Universal

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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31. My words, assisted by numerous ether arguments, had already convinced him, when a cry rose up behind me, a cry which from that moment has never ceased to ring in my ears. It was a confused cry, for everyone there attributed to me a different quality. Some spoke of my invincible rhetoric, others of the power of my words, others again of the force of my arguments. I myself made no reply to any of them, but the emperor, holding up his hand for silence, addressed them. ‘This man has said nothing at all which gives the appearance of chicanery or wilful deception of his audience. He has followed the course of events, and his explanations have been proffered in simple language.

Force a recantation

There is no reason therefore why you should upset our conversation or throw our meeting into disorder.’ Those were his very words, but same of his entourage, wishing to intimidate me, begged the emperor ‘to save the orator, who is sure to be destroyed out of hand, for most of the soldiers have already drawn their swords against him, and they will cut him in pieces the moment he leaves the tent!’ I smiled at these words. ‘If I, who have brought to you an Empire and all the power which you have achieved, am in recompense for these good tidings to be torn in pieces by your own hands, surely you are merely confirming the fact of your rebellion. You become your own accusers. No, your purpose in these words is either to gag me or to force a recantation, but I will neither change my opinions nor alter my words.’

32. When I made this declaration, the emperor rose from his throne and dismissed the assembly, after honouring me with several complimentary remarks. The soldiers were ordered to go on ahead and Isaac took us aside by ourselves. ‘Do you really believe,’ he said, ‘hat this imperial robe has been put on me with my approval? Do you think that if it were possible for me to run away I would refuse to escape? Of course not. They persuaded me to take this course in the first place, and now I am in their power, hemmed in on all sides. However, if you will take a solemn oath to convey certain private information to the emperor on my behalf, I will tell you, now, my own secret intentions.’

Read More about Isaac Comnenus 25

And I straightway reminded them of the divine Constantine**183 and certain other rulers who had honoured their sons with the title of Caesar first and afterwards promoted them to the exalted position of emperor. Then, drawing together the threads of my argument, more in the manner of a syllogism, I made this comparison: ‘That is how they treated their own sons, men of their own flesh and blood. Isaac here is only a son by adoption . . .’ and, having thrown in the word adoption, I left the rest of the sentence in suspense.

30. However, they knew what I meant, and they proceeded to enumerate a host of reasons for their ‘common movement’ — a euphemism they produced for ‘rebellion’. Instead of refuting their arguments out of hand, I replied as if I were taking their part. I exaggerated their misfortunes ‘Yes, I know these things and often my heart has bled because of them. Your anger,’ I said, ‘your anger is justified, and so is the despair you feel at your sufferings.’ And having pacified them with these words, I shook them with a sudden assault from the flank. ‘Those are terrible things, terrible indeed, but they do not justify revolution: nothing whatever is a legitimate excuse for that.

Not even suffered indignity

Now suppose that you were emperor (here I carried on the argument with a direct reference to their leader) and suppose you were to become very ill-tempered, and the leader of the Senate, shall we say, or the commander-in-chief of the army entered into a conspiracy and got accomplices to aid him in his evil design, engineering a plot to dethrone yourself and at the same time excusing himself with a recital of all his sufferings and a description of the indignity with which he had been treated — would the pretexts he put forward justify the plot in your eyes?’ When Isaac said ‘No!’ I went on, ‘But in your case you have not even suffered indignity, except inasmuch as you have failed to get what you had previously set your heart on.

As for the terrible sufferings you speak of, those have been caused by other men, not by the present emperor.’ As he did not reply to this, (for he was not so much concerned with arguing persuasively himself as with listening to the simple truth from me) I pressed him still further: ‘Well then, change your mind. Be persuaded by your better judgment. Honour your father in his old age, and you will inherit the throne by legal means.’

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Those who stood nearest us received this preamble with satisfaction and held their peace, but the crowd in our rear shouted as one man that they refused to acknowledge any other role for their leader but that of emperor. Maybe the majority did not approve of this, but they slavishly said so and accommodated themselves to circumstances. At all events they put to shame the orderly element in my audience and forced them to shout defiance too. Probably because he wished to avoid the appearance of disagreeing with the mob, the emperor supported their objection, using precisely the same words.

