Now when the Ambassadors from Persia arrived, the Emperor, a formidable figure, seated himself on his throne and the men, whose business it was, arranged the soldiers of every nationality and the axe-bearing barbarians in their proper order, and then brought in the ambassadors to the imperial throne. The Emperor first asked them the conventional questions about the Sultan, and, after listening to the messages they brought, he confessed that he welcomed and desired peace with the whole world. He next enquired about the Sultan’s proposals and when he recognized that some of his requests would not be expedient for the Roman rule, he wrapped up very persuasive arguments in many words and made a very clever defence of his actions to them, and by his long speech persuaded them to concur with his wishes.

Own interests but of the Roman Empire

Then he dismissed them to the tent prepared for them with injunctions to think over his words and said that if they agreed wholeheartedly with them the treaty between them should be concluded on the morrow. They shewed themselves very ready to accept the Emperor’s terms, and the treaty was concluded on the following day. In this the Emperor was not thinking only of his own interests but of the Roman Empire. For he was more solicitous of the universal welfare than of his own, and in all his arrangements he only regarded, and referred everything to, the dignity of the Roman sceptre, in order that treaties might last on even after his death to future years-and yet he failed in his object.

For after him things were different and everything was turned into confusion. In the meantime all disturbing elements had been laid to rest and we looked forward to perfect peace, and we had peace from then to the end of his life. But all that was most desirable vanished together with the Emperor, and his efforts were all rendered vain after his departure by the stupidity of his successors to the throne.

IV After receiving trustworthy information about the Roman fleet from the survivors of the five cruisers, as we have related, and learning that the Emperor had equipped his fleet and was staying in the Chersonese in expectation of their arrival, the admirals of the Frankish fleet abandoned their first plan and had no longer the slightest desire to approach the coasts of Romania. The Emperor wintered in Calliopolis with the Empress (who, as we have mentioned several times, accompanied him because of the severe pains in his feet) and after waiting for the season in which the Frankish fleet usually sailed home he returned to the capital. But only a short time elapsed before news was brought of the advance of a Turkish host, collected from all the countries of the East, even from Chorosan itself and numbering about fifty thousand men.

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All these things that Frank, who was nervous and still in dread of the Roman fleet, recounted to Balduinus. That then is what happened to the Franks at sea; but on land things did not settle down without distresses and worries for the Emperoi. For a certain Michael from Amastris who was the governor of Acrunus, was meditating defection and took the town and began to ravage the surrounding country terribly. On being informed of this the Emperor sent George, the son of Decanus, against him with an adequate force.

Emperor without delay

After a siege of three months George took the city and sent the rebel to the Emperor without delay. The Emperor entrusted the care of the fortress to another man, but at Michael he shot a severe glance, threatened him with many things and apparently had doomed him to death; thus he instilled great fear into the man, and yet very soon relieved the soldier of his dread. For the sun had not set below the horizon before the prisoner was a free man, and the man condemned to death was the recipient of many gifts. Such was my father, the Emperor, on all occasions, and yet later on he met with much ingratitude from the whole world.

Just in the same way our universal Benefactor was once treated, our Lord who rained down manna in the wilderness, gave food to men in the mountains and made them pass through the sea with dry feet, and yet later He was set at naught and insulted and beaten and finally condemned to be crucified by the impious. But as I write this my tears gush out before my words, and I long to speak of these men and make a list of the ungrateful, but I restrain my tongue and beating heart and continually repeat to myself the words of the poet, “Bear up, O heart, for thou hast borne more horrible things already I ” This is enough about that ungrateful soldier.

The Sultan Saisan sent troops from Chorosan, some of whom marched through the lands of Sinaus, and the others through what is properly called Asia. On receipt of this news, Constantine Gabras, then Governor of Philadelphia, collected his troops and overtook the Turks at Celbianum; he was the first to dash upon them at full gallop and ordered the others to do the same and thus they routed the barbarians. When the Sultan who had dispatched these troops heard how many had been killed, he sent ambassadors to the Emperor to treat about peace, confessing at the same time that he had long desired to see peace between Mussulmans and Romans. For from afar he had heard of the Emperor’s prowess against all his foes, and on making trial of it himself he had ‘recognized the cloth by its edge,’ and the ‘lion by its claws,’ and though against his will had turned aside to thoughts of peace.

