decided to fight them man to man and free himself of the opposing soldiers thinking it would do him no harm. Since the emperor had summoned many Cappadocians with heralds and letters, who were commanded by the proedrus Theodore Alyates, a man distinguished in wars and fantastic to behold, who stood out from many by his height and bulk and had served capably in many wars, Diogenes seemed to have the upper hand over his opponents and would soon be able to set out swiftly from the fortress of Docia and march for the land of Cappadocia, where he had originated from. However, the soldiers of the emperor in Constantinople had unexpectedly received a contingent in the night and so they did not discern themselves to be much the less in superiority. For an allied force had reached dispatched from the Queen of Cities commanded by that Frankish ally, Crispinus, who Diogenes had removed from the expedition for mutiny and sent in exile to Abydus, but whom the emperor in his place, Michael, had summoned from exile and showered with beneficence and honors so making him loyal to him. This man was very skillful in battle and very stout, if ever there was a man, as shown by the trial of his own reputation by his past brave deeds, so he instilled the soldiers with heart at the hour of war’s advance. For this reason when Diogenes set out from Docia, they appeared before him bearing their standards held aloft. Alyates charged, having gathered together many of his soldiers, and joined battle with them. However, the soldiers assembled against them were mightier, especially after Crispinus called out that he was there to the Franks in their mother tongue, and so Alyates’ men started to flee in disorder. Some of them died by arrows, while tons of them had their eyes put out by him in an excruciatingly painful manner by which their faculties of sight were put out with iron tent poles. What pained the soldiers so much about this were the notability of the man’s family and his nobleness of birth.

Diogenes when he got wind of this was deeply distressed, yet he led the rest of the army off to the land of Cappadocia. He ascended into a fortress thus named Tyropoeum, situated upon a defensible hill, and sent out summons to soldiers in all parts to come to his aid. When the catepan of Antioch, named Chataturius who was descended from Armenians, was dispatched by the emperor of Byzantium and ordered to make war on Diogenes, he came to Tyropoeum with a great force of cavalry and infantry men, but he felt pity for Diogenes’ plight, since he had received favors from him in the form of rule over Antioch, so he united with him and joined his side, depriving the soldiers, who had been ordered by the emperor to join with him in the fights against Diogenes, of their horses and other equipment and driving them away from there naked. After remaining there with the emperor and his soldiers a short time, he set off through the land of Cilicia, there to pass the winter, since fall was nearly over, and also to collect another force of men sent by the sultan, and then return after the appointed time.

In actuality, they chose the inferior course and ended up only hurting themselves. After the flight of Diogenes in the first battle with Alyates, Constantine returned to the capital and all of his army was scattered about as winter was nearing, and so it would have been easy for Diogenes’ men to invade Roman land with his army as far as Pisidia, Isauria, and Lycaonia, and also the land of Paphlagonia and Onoriada, and force all of them to submit to him, and then advance on Bithynia, and so hinder very easily the soldiers from Byzantium coming to assemble against him and make war against worthy of mention and deed. For the western soldiers had sworn a faithless oath against him because of how they had previously made oaths that they would never agree with the people against him… (68) [he] now not having planned well by boundless evils and dolorous...matters. And so, he invaded the land of Cilicia, which has very difficult passes due to the Taurus mountains, and remained in the land as though imprisoning himself by remaining there and not proceeding forth, since in doing so he provided ease for the soldiers arrayed against him to assemble and enlist. In addition, another of the Caesar’s sons, the protoproedrus Andronicus, was sent off against him and appointed domestic of the East, who got all of his soldiers all-equipped and armed and gave them their pay making them his men through and through being joined by Crispinus. Thus having united all of his forces together, he started to advance against Diogenes marching through the land of Cilicia and avoiding the usual pass called Podantus invading that the land through that of Isauria, which is not very far distant from the city of Tarsus. The defiles of the mountains in Cilicia are very defensible since they are difficult to pass, rough, uphill, and very narrow, so they make it for no good road for an advancing army. Because of this, if some of Diogenes’ men would have held the high ground and archers been set atop them, Andronicus’s army would never have been able to get through these, if not fear had caused the soldiers to flee. With this neglected, Diogenes’ situation became perilous. When Andronicus’s army descended into the plain, Chataturius attacked them. Not for many an hour had it happened that the Roman forces had outdone themselves in magnitude and valor. But then Chataturius fell from his horse and was taken captive while fighting on foot and brought before Andronicus naked and pitiful in his present fate expecting further evils. As for the others, they fled all together to the walled city of Adana, in which Diogenes was dug in, and so a siege followed for that city. The Romans with Andronicus soon set siege to the city and put those within it in no little agony due to a lack of supplies. In time, they began to discuss terms with one another until it was agreed that Diogenes would to renounce the throne, to renounce his hair, and thus spend the rest of his life as a monk.

