MICHAEL PSELLUS.

5

XIV. Also present with the Roman The "Romans" (Rhōmaioi) is what the Byzantines called themselves, maintaining the legacy of the Roman Empire. army was the Emperor Basil, who was just beginning to grow his beard and was gaining his first experience in war; nor was his brother Constantine absent from the camp. He, too, wore a breastplate and brandished a long spear, taking his place as part of the phalanx.

10, p. 11, 15, 20, 25, 30

XV. The ranks stood on either side: the imperial forces occupied the coastal areas, while the rebel usurper: original "tyrannikē," referring to the side of Bardas Phokas. forces held the higher ground, with a wide space between them. Now Phokas, having learned that the Emperors were deployed in the battle line, was no longer in a state of delaying the fight; instead, he made that day the final public judgment of the war and committed himself to the spirit of fortune. He did not, however, follow the advice of the diviners Psellus frequently mentions omens and diviners, reflecting a blend of Christian faith and classical Greek superstition in the Byzantine court. who were with him. For they tried to prevent him from fighting, as the sacrificial victims had made this clear to them, but he charged forward, giving his horse its head.

It is said, moreover, that ill-omened signs appeared to him. As he began to ride, his horse immediately slipped; when he changed to another, this one too had only gone a short distance before it suffered the same thing. His complexion changed, and a cloudiness troubled his mind, while dizziness affected his head. Yet he was not one to give in to anything, once he had committed himself to the contest. Having entered the front of the phalanx, and being now quite close to the imperial force, he gathered a certain infantry power around him—I mean the most warlike of the Iberians Iberians refers to soldiers from Georgia in the Caucasus, who were renowned as elite heavy infantry., all just beginning to grow beards and in the very flower of youth, tall and uniform in size as if measured by a rule, armed with swords in their right hands and possessing an irresistible impulse. Moving these with himself at a single signal, he leaped forward from the phalanx, and giving his horse its head, he rushed straight for the Emperor with a battle cry, holding the hilt of his sword aloft in his right hand, as if intending to strike the Emperor down immediately.

35, 36

XVI. He, then, went against Basil in this manner and with such great courage; but Basil stood in front of his own force, holding a sword, while in the other hand he...