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At that time the governor of Philadelphia was Constantine Gabras who had sufficient men to garrison the town; the semi-barbarian Monastras (who has often been mentioned in this history) held Pergamus and Chliara and the towns round about it, and all the other towns along the sea were governed by men renowned for daring and military experience. The Emperor sent them frequent messages exhorting them to keep a constant watch and to send out spies in all directions to observe the barbarians’ skirmishings and bring their news quickly.

Having thus made things in Asia secure he turned his attention to the war at sea ; he ordered some of the sailors to anchor their ships in the harbours of Madytus and Coeli and keep a steady watch on the straits opposite and also make excursions with light cruisers and keep a continual look-out over the sea-ways in expectation of the Frankish fleet. Others were to sail among the islands and guard them without at the same time overlooking the Peloponnese, but to give that too the requisite protection.

The fully-equipped fleet from Lombardy

As he wished to stay in those parts for a considerable time, he had some dwellings constructed in a suitable spot and spent the winter there. When the fully-equipped fleet from Lombardy and the other places loosed its cables and sailed forth, the admiral of it picked out five biremes and sent them out to catch some ships and from them learn the Emperor’s whereabouts.

But when they reached Abydos, it fell out that only one ship returned to the man who sent them forth, as the rest were captured, crews and all. From this ship the admirals of the said fleets learnt of the Emperor’s doings, namely that after making everything very secure on land and sea, he was wintering in the Chersonese in order to hearten up all his men. Since they were unable to fight successfully against the Emperor’s subtle plans, they put their hands to their rudders and went off in another direction. One Frank alone from among these admirals took his own monoreme which was very swift and sailed away to Balduinus.

He found him besieging Tyre and related to him all that we have just said about the Emperor (I fancy he had sailed with the other admirals’ consent); and also told him that the Roman fleet had succeeded in capturing the scout-ships, as told above. And he even confessed without a blush that when the leaders of the Frankish fleet discovered that the Emperor was all ready to meet them, they retreated, thinking it better to return without accomplishing anything than to fight with the Roman fleet and be beaten.

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The whole barbarian race is like that, it is always agape for presents and money, but is very little inclined to carry out the purpose for which the money is given. So he merely handed Buturnites some letters and dismissed him. The ambassadors also met the Count Iatzulinus,[Joscelin de Courtney] on the day of our Lord’s resurrection, who had come to worship at the Holy Sepulchre, and discussed what was fitting with him. But when they discovered that he answered in the same strain as Balduinus, they left Jerusalem without having accomplished anything.

When they found that Pelctranus was no longer among the living, they asked for the moneys they had deposited in the episcopal palace. But Pelctranus’ son and the bishop of Tripoli delayed giving them back the money for some time, so at last the ambassadors threatened them saying, ” If you do not give back the money to us, you are not true servants of the Emperor and you are proved not to observe the same fidelity to him as Pelctranus and his father Isangeles did. Very well then, you shall not have an abundant supply of necessaries from Cyprus in the future, nor shall the Duke of Cyprus come to your aid, and then you will perish by famine.”

The solemn oath of fidelity to the Emperor

After they had ‘let out every reef,’ as the proverb says, and tried first honeyed words and then threats and yet could not persuade Pelctranus’ son to give up the money, they judged it expedient to make him take a solemn oath of fidelity to the Emperor, and then to give him only the gift destined for his father, consisting of gold and silver stamped money and garments of divers kinds. On receipt of these the son took the solemn oath of fidelity to the Emperor. The rest of the money they took back to Eumathius and with it purchased well-bred horses from Damascus and Edessa and even Arabia. From there they crossed the Syrian sea and gulf of Pamphylia and then gave up sailing as they considered the land safer than the sea, and made their way to the Chersonese where the Emperor was, and after crossing the Hellespont they reached the Emperor.

