He did this, not because he grudged the Roman Empire the acquisition of new territory, but because he knew that an imperialist policy of that sort could not be effected without much expenditure of money and men, as well as a sufficient reserve. Where these were lacking, expansion became merely a diminution of strength. On most of the barbarian generals he cast aspersions — I have myself heard these things being said — charging them with want of manliness and reprimanding them for the careless manner in which they carried out their duties as officers. Their morale had fallen very low, but he revived it, with the intention of using them as a bulwark against the aggression of stronger nations.
Rotten elements
51. What I have written is sufficient eulogy for Isaac. If in addition there is some lesson to be drawn for the future, that task is one the historian will find to his liking. I will try to do so. In other matters than the civil administration he advanced the welfare of his empire by gradual progress, and had he followed the same policy in the nonmilitary sphere also, by purging the state of its rotten elements, first reducing the gross evil and then applying his remedy, two things would have happened: he himself would have earned undying honour, and the body politic would not have been brought to utter ruin. But Isaac wanted to revolutionize everything. He was eager to lose no time in cutting out the dead wood which had long been accumulating in the Roman Empire.
We can liken it to a monstrous body, a body with a multitude of heads, an ugly bull-neck, hands so many that they were beyond counting, and just as many feet; its entrails were festering and diseased, in some parts swollen, in others wasting away, here afflicted with dropsy, there diminishing with consumption.
Now Isaac tried to remedy this by wholesale surgery.**203 He attempted to get rid of the bulges and restore the body to a normal shape, to take away this and build up that, to heal the intestines and breathe into this monster some life-giving breath, but the task was beyond him, and in consequence he lacked faith in his own success. However, to avoid any confusion in our history let us first explain how our body politic got into this gross condition, then how Isaac attempted to cut out its rottenness, and thirdly, how these efforts of his were not universally successful. When I have done all this, I will add an account of the end of his reign and finish my history.
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