The besieged in 1203 knew that the son of Isaac, the young Alexis, had persuaded the Venetians and a body of Latins, through the in-fluence of his sister’s husband, Philip, to assist him to regain possession of the empire, and that he and his friends were now outside the city walls. The Latins did not wish to capture the city. Even if they did, stronger armies than this had tried to do so and had failed. If the invader won there would be a new emperor—that was all. Indeed, why should the citizens care ? They had no love for the reigning sovereign nor he for them. When he heard that young Alexis was coming with a band of Venetian pirates, he made no preparations for resistance.
Nicetas
He was a mere idle lover of luxury, an Eastern Charles the Second, who thought only of the ills of to-day ; an essentially weak man, too sentimental to be a successful ruler. He shrank from inflicting the cruelty of ordinary punishments, and still more from that which was necessary to make him a strong despot. Though he had not hesitated to depose his brother, he was either conscience- stricken or pretended to be so, and continually upbraided himself. The eunuchs, says Nicetas, who guarded the royal forests with as much care as the Destroying Angel guarded Paradise, threatened to kill any one who ventured to cut timber for the construction of vessels.
The emperor’s brother- in-law had sold all the navy stores. Those who thus robbed the public seemed rather thereby to gain in the estimation of their sovereign. The emperor appeared more amused than frightened with the preparations of which he heard, and it was only after lie learned of the proclamation of his nephew which had been made at Corfu and this he could only have learned a few days before the arrival of the expedition in the Bosphorus that lie concerned himself with the means of defence. But even then the voluptuary and the drunkard could not set himself wTith sufficient energy to meet the danger.
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