--SNIP--
There’d been calls for Michael Laskaris to be recalled ever since Blucher had taken the Iron Gates in 1632, from people angry over his giving ground throughout the year despite his being outnumbered. The calls had only gotten louder after First and especially Second Ruse.
--SNIP--
“He deserves it, especially after dealing with all that crap. Being called a traitor after retreating from Second Ruse…” Demetrios shook his head. “Some of these newspaper editors really should have their hands broken.”
--SNIP--
Editors eager to make a name for themselves are responsible for most of the abuse hurled at Michael Laskaris, and they are not afraid to stoop to personal attacks. It is a good way to gain publicity. Theodoros Laskaris gets a share as well, but he is further away and thus of less interest to the readers in the capital.
--SNIP--
The argument is that they have aided and abetted the enemy by slandering the Domestikoi and thereby demoralizing the soldiers at the fronts.
--SNIP--
Demetrios, in an act of clemency, changes their sentences to death by long knife rather than the much more torturous executions that can be applied for those crimes. But the morning after that article was printed, the people of Constantinople awake to find ten heads on pikes in the middle of the Forum of Konstantinos, where the bodies of prominent criminals are typically hung as a warning to others. There is the origin of the Roman slang term ‘forum breakfast’, meaning a grisly end brought on largely by one’s own stupidity or stubbornness.