Genesius

JOSEPHUS GENESIUS

NOTITIA

(FABRIC. Bibliotheca Græca ed. Harles, tom. VII, p. 530.)

The Josephus Genesius whom learned men mention is recorded by a single author, John Scylitzes, in the proemium to his History. But in the manuscript of Scylitzes, Labbe marks ^A a distinction between Josephus and Genesius, implying that there were two different writers of Constantinopolitan history: one, Josephus the Byzantine, and the other, Genesius the Byzantine. But really, while it is highly uncertain that Genesius’s homeland was Byzantium—even though he wrote a Byzantine history—I am quite unable to persuade myself that Josephus is, at Scylitzes’ hands, praised as a person distinct from Genesius. However that may be, in my homeland of Leipzig, there is preserved in the Paulinum library an ancient Greek parchment codex of the *Genesian History*, composed by order of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, which includes the imperial affairs of five Constantinopolitan rulers: Leo the Armenian, who began to reign in 813 A.D.; Michael Balbus; Theophilus, son of Michael; and Basil the Macedonian, who died on the Kalends of March, 889. ^B Concerning this codex of the Paulinum college of the Leipzig academic library—consisting of 77 pages in folio—the learned Jo. Andreas Bosius long ago indicated that he was preparing an edition, in his dissertation *De testimonio Flav. Josephi De Christo* (b). A copy of the Bosius manuscript, containing the brief notes of Thom. Reinesius, with whom Bosius had shared it, is preserved in the public academic library of Jena, to which he bequeathed his books upon his death; from this copy, the celebrated professor of the same academy, Georgius Schubart, later undertook the edition of Genesius, as the *Acta eruditorum Lipsiensium* of the year 1685, p. 441, record. Another copy, with the same notes of Reinesius, is preserved by the Leipzig Senate library. ^C Furthermore, a new and singular effort toward bringing Genesius to light was expended by a man of brilliant talent and great learning—beyond his years—Godfried Wagner, a pastor at St. John's in Leipzig; but with his death in the prime of his years, even this hope (c) collapsed, leaving this palm in its entirety to the most distinguished man Godfried Olearius, who already has in his desks that author, transcribed from the same Paulinum codex and illustrated by himself with a translation and notes, and who is soon to entrust it to the presses (d). The verses in which Genesius offers his five books of the *Bασιλειῶν* [Kings] to Constantine Porphyrogenitus are set before the work:

Τὴν ἐξ ἱστορίας τελέσας βίβλον ὡς ἐκέλευσας, Αὐτοκράτορ, μελέταις καὶ καμάτοις μεγάλοις, Ἐν σοὶ δῶρον ἔθηκα, ὅπως ἐγνωσμένον εἴη, Ἐκ φιλοδεσποτίας συντεθὲν ἔκ τε πόθου.

These verses, which were communicated by Wagner to Cave and published by him in the second part of his *Historia litteraria SS. EE.* for the year 940, I have translated as follows:

Historiam, jussu quam, Cæsar magne, tuople Perfeci curis atque labore gravi, Hanc tibi dona fero, notum sit ut omnibus, ista Nutu scripta tuo, te cupiente legi.

^D There are also read other verses by a certain Olympius at the end of the volume, which do not seem to me to pertain to Genesius (e), but rather to a certain John, a historian, who is likewise praised by Scylitzes, and whose work perhaps once adhered to Genesius in the Leipzig manuscript, but later, after being separated from it, perished.

NOTES.

(a) See Labbe in *Protreptico ad hist. Byz.*, p. 41. Furthermore, there is another Genesius, mentioned by Sidonius, lib. V, ep. 6. There is also another Genesius, a presbyter, writer of the *Life of St. Genevieve* the virgin, not to mention the Genesii martyrs, whose memory the Latins celebrate on August 25 and October 11.

(b) Bosius, *De testimonio Flavii Josephi*, Jena, 1673, cap. 12, p. 24. "Some years ago we compared the Augustan codex of Theophanes’ *Chronographia* with the printed edition, by whose aid we shall one day publish that writer, much more corrected, and in some places fuller, by filling in certain gaps by which he is here and there marred, together with Georgius Syncellus and the continuator of both, and Genesius, hitherto unedited and seen or known by few of the most learned men," etc. He transcribed Genesius in 1652. FABR. Add Morhof, *Poly. hist. litter.*, lib. 1, cap. 7, 44, where more works are mentioned which Bosius had proposed to himself to edit. HARL.

(c) As was also the hope of an edition of Genesius promised by Ludolph Kuster.

(d) Yet that plan did not have a prosperous outcome, although Olearius was stirred to action by Oudin in a special dissertation, *De adversa fortuna Josepho Genesio, historiae Byzantinae scriptori quoad operis editionem*, inserted in his *Commentarii de S. S. E. E.*, tom. II, p. 435 sqq., and more pointedly in the journals titled *Histoire critique de la République des Lettres*, tom. XV, no. 5. Grundmann, in *Miscell. Lips.*, tom. II, p. 757 sq., reports that Olearius, who died on November 10, 1715, at age 43, would have edited many other things but did not finish them. HARL.

(e) That these verses, which Fabricius brought forward, as well as the other verses of Olympius, were added by another hand is noted in the Venetian edition. HARL.

JOSEPHUS GENESIUS

^A Λώστων ἀνὴρ ἄριστος, ὡς ἐγὼ κρίνω, Γεωργίου τε, φημὶ, καὶ Θεοφάνους Τῶν χρονογράφων, ὅ τε δὲ τοῦ βίβλου Πατὴρ ’Ιωάννης σοι ταύτης, φιλοδαιμόνων Ὁ τῶν προέδρων πρῶτος, ἀλλὰ καὶ θύτης Διοκαισαρείας, τῆς ᾿Αναζάρδης πάλαι.

In the best, he is the best, in my judgment (I mean Georgius and Theophanes, The chroniclers), and he who is the father of this book, John, to you, a friend of spirits, The first of the prelates, but also the sacrificer Of Diocaesarea, of Anazarbus of old.

For *loiston* (i) I wrote *loiston*, and in the fourth verse, instead of *philou daimonon* or of Eduard Bernard (i) *phile daimonon*, I preferred *philodaimonon*. Certainly, no Christian will easily call a pious man a *philon daimonon* [friend of demons]; rather [a friend of God], though even this is rarely found in Christian writings, since the word "demon" in the New Testament is always understood of evil angels, whereas by Homer, Plato, and other pagan writers it is used passim for gods. Thus far Fabricius. ^B Afterward, Steph. Bergler copied out Genesius from the same Leipzig codex and translated it into Latin, as he himself testifies in a letter to J. A. Fabricius, in the Life of the latter written by Reimar, p. 223, where he also notes that the transcript of the codex was in the senatorial library, made by Bosius with little skill and quite carelessly; and that the writer was indeed crude, uneducated, and lacking judgment. He added brief notes in the margin, so that he himself might rescue the work, unpublished at the time, from darkness, or assist J. Burkhard Menken, who had decided to publish it, illustrated by a commentary of his own, with other Byzantine history writers added, as a supplement to the Byzantine corpus, as Theophilus Sigefr. Bayer relates in *Thes. epist. la Croziano* tom. I, pag. 30. See Burmann, Præf. ad Aristoph. Berglerianum, p. 8, sq. For Burmann (which fact he certainly keeps silent about) had been given that Berglerian transcript by Saxius, who had previously purchased it at Leipzig; from which you will understand the words of the famous Saxius in *Onom.* II, p. 149, that it had ^C migrated elsewhere through a certain useless generosity of his. Truly, neither Bergler nor Menken brought the work into the light. On the other hand, the latter gave a certain secondary transcript to the Venetian contractor of the work to be copied; but the Venetian editor in the preface briefly praises Menken’s generosity, but added nothing, except those few things, so that his (Menken’s) eminent merits regarding the republic of letters might shine forth all the more: thus, nothing regarding the codex and its transcript, nothing regarding the study and version of Bergler; nothing regarding the notes appended, which Burmann relates were all Bergler’s, as having been manifest to him from his autograph. How drowsily, how shamefully the Venetian editor acted, many have already taught, and Fr. Otto Menken in the *Life* of his father, prefixed to that academic dissertation, p. 47, complained gravely that the Venetian editor did not await the very ample preface of the father of Menken, in which he had narrated both the *Life* of Genesius and the status of the ms. codex, already prepared for the press; but rather had hurriedly churned out an unadorned and useless work. And the famous Saxius, l. c., says, the Venetian, contractor of the works - to the remaining XXII writers of Byzantine History, which he had reprinted himself, but contaminated with many errors, added this Genesius as a crude and inelegant appendix, ^D at Venice in 1733, folio, concerning which matter Fr. Otto Menken not only in the *Life* of his father, but also in the note to the letters of Guil. Cave in *Misc. Lips. novis* vol. I, part. II, pag. 348 sq., complains bitterly, saying, "Josephus Genesius, a Byzantine writer, is most unhappy in this, that after the cares of so many learned men, he fell into the impure hands of the Venetians, from whence he was issued a few years ago deformed in a most miserable manner. Moreover, that he was most faultily copied by the Venetian presses, the example of Andrea Buttigli, once the most diligent custodian of the Pauline library, which is in my possession, revised once more according to the faith of that Leipzig codex, most clearly demonstrates." Thus far Saxius.

NOTES. (f) *The de tes bibliou* is extant in the Venetian edition. HARL. (g) *Phile daimonon* in the Venetian ed. ID. (h) *Palai* is absent in the Venetian ed. ID. (i) *Loistos* is read in the Venetian ed. ID. (j) See Cave, l. c., and *Act. erud. Lips.* a. 1699, p. 160. The other, Oudin, amends it: [Omitted: see facsimile for Greek alternate text]. Residuorum, vir optime, at ego judico, Georgique dico atque Theophanis, Chronographorum, huncce librum, Pater, Joanni tibi accipe et amico cœlitum, Qui proedrorum primus sed et sacerdos Diocæsareæ Anazarbæ es.

OLYMPIUS O OLUMOS

[i]By another hand, partly before, partly after the last line.[i] But I have filled in what was cut out, The aged, poor Symeon of Theupolis (written *Syme*).

The same Wunder reports that other verses also have been added, but they are written in such a way that the individual words cannot be read.

JOSEPHUS GENESIUS HISTORY OF CONSTANTINOPOLITAN AFFAIRS

BOOK I OF THE KINGS CONCERNING LEO THE AMALEKITE

^A 1-3. The history, which by your command, great Caesar, I have Completed with care and heavy labor, I bring this gift to you, so that it may be known to all, that these things Were written by your nod, you desiring them to be read.

The memory of things done long ago, bringing the greatest utility in truth, excites those who touch upon them to write. Wherefore I also, now having taken upon myself the zeal of writing about these things in a varied manner, having been taught both by men who lived then and were in some way knowledgeable, and by wandering rumor, have descended into this contest, partly if I could be known to posterity as useful for something, partly that I might reap this fruit for myself, being ordered to administer these things by Emperor Constantine, both by nature and training a student of all elegance, and the most learned of all emperors who ever were, the son of that most wise ^B Emperor Leo, always to be remembered, so that I might write out those things which had not yet been handed down in a historical book, starting from the reign of Leo, that Amalekite, who was insane in impiety, and thereafter.

In the second year of the reign of Michael, son-in-law of Nicephorus, but from the creation of the world six thousand three hundred and twenty-second, in the seventh indiction, after the slaughter brought upon the Romans by Crummus, supreme leader of the Bulgarians, Leo then being prefect of the Orientals, who had not been present in the conflict of the war, but had retreated with his legion due to bad counsel, observing an opportunity to invade the empire, Emperor Michael is compelled to flee from there ^C with the people still remaining to him.

First Book of Kings

^B But before these things could be brought to completion, when Emperor Michael had already arrived near the city, a man of the nobility met him, one who had been entrusted with the care of the walls, from the family of the Exabulii. Performing the customary duties toward the Emperor and sympathizing with his misfortune, he asked, "Who, Lord, has been left in command of the remaining army?" And he said: "Leo, who governs the first theme, a man of keen mind and one attached to integrity." But he replied that it was not prudent for him to be the sole master of that position without any of the Emperor’s intimate ministers. The Emperor, however, suspecting nothing to the contrary, offered certain arguments of his own, as if Leo would never intend to play the tyrant. ^C The Emperor then departed for the palace, and not long after, Leo was announced as declared emperor. Emperor Michael took this matter amiss, and some urged him to oppose the tyrant firmly by all possible means. But he, being of a mild disposition and not one who delighted in bloodshed, restrained everyone from slaughter, bowing with a composed mind to God’s commandment, to such an extent that he even sent a certain person from his own household service, the Exarchon, to Leo with the imperial insignia, and exhorted the senate to go out to meet him, so that not a single drop of Christian blood might be shed for his sake. ^D

Whereupon his wife Procopia, stirred by the goads of envy, is reported to have said: "It is truly unworthy if the tyrant's wife should don the *modiolum*," calling her a Barca. But he, refuting her with prudent speech, said: "It is good to follow the will of the Lord in the things that come to pass." ^A

Now when the tyrant had arrived through the Golden Gate at the church of the Forerunner which Studius built, many of the senate—nay, almost all—came to him, and escorting him together with the accompanying crowd, they led him into the palace. And having entered, he stood before the bronze doors in a place rotund and covered with porphyry marble, intending to offer thanksgiving to the image of Christ our God there; whether in truth or merely in appearance, he cast off the garment with which he was clad, which was of a twin-rosy color and marked with an eagle (which they call a *kolobion* in the vernacular), loosened from the belt according to a custom long since observed by the commanders, and openly handed it to Michael, the chief of his equerries. ^B However, as he immediately put it on, this was reckoned by the discerning as an omen of obtaining the empire after Leo. Furthermore, in a certain place near the palace which is called the Scyla, Michael trod upon the hem of Leo’s garment with his foot and soiled it; it is uncertain whether he did this out of insolence or whether Divine Providence was foreshadowing the future. When Leo perceived this, he conjectured that a rebellion would arise from him against himself, or that the Providence above was prefiguring what was to come. ^C

And when Leo had entered the palace, Michael, having straightway had his hair shorn, appeared together with the emperor and his wife and children as miserable suppliants in the oratory of the most holy Theotokos which is called the Pharos, seeking some clemency for themselves. And he, being moved by their entreaties, judged that their lives should be spared, and sent Michael to a certain monastery, that he might pass the remainder of his life there in solitude. To whom he granted a yearly distribution of gold on a certain fixed day.

^A His wife and children he separated, of whom he condemned Ignatius to castration.

^B But as soon as Leo seized the reins of the empire, the aforementioned matters regarding the patrician Bardanius, who had the surname Turcus, now came to light. For this Bardanius, while he was still governor of the Eastern Theme, being very desirous of becoming emperor, was meditating an uprising, that he might seize the empire. Hence, he revealed this matter to a certain monk who possessed a foreknowledge of future events, inhabiting a certain place in Philomelion; and he had as an accomplice in this sort of plan this Leo, a man already distinguished by many prerogatives of fortitude, virile and fierce in appearance and bearing, of middle age, and valiant, having been reared in a certain district of the same Eastern Theme called Pidra; and together with him, Michael, who was from Amorion, and who possessed that distinctiveness of speech, and with them also Thomas, from the marsh of Gazura, who also derived his origin from the Armenians, but was indeed also a brave and most meddlesome man. Therefore, as Bardanius approached the monk, they say that all his thoughts of mind were discovered and revealed by him, insomuch that the loss of his possessions and the blinding of his eyes were foretold to him by him. ^C Although he was indignant at these things as being by no means pleasant, nevertheless, since he had poured forth his accustomed prayers, his departure was prepared. But when his attendants brought horses to him, having caught sight of them, the monk commanded Bardanius to return with the greatest haste. And to him, returning with great joy—as one who opined that some favorable omen had come to pass according to his heart's desire—the man of God says, contrary to his expectations: "Do not let that purpose, which has not entered your mind for good, be a cause of anxiety to you. For, as I have already said, you will undergo the loss of your eyes and of all your goods; as for these men, however, who have brought the horses for your service, the first and the second will indeed wear the diadem, the third

succeeding to the proclamation, will quickly be destroyed by death. » ^A Bardanius, therefore, having wailed bitterly over these things, and having laid out his own thoughts to Leo, Michael, and Thomas—who were under his command—with a certain insulting invective against the monk, revealed them, saying such things as this: « You, Leo, having ruled, and you, Thomas, having been proclaimed by Michael, will be killed, while he [Michael] will be preserved in the empire safely and entirely unharmed. »

From that point, Bardanius, ^B being psychologically distressed and returning to the theme entrusted to him, together with the armies under his command and some other associates of his arrogance, foolishly pitched camp in Bithynia against the emperor Nicephorus, who was reigning at that time. When the emperor heard of these things, he gathered an army that was by no means contemptible and sent it against him. Trembling at that expedition, Bardanius submitted himself to the emperor, seeking assurance of pardon; he obtained this easily, having secured his safety through the sign of the cross, and offered obedience, condemning himself for his crime, so that he was relegated to the island of Prote, to a small farm that had been assiduously cultivated by him there. ^C And not much time having elapsed, certain men from Lycaonia, whether by their own daring, or by imperial consent and decree, or wishing to please the same emperor Nicephorus, suddenly attacked Bardanius and gouged out his eyes, and then fled to the church, seeking pardon.

At that time, however, when the sedition was being fomented by Bardanius, that Leo from the Armenians and Assyrians defected to the emperor, and then Michael the Amorian also did the same; to the former the command of the foederati was granted, and ^D to the latter the dignity of the comites curiae. Thomas, however, even in these dangers, showed faith to his own master. After some time had passed, Leo, while he was the secondary leader of the Orientals, acted strenuously against the Ishmaelites, and by the emperor Michael, who reigned after Stauracius, he was decorated with the most ample dignity of the patricians. This Michael, however, possessed a certain domestic slave girl, through whom a spirit of Python, by turns...

^A exerted its influence. And as soon as she had arrived at the place which is called Boukoleon, she cried out to the emperor with a clear voice: "Descend, ^B descend, yield to another." The emperor, hearing so often such an address, was naturally terrified and not a little dismayed. He communicated this matter to Theodotos, a spatharios candidatus and his intimate friend, the son of Michael the patrician, of the Melissenos clan, whose nickname was Cassiteras, so that whenever the girl should begin to rave, she might be kept in some house and examined, to indicate whose house it is and what is its specific distinguishing mark. ^C When she had disclosed the sought-after name and specific mark, he ordered him to go at an opportune time to the acropolis, where two men would meet him, of whom the one who was riding a mule would ascend to the imperial throne. Such was the situation regarding the deranged girl; the emperor’s inquiry, however, was naturally more thorough, as he was anxious about the empire. For when Theodotos was questioned diligently by him, he denied that he knew anything of the nonsense uttered by the Pythoness; but he went off to the designated place as he had been instructed, and he kept watch. Having taken the man ^D with him, he went away to the temple of the Apostle Paul, where 32 the nourishment of orphans is stored. And there, having bound one another with agreements and oaths, Theodotos dared to say such things to Leo as: "Through a divine vision concerning you, great things have been made known to me, and they shall come to pass, whereby you shall attain the rule of the Romans." ^C

12 A war having arisen between the Romans and the Bulgarians, and their leader Crummus demanding that the Bulgarian deserters be given back, and likewise those of the Romans, the emperor agreed to this, even though that decision of his was vehemently opposed by most of the magnates, especially by Theoctistos the magistros. Upon the rejection of the agreement by them, both sides fell into discord. Therefore, the Romans and the Bulgarians led out their armies, and upon the military engagement occurring, the Roman army was utterly defeated, divine providence, as it seems, willing the outcome otherwise. ^D

But let us return to where we deviated. ^A Once he was publicly proclaimed emperor, Leo appointed Thomas, his contemporary, as commander of the federates, and he honored Michael, whose son he had received from the sacred font, with the dignity of patrician and the prefecture of the excubitors.

