Compendium of Histories

and to all who deal honestly in it? For poverty, as the man said, has been a bold impulse urging me to write books, so that I might not keep silent. Yet I have so far moderated this very thing, and shall so order it in the future as my circumstances require, that my labors may yield no less return to students of good literature than to myself. But what, beyond the considerations of public utility and the wish to deserve well of me privately, could have induced you to bestow this gift upon Cedrenus—that is not even to be imagined; unless someone were such a stranger in Europe and so ignorant of fame as to suspect that you, lacking the glory acquired by your ancestors and by your own merits, wished by the opportunity of this liberality to win praise and distinction for your name. Indeed, by the fact that at your own expense you bring to light and publish these noble books—which were otherwise buried in darkness—and thus rescue them from destruction, you both demonstrate your own magnificence to the fatherland and adorn the commonwealth like angels. You do this not out of a desire for glory (of which you have an abundance), but out of a legitimate and hereditary succession and imitation of that most praiseworthy hero, the man of pious and famous memory, Antonius Fugger, your father. Nor do you think it permissible for yourselves, when representing him to the fatherland in other matters, to allow anyone to think that in this unique and most praiseworthy endeavor you have degenerated from him. Farewell, most noble men and true Mæcenases, and cherish us, once received into the number of your clients, for we shall ensure with diligence that none of the benefits conferred upon us by you shall perish. Heidelberg, on the Nones of January, in the year of the Nativity of Christ 1566.

SYNOPSIS OF HISTORIES

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORIES

Translated by Wilhelm Xylander of Augsburg, whose version has been brought back to the anvil by Carolus Annibal Fabrotus.

1-3 Many men before us, lovers of God and students of history, have attempted to condense histories. For both George the monk and syncellus, starting from the beginning of the world down to Maximianus and Maximus the tyrants, ^A finished his work, and the confessor Theophanes ^B— [P. 1] Many men before us, lovers of God and students of history, have attempted to condense histories. For both George the monk and syncellus, starting from the beginning of the world down to Maxi-

NOTES OF XYLANDER AND GOAR

(1) Syncellus is the name of a dignity or office. It was thus that they used to call him who was to succeed the patriarch (as they frequently refer to the supreme prelate of the Constantinopolitan Church) after his death, as a kind of suffragan. Our author in the life of Constantine Monomachus, dealing with the Sultanic war and the capture of Liparitas; and the same is found in Zonaras. And under Leo the Iconoclast our author makes Anastasius, the syncellus of Germanus, the syncellus; under Leo the son of Basil, he makes Stephen, his brother, the syncellus of Photius; under Romanus Lacapenus, he makes Theophylactus, the son of Stephen of Amaseia, the syncellus; and others elsewhere. Where the word is derived from, as well as many others of this kind, is difficult to conjecture and not greatly necessary. What if he is the one who lives in the same cell with the one he is to succeed? Under Michael Stratioticus mention is made of a protosyncellus, as if to say the prince of the syncelli, ^C like Leo Strabospondylus, who was then the chief man in the republic for managing affairs. This seems to have something different from others. In these annotations I have decided only to report what seemed most necessary. Those readers who take this brevity as an excuse will do so, if we have not assisted them everywhere. ZYL.

Syncellus in the early times was nothing other than a participant in the fellowship of a society and common life; he was never a successor, since by the merit of virtue and learning, Nicephorus the Confessor attained the succession to the Constantinopolitan throne after Tarasius was taken from the living. More things sought out concerning the Syncellus will be explained in their proper places; what Xylander has reported concerning him—even if not plain and complete—must be approved, and will be inserted elsewhere more conveniently. GOAR.

* You have a longer version of this prologue, edited by Montfaucon from the Coislin codex 186, at the end of volume II. EDITOR OF THE FATHERS.

^A and brought matters down to the tyrants Maximian and Maximinus, and Theophanes the Confessor 3, taking that end as his own beginning, reached as far as the end of Nicephorus, who from being the general logothete became emperor. After him others also took up this task, such as the Sicilian 5 and the *hypertimos* Psellus 6 and others along with them. But they have missed the mark of precision, having made only a numbering of the kings and taught who became sovereign after whom, and nothing more. For Theodore Daphnopates [P. 2], Nicetas the Paphlagonian, and the remaining Byzantines 7, Nicephorus the Deacon the Phrygian, Leo of Caria 8, Theodore of Side, and his namesake of Sebaste 9, and Demetrius of Cyzicus 10, and the monk John 11, each having set forward a theme of his own—the one a eulogy, let us say, of a king, another a vituperation of a patriarch, another a panegyric of a friend—have fallen far wide of the judgment of the aforementioned men and differed among themselves.

^B Now, the *protovestiarios* 12...

GOAR’S NOTES (2) Maximian and Maximinus. The former was a colleague of Diocletian, nicknamed Herculeus; the latter was adopted by the same Emperor Diocletian as his son-in-law and Caesar. Cedrenus calls him Maximian in his history. Some write Maximianus. His name was Galerius. He calls them tyrants because they were hostile toward the Christians. XYL. (3) This man, following the son of Georgius Syncellus from the beginning of his history, ended his own work at the time of Theophilus and his son Michael, at which time he departed, being in charge of the monastery of Agri. GOAR. (4) Zonaras also calls him this in his inscription of his reign, in the third volume, page 99, referring to things slightly before what I have translated here for the sake of clarity. It is in Suidas in *genikon* that he is called one who calculates taxes or revenues. And our author makes mention of him under Basil the Macedonian, and shows in the same place, not far from the beginning, that *genikon* was the name of the office where monies were exacted in the name of public taxes or tributes. Otherwise, it is believed that by the word *logothetes* a chancellor or master of petitions or something of the sort is designated: it is, at any rate, the name of an office. This Nicephorus was a contemporary of Charlemagne. XYL. (5) Regarding the Sicilian, I write faithfully what Possevinus of Heidelberg [writes] in codex 394 of the library: "The Chronicle of John the Sicilian from the creation of the world down to the Emperor Michael, son of Theophilus, comprising the principal histories." Zonaras and Cedrenus make mention of him. So much for him. GOAR. (6) Who is this Psellus? Not one, but many, and they are *hypatoi* of the philosophers, not consuls, as though they were rulers, but supreme ones, as it were *hyper-hypatoi*. The first is Michael, the most learned teacher of Leo the Philosopher, and a more celebrated and older one you will not find, in Baronius’ judgment, concerning whom the author reports on page 550. The second is Constantine, concerning whom [he reports] on page 803. Possevinus ascribes certain historical [works] to the former. And since Curopalates testifies that Psellus wrote in his own time, it is entirely indubitable that the author is speaking of the latter. GOAR. (7) Those named [as] Curopalates, Joseph Genesius and Manuel the Byzantine. GOAR. (8) *Grammaticus* by surname, he was a commander of a Roman fleet and wrote the deeds of nine emperors after Theophanes. He still lies in the Royal Library. GOAR. (9) Augustanus, [derived from] Augusta, from Augustus. And just as there were many cities called Augusta in the western regions, so there were [cities] called Sebastea in the East by the Greek name. For Herod also called Samaria Sebastea, as Strabo testifies, and Pliny 3 mentions Sebastea in Cappadocia. XYL. One must never be called Augustanus (unless perhaps by Xylander the Augustan, speaking using Latin terms, though improperly) who was not born at Augusta, but held the bishopric of the church which is in Sebaste. GOAR. (10) Concerning this man, speaking in the custom of the bishop of Cyzicus, he would be judged. Was that man of Cyzicus, the Demetrius of whom the author tells on page 723 and 740, who successfully whetted his style against the heretical disciples of Dioscorus? Having held no discourse of the writers, he left it uncertain. GOAR. (11) ...To be understood is known. XYL. This is for me and several others, and Zonaras. The name, the profession, and the writings prove it. But those who consider Zonaras to be later than Cedrenus oppose this. Whence? Because the latter extended the thread of his narrative further. That is a weak argument: for Cedrenus desisted from writing his work before it was finished. GOAR. (12) I have nothing to say concerning Nicetas the Paphlagonian: for that Choniates was a Phrygian, even by his own testimony. XYL. Baronius praises this man, by the nickname David, as a most faithful writer of the life of the most holy Patriarch Ignatius and of the events of his own time (he lived indeed in the ninth century). Meursius quotes the same Paphlagonian in his Lexicon by his nickname. GOAR. Regarding his having used [the term], as when the Greeks write [v-names] and the like. For that this is less correct [than the spelling] with [phi]-names is taught by the fact that the number of syllables is increased. Nor do I think it is the custom for learned men to be put in charge of beasts; nor indeed are *eruditi* either honored or delighted by an empire over beasts. And so I suspect that the name is indeed that of an office, but denotes one who was in charge of the royal wardrobe, which seems to be the office of chamberlains today. Nor is it alien to the dignity and convenience of a king for them to have those who are literate constantly present for whatever purposes. Indeed the *vestiarii* are mentioned below in the year of Justinian, regarding whose carelessness the Emperor’s crown was lost. And they are often read of as being designated to the highest affairs, and things by no means to be entrusted to a *bestiarius*, as one can see in the marriage of the granddaughter of the Emperor Lacapenus to Peter, Prince of Bulgaria. Sometimes...

^A John, surnamed the Thracesian, endeavoring to pass on a more concise knowledge of those things which happened at various times, and having collected the histories of the above-mentioned writers and arranged them into a finished work, began his writing from the end of the reign of Nicephorus; and whatever was spoken with passion or for the sake of flattery, he cast aside, and delivered the history unadorned. We, however, having gone through the books of these men, have collected what was fitting, adding also whatever we learned from the oral traditions of the ancients. Indeed, we have also gathered no small amount from the *Little Genesis* [(13)] and from ecclesiastical histories and other books, and having composed them into one volume in a summary fashion, we leave it to those who come after us as food that is tender and milled, so that those who have read the books of the aforementioned historians may have memoranda (for reading produces remembrance, and through remembrance it nourishes and enlarges the memory, just as, on the contrary, neglect and indolence bring about forgetfulness, which certainly follows upon oblivion, obscuring and confusing the memory of things done), and so that those who have not yet encountered the histories may have this summary as a guide.

God created the heavens and the earth in the beginning. Having spoken broadly of the most essential of the elements, He subsequently explains the beginning of creation in detail.

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES

^B ...confusing) ^C and those who have not yet become acquainted with the histories may use this summary as a guide. [In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Having spoken broadly] of the most essential of the elements, He subsequently explains [the beginning of creation] in detail.

