In things that are a matter of pride, excellence of standing and rank, or at least its outward form, he was quite unlike his parents (Stephanos 101 and Maria 101)
He was evil, swinish, and by nature as bad as the rest of his family (...) when he grew older, like a horse that could not bear the bit, he was moved by jealousy and ingratitude against his mother, though he had gained a great deal from her
Was unworthy of the imperial crown not so much in his stock, although this was most lowborn and obscure (for his father was one of those who caulk ships), as in the evil of his ways
He was skilled in hiding ... a wicked mind under seeming goodwill, in devising and planning unlikely things; he was unfeeling towards benefactors and grateful to none either for friendship, concern or service; all this his dissimulation hid
Once ... Kaisar, he remained a long time, imagining to himself unnoticed the role of emperor and outlining what he had decided to do: he ran down his whole family and planned to kill all his supporters and those who raised him to offce
He was enraged with Zoe 1, of his uncles (Anonymi 6008) he would kill some and exile others; while fabricating this in his soul, he fabricated even more the outward from of goodwill towards them
He lay in ambush and secretly plotted even more against Ioannes 68, but constructed a more skilful pretence, behaving as an inferior, calling him master and placing his hopes of life and safety in him
He and Ioannes 68 each lay in wait for one another, each with a secret plot but feigning mutual goodwill; each thought he had escaped the other but neither was ignorant of the other's plans
Michael 61 considers it the product of a greater providence and management, that the succession did not fall to any other member of his family, but on him, through whom the divinity knew how to obliterate the whole family
His conduct was complex, his soul characterised by diversity and versatility; his tongue was at odds with his heart: having decided one thing he would say the contrary
The names of kindred, or rather the community of family blood, seemed to him a joke and it was no matter to him if a single wave had seized and engulfed all
He was jealous of his family not only for the throne (fair enough), but for fire, air, any fortune; he wished a nonentity or none at all to share his power: he was jealous even of higher nature, so great was his dislike and suspicion of all
When he won power he neither knew who Theodora 1 was nor whether she was born of imperial stock nor even, as far as he was concerned, whether she had been born or had passed by here
Michael 61 had gone after him with feelings by no means moderate, since he was was not without pain concerning Zoe 1 and was stirred by considerable anger against him
μῆνας οὐ πλέον τέσσαρας γευσάμενον τοῦ κράτους. Manasses, Chronicle 6127a
Before his accession he was reproached for his lifestyle and did not maintain relations with men of virtue, but after he was greatly praised for his generosity towards the senate and his subjects and he placed justice above everything else
τὴν εὐνομίαν, εἴπερ τις ἄλλος, σπουδάζων ἀνεγερθῆναι, καὶ τῶν ἀδικουμένων ἐκδικητὴς ἀναφαινόμενος ἀπαραίτητος. Attaleiates: History 11.5-15 / 9.11-18
To reasonable men he appeared unwisely zealous in destroying his own family, depriving himself of the help and support of his relatives
Considered unworthy of the throne, inconsiderate and ungrateful towards his benefactress by the crowd that protested against the banishment of Zoe 1, having violated the most terrible oaths
He did not look like an emperor, he had no magnificence of mind, no cultivated or charming speech, none at all of the attractions which grace body and spirit - as well as the lack of a splendid family
Psellos Orationes panegyricae II, 373-381
Of ignoble birth
τοῦ δυσγενοῦς. Zonaras 17.16.8
Ioannes 68 was more skilled in observing than he in dissimulating; suspecting everything, Ioannes did not think fit to change his policy towards him, but reserved the task for an opportune moment; he was not unaware of this
More than anything he was malicious and servile in line with the distemper of the times, illiberal, ill-tempered and fickle, not readily changing from wrath to kindlinesss, but altering from a better disposition to hatred on the off-chance
Slavish as any in manner and word in adversity, his soul illiberal, when even a small change of fortune smiled on him he dropped his act, stripped off his false form, was full of anger, doing some terrible deeds and saving others for later
Was called a cross-trampling caulker by the hostile crowds gathered at the forum of Constantine to listen to his declaration announcing the banishment of Zoe 1, read by Anastasios 101
Was called a murderer and a criminal by the angry mob that demanded his impaling, crucifixion and blinding from Zoe 1
τὸν παλαμναῖον...τὸν ἀλιτήριον. Skylitzes 420.84
He was young, inconsiderate, arrogant and stubborn and like a newly pressed wine that was boiling, he could not bear good fortune and so tumbled into deep and harsh disaster
He was utterly undistinguished and unknown on Stephanos 101's side, since he originated from some quite desolate countryside or borderland, was not a farmer, owned no land, neither herded nor owned cattle or sheep