Now the hostile Bulgarians, elated by their previous victory, caused no small devastation across regions and cities through burning and pillaging. Therefore, it seemed reasonable to the emperor, who was inclined toward peace, to send an embassy to the Bulgarian leader so that peace might be established. But as the Bulgarian lord would not accommodate this, being a man possessed of a barbarian nature and arrogance, Emperor Leo prepared an expedition against them. And when a fierce battle was joined, through the arrangement of the emperor, our multitude was put to flight, such that even the emperor himself was fleeing. ^B However, as the Bulgarians relentlessly pursued, the emperor made a turn, resisted with the remaining multitude, and launching an assault upon them, he accomplished a courageous feat and became the author of a solid victory over them. He prevailed even over the Bulgarian leader himself, and the children of these enemies he partly dashed against rocks and partly subjected to severe punishment on the threshing floor. And in this way, it came to pass that they paid for their audacity, according to the poet: ^C

*And upon the rocks, and on the threshing floor, horribly punishing.*

After this, the emperor remembered that monk dwelling in Philomelion, and he sent to him gifts and offerings suitable for his needs in fulfillment of a vow, inasmuch as he had shown himself to be a true diviner of future events. In the meantime, however, that monk had died, and it happened that another, a monk named Sabbatius, had taken over his cell, who in secret…

^A opposed the veneration of the holy icons. Having seen the envoy who had been sent by the emperor, he caused him to be dismissed, judging the author of the gift unworthy of the purple, inasmuch as he was addicted to idols—meaning, of course, the icons venerated by the Augusta Irene and the most praiseworthy Patriarch Tarasios. Calling her a leopard and a Bacchante, and defaming the supreme priest of God, Tarasios, with the name of "Taraxios" (as if you were to say "disturber"), the wretched man declared—and ^B even announced by letter—that unless the emperor destroyed these icons, the Lord would destroy his empire. Stunned by these threats, the witless emperor called for Theodotos and showed him the letter from the monk. Then, truly, Theodotos seized the opportunity and, gaining confidence, said to the emperor, heaping evil upon evil: "By some monk who has his dwelling in the house of Maurianus—to which he indicated the Dagistea was adjacent—miracles are being performed; he is another version of Saint Anthony." And he added: "Whatever he chooses to tell your imperial majesty, take care to do it." Having deceitfully suggested this to the emperor, he went to the monk and ^C cunningly spoke these words: "Tomorrow night, at a set hour, I will bring the emperor to you in humble attire, so that he may discuss with you matters of faith and other important issues. I advise you to curse him and announce that he will die shortly, unless he follows the doctrine of that Leo who originated from Isauria. And if he observes this, he shall reach his seventy-second year in the empire"—intending clearly to draw him to their will by the allurements of life and glory; for he was possessed by a great desire for these things, especially in his youth, inflating himself with hope. These things were deliberately contrived against the emperor by Theodotos and that monk lurking among the Mauriani, as they were the leaders of the sect. Accordingly, the emperor entered with Cassiteras to the monk, and certain conversations...

^A having been initiated toward him, he is rebuffed by him, as if he had already known of his disguise; for he spoke thus: "It does not become you, being an emperor, to simulate in private dress in this way and to suppose that you are unknown." By which the emperor, struck with astonishment at this contrived foresight, becomes compliant to him. For this, by the providence of Theodotos, was a desired outcome, having been craftily arranged (10), just as also by the blessed Theophanes the Confessor these things were denounced through metrical poetry.

And thus the demolition of the venerable icons is promulgated by the emperor. To which he also compelled the high priest Nicephorus to subscribe: and because he would in no way obey, he condemns him irrationally to exile (to whom, as he placed the diadem upon the head of Leo, it seemed as if he felt the pain from the rubbing together of thorns and thistles [12] [13]). ^B But as he was being led away, the confessor Theophanes of the Agros, on one of the shores, showed him veneration, bestowing honors with candles and incense (14) (15), and receiving a blessing from him, the same he enjoined his own disciples, who had heard these things, to perform as he was departing from the Propontis. Seeing them, the patriarch bent his neck and, with raised hands, implored in a final act of worship the acceptable intercessions of the most pious Theophanes. Regarding this, those who were accompanying him inquired (16), when he raised his hands ^C upward, "Lord, toward whom were you turning when you directed your greeting from afar in your mind?" He then says: "Toward the holy Father and confessor Theophanes, monk of the Agros (17) (18), the one who welcomed us with torches and incense (19)." And the prophecy (20) went forth into deed; for not long after, he himself, having been cast out of the Church along with many others with infinite vexations, was crowned with the crown of confession, with the patriarch no longer according to that prediction—

^A

Theodotus, therefore, having unworthily obtained the patriarchal throne on the very day of the life-giving resurrection of Christ our God, began his heresy with impunity, and blinded many with it as if with a snare.

^B The Emperor Leo, having performed strenuously against the Bulgarians and Agarenes, and being possessed by an insuperable opinion of himself, appeared more arrogant than all others; whence he even inclined toward cruelty. For he was terrible in his very bodily carriage and in his deeds, in no wise relaxing from his innate severity, envy, and violence, so that the hands of many who had been condemned for even minor offenses were suspended in the streets of the city, along with their feet and other more vital members of the body, so that by these deeds he became hateful to all his subjects. As time went on, his cruelty did not stop there, but he raged also against the piety of the faith, having found as a partner and helper of his inner malice a deceitful man who was the prefect of the sacred order in the palace and possessed only an outward-seeming piety. ^C Having therefore watched for a time when the passage of Isaiah was being heard in public—the one that says, "To whom have you likened the Lord, and with what likeness have you likened him? Shall the craftsman make an image, or the goldsmith gild it with molten gold?" etc.—he said privately to the Emperor: "Observe these words, O Emperor, and recognize the truth which the prophet has declared to us, and embrace such a religion, and do not be utterly stunned by the worship of images." Having spoken thus, he instilled in him much more sharply the venom of the heresy, with which he was infecting the pious congregations: and he severely harassed without sparing those who were disobedient.

This Emperor Leo, although impious, was nevertheless most diligent in the affairs of the state, so that he left nothing of those things that were of profit to it without foresight; so much so that even after his death, Nicephorus the patriarch would say of him that the Roman commonwealth, although it had lost an impious man, had nevertheless lost a great provider. ^D Regarding these things and the many...

^A injustices, he was righteously burdensome; so that when at a certain appointed time he was leaving the palace, a man approached him, lodging a complaint that his wife had been carried off by one of the senators, who had acquired so much license that he had held her securely for a long time. ^B "And though I complained about this to the Eparch, nothing happened for me toward gaining justice." When the emperor heard this, he immediately ordered one of his attendants to bring the accuser, together with the Eparch, before him upon his return. When the emperor had returned, his order was put into effect. And he said to the accuser with a ready spirit: "What is this action you have instituted?" The man used the same words. Furthermore, the accused man himself confessed the crime as being beyond doubt, and the judge bore witness to the report having been made to him, although he had not executed judgment against the culprit. Immediately, therefore, he stripped the judge of his office for negligence in administering justice, and punished him who had been convicted of adultery according to the laws. Most business he decided while dispensing justice in the Lausiakos; he invited the most excellent amanuenses, to whom he entrusted the recording of expenditures; he also [chose] military leaders and magistrates, the best of each, especially those who were by no means corrupted by gifts, and were themselves not at all subject to avarice. Meanwhile, he was a too-vehement champion of heresy, so that he cruelly vexed many of the orthodox. He wished to seem elegant in singing, while he actually roared discordantly and without rhythm. ^C This also appeared memorable in the Pharos to those who were present, when he was croaking out the psalms: for he would lead those singing, and especially at that time, with his voice: "They have despised all things for the love of the sovereign." Since he himself was far removed from that [love], he openly drew divine vengeance upon himself by this hymn, the prediction being fulfilled through it.

Now, some time having passed, Michael the Amorite, excelling in matters of courage and in prerogatives, for which reason he had been entrusted with the command of the excubitors, was accused of the crime of lese-majesty: he, when he

^A had cleared himself of this in various ways, was sent by the emperor to take charge of the military levies in the East. Some say that he wanted to kill him out of envy, had not God, in the ways that pleased Him, miraculously preserved him and destined him for the empire. Although some have interpreted this by saying that Michael also possessed a rashness of tongue that was altogether greater than the boldness of his courage, to such an extent that he would blurt out monstrous things and threaten the emperor with complete ruin and bring forward the disgrace of his consort's incestuous marriage. Leo was informed of these things. Initially, he indeed tried to stifle his impulse with skill: for he knew him to be talkative and foul-mouthed, even if he considered him courageous. But he achieved nothing with words, whether he advised or threatened; for Michael nonetheless persisted in his impudence. Consequently, the emperor appointed listeners and observers of his temerity, partly to repress the audacity and petulance of his tongue, and partly to investigate his designs. ^B He had also circumspectly urged Exabullius, inasmuch as he was a man of good sense and experienced in affairs, and furthermore his intimate friend, not to allow him to use such unbridled license of tongue any longer, but to warn him that he should be silent and show the respect and caution necessarily owed to the king. But those things contributed nothing to his correction, as he was rushing uncontrollably into the impudence of his tongue. When, however, he was reported to the emperor once, twice, and more often regarding this matter, and he himself was found to be hardly curable or entirely incurable, the emperor bound Exabullius by a written pledge that he should henceforth conceal absolutely none of his ravings, but report everything to him. And when the petulant man did not remit anything of his license of tongue, he soon indicated to the emperor that he was maintaining the same impudence. And then, on a specified day shortly before the birth of Christ our God according to the flesh, the proofs of those things which were being urged against him were brought into the open, with the emperor ^C diligently inquiring into everything regarding him in the place of the secretaries. Thus Michael is convicted of attempted tyranny; he confesses openly, overcome by the clear documents of his accusers, and the emperor orders some of his satellites to seize him by the hands.

and lead him away to the bath of the palace, to bind him like an ape, to attach him to a pole, and to place him before the furnace fire to be consumed.

As the emperor's command was being carried out in this way, the emperor desired to watch what would happen. But at the same time, the Augusta Theodosia, having arrived unexpectedly—she, I mean, the daughter of that patrician and quaestor Arsaber—reproached the emperor for his savagery and barbarism, and for the fact that the fear of God was not at all in his heart, and that he did not in the least revere the festival day on which, with stained hands, he wished to receive the divine communion; and she advised him that the man should be kept locked up, and then his actions further inquired into, and also those of his fellow-conspirators, and only then at last should he be subjected to punishment. Having heard such words, the emperor ordered the accused to be released for the present from the punishment, and he addressed his wife thus: "O woman, you have indeed delivered my soul from that punishment today; perhaps you will soon deprive me of life as well. But you and our children shall see what is to come." And in this he predicted the future. ^B For he had discovered from a certain enigmatic book the time when he was to be killed, through an image indicating the slaughter of a leonine beast transfixed by a sword between the letters X and Φ, or that the beast-like Leo was to be killed between the birth of Christ and the day of Lights (that is, the Epiphany). Moreover, the name of the one who was to kill him had been revealed to him from a dream sent by God. For he had seen a little before the patriarch Tarasius proclaiming with an ominous and bold voice the wages of his malice, and by him, a certain Michael was being fiercely incited to kill him; he, obeying the commander, had struck and, having thrown him down, had left him half-dead. Having therefore awoken, and seized by huge fear, he had described that vision to his own wife. Likewise, he also knew this from what had been told to him through the patrician Bardanius by that monk at Philomelium, and because he himself had put on another's garment, and had trodden upon the outer hem of another's. Furthermore, the emperor, having summoned the papas, [ordered] him (Michael) to be kept in a certain chamber

belonging to those who sweep the palace; the key to these chains he kept stored away in his undergarment, trusting it to no one else.

When, therefore, ^B about the third hour of the night, the emperor had risen from his bedchamber, he broke down with great force all the doors leading to the papas's chamber; for he was very robust and stout-hearted. And entering, he discovered Michael sleeping in the bed of the papas, while the papas himself was lying on the ground. Bending over Michael, he carefully examined his chest with his hand, to see what kind of movement it betrayed—whether anxious or untroubled. But when he realized that he had felt nothing of this tactile investigation, he was greatly astonished that he slept so securely; and shaking his head and muttering grim threats, and as he left, manifesting in the agitation of his hands his angry spirit towards the papas, ^C he hurled threats at them both. All these things a young eunuch, who was sitting by Michael, had watched from a hidden place; he had recognized the entering emperor by none other than his scarlet imperial shoes, having crawled beneath the bed; for there he had remained hidden from the emperor. After his departure, therefore, he related to his master Michael, and also to the papas, all that had happened. Upon hearing this, the papas and Michael were seized with boundless fear and together devised a shrewd plan. Michael feigned that it was a matter of great concern to him to confess certain debts of his soul to one of the religious, through a certain most faithful of his ministers, Theoctistus, who was later adorned by him with the illustrious dignity of patrician and entrusted with the care of the imperial quill, from which he was called *kanikleios*, and the management of Michael's affairs was also conferred upon him as a benevolent care. Then, therefore, in accordance with the request, the finalization of that pretext depended upon the emperor’s order, and the plan was soon brought to fruition. For Michael, having conferred diligently with Theoctistus, secretly informed the participants of the conspiracy about the hidden plan, and threatened that he would reveal the conspiracy to the emperor if they did not interrupt their aggression for the present.

^A Hence, having prepared an common plan, they organize the enterprise in this way: to enter by night through the ivory gate, where the honors are dedicated to God, pretending to be priests with swords hidden under their garments, and then in this manner to turn toward the right side and attack the emperor. For an old custom had prevailed that the priests should wait outside the palace during the night until the time of entry that had been fixed for them around dawn. As if they were priests, therefore, the conspirators entered, accompanying the true priests; and while the priests went into the oratory, the others remained, lurking secretly in a dark place, so that they might attack the emperor at an opportune time. ^B But when the morning hymn began, the emperor, as was his custom, went down to the temple. The hour at dawn revealed the ambush, had not the audacity of the attackers stirred up the triumph. For straightway, with hot and fierce boldness, holding swords in their hands, they deviated from their target and brandished their swords against the exarch of the priests, deceived by the appearance that then presented itself, thinking him to be the emperor. For since the winter was very bitter, the emperor ^C was wearing an erect covering on his head, and in the same manner also did he who was leading the order of priests; from which it happened that the conspirators actually demonstrated their enterprise against him. Having been terrified at the sudden rush of the attackers, he cried out vehemently that the emperor was another, toward whom they had directed their attack. For this reason, he also bared his head as a manifest proof (for he had baldness), so that he might not draw the blow upon himself because of the similarity. And so the emperor had entered into the propitiatory, and from there, having taken up a cross, or according to others, the chain of a thurible, being destitute of other weapons for defense, he attempted to set himself against them. But immediately as he was recognized by the assailants, they struck him with their swords while he held the cross in his hands, so that he might at least repel the blow with it. For this reason also he spoke to one of the assailants, a huge man, whom he called a giant by a stature of one and a half ^D [cubits], and he addressed him, adjuring him by that which he was holding (by the cross).

But he heard the merciless voice, in the manner of the sons of Antimachus, answering him with an oath that he would no longer live. And immediately, by lowering his sword to the lock, he tore apart his hand, so that the cross-piece of the cross was almost severed; and then he thus walled him off from his head. At that very same hour, a certain voice from the air struck some sailors navigating the sea, saying that the emperor Leo had perished there; the ones who happened to hear it, and who reflected within themselves upon the night and the hour thereafter, perceived the truth.

^B When the killers had cruelly slain him, they carried him to a pleasant place near the right side and laid him down, so that he might remain there for a short time; for the conspirators of Michael were occupied with more necessary cares, in order that they might take him out of prison and publicly proclaim as emperor the one who would provide opportunity for the occasion, as appropriate security was demanded, which he quickly performed. And they dragged the body miserably through the streets, shamefully mutilating it, and, after stripping it in the hippodrome, they hoisted it onto a beast of burden and carried it through the whole square, then, having placed it on a ship ^C with his wife and four sons—Sabbatius, who was called Constantine at the inauguration of the emperor, Basil, and also Gregory, and no less Theodosius—they sent them to the island of Prote. And there, while they were suffering the punishment of castration, Theodosius lost his life. They deemed both of them worthy of a fitting burial.

But this Leo, as some say, had adhered to that impious heresy even before he seized the empire. And for this reason, even when, according to the custom of our pious faith, the patriarch Nicephorus had sent a book to him by some chief priests in order that he might inscribe his profession of faith, he delayed doing this until the solemnity of his inauguration should arrive. But on the second day of his reign, when he was being compelled to subscribe to the orthodox book, he clearly refused to accommodate himself to their will. Wherefore even ^D

to such a purpose did he wish to conform. ^A Hence he established in the palace those who were partners with him in his heresy, bestowing upon them a livelihood that was uniquely luxurious. Among these he found a collaborator for his own doctrine, John the grammarian—who was also called Jannes [(24)] because of his opposition to the truth—and he joined him to them. To these people that foolish apostate ordered the composition of a novel creed suited to the childish minds of the simple. And after two years [(25)] of his reign, having brazenly defected, he undertook, just like the son of Kish [(26)], the destruction of the venerable icons. From that point on, he wrote to every bishop to direct them to Byzantium—the city founded by the Megarians and Byzas [(27)], to which, at the time of its founding, Carystians, Mycenaeans, Corinthians, and many others, along with philosophers and rhetoricians, had converged through Europe. And indeed, when the bishops approached the far side, [(28)] they were not permitted to consult first with the patriarch, as was the custom, but were led before the emperor himself, and by force were compelled to consent to his perverse judgment. Those among them who complied with his will, he received with ^B courtesy and kindness; but those who were unwilling to obey, he retaliated against with all manner of indignities, holding the dogmas of the Christians as nothing. Just as he had confused matters in the peace treaties with the Huns, attributing our customs to them, while reserving their ceremonies for himself and his subjects. And perhaps on account of these things, most terrible earthquakes, pestilences [(32)], droughts, and inflammations of the air, and in addition to these, civil strife throughout every city and region, persisted for many years from the beginning of his God-hated reign, with the very elements themselves indignant at his crimes. Such were his ungodly thoughts and contrivances, and the calamity that endured through them.

