182. These acts are of doubtful interpretation — it depends on your point of view — but there was nothing at all moderate about certain other activities which I propose to speak about: he put his whole heart and soul into them. It was typical of the man, for instance, that where he loved, his love knew no bounds; and if he was angry with someone, he would recount his troubles most pathetically and with more than common bitterness, even letting his imagination run away with him. On the other hand, it was incredible how affectionate he could be if he liked.
183. Again, when the empress Zoe departed this life,**142 in extreme old age, he was completely heartbroken at his loss. Not only did he mourn her and shed tears at her tomb and propitiate Heaven on her behalf, but he even wished to pay her divine honours. One of the little columns that surrounded her burial-place became somewhat moist in a spot where the precious metal had cracked (it was plated with silver) and by some trick of nature a mushroom sprang up there.
Everyone knew
At this phenomenon Constantine was like a man inspired and he proclaimed loudly in the palace that the Lord had worked a miracle at the empress’s tomb, so that all men might know that her soul was now numbered with the angels. Everyone knew, of course, what had really happened, but they all supported him in his ardent belief, some through fear and others because they saw in the lie some opportunity for enriching themselves.
184. Such was his attitude to Zoe, but his sister Helen’s death passed almost unnoticed and mention of it had not the least effect on him. If his other sister (the one whom I wrote about earlier in the history) had gone before him, he would have been equally unperturbed.
185. In this catalogue of the emperor’s foolish excesses, I now come to the worst example of all — the building of the Church of St. George the Martyr.**143 Constantine pulled down and completely destroyed the original church; the present one was erected on the site of its ruins. The first architect did not plan very well, and there is no need for me to write of the old building here, but it appears that it would have been of no great dimensions, if the preliminary plans had been carried out, for the foundations were moderate in extent and the rest of the building proportionate, while the height was by no means outstanding. However, as time went by, Constantine was fired by an ambition to rival all the other buildings that had ever been erected, and to surpass them altogether. So the area of the church and its precincts was greatly enlarged.
Read More about Zoe and Theodora part 9