...that this narrative is the same in words, if you remove a few things, and constructed of the same elements, it was necessary that one should borrow from the other. Moreover, since the same authors of history are mentioned in the proem of both, Cedrenus expresses the name and work of John the Thracesian, of whom, as it were, there is no mention in the Curopalata regarding Cedrenus himself; which is an argument that that John, whoever he was, was [not] earlier than Cedrenus, nor the Curopalata: otherwise, how would he be unknown to the Curopalata if he had preceded him? Or for what reason, if that John, on the off-chance he was another person, as well as Cedrenus himself, were to be passed over in silence while the Curopalata followed in order all the other authors, would he ^D wish their names to be suppressed out of envy or laziness? It is better, therefore, to say that Cedrenus had not yet completed his history during the time of the Curopalata, but that the Curopalata had carried his further, and that Cedrenus, without labor and with an unchanged style of narration, transcribed many things from others into his own synopsis and plagiarized them. GOAR.

(13) This same book is called the Apocalypse of Moses, as Cedrenus notes a little later. Theodore Metochites, Zonaras, and Syncellus also mention this. It is, however, apocryphal; which, as I believe, perished to the great detriment of religion and letters, along with the Apocalypse of Enoch and other forgeries of the same sort. What it might have been is sufficiently clear from those things which are brought forth from it. Zonaras, in the beginning of his annals, prudently rejects it. The Jews have the Great Genesis, the Great Leviticus, etc., and therein are marvelous trifles. What follows concerning food, I have rendered word for word. Moreover, this is close to what he had expressed in a common proverb, as if to introduce it to us as a kind of preliminary taste, delivering the histories of all ages in a compendium. In which, however, he promises far more than he could have provided, as we have shown in the preface. XVI.

And he narrates the beginning of creation, saying: “And God said, Let there be light.” ^A One must know, therefore, that whatever existed before the constitution of this world was in light; for neither did the choirs of angels dwell in darkness, nor all the heavenly hosts, but they performed their proper ministry in light and in all spiritual joy. For darkness came into being from the spreading out of the sky and the things that were covered by it. Therefore, regarding these, God said: “Let there be light,” and there was light; for it was separated from the darkness, and was named day by the Creator. The first day is the first month among the Hebrews, called Nisan, and it is the twenty-fifth of the month of March among the Romans, and among the Egyptians it is the seventh of the month which they ^B call Phamenoth (14). On this day Gabriel also spoke his salutation to the all-pure Theotokos at the divine conception of our Savior God. On this day also, the only-begotten Son of the Father, after His ineffable birth from her, having fulfilled the entire economy, rose from the dead; which day the holy Fathers also named the Lord’s Pascha, taking the beginning of this holy day of the life-bearing resurrection from the year five thousand five hundred and thirty-nine (15) from the creation of the world. And some of the holy God-bearing Fathers said that on the same day—namely, of the month of March—the second coming of our Son and God and Savior Jesus Christ will take place, in which He will judge every soul, as the future age is to take its beginning again from this very day. That (16) on this same first day, which was the Lord’s day, that is, the first of the Sabbaths (17), God made heaven and earth, spirit, and light, and the day-and-night ^C (18) (and from what has happened).

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES

(14) It was a matter of religious concern for me to change anything, as I was using only a single codex, and that one written rather carelessly in many places. For that the Egyptians had more than twelve months, no one, so far as I know, has maintained. That the year was sometimes monthly, sometimes quadrimestral, Plutarch in *Numa* and others, and also Augustine in *De Civ. Dei* l. xv, mention. But these were in antiquity: it is established that he defined it by twelve months. Furthermore, that the month of March was called Phamenoth by the Egyptians, Theon testifies clearly in his *Arateis*, where the poet describes the primary circles of the sphere. And Plutarch clearly teaches that the new moon of the month Phamenoth is the beginning of spring, ^D and counts five thousand five hundred years from the origin of the world to Christ. But a truer calculation, demonstrated by Holy Scripture, teaches that Christ was born in the year 5963 from the beginning of the world, in the year of the city, at the beginning of the 41st year of the reign of Augustus; which Cedrenus also expressed regarding Augustus. XYL.

(16) I wished to indicate that once in my version, to be omitted hereafter. Recent Greeks are accustomed to prefix this mark to chapters of those things which they have collected from elsewhere in a disordered fashion into their commentaries, just as we commonly use the word. At Suidas's place, it is most frequent, and at Eustathius's. XYL. — The scholiast, having promised that he would omit several things henceforth, omits this also as a primary matter in the observations, the word being expressed in manuscript copies by a contracted mark […].

(17) St. Augustine to Casulanus, epist 86, cited concerning the "one of the Sabbath," Acts xx: “One of the Sabbaths, he says, was then called the day which is now called the Lord’s day, which is found more openly in the Gospels. For the day of the Lord’s resurrection is called 'the first of the Sabbath' by Matthew, but by the others usually 'the one of the Sabbath'; which it is agreed is the one subsequently called the Lord’s day.” So he. Before him, Justin Martyr had explained the matter thus: “For one of the Sabbaths, remaining the first of all the days, according to the number again of the revolution of all the days, is called the eighth, and being the first, it remains.” To this also belong things that Eustathius annotated to verse 173 of *Iliad* II. Which I annotated for the sake of the unlearned, and so that I would not seem rash to anyone. XYL.

(18) Day-and-night is a natural day, which is completed by the entire equinoctial revolution. XYL. — More learnedly and clearly, the literate Allatius, in *Concerning the Measure of Times* ch. 3: There is a similar space […], which is elapsed in the meantime while the sun, rising or setting or existing at midday, returns again to the rising or midday or setting. GOAR.

^A and darkness—seven works in total. Africanus, however, says that the first day is to be considered only by the intellect, ^A because the light which was created before all things was as yet undifferentiated and diffused. On the second day, the firmament was made—one work. It was called a "firmament" because the nature of the things above and below it is thin and rare, and it is called heaven (ouranos) because it is seen stretched out like a skin over one's head. On the third day, the appearance and drying of the earth, paradise, trees of all kinds, herbs and seeds—four works. The earth was named "dry land," since this name is proper to its nature by definition; for the strictly dry is earth. Since it cast off, as it were, a burden—the waters that lay upon it—it was then commanded to bring forth growth. It was commanded to bring forth a living soul, so that from this the difference between the soul of the irrational creature and that of the human might be known; for the soul of the irrational creature grew from the earth, but that of man was formed from the divine inbreathing. And that the soul of irrational creatures is earthly, it is possible to know again from the Scripture itself. For it is said: "The soul of every beast is its blood" (Lev. XVII, 14). But blood, when it coagulates, is changed into flesh; and flesh, when it decays, is dissolved into earth. For this reason, logically, the soul of the irrational creatures is earthy. ^B On the fourth day, God made the sun, the moon, and the stars—three works. With the coming into being of the luminaries, a manifold benefit was provided to the whole, both from their shining and irradiating the world richly with their own brilliance, and from their rising and setting, which brings about the counting of the times; and also from the signs, as is the case in the appearance of the moon. For being thin and clear at the tips during the day, it promises steady fair weather, but when it appears with blunt tips and reddish, it indicates that either violent water from the clouds or winter is about to occur. Likewise, if the sun becomes coal-like and appears reddish in its rays or its radiance, it indicates that a violent commotion is about to occur. And witnesses to these things are sailors, farmers, and travelers. On the fifth day, the creeping things, all that swim, sea monsters, fish, and all that live in the waters. ^C Xylander and Goar's Notes. (19) Africanus was an ecclesiastical writer of great name. Eusebius cites his letter on the genealogy of Christ to Aristides in Book VI of his Ecclesiastical History, and Augustine in his Retractations and elsewhere. Gottfried of Viterbo, who wrote his histories around the year of our Lord 1160, affirms that he possessed the chronicles of Julius Africanus written under M. Crassus. I think this proceeded from a foolish man, who, while reading "Marcus," wrote "Crassus" by a crude error, not knowing any "Mark" beyond M. Crassus. For who does not see that this should refer to Antonius? Indeed, our Cedrenus states elsewhere that he flourished under Commodus. Eusebius, in his Ecclesiastical History, Book VI, states that he became known under Maximinus. Eusebius cites the books of Africanus in his Evangelical Preparation, Book X, and elsewhere. However, the passage is obscure, since Cedrenus says in one way what is perceived by the mind alone, and in another way what is indicated under something else. It does not please me to philosophize about these things, since there exist most learned disputations on this matter by Basil, Ambrose, Augustine, and others. XYL. (20) The word ^D firmament seems to correspond in no bad way. Cedrenus interprets it concerning heaven: others understand the air, with whom agrees Abnezer of the Jews, a man who is said to be most learned, as Kimchi testifies in Ps. XIX. And the Jerusalem Targum, for the word to which it corresponds in Genesis, has put "air," as Elias Thesbita is my witness. But it was not my place to change anything. Furthermore, it is a customary use to call the land "arida" (dry) and "sicca" (dry). I do not know if the epithet used as a substantive is found among the Latins, unless one receives these Virgilian usages, *donec rostra tenent siccum* (until the beaks hold the dry land), Aeneid X, and elsewhere *exsilit in siccum* (he leaps onto dry land). Homer indeed said in the Iliad that the earth and sea swam with the vocabulary of wet and dry: for it is solid and compact and properly distinguished from the liquid. Now, the opinion that "caelum" (heaven) is said from "videndo" (seeing) is accepted: and we have observed that among the poets in the Doric dialect it is placed as *ouranos*. XYL. (21) "Of all flesh" (omnis carnis), is in Leviticus XVII, our text has "beast" (ktēnous). XYL.

^A and moreover fowls, God created: three works. On the sixth day, the four-footed animals, those which creep upon the ground, the wild beasts, and man: four works. All the works together are twenty-two, equal in number to the Hebrew letters, and to their twenty-two books [(22)], and to the twenty-two successions of generations from Adam to Jacob, as is set forth in the Lesser Genesis, which some say is also a revelation of Moses. This book says that the heavenly powers were created on the first day. But why, some ask, did God bless the seventh day and not all of them? We say, therefore, that each of the others possessed its blessing from the creation that took place upon it; but because this day alone was destined to remain undisturbed, no creation having taken place on it, for this reason it too was blessed and sanctified by God, and was called the Sabbath, as a day of rest ^B, and as a type of the seventh millennium and the end of sinners, as Josephus and the Lesser Genesis testify.

