A few words need only delay us here pertaining to the form and structure of this translation. The previous translation which I completed not long ago by a feat of many hours of obsessive working I have managed to go through and correct where necessary. There are still parts that I am less than satisfied with, but part of this is due to the author who has the maddening habit of not always writing very clearly. On account of this, I have tried to use other Byzantine historians and documents translated in the footnotes to shed a little bit more light on what was happening. In addition, I have made extensive use of Pseudo-Scylitzes (PS), a writer who copied the work of Attaliates almost word for word adding in his own commentary at times as well as differentiations in names and place names which are useful to account for perhaps what they might have been originally in Attaliates work before it was handed over to the copyists. I have also made use of the Byzantine chronicler John Zonaras (Z), writing under Manuel I (1143-1180), for the insight he adds some of the time and explanation. The road of history marches ever on, so I hope that this work may remove the pebbles and smooth away the road for eager feet, which might enjoy that same course that my eager feet ran.

And so his spouse Eudocia and their sons succeeded to the throne. Previously the Augusta had been made to swear to a gathering of ecclesiasts and senators not to make a second marriage (1). The head of the synod and patriarch at this time was John surnamed Xiphilinus, who came from Trebizond, a wise man, who was well-educated and had made himself conspicuous in the affairs of the city acting wisely with honor such that he would fondly dwell in the palace and bear first rank alongside the emperor bringing the ecclesiastical state to heights of prosperity and its prime. Previously he had elected the monastic life about Mount Olympus and had lived there a long time shining forth resplendent with virtue and fear of God. Consequently, when the patriarch died and thorough investigation was made, no one save him was reckoned worthy of this office. Despite rejecting it, he was compelled to take up the honor and proclaimed the Light of the Church and Ecumenical Patriarch (2).

After the emperor died, the Huns again overran the east and came close to Mesopotamia attacking the Roman legions encamped near Melitene (3), who having not received their pay were dejected and irascible because of the fact and could not be prevailed upon to join the Roman soldiers in Mesopotamia because they did not wish to cross the Euphrates River. When the barbarians came upon them, they made their stand along the river scattering about its outlets. The barbarians with their long-range bowmen easily devastated them from afar, though they remained indifferent until they were forced to plunge into the river and join battle with them. Positioned over them on the riverbanks they fired down upon the Romans and wreaked havoc upon them compelling them to flee. In the flight that followed, many Romans fell in battle, others were taken captive, and the survivors sought refuge in the city of Melitene. The barbarians disdaining them as already being destroyed and conquered then passed as far as Caesarea, despoiling, destroying, and setting fire to everything in their way. They descended upon the holy shrine of the famous Saint Basil and ravaged everything seizing the holy relics even breaking open the saint’s coffin with nothing stopping them from committing outrages upon his remains (Before it was watched over and guarded by strong buildings which were for a long time in need of demolition). The doors that guarded the opening, which were wrought at great expense with an abundance of gold, pearls, and precious stones, they carried off. Piling up the loot they set out from there after having slaughtering many people in the capital of Caesarea and defiling the church. On their way home, they passed through the narrows ways leading to Cilicia, where no one perceived of their coming, and appeared to the Cilician’s great astonishment doing terrible things and murdering those who fell in their path. They stayed in that land a while and destroyed it sating their lust for plunder. They were also joined there by one of their distinguished countrymen who had previously deserted them, called Amertikes, who was hostile to Romans since they had broken their word to him. Previously he had come to the emperor who was called the “Old (4)” and been warmly welcomed and received by him into the palace. However, he was accused by the emperor Constantine Ducas as plotting to put him to the death and was condemned to exile. When he was returned from exile, he was sent off to fight on the Romans' behalf against the Huns, though because of his lack of provisions he deserted to the ruler of Aleppo. Whether the barbarian was happy to be sent against his own people or was against it and did not wish to obtain the promised provisions, I will let my readers decide. The Huns then on reaching Aleppo were joined by him and the neighboring Arabs and made Antioch in Syria and the cities and villages around it into no-man’s lands (5). The depopulation by the barbarians’ raids was accompanied by massacres, conflagrations, enslavement, and plundering. Since a force had to be sent against them, an army was gathered and it leaders were chosen, but here again parsimony rendered it ineffective and robbed it of success. The emperors, since they did not want to give their men-at-arms their full pay, they condemned themselves to faring badly in battles hoping to make their men risk their lives for the smallest bit of their pay. Instead, they failed completely. For the soldiers, although they had received their pay, did not march off against the enemy reckoning that a part of it was long over due. Raising an inarticulate voice, they scattered about to their homes. And again, the barbarians overran the Roman Empire with impunity. Then those near the emperors entrusted the commander of Antioch with a band of youths that they had gathered at little expense. Yet they were unable to do anything noble because they were nearly all without war-experience, poorly mounted, and without weaponless, and after suffering many casualties, they returned disgracefully to their land. They were finally conquered by the duke (the magister Nicephorus Botaniates) who through his own prowess, bravery, and prudence along with the locals and his own bodyguard turned back and defeated their advance. He was then removed from the office and from then on the barbarians were emboldened more and the cities were in hard straits with food running low and all other provisions lacking.

Since it was necessary in those times to have an emperor able to manage the affairs of state and go upon his enemies in war, the most valorous Botaniates was chosen as the sun outshines the stars, but ill will and unjust judgment caused that need to be delayed and one of his kinsmen be chosen instead for reasons perhaps unknown to men save only the will of God.(6) The devastation and destruction of the nations subject to the Romans seemed to manifest divine anger against heretics such as the Armenians living in Iberia and Mesopotamia until Lycandus, Melitene, and the adjacent lands, as well as those worshiping after the Judaic mode of Nestorius and the heresy of the bishop-less (τὴν τῶν ἀκεφάλων θρησκεύοντες αἵρεσιν), since the lands of this heresy are numerous. However, when the orthodox suffered this misfortune, everybody worshipping after the mode of the Romans was stuck dumb.