More damaging points

28. I was in no way disturbed by this. Indeed, I was now in a solid position based on very substantial arguments — and I am not the sort of man who shrinks away, when I am once engaged in a fight. So I interrupted my speech and stood in silence, waiting for the crowd to grow quiet. And after they had bawled their heads off, they did steady down, and I, continuing in the same strain, began gently to reveal my more damaging points, although still not finding fault with the rebels.

I reminded them how one climbs a ladder, pointed out the mistake of over-reaching with the foot, and praised the reasonable progress to the imperial throne. The proper order, I said, was this: first, experience, and afterwards, philosophical speculations; the man of practical affairs first, and afterwards the theorist. Most of those who had ruled as emperors, and the best of them, had been promoted to imperial power from the rank of Caesar.

29. At this remark, some individuals objected that I was quoting one particular kind of promotion. Isaac, they said, had been invested with power already. ‘But,’ I flashed back, ‘he has not become emperor yet! What is more, if your objections are not to be perfectly ridiculous, your position (I was afraid to use the word rebellion expressly) has not even a respectable name at all.’ Then I went on as follows: ‘Give up the title of Emperor and your accession to the throne will have the sanction of legality.’ When I mentioned the adoption proposed by the emperor, they broke in. ‘Do you mean to tell us,’ they asked, ‘that an emperor’s Son will be deprived of his power, the sovereign power?’ — ‘Yes,’ I answered, ‘the greatest emperors have treated even their real sons like that.’

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25. So much for the warriors. As for us, we were given a sign to come in by the emperor, with a motion of the hand and a slight nod of the head, just enough to tell us that we were to move over to his left side. When we had passed through the space between the first and second circle and were quite near him, he again asked us the same questions as before, and being satisfied with our replies, he continued in a louder voice, ‘Well now, let one of you turn about and stand in the midst of these men here (pointing to those who stood about him on either side) and put in my hand the letter from him who has sent you. You can also tell me the message that you have brought to us here.’

Frequently interrupted

26. At this each of us declined the honour of making reply, and each asked the others to do so instead of himself. We held a conference among ourselves and my two companions pressed the duty on me. I was best-equipped, they said, for speaking freely because, unlike themselves, I was a philosopher. They would come to my aid if, by any chance, my arguments were refuted.

So I at once calmed the beating of my heart and stepped into the middle, collected my wits, and gave him the letter. Then, taking the signal to speak, I began my discourse. If the noise which was going on there had not scared me while I was speaking, and if it had not so frequently interrupted me that I forgot my long harangue, perhaps I would have recalled the actual words I had prepared beforehand.

They would have occurred to me in their proper setting and sequence wherever I was developing my argument in periods, or stressing my ideas with a series of clauses rising to some climax. Nobody there noticed that there was subtlety in my plain speaking, but the fact was, that by a careful imitation of Lysias**182 in his use of common everyday speech, I took simple expressions known to the ordinary man, and decked them out with delicate philosophical touches. Anyway, I will recall now the main points of my discourse, as far as my memory serves me.

27. The introduction was mos: emphatic. I spoke clearly enough, but it was artfully done, for to begin with I avoided all reference to their guilt, and started with the Caesar and the acclamation he shared with the emperor. I enumerated other favours, and honours greater still, which had been conferred on them by their true sovereign.

Read More about Isaac Comnenus 23

24. When they eventually grew quiet, they gave us leisure to observe what was inside the tent (for we had not immediately entered when the door was thrown open, but stood at some distance waiting for the signal to go in). I will describe that scene. The emperor himself was seated on a couch decorated with two head-rests. The couch was raised on a high platform and overlaid with gold. Under his feet was a stool.

A magnificent robe gave him an air of great distinction. Very proudly he held up his head and puffed out his chest (an effort that caused his cheeks to take on a deep red tinge), while his eyes, with their far-away gaze, showed plainly that he was thinking profoundly and wholly given up to his own meditations.

The Ancient Heroes

Then the fixed gaze relaxed, and it was as if he had come from troubled deeps to the calm of some haven. All round him were circles on circles of warriors. The nearest circle, and the smallest ones was composed of the most important persons, the leading representatives of the nobility, men who rivalled the stately grandeur of the Ancient Heroes. And there they stood, their own exalted rank an inspiration to their juniors. Around them were their lieutenants and the front rank fighters, grouped in a second circle.

