110. As no favourable reply was forthcoming from the persons to whom these remarks had been addressed — actually they poured forth a torrent of abuse, with all manner of disgraceful epithets, both on them and their pretender — they definitely gave up all hope of support from the people of the city. Thereupon they began hurling insults at the emperor.
They reviled him for his bodily weakness. They called him ‘accursed’, a ‘degenerate seeker after unholy pleasures’, ‘the bane of the city’, ‘corrupter of the people’, with a whole string of other disgusting and scurrilous invectives. Most of the Macedonians, being a folk who delight in arrogance and insolent bearing more accustomed to the buffoonery of townsmen than the simplicity of the camp, most of them, I say, dismounted from their horses and started choral dances, where everyone could see them.
They improvised comic turns at the emperor’s expense, stamping on the ground with their feet in time to their music and dancing in triumph. Some of these performances Constantine saw, others he only heard. I was standing near him at the time, shocked at the things that were being said, but still trying to comfort him. He did not know what to do, put to shame as he was, not only by their actions, but also by their insults.
Others by shooting arrows
111. However, some of the city-men got outside the wall and stopped their cavalry as they were riding up and down, some by hurling stones from their slings, others by shooting arrows. The enemy feigned flight — a manoeuvre they had rehearsed beforehand — and having lured our men to pursue them, they suddenly wheeled about, slaying with sword and spear. One of the rebels, who knew how to shoot arrows from horseback, got near the walls without our knowledge, and drawing his bow right opposite the emperor, shot straight at him.
The arrow sped through the air at tremendous speed, but the emperor moved slightly to one side and it missed him, just grazing one of his chamberlains in the ribs, a young man of some note.**119 We ourselves were transfixed with terror. Constantine shifted his seat and took up a position further away from the enemy’s troops. They had risen early, as I have said, and they stayed there right up to mid-day, talking, listening, now flattering us, now uttering threats. Then they turned their horses aside and made for their rampart. Machines of war were prepared and the siege of the city was immediately begun once more.
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