The Magnaura

[Ferret]

Would you like to hear Zigavinos' version of the events? He was present at the battle and I have had no contact with him since, he is unbiased.

[_Tristan_]

Would you like to hear Zigavinos' version of the events? He was present at the battle and I have had no contact with him since, he is unbiased.

You mean one of your own vassal is unbiased ? Surely, you can do better...

[Ferret]

You mean one of your own vassal is unbiased ? Surely, you can do better...

Did not Kosmas express the same opinion as many of you here? And no I was not calling it sperm, again you can only think of those things, I was referring to when you wet yourself.

You also do understand that I am only one year younger than you? If I was at my mothers teat then you were still unable to walk, let alone fight a battle. In fact you are 39 now, it is 1110, the battle of Manzikert was in 1071. That is the year you were born, are you claiming to have been born on the battlefield? Whatever the case, in my lifetime you have not been to Turkey and cannot know how the new Turkish Sultan thinks.

[Andres]

Savvas stands up and walks towards Hypatios.

It seems like I will have to repeat my question.

Dear Hypatios Machonios, are you loyal to the Basileus? Do you respect this legislative body, the Magnaura, and all it stands for?

[_Tristan_]

(OOC : there is a time conundrum here... Methodios from how I considered it was 19 at the time of Manzikert... Sorry if I got Machonios age wrong, though... I saw him as one of the youngest Senators...)

I never said I knew how or what the Turkish Sultan thinks but I tried to warn about what measures the Sultan's religious advisors may preach against us... We killed this man's relative so I think I might not be too far from the truth when I say that those preachings won't be falling on deaf ears...

And anyway, I would prefer you to admit that you gave no quarters to the citizens of Iconium, whatever their origins and whatever the creed as all accounts show...

It would also be fine if you would answer the questions of Senators Ek Militou and Vringas...

[Ferret]

Savvas stands up and walks towards Hypatios.

It seems like I will have to repeat my question.

Dear Hypatios Machonios, are you loyal to the Basileus? Do you respect this legislative body, the Magnaura, and all it stands for?

Yes, yes and yes. If I didn't then I wouldn't have assaulted Iconium in the first place. I had no personal wish to capture the place.

Senator Hypatios,

Rather than engaging in the semantics of what race, religion or creed of people were killed, what is your specific defence against the charge of disobeying a law created by this assembly?

I believe I have already made that clear:

"Now I understand I may have broken a law during the capture but I have my reasons for that as well. Was not the edict invented to direct or restrict the current Chancellor, to give all senators a say in how the Megas deals with matters of state? Yet know we pass edicts directing the personal choices that generals have always had, since the founding of Rome! And now I hear I am to be punished for doing what I think, even know, is better for the Empire? Is it not better to have one decisive battle, allowing loyal Roman citizens to inhabit our towns than to have Turks and Infidel living there, who will rise against us at any and all conceivable opportunities?"

I never said I knew how or what the Turkish Sultan thinks but I tried to warn about what measures the Sultan's religious advisors may preach against us... We killed this man's relative so I think I might not be too far from the truth when I say that those preachings won't be falling on deaf ears...

And anyway, I would prefer you to admit that you gave no quarters to the citizens of Iconium, whatever their origins and whatever the creed as all accounts show...

It would also be fine if you would answer the questions of Senators Ek Militou and Vringas...

I gave my men orders to only kill Infidel, if they chose to kill men of their own faith that is not my fault, the orders I gave were clear.

I know my actions are very questionable, but I have done what I think is right and what God showed me to do. I shall await the opinions of Kalamateros and the Emperor and accept them without argument.

[_Tristan_]

Hearing Machonios' renewed assessment of Edicts, Methodios rises.

So to you an Edict is just an obstacle to what the Megas Logothetes can or cannot do... That is not showing proper respect for the work of this assembly...

An Edict is a sacrosanct embodiment of the will of the people of this Empire, requested by the will of our Emperor to express themselves through our voices.

In an unselfish act and to prevent us from ever committing the errors of our past, the Basileos in his wisdom has seen fit to allow us, as representatives of the many provinces of the Empire, to choose the broad lines of how we deem the Empire should be led.

This is what you trampled, Machonios, not a simple law, but the will of the Empire embodied by this assembly.

[Ferret]

Yes and I accept any punsihment for the breaking of that edict, I merely ask that the moral side be left out, that is irrelevant, and that the judge take into consideration what I have done to benefit the empire. Could someone also explain to me how my actions at Iconium hindered the empire in any way?

[Andres]

And now I hear I am to be punished for doing what I think, even know, is better for the Empire?

Tell me, Hypatios, if we could all at any given time just do what we "think" is best for the Empire, then what is the point of passing laws in the Magnaura?

I will go a step further: if all generals could simply do as they see fit, then we wouldn't need a Magnaura anymore, nor a Basileus, would we? Because, if every general can do what he wants, then why would we still have to respond to a higher authority?

Hypatios, if you say that a general can do what he "thinks" is best for the Empire, regardless of the laws imposed on him by the legislative body and the Basileus of said empire, then you are speaking words of treason!