Manuel 1 defeating thousands or tens of thousands of armed men reminded him of Phokas or Tzimiskes, and made him suspect flattery; however, he can give later personal testimony that Manuel fought whole Turkish regiments
Does not approve of meddling in the nature of God; but admires Manuel 1, who, hearing that the empress Maria 63 had miscarried, swore to be childless if wrong, but to have a male child if right; Alexios 2 was born soon after
Having discussed vexed problems of Aristotle with Manuel 1, he can witness that Manuel solved many in a natural way; he also clarified many difficult points in the scriptures (but this is not the place to discuss that)
He has so far talked about both continents, but now he will have to concentrate on Asian activities ... claims to have talked of subsidies to Kilic Arslan 52 (not in our text)
Mention of the king of the Czechs (Vladislav 17001) and Conrad 53 leads to excursus on invalidity of powers of popes and western emperors, addressed probably to the pope (Alexandros 23) in his dispute with Frederick 51
On Brindisi disaster : Ioannes 17010 and Alexios 17005 were too inflexible - they should have fought at sea, then retreated with honour; fighting all Sicilian forces led to disaster
Was amazed that Manuel 1 was unscathed among dangers of Tzibrelitzemani, through boldness or care of Providence; disapproves, yet compares him to Alexander and hymns power of youth
Will tell of Myriokephalon as a battle with heavy losses among aristocrats which was only saved from complete disaster by the extreme courage and skill of Manuel 1 (not in current text)
Will write briefly about Ioannes 2, on times when he was not alive, but more extensively about Manuel 1, for whom he may be the best available historian
Wonders if the list of recovered Apulian places (at Blachernai) is too long, and says he heard Manuel too had complained of this flattery; he does not know whether surplus names were removed
Would not have believed (had he not been an eye-witness) that Manuel 1 demanded to be first to climb a siege-tower into Zeugmene but his commanders strongly forbade it
Wrote the Summary of the achievements of the emperor porphyrogennetos kyr Ioannes 2 Komnenos of blessed memory, and narrative of the deeds of his late son the emperor porphyrogennetos kyr Manuel 1 Komnenos ...