With these stood some soldiers of inferior battalions and certain high-ranking company commanders, on the emperor’s left. Surrounding these again we saw the light-armed troops without armour, and behind them all the allied forces which had joined him from different barbarian nations. There were Italians, and Scyths from the Taurus, men of fearful appearance, dressed in fearful garb, both alike glaring fiercely about them.

They were not alike in other respects, for while the one tribe painted themselves and plucked out their eyebrows, the other preserved their natural colour; the one made their attacks as the spirit moved them, were impetuous and led by impulse, the other with a mad fury; the former in their first onslaught were irresistible, but they quickly lost their ardour; the latter, on the other hand, were less impatient, but fought with unsparing devotion and a complete disregard for wounds.

These then were the warriors who rounded off that circle of shields, armed with long spears and single-edged battle-axes. The axes they carried on their shoulders, and with the spiked ends of the spears jutting out before and behind them the intervals between the ranks were, so to speak, roofed in.

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We went out in amazement. The man had made no long speeches at this first meeting; his only enquiries concerned our voyage. Had we had a smooth voyage? Nothing more. So, after dispersing to our respective tents and sleeping for a while, we met again about dawn and decided how we were to conduct negotiations at the next interview. We were convinced that it was wrong to delegate the duty to one member alone: better that all should frame our questions and all together receive his answers.

22. While we were engaged in these discussions, day broke and the sun crept up over the horizon and was up in the sky, shining brightly. But it was not long before the leading councillors arrived and summoned us to his presence. They practically became our escort and led us away to their general. We found him in a bigger tent this time, big enough for an army and its mercenary forces as well. Outside it and all around there stood a great multitude of men, not at ease or mingled together, but drawn up in ranks, in a series of concentric circles, with a short interval between each group.

The emperor’s personal bodyguard

Some were armed with swords, others with the heavy iron rhomphaia, others with lances. Not a sound was heard from any of them. Every man stood stiffly to attention in an attitude of fear, their eyes steadily fixed on the soldier who was in charge at the door of the tent. He was actually the captain of the emperor’s personal bodyguard, a brave-hearted man, quick-witted and energetic, good at speaking, bitter at holding his tongue, and at his best when in deliberation — the Duke John, who had from a long line of ancestors inherited a spirit at once courageous and steadfast.**181

23. When we had drawn near, this man told us to stand by the entrance while he himself went inside the tent. After a short pause, he came out again, and without a single word to us threw open the tent-door, suddenly.

The sight that met our eyes within was astonishing. It was so unexpected, and truly it was an imperial spectacle, capable of over-aweing anyone. First, our ears were deafened by the roars of the army, but their voices were not all raised at once: the front rank acclaimed him first, then the second took up the cry, then the next rank, and so on. Each rank uttered its own cry with a different intonation from the rest. Then, after the last circle had shouted, there was one great united roar which hit us like a clap of thunder almost.

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19. When he also expressed his readiness to join us — his patriotism was never in doubt — he became the most delightful member of our mission. We then received letters for Isaac from the emperor, or rather we ourselves concocted these messages and composed them in a form as expedient as might be. Our object was to effect a compromise: Isaac was to wear the crown and the insignia of the Caesar, and yet, at the same time, remain subject to the emperor.

So we confidently set out on our journey to meet him, and after covering the first stage out from the city, we acquainted him of our arrival and we assured him, most emphatically, that we would under no circumstances enter into any negotiations, unless he first undertook by the most solemn oaths not to detain us once our task was done, nor to do us any other injury, but to treat us with the honour due to our position and guarantee our safe return.

20. All these assurances being given and other, additional, promises being made, we immediately set sail in our triremes and landed near the spot where he was encamped.**180 We were greeted at once, even before the conference with Isaac began, and they received us most cordially. One after another the leaders of his army came up and addressed us in the pleasantest manner.

Destruction upon their kinsfolk

Kissing our heads and hands, they protested with tears, that though they wore on their brows the garlands of victory, they were weary of shedding the blood of their fellow-countrymen and of bringing destruction upon their kinsfolk. Then, putting us in their midst, they escorted us to the tent of their general (for he, too, was encamped there, like themselves, in the open air). After dismounting themselves, they made us do likewise and bade us wait outside. Permission was then granted us to enter the tent alone, for the sun had already gone down and Isaac was unwilling to allow a big assembly in the imperial tent.