The wild beasts and the four-footed animals and the creeping things were of one language with man before the transgression, because, he says, the serpent spoke to Eve with a human voice. Now every rational nature [(23)] is according to the image of God; but these are not according to the image of God. For we acknowledge that the serpent spoke to Eve, becoming a mouth for the intellectual serpent, by whom, having acted as one accustomed to man in contrast to the other wild beasts, he deceived the forefathers, and who after this also spoke in inanimate idols to those who had been ensnared by him in manifold ways as idolaters. But that the serpent was four-footed before, and after the wicked introduction ^C became a crawler, and that poison was placed upon his tongue, we do not disbelieve. And the serpent was called prudent, because he was to attack man, who is a rational animal and excels the others in intelligence. Others say that the serpent did not use speech by utterance, but that the first-created, being free from all evil, had very exact senses, and ones far excelling our own, so that their hearing was capable of every sound. For since man was brought forward, as it were, as king in the world, he was rightly born according to the image of God; for it was necessary that he who was to rule over the others should be a living image of the likeness of the almighty King, not manifesting his worth in purple and scepter and diadem—since the archetype itself does not have these—but in being adorned ^D with incorruptibility, immortality, and virtue; for by being honored with these, man preserves the image and likeness toward the archetype. Further, also the power of self-determination, the kingly and elevated (nature) of man, and toward the divine image

^A demonstrates most clearly. According to this reason, man is called the work of God’s hands on account of the dignity of his structure: for this whole thing is the execution of a plan. Furthermore, the words, “Let us make him a helper according to him,” [Gen. II, 18] are said on account of the future procreation of offspring: for the female helps the male in the propagation and preservation of the race. But when the woman was fashioned, as Adam beheld her, he was not affected in his mind as one who sees a woman, but he rejoiced in spirit, as if contemplating himself, seeing that she too was fashioned in a similar manner. Likewise also the woman, seeing the man, rejoiced greatly, considering herself to be according to him. The words, “You shall die the death,” [Gen. II, 17] signify, “You shall be mortal,” just as Symmachus also interpreted. “To work and to keep” [Gen. II, 15] means: to work—to render thanksgiving and praise to the One who provides so many and such great good things; and to keep—to guard, lest perchance, being thoughtless and having taken on forgetfulness of the benefactor, one should fall away from the felicity and well-being at hand. Adam is interpreted as “earthy,” and Eve as “life”; for they truly exist as leaders and parents of the earthly and carnal life, just as Jesus Christ is the new Adam, and she who bore him without man is the beginning and cause of the heavenly and spiritual life for all the children of God.

^B It is to be noted that some, as it has been handed down from antiquity, report that Adam spent a hundred years in Paradise. Others maintain that he was fashioned at the third hour, transgressed at the sixth, and was cast out at the ninth, setting as evidence that at the sixth hour the Lord was affixed to the cross, and at the ninth He died for us. Perhaps also, because it was in the evening that the Lord came to them, they were led to this conjecture. But the interval of three hours for the sojourn of our first forefather in Paradise is altogether narrow, and highly improbable, and unworthy of the magnificence of Him who manages all things by the unsearchable judgments of His wisdom. For when, in those three hours, would Adam have had time to impose names on all the land animals and birds? And when, after feeding on the other fruits in Paradise, and having become sated with their enjoyment, would he have brought into his mind the desire to taste of the tree which had been forbidden to him? Not to mention the mischievous subversion of envy and the assault and counsel of the serpent toward the woman; for she herself required more time. Wherefore, it is very probable and credible that the transgression was committed by them on the sixth day and at the sixth hour, and that at the ninth hour of the same day they were cast out of Paradise and from the life therein on account of the violation of God’s commandment; but that this happened finally in the seventh year, as some of the ancients declared. And yet, the great among teachers, John Chrysostom, in his exposition of the holy Gospel according to Matthew, says that Adam and Eve were cast out of Paradise on the sixth day of the first week, that is, on the same day of the creation of him; to whom we also give credence, and we ought not to seek further for those

^A things which the Holy Spirit has passed over in the divinely inspired Scriptures, lest for a small gain we draw upon ourselves great harm.

As for what is said: “Adam has become as one of us,” this is not to be understood as if he had lapsed into vice through disobedience, but refers to what was said: “In the image of God He created him.” Nor should anyone suppose that the tree was of such a nature as to impart knowledge of good and evil; for there was nothing harmful in Paradise, but the tree was set as a boundary for the ^B trial of free will. And that the tree was not the cause of knowledge for Adam is clear, for the commandment was given as to one who already knew both, the good and the evil, obedience and disobedience, so that the knowledge preceded the commandment. It was given because, as has been said, man was created with elective volition, and he had the liberty to partake of all the other trees, while being commanded by law to abstain from one only, and to realize that he was subject to the Lord who had also given the commandment.

As for the words, “Their eyes were opened,” it is not said as though the first-formed pair then began to see—for it is shown that they saw even before the eating, from the fact that it is said: “And the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes to behold”—but they are said to have had their eyes opened in that they lost that innocence which was ignorant of all evil, which had also rendered their nakedness indifferent to them. For every eye, since it does not possess understanding of itself, is of such a nature that it is ^C roused by the mind toward the object which it sees. Thus, many times, when the mind is occupied with other things, we pass by even our most familiar acquaintances as if we were blind, and when we are censured, we offer an apology, attributing the cause to the preoccupation of the mind. So, therefore, Adam and Eve were roused by the perception of the mind toward the vision. For “they knew that they were naked” signifies the revelation which came into the reason, not the opening of the eyes.

It should also be said that before the disobedience, because there was no season for the procreation of children, God had not given them the observance of nakedness, but they continued as if bodiless, not yet having a time for carnal disposition. But since the disobedience which followed brought in mortality, ^D it naturally followed that mutual shame was given to them; and they noticed later the difference of their forms, already provided for in the very structure of the body for the necessity of the propagation of the race.

With fig leaves they made themselves loincloths, hinting through that tree at the manner of their wrongdoing; for as the fruit of the fig is sweet, but the leaf is rough and most bitter, so every sin is shown to be pleasant in the act, but afterwards brings pain to the one who has done it. And concerning the coats of skin, the Theologian Gregory says that God declared him mortal, clothing him with the slough of mortality. For this is what the coats of skin signify, derived from the mortality of animals, so that by the dissolution of the body and its appearance, all sin might be utterly destroyed. For this reason he is also cast out of Paradise, so that he may not, by the exercise of his free

will, lay his hand upon the tree of life and make evil immortal. ^A

Satan in the Hebrew language signifies "defector" and "adversary." He is called "devil" (Diabolus) by the Greeks because he slandered God to men.

Cain was the first murderer among men; Lamech was the second, for he took two wives and committed two murders. The man and the youth whom he killed were brothers of Enoch, who, having prayed to God with a firm confidence of obtaining his request so that he would not be forced to see such a death again, was heard and translated from the earth.

^B Abel cherished justice; therefore, they say his body was hidden from the sight of men, so that those who would live justly after him might be called to a good hope. Cain was the first to invent the plow, and he built a city named after his son, Enoch. Furthermore, after his condemnation, he became a plunderer and coveted the possessions of others; he was the first to devise measures, weights, and land boundaries, and he gathered his kin together and taught them to engage in warfare. He was base from the time God cursed him, and so were all his descendants. He dwelt in the land which is "trembling" and lowly, separated from the progeny of Seth by the command of Adam. This Cain, as the "Lesser Genesis" ascribed to Moses says, ended his life crushed by the ruin of his own house; for he had killed his brother Abel with stones, and so he himself was likewise killed by stones.

Seth is recorded as the third son of Adam; he married his own sister, named Asuama, and begat Enos. The name Seth signifies "restitution." He was also called "God" because of the radiance of his face, which he possessed throughout his entire life. Moses was also endowed with this grace, and he used to speak to the Jews with his face veiled for forty years. ^C He also gave names to the seven wandering stars, which the Greeks call planets, and he devised the science of celestial revolutions. He fashioned two pillars, one of stone and one of brick, and inscribed these things upon them, foreknowing the destruction of the universe, and knowing that if it came by water, the stone one would survive, but if by fire, the brick one—which, as Josephus testifies, still exists on Mount Siris to this day. He also devised the Hebrew letters. For Seth was born in the two hundred and thirtieth year of Adam, and when he was twelve years old, he was weaned; and in the two hundred and seventieth year of Adam, Seth, caught up by an angel, was instructed concerning the things that were about to happen regarding the transgression of the sons of... ^D

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES

(24) He often puts *chronous* (times) for *eniautōn* (years), which is easy for anyone to observe. But something is missing before these words: therefore I have appended an asterisk. In Josephus it is not "Mount Siris," but *kata tēn Suridan* (in Syria). What the word "Egregores" means, I do not grasp. The matter of the beaming face of Moses is known from the Holy Scriptures, Exod. xxxiv, II Corinth. iii, etc. Xyu. George Syncellus calls the sons of Seth, who were beloved of God, pious, tall, handsome, and priests, who were captivated by the desire for the daughters of Cain, and also the children born from their impious union, "Egregores," being so called by the author from the beauty of their father Seth: GOAR.

^A. Having disappeared on the fortieth day, he returned and recounted to our first ancestors all that he had been taught by the angel. He was, moreover, exceedingly handsome and well-formed, as were those born of him, who were called Egregores and sons of God on account of the radiance of Seth’s face; they inhabited the higher land of Eden, living like angels near the paradise, until the thousandth year of the world. The author of all evil, unable to bear the sight of their virtuous way of life, wounded them with the beauty of the daughters of men, that is, of Cain.

[A. 9.] Regarding the text, "Enos hoped to call upon the name of the Lord God first," it means to be addressed by the name of God ^B. For Enos is interpreted as "man" according to the Hebrew sense; thus the Savior is truly the Son of man, according to the natural reasoning of Africanus. Enos begat Mahalaleel, and he Jared, from whom was born Enoch. He was the first to learn and teach letters, and he was deemed worthy of the revelation of divine mysteries. And the first period of five hundred and thirty-two years is completed; for this was the year of Seth, three hundred and two, and of Enoch, ninety-eight.

That Adam, having repented in the six-hundredth year, learned through revelation about the Egregores and the flood, and concerning repentance and the divine incarnation, and concerning the prayers sent up to God by all creatures at every day and night hour through Uriel, the archangel over repentance, as follows: ^C The first hour of the day, the first prayer is performed in heaven; the second, the prayer of the angels; the third, of the birds; the fourth, of the cattle; the fifth, of the wild beasts; the sixth, the standing of the angels and the discernment of every creature; the seventh, the entry of the angels to God and the departure of the angels; the eighth, the praise and sacrifices of the angels; the ninth, the prayer and worship of man; the tenth, the inspections of the waters and the prayers of heavenly and earthly beings; the eleventh, the mutual confession and exultation of all; the twelfth, the intercession of men, acceptable to God.

Adam fell asleep in the nine-hundred and thirtieth year on the very day of the transgression, and he departed into the earth from which he was taken, having left behind thirty-three sons and twenty-seven daughters. He ruled over the race of men throughout his entire life. His burial took place in the land of Jerusalem, as Josephus records ^D. At the same time Cain also died, the house having fallen upon him, one year after the death of Adam.

XYLANDER AND GOAR’S NOTES. (25) This means that he was called by the name of God; and he invoked Him, full of confidence. Furthermore, the passage appears corrupt: it is manifestly false that Mahalaleel was the son of Enos, when he was in fact the grandson of Kenan. What follows concerning Uriel is ambiguous: whether he taught Adam or whether he carries the prayers to God; which I have left as an ambiguity. I prefer the former, because Uriel is also said to have taught certain things after Enoch. XYL.