With this agreed, a short time later he emerged from the city black-clad looking as though he had cried, coming across to many as bitter and ungovernable and to those who saw him as fearful and pitiful, reckoning the uneasiness of his situation, which had changed so suddenly and turned so quickly to the opposite. Everyone there had gone on campaign with him many times and been a soldier celebrating his great might and hoping to approach him, accompanying him from Syria to Adana at his side as imperial servants. They were mute with grief and seemed struck dumb standing there recounting their previous good fortune, their present ill fortune, and how it had come to this. After the return of their commander had passed their minds(69), the army began the march home, and Diogenes was sent off in the paltry attire of a monk, through those villages and cities through which he had once gone with recognized as equal of the gods with imperial armies. He made the march up to Cotyaeum in agony (he was ill with intestinal troubles, which were said to have been slipped him by his enemies with hemlock) where he was held prisoner by his escort, until word came as to was be done with him from the emperor (70). However, several days later, a decision more cruel and more shameful than all of them came for the man, who had been so misfortunate, commanding that his eyes be put out immediately

What say you, o emperor and those men with you furnished with profane will? Did the man wrong any eyes by giving his own soul for the good of the Romans and opposing the most war-like nations with a stout force, when he could have remained in the palace free from danger and put off the fears and burdens of a soldier? He who even his enemy paid respect to by receiving him warmly and giving him words and distractions and as though he was a legitimate brother setting him, this captive, beside him on a throne and as though a good doctor allayed his pains and put to the burning flame the grief with these consolations, that the sultan recognized his victory has been gotten justly by a testing God and received this man and showed to him a bounty of prudence and forbearance. What have you ordered, o emperor? That he be deprived of the light and God-given perception of sight? Even after he has taken up the power of your father in law and fact, renounced imperial rule and given it to you, taken up ragged garments instead of the purple, adopted the solitary life and assigned himself to everything earthly, bound himself to the spiritual persuasion, the alleviation of pain, and the weak, renounced it all, weakened and maltreated, been broken as the reed and covered his eyes and face with showers of tears? In this and that, might you not be persuaded especially by the greater part of them and the angelic habit be of some intercession to you, but, you, with anger and lust for imperial rule are lusty and insatiable of the changes in the scale not even paying any respect to the [angelic] habit, nor the tit of your mother from which his sons and your brothers have shared in (71). The eyes of the Titans and Cronus are even on you and will render your fortunes the same evil.

So much we have said in a divergence from our main narrative out of woe as a morsel of a tragedy (72). When that horribly evil and profane order came, a second struggle again about his soul, fear, and inconsolable turmoil overtook him in these misfortunes. He groveled prayers of penitence at the feet of the archbishops and asked them to help, as was their ability, calling out rashly with distressed and unbearable contrition. The archbishops assembled there, Chalcedon, Heraclea, and Colonia (73) tried to assuage him. He reminded them of their oaths and the retributions of the divine. But they, even though they wanted to help him, weakly as cruel, savage, and unswayable men took him and lead him as though a sacrificial offering on to the slaughter. They shut themselves up within the city, which caught many people's attention and caused them to utter continuous prayers seeing the openness of the archbishops, and sent him off into a small room entrusting a Jew unschooled in such things to put out his eyes. They bound him in four parts, and had many men lean upon a shield on top of his chest and belly, bringing forth the Jew to attack his eyes with an iron rod in an excruciatingly painful and cruel manner, while he let out a gasping cry from below and roared like a bull with no one to pity him. Not just once did he have to endure this punishment being carried out, but three times did he, the murderer of God’s sire, dip the iron rod into his eyes until he was his health was broken and his own faculties of sight were gone forever. His eyes became soaked with blood, a piteous, moving, uncontrollable, and sad sight to those who saw it, laying there half-dead, already sick with disease. Then he proclaimed to everyone that he had acted, not for imperial glory or eternal fame, but rather for the good of the Romans. From there he was lead on the paltry habit to the Propontis, dragged along as though he was some putrid corpse with his eyes gouged out, his head and face swollen, and worms falling off from thence(74). A couple of days later, he ended his life in excruciating pain, having confessed his sins before the end (75), and was buried on the height of the island of Proti, where he had built a new monastery. He was extravagantly buried by his wife, the previous empress Eudocia, the mother of the emperor, (She had asked her son’s permission to go to that island and spend an appropriate amount on his burial). He left behind a memory for posterity beyond the bounds of Job’s misery. That marvelous story has been left behind for everyone of how, when he went through so many trials and unparalleled evils, he did not utter any curse or mean-spirited thing, but gave thanks constantly even asking for more time of misfortunes and said he would be happy in so suffering them taking the course of worship more arduous.