21. He greeted us as we came in, seated on a high throne, with a small bodyguard in attendance. He was dressed not so much like an emperor as a general. He rose slightly as we entered and bade us be seated. No questions were asked about the purpose of our visit, but after a few brief remarks in explanation of his own campaign, and after sharing a drink with us, he allowed us to retire to our own tents, which had been pitched very near his.

Read More about Isaac Comnenus 20

My idea is rather to observe proper precautions in the matter. I am merely postponing action because I suspect that most of the others will be jealous.’ ” ‘And what, may I ask,’ said he, ‘is it that makes you so careful? Why have you no confidence in this embassy?’ — ‘The man you are asking me to visit,’ I replied, ‘has already won a victory: he is full of confidence in his own future. I hardly fancy, therefore, that he will show any kindly feeling towards me, nor will he be diverted from his plans by any arguments I can put before him. Probably he will address me in a haughty fashion, bring dishonour on my embassy, and send me away without accomplishing anything.

The others will then slander me, saying that I have betrayed my trust. Whey will argue thus: when he succeeded beyond his expectations, I had only made him more arrogant than ever; in any future negotiations, therefore, he would ignore all the emperor’s orders and any embassy sent to him thereafter would be disregarded. Why? Because Comnenus is under the impression that he himself is soon to become supreme ruler of the Empire. Nevertheless,’ I went on, ‘if it is your wish that I should obey this order, please give me a colleague, one of the senior members of the Senate. Our proposals will thus be put forward by two of us, jointly, and his replies will be addressed to both of us. The negotiations will then be conducted without secrecy.’

Choose any member of the Senate you like

18. Michael was pleased with this idea. ‘Choose any member of the Senate you like,’ he said. I chose the most distinguished and sensible man, one who, I was quite sure, would have the courage to accompany me on the embassy.**177 No sooner had this gentleman heard my proposal than he agreed to act in this capacity and share my duties.

Then, after consultation and an exchange of ideas, we co-opted a third person to join in the deputation, a man who held high rank among the Romans, a leading member of the Senate, distinguished no less for his oratory than because of his powerful intellect.**178 In former times he had been guide and counsellor to the emperor Monomachus, and later he brought glory to the office of Patriarch. Having devoted his own life to the service of God, he afterwards consecrated Isaac, too, as a priest.**179

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The Sending of the Embassy to Comnenus

15. The emperor therefore, after waiting a few days, asked me to come to terms with Comnenus. I was to lead an embassy on his behalf, with secret proposals to the enemy. By my eloquence and powers of argument I was to soften him down and induce a change of attitude to the emperor.

My first reaction to this idea, which came upon me like a bolt from the blue, was to refuse the honour. ‘I would not voluntarily undertake such a commission,’ I said, ‘fraught as it is with considerable danger, the outcome of which, so far from being a matter of doubt, is quite obvious to anyone. It is clear that a man who has just won a victory and is elated by his success will not agree to surrender his superior position, or so debase himself as to accept inferior office.’

16. The emperor had a prompt reply to this. Shaking his head and accusing me of forgetting all the ties of friendship and mutual attachment, he went on: ‘So the purpose of your unceasing studies was to cultivate a persuasive eloquence, but when your friends suffer misfortune, or rather your masters — God forgive me for using the word! — you care not a jot how you may give them assistance.

When I became emperor, my relations with you underwent no change: I speak with you as I have always done: I greet you and embrace you in my usual way, and every day — it is right that it should be so — “I taste the honey of your lips.” But I thought to be repaid in equal measure. But you — you do not even give me as much consideration as a gentleman accords an enemy when he is down and out. Ah well, I will go along the path that destiny has prepared for me, and as for you, be sure that some day someone will bring on you censure and reproach for having betrayed your master and friend.’

17. At the sound of these words I was almost struck dumb with amazement. It was impossible to maintain my original objection, so I suddenly changed my attitude. ‘But, Sire,’ I objected, ‘I am not refusing to carry out your instructions because I am afraid of this duty.

Read More about Silence part 1