^A Seth ruled over the human race after Adam. In the 1200th year from the origin of the world, which was the fortieth year of the life of Jared and the seven hundred and seventieth of Seth, the Watchers, of the lineage of Seth, led astray, descended and took for themselves wives from the daughters of the sons of men, that is, of Cain, and begat those famous giants. These giants were, because of the just Seth, robust and of vast bodies, monstrous and on that account abominable (whence they also obtained their name 26); but because of the impious Cain, they were mighty, most powerful, and firm in strength, and their life was most dedicated to homicides, impiety, and lasciviousness. Some have called these "serpent-footed" [anguipedes], either because their spirit, become savage in the manner of poisonous beasts, contained no good thought, or as some have transmitted to memory, because while waging war against certain ones dwelling on high, they crept upward in the manner of snakes, prone on their hands, feet, and bellies, by whom also many were often killed by missiles cast from above. The Most High ^B destroyed many of these by casting down globes of fire or lightning bolts from heaven; but since the remainder were moved by no sense of punishment nor desisted in any way from their flagitious life, God later destroyed them all with a universal flood. These creatures swore on mount Hermonim that they would choose for themselves wives from the daughters of men, or the progeny of Cain; and they gave that name to the mountain, because they had sworn in it and bound themselves to one another with curses. These taught their wives sorceries and incantations. And first Azael, the tenth of their princes (for there were two hundred princes of those who descended), taught them to manufacture swords and breastplates and every implement of war, and then to extract gold, silver, and the other metals from the bowels of the earth. Similarly, each of the princes taught something: one the adornment of the body, another precious stones and tinctures, another the roots of herbs, another ^C wisdom and those things which would render incantations ineffectual, another astronomy and the observation of the stars, another astrology, another the consideration of the air, another the signs of the earth, another those of the sun and moon. So that there was no kingdom of the Babylonians or of the Chaldeans, as it pleased Berossus and those who followed him in opposition to the holy Scriptures, nor a principate of the Egyptians, as Manetho handed down, lying in his zeal to magnify the Egyptian nation. For the beginning of the kingdom of the Babylonians or Chaldeans is derived from Nimrod, who flourished six hundred and thirty years after the flood. Whoever, however, have written more fabulously about these matters have stolen what was pilfered from our divinely inspired Scripture and claimed it for themselves; through which the more simple-minded and the rest ^D are easily harmed by the nonsensical tales of these writers. That in this same year of the world... [alt-version omitted]

Enoch was translated into paradise, having attained the age of three hundred and sixty-five years. He was pleasing to God: "And he was not found, because God translated him."

That according to the so-called geometers, half of the inhabited earth extends in length to twelve thousand miles, and in breadth to sixteen thousand miles.

That we know the mountains of Ararat to be in the Parthia of Armenia (28); some, however, say they are in Celaenae of Phrygia.

^B That the ark was under construction for one hundred years, and was completed in the six hundredth year of the life of Noah, on the twenty-sixth day of the month of May, the first day of the week; the cubit by which he measured it is the greatest Egyptian ell; and for forty days and forty nights the rain fell. On the first day of the week in the month of April, Noah went out from the ark. Some say that on the same day as it had been closed the year before, it was opened, in the two thousand two hundred and forty-third year from the creation of the world. And offering sacrifices to God, he entreated Him never again to bring a deluge. God, therefore, approving the virtue of the man, promised this, establishing the rainbow as a sign.

That Noah was called Xisuthrus by the Chaldeans.

That before the flood there was neither nation nor kingdom; but there was a cycle of years. It is contained in the book of the Apocrypha of Enoch that the angel Uriel informed Enoch what the solstice is, and the year, and that the year consists of fifty-two weeks.

That Egypt, having been inhabited and ruled from the time of Mezraim, the second son of Cham according to the Scripture (and uncle of Nimrod, son of Cush, who was the first son of Cham), is called Mezraea by the Hebrews, Syrians, and Arabs even to this day.

That in the two thousand two hundred and fifty-first year, Noah planted a vineyard on the mountain of Luban in Armenia, and having sacrificed to God and drunk wine, he became naked.

That during the reign of Nimrod, Babylon was built ^C and the tower.

XYLANDRI ET GOARI NOTAE. (28) That the place is called a "landing place" by the Armenians, Josephus says, and that the remains of the ark are shown there.

(29) That the arrival was rendered possible... [Note: The rest of the commentary notes omitted as per instructions regarding apparatus.] ^D

^A Thus it is that Nemrod was the son of Chus, and a descendant of Enoch. Nemrod was also called Euechius. Those who built the tower were in all seventy nations, yet one single language prevailed among them all. Nomrod, the giant, the son of Chus the Ethiopian, provided animals for their food by hunting. Heber, the son of Sala, had been put in charge of the construction in the three-thousandth year. Afterward, when God had confused the language and all were scattered, Nemrod himself dwelt there, not departing from the tower, ruling over a certain portion of the multitude; the tower, as some recount, and Josephus himself, was cast down by a violent wind and shattered, and by divine judgment it smote him. This was the first kingdom ^B on earth since the time Adam was fashioned; they who say others existed are lying. From him is born Assur, who builds the cities of Nineveh, Rehoboth, and Calah. And it is manifest that the beginning of the kingdom occurred three hundred and thirty years after the flood (30).

Xylander and Goar's Notes

^A of the Chaldeans, that is to say the Babylonians, through Nimrod. They say that Eber alone, the father of Peleg, did not consent to the undertaking of tower-building; and therefore, when the language of the others was confounded, that of Eber was not lost. This is the language which Adam spoke, and this is the one which his descendants who succeeded him took to themselves, and patronymically called themselves Hebrews, and named the language Hebrew. A proof that this is the language before the confusion is the names of the ancients; for in the case of those for which the meaning cannot be explained in any other language, it is interpreted according to this one; for instance, "Adam" cannot be found to mean anything in any other language, but according to this one it is interpreted as "man"; and the name "Noah" signifies "righteousness," and "Chus" signifies "Ethiopian," and "Mestrem" signifies "Egypt," and "Peleg" signifies "division," and "Babylon" signifies "confusion."

^B That after the flood until the dispersion, only these three led the multitude piously: Noah, Shem, and Arphaxad the son of Shem, for 534 years. And the year of the world was 2776; for in the 2592nd year Noah the righteous fell asleep, being 950 years old. The count of the 534 years is this: Noah had the years after the flood, 350; Shem had 150 years; and Arphaxad had 38 years; together, 533 years, with the beginning of the others being taken in the fourth year. The writers of the Egyptians and Chaldeans are these: Manetho, who composed the writing on the Egyptians; Berossus, who collected the Chaldean matters; and Mochus and Hestiaeus, and in addition to these, Hieronymus the Egyptian. Those who wrote the Phoenician matters are Hesiod, Hecataeus, Hellanicus, Acusilaus, Ephorus, and Nicolaus.

^C In the 2572nd year of the world, in the 930th year of Noah, according to a divine oracle, Noah distributed the land to his three sons in this way: to Shem, his firstborn son, who was in his 431st year, he gave whatever land extends in length from Persia and Bactra as far as India, and in width from India as far as Rhinocorura in Egypt, that is, the regions from the rising sun as far as the southern part, namely Syria, which is also called Judea (for the ancients called the Palestinians "Syrians"), and Media, and he designated the Euphrates River, which would define the boundaries of Shem. To Ham, his second son, who was in his 407th year, he assigned the land which is to the south and to the west from Rhinocorura in Egypt, Ethiopia ^D and...

NOTES OF XYLANDER AND GOAR

^A and Egypt and Libya, Africa and Mauretania, as far as the Pillars of Hercules, that is, as far as the western and Libyan Ocean, having determined the Nile—which is also called Gihon and Chrysorrhoas (as if gold-flowing)—to be the river serving as the limit of his domain. To Japheth, his third son, in his four hundred and twenty-fifth year, he attributed whatever pertains to the north and to the sunset from Media, as far as Cadiz and the British islands, Armenia, Iberia, Pontus, Colchis, and the regions ^B towards the north (31) and the islands as far as Italy and the Gauls, Spain, and Celtiberia and the Lusitanians. Having thus divided the land and made his will in writing, as they say, he read it to them and kept it sealed up by himself until the year 2592 from Adam, in which he also fell asleep. When he was about to die, he commanded his three sons that none of them should invade the region of his brother or behave towards one another with any injury, for otherwise this would bring upon them the cause of discord and internecine wars. He handed his testament to Shem, as he was the firstborn son and the one most beloved of God, who also succeeded him in the rule and was allotted the special blessings from him, as is also reported in Genesis. And he fell asleep on Mount Lubar.

In the year of the world 2791, that is, two hundred years after the death of Noah, Ham’s son Canaan, acting wantonly, transgressed the boundary and entered the lands of Shem and dwelt there, violating Noah's command, together with the seven nations born from him: the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Girgashites, the Jebusites, and the Canaanites; whom God destroyed through Moses and Joshua the son of Nun, and after some time restored the ancestral land to the sons of Israel through the work of the Judges, ^C showing himself just in this too, as [those] from Shem [were preserved] through thirty-eight generations, [a period of] one thousand six hundred and eighty-seven years (32)... as far as [p. 14] Mastusia (33) near Ilium. Their regions are Media, Albania, Armenia Major and Minor, the Amazon region, Paphlagonia, Cappadocia, Galatia, Colchis, the Bosporeni, Maeotis, Derris, the Sarmatian Taurians, the Bactrians, Scythia, Thrace, Macedonia, Greece, Thessaly, Boeotia, Locris, Aetolia, Achaia, the Peloponnese, Acarnania, Epirus, Illyria, Lychnitis, Adria (from which the Adriatic Sea was named), Calabria, Italy, Gaul, Etruria, Lusitania, Greater and Lesser. Here the borders of Japheth end, reaching ^D as far as the British islands looking towards the north. He possesses the islands of Britain, Sicily, Euboea, Rhodes, Chios, Lesbos, Cythera, Zacynthus, Cephalonia, Ithaca, and the Cyclades, and a part of Asia that is called Ionia. The river Tigris bounds it, separating Media [index: entries preserved]

^A and Babylon. Thus the borders of Japheth are fulfilled, because it is in Scripture: “May God enlarge Japheth.” For he possessed the entirety of Europe and no small part of great Asia; it is therefore added, “and may he dwell in the tabernacles of Shem.” Not only this, but also by an anagogical sense, we understand that almost the entire portion of Japheth has embraced baptism and faith in Christ, which is signified by the tabernacles of Shem, since Abraham and the patriarchs also drew their lineage from Shem, from whom the propagation of the race is clearly traced in order down to Christ. But most of the nations of Ham even now remain in defection from the Christian faith, in the Indies, Ethiopia, and Mauretania; among which nations the Arabians and Idumea are also numbered, which peoples all rage against God and his saints, being ^B addicted to that curse to which God had made Ham and Canaan subject. Therefore Scripture pronounced Ham to be a servant to Shem and Japheth, with Ham himself being marked also through his son Canaan.