^C Yet, in undertaking useful tasks, he was possessed of unceasing industry. It was because of this that he renewed many cities through Thrace and all of Macedonia, and even as far as the borders of the land of the Scythians. He himself traveled over everything with military forces, that he might both ward off the incursions of enemies and provide the facility to bring the restorations to a successful conclusion [(35)].

^A He was of mixed race, born of Assyrian and Armenian parentage, whose own parents had risen up against their ancestors and killed them and, having fled into the territories of the Armenians, had dwelt there in exile, where they brought forth this untamed beast. It is said that the Armenians took their name from a certain Armenus, from the Armenian town in Thessaly, who had been a companion of Jason on his expedition. Leo had held the empire for seven years and five months, being furiously insolent toward God the Most High.

BOOK II OF KINGS. ON MICHAEL OF AMORIUM.

^C Porro Michael in the year 6329, the fourteenth indiction, was, beyond all expectation, proclaimed emperor from his prison (O wondrous event!) and seated upon the imperial throne while still bound in iron fetters. All who were present approached him and rendered the homage due to his position. Now, after a great deal of time had passed, and because the key was not at hand and the fetters had not been loosened, John, from the family of the Exabulii, who was then the logothete of the drome, revealed to those present that it was kept in the inner garment of the murdered man; by this means the fetters were loosened. When the seventh hour had arrived, Michael the Emperor departed for the great church ^D with the perpetrators of the crime, that he might receive divine inauguration, being clearly deterred neither by the fear of the people nor by the fear of God, but remaining most confident in this, just as in other events and...

^A by the predictions, and furthermore by those things previously announced by a certain Athinganos [note: see apparatus for Athinganos reference], a soothsayer [note: see apparatus] who, having given proof of many events to the commander of the Oriental theme at that time, clearly indicated that Michael and another man of the lower ranks would wear the diadem, [note: see apparatus] prophesying it clearly. ^B Therefore, the commander was in great anxiety, so that he might procure them as spouses for his own daughters. He was intent, therefore, upon this goal, and sometimes, when the person who has the charge of those invited to the table—whom they call the *atriklines*—entered and showed him the list, he did not want many to attend the feast, deeming only them worthy of the table. When, therefore, these things had been arranged and his daughters were sitting together, he orders them to be matched with them. They, astonished at the unexpected honor of [being seated at the] couch, refused; but he, being somewhat troubled, compelled them and finally persuaded them to recline. ^C When revelry had arisen, inasmuch as they were intoxicated, he hands over his daughters to them as wives. They, however, burning [with indignation] at this command, for a little while refused, meanwhile considering their own low birth, especially Michael, because he had sprung from the poorest and most obscure of parents; but nevertheless, they comply when urged.

In this, they considered their lot to be unworthy, and especially Michael, because he had been advanced from the most destitute and humble of fortunes, yet nonetheless they comply.

Having heard, as they say, that Michael had become emperor, Thomas quickly stirred up a rebellion of a great multitude against him. For from the beginning they were divided against each other; and Michael was indeed the commander of the entire Oriental theme, but he was not a little subject to envy, ^D both because of his homeland, which, as it seems, nourished a multitude of Athinganoi, and because of a defect in his tongue, and further because he was not thought to be sufficiently energetic and brave. Thomas, on the contrary, was loved by all, because he was brave and energetic, yet not unrefined and affable, and in the best of affairs was not inferior to Leo, even though he belonged by race to the Scythians, and was furthermore an old man, and was crippled in one foot.

He, therefore, having won over to himself the collectors of the public taxes, laid claim by written mandate to the customary tax collections, from which, having made gifts to the people, he strengthened his military force—that is, against Michael. No one from the Orientals

who were ^A rising up was left behind, nor from the Occidentals, nor from the strangers, nor from the aborigines, nor from the neighbors, nor from those of servile condition as many as were disaffected to their masters, nor from whole nations; for at different times they all flocked to him and followed, some by land and others by sea—a new Xerxes appearing among his own people. So it happened that all the themes together with their generals made a binding agreement with him, with the exception of Olbianus, the general of the Armeniacs, who by his own shrewdness kept his men compliant ^B and ready to serve, and Catacyla, the prefect of the Opsicians, who kept theirs to remain with Emperor Michael. And the apparatus of civil war grew so abundantly against his fellow countrymen that even the Saracens dared to plunder and occupy all the islands and regions, and would have possessed them entirely had Thomas not later appeared to them, by reason of his great fame, greater than they could oppose. Sensing this himself, he attempted to deal with them through envoys, astutely baiting them in such a way that he might propose what they themselves wished and desired, being dismayed by his huge forces and power. He therefore sent to them seeking peace, or rather a ^C partnership, so that they might assist the rebels against the Emperor. He thus initiated a peace treaty with the Agarenes, with the knowledge of their leader, and was crowned Emperor by Job, the Patriarch of Antioch. Then, having assembled a well-known total army of Agarenes, Indians, Egyptians, Assyrians, Medes, Abasgians, Zechians, Iberians, Cabirians, Sclaves, Huns, Vandals, Getae, and as many as participated in the abominable sect of Manes, as well as Lazians and Alans, Chaldians and Armenians, and other nations of every kind, he brought the whole Orient under his power. Finally, after he had approached the regions of Thrace, he strove to occupy ^D Byzantium by force, strengthened greatly by well-armed cavalry and stone-throwers on foot, also by countless slingers and shield-bearers, and furthermore instructed in not a few siege engines. With these he attacked the walls of the city toward the east, but was repelled without success, as the Emperor's son, Theophilus, made an attack upon them and fought most vigorously, and from time to time his father, Michael, also went out and attacked his adversaries with his own martial skill. Whence, being in a quandary, Thomas proceeded to a naval battle, leading a huge number of ships with him. And there, too, he fared ill: for all of those vessels were consumed by Greek fire. The knowledge of how to prepare this fire had already been almost lost, but it was then rediscovered in this way: Callinicus

^A a man from Egypt, a person of sense who alone possessed this knowledge—having taken up the boldness to speak—said to the emperor that if he wished, he would afford him aid against Thomas at sea. And he skillfully composed this and supplied it to the commanders of the ships.

But the wretch rebelled after three years. The prodigy of this rebellion, which occurred under the reign of Leo, is shown forth in the following way: ^B A comet was seen in the heavens in the shape of two moons clearly joining together and again separating through various conjunctions, from which a headless figure of a man was formed, portending in some way the headless dogma of the seditious sect afterwards introduced against the Christians, or perhaps it prophesied Thomas the destroyer himself—who, it seems, acted as the head and leader of that discord which led others to separation. ^C But Olbianus and Christophorus, who had then become magister, fought strenuously in this war. His sons were the patricians Barsacius and Nasar, and Catacylas, who was the cousin of the Emperor Michael himself, a patrician, of whom we have already spoken. Through these men, the poisons of that rebel were dissipated.

In this way, too, they say that the circumstances concerning Thomas are recounted more accurately through history. ^D This rebel, born of a miserable homeland and obscure station, came to the imperial city of Constantine for the sake of the necessities of life. And having attached himself to a certain patrician (this was the Bardanes of whom we have spoken), on account of a charge of adultery against him by this man

^A which Nicephorus, who was emperor at the time, had urged him to carry out—envying Bardanes on account of his inherent integrity—he was accused of the crime of adultery. Although he had attempted to commit it, it did not reach the stage of action; he fled to Syria. And first of all, he renounced his faith in Christ; and having lived among them for a sufficiently long time, after twenty-five years had passed, he acquired a false reputation for himself, pretending that he was Constantine, the son of Leo and Irene. But this man, on account of the depravity of his ways, had already been deprived of both his eyes and his empire, and not long after he had lost his empire, he was removed from the midst of men, and his corpse was placed in a coffin in one of the sacred ^B places in the imperial city. But this accursed man, while living among the Saracens, incited them with promises, that he would make the Roman empire tributary to them, if they provided him with sufficient money and a suitable army for the task. And behold, having obtained what he asked for, he soon undertook an expedition against the Romans; and also, because of the magnitude of the undertakings he had assumed, he adopted a certain half-barbarian manikin he had found, who was suffering from both wickedness of soul and folly, as well as bodily deformity and other such things; and he ordered him to be called Constantine. And having given him a part of the Saracen army, he made an incursion with him into the Roman territories. Leo was the emperor of these at that time, the son of the patrician Bardas, ^C but tracing his lineage from the Armenians. Since he did not deem the evil looming over the Romans worthy of great concern, he hastily gathered a meager number of troops and sent them against Thomas, placing a leader—or rather, a common soldier than a leader—over them. And when the armies of both sides clashed in one of the regions in the East, the emperor's army was defeated and turned to flight. And as the deserter was now without fear, he ranged through the entire East and compelled everyone by force to be on his side.

Not much time later, Michael killed Leo and assumed the empire. And Thomas, the leader of the sedition, as if it were not enough for him to have obtained almost the entire ^D land, also drew into his own power the entire navy which was under the Romans, except for the fleet that was called the imperial one; and having built very many ships, some for transporting grain and horses, and others for war, he ordered these to wait near Lesbos.

^A He himself, with countless forces, occupies the strait between Sestus and Abydus. And when he had left the Pseudo-Constantine, whom he had adopted as his son, with a very great multitude in the rear, he ordered him to traverse the regions that he himself had not yet occupied and the rest of the lands. The former, furthermore, driven by the promptings and divinations of demons, predicts to his guests the time and day on which he would enter the imperial city with a certain ineffable glory. ^B And when that appointed day was now at hand, he fell upon Olbianus’ army; and when he had held out against its attack for only a short time, he took to flight and was immediately captured. That outstanding man, Olbianus, having cut off his head, sends it to the Emperor Michael; he, in turn, transmits it to the rebel and to the father of the false name. But he did not desist at all from his madness; on the contrary, appearing together with the fleet coming from Lesbos, and himself using horse-transports, he watched for a moonless night and landed secretly at a certain maritime town which is called Horcosium by the people of that place, in various districts of Thrace, and found all the Thracians devoted to him—even though the Emperor, when rumor announced that the rebel was crossing the strait by ship at Abydus, had led out a very small army against him and had received from all the Thracian cities pledges of aid and alliance. ^C But since these men neglected this, the tyrant gained great increments, for they also flocked to him. Immediately, therefore, the Emperor returns to the city, and having fortified it as well as he could, he collected land and naval forces from the Orientals, who after the departure of the deserter had by then been freed for some time from his tyranny. The Emperor also applied the fire of war to his ships, and extended an iron chain from the citadel to the fortress on the opposite side, so that the Keras (that is, the Horn) of the city might not be harassed by the hostile fleet. Furthermore, Gregory—who had once been a military commander but had fallen into the Emperor's disfavor and on that account had been exiled to Scyros, one of the Cyclades islands—this man, I say, the deserter chanced upon; and as he had moved to his side, he appointed him commander of an army of ten thousand men and sent him as his precursor against the imperial city, while at the same time sending the fleet and the nautical army so that both might arrive at Constantinople at the same time. ^D And this was done very quickly, when they had gathered together by land and sea at the mouths of the Barbyses river, nor had that iron chain availed to prevent the arrival of the hostile ships. Nor

long afterwards, he himself stands by the city with twenty thousand men, and in addition to the previously 20 adopted son, he declares another also, Anastasius by name, who had formerly been one of those called monks, but had fallen away to the wickedness of worldly ways; he was of a shameful appearance, so that on account of his drunkenness he seemed to be of Indian origin 21, and of an even more wretched soul due to extreme senselessness. With him, then, and his entire army he attacks the city, thinking that as soon as he appeared the gates would be opened to him. But since he fails of that hope 22, the citizens having sent him away with insults, he pitches his tents 23 at the temple of the venerable Anargyroi, and held all those who dwelt on the Thracian Bosporus as his subjects 24. Then he joins battle 25 with the city with countless arrows and with stones from stone-throwing engines, hoping to capture it especially at the part of the Blachernae. ^B Hence, the emperor 26 Michael, having ascended the roof of the temple of the Theotokos, sets the signal for battle and orders his son Theophilus 27 to take the victory-working wood of the Cross and the venerable garment of the Mother of God, and to go around the circuit of the Byzantine wall with a litany, together with the sacred clergy and the other citizens, beseeching and imploring divine aid. The deserter therefore assaults with every kind of warfare and engine 28; but from a higher position those with the emperor, using both missiles and counter-engines, push back the opponents, so that they abandoned their ladders, tortoises, rams, and every such instrument, and fled back under their own tents 29. But the naval ^C force of the deserter also, using the liquid fire 30 and attacking the city with this, and with arrows in greater numbers, and besides with four-legged engines, so-called, is driven back by a contrary wind, as it was indeed the winter season. And now, the sun 31 already traveling through the northern dwellings, he attacks the city with both his land and naval forces at that part which is called Keras (that is, Horn) from its shape,

^A having constructed four-legged siege towers and believing that by hurling stones from the ships through them he would shake the walls. But the emperor, having spoken with some of the enemies from the wall, promised both oblivion and forgiveness for what they had done, if they would show repentance, but he did not persuade them. Therefore, after he had armed a very small body of troops, he suddenly sallied forth from the city and defeated those who rushed to meet him with great slaughter; likewise at sea, the ships having been driven to the land and tethered so that they could flee to those who were fighting on the mainland, being unable to fight at sea, and many of the enemies defected to Michael; among whom was Gregory, who, withdrawing with himself a certain small portion of the army, and having found an opportunity by night, hastened to Thrace, and came to the rear of the tyrant. ^B 41 But the leader of the rebellion, as soon as he understood this, attacked Gregory with an armed force, and having captured him, killed him, and returning to the city, continued the siege, and by means of forged letters, as if he had been victorious by land and sea, deceiving them, he ordered ships to be brought up from Greece and all the islands to engage in battle with the emperor. And so, equipped with grain-carrying vessels and warships, they set out all together and landed on the Byridensian shore, in a number no less than the former; for their number had increased to 350. He was, moreover, about to attack the city with ships from both the southern and northern parts. But the emperor, having anticipated this, sent fire-bearing ships, which, having set upon the hostile vessels at the aforementioned place, partly burned them entirely, partly scattered them, and for the most part captured them together with their men and brought them to the emperor. ^C When, however, Mortagon, the lord of Bulgaria, had heard what and how great were the things that had happened to the imperial city, he approached the emperor by an embassy and asked for an alliance in the war. For that thirty-year treaty, which had been made with them under the Emperor Leo, was by now almost

^A completing its first decade (50). The emperor, though he judged their good will to be highly commendable, excused himself, saying it was not right that those among whom a treaty had been established should now abstain from Christian blood for so long a time, or rescind what they had rightly approved and decreed on account of the war with the rebels. Nevertheless, having treated them with kindness and as befitted their zeal, he sent them back to their own land. But they, caring nothing for the emperor’s words, marched out with a hostile army against the tyrant, and after invading the Roman provinces, pitched their camp at the place called Cedoctus (51). When the deserter learned of the arrival of the Bulgarians against him, he took no account of the navy that had been left to him, whence ^B this entire fleet joined the emperor (52); and he himself, fully occupied with his land army, departed from laying siege to the city (53). Having engaged the Bulgarians at the aforementioned place, he was defeated with great slaughter (54). A great number of his men were killed and burned (55) by them, and those who were left (56) scattered wherever they could, with what strength they had. The Bulgarians, having gathered much spoil from the enemy, returned to their own land.

The tyrant did not cease his madness even after ^C acting so disastrously; rather, he gathered those who had been scattered and led them to the place called Diabasis (57), as it was a spot altogether suitable for camping (58), being more abundant in fodder for horses and in other necessities for men. There he pitched his tents, thinking himself secure because of the swamp of the place, and from there, as if from a citadel (59), being a true tyrant, he made frequent incursions and burned the neighboring villages. When the Emperor Michael learned of this, he readied a force—as much as he had available (60)—of a countable size, and marched against the tyrant to the aforementioned place with every military order, strengthening those with him with words and further promises. The tyrant, for his part, went to meet the emperor with a great multitude (61), and feigned (62) flight, so that the emperor’s army might break its formation; but he missed his goal, since the emperor’s army neither broke its rank nor was he able to join himself with his own men. Therefore, not being able to withstand the onset of the opposing side, he fled with what speed he could, and escaped into Arcadiopolis with some of his men. Moreover, the emperor, when most of the rebels ^D

^A had been taken, approached the city itself, in which the tyrant had sought refuge, and surrounded it with a strong rampart and circuit. The deserter, having very few cavalry within the city, often, whenever he saw his adversaries in disorder, would send them against them; but by this method they suffered more than they inflicted, those lost men. The emperor, however, brought no siege engines against the city, being cautious both that no one of the faithful might be killed by the sword, and that it might not be shown to the Scythians that ^B Roman cities could be taken by siege engines. He had decided, rather, to bring the tyrant under his power through famine and continuous blockade. And indeed, much time having elapsed, the tyrant began to lack the necessities of life to such a degree that, first of all, he expelled from the city every age and sex that was useless; then he urged them to taste the flesh of their own horses which had died of hunger, and which were already putrid; and it reached the point that they ate hides and other leathers. And finally, some of them went out secretly through the gates, others were let down from the walls by ropes, and others threw themselves to the ground and, even with broken limbs, promised fidelity to the emperor. But having obtained pardon and safety, they betook themselves to Anastasius, the ^C son of the tyrant in name only, who had occupied the town of Byza, and from there intended to wage war against the emperor through them—so that, by fighting, he might provide the deserter with an opportunity to escape. But when the emperor spoke with the townspeople and had sworn to forgive their offenses, they rose up against the tyrant and, having seized him, brought him to the emperor. The emperor, when he had stepped with a joyful foot upon his neck, ordered him to be deprived of both hands and feet, and to be hung upon a stake besides. Exacerbated by these torments, that lost man cried out in a loud voice, "Have mercy on me, O true emperor." And when the emperor asked him if there were any who were privy to his madness, he would perhaps have falsely accused many from among the emperor’s friends; but a certain man, John by name, surnamed Exabullius, a patrician, forbade the tyrant to speak, affirming that it did not befit the emperor to believe enemies regarding his friends. Meanwhile, the tyrant wretchedly ends

his life in the middle of the month of October. ^A Soon after, they also bring Anastasius from Bizye to the emperor, with his hands and feet bound, whom he condemns with the same punishment as his pseudo-father.

When some of the tyrant’s followers, having occupied the city called Panion, had determined, even though he had just been killed, to wage war against the emperor, the emperor Michael marched to that city and, offering pacific terms, could in no way persuade them to lay down their arms. Then a divine prodigy occurred for them: a violent earthquake leveled the wall and gave those with the emperor the opportunity to enter the city; to observers and those who interpret earthquakes, this was a sign of defeat, and this is why it happened. Moreover, Heraclea, formerly called Perinthus, ^B suffering from the disease of rebellion, remained obstinate toward the words of the emperor, which declared his will toward them. And so, having experienced an incursion of the imperial troops from the seaside part of the wall, it was captured and freed from the disease of tyranny without slaughter or bloodshed, having been occupied by its adversaries. From there, the emperor, having brought everything under his control, returned to the imperial city and, having celebrated the chariot races, exercised no savagery against the rebels, except that he made them walk through the middle of the Hippodrome with their hands bound behind their backs, and immediately ^C banished some of them. And thus he triumphed in victory.