III And now troubles fell upon him one after the other, like a snowstorm, for at sea the chiefs of Pisa, Genoa and Lombardy were preparing to lay waste all the sea-board by means of their fleet; and on land in the East the Ameer Saisan was again trying to get hold of Philadelphia and the maritime districts. Consequently the Emperor decided he must leave the capital and go to some place from which he could carry on the war against both parties. So he went to the Chersonese and called up troops from all parts both from land and sea, and set apart a goodly army to go over the Scamander to Atramytium or even Thracesium and stay there.

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Then they brought other jars containing a great deal of naphtha which caught the fire and made the flames shoot up into the air and converted the Franks’ engines into ashes. And the light of the breaking day mingled with the light from the towering blaze of the wooden sheds. Thus Balduinus! soldiers reaped the fruits of the carelessness in which they had indulged and of which they repented now that the smoke and fire shewed them the result. Some of the soldiers standing near the sheds were taken captive, six in number, and on seeing them the Tyrian governor had their heads cut off and shot into Balduinus’ camp from catapults.

When the soldiers saw the fire and the heads they were seized with panic, jumped on their horses and fled as if utterly terrified by those heads, although Balduinus rode to and fro among them and called back the fugitives and tried to embolden them in every way. But ‘he was singing to deaf men’; for once they had abandoned themselves to flight, they kept steadily on their course and seemed swifter than any bird. And the goal of their course was the fortress locally called Ace, for that appeared to those cowardly runagates like a tower of refuge. Then in despair and at an utter loss Balduinus, though unwillingly, followed the fleeing soldiers and likewise ran away, to the city mentioned.

Emperor had already reached Seleucia

Meanwhile Buturnites; embarked on his Cyprian ships (they were twelve in all) and sailed along the coast towards Ace, and there met Balduinus and then reported to him all the Emperor had ordered him to say ; but he supplemented his speech by saying that the Emperor had already reached Seleucia. This was not true at all but just an artifice to frighten the barbarian and make him dismiss him quicly. But Balduinus was not deceived by this dodge, and rebuked Butumites sternly for having lied. For he had already received information from elsewhere of the Emperor’s doings, namely that he had gone down to the long coast, suppressed the pirate-ships which were ravaging those shores, and then returned home from there because he was ill (about this we will speak more in detail later on).

With this information Balduinus contradicted Butumites, and after censuring him for his false statement, said, “You must come with me to the Holy Sepulchre and from there I will send ambassadors to carry our decisions to the Emperor.” Directly they reached the Holy City, he demanded the money which the Emperor had sent. Butumites said, ” If you promise that you will help the Emperor against Tancred and thus keep the oath which you made with him when you passed through, then you shall receive the money which was sent for you without delay.” Balduinus however was anxious to get the money although eager to help Tancred and not the Emperor, and when he did not get it, he was annoyed.

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So Butumites and his fellows deposited the money in the bishop’s residence at Tripoli, as we have said. But on Balduinus’ hearing of these ambassadors’ arrival in Tripoli, he at once, through desire for the money, sent his own cousin Simon to forestall their coming and invite them. They with Pelctranus’ consent left the money behind there and accompanied Simon who had been sent from Jerusalem and found Balduinus besieging Tyre. He received them with pleasure and shewed them much friendliness, and as they had reached him on the Carnival, he kept them there through the whole of Lent Whilst he, as we said, was besieging Tyre.

Now this city was protected by impregnable walls as well as by three outworks which enclosed it in a circle. For the outmost circle encompassed the second, and this in its turn the innermost or third one. They were like three circles, enclosing each other and set like girdles round the city. Balduinus knew well that he must first destroy these outworks and only then take the city; for they were like corselets placed in front of Tyre and hindered the siege.

After tearing down its battlements

He had already destroyed this first and second belt by means of machines of destruction and was at work on the third, but after tearing down its battlements he had grown idle, for he could have taken this one too, if he had set his mind to it. But, thinking that after this he could ascend into the city by the help of a few ladders, he lost interest in the siege, just as if he already had the town in his power.

This fact brought salvation to the Saracens; and the man who had had victory almost in his hand, was utterly beaten off from it, and the men who were inside the net, escaped from its meshes. For the interval spent by Balduinus in idleness was most diligently used by them as a time of recovery.

