Oration on Alexios Komnenos

ANNA COMNENA'S TESTIMONY REGARDING CONSTANTINE PORPHYROGENITUS

The mother's care for the child was most just, ^A for he was admirable for his festivity and elegance, being still seven years old (for let it be allowed to me, where the circumstances permit, to indulge in the praise of my own kin), whose sweetness, whether in speaking or in moving his body most cleverly in the varied kinds of games which his age allowed, was, in the judgment of those observing, superior to all comparison. His hair was yellow, and he was blooming with a milk-white complexion, sprinkled where it was needed with a vivid blush; just as are the roses that first break from their buds. His eyes were not white, but like those of a hawk, sparkling beneath their lashes, and vibrating with a gem-like brilliance, as if from a golden setting, to the incredible delight of those standing by. He was truly of a heavenly form, and greater than the habit of earthly composition, so that anyone who beheld him would deem him worthy to be attributed to Love itself. ^B Anna has these things there, and she has many other things elsewhere concerning Constantine.

THEOPHYLACT ORATION TO THE EMPEROR LORD ALEXIUS COMNENUS

1. Indeed, that I myself should now speak words in this palace, O Emperor, I am urged by that law of custom which is truly and most especially royal, which always and everywhere opens the royal halls to men of learning and eloquence. ^C Yet, even if this were not the cause, I myself today, unbidden, would have brought this eulogy to you. For very

^A foolish and left-handed in my judgment and a lover of ugliness I would be, if I silently passed over the beauty of your deeds, having a tongue and being able to speak. Rather, I would be held guilty of two crimes: I would be doing an injury to your joys, through which I have the freedom to speak, and I would be slandering my own nature as one incapable of such great benefits and envious of the good. Since, therefore, we gain so much from speaking—both by giving place to justice and by driving away any wicked opinion—how could we not wish for that prayer of the Trojan to come to pass, that a voice be granted to us in our arms, hands, hair, and the soles of our feet, so that from all members the offering of praise might be brought forward, since you have given to them all a respite from the barbarians? Indeed, just as we have enjoyed the fair fruits of your deeds, so too it was fated that we should get no small benefit from the words concerning those deeds, for we ourselves are considered a good portion of the empire, since today we have consecrated our tongue to your praises. But O aged Isocrates, you seemed like a man consumed by grief, because you did not have the opportunity to descend into the theater and demonstrate the beauty of your voice to the assembly of the people. We, however, have received what you longed for, though we do not possess what you had. There is a contest of words, and indeed a most great one; but the rhetorician is far inferior to the glory, and another would, in another way ^B and with such great works, find his power insufficient for this. For I, not lacking material, do not have enough fire to kindle a torch that is far-shining and aloft. I think, therefore, that I shall pass over the rest; for those things have been recorded by many, and we ourselves have at other times exercised our tongue upon them. But I shall mention a portion of the virtues of the emperor, and in this way I shall grant what is fitting for the occasion.

2. Those of the philosophers who have written about the nature of virtues seem to me ^C to be deprived of an example; for if they had enjoyed these times of ours, they would have had something to look toward when speaking in an informed manner to the emperor. But because they had nothing to look upon, they brought forward hollow and non-living arguments. But our emperor, what they put away dead in writings, shows to be ensouled and living in his deeds; putting forward the true and noble courage of his own rule, not the bastard sort and one that is false in name only, but that which virtue itself recognizes and embraces as a daughter, one that has adorned itself with the good ^D and risks danger for it; such as perhaps a father would show for his son, and a good man for a good man, and a son for his father. You, therefore, O emperor, possessing the very reality of courage, have no need for the logical divisions regarding it; but for me, grant this favor of ambition, and later I shall say something about its...

