The forward movement of the Turks in Asia Minor

The troubles which were crowding upon the empire by the forward movement of the Turks in Asia Minor, and especially by the conquest of Salonica and the subsequent advance of the Sicilians, enraged the emperor. He called a meeting of the judges, and, taking care that Hagiochristophorides was present to intimidate them by the roar of his voice, he submitted to them the question whether—in presence of the facts that there were various pretenders to the throne, that there were many rebels who had been banished or had escaped, that there were conspirators in prison who were not only hostile to the state, but gave encouragement to its enemies, and that so long as it was known that they did not meet with the most severe punishment there would be no safety — all political prisoners had not forfeited their lives, and whether death was not the sole remedy against traitors thus incurably hostile? They had taken the sword and ought to perish by the sword. He had taken care that the decision should be as lie wished. The sentence was not carried out, in consequence of the interference of the emperor’s son Manuel, who took the legal objections that the authority of the judges was not sufficient, that the death-warrant ought to be signed by the emperor himself, and that the condemnation was too general and included far too many persons — an answer imbued with the spirit of Justinian law.

Hagiochristophorides

The old tyrant became daily more anxious for his own Attack upon safety, and for this purpose sent Hagiochristophorides to learn from a soothsayer, who during the reign of Manuel had been imprisoned and blinded for the practice of witchcraft, the name of his successor to the throne. The soothsayer produced in the dregs of a cup a sigma and an iota, which were taken to indicate Isaac. The emperor judged this indication to point to Isaac, the Isaurian, whom he had for some time distrusted as a claimant to the throne. Hagiochristophorides determined to obtain possession of another Isaac to whom he believed the prediction to refer, and, in order to prevent its fulfilment, went with a sufficient following to his house to arrest him. This was Isaac Angelos, who appears to have been regarded by the emperor as a man not worth troubling about.