They devised the following cunning trick. To all seeming they had an eye to making terms of peace and sent embassies to Balduinus about it; but in reality while the terms of peace were under discussion, they were preparing their defence, and while they kept him buoyed up with hope they were forming machinations against him. For having noticed his great slackness in the war, and also that the soldiers outside the walls had lost heart, one night they filled a number of clay [366] jars full of liquid pitch, and hurled them down on to the engines standing round the city. As the jars were necessarily broken to pieces in their fall, the liquid was poured all over the woodwork, and on to that they threw lighted torches.

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He also enjoined on the men mentioned, more especially on Manuel Butumites, that after receiving the money from Philocales, they should anchor off Tripoli and visit the Count Pelctranus, the son of the Isangeles who has often been mentioned in this history, and remind him of the faith which his father had always kept with the Emperor, and hand him the Emperor’s letters at the same time. And they were to say to him, “You must not shew yourself inferior to your own father, but preserve faith with us just as he did. I would have you know that I am going to Antioch to take my vengeance on that man who has violated the solemn oaths he made to God and to me.

Be careful not to give him assistance in any way and do your best to induce the Counts to pledge their faith to us so that they may not for some reason or other espouse Tancred’s cause.” So they made their way to Cyprus and, after collecting the money there and as many ships as they wanted, they sailed straight to Tripoli. They moored their ships in its harbour, disembarked and had an interview with Pelctranus and recited to him the messages with which the Emperor had charged them.

Emperor arrived in the neighbourhood

They found him very wefl-inchned and ready to fulfil any wish of the Emperor’s, and willing even to suffer death for his sake if that should be necessary, and he promised that when the Emperor arrived in the neighbourhood of Antioch, he would come down and do obeisance to him. Then with his consent they deposited the money they had brought with them in the episcopal palace of Tripoli, as the Emperor had suggested. For he feared that if the Counts found out they were carrying money with them, they would take the money but send them away empty-handed, and use the money for themselves and Tancred. He therefore judged it wiser that the ambassadors should first go empty-handed and test the Counts’ feelings but also tell them how much the Emperor had destined for them, and promise the gift of the money and require an oath from them and, if in the meanwhile they shewed themselves willing to yield to the Emperor’s demands, then only to hand the money over to them.

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When the Emperor’s ambassadors brought this message, that mad and demented barbarian would not listen, even with the tips of his ears, to the truth of their words and the free speech of the ambassadors, but acted like the men of his race and being puffed up with vanity boasted that he would place his throne above the stars and threatened to bore a hole through the walls of Babylon with the tip of his spear, and sang the praise of his power for being undaunted and irresistible in onslaught, and reiterated that, no matter what happened, he would never give up Antioch, not even if the soldiers set to fight against him had hands of fire.

All the Romans ants and the weakest of all creatures

He further likened himself to Ninus, the great king of Assyria, and said he was a big, irresistible giant, a dead weight standing upon the earth, and he considered all the Romans ants and the weakest of all creatures. The ambassadors left him and returned and after they related the Frank’s mad talk, the Emperor became filled with rage and could hardly be restrained but wanted to start for Antioch on the spot. He then convoked the men of the highest repute in military circles and all the members of the senate and asked them for their advice.

They immediately and unanimously rejected the idea of the Emperor’s marching against Tancred. They said that he ought first to win over the other Counts who were masters of the towns round about Antioch, and also Balduinus, King of Jerusalem, and find out their opinions and whether they would be willing to assist him in an expedition against Antioch. Afterwards if he were sure that they were all hostile to Tancred, he could advance against him with full confidence ; but, if not, the matter of Antioch must be managed in some different way.

The Emperor commended this advice and shortly summoned Manuel Butumites and another man who knew the Latin language and sent them to the Counts and to the King of Jerusalem, after giving them full instructions on the subject about which they were to converse with the Counts and also with Balduinus himself, the King of Jerusalem. As it was imperative that they should have money to use in their mission to these Counts, because the Latins are so covetous, he handed Butumites orders for Eumathius Philocales, at that time Duke of Cyprus, telling the latter to supply them with as many ships as they needed; he also bade him give them plenty of money of all kinds, of every shape and coinage and of varying qualities to be used as gifts for the Counts.

