Travel

He would stay at an imperial lodge outside the city, a place surrounded by sea and equipped well enough to please ordinary huntsmen of either kind, but not to the satisfaction of Isaac. He...

71. From that time there appeared in the man new qualities, foreign to his normal behaviour. I am speaking from personal observation, as I was pretty familiar with his character. He became more haughty...

69. Taken in the mass, this is a nation to be feared, and a treacherous one. Treaties of friendship exercise no restraining influence over these barbarians, and even oaths sworn over their sacrifices are...

68. More than other nations they are difficult to fight and hard to subdue. They are neither vigorous of body, nor brave in spirit. They wear no breastplates, put on no greaves, and no...

In the case of other men, virtue is supposed to be some such thing as not yielding to circumstances, not tempering one’s freedom of speech, not attempting by one’s own mildness of character to...

65. An example of this is found in his treatment of the Patriarch Michael.**209 The latter had spoken frankly to him on a certain occasion, using language that was somewhat bold. At the time...

Nothing on earth restrained him, no proffering of wiser counsels, no fear for the future, no hatred of the mob, none of the other factors which, in normal men, curb vanity or check mighty...

In pursuit of such a policy it was inevitable that he should add to his other victims the priests of the Church. Indeed, he cut off the greater part of the monies set apart...

Nor were they satisfied with the presentation of a mere sufficiency to their places of meditation (we had better call them that). The imperial wealth was divided into three parts: one to pay for...

58. Isaac was a devotee of the philosophic life: he abhorred anything that was physically diseased or corrupt. But his hopes were disappointed, for he found nothing but disease and festering sores, the imperial...