Two deluges were of celebrated fame in Greece: the first in Attica, in the age of Ogyges; the latter, years after, in Thessaly, under Deucalion when Cranaus, a native, was reigning at Athens. The Egyptians also seem to remember this deluge which occurred under Deucalion, saying that their land was exempt from the inundation. And indeed they rightly contend that Egypt did not suffer the deluge then, since that deluge remained only in a certain place. Yet they are entirely ignorant of the former, that is, the universal deluge; for the founder of their race, ^C Ham, the son of Noah, the father of Mizraim, from whom the Egyptians have sprung, had not yet been born.

The Assyrians, having deified Nimrod, placed him among the stars of heaven, and they call him Orion. He first brought forth the art of hunting; therefore they joined to Orion the star that is called the Dog. They also attribute to him the name of Saturn, the errant star.

As the nations were being divided, an Indian man appeared, tracing his lineage from Arphaxad, by the name of Andubarius; and he handed down astronomy to the Indians.

In the two thousand five hundred and eighty-fifth year, Cainan, while traveling through the plain, found the writing of the giants and hid it with himself, and he himself not only sinned in dealing with it but also taught others the same absurdity. Others assert that it was Sala who found this writing.

In the mountain of Libanus, marine fish were found in hollow places that had received the waters, testifying to the utter destruction of all animals that occurred in the deluge.

Lamech was the first to die before his own father, that is, before Methuselah.

From Adam until the deluge, according to the Seventy, two thousand two hundred and forty-two years are numbered, to which both the truth and the traditions, the authority of which has prevailed from of old through all the Churches, bear witness, and to the first

^A year of Abraham are numbered 3343 years from the origin of the world. Then, after other years, he went out from Charran and sojourned in the land of Chanaan, which is now called Palestine.

Phalec died before his father, Heber. Three thousand years are computed from Adam to the death of Phalec. Hence the names of the Greek gods take their beginning.

There was born from the line of Sem a man named Chus, an Ethiopian, who begat Nemrod, who is also called Orion, the founder of Babylon; and he, increased in power, was the first of men to reign, commanding the Assyrians. The same was called Saturn, with a name derived from the planet. He had a wife from the same line named Semiramis. She discovered reins and erected those structures called pyramids. They also named her Rhea, as she ruled over men with great power and authority and extraordinary terror. This Semiramis had a son named Picus, nicknamed Jupiter, and besides him, she had other sons, Belus and Ninus, and a daughter, Juno. Ninus, who built the great Nineveh, took his own mother, Semiramis, as his wife. Africanus, moreover, ascribes to Saturn another son, Afer, from whom the Africans are named; this Afer, having taken Astynoma as his wife, begat Venus, who is called Aphrodite by the Greeks.

Saturn, having been expelled from the kingdom by his own son Jupiter, came to the western parts of the earth and obtained Italy. Then Jupiter departed from the Assyrians and betook himself to his father, who yielded the kingdom of Italy to him; and there, having reigned for many years, he exchanged life for death and was buried in Crete. ^B After Ninus, Thurus reigned over the Assyrians, who is also called Mars, as being most warlike. The Assyrians called him Baal, or Bel, a god, and having set up a statue, they worshipped him with divine honors. After the death of Jupiter, Faunus, his son, held the kingdom; he was surnamed Hermes, for he was very eloquent and skilled in mathematical matters. He also discovered for men the art of extracting gold from the bowels of the earth. Venus, who was very learned and adorned with various qualities, married Adonis, the son of Cinyras, who was a philosopher himself; and they report that they devoted themselves to philosophy together until death. After Picus, who is the same as Jupiter, had reigned over the Assyrians for thirty years, he handed the kingdom over to his son Belus and to Juno, who was his sister and likewise his wife, and betook himself ^C to his father Saturn, who was already miserably enduring old age. The father immediately yielded the kingdom to him; and Picus, having been moved by power, ruled Italy for other years. ^D

is said. Belus, his son, held this name because he moved quickly. Having held the Assyrian kingdom for two years, he passed away. ^A His uncle, Ninus, having gained the throne, ruled over the Assyrians for 52 years. From his lineage also arose that noble astronomer among the Persians, Zoroaster, who predicted that he would be struck by lightning and consumed, and commanded the Persians to gather his bones from the burning, to guard them, and to revere them, promising that the kingdom would not be taken from their nation so long as they honored them. Thus, when he was reduced to ashes by heavenly fire, the Persians held his remains in honor, until, having neglected them, they also lost their kingdom. ^B Furthermore, Thurus, brother of Jove, succeeded Ninus in the Assyrian kingdom. Him his father Zamis, brother of Rhea, named after the planet Mars. This Mars was a fierce and most indomitable warrior, who attacked a powerful man of giant birth named Caucasus, who had sprung from the regions of Japheth, and having conquered him in war and killed him, took possession of his territory; afterward he came to Thrace, where he ended his life and was buried. To this Mars the Assyrians first erected a statue, and worshipped him as a god, naming him Baal, which means "Mars, the god of wars." After him, Lamis ruled over the Assyrians, then Sardanapalus the Great, whom Perseus, son of Jove and Danae, killed, and having taken the kingdom from the Assyrians, renamed them Persians after his own name, and ruled over them for 53 years.

^C Let no one who seeks the truth be unaware that this Picus, who is also called Jupiter, of all the impostors, charlatans, phantasm-mongers, wicked magicians, defilers, and foul ritual-performers who have existed from the beginning of time, was himself more defiled, more active in evil, and more abominable, given over from childhood until the one hundred and twentieth year of his life (for they say he lived so long) to adulteries, pederasty, and all kinds of unspeakable, foul, and abominable deeds, and to every manner of impiety and pollution, surpassing in his wickedness all those who lived before and after him. For he was possessed by a spirit hostile to God and the most impure of all evil spirits, ^D and for many years he ruled over Italy, God in His supreme long-suffering holding back His hand; and having corrupted all the beautiful maidens that he had seen with his lascivious eyes—the number of whom reaches seventy—and having deceived some with unspeakable and mystical apparitions, and having violated most of his own daughters, this evil spirit nevertheless persuaded the multitude to proclaim him a god. Truly, that which is still more base and absurd is that even after his death and burial (which he had commanded to take place in Crete), his kin built a temple and monument over his grave, on which they inscribed: "Here lies the deceased Picus, also known as Zeus." And after this, the stench of his God-hating and arrogant spirit...

which had traversed the orb of the world, filled the foolish hearts of kings, princes, peoples, and nations, until the incarnation of the Word of God ^A and the manifestation to the nations through the holy apostles and martyrs, urging every soul held fast in ignorance and impiety into the worship and adoration of this falsely-named god Zeus and his kindred demons. They record that his mother Semiramis, Zeus himself, and his lineage existed in the days of Abraham; for it was fitting that at the very time the devil had chosen to plot the destruction of many through the workings of this most detestable Zeus, the true God should also call the righteous Abraham for the salvation of many.

This Zeus, besides his other sons, also had Faunus, Perseus, and Apollo. But he called Faunus "Hermes" after the name of the wandering star; and after the death of Zeus, he ruled over Italy for thirty-five years, being a cunning man, a mathematician, and most eloquent. But since he was plotted against by his other brothers—for he was the son of a woman named Maia, whom Zeus had first taken in Italy, and after her the Theban Alcmene, from whom he had the three-night-conceived Hercules—he loaded himself with a great amount of gold and came to Egypt. ^B There, by reason of his lavish gifts of gold, his eloquence, his science of divination, and his oracles, he became favored and was considered a god, and upon the death of Mezrom, son of Ham, who was then ruling the kingdom of Egypt, he was immediately proclaimed king, and in his pride, and by predicting future events, he reigned over Egypt for thirty-nine years as a god.

As for Apollo, who had been possessed by the spirit of Python from his youth until the end of his life, the devil did not cease from this nonsense even after his death; for this is a most divinatory type of spirit, telling many things that are true, but for the most part things that are ambiguous and uncertain due to its ignorance. Hercules, however, was the first to introduce the practice of philosophy in the Western parts of the earth. His own kin deified him after his death and set him in the heavens as a star in his name. ^C They depict this Hercules dressed in a lion's skin instead of a tunic, carrying a club, and holding three apples, which they fable he took after slaying the dragon with his club—signifying that he overcame the evil and varied counsels of passion by the club, that is to say, by philosophy, clothed in a noble spirit like the lion's skin; and thus took away the three apples, which are the three virtues: not to be angry, not to be given to pleasures, and not to be a lover of money. For by the club, which is the steadfast soul, and the skin, which is the temperate mind, he conquered the earthly struggle of base desire, practicing philosophy even unto death, just as the most learned writer Herodotus has recorded, who also narrated that there were seven other Hercules.

Now Hermes, having become aware of the plot against him by his brothers, as we said—for there were about seventy sons sired by Zeus from various women— ^D

^A departed to Egypt, to the tribe of Ham, the son of Noah; they received him with honor, and he remained there, despising everyone and wearing a golden robe. He philosophized among the Egyptians, speaking to them of divinations, for he was naturally eloquent. And they worshipped him, calling him Hermes as he foretold the future and, as it were, provided them with divine responses concerning what was to happen, and supplied them with money; thus they called him also the giver of wealth, thinking him the god of money.

In later times, during the reign of Phoenix, there was ^B Heracles the philosopher, surnamed the Tyrian, who discovered the murex. For when he had ascended to the coastal part of Tyre, he saw a shepherd's dog eating the so-called murex, and the shepherd, thinking the dog was bleeding, took a tuft of wool from a sheep and wiped away what was dripping from the dog's mouth. Heracles observed the matter and, seeing that it was a marvelous dye, was amazed; and having learned that it came from the murex, he took the wool and brought it as a great gift to Phoenix, the king of Tyre. He, being astonished at the sight of the dye, ordered that wool be dyed in this way and a royal cloak be prepared for him from it; when he first put this on, he was admired by all, for before this time, men did not know how to dye colors. After many years, however, the Romans, having conquered the Phoenician territory, wore the true royal garment from the murex, which corresponded to the original one. After Remus and Romulus, Numa, who reigned over the Romans, when ambassadors from the country of the so-called Pelasgi came to him wearing cloaks bordered with scarlet ^C—such as the Isaurians also wear—was delighted with the form of them; he was the first in Rome to institute the wearing of cloaks: royal purple ones, having golden borders, and for the senators and those in offices and militancy, cloaks having badges of royal bearing, with a purple border indicating the dignity of the Roman polity and subjection, and he gave orders that no one be permitted to enter his palace without the form of such a cloak.

Phoenix, son of Agenor, was a wise man who wrote down mathematical philosophy in Punic letters. He also expounded on incorporeal principles, ^D the mutations of bodies, and the migration of souls into animals of a different kind. He was the first to set forth these things, as the most learned Clement left in writing.

After the death of Hermes, Hephaestus reigned over Egypt for four and a half years.

