We swore to preserve the secrecy of this confidential information, and he went on: ‘For the present I do not covet supreme power. I am satisfied with the position of Caesar. Let the emperor therefore send me fresh despatches, to the effect that, when he dies, he will bequeath the Empire to nobody except myself, that he will not deprive any of my colleagues of the honours I have bestowed upon them, and that he will share with me some, at any rate, of his imperial power, so that I may be able, if I wish, to dispense the less important civilian posts to some of my followers, and in other cases even control military promotions. I am not making these requests for my own sake, but for my men.
Memorized by yours
And if he confirms them, I will come to him without delay and pay him the honour due to an emperor and a father. Naturally, these terms are not to the liking of my army.**184 so I will give you a twofold message. One letter I wall submit courteously to their inspection and let them read it; the other (the secret one) will be memorized by yourselves. And one other favour for my men. Make sure that little fellow**185 is deprived of his position in the government. In the past it was obvious that he was bitterly opposed to our ambitions, and we still suspect him. Today then you will dine with me. Tomorrow you will set out and carry my secret injunctions to your master.’
33. So we sat at his table and marvelled still more at his perfect manners, for the man condescended to us in a most friendly way. There was nothing of the proud tyrant about him. Early next morning we presented ourselves before him again, and after receiving the second message secretly, we went down to the sea, escorted by the same guard as before. We found the water calm, slipped our mooring-cables, and sailed for Byzantium. Day had broken when we reached the palace harbour. We gave the emperor a description of the whole affair and explained the secret proposals after handing him the two letters.
He read them through several times and then urged us to recapitulate what Isaac had suggested. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘they must all be carried out. Let him have whatever he wants. He can even wear a crown — that will give him more prestige than ever. He wears a garland now, not a crown, but there — he can have it, however unusual it may be for a Caesar. He must exercise power together with myself, he must share in the appointment to offices.
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