At the time when the rebellion of Thomas was raging, the Spanish Hagarenes were securely and wantonly ravaging the Roman territory with ten round ships, or, according to others, twenty, for this reason: they were offended by their own region because it was neither rich nor fertile, and they said to their leader, Apochapsis: ^D “Take us from here and lead us to a fertile land, so that we may live well there.” Moved by their words, he equipped a fleet with brave and well-armed men, with whom he brought all the islands under his power

^A He captured that place with his well-prepared soldiers and took much booty, and after accurately scouting the region, he returned. In the following season, Apochaps repaired forty ships and sailed to the same island, and when he had put in at its promontory, he took up a station at a place called Charax. And he instructed the people under him that each ship should leave behind twenty men, but that all the others should proceed into the island to plunder for twelve days. When the people had set out on this undertaking, he set fire to the ships and burned them all completely. When they found them burned, they dared to stir up a sedition against their leader. But he explained the reason for his action to them, saying: “Previously, you complained, my fellow tribesmen, that I was unwilling to lead you elsewhere to live well; and for this reason I brought you here, where there is a flow of milk and honey.” But they said to him: “And where, indeed, shall we find our children and wives?” To whom he said: “You know that you have brought back very much booty for yourselves; from this, therefore, take yourselves wives.” And this speech seemed agreeable to them, and the sedition among them was calmed; and they surrounded themselves with a palisade of dense stakes ^B as a sufficient fortification, whence that place is called even to this day Charax (that is, the palisade). Then a certain monk, having entered the island, said to them: “If you truly wish to bring the island under your power, follow me; and wherever I may demonstrate to you a location suitable for building, there you shall build a city, by means of which you shall hold power over the island.” And he led them to a place called Chandax, in which their city is established; and they dug a trench around it. Apochaps ruled over that city, and he subjugated twenty-nine Cretan cities; only one remained uncaptured except in name—not in reality—even to this day; whence it has come to be called Hypologion ^C (i.e., "of the word"), it being conceded to the inhabitants that they may freely perform the customary rites of the Christians. However, of them...

incursion and the capture of the cities. Now, the son of Apochapsis was Saipes, and Saipes’ son was Babdel, who, having been cast ashore in the Peloponnese by a certain swell of the sea with his ship, was captured in the days of the blessed Emperor Leo, under the command of that prudent Constantine; he was surnamed "forty-cubits" (i.e., forty cubits tall). This Babdel was the brother of Zercanes, who ruled over Crete before the present leader.

In this island, ^B the admirable Cyril, who was bishop of the city of Gortyna, was slaughtered for Christ as an unblemished sacrifice. His precious blood is, according to some, preserved in a certain place until this day, indelible; pious people frequenting this place and wiping that blood with sponges draw from it divine ointment, and in no way do they alter the color of the blood. Furthermore, a group of seven of his venerable and noble disciples ^C of that island, along with many others, was consecrated in burial, having been killed for their undoubted and pure faith in Christ.

And indeed, from that time, the islands would have remained in the power of the Agarenes, had not the Emperor Michael of Amorion striven so greatly to liberate them. Therefore, being assiduously concerned, he commanded Crateros, the prefect of the Cibyrraeots, to prepare all the ships under his command and to set out for Crete and with all zeal to exterminate the Saracens inhabiting it. Having arrived there with seventy ships, he waged war against them from the rising of the sun until the setting, ^D and he prevailed to such an extent that he intended to slay them all. But the cowardly commanders who were with him checked him with very bad advice, saying: "Since we have sufficiently crushed them all, they will certainly not dare to engage in battle anymore. And now damp night descends from the sky, according to the poet, and the setting stars persuade us to sleep. For the people are indignant. Let us go to our tents, and at the first light of dawn we shall return and overwhelm them." And indeed, deceived by these words in the tents...

they returned with them. But being in no way concerned [(24)] for their own safety, they lay prostrate, overcome unfortunately by heavy weariness and deep in deathly sleep [(25)], when the enemy attacked by night [(26)] and brought upon them an iron slumber [(27)]. Not one of the tourmarchs or officers present there was able to board a warship; only the commander himself boarded a merchant vessel and sailed away [(28)]. Having learned of this, the leader of the Agarenes took two cargo ships [(29)], put men on board, and pursued him from behind; and at the island of Cos he caught him (oh, the calamity!) and hanged him on a tree [(30)]. From that time to this very day, the island of Crete is held by the Agarenes, from which they raid the borders of the Roman empire.

^B Afterward, a certain prudent man was found, named Ooryphas [(31)], by whose counsel, at the emperor's command, a most valiant naval force was collected [(32)], to whom forty gold coins were given apiece; and they affirmed that it could not be otherwise unless they received this much. Having embarked in well-equipped ships and having him as their admiral, they bestowed freedom upon many islands. From this, the name "forty-stater" was given to those who had received this sum [(34)].

Moreover, the emperor Michael, at the beginning of his reign, pleasing himself more with the extreme rusticity of his manners than with the scepter, held a public discourse [(35)] concerning the divine images, so that each might do what seemed good to him: but afterward, having rashly turned to cunning, he brought Euphrosyne, the daughter of Constantine—the one who had been condemned to blindness—into the palace as his wife, although she had already assumed the monastic life [(37)]; and after having unjustly tortured the holy Methodius, he kept him imprisoned on the island of the Apostle Andrew, where ^C the neighbor Acritas is visible [(39)], thinking to burn him from the opposite side [(40)]. Euthymius, the metropolitan bishop of Sardis, was cruelly beaten and killed by Theophilus with ox-hide scourges [(41)].

^A Michael lived in the empire for eight years and nine months. He died when he fell into difficulty of urination, as a disease of the kidneys attacked him.

BOOK III OF REGENT OF KINGS: ABOUT THEOPHILUS, SON OF MICHAEL

Theophilus, having inherited the paternal empire in the year of the world six thousand three hundred and thirty-eight, in the eighth indiction, held an assembly at the Magnaura, having ordered all to go there unanimously; and standing in the midst, he spoke: "Since my father and your emperor, O holy senate, binding me ^B with a terrible oath while dying, [enjoined] that I should render a worthy reward to those who assisted him in the act against Leo, I have not at all brought myself to neglect that command." When they replied freely to the emperor and the standing senate, he himself commanded the pretor openly: "What the law prescribes concerning those who do not fear human murder, arise to execute that, especially for the sake of the emperor himself, to whom it is divinely given to be the Lord's anointed." And so, as commanded, it was promptly executed.

Theophilus, having become master of the sceptre, ^C prepared with all zeal an expedition against the Agarenes, relying on a multitude of men and an assembly of the bravest warriors.

For he had with him also that Manuel from Armenia, whose fortitude was celebrated throughout all of Syria and the Roman domain; but much more his piety towards God, as the truth of the matter will declare. With him also was Theophobus from Persia, a pious man endowed with much manly and ancient eloquence, ^A just as Moses of old had with him those strenuous men, Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb, although he did not use these in a manner pleasing to God for the sake of Christian piety. By them he sometimes conquered the Agarenes, and at other times received calamities and slaughters, by the unsearchable counsel of God who wisely governs all things. ^B Whence, when the Agarenes had sometimes conquered the emperor—since victory lies in the hands of God, as the poet has declared—he barely escaped from them unscathed, although many of the Persians, because of the slaughters, were defecting to the Agarenes; who, however, would return to the emperor when he himself was setting out against the enemies, and this most of all because they themselves loved Theophobus.

Such then is the record, somewhat diverse due to the succession of different witnesses concerning this man, as is customary for more accurate historians to hand down even what is diverse. Since these worldly matters are in flux and flow, the destruction of nations also arises from dispersion due to certain causes: hence also for the Persian nation, ^C which had formerly lived in tabernacles, displaying its own poverty or endurance by the wearing of skins, and afterwards, by performing deeds bravely, had dominated many nations and was lifted up to insolence from favorable fortune, and subsequently suffered and was dispersed in the greatest calamities, such as happened to the Jews and other nations. Now the Persians had been accustomed to create their kings from the royal line; but when, because of frequent and constant wars and other civil and domestic calamities, the royal family had failed in their homeland, and they themselves were in straits and were anxious about how to find someone, it was signified to them by someone who had once served a certain person who attained to the royal lineage, [and who had] often set out for Constantinople on an embassy, [that] he had found there him who was sought…

though he was not born of legal marriage—yet he was nonetheless born ^A of that ambassador. When, therefore, those tasked with this matter had secretly slipped in to investigate and had recognized the youth (for he was dwelling with his mother in the districts by the Oxia, which are situated opposite to the Bosporus and the Horn of Byzas, the daughter of Byzas), not only by external and accidental signs, but indeed by those very essential indicators—the character of his mind, his soul, his disposition, and his temperament, which fittingly represented the notable royal and noble beauty of his lineage—as well as the neighborhood’s conversation testifying to the truth of the matter; and when the rumor of this had straightaway reached the imperial ears, it seemed good to them for this reason [and so that they might be subjected] that the Persian nation should negotiate with the Romans by means of an embassy, and, so that they might be subjected to them, they came to terms of a solid peace. ^B Having heard this in Persia, both from those who had come in the name of the embassy and from those who sought the same thing as the emperor on account of Theophobus, they considered it desirable to migrate from their own country and cross over to the Roman realm, so that they might obtain a leader of royal lineage, and all the more because the Persian leader Babec had been caught for five years in a revolt against the Ameramnun. In this interval, since major wars had occurred and Babec had been defeated, he entered the Roman domain with seven thousand troops, seeking out the father of Theophobus at the city of Sinope—a man who was greatly honored among the Persians and was on the rolls of the Romans. ^C When Babec had found him and had received a pledge of safety from the emperor, he subjected the band of soldiers he commanded, as well as himself, to the emperor. The Emperor Theophilus, for his part, honored the noble youth Theophobus with the rank of patrician and gave him his own sister in marriage, and he joined the Persians who had been received into the Roman polity to [levels of] ^D ranks of dignities and to military kinship with the Romans through marriage, even though, after this, he killed Theophobus by ensnaring him with treachery.

^B

But there are those by whom the affairs of Theophobus are related in another way, ^A such that, while things similar to what we have said are told, they are by no means identical, due to the diversity of those who recount them, whether they themselves were witnesses or whether the information was propagated to them by memory through narration.

For the father of Theophobus, born of royal blood, having departed from the Persians, came to Byzantium in need, and served for wages a certain woman who operated an inn. When he had served her for a long time, she was captivated by love for him, and for the sake of pleasure they were joined: whereupon the woman, having conceived, bore a male child.

Now, as the Persians were scattered through various regions, some of them were addicted to astronomy; for this is esteemed by them above other skills and sciences, having been brought to the highest perfection, as perhaps were other disciplines of divination and predicting the future: by means of which they had perhaps learned that Theophobus was surviving in the city of Constantine. Accordingly, they set out to Theophilus, who was then administering the empire, and urgently requested that there be granted to them the ability to search for him who was not walking openly in that city, and that they would point him out to the king.

When the emperor had heard these things with a willing mind, he inquired throughout the entire city; and when the report of this matter had been spread abroad for the space of many days, and those who were searching for him had already fallen into distress, a certain person from the neighborhood of the aforementioned woman came forward, by whom it was signified that she had conceived from that Persian, and that he himself had often conversed with him when he was performing the functions of his service, and that he had heard and certainly known that he was from Persia and born of royal blood: and he is said to have indicated everything about him to the seekers.

When they had seized the woman with whom that Persian had had relations, and had diligently and accurately questioned her about the manner of life and the dwelling of him who was being sought, she testified that he who had had relations with her was already dead; but him who had been born from that union, whom she showed forth to them

^A revealing him to be twelve years of age (97). When the Persians who were with them caught sight of him going forward, recognizing him from his royal features and the hooked nose which had been in Cyrus, making conjecture from this and from others who accompanied him, they worshipped at his feet and, having taken him up, they led him to the emperor. He, having seen him and received his mother, and having inquired as to who this Persian who had had relations with her for the sake of marriage might be and from whence he had been raised, was informed by her that he was from the race of the Persians and was descended from royal nobility. Rejoicing in these things, the emperor placed Theophobos ^B to dwell in the palace, and deemed him worthy of suitable upbringing and of training in learning. He, by the excellence of his nature and no less by his magnificent and splendid way of living, attained to the height of cultivated learning, so that he was most loved by the emperor, and was blessed with the rank of patrician, and with the guards and the veneration of the illustrious, and, indeed, with a very sufficient abundance of attendants. On this account, the emperor, being persuaded that the Persians were brave and vigorous in wars, enrolled them in the military registers ^C and established a Persian contingent for them, and ordered them to be numbered among the Roman military commands.

When he was repeatedly conducting expeditions against the Ishmaelites (4) with Theophobos accompanying him (5), the Persians took such great confidence through their love for him and were exhilarated with such delight that they alone chose to undertake the war against the Hagarenes and, by their invincible virtue, to rout them (6); upon which the emperor, taking heart and finding confidence in the truth of the events, was eager for Theophobos to lead the Persians (7). Therefore, when the emperor, on account of ^D some pressing necessity, had departed for the imperial city and had committed the affairs of the Persians to Theophobos, that he might conduct the armies strategically (9), and had subsequently ordered him to return to the queen, the Persians had proceeded into an absurdity out of a seditious disposition; and having surrounded the unwilling Theophobos (10) in the maritime parts of Paphlagonia (11), which is named thus after Paphlagon, son of Phineus, the former lord of that land, when now [they were at] the city of Sinope, or according to some others...

when they had gained control of Amastris, they declared him king, so that through this the customs of the Persians might also be renewed (14). ^A But he (15), being distressed at the undertaking, as it had not been done according to his will, attributed the cause of the rash act to them, lamenting it severely, and by this very means he wished to turn them from their purpose; he besought and urged them to reconcile the emperor’s benevolence to themselves, and, just as the reality of the matter was arranged, not to impute the cause of what had been done to him. Those who heard these words, being seized by despair, and excited no less by a kind of frenzied impulse, in no way obeyed his counsel, and set themselves in order according to what pleased them. But when Theophobus had secretly sent some to the emperor (18), and maintained with written documents, oaths, and most fearful adjurations that he was by no means the author of the act that had been committed, but that it had been done through the foolishness and excessive benevolence of the Persians, the emperor showed himself humane and clement, and with oaths confirming his promise, granted forgiveness to him and to those who were with him (20). Persuaded by this and trusting in it, having received ^B remission for their offenses, they departed from the city of Sinope or Amastris. They say that the former received its name from a certain Sinope, one of the Amazons, when she had founded it; but the latter, previously called Cromna, [was named from] a certain Persian woman, Amastris, daughter of Oxyartes, the brother of Darius, who, when she had been married to Dionysius, the tyrant of Heraclea, had named this city, which was subject to her, after her [own] consort. ^C And Theophobus, having been reconciled again to the emperor, was restored to the palace and enjoyed the ancient benevolence and bounty which he formerly possessed from the emperor. But since the multitude of the Persians had grown to thirty thousand, it did not seem expedient to the emperor that they should act freely and licentiously and be secure; therefore, two thousand [men] were sent from the Persian army into the Roman themes, to be subject to those who were appointed for the times of military command, ^D and from these, the tourmarchs...

were appointed to preside. And indeed, even until these times, those turmae of the themes among whom they were dispersed have held this title of the Persians as if it were hereditary.

Such, then, was the end that the affairs of the Persians attained, being thus dispersed and reduced almost to nothing. When, therefore, the emperor had fallen into a deadly illness, a certain notion began to smolder, [spread] by the vain and slanderous calumny of those who rejoice in evil, that after his death an attack would be stirred up by Theophobos and the Persians against his heirs and those appointed as guardians. For this reason, already standing at the final gates of death, he shut up Theophobos, having sent him into the caverns of Bucoleon, and by night imposed upon him the execution of capital punishment, the wretched man thus establishing for himself a funeral prize of inhumanity. Because, therefore, his death took place in secret, it has been noised abroad among the Persians until these present times that Theophobos did not taste of death. ^B

Although ^C some have reported it differently, saying that when Theophilus had fared ill in a certain encounter in war, Theophobos had told him that he alone would fight a night battle with the Persians, and that by the aid of God he would subdue the enemies. When the emperor had heard of this, he was shaken in his reasoning and troubled in his spirit, dreaming that he might perhaps wish to attempt a revolution; for so did certain malicious and envious men drive him [to this] and roll him into an unreasonable suspicion, asserting that one should not yield to Theophobos in those things which he suggested beyond necessity and utility, involving him, forsooth, in the crime of high treason. He, inflamed with divine zeal, like Elias the Thesbite, piously and sternly rebukes the emperor and shines forth as another Phinees the zealot, cutting through his unjust suspicion with his speech as with a sword, and says this openly, that he would pay the forfeit of the Christian trophy—which may God forbid. At this, when the emperor was angered with immoderate spirit (for he was more irritable from a wrathful fervor, as his mind was tainted by a sickly condition of the body), even the slanderers…

^A of trifles surpassing nature, no small consternation invaded Theophobos. And having gathered some select men with himself, he fled to the city of Amastris with them, and stayed there. Wherefore a naval fleet is sent against him by the emperor, so that they might seize the city and him himself. But since he was pious, led by fear and love toward God, he shrank from proceeding to the shedding of Christian blood; and so he yielded to the impious emperor, who sent him a guarantee signed with the sign of the cross, and thus to his own ill fate he was recalled, when the agreed-upon pacts had been changed. For the work of beheading, as indeed some say, he suffered immediately by Ooryphas, who was then prefect of the imperial guard; but as others say, at the time when the emperor departed from life, he had commanded one of his own eunuchs to conduct him by night to a certain maritime place and slaughter him.

Conflict having arisen between the armies at another time, and the Ishmaelites were prevailing, a surrounding seizure was being threatened against the emperor by them, and indeed he came little short of being captured and becoming a mockery to all, had not Manuel encouraged his men, addressing them in this manner: “O companions, be strong and of manly spirit, ^B revering the bees, which cling to their own king even unto death.” With whom, breaking through the phalanx of the Hagarenes, he drew him out, polluted with much gore and blood. He did this three times and freed him from the surrounding, for as if seized by vertigo, he hesitated when Manuel came to rescue him, even though a wide passage was open to him. Therefore it was done three times, although even soon with a strap tied to the bridle of the imperial horse and attached to a certain thong with which Manuel’s horse was fitted; ^C yet not even so did he come out, until he approached him a third time and declared that he would die by the sword unless he followed him and would not bring about total destruction: and

thus he led him out. ^A Thus, the great savior was presented to him, and he himself returned again to the imperial city, and he rewarded him with honor and appropriate gifts, holding him dear as one well-disposed toward himself. But envy stood against him and armed itself to fight him through those things that are contrary to virtue: and through calumny they falsely accused him of treason, although he was a commander of the soldiers. Upon hearing these things, he initiated a defection, and fleeing, he migrated to the Agarenes, and was decorated by them with illustrious honors and receptions, having left behind ^B at the emperor's court the desire for his presence and a repentance for the suspicion held against him.

