Roman was feared still more by his enemies in Galitch. Almost all the boyars were traitors to the people through their love of power and delight in loose living, in which they resembled their western neighbors. To raise themselves high above the people and bind them in absolute slavery, so as to hold Galitch as the Poles and Hungarians held their lands, was the ideal of those boyars, and that is why they yielded so gladly to Hungary. These tendencies they exalted, of course, as love of country, and sacrifice for the fatherland. But the keen Roman saw through such pretenses. His opponents said that he acted inhumanly with the boyars of Galitch. During his short reign he destroyed many of them. His enemies declared that he quartered boyars, shot them, or buried them alive; that when they fled he lured them back by promises of kindness, and when, trusting in his words, they returned, he delivered them to torrents. The truth is that at the time of his first occupation of Galitch, he saw its disorders most clearly. That which his own eyes beheld fully convinced him that the boyars who pretended to care for and toil in the interest of the country were the ones who gave it up to a Latin prince and a foreigner, and he would not spare traitors. When he settled finally in Galitch, he was forced to take mighty measures against men who were at once his opponents and the enemies of the people. There is no doubt that the greater part of them fled from Roman’s anger, withdrawing in season to Hungary. Those who remained, he either put to death, or reduced to obedience. For this he received from the chroniclers not blame but thanks, and the title “Single Ruler of Galitch.” He reigned with glory, possessing all Carpathian Russia, that is, ruling alone on the banks of the Dniester, the Pruth, the Seret in the Danube regions, in places which are now Roumania, and in the Volynian lands in addition. Rome sought now more intimate relations with Roman, but all attempts failed and further approach was deferred till a more favorable period, which did not come during Roman’s days. In the short interval from 1197 to 1201, Galitch and Volynia held the first place in Southern Russia. In other principalities, nothing happened of interest. Big Nest’s whole activity was confined to Vladimir, except that he renewed Gorodok and strengthened its Kremlin, and sent Yaroslav, his son, to Pereyaslavl, thus making it clear that he had part in Southern Russia. With Rurik of Kief he stopped all relations. The Polovtsi did not trouble Kief during this period, but their new day was coming.