Romanos’ funeral freights the reign of Michael IV with the burden of Michael’s past, his betrayal of Romanos, false oath, deception of Zoe, and rumours of collusion in Romanos’ death. Psellos knits these elements together with Michael’s fine performance as emperor to produce a conscience-driven, tormented figure trying to save his soul and serve his people. It is a new departure, unrepeated, into a psychological analysis of guilt, shame, and the hidden aspects of the human psyche, with Michael’s illness a metaphor for what can and cannot be known or said. Book Five draws the reader out of the dark psychic region of Book Four, through a brief, paranoid, and jerky reign characterized by poor theatricals, to an energizing, open, and collective action with a telos. Having exiled his benefactor John, Michael V tonsures and exiles Zoe, and the City rises as one to tear the imperial buildings from the earth and reset the social contract. Psellos portrays the rising as divinely inspired and articulated, with the demos assuming the empire. Imbued with ironies, their movement is neos, gives rise to lacrimae rerum, and restores the Macedonian line.