perhaps you will not find the episode unpleasing. For there is, there is a true courage, which does not disgrace its name, that you yourself possess and implant in the hearts of your soldiers: a state of heart fearless in the face of things that are terrifying to man and in the face of inevitable death; those who have possessed this have conquered not only enemies, but even time—the former instantly, the latter as long as the human race endures. All other forms of courage seem to share in this only in the most distant, echoing way. For whether they act courageously through experience, like sailors in the face of storms and waves; or through fear of blows, like the ancient soldiers of Xerxes driven to the battle line by lashes; or through an excess ^B of rage, like swine rushing upon swords; or through self-confidence, like those who, having often defeated their adversaries, engage them again with greater boldness; or through ignorance, like those who are deceived by not knowing they are opposing superiors, and who, once they realize this, turn their backs—certainly, all these types of courage reside far from true courage. But you, neither are you summoned to deeds of daring by rashness—for both impetuosity and instability are far from your practical character—nor do you turn your back in the face of those agreeable to the mind; for your chest is hairy, and your heart is a furnace of fire. Having appointed Reason as king, you have placed Anger at its side as a bodyguard, springing into action only wherever the former commands. ^C This courage of yours strikes even that Barbarian who rules in Persia with dread, both when he plays and when he acts seriously; insomuch that even at drinking parties he pledges healths to your safety, recognizing you by hearsay and embracing you by your fame: "Their sound has gone out into all the earth," and because you yield to the most celebrated Franks in nothing, neither in words nor in deeds. But your deeds also exceeded their expectations, by which, deceived, they waged war, and your magnificent and lofty words broke the audacity of the Barbarians. Those deeds, O noble one, those deeds made you terrible even to the Huns, and procured for you, through your own hands, the friendship of many cities, which enrolled themselves as auxiliary forces against the accursed Scythians, asking only that you raise your invincible right hand against their enemies.

3. Yet the Scythian did not sleep through these developments ^D that were advancing; rather, thinking more wisely than the Barbarian, and conquering himself with a better plan, he did not walk the path of his former raids, but one much better and far more profitable. He did not extend his right hand armed with a sword, but put it forth for an embrace; he chose to revere the Emperor unarmed, whom he could not endure while he was armed; and to have a peaceful master, whom he had deemed invincible when fighting against him. And indeed, who does not know the absurdity of the Scythians, to whom their impulse is as great as [index: entries preserved]

^A it is sudden, on the one hand by the multitude of their booty, on the other by the swiftness of their flight? For always, as they approach, they outrun their own fame, and when they depart, they do not even let those who pursue them hear of them. And what is greater, they ravage alien regions, but have none of their own; even if one were bolder than Darius son of Hystaspes, so as to bridge the Ister and seek out the Scythians, this very person would be pursuing the unreachable in his madness. For they will retreat into the cavities of rocks and hide in the density of forests; and he will achieve nothing more than wandering around mountains and woods, which alone are as wild as the nature of those he pursues, and he shall simply become a spectator of that great Scythian wilderness, which even the proverb has not ignored. And if one should force the nature of the matter, he himself will perish, not being pitied so much for his misfortune as hated for his boldness; but the Scythians will show themselves to be the children of rocks and trees, and they will only strike, but will not be struck; so that for my part, if we must not ascribe everything to myths, even that Gyges was a Scythian, striking from an invisible place, he himself not being struck. To these men, a life without action is a calamity, and being at peace is a disease, and they seem to reach the heights of happiness when they have a reasonable opportunity for war or when they shamelessly violate their treaties. And this man is the most warlike among them, who appears the most barbarian and perfidious, killing with a raging hand and serving his own madness. And the worst of it is that they surpass the bees of spring in multitude, and no one has ever been able to count their thousands or myriads, but their number is truly uncountable. ^B But your fear, for such men as these, with such a great multitude, was enough instead of ten thousand wars, and persuaded them to rest their horses, to plant their spears in the ground, and to loosen the fastenings of their shields.

4. But a certain trick of the Scythian almost escaped me. For while desiring peace, and willing to give up even his most cherished possessions for it, provided he could obtain it without loss of honor, he craftily employed this stratagem. He sent messengers to the powerful master, ordering them to say that they were present not to seek peace, but to dictate pacts and conditions to the one who sought ^C it. But he, who on other occasions, while addressing Barbarians, surpasses all philosophers and rhetoricians in the gravity of his thoughts and the purity of his words—being fertile to conceive, easy to express, rich in thought, sweet in interpretation, filling his discourse with magnanimity, and making his royal words sublime—then, being provoked also by the detection of the Barbarian's fraud, he surpassed those Homeric orators, now keenly criticizing the Scythians, and now producing words resembling snowy winters. For where ^D

a more vehement impetus was required, there was Ulysses; but when it was necessary to remit the tone, there was Menelaus. ^B And how did the matter end? They, affected by no moderate confusion because they saw themselves deceived by their own desire to deceive, having torn away their masks, laid bare their faces and confessed that they thirsted for peace, having perceived from afar the power of your fire. And they who formerly were known only by blood, entrusted themselves and their possessions to you by letters and covenants. Thus, indeed, even the stubborn Barbarian yields to the magnitude of virtue, and royal majesty conquers even the nature of wild beasts.