Having as such grievously ended his life and provided great consolation to people undergoing trials (how that person would be tried could never equal his sufferings), he was succeeded on the throne by his stepson Michael, who proved a moderate ruler and was reckoned an old man before his years because of how laid back and gentle he was(76)(77). As administrator of public affairs, he took a man far above many others in sense and practical ability having a gracious sentiment and fine virtues bringing mirth to everyone, the archbishop of Side who held first place amongst protoproedri, John by name, eunuch by constitution, who outshone eunuchs in goodness, statecraft, gentleness, strength, and accessibility. Consequently, the emperor gave thanks and his subjects were gladdened that such a man had come forward at that time having such virtues. However, then with the prosperity of the plant there came a weed as with the coming of night, day must depart. For there was a eunuch named Nicephorus hailing from the Bucellari, a crafty man, one to contrive and plot to bring chaos to order, who served Michael’s father Constantine Ducas in the role of secretary where he showed himself to be treacherous, slanderous, and practiced in foul deeds even murmuring a charge of adultery against the Augusta to the emperor out of envy of his fellow servant and co-worker Michael of Nicomedia so that he was sent away from the imperial presence being made dux of Antioch in Coele Syria though he did not stop there in those parts in meddlesome and mutinous conduct...As he was not able to make war on them or fight against them, he instead aroused himself to wage war on the Romans instead and to set in opposition the cities bordering on the Roman border. Even then he did not leave the local people of Antioch undisturbed and unvexed, here taking their property from them, there crushing them down with demands beyond calculation and horrid demands for additional payment. When he was removed from this office, for such were the sudden and ungovernable whims of the emperor then, he was again sent to a second governorship to which he brought hardship no less than the previous one. When the emperor died and the empress assumed the office of emperor, a turn of fate proved obdurate and unjust for him. For an imperial ordinance reached him in Antioch ordering him to be shut up in the prison of Haima and was kept under guard there for a time in the place where he had previously been recognized for his high reputation having no gone from good fortune to bad. He was freed on the proclamation of Diogenes and was to have been exiled to an island had not he been sent off as judge of the Peloponnese and Greece with promises of money where he was in charge of the province's monies. For the worse of the Roman Empire, Michael summoned him when he came to the throne and put him in charge of the public affairs appointing him logothete of the dromus having fallen prey to his charms and his devices as he was devoid of a firm personality and did lack in the playthings of boys. Having shown the face of friendship, Nicephorus pushed the most moderate and learned metropolitan of Side out of the administration by treacherously having agents (note that expression is legal term) of his lay charges against him, elbowing aside as well the emperor's uncle the Caesar by painting him as contemptuous of the emperor, subject to suspicion. He falsely slandered all of those closest to him as belligerent towards him and robbed the emperor of those closest to him so putting the stripling lord completely under his authority. What was imperial command and undertaking, the villainous Nicephorus was more often than not behind. Henceforth, accusations and demands were made of the innocent, demands for payment of the debtless, and trials were made more for the treasury than justice on account of which there were entire and partial confiscations, endless accusations, many demands for the payment of interest, and no small of grief of and misery for the sufferers of these acts.