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II After Bohemund’s death Tancred kept a tight hold on Antioch for he considered that it belonged to him, so he kept the Emperor entirely out of it. The Emperor meanwhile reflected that the barbarian Franks had broken their oaths in the case of this city, that he himself had spent a great deal of money and suffered many inconveniences in transporting those myriad hosts from the Western countries into Asia, in spite of his finding them a stiff-necked and sharp-tempered people. He had also sent many Roman armies out with them to fight against the Turks, and this for two reasons, firstly, to prevent their falling a prey to the Turkish sword (for being Christians he was concerned for them), and secondly, in order that they with our co-operation should destroy some of the Ishmaelites’ cities, and give others under a truce to the Roman Emperors, and in this way the portions of the Romans would be enlarged.

Emperor’s unending care of the Franks

But no good had accrued to the Roman rule from these innumerable toils and dangers and gifts, for the Franks kept a tight hold on the city of Antioch, and did not give us back the other cities either so he felt he could not bear it nor restrain himself any longer from returning evil for evil and taking revenge for their horrible inhumanity. For that Tancred should enjoy those countless presents and those heaps of gold and the Emperor’s unending care of the Franks and the quantities of armies lie had sent as auxiliaries to them, whilst the Roman kingdom reaped no benefit from all this and the Franks considered the prize their own and disregarded and counted as naught the treaties and oaths they had made with him-this thought [363] rent his soul asunder and he did not know how to bear the insult.

Consequently he sent ambassadors to Tancred the governor of Antioch, to accuse him of injustice and the violation of oaths and to say that he would no longer submit to being despised by him but would take vengeance upon him for his ingratitude to the Romans.. For it would be disgraceful, and more than disgraceful, if after spending countless sums of money, and sending the finest regiments of the Roman army with them to take the whole of Syria and Antioch itself, and striving with all his heart and might to enlarge the boundaries of the Roman Empire, it should be Tancred who luxuriated in his, the Emperor’s, money and labours.

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One of these scouts saw the Turkish army in the distance and came running to bring Eumathius the tidings. As he was quick-witted and swift at grasping the needful and in giving effect to his decisions without a moment’s loss, he immediately bade all the gates of the city to be made secure because he felt that his forces were insufficient against such numbers, and ordered that nobody at all was to be allowed to go up to the walls, or shout or play on the flute or lyre. In a word he gave such an appearance to the town, that passers-by would have thought it was quite uninhabited.

Chliara and Pergamus

On reaching Philadelphia Asan encircled it with his army and remained there for three days. But as not a single inhabitant could be seen looking out, and the gates were securely fastened and he had neither siege-engines nor catapults, he concluded that Eumathius’ army was small and for this reason did not dare to venture out, so he condemned those within severely for weakness and turned in another direction in utter contempt of Eumathius. Consequently he dispatched ten thousand of his own army against Celbianum, and . . . others toward Smyrna and Nymphaeum, and the rest to Chliara and Pergamus; he sent them all out to forage and himself followed the troops that were going to Smyrna.

Philocales, however, guessing Asan’s intention, sent all the forces he had in pursuit of the Turks. They followed up the division that was proceeding to Celbianum and surprised them sleeping unheedingly, so attacked them at dawn of day and cut them down without mercy; and also liberated all the prisoners taken by the [362] Turks. Afterwards they pursued the Turks marching to Smyrna and Nymphaeum; some of the troops ran on ahead and opened battle with them from the front and the two flanks and routed them completely. They killed many and took many captive ; the few that were left f ell into the streams of the Maeander in their flight and were immediately drowned.

This is a river in Phrygia, the most winding of all rivers, for it twists hither and thither the whole way. Emboldened by their second victory they pursued the third division, but could do nothing more as the Turks had already travelled on too far ahead. They therefore returned to Philadelphia. When Eumathius saw them and heard how gallantly they had fought and made a point of not letting one of the enemy slip through their fingers, he rewarded their. lavishly and promised them further favours in the future.

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