The tour de force of the Chronographia takes place in the rebel Isaak’s skene, surrounded by an army whose war-cry is an acclamation, filled internally with an army ranked concentrically like a council chamber, with Isaak on a throne, controlling everything by his sheer presence. Psellos heads an embassy to persuade him to institutionalize his power by due process, bringing the complementary resources of the Byzantine State: as a rhetor and philosopher he represents its law, traditions, and cultural capital. Together he and Isaak mount a theatre of ideal rule. It is a magnificent double performance culminating in Isaak’s secret assent. Before being formalized, however, news comes of a coup. Psellos had argued for praxis first, then theory, but Keroularios, who led the coup, has seized praxis and, by an embracing irony, the embassy in the protected space was futile. Isaak is emperor already. Though he promises to rule philosophically with Psellos’ advice, he rules alone. The reign is a bitter disappointment and, from that point, the work loses authenticity. Psellos disguises his loss of influence as success and succumbs to the pressures of imperial oversight.