That he should submit to Eudokia 1 and desist from government, although he was grown up, fully intelligent and had tested his intelligence in many things, this is not easy for Michael 61 to find comparison for or to praise adequately
Was exceedingly malleable in character and casual, and inept at the handling even of the most trifling affairs, let alone the administration of the empire
In fact Michael 61has written his history for this reason, so that it may be known that there is a human character (Michael 7's) comparable with the divine and far surpassing natures Psellos has known
He felt no passion for imperial apparel, wanting to garland his head not with a crown but with virtues; he does not take to heart everything that is whispered to him, rejecting all those that cause pain and erasing those that are sweetest
Nikephoros 62 was elevated by hopes that the senate would receive him (Nikephoros 62) with open arms, as the saying goes, on account of hostility towards the logothetes Nikephoros (Nikephoros 63) and his simplicity
Acquired the name of Parapinakios, with which he was known later, not from his father or stepfather, but from the inflated price of wheat, sold at a nomisma for a modios minus a pinakion (quarter) as a result of the policies of Nikephoros 63
τοῦ μὲν βασιλέως καὶ παιδός. Psellos: Chronographia VIIb 30.8-11
Michael 61, as he sets out to write about him, or rather to give an outline as far as a summary account allows, begs his audience not to consider that he exaggerates his character and actions; in fact he greatly understates them
Michael 61 suffers the same emotions in writing about him as he often did in looking at and admiring him, being unable to stop admiring him; no one should be disbelieving or suspicious because he was writing during his lifetime
None of his subjects, humble or eminent, passed unnoticed, none was abused by him or repulsed for some offence; if anyone chose to affront him, he preferred to be the victim of impudence rather than publicly confront him
A man of consummate intelligence, he had acquired a knowledge of affairs through constant attention to them; he understood the taxation system precisely ... and the details of minting coin; he could refute the financial experts
Even at the time he grew his first beard he was in no way inferior in understanding to his elders; he did not devote himelf to pleasures, was not enslaved to his stomach, did not like sumptuous banquets
He so abstained from love as to be ignorant of most types including those outside the law; so extreme was his modesty that if anyone spoke a vile word or mentioned the mere name of love, he was at once covered in blushes
As he has not studied law he enumerates laws for judgement not according to the letter but according to the spirit; he blushes readily but behaves in no way improperly; skilled at ball-play he feels passion only for the heavenly sphere ...
He enjoys hunting, but his pleasure is limited to seeing the fleeing bird go uncaught; if the hunter draws close to it he becomes anxious and doesn't look
If silence brings ornament to women, as the tragedian says, this makes Maria 61 more honoured than all ornament, as she speaks to no one but her husband Michael
The chrysobull (Actum 2, written by Michael 61) gives a picture of an emperor with theoretical and literary interests able to satisfy by boundless generosity his more material subjects: is this how Michael 7 saw himself?
Was devoted to childish games, thus allowing Nikephoritzes (Nikephoros 63) to take charge of the empire's affairs, and was rendered ineffective and incompetent by Psellos (Michael 61)
His refusal to agree with Alexios 1 Komnenos's plan to send troops against the conspirators was due either to his cowardice, or to his excessive virtue that placed him above the troubles he was already suffering, according to Nikephoros 117 Bryennios
ὃς δὴ καὶ ἐπίδοξος ἦν μοναρχεῖν. Psellos: Chronographia VIIb 7.6
While he was managing the affairs of the empire in a neglectful and childish way, the Franks (Normans) became masters of Longibardia and Calabria from coast to coast and distributed among themselves the land and its kastra
He was so stingy and penurious that he refused to pay any money for the relief of refugees fleeing the East, let alone provide for supplies to be brought in by ships
Fairest of my sons and emperor (address by Eudokia 1)
κάλλιστέ μοι τῶν υἱέων καὶ βασιλεῦ. Psellos: Chronographia VIIb 8.4-5
Michael 61 doubts whether any emperor had profounder wisdom (than he) or was quicker at hitting the mark on any question; it is agreed that certain deeds and words befit an emperor, others a philosopher and so on, but he encompassed all
In appearance he is like an old man, as befits an instructor or like a pedagogue: his eyes are steady, his brow neither proud nor suspicious and overhanging his eyes, but frank and appropriately grave
His gait is neither hurried and disorderly nor lazy and indolent, but a musician would praise it; the pitch of his voice is harmonious and rhythmical, neither bubbling out in the tongue's stream nor faint and hard to hear
Many words and deeds depress or provoke the spirit, but none of these exasperate his humour nor dispirit his mind; he laughs most sweetly, weeps most pitiably, is hardly angered and readily returns to better humour
In both east and west affairs were in disarray, a situation begun by his predecessors; while even a resolute man would have given up and the state would have foundered, his steady soul and unshakable resolve stayed the tide of events
His mental disposition, his innate spirit, his radiance on seeing Michael 61, ..., his elevation of Psellos not only over wise men he had seen, but also over those he had heard of, in all this he could not be compared with another
The office of metropolitan was deemed well suited to his character, for he was simple and with little experience of life, and had no knowledge of things pertaining to the office of emperor
He lived the life of a snail, going slightly forward then withdrawing, finding refuge in the palace like a shell; he resembled a mud-eating bivalve living in the deep, in need of someone to sting him to act imperially and remind him that he ruled the Byzantines
His simplicity, which Nikephoros 117 Bryennios calls vanity, was abused by the enemies of the matrimonial alliance between Alexios 1 Komnenos and Eirene 61 Doukaina