^C 5. O that auspicious day, on which we raised a trophy of peace, long, very long awaited! O imperial hands that brought peace before they waged war! O happy times in which we did not receive peace, but gave it! If, therefore, anyone desires to embrace a victory won without labor, let him be filled with the praises of the emperor. And indeed, if he had crowned the war with perils, the labor of an army, and the shedding of much blood, it would have been a great work, and it would have engaged the tongues of many in his praise. But now, much more of the miraculous belongs to the work, because the enemies did not even wait for the start of a battle, but condemning themselves, they brought forth a just verdict; and in this alone, they were neither Barbarians nor Scythians, in that before they felt the injury, they chose what was more prudent. Another, indeed, would not even have admitted the embassy of that nation, but would have raised his brow with more rigidity than the occasion allowed, being more haughty than the circumstances required, and would not have ceased from vengeance before he had sated the beast of his anger with Scythian blood. ^D But you performed this too, which is most remarkable, in that you did not trample on those who were prostrate, nor did you repel those who were suppliant. But just as when you saw them raging and tossing their iron necks, you showed severity and rigor; so when you observed them yielding, and having laid aside their ferocity, you took pity on their fortune, and in your deeds, you proved the saying "Nothing in excess," being persuaded that that famous dictum of the wise king was then rightly held: "Be not righteous too much." Therefore, you did not inflict what they deserved to suffer, but what it was fitting for you to do. And certainly, it is neither royal nor divine, but furious and diabolical, and reserved for malignant natures and powers, to satiate oneself with vengeance. For do you not hear Scripture testifying that "Tribulation is sent through evil angels," and that God Himself "willeth not the death of the ungodly, nor delighteth in the destruction of the living"? David, Ezekiel, and Solomon provide me these testimonies. Therefore, you, the king of our own, yet subject to God, did not pour out your indignation upon the Scythians, but you held out your right hand, and you did not refuse the peace they sought, and you restored to the Roman empire many cities that had been reduced to captivity, even as a mother restores her daughters. Hence it is that now the farmer sleeps peaceful slumbers

^A taken from your vigilance for us; nor does he any longer imagine the Barbarian now pursuing, now conquering, now threatening with the sword; but immediately as the sun rises, he goes out to his work until the evening. The sun has known its setting, and relaxes from his labor, and sets a table heavy with security, and having filled a cup, he rejoices in your power, while he belches forth contempt against the Scythians, and plays with his dearest ones, and embraces them sweetly, intimating that he possesses all these things on account of the great Alexius, and that he is held by them in turn. But why do I not describe here the peoples from the East who have surrendered to you (for that is a private matter, while this is public)? Courage and kindness debate over them, as to which of the two has brought them forward; for each of these has been transformed by them. But whichever of the two might be judged to win, the emperor is the one who wins, who has practiced upon us secret ^B attractions, and who softens the implacable—and, what is more divine, because he betroths God to them, and introduces Him into their kingdom, and makes Him a part of the senate there; and washing men of blood in the fountains of the Savior, he shows them as children of light, and clothes them in the garment of immortality, and crafts them into an earthly and saving creation, so that Christ might also receive from him the offering of the nations, as He received it from Paul. But see how our emperor has been shown to us as an apostle as well, and this has emerged as a sort of corollary of our discourse. But do you tell me of Prometheus and the myth of him crafting men; but I, with the truth, will set against it the forethought ^C of the emperor, transforming Barbarians into human beings, or into something more divine, since he has also established himself as a teacher of nations, in faith and truth, one who cuts the furrow of the word straight for you, according to Paul, multiplying the crop for God.

6. But what is the point of my speaking of things far away? Why am I carried off toward the Ister and the East? Why do I not demonstrate the philanthropy of the emperor starting from his own hearth? For not long ago there arose one who pretended that he was of royal seed, a stalk of grain (the Apostle would have called him an operation of error), who, attaching himself to certain light and obscure men (of that kind, indeed, whom Hesiod calls drones, and Archilochus ^D monkeys), as if the height and magnitude of the empire, and the splendor of the palaces and the magnificence of the thrones could not be compared, dared to insult us, deeming the gifts of virtue to be plunder. But then, with his conspirators, this foolish Adonias reigned, and that of the wicked party. But what then? He who reveals deep things, and interprets mysteries, revealed to the ear of the emperor the wicked conspiracy, and caused that ruinous council to be exposed without trouble. What then do you contemplate here? The bitterness of the emperor and his implacability? How he avenged himself on those idle assassins? How he repaid those sword-bearers who had no hands? He denuded their heads, depriving them of their natural ornament, as men who had acted shamefully and insolently toward the head, [and denuded] also the beard, of which I think...