Yet then, one of the patricians, the vestarch Romanus surnamed Diogenes, rose up in revolt. On seeing how the emperors were to blame for the deficiencies of the soldiers, which had played into the enemies’ hands permitting them to become great due to Roman frivolity, he was loud with lamentations and greatly vexed, so he began to labor to raise a revolt, not out of greed and enjoyment of power, as it was affirmed later, but to avenge the fortunes of the Romans already fallen in battle because affairs were out of joint. At the end of the emperor Ducas’s reign, while he was entrusted with the governorship of Sardica, he started to intrigue to make the Sauromatae his accomplices in his plot and bring it to fruition. They had been impressed with this man when he had campaigned against them as governor of the cities near the Ister. During that expedition, as he was waging war on them, he might have fallen in battle, had not the magister Nicephorus Botaniates saved him by an incontestable charge and his own might (this I heard admitted by the lips of Diogenes himself). When the letters were sent out to accomplish this aim with a oath, one of his co-conspirators, an Armenian by birth, was roused to anger by this act and began plotting against him and persuaded him to send off the men privy to his designs to bring around some commanders and subjects to his design, and then since he knew him bare of aid, he spoke out against him to the local inhabitants as having plotted revolt only to betray them to the Sauromatae. Having stirred them to rage, he then attacked him suddenly and finding him all alone arrested him and lead him off to the capital in chains to stand trial for his deeds. Furthermore, when he was tried by the chief men of the Senate, he was found guilty of treason and condemned to die, he did not refute it, venture any counter arguments, or deny it, but, instead, put himself at blame in a confession. That I was one of the judges present, many people know. This sentence was then commuted to one of exile to an island as everyone present at the trial was stirred by anguish at his youth and/or nobleness. The people who were ignorant of him beforehand soon heard about him from the people who knew of him and became his admirers, so that it became a lot of people’s wish that he escape punishment and that something be done in favor of the Roman Empire. Since her conception of the man not as one of self-ambition, had changed to one of brotherhood and filial piety(7), as we have said before, grieved by the suffering of the orthodox thereby acquiring many well-wishers, the Augusta was overcome by pity as he stood before the imperial throne with tears running down her cheeks. For he was a man excelling not only in those qualities, but also one extremely pleasing to behold with broad shoulders, a truly noble and Zeus sprung soul (8), with flashing eyes and skin that shone not exactly white or black, but somewhere in between...with a crafted form and mixed with blush and a sweetness all round, boasting a form worthy of sovereignty after the comic(9). Since the assembled body of elders felt the same thing as her, sympathy soon followed causing him to be saved and meet with imperial dignities, and once freed, be welcomed by everyone, praised, and hearkened to as the stuff of prayers as each person reckoned his own deliverance as his own. As he was on his way to Cappadocia, where he was born, he received summons and returned to the capital where he was appointed to the rank of magister and general by the empress as she was coming before her sons in the imperial procession, as it is a custom for emperors, on Christmas to the Great Church of the Divine Wisdom.

Because of the great anguish and consternation that had arisen from the foreign nations' extremely cruel raid were so severe (In the southern parts, as far as Antioch and Cilicia, the cities were in extreme danger of falling to the aforesaid raids, while in the north the sultan had come forth with all of his army, an irresistible force, and dug in by the Roman border in the autumn, planning to spend the winter there and, come spring, invade the bordering land, lay waste to Roman land, and subdue it), the Augusta and the senators as well as the patriarch included, started examine things to find a way to avoid such a catastrophe(10). It was agreed that since it was for everyone's good and preferred the public good to his own special and at death's breath injunction that the special contracts concerned with public provision should be overturned. The fact that there was no emperor because of his jealousy was reckoned a universal calamity and disaster for the Roman Empire. So it was that this opinion took hold: the times needed absolutely needed an emperor if the empire was to escape disaster, yet there was still some fight over who was the most worthy both of the times and of this honor with Nicephorus Botaniates off away at Antioch, until Diogenes came into the mind of one of the most eminent senators(10). Or rather, the Augusta had already made up her mind beforehand on him since he was immediately present and unmarried. When he was mentioned, everyone agreed with the empress on his merits and chose him out of fear of appearing out of line(11). And so, on the first of January of the sixth indiction, when the sun always departs from its winter ways and begins to warm and light up the world marking the start of better winter weather, and when the saint day of the great archbishop and priest Saint Basil, who the lands of Cappadocia bear as its most resplendent star of the Church, was being celebrated, he was proclaimed emperor imperator(12) in the morning, after having entered into the Capitol during the night in arms by means of the empress and secretly met the empress’s sons (13).

As things turned out, the masses had not hoped in vain(14). When he succeeded to the throne, he took less care for the affairs of the city but for the good order and constitution of his soldiers because he had step-sons and co-rulers, more like successors, as well as their father's brother, the Caesar John (15). He began at once in these same city regiments to converse with notable experienced soldiers, to long for the contests of war, to make ready agents, and to get ready to halt the enemies advance on all sides. For this reason, he did not stay long in the palace, but after the passage of two lunar cycles (16), the Propontis in the east received him, and the imperial badge of the imperial tent was brought forth from the Queen of Cities for the eastern expedition for everyone to see that zeal for revenge had defeated the daintiness and the pleasures of the Queen of Cities, and that eternal glory and a chance to end their pains had persuaded the emperor to march out. It astonished everyone because they thought that for just arranging the baggage to be made ready and the baggage train, not a period of three months sufficed(16). But he was resolved(17) and set the rest in order and besides the baggage, assembled a body of soldiers from the west and the land of Cappadocia as well as Scythians, and before their departure selected a body of men from those only at the imperial court who were eager for the road(18)(19). Since the person who is writing this followed along with them by choice dealing with the army’s cases in judgments, what follows after will be written completely not from hearsay, but from his own eyes.