^A He was, they say, a warrior, who, in falling with his horse, broke his foot, and remained lame until his death. The Egyptians deified him because he enacted a law that their wives should be content with one man and live modestly, and he established punishment for those who committed adultery; or indeed, as Plato maintains, because he demonstrated to them the manufacturing of war and agricultural implements out of iron, for before him they fought with stones and clubs. They say that he obtained iron shears from the air through a mystical prayer, and thus handed down the art of smithing to the Egyptians.

36 After Vulcan had passed away, his son, named Sol, succeeded him and was king of the Egyptians for twenty and a half years. After him, Sosis, then Osiris, later Orus, then Thules ruled Egypt, one after another. Thules occupied all the land as far as the Ocean; ^B then, returning to Africa, he consulted the oracle, asking who before him had possessed such power and who after him would possess as much. He received this response: «Principle is God, hence the Word, and the Spirit joined with them. These three are akin: to them belongs eternal power. Mortal, remove thyself hence with swift step, leading an uncertain life with doubtful effort.» They say that as soon as he exited the temple of the oracle, his own men slaughtered him in Africa itself.

After him, Sesostris reigned over the Egyptians for twenty years. He subjugated the Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Persians as far as Babylon, and Asia, Europe, Mysia, and Scythia. Returning, he settled fifteen thousand chosen youths of the Scythians, the best warriors, in the Persian land. In his time, they say, Hermes became known in Egypt, a wondrous man and stupendous for his wisdom. He stated that there were three greatest faculties of the Creator of the universe, the God of all, yet that there was one divinity; thus he was named Hermes Trismegistus, which means "thrice-greatest Mercury." ^C These are his words to a certain Asclepius: «There was an intelligent light before the intelligent light; and there was always a Mind which was the cause of mind, and there was nothing else but the unity of this mind. Always being within Himself, He contains all things by His own mind, light, and spirit. Outside this Mind there is no God, nor angel, nor demon, nor any other substance; for of all things the Lord is God and Father; and all things are under Him and in Him. For His Word, having come forth, perfect in all ways and fertile and a creator, falling into fertile nature, into fertile water, made the water pregnant.» Having said this, Hermes prayed: «I adjure you, O creator of the great heaven; I adjure you, O voice of the Father which He uttered first, His only-begotten Word: be propitious.» The holy Cyril also mentioned these words, saying that Hermes Trismegistus also confessed the Trinity. ^D After the victory, Sesostris took Egypt and died. After him, a king arose over Egypt, Pharaoh, also called Narecho, who reigned for, as they say, [years]...

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES

^A Xyl. fifty; from him those kings who descend from his lineage are called Pharaohs. Thus far the kingdoms of the Egyptians.

In the times of Picus, who is also Jupiter, there appeared one from the tribe of Japheth in the region of the Argives, named Inachus. ^A He, having reigned in that same place, founded a city and called it Io and Iopolis after the name of the moon; for the Argives call the moon "Io." He also had a daughter, Io; from her Jupiter had a daughter, Libya. This Io, when she had intercourse with Jupiter, being ashamed before her father, fled to Egypt; and having found there Hermes the king, she crossed over to mount Silpium in Syria, where Seleucus the Macedonian later built the great Antioch in the name of his own son. There, then, Io died. But her father, Inachus, having sent many to search for her, and indeed her own brothers too, charged them that if they did not bring her back, they should not return themselves. ^B They, having crossed through Egypt and come to Syria, saw in a dream a heifer speaking with a human voice as follows: “Here I am, Io.” Awakened, therefore, they built a shrine and a city there—which they also named Iopolis—and stayed, not daring to return to Inachus.

Libya, his daughter, whom he had by Jupiter, was married to Neptune, the son of Saturn and brother of Jupiter. To these were born three sons: Agenor, Belus, and Enyalius. Of these, Belus married Side, from whom he had as sons Egyptus and Danaus, from whom also the country of Egypt is named; while Agenor, having gone to Phoenicia, took as wife Tyro, from whom were born Cadmus, Phoenix, Syrus, Cilix, and a daughter called Europa. Agenor founded Tyre, in the name of Tyros his own wife, and reigned over those ^C parts for sixty-three years. It is said that Taurus, who was reigning in Crete in those times, attempted Tyre with a fleet while Agenor was waging war elsewhere with his own forces; and having captured Tyre toward evening, he carried off many other captives, and indeed also Europa, the daughter of Agenor; and having made her his wife, he renamed the whole land of Japheth, “Europa,” just as Neptune named all the land of Ham “Libya” on account of Libya his own wife. Hence the poets agreed that Jupiter, having been likened to a bull, carried off Europa. This Taurus also built the city of Gortyna in Crete in the name of his own mother, and had a son by Europa whom he named Minos.

Agenor, when he was about to die, sent a large amount of money through his son Cadmus to his daughter Europa in Crete. He divided the land assigned to him among his sons, assigning Tyre and the regions ^D around it to Phoenix, and he named the land under him Phoenicia. Likewise, he also named Syria and Cilicia after the countries that fell by lot to his sons Syrus and Cilix. In the times of this Phoenix, they say that Hercules the philosopher—the one called the Tyrian—discovered the so-called purple dye, as has been said.

^A But Jupiter, besides many others, also took Danaë, the daughter of Acrisius of Argive descent, who was of exceeding beauty and was kept in a chamber near the sea; having bribed her guards with much gold, he abducted and violated her, and from her he begat a son named Perseus. Hence the mythologists say that Jupiter became gold and flowed through the roof into her chamber to ravish Danaë. They also claimed that this Perseus was winged, because he was very swift from his youth, and by nature very fierce and very cunning. His father Jupiter taught him all the secret, mystical, and foul incantations and sorceries, promising him that through their power he would win victory over his enemies.

Having therefore come to adulthood, he fled from the sons of Ninus, his uncle, and came to the Assyrians. As he was crossing into Libya, a native maiden met him, bristling with wild eyes and hair. When he had compelled her to stop, he asked her what her name was. She replied, "My name is Medusa." And he immediately cut off her head. Having preserved it according to the unspeakable and vile instructions of his father Jupiter, and trusting in the strength of his hands and in his magical arts, he went forth against his enemies. He gave the head the name "Gorgon" because of the efficacy and sharpness of its sorcery.

From there he crossed into Ethiopia, which was then ruled by Cepheus, and he abducted his daughter, who was called Andromeda and was a priestess, and sailed through Syria to Lycaonia. When the Lycaonians opposed him, they were defeated by the aforementioned aid of the Gorgon. There he founded a city and called it Persis after his own name. Having set up a statue outside the city ^B and placed the image of the Gorgon upon it, he called it Iconium. Thence he crossed into Isauria and Cilicia, and having received an oracle which said: "Wheresoever, descending from your horse, you feel pain in the sole of your foot, there you shall obtain victory and build a city," he founded Tarsus, naming the city from the sole of his foot.

Proceeding against the Assyrians, he overcame them; having killed Sardanapalus and his kinsmen, he completely subjugated them, took their kingdom from them, and called them Persians after his own name, ruling over them for 53 years. He also planted the tree called the Persian tree throughout all his dominion; and initiating those of the Persians whom he loved most into the secret magic rites with the cup of the vile Medusa, he called them Medes and their land Media.

Then, coming to Mount Silpius, he met the Ionians who had migrated there from Argos, and was received by them as a kinsman. ^C When a great winter storm had fallen and the Orontes river, which flows past Iopolis, was overflowing beyond measure, and Perseus had prayed, suddenly a thunderbolt like a ball of fire was brought down from heaven, and thus the storm was stayed and the streams of the river subsided. Having therefore kindled a fire from that flame, Perseus carried it with him, brought it to his own palace, built a temple for the fire, and appointed pious men as priests. He also established this in Iopolis and throughout his entire dominion; and, commanding that this fire, sent down from heaven, be worshipped as a god, he taught the rite of fire-worship, entrusting the priesthood to men called Magi. Furthermore, war arose against Perseus from Cepheus and Andromeda ^D

s father, Cepheus. And when Perseus, having gone out, displayed the head of the Gorgon, Cepheus, being dim-sighted from old age, was unaware that Perseus was approaching him on horseback; thinking that the head of the Gorgon which he held was no longer exerting its power, he turned it towards himself and gazed at it intently, and was immediately blinded and slain. Consequently, Meros, the son of Perseus and Andromeda, was appointed by Cepheus as king of the Persians; and he, having burned the head of the Gorgon, returned to his own ^A region.

Agenor, however, having been sent by his father from Phoenicia in search of his daughter Europa, when Cadmus learned that she was reigning in Crete with the Bull who had carried her off, went into Boeotia and taught the Boeotians, who were ignorant of them, the Phoenician letters, and reigned over them for 62 years. He also took a wife named Harmonia, who bore him six daughters: Ino, Agave, Semele, Eurynome, Cleantho, and Eurydice. These were called the Cadmides. This Cadmus also founded there the great city, the Cadmea. He also recalled Tiresias, the Boeotian philosopher, who had been banished to the temple of the Daphnaean Apollo for having taught that all things are borne along fortuitously and that the world is governed by no providence. They mythologize that this Tiresias, upon seeing Minerva bathing, was suddenly transformed into the nature of a woman, ^B and curiously inquired into her nature: how a woman conceives by a man, and how the single nature of blood is distributed into bones, veins, flesh, and the rest, and how a living fetus is brought forth; and since he could not by his own reasoning comprehend the wisdom of the Creator, he slipped into [the belief in] fortuitousness; wherefore, they jestingly said that he had passed into the nature of a woman. This Cadmus, the king of Boeotia, gave his own daughter ^C Agave in marriage to Echion, and sent them to Chius. From her was born a wise and prudent man named Pentheus; to whom Cadmus later entrusted the administration of the kingdom, when he himself had determined to finish his life with Tiresias on Mount Cithaeron. Polymedon, the son of Aetherion, of the lineage of Zeus, married Semele, and from her he brought forth a seven-month-old infant, the mother having died due to unusual lightning and thunder. Cadmus sent this infant to be reared in the Nysian region, which is also called Nyseium. They mythologize that Zeus kept this infant in his own bosom for the remaining two months, because, being born prematurely, he possessed a portion of life ^D from God beyond the appointed time. Others, because he performed certain mystical and miraculous things through solar prayers and taught the cultivation of the vine, deified him and called him Dionysus, as being of the lineage of Zeus. They say that this Dionysus came to the Persians, and certain wonderful illusions of works and

XYLANDRI ET GOARI NOTÆ.

