A martial spirit continued to characterize the family in subsequent generations, and was not least conspicuous in Michael Anemas and his three brothers, the representatives of the race under Alexius Comnenus. But they allowed themselves to become involved in a conspiracy against that emperor, and upon the discovery of the plot were condemned to imprisonment and the loss of their eyes.
To accompany the infliction of punishment with every circumstance that could humiliate the criminal, and excite popular contempt and derision was after the heart of those times. Accordingly, Michael Anemas and his companions, attired in sacking, with their beards plucked out, their heads shorn and crowned with the horns and the intestines of oxen and sheep, were led forth, mounted sideways on oxen, and in this guise, conducted first around the court of the Great Palace, and then along the Mesè of the city, crowded with excited spectators. But the appearance of the guilty men excited commiseration rather than ridicule. The agony of Michael, as he implored to be put to death rather than to suffer blindness, touched all hearts. Even Anna Comnena, who witnessed the scene, and whose filial sentiments might have hardened her heart against the conspirators, was so deeply affected that she determined to do all in her power to save Michael from the cruel loss of his eyes. Finding her mother, Anna brought her to the harrowing spectacle, certain it would have the desired effect. The empress was overwhelmed to tears, and hastening back to the palace, prevailed upon Alexius to spare the prisoners’ sight. By this time the unhappy men were approaching the Amastrianon, a public place where stood an arch on which was a bas-relief representing two hands pierced by a spear. Once a criminal on his way to execution passed that point he was beyond the reach of the Imperial clemency. A few moments more, and the messenger of mercy sent by Alexius would have been too late. But just before the doomed men reached the fatal point, the order for the mitigation of their sentence was delivered, and Anemas was simply imprisoned in the tower which was to perpetuate his name. There he remained for a considerable period; but at length was pardoned and set free.[[545]]
Before Anemas was released, another notable personage was committed to the tower, Georgius, Duke of Trebizond, who attempted, in 1107, to establish the independence of his province; as though to anticipate the creation of the Empire of Trebizond in the thirteenth century.
He proved a refractory prisoner, venting his rage in unceasing imprecations upon the head of his Imperial master. With the hope of conciliating the rebel, he was repeatedly visited by his old friend, the Cæsar Nicephorus Bryennius, the husband of Anna Comnena. For a long time, however, all friendly overtures proved unavailing. But at last the tedium of protracted confinement broke the prisoner’s spirit, and induced him to submit; upon which he was liberated, and loaded with wealth and honours.[[546]]
Chamber in “The Prison of Anemas.”
The next inmate of the tower was the Emperor Andronicus Comnenus, of infamous memory, upon his capture after his flight from the insurrection which his vices and tyranny had provoked in the capital, in 1185. To Andronicus imprisonment was no new experience, for already, during the reign of Manuel Comnenus, he had been imprisoned twice elsewhere. On both these occasions, however, he had succeeded in effecting his escape. But the prison of Anemas was to prove his last, and he quitted it, only to die at the hands of his infuriated subjects. On the eve of his execution he was bound with chains about the neck and feet, like some wild animal, and dragged into the presence of his successor, Isaac Angelus, to be subjected to every indignity. He was reviled, beaten, struck on the mouth; he had his hair and beard plucked, his teeth knocked out, his right hand struck off with an axe, and then was sent back to his cell, and left there without food or water or attention of any kind for several days. When brought forth for execution, he was dressed like a slave, blinded of one eye, mounted upon a mangy camel, and led in mock triumph through the streets of the city to the Hippodrome, amidst a storm of hatred and insult, seldom, if ever, witnessed under similar circumstances in a civilized community. At the Hippodrome he was hung by the feet on the architrave of two short columns which stood beside the figures of a wolf and a hyena, his natural associates. But neither his pitiable condition, nor his quiet endurance of pain, nor his pathetic cry, “Kyrie Eleison, Why dost Thou break the bruised reed?” excited the slightest commiseration. Additional and indescribable insults were heaped upon the fallen tyrant, until his agony was brought to an end by three men who plunged their swords into his body, to exhibit their dexterity in the use of arms.[[547]]
In the course of the following century a different personage figured in the history of the prison. This was Veccus, Chartophylax of St. Sophia at the time of his confinement, and subsequently Patriarch of Constantinople.[[548]] He incurred the displeasure of Michael Palæologus by opposing the union of the Eastern and Western Churches, through which the emperor hoped to secure the goodwill and assistance of the Pope in maintaining the newly recovered throne of Constantinople. Before an assembly convened to discuss the question in the presence of Michael, Veccus, who had been appointed the spokesman of the opponents of the Imperial policy on account of his abilities, denounced the Latins as heretics with whom ecclesiastical communion was simply impossible. The emperor resented the affront, but, unwilling to make it the official ground of proceedings against the popular champion of orthodoxy, sought other reasons for punishing him. Accordingly, he accused Veccus of having thwarted the marriage which had been arranged between the Princess Anna and the second son of the Kral of Servia; another of Michael’s measures to make his position secure.
The charge had some foundation. For upon the completion of the negotiations for the marriage, the bride-elect had started for her destined home under the care of Veccus and of the Patriarch of Constantinople. But when the party reached Berœa, Veccus, acting on the private instructions of the empress, left Anna and the patriarch, and pushed forward to investigate the character and manners of the people among whom the princess was to cast her lot. The primitive and boorish ways of the Servian Court did not commend themselves to Veccus, as a suitable environment for a lady brought up in the palaces of Constantinople. The splendour of the tent which Veccus occupied was lost upon the Kral; while the eunuchs in the household of the Byzantine princess shocked the sovereign’s unsophisticated mind. Pointing to the wife of his elder son, simply attired, and busy spinning wool, the rough monarch exclaimed, “That is how we treat our brides!” Nor was Veccus more favourably impressed by other experiences. The embassy which the Kral sent to welcome the bride-elect was robbed on the journey by brigands; and the Byzantine envoys awoke one morning to find that all their fine horses had been stolen during the night. Under these circumstances, Veccus thought the wisest course was to conduct Anna back to Constantinople;[[549]] and for this action Michael now saw fit to prosecute him.
But the court which was appointed to try Veccus declined to judge a priest in the service of the patriarch without that prelate’s orders; and as such orders were not forthcoming, the trial could not proceed. At this juncture, Veccus had an interview with the emperor and proposed, for the sake of peace, to resign office and emoluments, and to go into exile. Michael did not condescend a reply. Whereupon the Chartophylax, fearing the worst, sought asylum in the Church of St. Sophia, and there awaited the Imperial decision. He was soon summoned to appear again before the emperor, the order being written in vermilion ink, as a mark of esteem and a pledge of personal safety. But on the road to the palace he was treacherously arrested, and carried off to the prison of Anemas under charge of the Varangian guards.