First the emperor came to the province of Bithynia and after that Phrygia, the Anatolic theme. There gathered together by decrees that had been sent out earlier were the commanders of the legions and the men who filled each legion. Before one’s eyes were the famous companies standing all together numbering only a few men born into poverty and lacking in complete armament and warhorses (20). For the most part they had been neglected, because no emperor had marched east for many years and they had not received their due pay having been subdued and turned to flight little by little by their opponents due to their wretchedness and ill preparedness for attack, and thus fallen into cowardice and impotency, of no good use. To put it plainly, their standards were dirty as if from smoke with easily countable, wretched attendants beneath them. They were greatly discouraged when reckoning how they would return to the old days of their former martial honor and get it back after so much time, since the men who remained in the legions were few and lacking in arms and mounts, a band of inexperienced youths with the most warlike and war-experienced opponents arraigned against them.

However, the emperor was not surprised by this occurrence. On the contrary, rather his sudden attack and advance on his opponents made them think, as we later learned, that this man had no regard for danger, but was a student of Ares who would revive the Romans and chastise his enemies for their impudence. For this reason, the sultan started to retreat dividing of a great part of it, making his camp in upper Asia, while the northern part was put in the south. The emperor, after enlisting soldiers, collecting the youth of every country and city, giving out honors and gifts to them to reinvigorate them, in a short time filled the ranks of the legions setting up fine officers in charge of each of them and intermixing them with the men come from the west, such that in a short period of time he made a battle-ready army and marched on the Persians with this force as its commander. Since the northern Persian camp had previously given the illusion of attacking, it expected to get the brunt of the emperor's attack, so Diogenes decided therefore to attack the southern forces who were ravaging Coele Syria(21), Cilicia, and Antioch. For this reason, he left the road leading straight to Sebastia and Colonia and advanced on the Lycandus theme (22) intending to spend the summer there and invade the Syrian districts in autumn when the degree of the sun's burning heat would be lessened so that the army did not suffer from unaccustomedness to the heat and become susceptible to disease.

In the meantime, while he was staying there, the Persians (now they will be called Turks) invaded Neocaesarea unexpectedly and overran it starting the march home with many people and objects in their possession leading away a huge train of plunder not at all small. When word of this reached the emperor and his men, it caused them a great upset considering the device of their opponents that they had brought about by deceit. Many people blamed the emperor because, although he was off on an expedition, the enemy had still nonetheless carried out their own designs while he, the emperor, had not been able to do anything to stop it. Therefore, he quickly took up his forces again and marched through impassable and inaccessible ways at full gallop in the reverse. On nearing the capital of Sebastia, he ordered his soldiers get ready to move and all the infantry to depart with his step-son Andronicus who had accompanied him and the emperor appointed as a security, fellow commander to compensate for him, since at any time as he went forth and attacked his enemies he might receive a mortal blow. He then along with all the cavalry drove behind the enemy. On passing through the highest mountains of Tephrice (23), eager to attack his opponent, he moved in an oblique line and thus made to overpower their army, and yet on coming close enough for the enemy to see them, he was not able to make his men charge them with their horses and make amends worthy of remembrance. However, their opponent was seized through by fear since their had not expected it and went pale at mention of the presence of the emperor, and straightaway a massacre of them took place as they turned about and started to flee. Some of them were taken captive, while other, those who did not take their own lives, were put by the sword. However, all the booty from man until animal, the emperor freed and won praise at this marvel. It was fantastic and worthy of note to see that an emperor of the Romans should advance without check without even his own baggage with only his own soldiery for eight days through places unknown and impassible and not fail in the attempt.

When he got back from there to the capital of Sebastea it the first of October, and after only resting his army there three days, he set out from there for Syria and advanced on to Germanicea through the defiles of Cucusus and impassable places to the theme called Teluch by the Armenians, having previously detached a not small phalanx of soldiers from the army and sent them along with their commander to Melitene to guard the eastern themes and attack the enemy's forces attacking there, who were commanded a knave and belligerent man named Ausinalius(24). The emperor therefore along with his soldiers and commanders, handed over all the Franks, warlike men delighting in blood, to this commander in order that he might subdue the foreign enemy with a mighty force. However, this man was not very courageous and so unambitiously made use of his time and assets, he nearly doubled war for the emperor making it more complicated, since he was deprived of this mighty army. Many times the enemy called upon him to fight, but he did not try to leave the city of Melitene even though his soldiers made known their willingness to go at them, and since they knew of his unwillingness, fearfulness, and unwarlikeness, they [the enemy] marched through places unknown and attacked a contingent of the imperial army leaving to buy supplies. Had the emperor not swiftly risen up from report of this and attacked them and they given way to flight, then a part of the of the army not easily missed might have been lost. Moreover, should one ascribe to commanders in general the outcomes whether for good or for bad, one would not be mistaken and fall far from understanding of the truth (25).