A long time having passed, and the Agarenes insulting us with their victories—as those who had claimed for themselves our own Achilles—the emperor sought a peace treaty with the Ishmaelites, sending as an envoy the monk John, ^C who at that time appeared suitable for such an embassy to the Agarenes and to us. For he had undertaken the business of exchanging captives on both sides: in which matter he did not depart from propriety despite the offering of huge gifts, so that the Ameramnunes and all those around him who had come to know him were astonished, and he was commanded to ask for whatever he wished, being sure to obtain what he sought: so much did he carry himself as if he were not captivated by the gifts, whether ostensibly or in reality, so that because of his faith and the grace of his words he was listened to ^D concerning matters of utility, and he received many captives while performing his embassy. This man, therefore, appeared in a crafty manner before Manuel, and secretly gave him the cross-reliquary of the emperor, and confirmed with an oath upon it that he would stand firm, and advised him to return to the emperor, and he departed from Syria.

When the exchange had been completed and the peace between the Romans and the Agarenes had been dissolved, the emperor

^A exerted great concern to show himself a brave and energetic man against his enemies, that he might not be at all inferior to his paternal courage. He advanced with a great multitude into the territory of the Ishmaelites and seized spoils of every kind, to such a degree that he penetrated into their innermost regions and even approached the very native city of the Ameramnunis who was then in power, which is called Ozopetra, and besieged it to his insult. But this matter did not have a profitable outcome, since on account of this plunder ^B there followed a very great slaughter of men. The Ameramnunis rose up from that point courageously, not enduring the insult which he saw had happened to his fatherland, and he ordained that everyone who carried a flag (vexillum) should make an inscription to seek out Amorium, and he invaded it with an arrogant army because of his unbearable strength. Meanwhile, the emperor was unable to resist this man, but rather retreated and returned to the imperial city with great plunder, after he had provided for the city of Amorium with as much care as he could, in terms of fortifications and other things suitable for its preservation. He then undertook an attempt, albeit with a vain plan, ^C to calm the anger of the Ameramnunis through envoys who would sway him with precious gifts and magnificent promises; but they neither swayed nor persuaded him, because he was striving to pay back equal for equal. For he made nothing of their embassy, mocked their arrival, upbraided their cowardice, and after some time left them doubtful and uncertain, while he surrounded the emperor’s native city with a rampart, intending to capture it from many sides. Yet it did have, it did have within it defenders, although unhappy ones, sent by the emperor—men celebrated for wisdom, courage, and varied experience in affairs; but the defense was thwarted by one wicked man, who was plotting treason, and who, because of his folly, was called by the diminutive name of "the ox," ^D and this occurred on the occasion of a sedition which had arisen between the Christians and the Jews. Thus, after many strong assaults, Amorium was captured, by the permission or will of a new Sennacherib

^A owing to the unfathomable nature of God’s judgments; and the ambassadors are sent away having been insulted (for they had been detained by the enemy while they were carrying out what they had undertaken), and through them the most bitter reproaches and declarations of contempt were announced to the emperor. But what accurate account shall record the things that were done there at the time of the capture? What speech will safely narrate what and how great were the baneful disasters that occurred? All the military leaders of the people were led away captive into Syria, and with them the patricians and those excelling in various ranks, who endured the same misfortune; and some of them became the object of an attempt of the sword's edge and a fall worthy of lamentation.

But why does my mind require me to compose a tragedy about the city, as if I were another Jeremiah or Baruch or Zechariah regarding Jerusalem? ^B I cease, lest grief and misery increase all the more. For the emperor further sends ambassadors again to the Ameramnun, to entreat him to return all the captives of the city, whom he had (at the urging of many) been unwilling to despoil, and especially those leaders related to him by birth by whom it had been fortified, and those who had come as auxiliaries, and furthermore the chief men of his own household staff, labors being made to finalize the ransom for two hundred centenaria in all: but he did not persuade him, as he affirmed that he had consumed nearly a thousand centenaria in proportion to the multitude gathered for that expedition.

It is also said by some that after Theophilus had undertaken an expedition with the Persians and had gained a victory over the Agarenes, and had again gone forth with the Persians and captured Ozopetra, ^C the city which had given birth to the Ameramnun, it so happened that he was inflamed with anger on this account. Therefore, he gathered a diverse army from Egypt and Palestine at Tarsus, a city of Cilicia.

^A This city—which indeed takes its name from the accident of Bellerophon, who traveled thither and suffered some injury to the sole of his foot, which is called *tarsos*—was perhaps earlier called Tersos from Mount Taurus, because it was the first to be dried out after the earth had been covered by the deluge; for *tersai* means to dry. This city, however, is situated in a basin, because Mount Taurus is visible far and wide, and it is enclosed by its hills. Through its middle flows the Cydnus, which makes the land fertile. It was founded by Erichthonius, occupied by Orsanes, one of the Titans, and subsequently restored. Formerly, there was an island in the Cydnus river, which, being washed on all sides by it, was brought into its present state. Or rather, it was restored and more carefully founded by Semiramis; they say that her image was dedicated there to Hercules, standing beside Ninus, her husband. Afterwards, having been ruined by migrations, it was rebuilt from the foundation by Sardanapalus together with Anchiala, on which an inscription was made: "The King of Nineveh, son of Anacyndaraxes, built Tarsus and Anchiala in one day." ^B Furthermore, the Ameramnun sent his own son toward the east with the most eastern and vigorous Turks, who were also neighbors to them, to the number of ten thousand men, having joined to him the entire army of the Armenians, and the Besparacanita, and the leader of leaders himself, and Amer, who at that time was administering Melitene, who gathered and pitched camp at Daximon. For the council of the Ameramnun who were with him had given this advice: that his son should go ahead with suitable forces, saying, "If he is victorious, there will be victory for you as well; but if the opposite occurs, at least there will be safety and security."

^C Having heard these things, Theophilus gathered an army from those who were collected from the east and from the west, and also from the Persians. Moreover, Manuel had returned from Syria and was holding his former command of the Schools. When the army had moved forward to Anzen, as the place is called, the emperor wished to view the hostile army. Having been led by Manuel to a certain elevated spot, at the very sight of it, he recognized the Saracen ^D armies.

^A as smaller than the Roman army. Manuel brought his own conjecture into agreement with this, nevertheless he replied to him: “Consider, master, the forest of spears on both sides: from this you will know which holds the greater strength.” Now when Theophilus and the magnates who were with him had consulted among themselves, Manuel and Theophobus advised that he should join battle by night, while others advised that he should do so by day; and those who preferred the latter prevailed. Therefore, on the following day, a conflict having taken place, the Ishmaelites were put to flight. Thenceforth the Turks, by the constant employment of arrows, filled the Ishmaelites with such audacity and strength that they forced the Romans into flight. Only the commanders of the legions remained with the emperor, along with Manuel and the Persians, whom the Agarenes had surrounded and held enclosed, even though the Turks were hindered in the use of their arrows by the rain ^B that was falling and the bowstrings being slackened by the moisture. Meanwhile, however, as the Roman armies were being distressed, Manuel had heard the Persians speaking in the Saracen tongue with them, as if making terms, and he says to Theophilus: “I believe, O emperor, that the present Roman calamity will move the Persians to join the amir, in order to betray you to him from whom they had previously departed. Therefore, I wish you would obey me in what I rightly advise. I shall gather a band of chosen soldiers from our army, by whose help I will snatch your majesty from the enemies.” The emperor said: “But if this is done, what will happen to the entire multitude?” He replied: “O emperor, it will be granted to you by God to escape safely; but as for the multitude, I believe they too will be watched over from on high.” Furthermore, after the emperor had with difficulty withdrawn from the enemies and had betaken himself toward Chiliocomum, those commanders whom ^C their conscience oppressed on account of having deserted their ranks became suppliants there to Theophilus, and, having laid down their swords, condemned themselves to death. The emperor, feeling mercifully toward them, excused them with the necessary sorrow, saying: “Since it has happened by divine mercy that I, too, having deserted my rank, escaped..."

^A from my own (condition), I judge them worthy of death.” To these, the emperor, having been disposed mercifully, pleaded his case with justified lamentation: “Since, men, I have been shown mercy by a merciful God, even though I might have inclined toward desertion, I shall show mercy to you as well.” The protosymbulus, having learned of the success against the Romans, immediately took counsel against Amorium; but the emperor remained near Nicaea and Dorylaeum, expecting what might happen to his own fatherland; for the two armies of the ameramnunis and his son had joined together at Amorium. But when he heard of the misfortune regarding this city, he was seized by an internal inflammation, so much so that when he took ^B nival water, it seemed tepid to him; and from the drinking of this, he began to suffer from dysentery.

Furthermore, an Agarene woman, possessed by a Pythian spirit, whom the emperor had learned was captured among the spoils by the Agarenes and knew how to prophesy—having summoned her, he inquired whose empire would last for many years. She replied: “That of the Martinacii.” And for this reason, the emperor strove to inflict evils upon Martinacius (for he searched and inquired into what was being done in his empire more diligently, curiously, and effectively than any other emperor) and to attack those joined to him by kinship. But by divine providence he was misled. Indeed, he had even seen Basil as his own successor in the empire through divination by a basin ^C through John. Therefore, being certain and persuaded by the cause signified, he condemned to the monastic life Martinacius, a man bound to him by kinship, and converted his house into a monastery. Hence it happened that he escaped the evils imminent from the emperor. But when that woman was celebrated by the mouth of all and was an object of admiration to everyone, Constantine Triphyllius, fortunate in his very name and glorying in honors and tributes from the emperor on account of his embassy, addresses ^D

^A a woman to predict his future also. And she clearly prophesies what would happen to him, saying: "You and your children shall be tonsured, to be consecrated in the habit and state of clerics, under the Emperor Basil." And this came to pass in every respect. For when he had fallen into the displeasure of the emperor, the prediction was fulfilled with the end of his life. Similarly, it happened to Nicetas, his son, who was placed over the special private office, when the emperor raged against him; and no less to George, to whom the military registers were entrusted, that he would be killed by the sword in the "sling" of the Hippodrome, and all his substance would be added to the imperial treasury. Besides these things, that woman predicted to Theophilus that after his death his son would receive the empire in succession with his mother, and that they would attain the glorious, magnificent honor of the image-worship which he himself had profaned, and that the patriarch himself would endure the infamy of apostasy. Therefore the emperor, being entirely persuaded by these predictions, bound his wife and Theoctistus the Logothete by oath, that they would dare to change nothing at all after his death of those things which he himself had ordained, and that they would not even expel John ^B from the patriarchal seat.

The emperor had decided that he must not remain quiet, being bitterly grieved over the destruction of Amorium; wherefore he sends to the King of Francia the patrician Theodosius, who was born of the Babuzicos family and was his own relative, to procure from him numerous auxiliary forces, and for some of his leaders to plunder the regions and cities of the Saracens between Libya and Asia.

Now, previously, when Manuel was staying in Syria, on account of his learning and experience in many matters, he was highly esteemed by the leader of the Agarenes and those who held the greatest power with him; and throughout the whole time he dwelt there, he performed many noble deeds against those warring against them, both neighbors and those more distantly removed, and most of these ^C he accomplished with the Roman captives whom

^A they had requested to campaign with him; so that he also took Chorosan and brought it under the hand of the Ameramnun. Indeed, he also excelled in overcoming the wild beasts that were ravaging the region there and those who dwelt in it, so that he was considered a marvel by the Ishmaelites in both respects. Because of this they love him exceedingly and are all the more attached to him, since they understood that he had defected from the emperor as a matter of policy, even if he did so in the guise of our own piety, and they entrust to him the forces of their enemies to campaign with as much willpower and power as he possesses. In the intervening time, having performed many noble deeds, he was compelled by the Ameramnun to set out against the Romans with his son, or rather he feigned this. And indeed, he sent brave champions with sufficient wealth of his own to the town called Geron, secretly indicating in advance to the inhabitants of the city that they should sufficiently fortify it on account of the impending hostile arrival of the Saracens. When therefore the armies had encamped on both sides, he advanced like an audacious warrior, and holding his spear to the rear, he joined himself entirely to the Christians, having escaped by flight into the aforementioned town; but he gave thanks to the son of the Ameramnun for the fact that they had been ^B kindly disposed toward him, and he arrived happily in the city (Constantinople) and entered the temple of the Theotokos in Blachernae, as one who knew that Theophilus deferred to it the greatest amount of worship and veneration. From him (Theophilus) he received faith and the assurance of pardon, and was greatly honored by him and co-opted with the dignity of *magister*.

But when the emperor had accomplished nothing in preparing the Frankish expedition against the Ishmaelites, because Theodosius, who had been sent to them, had meanwhile departed this life, everyone was saddened, especially since the emperor was already inclining toward the end of his life, having fallen ^C into a wasting disease and dysentery and a flux of the bowels. Weakened by this infirmity and near to death, he was carried in a litter to the Magnaura, and there, having summoned everyone, he delivered a miserable oration suited to the occasion, so that by a certain reasoning it might be shaped in this manner: "Let my whole people weep for me, let the senate and all those before...

who compose my household flock together and lament, because, thriving in such youth and happiness, I shall now be separated from these, and much more because I am being torn from my blooming wife and my young son, whose loss I lament even before my death, and no less their bereavement after my departure from life. Wherefore, I beseech you, remember this last speech of mine and our care and gentleness toward you, and in return for these, show after my death benevolence toward them, as though you were considering and performing the duties of a grateful and righteous disposition toward me myself. For I shall no longer see you hereafter, I shall no longer entreat you with such words, I shall no longer move your souls with such exhortations, I shall no longer beseech you with tears." ^B After such an address from the emperor, much wailing, groaning, and lamentation was sent forth by all.

But Theophilus, while troubling the tranquil sea of religion, ^C violently agitated those sailing in it, who had hitherto been sailing without waves. Among these, he shut up in prison the syncellus Michael of the Jerusalemite assembly, along with many monks, ^D among whom he also branded on their foreheads with Scythian-like tattoo marks Theophanes and Theodore, the defenders of the Orthodox faith. Such and so great were the storms that burst forth against religion at his instigation. Moreover, many tempests in the air, difficulties, droughts, and shortages of grain due to bad weather, and daily tremors and quakes of the earth occurred during the days of his reign, and in general, there was a flight of the pious in the winter of his impiety, according to the oracle, and there was no rest for the Christian condition, which he was disturbing and tossing about, on any Sabbath, because of his inhumanity. For among his wicked deeds of this kind was his appointing of John as patriarch, a partner and minister of that worst of heresies.

This same Theophilus, being arrogant and proud among his many other vices, even if in some of his good deeds, whether willingly...

whether by constraint, or whether not by constraint, from the abundance of nature. For since the walls of the city of Byzantium were low and consequently provided an easy ascent for the enemy, he raised them higher and restored them, and upon them he placed an inscription of his own name. ^A To his praise, let this generous act also be added—perhaps not to be disapproved of by princes who avert from themselves the love of gain, or rather its base desire, although it might more appropriately be ascribed to pride. For once, when a ship was passing by the Bucoleon, the emperor asked whose it might be. Those standing by replied, "The lady’s." He, taking this ill, ordered her to be brought, and when he had learned the truth of the matter from her, "Woe is me," he said, "I have become a ship-master, since this belongs to my wife." And as soon as he said this, he ordered the ship to be burned, along with the goods, which were many and precious and gathered for trading, clearly sparing them not at all, to the praise of imperial dignity—not by bleeding the people dry, but by providing for them and acquiring [that] possession.

Theophilus was indeed very curious regarding occult questions; ^B for which reason he also liberated the holy Methodius from prison, as one who was a wise man and capable of solving them, desiring him to be with him in the palace, even though he was in a certain way averse to him because of his orthodox faith.

He, therefore, when he had administered the rule of the empire for twelve years and three months, paid the common debt of nature due to the illness of which we have spoken, after he had foolishly practiced many insolencies against the orthodox faith together with John.

BOOK IV

CONCERNING MICHAEL, THE SON OF THEOPHILUS

^A The paternal empire, in the year of the world six thousand three hundred and forty, in the fifth indiction, was left to be governed by Michael and his mother Theodora, a woman of godly mind; and the guardianship both of him and of the empire was entrusted to the patrician Theoctistus and Manuel the proto-magistros. It was the concern of this Manuel to cherish his lord, and to compose himself toward that end in both word and deed. He therefore went out into the Hippodrome, ^B and having gathered together all the bodyguard and the soldiers in whom he had confidence that they would preserve faith and obedience toward him, he began his speech in this manner: "You all know, O men, what the proofs of our love toward you are, since we have in no way been wanting in our duty, providing both for your protection and for your welfare, along with the kindnesses that accompany these things. Therefore, it is fitting that you should render us gratitude by the obedience of your words and deeds; and whatever has been judged by our decision, this you should strive to choose, and whatever is pleasing, ^C you should accommodate and show your obedience with haste and purpose, even to the point of every danger." Having exhorted them with these words, they all immediately offered their prompt goodwill and obedience toward him with manifold oaths; for they thought he had in mind the seizing of the empire, and for that reason was chanting such things. But he himself indicated the opposite; for he cried out with a clear voice: "May the years of Michael and Theodora proceed for a very long time!" When they heard this acclamation, they were filled with sadness and satiated with varied anxiety, but nevertheless they fulfilled the command: and thus the story of the foundations of the empire was spread abroad.

^D And the orthodox faith was revealed, having found a pious opportunity through men of good intent, since the detestable heresy of the iconoclasts had dragged on from the empire of that Amalekite Leo until the thirtieth year. Now, this right counsel was held by Theoctistus and, in another way, by Manuel himself, even if through...

the intervention of some time ^A he faltered. But he fell into a certain illness, for which he was considered hopeless: in that illness God appeared to work a miracle, clearly as happened in the case of Hezekiah. He was therefore held by the disease and was being cruelly worn away, and by a torpor settling within him he was being mortified, so that he seemed to everyone to be dead, even if a tiny breath still flickered and a thin and weak voice was heard from him at intervals. To these things, what happens, and what is the contrivance of God? He rouses monks from the monastery of Stoudios, men truly known to God and His friends, to visit him on the following ^B day. For it had been heard that he was as if dead, and they had gathered to sing funeral hymns over him; which indeed they had already done, for the languid and weak man. And when some of the monks, of whom we have made mention above, had approached the bed, trusting in God and the integrity of virtue, they bid him be of good cheer, though he was as if dead or about to die, saying that he would recover. But as he, from the depths of a soul pressed by anguish, was breathing a little and doubting whether this was to be hoped for by him, they exclaimed: "But if you shall have promised to God that you will restore and reinstate the divine images to their pristine state, we announce life to you with joyful tidings, affirming it for certain." They departed: and he, just as they had announced, miraculously, as if rising from the underworld, was freed from death. As therefore he knew himself to have recovered from the illness beyond hope, he treats and contends with Empress Theodora concerning the orthodox faith, signifying to her that she should restore the venerable images to their pristine state; just as this also perhaps seemed to the empress ^C herself and pleased her, because she adhered to piety and true religion, aided, as they say, also by her patrician mother and her own patrician brothers: but she resisted these and Manuel even more, whether because of the change of so great a matter, or perhaps through excessive love for her husband, preferring human things to divine. For she said to Manuel: "My husband and emperor of blessed memory was sufficiently instructed in wisdom, and nothing that ought to be done or was to his interest was hidden from him; how then [would his] decree ^D...

