ABSTRACT
The Emperor, who had repeatedly and accurately thought out the matter, realized that it would be impossible for the Latins to take Nicæa, even if they had forces without number. So in the meanwhile he had various sorts of siege-engines built, and most of them not according to the usual designs of the mechanics but on other lines he had thought out himself a thing which amazed people, and these he sent to the Counts. The Emperor would really have liked to march with the Latins against the impious Turks, but when he pondered over this idea and recognized that no comparison could be made between the countless hosts of the Frankish army and his own Roman army, and as from long experience he knew the Latins' fickleness, he desisted from the enterprise. The Emperor had already thought of this and anticipated Bohemund's plan by sending the eunuch Eustathius with orders to occupy Curicum with all speed.