However, the emperor was thus saved and saved the camp having been encamped with all his army before the land of Chalep [Aleppo]. Before dismounting from his horse, he sent the Scythians and not a numerous Romans off on a foraging expedition to plunder the enemy’s land, which it succeeded in doing taking no small number of men, women, and food captive. From there, he pushed the army on through the enemy land and spent two days passing through their land, which he spent making foraging expeditions. On the third day, he came to Hierapolis and caught sight of the Arabs encircling them showing up out of nowhere. However, they were not bold enough to come to blows and fight the Romans, except for some skirmishing that took place when some of them ran forth and broke rank. As the Romans advanced all in order in their lines and phalanxes, the Arabs along with their numerous Turkish allies, commanded over by a vigorous man boasting regal descent from Persia, named Amertikes, started following them from afar and as such keeping guard over them or appearing for display. Towards the afternoon, the emperor set up came before the city of Hierapolis erecting a trench and palisade there in the usual manner. The Romans certainly had not finished unloading their luggage into their tents, nor spent very long in them, when those in their service and the Armenian contingent started to attack the city. They found it not very well defended by those within (the Saracens were seized by fear of the imperial advance and elected to flee beyond the Euphrates River) and so they quickly forced their way through the gates within. They took their fill of food and other sustenance within (they found no lack of them there as well as both a bit of wine and lavish items) but missed out on the more valuable part of the booty because the enemy had taken it with them when they took flight.

And so, the outer city was taken without a fight and afforded much ease to the soldiers to stay there, except for three or four of the highest towers into which the Saracens had ascended and were holding the narrow way up obstinately after the custom of their fathers willing to die for their religion and city. However, they were unable to hold out forever, since the Romans outflanked them in many places and attacked them with great boldness, long-range bowmen, and a line of shields all together, and so they made them their prisoners-of-war. As for the acropolis, (it is level and in line with the city walls thickly covered by extremely tall walls and towers reaching into the air it is such impregnable) it was not as easy for the Romans to take, since a number of Saracens within it not easily countable was defending it stoutly. However, the garrison could not hold the height for long, since the emperor encircled it with men-at-arms and machines firing down on them with catapults and showers of arrows also erecting a mound to take the city by siege and so made them come to terms. They sent ambassadors to him asking for pardon and also setting forth their suppliant request of the ransom of their wives, children, and remaining property, making the emperor blush and not failing in what they aimed. And so the Romans became masters of the acropolis through the mediation of an Assyrian man by race, who was born in Antioch and had gotten a very good Roman education as well as an Arabic one through his well-endowed intelligent nature. He entered skillfully into the acropolis and took possession of the gates with Russian men-at-war (Peter was the name of the man and Libellius (26) his surname, who had been honored as magister) thus ending the siege, even though they had seized cities not so, but some small, some large, by war and violence.

The imperial camp went through further martial contests. The reason being that the emir of Aleppo (27) after gathering a mighty force with a contingent of Huns (28) intended to come to blows and give combat to the emperor. The emperor, within the captured city of Hierapolis and still dealing with the acropolis, left behind only a remnant to continue the siege and arranged his forces into two lines of soldiers between the walled city and the encampment to divide his opponent as though by a wall. Why this was, was that some Saracens had appeared in the distance riding their horses along the plain. Near the city of Hierapolis, there are plains that are easy to ride a horse upon extending over a great distance and with the exception of some hills, there is nothing jutting up to a great height or extending into the air. The place is scorching hot as the sun comes down there more warmly at lunchtime. There are meadows towards the western part of the city with warm water, which is carried in through aqueducts to counter the scorching heat. Then, little by little, the enemy came face to face with the two lines of soldiers standing there (the emir of Aleppo named Machmoutios [Mahmud] was still away) and started skirmishing them forcing some of the Romans to rush towards them doing it two or three times clashing with them and then retreating back the other way. In another clash, they put to flight the men rushing at them and did not retreat like they had in previous attacks, but drove forward without check until the phalanx of soldiers joined battle with them and was turned to flight killing many and forcing the rest to take flight leaving behind the legion of the Schools on the right, which on seeing the defeat of the others, cared neither to help, nor do anything like a soldier would do, but stood there fixed upon the spot, as though they were intending to join their opponents by a secret sedition. When the enemy returned, they found only this legion standing there ignobly and swiftly defeated it slaying many of them and shutting the rest of them up in the encampment depriving them of their standards such that some of the Saracens descended from their horses, slit many of the soldiers’ throats, and sent them off to Aleppo as a token of their victory (29). Then moreover even I myself did not despair of my own salvation regarding the cowardice, spinelessness, and baseness of the Romans, since after the disaster and defeat of the Romans, not one soldier and officer were roused to avenge the defeat, but all of them remained seated keeping to himself as though encamped in allied land not stirred to fight at all.

The emperor on learning of this within the city, returned out of it greatly vexed towards the palisade with his Cappadocian followers, recognizing on their stupidity as well as that of the Romans. That night, everybody did not have high expectations, since all of the Armenian infantry, which had been ordered to pass the night near the trench before the palisade was feeling rebellious and might refused to obey his orders. That night was a bitter and hard night for the Romans. Day had not yet come when the enemy surrounded the palisade with all of their army. For the ruler of Aleppo, on learning of his army’s victory, had left with all of his own force to take the emperor along with all his allied army without a blow. For this reason, they did not cease to ride around us with their horses and strike fear into us wildly with their barbaric howls. The emperor within his tent decided to end the conflict and so rode out on his horse around three o’clock suddenly (It was the twenty first of November of indiction 7) without crying out or the trumpets of war announcing his advance. The standards were raised and as the army was exiting in their ranks, a section of the enemy army started at them, when they saw the Romans marching out and gathering together. The conflict as well the outcome of the future urged their spirits on. Yet the men who were in the front lines of the conflict behind their shields raised the war cry and the Romans prevailed taking captive many of the enemy. As for the rest of the Roman army, it was spurred on to the attack them, who then took flight unexpectedly. The men pursuing the fleeing slew many men and took captive no small number of them. The pursuit went on for a long while until the Romans had made for themselves a great victory and matter for boasting. Although the Arab's horse could gallop swiftly for a while, they were not up to such a large distance, the Romans could have pulled strength and good fortune out of their exhaustion, but then they reined in their horses and returned at imperial command rendering for themselves a dull victory, satisfied only with their opponent’s rout.

