Private

Suppose the historian were allowed to return favour for favour, in the case of someone who had been friendly to him in the past, and suppose he were granted the privilege of perverting the...

160. As her life drew to its appointed close, when she was on the point of dying, slight changes made their appearance in her normal state of health, signs that the end was near....

Surely nobody could surpass her in that good quality, for she depended wholly on God, ascribed all events to His influence, thought all things were brought about by Him. I have duly commended her...

155. The actor fellow, of whom I spoke some time ago, had been in love with this princess before, and he was successful in his wooing. So he plotted against the emperor, but the...

152. As long as the empress was still alive, his intrigues were more or less secret: he preferred to go and come unseen, under a cloak of mystery. When she was dead, though, he...

150. When [he empress Theodora and his sister Euprepia, like the goddesses in the poem**132 expressed severe disapproval of these proceedings, and instead of being agreeable constantly criticized the emperor’s stupidity, his composure was...

And when those who had been ordered to do so had loosed him from his chains, Constantine gently urged him to make his defence; the charges were dismissed at once. ‘You have a most...

He calculated that there was no difficulty in murdering the emperor, and secondly, he himself had the keys to the secret entrances: he had power to shut or open all doors as he wished....

144. Well, this clown of ours not only took possession of the men’s apartments in the palaces but having wormed his way into the imperial gynaeconitis (women’s quarters) as well, he won the favour...

The clown put his arms round the emperor’s neck and kissed him, over and over again, on the face ‘Sir,’ said he, ‘he has been found — the horse that I lost! It is...