^A be forgotten by us, so as to turn to a different course?» Having said this, Manuel modestly threatened, saying: «If you do not see to the restoration and veneration of the images, another manner of benevolence - and indeed of the empire itself - will come to be, God willing.» Stunned by this, the empress—in appearance, though it could be understood that she was greatly pleased by what was acceptable to them—allowed it, and rose with them, and assigned the orthodox to gather in the buildings of the imperial ^B *kanikleion*, so that there they might examine among themselves the questions and decrees of the orthodox faith.

And quickly, with proper consideration, the divine images were restored, and the Church was directed toward the right path; of the priests and chief priests within it, some abandoning their impiety, while others, who resisted the pious dogma, were justly cast out; before all others, John, that impious patriarch, was driven from his see. To him they sent men of standing from the emperor’s guard, so that they might remove him from the patriarchal throne, but he did not yield to them. ^C Although they attempted to take him away, they could not move him, having been maliciously drawn by him into letting him go for the time being; wherefore they reported this matter to those who had sent them, and stirred up an even greater attack against him.

Thereupon the patrician Bardas went to him to ask for what reason he would not depart from the patriarchal see. But he, having devised a response and an excuse, showed his belly pierced by obelisks, indicating to him that he had suffered such undeserved punishment at the hands of those who had been sent, as if from heathens ^D, saying that on account of this he was in great pain, and if it were possible, he requested that his departure be deferred for the present; he had suffered most severely, he said, at the hands of that Constantine from the Armenians, who was distinguished in the company of the *excubitores*.

Now, the detestable and most profane man—this he says, O listeners—speaks of that same man, who was a descendant of Armenians, having been sent as a hostage of an embassy to emperor Theophilus by his chiefs and brothers, and who not long after, because of the comeliness of both his soul and body, and his noble passion for the best of things, was appointed drungary of the Watch—that is, of the imperial guard—and from there was hailed as patrician and *logothete* of the *dromos*. Thus, his evil mind's machination having been exposed, he was stirred up to even greater rage.

^A Indeed, through that very man—the astute investigator through whom he had, justly and deservedly, been cast out of his ecclesiastical position—he bestowed, however unwillingly, non-counterfeit praise upon the accused. And there was brought in as his successor the pious Patriarch Methodius, who bore upon himself many marks of piety, and who displayed for himself as it were certain badges of virtue in the thinning of his hair caused by the squalor of prison. To him they handed over the anchors of the high priesthood, with the full approval of all religious men—both those who resided in the imperial city and those who had traveled there from every quarter. For on the appointed day of their assembly, when the Church of God was putting on its own splendor, there came down from the celebrated Mount Olympus, from Athos, and from Ida—and indeed even from the brotherhood at Kyminas—men who openly and clearly preached the true faith; and having been provided with imperial grants and proper honors, they returned to their own dwellings. From that time to the present day, their harbors of orthodoxy, guarded by the power of Christ, have remained free from storm.

These were the first of the glorious achievements of Michael and Theodora, the pious emperors. Now John, having been confined to a certain monastery, and having perceived in a section of its church the carnal likeness of Christ our God the Savior, as well as those of the Theotokos and the archangels, ordered his own minister to ascend and gouge out the eyes of the venerable images, claiming that he himself could not direct his own gaze toward them, as he had been a most execrable iconoclast in his youth and was the superior of the monastery of the holy martyrs Sergius and Bacchus, which was dedicated to the emperors. ^{B C} When the most pious Empress Theodora heard of this, she was stirred to burning zeal by her love for Christ and desired to pluck out his hateful eyes; but having been restrained by the entreaties of certain people, she sent some of her guards to him and had him scourged with two hundred lashes of the whip.

^A The heretics, however, contending petulantly with those who confronted them, bribed with considerable sums of money a loose woman so that she would publicly accuse the patriarch in church, together with the son born to her, Metrophanes, who had at one time been prelate of the city of the Smyrnaeans, crying up against him the crime of secret marriage. From this resulted a very great tumult among the malevolent, who vexed us and mocked without measure. On account of this, Manuel, the first among the magistri, and Theoctistus, the patrician and prefect of the inkstand (canicleus) and also logothete of the dromos, along with other senatorial men, came to the patriarchal seat, saddened by the things that were being spoken openly among the common people. ^B The high priest, having caught sight of them and perceived the deep grief of the pious who had gathered, and being in no way willing to expose himself to the orthodox as a rock of scandal and a stone of stumbling, that venerable man laid bare the hidden shame before the eyes of all. And he was found to be, beyond what was expected, wasted by a marcescence of his nature, wherefore the accusation was vain. He also indicated the cause of this thing: that when he was living in Rome, having been sent to the high priest of that city on account of the charges brought against the patriarch Nicephorus, he had been vehemently vexed by titillations from Satan, and had prayed much to the apostle Peter about this matter, that he might be liberated from the prurience of the body. "And while," he said, "I was sleeping in the oratory of the apostle during the night, that chief of the apostles stood by me and pressed my private parts with his right hand, and said that I should not henceforth fear ^C voluptuous concupiscence, nor imagine that it would live again in the future. I, however, awakened from my sleep with vehement pain, have walked from that time on in such carnal mortification, as you see." When the patriarch had spoken these things humbly and most truthfully, those who were present ceased from their sorrow. After this, Manuel prepared himself to examine the woman, that she might declare the truth, threatening her with the sword and seeking to know by whom she had been suborned.

Nor did she, by reason of the threatening words and the drawing of the sword, divulge the truth. Instead, she spoke of those who had been organized for this purpose and of a certain sum of money that had been paid, and that it was ^A deposited in a small vessel and hidden within a certain chest full of grain. And as she had said, the thing was found and revealed. Then the heretics were obscured by the darkness of their shame; to whom the pious patriarch granted forgiveness for their offenses, obeying the law of Christ who forgives seventy-seven times. Therefore, it was decreed by those who were in charge of such an investigation against those who had been caught and convicted—a decree joined with utility for the sake of retribution—that on the birthday of the re-emerging orthodoxy, they should lead the litany with torches from the temple of the Theotokos in Blachernae. [Blachernae: it is rumored to have been named there after a certain Scythian leader, Blachernus, who was killed.] And this singular custom lasted for a long time, the heterodox clearly tolerating it in the gathering at the great temple, so that they might hear the anathema against themselves for their detestable heresy being triumphantly proclaimed.

At that time, the heresy of the Zelicians ^B arose with its author Zelices, one of the primary imperial secretaries. On a certain festive day, during an imperial procession in the great church of God, he made manifest the doctrines of his heresy, and then immediately, along with his followers, he put on white tunics and vestments, having been anointed with the oil of perfection.

Meanwhile, the empire was being well administered by the emperor Michael and his mother Theodora, through the mediation of those men whom I mentioned. But the leader of Bulgaria—whose people are of the race of the Avars and Khazars, from a lord named Bulgar, who had received Dorystolum and Moesia from the Romans for habitation—cast about troublesome words, threatening the ^C Romans with an incursion. The empress, with a manly spirit, announced to him in a glorious manner that she would encounter him and oppose him with her army as far as the Bulgarian land: "And if indeed," she said, "you overcome a woman,

it will bring you no boast of victory; but if you are defeated by her, your defeat will be a laughingstock to all." ^A Having understood these things, the Scythian decided to remain quiet in his own land.

Not much time passed, and the harmony that had existed between the aforementioned men was dissolved, and a malevolent contention was stirred up by Theoctistus against Manuel, which compelled the latter to move away. For he had been living with him in the palace, and together they were managing the affairs of the state; and he began to slander him by whispering ^B of a hidden plot. But Manuel, having shrewdly perceived the danger, decided to withdraw to his own house so as to be alone, and from there, whenever necessity required, to attend to the common duty at the palace. He resided in the area near the cistern of Aspar, which the latter had built and from which it received its name. After living there for a long time, he ended his life gloriously, having converted his house into a residence for monks, where he was also buried.

After the departure of Manuel from the palace, envy toward Theoctistus was stirred up in Bardas ^C to remove him from the middle, and he plots in the following way: He suggests to the Emperor Michael that his mother was meditating on arranging a marriage for herself or for one of her daughters with Theoctistus, by which his empire might be betrayed, and he desired to despoil him and put out his eyes. When Michael was agitated by such words, he added that Theoctistus would be the author of these things. And both of them were anxious about an attack upon him, to murder him by treachery or rather to send him into exile, if they could; and for this scheme they take on-board some ^D secondary commanders who had been stripped of their own authority, so that they might provide them with cooperative efforts; and, indeed, even Theodora's sister, to whom the honorable name "Beautiful Mary" was given, so that she too might be a secret helper to the emperor in the treacherous murder of Theoctistus, and he established her as a spy in a small upper room that had been pierced.

^A From this position she was to signal to the emperor whenever she saw Bardas attacking Theoctistus. When Bardas had thus surveyed the matter, he pretended he wished to rest in the quarters at the Lausiacus, sitting together with the praepositi. While Theoctistus was diligently managing the affairs of the Logothete of the Dromos, Bardas kept a very watchful eye on him, whether he were returning from the emperor or going toward him; lying in wait like a lion in a secret place, intending to leap out suddenly, to pursue him, to stand in his way, or rather, to trip him up and throw him down prone.

Great anxiety gripped him—it gripped him indeed—and he often sought the impulse to attack, and was delayed in that impulse, yet nevertheless, though slowly, he rose from his seat and running, reached him, and as it is said poetically:

He struck his back and loosed his limbs, And dashed him to the ground.

And immediately, the sword hanging from his shoulder, which he had drawn to ward off his adversaries, was handed over with its scabbard. The ex-praetors rose valiantly from their seats to assist in the deed. And by the lookout-woman, the emperor was signaled to come forth by way of the bronze gates of the Emperor Tiberius; and standing there, he commanded by imperial decree that Theoctistus be put to death. He was dragged along the ground by the guards as far as the outer areas near the Scyla, and there he was held to await the execution of the imperial command.

^B When the Empress learned of this, she went out to the Lausiacus just as she was, in disarray, seeking her servant and not permitting him to be killed, but in vain, although she cried out boldly at that time. For, soon terrified by a harsh voice, she retreated lamenting to her chamber; for one of the ex-praetors, tracing his descent from the Melisseni, had signaled to her that she should return home, calling that day the day of the slayers.

When, therefore, Theoctistus had been held for a long time at the Scyla, Constantine the Armenian, whom we mentioned above, was moved to come to his aid; and he, being driven by the customs of humanity, took up those things that pertained...

^A to the triclinium of Justinian and closed the doors, checking through them the rush of the soldiers who were for the moment coming on without restraint, until such time as they might determine what was to happen regarding his exile, and so that no one might be stained with Christian blood. For this was also a matter of great concern to Bardas, if the things being done could easily be brought to an end. But some incite the emperor, warning him that unless Theoctistus were killed quickly, an insurrection would arise from the empress that would be hard to withstand. The emperor, with a swift command, stirs up the Scythians from Taurica who were his allies, strengthening them to attack him and kill him immediately. They came on unanimously; but when they found the doors closed, since Constantine was standing inside—this man, by a lesser evil curing a greater one, gives way, although he was ^B strong and energetic in mind and spirit, and as much as he could, he attempted with words and deeds to calm those rushing against Theoctistus, imploring them in the greatest manner. But when the hope of salvation for Theoctistus vanished concerning the strength of his helper, with the necessity growing, since ^C *Force dwells near necessity* (31), and *The strength of necessity is unconquerable* (32), according to the oracles, he moves back from the gates, and they, having made an assault, penetrate into the interior, and one of them approaches the stool under which Theoctistus was hidden, and there he inflicts the final cut upon him with a sword into his belly. Whence Manuel is said to have spoken to Bardas, prophesying,

*Having bared a sword, Bardas, in the palace,* *You shall yourself be bared for the cutting of your flesh.* (36)

And after a little while the situation involving the empress is disturbed; wherefore, being cast down from the honors which she had held on an equal footing with her son, she is banished from the palace with her daughters ^D and is settled in the monastery called Gastria, and they are changed into monastic attire (38). But when she had foreseen those things that were to happen to her, having called together the senate and having displayed the money in the treasury, she indicated its magnitude—one thousand and ninety *centenaria* of stamped gold, and of silver likewise about three thousand *centenaria*; which in part her husband had left by will, and in part had accrued by addition.

^A At her departure, vexed, she predicted to her son that because of his ignorance, there would be great extravagance, and furthermore, an inevitable ruin from this.

The reins of the empire were drawn into the hands of Michael alone, and Bardas, being closely reconciled to the emperor on account of his kinship, and no less because of such an undertaking, was easily brought near. And so it seemed prudent to him to acquire for himself the dignity of Caesar, as well as being more conducive to his own safety and security, even if he was mistaken in this; for thus Philotheos, one of his own and a very close associate, holding the rank of protospatharios, had advised him. Bardas, having assumed the dignity of Caesar, showed himself eager in the excellent administration of many affairs, so that from this his Caesarean dignity might increase, and from there, as they say, he might advance to the empire.

When the impious Ishmaelites were harassing the Romans ^B under the leadership of Amer from Melitene, the emperor did not wish to be sluggish or so slack, displaying the vigor of a man already in his prime. Therefore, he marched with an army toward Samosata, a city of the Ishmaelites. Having besieged it for three days, on Sunday he arranged to celebrate the divine mysteries of the Christians, intending to partake of the bloodless fulfillment. But at that very hour, the Hagarenes suddenly opened the gates and rushed out, and easily drove the sovereign into flight, and put him to such flight that they even plundered his tents and all other equipment necessary for his use, the emperor himself barely escaping.

After a lapse of two years, Amer ^C haughtily marched out with thirty thousand men. And Michael, having gathered Thracians and Macedonians primarily, together with the rest of the armies of the themes, up to forty thousand, set out to meet him, and having reached a certain place named Daximon, he pitched camp there in a certain meadow named

Celarion. ^A But Amer, with military cunning, diverging further from the road leading towards Zelisa, made for Chonario. And when a battle was provoked there against the Romans, the emperor was immediately put to flight by him and fled for six miles. From there, as the speed of the imperial horses and the multitude fleeing with them failed, especially because the heat was intolerable due to the time of day, they deemed it a useful plan to ascend a certain mountain, rugged with rocks and difficult of access, which is named Anzes. Once the emperor had occupied this, he took up his position; but Amer, surrounding the place, cut him off. And so, an intense battle having been sparked at close quarters on both sides, the power of the enemy would have overcome the imperial forces, which were already suffering and threatened with total destruction—so greatly was it being strengthened—had not the locality, the courageous assembly of those present with the emperor, and, much more, the aid from above, resisted them. ^B Whence he, having realized the threatened destruction, shared his thoughts on salvation with the Magister Manuel, saying: "What shall we do, Magister Manuel? For we are perishing." And the latter answered him: "Put off, Lord, the purple buskins which signify imperial splendor, and put on black ones, and likewise the rest of the imperial attire. I, for my part, will take five hundred brave picked men; and with them I will attack the enemies from one side, and we shall easily pass through them." The emperor objected to him: "But what will become of the people after this?" And Manuel replied: "Your imperial majesty must by all means escape unharmed, lest you be held by the enemies; for if this should happen, it will be ^C lamentable for the Christians. As for the multitude, we shall piously bear the will of the divine power." So when Manuel had chosen five hundred brave men, he approached one part of the Saracen army, and crying out, "The sign of the Savior has conquered," he himself, with the picked band, made an assault, broke through, and leaped out. But the emperor, hindered by fear, had turned back. The Magister, however, having run forward a little and learning that the emperor had not exited, went back again to another part, and having broken through that as well, he penetrated to where the sovereign was staying. And since such incursions lasted for a long time and many of the Saracens were killed in them, and since the location also suffered from a shortage of water and no less of pasture, ^D Amer withdrew with his army, and having set out for a certain grassy place called Dora, he soon rested. Having thus obtained security from this,

the emperor escaped the bloodthirsty hands of his enemies, ^A having added the whole day to his flight, and in such a way he was saved. 94 But two years having passed, that same Amer again attacked the boundaries of the Roman empire, exalting himself with forty thousand men, by whom he completely destroyed the Armenian theme, having advanced as far as the maritime city of Amisus. And having seen the vast multitude of captives and the great spoils of which he had become the master, he began to be quite mad, because he was hindered by the sea from his insatiable impulse, and he charged his own people with cut rods to strike the sea (just as Xerxes, at the bridge of the Hellespont, scourged it with iron chains), saying: «Why did we find it here? And why did we not proceed further, plundering the inhabitants?» Having heard of this huge booty and captivity, the emperor took it heavily and was saddened, and while at table said such things: «Alas, alas, is there not found any man who might maintain a sincere love toward our empire and toward the Christians, so that, moved by a ready spirit, he might depart from here and fight against the impious Amer?» ^B The emperor having been so affected, Petronas, brother of Theodora and Bardas, arose 81 and said to the emperor: «Indeed God has given to your glorious empire many subjects who love you very much, Master, and are prepared to die for the sake of your love; but in war, sometimes prosperous things occur, and sometimes adverse ones, and no man is able to promise himself a certain and indubitable victory, for this is known to God alone.» Therefore to these things the emperor replied: «Then, O Petronas, do you decide to depart and attack the enemy, and to put yourself in danger for the sake of the Christians and my empire?» Replying to him, he said that, «I am in readiness, O Emperor, to pour out the handful of blood that is in me, both for your empire and for the sake of those who share my faith.» Having been confirmed by these eager words, the emperor ^C appoints him to lead the cohort of the Schools 84. He, becoming prompted by the words of accusation, joined his deeds to his words, having set out directly against the enemy with select men, not burdened by an excessive multitude. ^D This matter did not escape Amer: for a certain deserter approached him and said: «Be it known to you, Amer, that Petronas...