Thus, I saw that the Romans then neither seize the opportunity they could have had, nor set ambushes, nor rightly take any decisive action in a bitter war, nor distinguish the forces of their opponents, who instead they left all as one category: the mighty, the greedy, and the commanders or rulers over a place. What was to fear from pursuing the ruler of Aleppo without check after the rout while the emperor along with the rest of the army stayed behind guarding the rear and permitting them to follow them from the encampment and come upon Aleppo and instill those within the city with fear and force their city to come to terms, since the greater part of their soldiers had been cut down in flight? As we learned later, the people of Aleppo were eager for their city to surrender to the emperor under acceptable terms, even through all their youth wanted to fight, if the pursuing soldiers advanced. The soldiers were advancing in infantry order in hopes of pressing their just recent advantage over the Saracens to rid themselves of attack on the Roman palisade. Now by the indecision of the commanders of the army and the might of those Romans, the emperors and the commanders of the army got themselves greatly the worse, having sent their victories to ignoble ends and permitted the enemy to reach greater glory, since those in command at the time of the victories were not want to continue the pursuit of the enemy who made the lands of the Romans into their tributary and their grazing land so satisfying for their wants through our deficiencies.

Such was how these things came about. On returning to the palisade after the enemy had been staved off, the emperor decided to make Hierapolis into a theme and appoint it a strategos so that bit by bit it would become another Roman city and abode for Armenians, and so because of this he stayed there a while so as to little by little make it into just another Roman city and a dwelling place for Armenians so it would guard itself and also appointed as strategos Pharasmatius(30) Apokapes the bestes, who was from Armenia, and handed over the command of the land in order to follow up his opponents’ defeat and continue the contest. For as long as the Roman army had been encamped there, the Arabs had seemed to stay in their own land, but after it marched off straightaway against the fortress of Azas, they started to appear sporadically from a distance as is their custom attacking the rear of it many times or the beasts carrying food supplies, thereby aggravating the Romans by their raids and ambushes. Yet the emperor protected his camp with long-rang bowmen and targeteers and so in this way believed he could keep it defended and easily ward off the enemy’s advances until he could score another victory over them in open battle and so he set forth for the fortress of Azas with all his army and baggage, having learned from some people that that place had lots of water and was quite able to sustain his army’s water needs. As he drew near the place, at not a half an arrow’s shot from it, he saw that it was very strongly fortified standing upon the edge of a mountain surrounded by a pair of walls and rocks as though it had been fastened together by the hand of men with an impassable, rocky way up and little water there. What was there was not sufficient for a thousandth of the army. And so, he gave up on camping there and shifted his quarters to a place where he set up his encampment and water flowed more freely. On examining it, since he found it was not good to advance on the city from such a distance and set up his machines-of-war (night was about to fall and they needed to set up a palisade so that their standing structures should not be burned by the enemy) and seeing that winter was near its end and his opponents were fortified by boldness of virtue on their mounts, he got up and started to march from their to the boundaries of Ausonitis. In addition, he set fire to a large village called Katma, which had for a long time paid homage to the emir of Aleppo and made camp in another village called Terchala(31), where while the palisade was being set up with the emperor standing on the right on the riverbank shielded by companies of soldiers (The place offered regularity of rushing water, enclosed on each side by hills, the left of which the enemy was standing on the crest in safety) while the rest of the army was busy unburdening the beasts of burden and the rear of the army was sent out to wage war on the Saracens above them, two Arabs secretly came behind the crest riding their horses at full gallop and rushed up to the top of the hill where the encampment was and killed two infantrymen with their lances. The emperor was the first person of all to see them and called out ordering his soldiers to pursue, but they managed to make it back safely to their own camp due to their horses’ extraordinary fleetness.

Then after spending the night there not without conflict (The Arabs were loud unintelligible howls from outside the camp), we set out for Roman land, which was thus patterned after the frontiers having been previously ravaged and laid waste, though perhaps at one time it was fair and laden with a beautiful and great number of trees and olive trees, except if lest perchance we came upon some refuges very seldom remnants still guarding over that land, very few remnants guarding. We passed through many of these such places as we marched straight to Artach. This city was governed by a commander and guarded by a garrison and great number [κόμῃ] of many good men, and was not without its share in the raids. Having been taken beforehand by the Saracens, it had a garrison of them, who had kept them enslaved until then. Since it was very near Antioch, it permitted them to do it great and all sorts of harm and as such be a rival city and a place of opposition. Just as the emperor was getting ready to besiege it, the Saracens who had been entrusted with the garrison were seized with fear and escaped from there during the night. The emperor then stayed their a time directing works, erecting about it a palisade, setting its affairs in order, leaving it a commander and a garrison, setting aside provisions, and arranging for it to get all of the things it needed. Accordingly, the Romans began to see eye to eye with the enemy, recover their esteem, and unite in resistance, since the previous emperors since the wars from the time of Monomachos and those after him had been nothing other than show and mass gatherings, with this clear proof that on the whole the emperor was working to fix matters.

Since Antioch had been ravaged by raids and was gripped by a lack of food, fearing lest he get there and have to replenish it with his own food supplies, he decided not to go there. Then disregarding his own luxury, he marched through desolate places and got through the defiles and the passes by which Coele Syria is divided. With much toil he came to a city in Cilicia called Alexandron (This made it very difficult for the army to make camp in those places because of their narrowness, the cut of the rocks, and the continuousness of the cliffs) where he set up his encampment and the palisade. And so in this way he passed through that country, passed beyond the Taurus Mountains with all of his army, and came to Roman land. The soldiers that had gone on the expedition in general then met with iciness and an extremely cold storm, since they were coming out of warm places (It was around the end of the month of December), they felt its great bitterness, and at this time as well the horses, mules, and men who were not fleshy or well clothed died [also possibly 'froze'] from the freezing cold and cut a sorry figure on the road.