(38) The text is corrupt; see the note on the fable in Ovid. Xyl.

men "Scirti" on account of their leaping and jumping, and the women "Bacchae." Claiming for himself the kingdom of the Boeotians, he engaged in war with Pentheus and overcame him, and by Agave, the mother of Pentheus, who was, as they say, a devotee of Dionysus, he was released from his chains. After this, he laid an ambush and killed Pentheus. But because the Boeotians would not accept him as king, he departed to Delphi and, having died, was buried there. After Cadmus, Nycteus reigned over Boeotia. Theoboeus, the son of Braton, who traced his lineage to Zeus and was the brother of Nycteus, had sexual relations with his daughter, Antiopa, who was a priestess of the Sun, and she gave birth to twins, Amphion and Zethus, who, by the command of the brother, were exposed near Mount Cithaeron. ^B But a certain rustic, Ordio by name, being childless, took them up and raised them. While Antiopa was being detained by Dirce, awaiting punishment for the transgression she had committed, it happened that a war was stirred up in the land of the Argives, and Lycus was lingering there; Dirce gently entreated Nycteus to release Antiopa. But he instead ordered that she be bound to a wild bull and destroyed for having defiled her virginity. When Zethus and Amphion heard this, and learned from the man who had raised them that this was their mother Antiopa, they fell upon them with a band of rustics, killed the soldiers, and bound Dirce to the bull and put her to death. Having gone to Boeotia with their mother Antiopa, since Nycteus had already died, those musicians, Amphion and Zethus, reigned over the Boeotians for many years. They built a great city, naming it Thebes ^C after its father, Theoboeus. Euripides, telling the fable in the manner of poets, says that Zeus, having taken the form of a satyr, violated Antiopa, from whom were born the musicians Amphion and Zethus. They say, however, that he said this because Theoboeus had descended from Picus—who was the same as Zeus—through the transmigration of the soul into bodies, one after another. For in the language of the Boeotians, "Satyr" signifies the migration of the soul into another, baser body. After these musicians, those who were procreated from their lineage held the kingdom of the Thebans until Oedipus, the son of Jocasta and Laius. For this Laius, being king of the Thebans, had first taken a son, Ioccas, from his wife Jocasta; but when he received an oracle concerning him that it would come to pass ^D that he would lie with his own mother, he bound his feet in wooden fetters—which is indeed called *kouspos*—and cast him into the mountains to perish. But a certain rustic named Melibius found him and raised him, renaming him Oedipus because his feet had swollen in the fetters. After this, a certain woman named Sphinx, ill-favored, large-breasted, and rustic, occupied a mountain peak with a crowd of rustics, a place that could be entered only by one very narrow path, and by brigandage she killed those passing through and plundered their property, so that Thebes was hemmed in by her, with neither the army nor King Laius himself, because the mountain was so inaccessible and fortified by the nature of the place, being able to do anything against her.

^A Since Oedipus heard these things, he did something wise and noble; and having selected a few men, he came to the Sphinx and asked to be with her and to join in her raiding. She, being delighted by his youth and generosity, received him. He, having found his chance, killed her with a spear along with many of those with her; and having taken her body and whatever wealth he found, he brought it to Laius in Thebes, hoping for a reward for his bravery and his performance. The Thebans lauded him with royal praises and titles. But these things did not please Laius, and having armed an army against him, he went forth, but was struck and died. Jocasta, ^B not wishing to fall from the kingdom, and not knowing that Oedipus was her son, and at the same time striving for the relief of the city, called for him; from whom she also bore two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, and two daughters, Ismene and Antigone. And thus they reigned over the Thebans for nineteen years, being ignorant of themselves. After these things, when Jocasta was inquiring about his homeland and race, she heard that Melibus had brought him up; and from him she learned the manner of his finding, and having been confirmed, she cried out in distress. Oedipus, having been informed that Jocasta was both his mother and his wife, ordered his sons Eteocles and Polynices to reign over Thebes year by year, while he himself immediately, having fixed two nails into his own eyes, died. His sons, each of them claiming the kingdom, came to war and fought in single combat, and by each other’s hand both were destroyed. And thus the kingdom of the Thebans, or Boeotians, was destroyed, having lasted three hundred and sixty-nine years.

It is necessary, therefore, finally to return to our proposed task. Having concluded with the birth of Ragau from Phalec, let us begin from him. ^C Ragau, having become one hundred and thirty-two years old, begat Seruch. In his time, men, increasing in pride against one another, set up commanders and kings for themselves. And then for the first time, having constructed weapons of war, they began to make war on one another. And immediately the offspring of Canaan were defeated and were the first to submit to the yoke of slavery, according to the curse of Noah.

Seruch, having become one hundred and thirty years old, begat Nachor. Seruch lived in the land of the Chaldeans, in the city of Ur. And when Nachor had grown, his father taught him the interpretation of all omens, the discernment of signs in heaven and of all those on earth, and every kind of Chaldean divination. Nachor, having become seventy-nine years old, begat Thara. Abraham was born when Ninus, the first king of the Assyrians, was leading the forty-third year of his kingdom. At the same time, the sixteenth dynasty held power among the Egyptians, under which the Thebans reigned. Thara, ^D having become

^A a father at that age from his wife (39) Edna, the daughter of Abraham his uncle, begat Abraham, whom his mother called by the name of her father; for he had reached the end of his life before his birth. Thara further begat Aram and Nachor. And Abraham took from his father the wife Sarra. He alone, while all men everywhere were being led into error by the worship of idols, recognized the true God and proclaimed Him the Creator of all things. And he was the first to encircle an altar with branches of palms and olives, and upon it for the first time in holy Scripture an angel is mentioned. And from him the Egyptians learned the position of the stars and their effect, and the science of arithmetic.

That at the twenty-fourth year of his age Abraham, having recognized the God of all, worshipped Him. But an Angel of the Lord taught him the Hebrew language, just as the same angel said to Moses, as it is found in the Little Genesis. And Aram, taking a wife, begat Lot, and a daughter, Melcha. Nachor took her as his wife.

^B Now Abraham, already in his sixtieth year, since he saw that he could not persuade his father and the other domestics to refrain from the superstitious worship of idols, secretly set fire to the temple of the idols by night. When they were burning, his brothers, understanding the matter, leaped up, wishing to rescue the idols from the midst of the fire; and Aram, approaching the attempt with greater zeal, perished in the midst of the conflagration. When his father, a maker of idols, had buried him in Ur, a city of the region of the Chaldeans, he migrated from there to Charras, a city of Mesopotamia. ^C In that place, after Abraham had lived for fifteen years in the family of his father, it occurred to him one night to contemplate the state of the coming time from the motion of the stars, since he was not moderately skilled in all such knowledge through the teaching and practice of his father. And having considered each of the things about which he was inquiring, he discovered such entire curiosity to be superfluous, because God could, if He willed, change all things which divination had predicted according to His own will. And thus, seriously and with his whole heart repudiating these and other things of that kind, and demonstrating perfect piety toward God, he was thus addressed by God: "Go out from thy land and from thy kindred and from thy house of thy father." And having gone out with his wife Sarra and his brother’s son Lot, he moved to the portion of his progenitor Arphaxad, ^D which the Canaanites, having taken possession of it, named the land of the Canaanites, being seventy-five years old; and it was the three thousand three hundred and eighty-seventh year of the world. And Abraham, when he had come to Sychem, being warned by an oracle, built an altar between Bethel and Angea. Then, having crossed the Euphrates, he found for himself and his kin the name of Hebrews (for from

by crossing over they are called Hebrews). Others say they are called Hebrews from Eber. And in his 86th year, or the seventh year ^A of his sojourn, he descended into Egypt with Sara.

In these times flourished Melchisedec, a celibate priest of unknown lineage, who in bread and wine even then prefigured the unbloody sacrifice of Christ our God. Melchisedec was the son of Sidus the king, son of Egypt, who also built the city of Sidon; but he is said to be without father, without mother, and of unknown lineage because he did not descend from the Jewish race, and because his parents, being evil men, are not reckoned with the holy, and because as a ruler of the Canaanites he held the kingdom of Jerusalem (for *melchi* is interpreted as king, and *sedec* as justice). The city was also called Jerusalem, formerly named Jebus, because the Jebusites dwelt in it. For *Jebus*, by the change of the *b* into *r*, becomes *Jeru*; to which, when *salem* is added, it completes the name Jerusalem. For *salem* signifies peace. And it was so named either because Melchisedec served God there as priest, or because it was the location of a shrine of God. The same thing happened in the case of the Jordan; for two rivers, the Ior and the Dan, joining together and forming one river, also united their names. Since Melchisedec was not of the family of Abraham, but of an alien race, and since it was not written when he was born, from what father or mother, or when he died, it could rightly be said that he has neither beginning of days nor end of life, since his lineage could not be recounted, as he came from non-commemorated ^B nations.

In the 86th year of Abraham, Agar bore Ishmael; the year of the world was 3398. And God rained fire upon the Pentapolis, and consumed from it the entire race of men, and destroyed even the very stature of the land, and the waters of the sea lying before it were killed. After this, separating from the oak at Mambre, Abraham pitched his tent at the well of the oath. Having built huts separately for himself and his servants according to their families, Abraham then for the first time celebrated the feast of tabernacles for seven days, which the Jew even now celebrates as the feast of tabernacles. From Ishmael, therefore, are the Ishmaelites, who are called Saracens. They renamed themselves Saracens, disdaining to be called Agarenes in servitude; but others say that Sara sent away Agar without any inheritance.

Having sojourned in Gerara (which is now called Ascalon) after the death of Sara, he took Chetura as a wife in his old age; from whom he had five sons: Zembria, Iexan, Madam, Madiam, and Iesbon.

That Lot, having separated from Abraham, dwelt in Sodom because of the virtue and beauty of the land, which contained five cities: Sodom, Gomorrah, Adama, Seboim, and ^C Zembria, Iexan, Madam, Madiam, and Iesbon.

^A And four kings of the Syrians attacked these, led by Chodollogomor, king of Elam. They engaged in battle by the Salt Sea, which is now called the Dead Sea, containing many marvels which I myself have observed. For that water produces no animal, and dead bodies sink beneath it, while a living person cannot easily submerge their own body; and lighted lamps float upon it, but when extinguished, they sink. There the bitumen springs are located. It also yields alum and salt, differing little from others, for they are bitter and translucent. Wherever fruit is found there, it offers nothing but smoke. The water confers health upon those who use it, and in all things it possesses effects contrary to what happens in other waters. And if that place did not have the Jordan for nourishment, which glides along like purple and resists it greatly, it would have ceased to exist sooner than it appears. Near it, balsam grows in great abundance. It is believed that these places were overturned by God on account of the impiety of the inhabitants.

^B The word Isaac denotes laughter arising from pleasure. For in the Hebrew language this name was given to him because Sarah, having heard the divine promise of offspring for her in her old age, had laughed. Isaac was born in the year of the world 3413.

At this same time, the Greeks relate that Saturn and Rhea reigned in Crete. But those who dwell by the Atlantic gulf of the Ocean say that their first king was Coelus, who had Titan as his wife, from whom the Titans were named. They say that he was a diligent observer of the stars and predicted many things that were to happen in the world.