^A he made use of this symbol to expose their unmanly and ignoble spirit. He did indeed set up a gallows, and bound that impostor there, but the most mild emperor mocked the gallows itself, using it merely as a scarecrow to strike greater fear, while deeming it alien to the imperial power of Alexius to be a spectator of the slaughter of a Roman man. To how many heroic exploits does this deed of yours seem equal? Would you find anything similar among the ancients? They tell a story about the most renowned Constantine: when a certain insolent and arrogant populace (for what is the populace but a receptacle and seat of every kind of wickedness and insult?), having torn down his statues from the forum, had disfigured his ^B features with stone-throwing, and this was reported to the emperor—and many were exciting his spirit and suggesting that the wicked men should be wickedly destroyed—he, gently stroking his own face, said: "Have they used the stones against this, or is some mark of insult impressed upon my cheeks?" And as they replied that no sign of injury appeared on the royal face, "Therefore," he added, "let us dismiss those rioters; for they have inflicted no evil upon us, but have only vented their fury upon the bronze." Truly, this is great, O Emperor, and worthy of Constantine’s soul, but it is equally great when compared to your own deed.

The sun arose, leaving the beauties of the fair sea

and the remaining stars hid themselves. For to have pardoned those who had rioted only in the shadows was not so great a matter, since they had inflicted no real harm in the deed itself; but that wicked ^C faction brought the sword almost to your very throat: and by granting them the favor of impunity, you have left the ancients no room for comparison. Thus you teach us to show ourselves mild toward our offenders. For although in other things you may be more just than Solomon, in this instance you willingly depart from exact measure. In distributing [justice] you are just, and in correcting you excel; but in punishing you are more moderate, and you prefer rather to have those who have sinned against you remain debtors, so that, when much is forgiven to those who owe much, they may love justice all the more, in proportion to how much is forgiven them. You know, of course, that evangelical oracle. For man is accustomed to be exacerbated by resistance, but to yield to the one who soothes him, becoming more compliant as if by the drug of persuasion, like oil. ^D Or is it that this sort of mildness has been implanted in you from a softer or less noble nature, so that it is not a prerogative, but a defect? We cannot be so insane as to believe that the face of your royal virtue is disfigured by certain spots or ruptures. For your character is both distinguished by royal majesty and manifests sweetness and grace; your manhood is not harsh, nor

is your charm of a womanly sort, and thus your dignity does not degenerate into arrogance, nor your cheerfulness into baseness. But will you ever give yourself over to a soft life, you who are adamant and completely indefatigable? For when it happens that you are at leisure from the movements of war, you do not throw yourself into horse races and the frenzies of the mobs, nor do you indulge your hearing with the measures of unmanly music, but with hawking and hunting you rouse the sleeping spirit, and you give the noble boys a taste of the glorious actions of that age, just like young lions.

^B 7. As for temperance, I know well that you do not seek testimony, since they see you punishing your body with constant life outdoors and with harsher exercises, you who from the beginning have loved the one, the best among women, and a consort truly worthy of the kingdom; whence also appropriate shoots have grown from the root of the marriage. And now this beautiful, this infinitely desirable one is present to the spectators, a late-appearing sight, the eaglet, already seeing sharply, but awaiting swift wings for flight. But why, O father, are you slower toward the boy than nature provides? Why do you not proclaim the son emperor and delay the desired naming? Why do you not communicate the name itself to him who already shares by nature in the reality? And yet, even if you do not desire it, it is an immutable law of Adrasteia that the cub of a lion is a lion.

^C 8. Prudence, however, cares for both external and internal affairs for you. Even if you are waging war, she claims some part for herself; and she does not think it right for her sister, bravery, to take it ill if, amidst the governing of cities, the sister shares in the lot of the trophies, while she herself insists on presiding alone. For you possess this, as one truly wise, as the directress of your reign. These things are therefore decreed, and you choose magistrates who, like fathers, will care for their subjects. “Or do you not see,” she says, “the great King and the archetype of your own, how he has set other angels over different nations and regions, all of whom, looking toward him, care for the common utility, and do not oppress their subjects, nor do they fatten themselves while wasting the citizens?” All useless expenditures, theatrical buffoons, and provocateurs of laughter have been banished from the royal halls. You, O emperor, have also driven away from your hive the idle drones, who carry stings only for evil, so that they might not suck up the honey of those who labor. And you are yourself a teacher to men, instructing them by deed that we were fashioned for good works; for you have learned that idleness teaches all wickedness, and that, in general, those who do not wish to work are busybodies in the affairs of others.