Then I myself escaped an inescapable peril near a narrow defile of the Taurus Mountains. The horse upon which I was riding exhausted by a lycoenteric illness [an intestinal illness] buckled down a little on his front legs caused me to get off him on the right side. I could not get off on the left because a great crag cut it off. As I was getting down from him, I jerked his rein so he spontaneously moved and darted off down the crag. Since I had remained on the right, I gave thanks to God for my deliverance from the peril and reported the miracle to many people since by some divine providence I did not remain at the back of the horse (he buckled down a little, though it would have been very easy to get back up), but got off quickly and did not go off with him over the cliff and get injured. Everyone stood divinely amazed at the news though I did not permit those men behind to pass any further, since that road permitted one person by its extreme narrowness to pass until another beast of burden was loaded down with me and the march went on.

While we were going to a village outside the pass of Podantus, called Typsarium, report surfaced that the strategos left in Melitene to guard Roman territory, who was cowardly and loath to administer the army, had let the enemy pass through the theme [πολιτείαν] of Amorium seizing, enslaving its inhabitants, and murdering an unspeakable number of men. Although their encampment was set up at the site of Chalke and he had his army gathered only a short distance at the fort of Tzamantus, he did not dare take it, attack it, or come to the aid of Amorium, because the Turks had come near Tzamantus as they were going home slaying many Romans who had gone out against them, while they shut up the others one most fortified parts of the city (32). The emperor was furious, since he could do nothing further about it because of the unfortunate bite of the winter, and so he left his mercenaries and his western troops to winter there and went with his body guards, Byzantines, and palace guards to the palace and entered into the capital near the end of the winter, since it was near the end of January then (33).

After spending some time dealing with city matters, conferring honors on some of the senators, dealing out the yearly gifts [i.e. philotimia] in senatorial honors and not even spending the Easter season in Byzantium, he crossed the straight and set sail to an imperial house called Erion feeling the urge to go on another campaign in the east and attack the Turks. Something unprecedented then happened, which made the emperor depart in haste. There was a Latin man who had come from Italy to the emperor, Crispinus by the name, who had been dispatched to the east to spend the winter there with the men of his race who had sailed and come with him. Deciding that the he had not been honored, as he desired by the emperor and gotten enough gifts, he decided to revolt and started to strip and rob the tax collectors he met with and other men and commit outrageous acts loathsome of a despot. He did not slaughter any Romans. On this account, by imperial injunction (the emperor had learned everything) many soldiers joined battle with him. Many men were killed by his sword. In the end, Samuel the vestarch called Alousianus(34) marched against him with a great army of the five western legions from the Armeniac themes, where they were spending the winter, and in the morning he attacked him while he was resting and relaxing as usual on Easter Sunday, but did nothing valorous and suffered very much. The soldiers fell upon their tents and fought with them teaching the Franks a lesson in treachery. The Franks steadfastly gathered themselves together and tried to defend themselves straightaway repelling the Romans from their encampment with not too much suffering. Then they swiftly mounted their horses since each of them were driven to and ready to and followed behind them killing many and taking others captive. And then the commander of the Latins sat down and delivered a not untimely or poorly said speech in which he condemned the Roman's impiety since on that great and wonderful day, which is the holiday of holidays, they had armed themselves against Christians, although the orthodox can not attack another nation on this day and insulted the sanctity of the resurrection. Yet he softly dealt with them and released deeming them worthy of sympathy. He even deposited the wounded in villages providing for their care reasonably.

When the emperor learned about these things, they made him eager to depart. At the time, he happened at the suburb of Melangeia (35), where little by little he was gathering together the army and went to Dorylaeum, while at the same time he forced me into his service though I did not want to come by honoring me with the honor of patrician. There in the course of his three-day stay, ambassadors came from Crispinus bring news of his profession of loyalty and his explanation for why he had resisted. He sought simply amnesty for what had happened since he had not wanted to go to war, but the Romans had forced him to by treacherously attacking him. He got his request since the emperor received this profession very graciously because of the nobleness of the man and his prospective usefulness in deeds of war and the battles. Before he had chanced on a great multitude of Turks and done great deeds by his hand. As the emperor was advancing from there after several days Crispinus met with him did many things befitting a servant and spoke with the emperor having brought only a couple of his own soldiers. The others he had left behind in the fortress he held of Maurocastrum [Black Castle], which is in a place in the Armeniacs situated high on a hill that is hard to take. He was then slandered to the emperor as plotting again something cruel and faithless after his own race (the Frankish race is faithless by nature) and that it was not by his choice, but due to his lack of companions he held back from attacking the emperor, so he was judged in all as ungracious and God-hating and sent away from the camp, unjustly accused, suspected due to his previous ill faith and his vehement accusation by an eminent Nemitzan. His companions on learning of this happening, set out from the fortress and marched on Mesopotamia wreaking much havoc there in raids.