^A he who belongs to the emperor’s kin and possesses his respect, has been eager to gird himself for war against you; hence, he has ordered him to lead the entire army. By him has all the army of the themes been gathered and armed, preparing the battle against you.» Then Amer revealed to his ^B subordinate commanders what he had heard, inquiring what one ought to do in response to this. They answered him unanimously: «The feat we have performed against the dominion of the Romans, O Amer, no one before us has achieved. There is no need for greater exertion, but only for the road toward our own country through which we may arrive. And if Petronas, pursuing us, should overtake us, then we will draw up in battle array against him; but if this should not happen, we will go away to our own lands in any case.» But Amer himself, as if he were some other man, arrogant and overweening, said: «I shall not by any means carry out your counsel, lest he impute cowardice and flight to me; therefore, I am going forth to battle ^C against him.» Having traversed from Amisos about 500 miles, he arrived at the Amysian [pass], which marks the border of Paphlagonia and the Armeniac theme, into the place called Porson, where a mountain stands, at which Amer pitched his tents; he himself was on one side of the mountain, and Petronas on the other. But when night had come, Petronas sent out some of his excellent commanders to ascend the mountain and occupy it, so that the enemies might not hold it. Amer did this same thing. And when they met on the ascent ^D of the mountain, God caused His people to prevail, and they courageously attacked and cast down those who had ascended, and Petronas ascended the mountain with all his multitude. A conflict having taken place on both sides, God, who looks upon the humble and the meek and him who fears His words, who resists the proud, strengthened the one and weakened the other. And immediately Amer paid the penalty by the sword; he being killed, his entire multitude was dissipated and perished by the sword, and almost everything was destroyed, except his son, who, having crossed the Halys river with one century [of men], was nevertheless met and captured in the Charsian theme by the merarches called Machæras, along with those who were with him, so that almost no one—God acting miraculously with a high arm—was left to report what had happened to the remaining Saracens in their city. When this was announced to the emperor, the city was exhilarated with abundant joy, and Petronas was decorated with the glory of the masters. As au-

some say, it was then that Bardas, having routed the enemies with his own brother, obtained the proclamation of Caesar during the days of Easter, in the tenth indiction. ^B

When the leader of the Bulgarians learned of this, and had been overcome by such a success, he inclined toward a peaceful state, even though he had previously been fierce. Moreover, his subjects were being oppressed by famine; whence they naturally recalled the Homeric oracle to themselves:

"Tristes sunt mortes miseris mortalibus omnes, Sed quam dira fames affert tristissima demum est."

They were so moved by this that they all readily admitted the baptism of the Christians, and their leader himself wished to be called Michael after the name of the emperor, and certain distinguished priests were sent there to strengthen the Christian religion.

As for Caesar Bardas, wisdom was a great concern to him, although this concern also looked toward ostentation. He therefore gathered the wise men in the Magnaura, so that some might teach philosophy, others geometry, others astronomy, and others grammar, having appointed them there to teach those who approached them for free. And he labored so much in this concern, that he constituted that great philosopher Leo as teacher in philosophy, and his student Theodorus in geometry, and Theodegius in astronomy, and Cometas in grammar, and provided them with imperial largesse. ^C Visiting them often out of zeal and considering the aptitude of each of the students, he sustained them with good hopes, and he made the teachers of these same students more diligent with benefits, so that the seeds of learning from that time until this day, having taken increase, have borne many fruits consigned to the monuments of literature in memory of him. Furthermore, he was not easily corrupted by gifts, although he pretended to be so: he hungered vehemently for riches, and many possessions ^D

^A and indeed precious things, the acquisition of which he necessarily undertook. For he was overly ambitious regarding pomp and to the extreme degree regarding public displays of honor, drawing to himself stubbornness and arrogance, even if he did so with simulated prudence and a pretense of administrative stature, being inferior to those who were truly noble. From which he harassed the empire, lording it over the emperor Michael, to whom it often happened that he was despised by the senators, perhaps because the emperor was too given over to the spectacles and the hippodrome, neglecting better customs, or perhaps because he was being tossed here and there by his youthful age.

But Bardas was not only tumultuous out of a desire to rule; he also ^B did not cease to violate the Church, to the point that he formed in his mind the intention to remove the venerable Ignatius from the patriarchal throne, because he had once been excluded from communion by him on account of some detestable crime, which led to suspicion. Although he was frequently received back by him, because he did not obey his admonitions and counsels that he should examine himself according to what was ordained by Paul, he approached the one who sanctifies without reverence, and frequently; for which reason, on one occasion, because of his indifferent audacity, he was repelled with a reprimand. And he threatened him, with harsh insults, that he would remove him from his high priesthood, and would even add cruel lashings: he who, a little while later, rendered such a man of virtue vain through the machinations he devised against him, and cast him out of the church—he who, after his four-year tenure of the throne and the death of the thrice-blessed Methodius, had been pre-selected by election, ^C with the greatest reverence, by the orthodox fathers, the peers of those great men in virtue, Basil and Gregory, the sons of the emperor Leo, and even though they were diminished by reason of their father's infamous heresy, in such a way that he might henceforth ascend to the highest of the honors of the great.

Bardas introduced in his place the patriarch Photius, in some things better, in others inferior. In the descent and ascent of these, when many had been summoned from the senatorial order and had sanctioned this with their assent, Constantine alone, of whom we have spoken, did not consent, saying it was not lawful for any of the number of the laity to be enrolled for such things. Not only did matters proceed against him to this extent, but he was exercised ^D with many punishments, to the point that he nearly lost his life, and such that upon the ground

^A he was stretched out in the form of a cross, with his hands and feet bound, and from there he suffered pains and afflictions. Nor did his torments end here; rather, they advanced for the worse. He was handed over by Caesar to Theodore, called the Fool, that he might undergo the most cruel of treatments, and also to John Gorgonites and Nicholas Scutellopes, to be shut up in the celebrated church of the Apostles, where the monuments of the emperors are, so that he might be vexed by hunger and thirst and even more so by bodily torments. They left him there, naked, placed upon the sarcophagus of Constantine Copronymus with his legs spread wide. It was winter, and the season was quite severe; the back of the stone was sharp, and the entire stone was freezing to the touch, both from the time of year and by its own nature. ^B Consequently, that athlete began to pass pus mixed with blood from his bowels. The pain was such as you surely know, all of you who have experienced dysentery from the cold. For while the intestine is weakened by the biting of the cold and inflammation, the sufferer is immediately stretched tight by the pains; then he grows deathly pale, and because of the density of the air, he shudders with pain as the blood coagulates into clots on the surface, which causes digestion to fail. But also in the depths, while the spirit within the heart is compressed and grows thick due to the constipation of the exterior, the pain is more exacerbated in the affected part, as the force of the evil is driven there. Thus, enduring dire torments, the most blessed man, although he had been variously weakened by castration and old age, did not speak evil to the Lord concerning the things he was suffering, nor did he consider them to be a sure or unambiguous cause for complaint ^C against his oppressors, nor did he judge them according to the companions of the man from Ithaca:

Better it were to perish in an hour, than to live, Or long to be harassed in dire conflict,

that is, the conflict with Caesar; for it was not his ^D

^A struggle with flesh and blood was his struggle against the principalities and powers of darkness in this present age, or—to speak more precisely—the contest was equal against both. Therefore, the Lord stirred up one of those who were with the blessed man for the purpose of guarding him—not for harm, but for consolation, since he was in danger for His sake. ^B This was Constantine the Armenian, of whom I have often made mention. Acting very secretly, he would carry a small glass vessel full of wine, and moreover bread, and sometimes apples, and would wait for the departure of the cruel men to provide a brief respite; then he would enter to the holy man, take him down from the sarcophagus, and show him mercy, relieving his misery, if only for a short time, until their return. The blessed man rendered him great thanks after his deliverance from those evils; for he did not yield to the vexations of the Caesar, though he was a relative, knowing that he ought to render unto God the things that are God’s and unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, so as not to provoke the Most High.

^C Now, as for the games, the Emperor Michael was engrossed in them at the magnificent palaces on the Propontis, where the temple of the great martyr Mamas is situated. He would hold frequent competitions there, driving the horses in the chariot himself, with all the usual accompaniments for the contest brought together in the imperial city. In that temple, a precious image of the Theotokos stood upon the imperial throne, from which the Emperor used to receive the prizes of victory. And he was so practiced at the equestrian contests, that once, while driving with the aforementioned Constantine, his chariot was overturned by an accidental turn, and he nearly perished in the wreck of the chariot. Hence he was even more despised.

But he became much more contemptible ^D on account of the false patriarch and the most foul clergy associated with him, who contended in an unholy rivalry with the true patriarch, and made the metropolises infamous by occupying the thrones, and mimicked the most holy things with execrable sacrifices; so that, consequently, he was held as profane by the entire multitude of Christians, who prayed for the dissolution of the empire upon him. Which indeed happened not long after, preceded by the murder of the Caesar, of which it is said Emperor Michael was an accomplice, his affection toward him being not very firm or constant. In which state he himself received his own final punishment, as will be told in this place.

^A Both then together prepare a naval expedition against Crete, and they assemble the whole military host by land and sea, and they themselves intended to set out. But when they had reached the place called Cepos, plans immediately took hold against Bardas the Caesar. For these things had been ordained there by divine and imperial nod, so that it might be revealed even to Bardas himself, to whom the attempt looked. For a few days before the departure, Bardas entered his own house and, having called for his known associates, he bestowed upon them a final greeting and, after feasting with his closest friends, he distributed legacies, divining his own destruction. He therefore departs to a neighboring monastery, which is named after the Hodegoi. But as he stood at the portal of the propitiatory, holding a torch and making vows for his departure, there his chlamys was pulled from his shoulders and fell openly. When he perceived this, he implored the Theotokos with weeping and fervent prayers, beseeching that he might be delivered from the evils that were threatening. ^B

But not only was this omen given to him in this matter, but another sign also preceded it. A dream appeared to the Caesar, fashioned as follows: that on a feast day both the emperor and the Caesar were going up to the temple of the Wisdom of God with the accustomed splendor; and as they had approached what looked like windows, angels appeared to them in these, wearing white garments, and in the inner sanctum a certain old man was seen sitting on a high throne. Who was this? Peter, the chief of the apostles, and Ignatius was supplicating him on his knees with tears for the things he had suffered in contempt; he, sympathizing with the bitterness of the matter, said to him that he would receive vengeance from the hand of the Lord. Upon this word, to one of the two standing by him as though in charge, clad in golden garments, he gave a small sword and, having nodded, commanded that the emperor be separated to the right, but the Caesar—calling him hateful to God—to the left, and that he should be cut to pieces with that sword. As he went out, he also said concerning Michael that he, too, should expect the stroke, calling him an impious son. ^{C D}

^A Another sign also followed concerning the death of the Caesar. While he was staying at the Cepos, a garment of a size shorter than it should have been was sent to him by his sister Theodora, on which a partridge was embroidered in gold. Upon receiving it, he asked why it was shorter than usual, and what the partridge was inscribed to signify. He discerned the solution to both: by the partridge, it seemed, the guile of the sender was indicated, for the sake of avenging the murdered Theoctistus; and by its short length, he conjectured the brevity of his own days. ^B Whence, he also gave orders to the patrician Antigonus, the head of the Scholae, his son, to gather all his forces and direct his journey toward the imperial city. But he showed himself sluggish regarding his wish, and matters relating to how he should conduct himself toward the Emperor Michael became more manifest to the Caesar. Moreover, not long before, after a most terrible earthquake—of all that have ever been recorded, the most horrifying—the statue which had been erected on a column at Saint Anne’s, known as "the Second," had fallen. When this was announced by the Caesar to Leo the Philosopher, it was clearly interpreted by him that he who was second to the first emperor would die, and that Basil was being pointed out with an index finger as the successor to the Caesar Bardas; for this reason, he viewed him thenceforth with a hostile eye.

^C And these things came to pass for the Caesar exactly as they had been prophesied. For when they had settled at the Cepos, the Emperor was indeed performing the functions of the empire, but the Caesar was grasping at the empire more and more, and was becoming excessive beyond the Emperor and the others among his ministers and household. Those who took this matter heavily devised a treacherous plan against him, that he might be killed, but they feared his retinue of associates, lest they be overcome by them. Therefore, they organized a horse race involving Antigonus, and they drew him far away from the imperial tent; they also drew away the actors of the leading roles of the Caesar along with him, so that, while those men were preoccupied, others might attack the Caesar while he was devoid of guards and kill him. Then Sabbatius, the Caesar's son-in-law, a patrician and logothete of the course, having approached the Caesar, who was together with the Emperor, and...

reading the public reports ^A *perlectis publicis relationibus recedente*, and having then marked himself with the sign of the cross—as the leader of the plot—the sword-bearers who were lying in wait in a hidden place in the tent rushed upon him and, in the sight of the Emperor, cruelly slaughtered and cut the Caesar to pieces on the twenty-first day of the month of April, in the fourteenth indiction: among whom a certain Chaldus was found, whose surname was Tziphinarites. When, therefore, the seditious assault had suddenly broken out, and the Emperor had been enthroned ^C and involuntarily struck by the fallen body, Constantine, the drungary of the imperial watch, protected the Emperor so that he would not be killed with him, acting as a faithful protector and showing, to the point of risking his own life, his benevolence. And perhaps both would have perished, had not that same man, with auspicious acclamations and his own hands, brought aid, given courage to the Emperor, and led him away from the murderers, being endowed with virtue and benevolence. Furthermore, the murderers, having cut the corpse into many pieces, hung his genitals on a pole and paraded them about as a spectacle. On account of the Caesar, no small crowd was running together, and a war would have arisen among them, had it not been repressed with all strength by the same Constantine, through whom certain evils were prevented. But most things were being carried along in a more disturbed state than the Icarian Sea when a fierce Eurus blows, and no one was thinking about affairs concerning the waging of war against the enemy, but each was concerned separately, one about the Caesar, another about the magnanimous Basil, another about the Emperor himself, by whom Basil was greatly beloved. And immediately the Emperor returned to the imperial city. ^C Basil, moreover, drew his lineage from the ancient Arsaces the Parthian, who acquired for himself the empire of the Assyrians through the steadfastness of his soul and body, and thereafter from King Teridates, who was of the same stock, and indeed also from Philip and Alexander, the most excellent of princes. He was born in Macedonia to parents who were not obscure or ignoble, and having been excellently educated by them, just as some Achilles by the centaur Chiron, he practiced the studies and deeds of brave men and became illustrious.

^A And, in fact, remarkably, he entered the Queen of Cities through the Golden Gate, resting nearby at a monastery which is now dedicated to the martyr Diomedes, but which formerly belonged to Elias. He entered the city against his mother’s will; and indeed he would have been held back by her, had not a dream she saw been explained by experts and those in the know. For she had seen a great sprout grow, as once for Andame, and it adorned her house with flowers; and a great trunk, rising from the earth with gold, and likewise branches and leaves were covered, and from this it was prophesied with an oath to her that from him would come the attainment of the empire, and its majesty, and that it would extend in length to his kin and descendants, and that it would bestow sufficient wealth upon the region from which he had been born. In addition to this, a bringing of good news had once come to the woman, that as the boy was playing in a marsh with his peers, an eagle had flown over his head and covered him with its outspread wings. And she professed that once an old man, from whose mouth fire breathed, and who said he was Elias, had indicated to her that the boy would possess the empire. ^B While Basil was staying at the aforementioned monastery, the martyr appeared in a dream to a certain monk, or as some say, to the head of the monastery himself, and ordered him to go out to the gate and bring in the one waiting there, who would be emperor, and whom he ought to cherish with shelter and clothing, as he was to rebuild that monastery. But he, having gone out and seeing the young man, emaciated, dirty, and unkempt due to his destitute state, imagined that a specter had appeared to his imagination, and he neglected to bring him in and care for him. For this reason, the martyr appeared to him again, rebuking him, and demanding that he go out and by all means bring in the emperor Basil and favor him with the necessary care. And the young man, having responded to the aforementioned call and

^A having accomplished the matter of his entry, by which he might, upon the seizure of the empire, be remembered and repaid for this. And he heeded this; for after he had put on the purple, he offered many and very splendid votive gifts to the venerable martyr, and furthermore he adorned the monastery with many possessions and restored it with buildings.

Then, however, he joined himself to a certain magnate of the imperial family, who for the sake of friendship used to frequent the same monastery, and to whom it was a concern to assemble for himself a band of young men who were conspicuous in stature; for when he had already found others such—though they were smaller, for Basil was endowed with a much greater stature than these—he boasted of them vaingloriously. This man was called Theophiliscus: against whom a competition of handsome and strong young men ^B was set in motion by the emperor. And Antigonus, his most beloved, was sent to him by the Caesar, under the pretext of being entertained at a banquet, and together with him also the frequently mentioned Constantine. And when they had been sated with food, cheerfulness and playfulness were also stirred up, and having summoned those of his household who were suited for wrestling, a match was immediately instituted. And all the athletes and wrestlers of the emperor and the Caesar defeated the others, except for Basil, who was not present at the wrestling. Wherefore he too was called, and was brought to wrestle with the best of them.

Constantine, being affectionately disposed toward him on account of [their] affinity, ordered the ground to be strewn with straw, so that Basil might not perchance slip. ^C Both therefore came together, both met for the wrestling; and one of them attempted to lift Basil aloft, but not enduring Basil’s counter-exertion, he was himself lifted up by him with great force, and was spun around with a very swift movement, and by that embrace which is called in the vernacular tongue *kata podrezan*, he was cast to the ground, having suffered an irrecoverable fall, so that the affair was a pleasure to all those present. And although he was sprinkled with water for a long time and in great quantity, he barely recovered himself.

When, therefore, Antigonus, with those who were with him, had gone back to the Caesar, he told him of the things that had been done. At which the emperor also, having been made aware of these things, summoned him along with two other ^D of the same age; and when he saw them, he approved of their appearance, and summoned him along with other peers

^A regarding whom he was much more astonished by Basil than by the other two, and he promoted him through various ranks of dignity and offered himself to greater favors. For whom God has foreknown as future emperors, these He also predestined and totally predisposed the signs toward that end. The Empress Theodora, having observed these, took no thought for the two, but on account of this one alone she was clearly brought into anxiety, exclaiming from the bottom of her heart: "Would that, O son, I had not seen him this day, such a man as is to be superior to our empire, just as my husband of blessed memory prophesied while he was still alive." Hence she set Basil over the grooms, and handed over to him an unruly horse to tame, which he loved very much. ^B Mounting it like some Alexander upon another Bucephalus, or like Bellerophon upon Pegasus, he rode magnificently. The feat was seen as wonderful and stunning in the eyes of all. And the master's love for him was receiving greater increments, so that he arrived quickly at the dignity of patricians, and was joined to a wife most beautiful, of noble birth, born of Inger, and after all these things he was named adoptive son of the emperor, then master, and became a chief among the guards of the bed-chamber according to some, and a little later would attain to the imperial glory.

When, therefore, at a certain time the emperor was at the palace which is by St. Mamas, the preeminent victor in martyrdom, a plan took root in him, albeit a ridiculous one, which he did not indicate to all who were about him. He commanded two of his intimates, in whose ^C spirit he had confidence regarding the proposed business, and he set out through the imperial city, and in the early morning of a certain day, as Pentecost dawned, having shut Basil into a certain bed-chamber, he signaled to those who were with him to strip him and to stretch out his hands. When this was done as had been commanded, Basil was struck with terror; but nevertheless, being strong, he

^A recovered his composure 34, and was reconciled to the emperor, and was struck by him with a double scourge of thirty lashes, so that he might keep a record of his affectionate intent toward him. And having entered the great temple 36 on the morning of the day the emperor was crowned, he showed him to the people on the 26th of the month of May, in the fourteenth indiction, and handed over to him such things as were fitting for the secondary empire. Showing him great love, he granted him things equal to his own, and furthermore, even provided him with things of greater eminence.]

