A final, ironic aspect concerning Romanus’s captivity is worth relaying: early Christian chroniclers, who often depict Sultan Muhammad as a bloodthirsty Antichrist figure, concede that he behaved magnanimously with Romanus; Muslim historians, who often depict Muhammad in glowing terms, portray him as behaving meanly and pettily with Romanus. In this, one wonders if Christian and Muslim authors projected their own ideals concerning how victors should treat the vanquished.