After the emperor came to Caesarea with the army, he then went to Larissa, where report preceding report came that a body of Turks was pillaging and overrunning the land some distance from there, so he sent a part of the army against them accomplishing nothing only to welcome back the dispatched men in flight, as he was traveling the road in good order. On they reached a place to camp and for the emperor to set up the imperial tent, they did not place around themselves a trench or a palisade, but in the mass unpacking of luggage while the army was settling down, the enemy showed up holding the most defensible locations and the crests of the hills. Thus was what that place was like: the Romans held the flat land while the enemy surrounded them on the surrounding hills having secretly gotten there behind them. A cry went out and the emperor did not give himself up to rest, but ordered the war trumpet to be sounded and the soldiers were gotten in battle order though the rear had not yet arrived due its leisurely march in safety and protection bearing the supplies. When the standards were gotten ready, the army gathered together into phalanxes, and the emperor advanced with it, many of his opponents emerged, so the legions at the front, one legion called the Lycaonians and another from the western number, both of whom bolder than usual drove forward and forced the enemy to flight. As the emperor was advancing, the remainder of the army and the remaining body of the enemy gave way to flight like their comrades. When the Romans marched on at the backs of the enemy led on by mercenary unit of Scythians(36) and passed by those crescent-shaped bends [of the hills?], a company of Turks not few in number, which had been lying in wait unseen to the Roman camp, advanced. The Romans soldiers and the Franks above all left behind to guard the camp then met with them and fought in close combat and overcame them mightily turning them to flight, though not one the Roman legions came to the aid of the Franks until it was nearly over. In the meantime, the emperor returned from the pursuit, since evening was getting on and the battle had been joined in the afternoon, while the army quietly marched back and cared to the wounded foot soldiers because they expected further battle, since it had been announced by the scouts. On the following day, seated in public, the emperor looked down on the conquered enemy men and ordered them to be surrendered up to their final judgment, sparing absolutely no one not even the fine man who boasted command of them (his arms and baggage were very fine), although he announced he would put many of them up for ransom and give many in exchange for Roman captives.

The emperor spent three days in the encampment either because he was either truly satisfied or because he was getting cocky, thereby permitting the enemy great ease in their flight, so that they did not have to part with their plunder and were able to travel painlessly and in the open. When the emperor got up from there again, he started to pursue but the enemy crossed the Euphrates River. Since the emperor was encamped a distance of a day or more from Melitene, he began devising dishonorable and steep plans and revealed them to the army who were in agreement with them because it would mean the end of the expedition and the announcement of the march home. The emperor's designs held that since the enemy had gone too far and were able no longer to come to blows with the Romans and were completely uncatchable, it would be pointless to pursue, and so for that reason it was necessary to leave behind a part of the army to resist mightily, while the emperor returned home with the remaining force and sent each of them home while he returned to the capital so that the army could rest and recuperate to make war more fiercely the following year while the enemy commander was away.

When this decision was proclaimed, the emperor decided to consult the judges of the army. Summoning us alone before him in the afternoon, he shared with us his intent and sought our opinion of it. The other judges, truth as my witness (since what I am about to say I am neither softening nor am I elevating myself, while nor am I chasing after any praise from men since I am not conscious of any need for attention, need to be right, or any need for superiority, since I reckon my need to be amongst the most sensible men), those of my rank and association or rather company assented and agreed with his plans, while only I stood by in silence. The emperor noticing my silence asked of me how I stood with this. I did not want to give my opinion because, even should I give it, it would completely reject the decision agreed to by the greater part of them, though the emperor now with great persistence and unshakeable conviction exhorted me to speak my mind without fear taking God as my witness. So I set aside that and revealed straightaway to start with that this plan did not please me and proceeded to say that the enemy had not actually really suffered misfortune or change of the tide in the war. When night had swiftly fallen, it had save them, while halting the pursuit for three days had instilled them with fear. This was evident from the fact that there was no plunder left behind and that they had fought with us in the road, while the number of our prisoners-of war numbering about one hundred indicated that their army had not been visibly injured and so this defeat meant nothing to that nation and they could still enslave the neighboring cities. Quickly their soldiers would gather themselves and restore themselves in battle. And for this reason, if a contingent of Romans was to stay behind, it would be overcome at once by ignoble reasons and dispositions once separated from the emperor and the remaining soldiers, while the enemy would be awesomely emboldened. Furthermore, the Romans left behind would be infested with cowardice, outrage would follow, and the enemy would prevail over our lands, since the Romans had been instilled with fear, finding only them when they had seen the courage of their leader with them. Even if, they would be turned to flight be them, inescapable danger would overcome us, since the Turks would have no care to not overrun our lands and wreak an infamous victory finding our lines broken and scattered by concern for our own affairs. "And at the same time," I said, "O Emperor, to leave the enemy behind on Roman land while it is near the end of summer, would be to permit them the luxury and pleasure [to do as they wish], and though we might not suffer now, would we be able to prosper in the future? Why don’t we take the city of Chliat and the towns beneath by siege so that the soldiers can satisfy their want of plunder and take heart and instill the enemy with fear, while in addition these cities will enrich the Roman Empire instead of the enemy, the forces of the enemy will be mightily beaten back, the coming of Turks from distances will be halted, and they will find not a base there and provisioning station, but a fortress and as such the road through Mesopotamia become impassable for them."

After I said this to the emperor, it as though a seed in lush and fertile soil took hold and he abandoned his previous course and took that leading forward just until the Euphrates which he crossed over and forced the enemy to go back to their own lands. It seems they had been encamped about the banks of the Euphrates eagerly awaiting the emperor's retreat with hopes of a great expedition and plunder taking from the fall and capture of the said cities, but fate was not permitted to bring the Romans back to their previous misfortune by a prudent command. The emperor marched straight from there and came to Romanopolis from which the road leads towards Chliat through narrow mountain passes, but changed his mind and put his standards on the left, leaving the army wandering about, which advanced up the ordered road on the right until report making it go over to the road cut into by the emperor. Descending down some rough and precipitous roads we found the emperor encamped in a high up place ingloriously renewing his first plans to the worse of the Romans. He divided the army in two and gave the stronger portion to Philaretus(37), a man boasting in soldierly fame who lived a wretched and slandered life having fought that nation exceptionally, greatly made war on it, and disdained it naturally, not even keeping himself far from them, but taking command due to his love for gain and glory.

