THE VARIOUS COUNSELS PUT FORWARD TO THE EMPEROR WITH REGARD TO THE REBELLION

10. Well, I bore him no malice and my advice to him was to take the following three measures at once. I knew there was a difference of opinion between himself and the patriarch, and I knew that the latter was angry with Michael. So my first counsel was this, that he should put an end, once and for all, to his quarrel with the patriarch and come to some common agreement with him, because his position in the present circumstances was particularly strong. Unless the emperor made quite sure of his adherence first, he was likely to join the rebel party in their attack. My second proposal was that an embassy should be despatched to the enemy leader, with instructions to disband his forces: a reward should be promised him — a reasonable sum of money — and the prospect of further inducements later on. The embassy should moreover seek to undermine discipline in [214] the enemy's camp and try to disorganize his army. To these I added a third suggestion, the most convincing of all and more cogent than the others, that he should mass the armies of the west, centralize whatever forces remained to him in one group, invoke the alliances concluded with the neighbouring barbarians, strengthen the mercenary army then in Byzantium, put them under the command of a brave general, build up an adequate corps of men for him, and everywhere resist the hordes set in motion against us. These proposals were actually accepted by the emperor.