On the Administration of the Empire (De Administrando Imperio)

brother-in-law.⁵ These made or marred — for the traditions are conflicting⁶ — the internal administration. The church was scandalized by the impieties of the worldly patriarch Theophylact; he, dying in 956, was succeeded by the ascetic Polyeuctus, who soon showed that stiff-necked king Stork might be worse trouble than disreputable king Log. These terms refer to Aesop’s fable "The Frogs Who Desired a King." "King Log" is a passive, harmless ruler, while "King Stork" is an active, aggressive tyrant who devours his subjects. Here, it contrasts a corrupt, lazy patriarch with a strictly moral but difficult one. But abroad the imperial forces, under the leadership of Bardas Phocas and his two sons, and of the protovestiary protovestiary originally the head of the imperial wardrobe, this became a high-ranking court position often held by influential eunuchs Basil, continued, with occasional set-backs, that glorious career which had begun with the accession of Michael III and was to terminate only with the death of Basil II. The sole major disaster recorded of the reign was the failure of a costly but ill-led expedition against Crete in 949.⁷

During these years the emperor devoted himself with tireless zeal to the details original: "minutiae" of every department of administration, and to the punctilious observance of every kind of imperial ritual.⁸ His greatest personal contributions to the prosperity of his empire were externally, in the sphere of diplomacy,⁹ and internally, in the encouragement of higher education.¹⁰ His relaxations were the pursuits which had always lain next his heart, and which, during the long years of his enforced seclusion, he had been able to cultivate without interruption: art, literature, history and antiquities.¹¹ He found domestic happiness in the society of his three daughters, whom he tenderly loved;¹² nor is there evidence that his relations with his wife were other than uniformly affectionate, despite a difference of temperament.¹³ With his only son Romanus he was not so fortunate. To fit the youth for his future lofty station, he lavished on him a wealth of minute instruction¹⁴ which was probably excessive. The boy is said to have grown up weak and even vicious; but the accounts are conflicting, and he died at the age of 24.

By the age of fifty-four the emperor was old and worn out. His fourteen years of power had been years of ceaseless toil, and his infirmities grew fast upon him. A quarrel with the patriarch Polyeuctus, whom he seems to have had in mind to depose,¹⁵ occasioned a journey to the monks and hermits of the Bithynian Olympus; and from them he learnt the mournful tidings of his own approaching dissolution. He dragged himself back to the City guarded of The "City guarded of God" is a traditional epithet for Constantinople.

⁵ Cedrenus, (Bonn edition), II, p. 326.
⁶ F. Hirsch, Byzantine Studies original: "Byzantinische Studien", (Leipzig, 1876), pp. 286 ff.
⁷ Leo the Deacon original: "Leo Diac.", (Bonn edition), p. 7; Cedrenus, II, p. 336.
⁸ Theophanes Continued original: "Theoph. Cont.", pp. 447, 449.
⁹ Theophanes Continued, pp. 448, 455; On Ceremonies original: "De Cer.", I, pp. 570 ff.; Liutprand, Retribution original: "Antapodosis", VI, 5.
¹⁰ Theophanes Continued, p. 446.
¹¹ See A. Stránsky, 'Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, lover of the arts and collector', in Proceedings of the 5th International Congress of Byzantine Studies original: "Atti del V Congresso Internazionale di Studi Bizantini", (Rome, 1940), II, pp. 412 ff.
¹² Theophanes Continued, p. 459.
¹³ Theophanes Continued, p. 458.
¹⁴ Theophanes Continued, p. 458.
¹⁵ Cedrenus, II, p. 337; Theophanes Continued, pp. 463 ff.