So far did the will to satisfy his soul extend. Because of this, great envy was poured forth by many, who also intrigued for the dissolution of their concord and love, contriving in every way to cause discord between them, so that they might close the peaceful house of the Lord with enmities, at one time with deceitful speeches, ^B at another with writings, infecting their minds, being evilly disposed. For they persuaded them through these things that Michael would be killed by Basil, and that he himself would suffer the same from Michael out of inconstancy of spirit, calling him a drunkard and a fool. And as some say, Michael had a plan necessarily to kill Basil, and especially when he went out hunting with him, he had commanded someone to aim a spear at him. But others say this was not so; but that he was benevolently disposed toward him, even if he were agitated by some. Hence, those who thought it would be to their advantage stirred up the emperor to murder Basil; and as they could not persuade him, since he was not at all turned from his goodwill toward him, nor even from abhorring the homicide, they themselves perpetrated the slaughter with their own hands, lest they perish with him.

Thus, ^C grasping his own advantage from the homicide, and knowing that the empire had been given to him by God, and not as before, he rendered thanks to God, and inaugurated the temple of the incorporeal hosts, which he himself had built, very beautiful and admirable in its magnitude, beauty, and magnificence. When this was completed by the will and piety of the emperor, and when the sacred rites had been performed therein, he joined in spiritual joy, and there received the imperial crown from the hands of the high priest, establishing for himself another beginning of his empire, which he had obtained through the aid of the archangels.

^A He also bestowed upon his three sons, Constantine, Leo, and Alexander, an equal glory of the crown and empire; and he consecrated Stephen to the patriarchal seat, designating him for the future. 114 And as for the first of these, since he departed this life soon after, he was met with unexpected adversity; for the [emperor] had been more attached to him than to the others, hoping he would succeed to the empire, but he did not attain his wish. For to Leo, that renowned and most glorious prince, a stable empire was reserved, and after him to his brother Alexander, who was to be his successor according to the paternal ordinance. Yet even in this matter, wicked men corrupted the natural affection, somewhat weakening the paternal love toward Leo. But the sinews of their wickedness were severed, since there was no strength in them, and the sycophants were shamefuly driven away, and Leo took possession of the empire and fulfilled the paternal ordinance, being firm in virtue and intelligence. But these things [took place] later, after the demise of his parent.

^C When, in the intervening period, the affairs of war had been neglected, as indeed happens when scandals and obstacles befall the state—of which we have previously made mention—on that occasion the Ismaelite pride was lifted up, and they, being arrogant, armed themselves and made a very great invasion, such that they led their army as far as the Malagenoi and thence carried off the emperor’s cavalry, an event forever to be remembered for their military skill, but for our defeat, worthy of silence. When the emperor, crowned by God, heard of these things, he did not succumb to such unexpected events, but zealously sought to exact punishment for such deeds. 115 For having chosen one Andreas for this task, a man of prudence and one who pursued the experience of many things, and no less of courage (though he did not openly show it), as the truth of the facts demonstrated (he was descended from the western Scythians), the emperor appointed him as secondary commander ^D of the Opsician theme. Having arranged the army under him with strategic skill and encountered the enemies, he gained a very great victory and for the time being cast down their insolence; and because of this, and because he constantly conducted the matter with vigor, after the rank of patrician he successfully obtained the command of the Schools. And he rose up against the enemies much stronger, and managed the affair against them most excellently. After these things, not much later, he also acquired the rank of master.

^A And the 55 calamities from Tephrike were cast against us, for the evildoers there, having found an opportunity for an attack upon us, kept us occupied in wars against the Agarenes both on land and at sea. But nevertheless, the emperor overcame those arrogant ones, prospering through divine aid and the experience of his generals; and after them, he also campaigned against Germanikeia 33 and Samosata 34, distinguished cities of the Saracens, and their regions, and indeed even pressed hard upon Melitene through continuous raids, setting up trophies against them, and returned to the Queen of Cities with a brilliant victory 58.

Neither did the fleets of the Africans, through which all the West had been enslaved, cease to harass us by sea 59, in cities of Sicily 60 and Longobardia numbering up to 150 61, except for Gallerianum. The emperor Basil achieved the recovery of these 62, while Nasar and Procopius held the commands at that time. And the name Italy was found from Italus the father of the Sicels, who was master of the land of Italy, while his son was master of Sicania or Trinacria. But Italy is also said 63 to be named from a certain wandering ox, which the natives suddenly saw swimming toward them from another land, and as its owners were pursuing it, they shouted "Italus, Italus," which in their dialect is interpreted as "ox," or it took the name from a certain robber Italus, whom Hercules killed there. And Longobardia is so called from a certain Longobarbus 64 who first took possession of that region, because he wore a great beard; for among the Longobardi, *longa* means "great," and *barba* means "the hair of the chin."

The misfortunes of Syracuse 65 occurred at a certain time; for it was being besieged by the Ishmaelites. To liberate that city, the emperor sent Adrian, a courageous man, with a numerous fleet 66. He, traveling as far as the Peloponnese 38, made for a harbor named Hierax 67, but was hindered there by very difficult sailing for fifty days. And while he was being delayed there from sailing because of the winds that were trapping them, a certain one of the colonists approached him, bringing a grievous report, that yesterday at the fifth hour Syracuse had been captured. The name of the city is derived from the daughters of Archias who founded it, Syra and Cossa, or from a certain lake there, or from a spring once called Syra.

^A And to one who was inquiring into the truth and investigating how he knew this from afar, he himself replied, saying, “I have a farm in the place called Helos, at a distance of about eight miles. And yesterday evening, as I was walking around it, some of the shepherds came to me and said that they had heard from the demons dwelling there that Syracuse had been captured, and that they had been there and had thus certainly ascertained the truth.” But he, not believing it, wanted to verify the matter with his own ears. Wherefore, setting out to the farm at the first hour, he reached the designated place with the shepherds where those spirits were staying. When one of the shepherds asked them where they had been, they replied that they had been in the city of Syracuse and had sated themselves on the remnants of the Christian blood that had been shed; and furthermore, that they knew the man who was curious to learn of these things, and knew his name and his rank of dignity. Adrian, not yet believing these things, considered them to be trifles. But after the fifteenth day, the things which had seemed to him to be lies were shown by those who had barely escaped from there to be true. The foreknowledge—or rather, the knowledge of the deeds occurring—of the spirits of that place continued, as they say, ^B in that same region until the reign of the most pious Leo. Then indeed, having gathered the naval forces under his command, he arrived at Constantinople, and became a suppliant in a certain temple, begging for forgiveness for his faults. But because he had neglected his duty, and had not, as he claimed, been prevented by the difficulty of navigation, he did not obtain forgiveness.

At the same time, the African Saracens from Carthage, with sixty massive ships, each of which held two hundred men, invaded us with a hostile army and reached as far as Cephalonia and Zacynthus, which faces toward the west ^C wind by the place called Ichthys, and received its name from Zacynthus, the son of Merops. Having learned of this, the Emperor sent the patrician Nasar, a man experienced in many affairs, as commander with a fleet. When he had arrived at Methone, which was formerly called Pedasus, most of the soldiers fled from the ships and deserted them. This was soon reported to the Emperor, and with great haste by him

^A a messenger [1143║1144] was sent with orders regarding the place to set up a wooden scaffold and to hang the deserters upon it, doing this in such a way as to make the order appear manifest, 85 while secretly, at night, he took the thirty Hagarenes from the prison and handed them over to the Drungary who was in charge of his own guard, sternly enjoining him not to disclose to anyone what was being plotted, lest he be subjected to an intolerable punishment. For he had been commanded to burn the beards and the hair on the heads of those thirty Ishmaelites with fire and pitch, 87 to smear their faces with soot, to shackle their feet with double irons, and at a certain hour of an appointed day to have them beaten as nautical deserters with cruel lashes in the circus, and to have them led along—with reproach and accusation for their desertion—naked and mounted on donkeys as far as the Golden Gates of the imperial city; he also took care that no one among the bystanders should approach and speak with them. 89 When matters had proceeded in this way, he sent them toward Methone 90 to be hung as deserters and cowardly soldiers, and he ordered that no one of the local commanders or of the common people, nor even the supreme commander of the army himself, should be exempt from such silence; and so all the bound men were hung.

From this there arose a grief of no ordinary kind for the Patrician Nasar and the commanders who were under him, ^B as they blamed themselves for their desertion, for the one who had come from the Emperor affirmed that the Emperor would destroy with the sword not only the wives and parents of those who had deserted, but absolutely everyone. So it was done by this most clever device, that through the few condemned Hagarenes, he saved his own people. For, struck with fear, both their Navarch Nasar and the commanders who served under him, lest they too should ever suffer such a fate, necessarily resisted the enemies who, ^C because of their superior victory, were behaving with the utmost barbarity and besieging Zacynthus. Therefore, Nasar made an attack upon them and slaughtered them, by divine assistance and the intercession of the Emperor before God on their behalf. 93 But when our fleet had overcome the Hagarenes, a certain clear voice was sent forth from a valley, commanding them to proceed further. Whence they went through all Sicily and Africa, and also Lombardy, and by the fire of war and every kind of slaughter, they burned the Hagarenes in their ships and killed them; they also captured other merchant vessels, the number of which it is not easy to calculate, laden with various goods, ^D among which was a great abundance of oil, so that in those days the weight of a libra sold for an obol, and those things which were done then were celebrated by all as miracles.

^A And most especially among those who had gathered at Tephrice, both Paul of Samosata, and with him Cubricus and Montanus, and other various leaders of heresies, who were arrogant before, but were later subdued by the strong arm of God and by the prayers and the manifold cares of the Emperor. Having attacked them once and twice, he first laid waste to all their regions by taking captives and by burning, and then struggled against Tephrice for some time. When he returned unsuccessfully to the royal city, he entered the temple of the Chiefs of the Heavenly Host, which he himself had built, and beseeched them in contrition of heart and with sighs, that he should not see death before he had brought Tephrice to destruction; and again he marched against them with great forces, bringing upon them a great desolation. ^B In the course of its siege, a most terrible rumbling from heaven broke upon them, so that from this the structures of Tephrice were shaken, and the inhabitants believed that this terror had been brought upon them from God on account of their own deeds. Wherefore some of them resorted to the Emperor begging for mercy, while others migrated into the interior of Syria, so that on both sides their city became deserted of men, which was conquered when its leader, Chrysocheres, was struck with terror.

For this arrogant man, with Carbeas and Callistus, ^C had inflicted very many evils upon the Christians, just as his father had done, and having advanced as far as Nicomedia and Nicaea itself, and having traversed the theme of the Thracesians, he reached the region of John the Theologian, whose temple those who were with him entered, and brought in their horses and baggage, insulting it in a hostile manner. Therefore the Emperor wrote to Chrysocheres in order to establish peace, as he was a man of peaceful ways and truly compassionate, according to the oracle that says: "Be ye kind one to another and compassionate, forgiving one another, even as Christ also for our sake hath forgiven us," and would be content

with what he had acquired, and would receive from him gold and silver and garments, and would cease capturing and slaughtering Christians. But the fierce and faithless man was not moved by peaceful words. Wherefore he wrote back to the emperor: "If you desire, O Emperor, to make peace with us, surrender the empire of the East, and keep only the West; thus we shall make peace with you. But if not, we shall strive to expel you altogether from the kingdom." Sensing his madness, the emperor wisely remained silent and wrote back no more.

Two years having passed, Chrysochir came with his army as far as the city of Ancyra and the very Commata, and having seized much booty, he returned. But the Domestic of the Schools, keeping a distance of one day's journey, ceased pursuing; for he feared to be followed and seen. Chrysochir came into the theme of Charsianon and encamped at Agranas, while the Domestic ^B encamped at Siboron. And he instructed the commanders of the Armeniacs and the Charsianon, saying: "Take the leaders who serve under you, and some good cavalry, and provisions for about twelve days, and follow Chrysochir as far as Bathyrhyax. And if he should send any part of the army that can easily be overcome into the theme of the Armeniacs or into the Charsianon, signify this to us; but if he should depart from Bathyrhyax, come back to us." In the evening, therefore, Chrysochir set off and placed his camp in a lower place, but our commanders ascended a mountain ridge and remained in a certain place called Zogoloenon; ^C for it is difficult of ascent because of the crags, and it has a dense forest. But as the commanders were resting there, a certain dispute arose concerning valor, the leaders arguing among themselves which were the better men, whether those who were from the theme of the Armeniacs or those from the Charsianon. And while the Charsianites contended that the first prizes for valor should be granted to themselves rather than to the others, the Armeniacs said to them: "Why do we desire to contend further about valor with words? Let us both attack the enemy in deed; and then it will be manifest what each of us is like and who is braver than the other." The commanders, when they had heard about their contest and understood from it the alacrity of the soldiers, which pleased them, led them forward ^D and said to them: "Do you wish, O rivals, that we attack the enemy with God cooperating?" To which they replied with a ready spirit: "Indeed, and for this reason we bind ourselves by a great oath by the emperor's head that

we shall grapple with them. For the place where we are entrenched is one of the most fortified; and if we perform any brave deed against them here, this will be a trophy for us; if not, we shall certainly suffer no harm from them." Then, indeed, then the two commanders divided off men up to the number of six hundred, and left the rest in the tents of their chiefs with the banners, and instructed them, saying: ^A "We shall approach the army, and when they direct their arrival toward us, we shall join battle with them; and if they charge against us, come out of the camp and shout loudly, expressing a roar of a great multitude, so that they might think from this that the Domestic of the Schools is present with the themes." According to this command, then, when the commanders had gone out with their men and had approached closer to the enemy before the day had clearly dawned, the latter were aroused by the sound of drums. But some of them were with Chrysochir, others were lifting loads onto the baggage animals. With them thus divided, the commander attacked them with his leads, and with a loud voice, "The Cross has conquered," they sounded it as if for war. But they, suddenly terrified in their running, turning their backs, took to flight, neither daring to look nor to investigate who was pursuing them, as they fled from Bathyrrhyax for thirty miles ^B as far as the so-called Constantine's Hill, being severely cut down in the meantime.

Also, Chrysochir with a few whom he had taken with him had chosen to flee. Pullades, as he was called, a man of famous name, who was wearing a felt cap, catches up with him. He had been a captive in Tephrica, and because he was witty and pleasant, he had come into intimacy with Chrysochir. As soon as he saw him, he recognized him and shouted loudly: "Hither, commanders, hither, let the Domestic of the Schools come." Chrysochir escapes and says to Pullades: "Why, wretched Pullades, what evil have I done to you? Rather, I have bestowed very many benefits upon you. Go, and do not be a hindrance to me." But he answered him: "I know, Chrysochir, that you have bestowed very many good things upon me, and I trust in my Savior God that this day I shall be able to return to you my thanks." Moreover,

[... to give thanks to you.] Chrysochir, while riding, found a trench placed in his way, which his horse was afraid to jump across and stumbled. ^A Whence Chrysochir no longer thought to look at Pullades at all, but rather looked before him, lest he fall into the trench; and Pullades secretly wounds him under the armpit with a pike. Confused by this blow, his horse became restless and threw him off. Thereupon, the one most intimate to him for his attendance, one Diaconitzes by name (whom the most praiseworthy Emperor Leo, having converted him from the abominable worship of the Paulicians to a better one, had appointed *mensurator*, as it is called in the Roman tongue), getting off his horse, held and cherished his head, placing it upon his knees. ^B However, the incoming praetors seized him, cut off his head, and sent it as a gift to the emperor crowned by God.

Now, the emperor was most diligent in public affairs and in the management of state business, accomplishing many things, so much so that during the weeks of fasting, after the departure of the senators from the palace, he would enter the secretariat, where public taxes and revenues are collected, and would there resolve the disputes that arose in matters of business.

In hunting, ^C and in carrying burdens, and in leaping, Emperor Basil was altogether so excellent that in hunting he would surpass the Centaurs, in the ball game he would defeat the youths playing ball like King Alcinous, in wrestling he was stronger than Aristaeus and Aeacus and was a peer to Hercules himself, he would surpass Achilles in leaps, and in easily lifting burdens by hand he far excelled Hector, so that the poet’s verse would fit even him, as, without the aid of heavenly Zeus, he would lift the heavy load:

"Scarcely could two men, the best of the people, Lift it from the ground onto a wagon, such as Men now live; but he alone swung it easily."

In throwing the discus, he was superior to Halimedes and Ulysses, more skilled in horsemanship than Erechtheus and Celmes, sturdier in boxing than Eurymedon and Alcmon, fleeter in running than Aristomedon, Dictaeus, and Priasus, and far more accurate in shooting with the bow than Hymenaeus and Asterius. Of which I shall record a very few.

^A Once, when the Emperor was spending time at the hunt, a stag of immense size came out of the forest into the open field, and the Emperor striking its hind legs with a club, succeeded in breaking them. He had done this very same thing ^B to a wolf. Furthermore, when playing at ball in the forecourt of the palace or in the hippodrome assigned for horses, he never missed the ball, although many were competing and interfering in the game; and he performed this so skillfully and bravely that often, when he struck it, it was carried from the edge of the enclosure far beyond the goal, so that it could not be seen at all. He was also boastful regarding the wrestler belonging to the Bulgarian chieftain, who possessed an invincible reputation in the wrestling ring; the Emperor boldly sent him to the royal city to see if he could find anyone superior. The Emperor was troubled by this, but he transformed his distress into a positive outcome, descending himself to the wrestling ring, though with appropriate concealment; for, having changed out of his imperial garments, he approached the wrestler. And the Scythian was unable to lift the Macedonian, who did not yield at all to the effort; but the latter, having readily lifted him with robust hands and whirled him about violently, threw him to the ground, casting down the massive body with such force that, though he was drenched with a great deal of water, ample wine, and drops of rosewater, he was scarcely freed from his swoon, with blood flowing from his ears and nostrils; so that from this, those present greatly marveled at the event, which is still celebrated by rumor even today.

^C In his compassion for the poor, he was rich, generously providing for needs through the founding of hospitals, almshouses, and various types of poor-houses. Nor did he stop there, but he also renovated divine temples that had been weakened by age, bestowing on them strength and adding elegance. So that he not only took care of those things pertaining to the body, but also hastened to attend to those of the soul. For he did not consider it proper that the forum known as Constantine's, where the people congregated, should be entirely taken up by heaps of debris and be alienated from sacred concerns; wherefore he built a temple there dedicated to the honor of the Mother of God, sparkling in a way that was modest in size, but wondrous in beauty.

^D Such was that magnificent Emperor Basil, and such were his magnificent works. But having been previously stricken with a wasting disease of the bowels, following a certain fall at the hunt, then a burning fever having arisen in him, consuming all his vital...