^D 9. We know that as much moderation and decorum is required concerning royal houses as concerns the priests (for is not this also a royal priesthood?). I have often pondered this with myself

^A and indeed it came to me while contemplating the matter, until I finally discovered the most original cause of such harmony: your blessed root, your venerable mother. For if the first fruits be holy, the lump is also holy (Rom. xi, 16). She is the procurer and cause of every good for you. She also imparts unity to you, being as it were branches divided into two persons, yet joined by the root and drawing their quality from it. (Observe, then, how my discourse has simultaneously mentioned her and joined you together! Before this, I was enjoying an address to the king alone; but having mentioned her, I immediately remembered that great and honorable head to me, the first after the first, and the most powerful king after the most powerful one.) Her golden tears gave us a victory free from tears. Her continuous nightly sighs provided the exclamations of joy and the triumphal songs. She crowned you, O Emperor, with a trophy against the Scythians. Do you wish me to sing to you that passage from the sacred Song, since it is a time of victory and celebration? Go forth and see in the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of the gladness of his heart (Cant. iii, 11). ^B Therefore, even if you are not present, you are present in the matters themselves; for she assumes the cares of all, as no one assumes [them] for just one; and if you are present, it is as if you were not present, entrusting everything to her great mind. Many daughters have gathered riches, but you have surpassed them all (Prov. xxxi, 29). Solomon celebrates your eulogy with us, of whose wisdom you have gone so far beyond, it is wondrous to behold! But David also sings of you as a mother rejoicing in her children (Ps. cxii, 9), not merely children, O most blessed one, but add also children of children; and perhaps those who shall be born of them, so that you may make the happiness more manifest. ^C O most fortunate one for your insatiable aspect! More wonderful indeed for your own sake, but even more so for those who are born of you, who, proposing themselves as an effective law to all men, preach brotherly love from themselves, tempering our life with a loud silence. For previously, the royal power was either in no way or with great difficulty shared (hence the Thyestean banquets became a proverb, and not even time’s duration could erase that infamous table), yet these two with cheerfulness made it common to themselves; and the two share the care for the one, and [each] one for the two ^D (for I do not have how else to express myself), such that for this reason it seems to me that God wished to reveal another and newer condition of things, setting up the two great Luminaries in the heaven of the empire. And this is what the wise saying of the Ecclesiastes regarded: Two are better than one (Eccles. iv, 9). O you alone who are equally interchangeable with each other! You alone who

^A vanquish all, and are the only ones who are vanquished by one another. Happy are you, and happy are they who are subject to you, but happier still are those who are subject to one, since we are governed by two; and even happier are they who have been under two, because we are under such ones as you. But those who are close to you are still happier, since they imprint your characters upon their own souls, and keep them better than rings keep their engravings. And does not this circle, which is all around you, also direct the eyes of its intention toward the center of your virtue, and from it draw equally upright sentiments? All are hastening to the summit of wisdom, filled with the severity of character and with justice. After these things, then, would I not justly prophesy that such an empire will provide us with even the milk of birds? And if anyone wishes to call me a prophet, I shall not refuse that title; indeed, I would even call myself an augur without blushing, when I look at you as an eagle of good omen, and from that I take a symbol of worldly prosperity more truly than Melampus, more accurately than Polydamas, and more religiously than Balaam.

^C 10. Rhetoric, therefore, will certainly enjoy these common goods in common. But do you, in particular, assist her; for there is a danger that she may fall not only to her knees, but even upon her face. I cannot, in fact, bear for my emperor to seem less of a lover of learning than the Adrianians, the Marcuses, and the Commoduses, who nourished the oratorical tongue from the public grain supply. I cannot bear for you not to be judged, even in this regard, as superior to the emperors of the past by Themis. For they restored a custom that had perished with time, and granted the opportunity for speaking in the royal palace. But do you, in addition to that, build upon the foundation so that it may be possible to speak more promptly and more cheerfully. Now I, O lads, have already set the warp for the cloth of the imperial eulogy; you must now add the woof. I have shown you the art by which the cloth may be woven more elegantly and become more perfect.