Alp Arslan magnanimously allowed Romanus Diogenes to ransom himself from captivity, but the discredited soldier only returned to Constantinople to be dethroned and imprisoned by John Ducas, uncle of Michael VII. His eyes were put out so roughly that he died a few days later. With him perished the last of the heroes of the Eastern Empire. Confusion and weak rule at Constantinople facilitated the Turkish advance. Many provinces revolted, and famine followed in the train of war. What revenue still flowed in was spent upon court luxuries and popular games. The Turks burnt the Asiatic suburbs of the capital, and in 1074 Michael VII. made a treaty with Suleiman, the general of Malek Shah, who had now succeeded Alp Arslan, by which he conferred on him the government of all the imperial provinces which were actually in his possession. Suleiman established himself at Nicæa, the most westerly of his conquests, and soon assumed the state of an independent prince. In 1078 Michael was dethroned, and meekly abandoned the Empire for the bishopric of Ephesus. [Sidenote: Nicephorus III., 1078–1081.] His supplanter, Nicephorus III. (1078–1081), was the most brutal, lustful, and helpless of all the Emperors of this miserable time. Rebellions burst out on every side. At last Alexius Comnenus, a shrewd and wily soldier, whose sword had long protected the Emperor from other rebels, became a rebel himself. The army declared for him and chose him Emperor, and the treachery of some German mercenaries admitted him and his troops into the capital, which was brutally sacked. Nicephorus was driven into a monastery, and Alexius reigned in his stead. [Sidenote: Alexius Comnenus, 1081–1118.]