THE SCENE: For the grasping governor in the parable below, greed and arrogance provide short-term gains before they eventually prove to be his downfall.
THE TEXT: There was a brave soldier who had a high-spirited and well-trained horse. The commander under whom he served passionately coveted that horse for it had many times brought the soldier safely from the battlefield. The commander attempted to gain possession of it, offering a great price, and when the man refused he tried coercion. Since the soldier was still not persuaded to hand over his horse, the governor brought a charge of cowardice against him before the emperor and had him expelled from the regiment in which he served. At that time, Theophilos was in search of an outstanding horse. Orders were sent in all directions for such a beast to be found and to be sent to him. Seizing the opportunity, the commander confiscated the man’s horse (very much against the owner’s will) and sent it to the emperor as though it were his own property.
Then war broke out and there was a need of more soldiers. The emperor directed that absolutely every man capable of bearing arms was to be enlisted; thus the soldier mentioned above re-entered the ranks. Then a rout occurred in which he lost his life, for he had no horse capable of saving him. He fell leaving a wife and children. Hearing of the emperor’s love of justice, the wife, inflamed by devotion to her husband and no longer able to provide for the needs of her children, went up to the capital. She saw Theophilos on the day when it was his custom to go to the sacred church at Blachernae – saw him in fact mounted upon her husband’s horse! With a great burst of speed she seized the beast by the bridle, saying it was hers and that it was non other but the emperor himself who was responsible for her husband’s death. This greatly surprised the emperor; he ordered her to wait until he came back to the palace.
As soon as he returned, he had her brought before him, whereupon he questioned her to discover more precisely the substance in what she had said. Taking up the story from the beginning, the woman told it to the end for the emperor’s benefit. The commander was immediately ordered the governor to appear and a rigorous enquiry ensured concerning the horse – during which, at the emperor’s command, the woman remained out of sight. When the governor insisted that the horse was his own property and not something he had acquired from confiscation, the emperor suddenly produced the woman from behind a curtain, an infallible witness, contradicting what the governor said.
When the accused saw her, he was thunderstruck and stood there, speechless, for some time. Then he just managed to regain enough of his composure to embrace the emperor’s feet in tears and become a humble petitioner, having made a clean breast of all his misdeeds. And what did the emperor do? He declared that the woman and her children were to be brothers and sisters to the commander, of equal rank with him and co-heirs of his fortune. He relieved the culprit of his command and sent him into perpetual exile. That was how implacably opposed he was to those who seized others’ goods and those who sought to enrich themselves by unjust means.
– John Skylitzes, Synopsis of Histories, 11th Century AD
