But although that Empress was afraid, her fear was for the Emperor lest an accident should befall him; and fear for herself came second. So on this occasion she did not do anything unworthy of her bravery but took leave of the Emperor though unwillingly, and often turned round to look at him again, yet she pulled herself together and braced herself up, so to say, as she reluctantly tore herself away from him. She went down from there to the sea and embarking on the galley set apart for their Majesties, she sailed past the coast of Bithynia, then was caught in a tempest and so anchored off Helenopolis and stayed there for a time. So far about the Empress.
Strabobasilius and Michael Stypiota
The Emperor and all the soldiers and kinsmen who were with him at once got under arms ; and then mounted and rode towards Nicaea. But the barbarians had caught an Alanian and on hearing from him of the Emperor’s advance against them they fled back along the paths by which they had come. But Strabobasilius and Michael Stypiota (let no one though when he hears this name think of Stypiota the semi-barbarian, for the latter was this man’s bought slave and was afterwards given as a present to the Emperor, whereas this Stypiota belonged to the nobility), these two, who were very warlike and already counted among famous men, waited about on the ridges of the Germii and watched the roads around, in case perchance the barbarians might fall into, and be caught in, their nets, like a wild beast. When they had learnt of the Turks’ approach they went down to the plains called . . . offered them battle and met them in a fierce fight in which they worsted them completely.
The Emperor occupied first the fort- of George (which has been frequently mentioned) and then the village called Sagudai by its inhabitants but did not come across the Turks. But when he heard what had happened to them at the hands of the brave men aforementioned, I mean Stypiota and Strabobasilius and had expressed his appreciation of the Romans’ daring from the very start and their victory, then he himself fixed his palisades in a spot outside that same fort. And on the following day he went down to Helenopolis to meet the Empress who was still held up there as the sea was not navigable.
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