With this done, the emperor set out for the northern parts because there was found snow and freezing water, since by taking hold of them immoderately he might warm his body up a lot. For these reasons, he was forced to make his attack elsewhere and install a guard with the aim of resisting the enemy. He then left the war at hand to Philaretus, while he himself along with the men with him encountered no less difficulty. He passed through many narrow and impassible hills and brought the army remaining to him down to a place called Anthiae. This place is on a well-watered plain at the feet of great mountains enwrapped by hard spots and the way plunging down into the valley no less; it grows grass as well as grain and is as such a center rather a treasure of that land and a luxurious plain. After spending several days encamped there, the emperor he passed over the Taurus mountain range, called Muzurus(38) by the locals and came down into the land of Celesina(39) and crossed the second Euphrates River flowing by the part near the northern feet of the Taurus mountains, which divides the mountain range and Celesina as though a frontier(40). Here, after camping there some days, a report came in saying that the part of the army that had stayed behind had been utterly defeated by the opposing Turkish force in battle and lost many men, while what was left of them had sought refuge in the Taurus mountain range near where the battle had taken place and some men were wandering towards the camp, while no small number of others were to be expected. It was not false and Hesiod was true in saying, “Talk never wholly dies away when many people voice her: even Talk is in some ways divine." The Romans had been terrified by fear of the Turks and since they were cut off from the emperor and the rest of the army and weighed down by the enemy assaults and the tricks of war time display, so filled with terror, they uncourageously went off behind the emperor leaving the places that they had been entrusted to guard until little by little they came down to the said Anthiae where the enemy appeared from behind. With nothing brave or worthy of mention in mind, they took to disgraceful flight without even a fight and spread out all around the Taurus Mountains some by foot, others by horse coming to Celesina scattered with the enemy having taking hold of their baggage and a few of them who did not take flight as quickly(41).

All of these happenings thus caused a great stir in the imperial camp and for the emperor, first because of not a little melancholy at the defeat of their fellow soldiers and then because they expected their opponents to advance puffed up with pride at their victory able to make war on the remaining portion of the army having destroyed the mightier part. Their expectation was not far off the mark. It would have come to pass, had not they met with the extremely high, narrow, difficult to cross, precipitous, and army-scattering road, rendering it orderless ruining their horses’ hoofs. Such is what had happened to us. In addition, report of the emperor riddled them with fear. For these reasons, the attack of the enemy was halted and they started to retreat with their plunder towards the west passing above Melitene and crossing the Euphrates heading straight for the Cappadocian theme without check as they were accustomed to plundering anything they met with on the road and then attacking the city of Iconium with all of their forces. At that time, the city was very numerous and sizable with men, houses, great virtues, blessings, abounding as well in all sorts of animals.

The emperor remained in Celesina a while to receive the refugees into the encampment so the scattered men should not fall prey to the Armenians, since they had come up behind the enemy while they were turning back. Then something of a decision was reached between the soldiers and the commanders, although nothing was manifested against anyone, some of them fell at odds and made up their minds including myself due to my rashness and weakness that, except for the emperor, no Roman stood by the war, unless perhaps they had to fight amongst one another.

As the emperor was about to march his army through the town called Ceramum to the banks of the Euphrates until Melitene, I spoke out rashly against this as inadvisable, since it was not necessary for us to look after those parts which were already devastated and stripped of all their virtues by divers raids because of which we would meet with disastrous shortages of food and supplies. At the same time, it would take time to go through its narrow defiles, which one by one the men and beasts of burden would be forced to pass. I also said we should have a care for state of the themes that had not yet been ravaged and protect them from the outrages of the enemy. Having taken this advice, the emperor along with the army passed through Colonia, the Armenian themes, until Sebastea. There having learned that the Turks had advanced on Pisidia and Lycaonia and were planning to march on Iconium; he started to advance on their rear until the village-town of Heracleus. There on learning that the Turks had overrun the city, but had not dared to tarry there fearing the pursuit of the emperor, he sent a division of legions to Cilicia, which would be thrust at by the dux of Antioch Chataturius, a brave man who had made many previous examples of his valor, who the emperor instructed to go to Mopsuestia in haste and fight with the Turks passing through there, since the Armenians living in the mountainous areas of Seleucia had been ordered to assault the Turks and injure them after the local way in the narrow wars. Since the enemy was afraid to go home because the emperor was on campaign, they marched through the mountains of Seleucia and were cut down on the plain of Tarsus. There attacked by the Armenians they abandoned nearly all their plunder. However, the survivors though in a sorry state continued along the road trying to pass through all of Cilicia and come to the borders of Aleppo. Since the men sent by the emperor and the army of Antioch with their said commander had already joined together, they saw their opponents advancing in measurable numbers and decided to lie in wait for them near the city of Mopsuestia. As the time for their attack approached, on the pretext that they would not be scattered, they remained there gathered together near the encampment and failed to render for themselves a great victory. The enemy then, on learning from some prisoners of the gathering of Roman troops at Mopsuestia, did not tarry long and rest long in their encampment at Blatibadi, passed in the night beyond the Sarbandicus mountain, and approached the boundaries of Aleppo. So they remained without anything to do at Mopsuestia since they did not encounter the flow of the enemy they expected and the emperor was greatly angered when informed of this. Since he was dug in a little bit away from Claudiopolis in Seleucia having learned of the flight of the enemy, he started to retreat pressing on straight for the capital since fall was approaching leaving behind another body of men because other Turks were pillaging Roman territory divided in tribes and divisions assaulting and destroying what they met with. When the emperor went to Constantinople, the rest of the army went home. And so that year, the 8th indiction of 6578 (1069) ended during which the great church of Blachernae was burned to the ground.