When Abraham was eighty-five years old, a famine having arisen, he descended into Egypt. In this same year, Jupiter, the son of Saturn, ruled Crete with Juno. Then also the Titans attempted war against Jupiter; and Bacchus, not that son of Semele, but another much more ancient than him, discovered wine and pressed it in the winepresses (which the Greeks call *lenoi*), from which he got the cognomen Lenaeus. So also Ceres is said to have discovered wheat and barley. This is she who is worshipped by the Egyptians under the name of Isis. And ^C this same Bacchus is called Osiris among the Egyptians. At that time, as the myths report, a dispute arose between Marsyas the Phrygian and Apollo regarding the cithara; they approached Bacchus at Nysa, and there, Marsyas having been defeated, Apollo in his anger flayed him alive, and by breaking the strings, destroyed the harmony that had been discovered. Later, they say that the Muses and Orpheus rediscovered it and handed it down to Linus.

It is also reported that the sons of Coelus flourished at that time, and of these, Atlas was the most renowned, and to him fell those places by the Ocean. They say that he was the first to accurately establish astrology and to bring forth the doctrine of the sphere; which is the reason why it was thought that the world was carried on the shoulders of Atlas.

It is written in the Little Genesis ^D that Mastiphat, the prince of the demons, approached God and said, "If Abraham loves you, let him sacrifice his son to you." To the

^A twenty-fifth year of the age of Isaac, Abraham offered him to God as a sacrifice on Mount Sion; for in that place Abraham built an altar, where David later founded the temple. Isaac was a type of the divinity, and the ram a type of human nature. The time itself also matches in number: for there are three days and as many nights both here and there.

^B That before the prophets, the Word of God appeared to Abraham in human form and prophesied the calling of the nations, a matter which in our own age the Word of God brought to completion through the teaching of the Gospel given to all nations. As Josephus says, Abraham was the first to proclaim God as the Creator, and the first to go down to Egypt and teach the Egyptians arithmetic and astronomy; and from that point on, having become beloved and highly honored, the king deemed him worthy to be instructed in matters of astrology and magic, as he was a man of manifold experience and a Chaldean. For astrology and magic originated with the Magusaeans, or Persians; for the Persians are called Magog by the local inhabitants.

And so, when the astrologers and magi had been assembled, the king sat down with Abraham and those who were his familiar associates; and after silence had been made, Abraham said, "I wish to learn from you, O wise ones, whether in your opinion astrology and magic can harm or benefit a man." To this, an astrologer replied that it was impossible for a man to die in any way other than that which his birth hour portends. But when Abraham strongly refuted the astrologers, the king ordered that a certain prisoner be brought—at the suggestion of Abraham—who had already been sentenced by the judge's verdict to be burned. The king ordered them to examine his nativity accurately and to declare the manner in which he was to die. After they had deliberated at length and said that he would certainly perish by fire, as his nativity commanded quite clearly, but not at that moment—because the time of his death had not yet arrived, but there still remained some portion of his life—the king said, "But I, today, shall save him from the destruction of fire, and kill him by drowning in water." And having done so immediately, he demonstrated in reality that something could be done contrary to the decrees of nativities.

When all had fallen silent, Abraham said, "Not only men, but even brute animals are subject to nativity. Yet men possess freedom within themselves, not subject to nativity, inasmuch as that thing is older than nativity, which is understanding and self-determination, granted by the gift of God. ^C Whence, being superior to brute animals, we are by nature able to destroy them using our power. But to us, who excel the beasts, you in turn excel us by virtue of your royal power; and just as we, on account of our reason, have power over the brute animals, so you, O king, have power over us in accordance with the principle of authority. ^D Again, there is no man more powerful than you, except God, the invisible and all-encompassing Lord and Creator, from whom one ought to ask for what is useful and to whom one ought to pray." They say that Abraham also said these words, that there is a great difference between truth and custom. For true, even when properly investigated...

^A, is found with difficulty; but custom, whatever it may be, whether true or false, is firmly established without inquiry by its own force. And he who has received it from his ancestors takes no pleasure if it be true, nor is he troubled if it be false, because he believes not by the judgment of his own soul, but by presumption and the opinion of those before him. Having placed his own hope on an uncertain fortune, he cannot easily cast off ancestral habit, even though it may be clearly shown that what he has received from his ancestors is utterly foolish and ridiculous. Those, therefore, who introduce many gods subject to every kind of passion, and who imitate them, are not even ashamed to rely upon such an example of depravity. ^B But those who invent fate and nativities, and talk nonsensically that man can neither do nor suffer anything against these, they sin securely and without fear, since they think their own birth forces them to act in such a way; for they claim that fate is a certain compelling power and the mover of matter. Those again who represent that all things are carried by an unprovoked and godless or fortuitous motion, and that this entire universe is driven as if by chance (for they say that fortune is a cause by accident and a mishap of nature or of free will)—these, too, falling into similar errors, descend into the deepest abysses of destruction and the pits of Hades.»

Seeing, therefore, the aforementioned king of Gerar, Abimelech, that Abraham was prosperous in all things, he took with him Ochosad, the prefect of his women's quarters, and Philochos, the commander-in-chief of his army, and came to Abraham. He sought to confirm a firmer friendship and requested by an oath that he would do no injury either to him ^C or to his seed: «As I have dealt justly with you in this land where you have sojourned, so you shall deal with me and my seed, when you shall rule over this land.» For kings are clever at guessing, by all kinds of signs, the one who is destined to succeed them; and indeed, the posterity of Abraham was to obtain dominion in those regions. Abraham moreover rebuked Abimelech concerning the wells which his servants had seized. There, then, at the well, they met, and having sacrificed sheep and calves, they entered into a covenant of peace together. Furthermore, with seven other lambs they performed the oath according to custom as proof that he himself had dug it, and therefore it is called the Well of the Oath. Thus, ^D peace having been established there, Abimelech with his own people returned home. But Abraham planted a field or a meadow at the aforesaid well and called upon the name of the Lord, the eternal God. When he had become very advanced in age and had lived 175 years, he departed to God. Isaac and Ishmael, his sons, buried him in the double cave beside Sarah.

After these things, when Isaac had reached manhood, a famine occurred in their lands. He was forbidden by God to go down into Egypt, but with his whole family he went to Gerar to Abimelech, the king of the Philistines. He too said concerning Rebecca, as Abraham did concerning Sarah, that «She is my sister;» for she was very beautiful. And from the

^A discovery through play that she was his wife, Abimelech rebuked Isaac for having concealed the truth, yet he issued a decree that no one should touch Isaac or his wife. God blessed Isaac with such perpetual prosperity that the Philistines, envious of him, stopped up all the wells which Abraham had dug. After this, Isaac moved into the valley of Gerar and cleaned out his father’s wells; he also dug three others himself, naming the first "Injury," the second "Enmity," and the third "Breadth." Thence he went up to the Well of the Oath; and the Lord appeared to him in a vision of the night, saying: «I am the God of thy father Abraham, and I am with thee, and I will bless thee and multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, for Abraham thy father’s sake.» There, then, Isaac built an altar and sent up a sacrifice to the Lord, and he pitched his tent in that same place. Just as it had happened earlier to Abraham, so too, after these things, Abimelech himself, the king of Gerar, together with Ochozad, the overseer of his women’s quarters, and Philoch, the commander-in-chief of his army, came to Isaac; knowing that the Lord was with him, they came to him and made a covenant of peace with one another, and rising in the morning, they took an oath and departed from him in peace.

From the time of the confusion of languages until Abraham came from Mesopotamia, from the city of Charran and his father’s house, by the command of God, into the land of Canaan, which is Palestine, there were 616 years. He was then 75 years old. Having spent 25 years in Canaan, he begat Isaac, and after this he lived 75 more years, and died, having lived 176 years in all. ^B He also received the blessings of Melchizedek, the divine king of Salem, bread and wine; for he was a priest of God the Most High, as was said before.

Isaac was 32 years old when Sarah died, being 108 years old. She was buried in Hebron, which is now called Eleutheropolis, in the cave which Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite for four hundred drachmas, in the presence of the sons of Heth; from whom the Greeks also acknowledge having received written contract forms. When Isaac was forty years old, he took Rebecca to wife, the daughter of Bathuel, who was the eighth and last son of Nachor; for there were eight sons born to him by Melcha. Nachor, the father of Bathuel, was Abraham’s brother. The youngest son of this man was Bathuel, the father of Rebecca and of Laban, the father-in-law of Jacob. Jacob tended his flocks for twenty whole years. ^C But Rebecca, being barren, after twenty years at one birth bore two sons, Jacob and Esau, when Isaac was in his sixtieth year. For it was the year of the world 3472.

Rebecca, having prepared a dish, gave it to Jacob, and him ^D

GOARI'S NOTES

(42) I have retained the word *kollurida* in the translation, though I did not ascertain what the form of the *kollurida* was. Athenaeus indeed in book III, in discussing various kinds of bread, cites a verse from the *Peace* of Aristophanes concerning the *collyra*, which he shows from there to have been a type of bread. The poet’s interpreter [shows it to be] either a small piece of bread or something from the bread...

together with other gifts through Isaac to Abraham, whom he held in his bosom, blessing him in many ways, Abraham died, having fallen asleep, in the fifteenth year of the life of Jacob. ^B In the forty-fifth 43 year of the life of Jacob, Esau, who was of the same age as him, took two wives, Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Masemath the daughter of Elon the Hivite. But Jacob, being sixty-three years old, did not know a woman at all, as he himself said to his mother Rebecca. In his seventy-third year, being the year 3545 of the world according to the accurate calculation, Jacob fled from the presence of Esau his brother; and having served for seven years, he took Leah, and after another seven years he took Rachel. From Leah, then, he begat Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Dinah; from Rachel, Joseph; from the handmaid Bilhah, Dan and Naphtali; and from Zilpah, Gad and Asher. Having spent, therefore, twenty years with Laban, he fled from him, Joseph then being three years old. And crossing the Jordan, he was blessed and called Israel. ^C And Jacob, being reminded of the vision which he had seen on his arrival in Mesopotamia, went up to Bethel. There, having fallen asleep, he saw the vision. And having tithed everything he possessed, finally he submitted his sons to the lot, and dedicated Levi to God, he being eighteen years old, and appointed him high priest, he being the tenth from the last according to astrology 44. For Reuben, because of his father's concubine, was deprived of both the kingdom and the priesthood, although he was the firstborn. When Jacob had come near Shechem to the city of Salem, Dinah suffered violence at the hands of Shechem; and she is avenged by Simeon and Levi, who destroyed those around Shechem in every way. Furthermore, Rachel bears to Jacob Benjamin, and having died, she is buried in Ephratha, where Bethlehem now is; for between Bethlehem ^D and Jerusalem, at the hippodrome, is the tomb of Rachel.

XYLANDER AND GOARI'S NOTES

^A ...priest, and the other leader of the people, it is consistent that their lineage be traced back from Jacob. Now, Rebecca, as Josephus states in his *Antiquities of the Jews*, is said to have requested [her] husband to bring Esau and Jacob together and reconcile them. Isaac did this, and by interposing an exhortation and the sanctity of an oath, brought them to peace, warning them to hold to the reason of their fraternal kinship; at the same time, he foretold to Esau that if he were to rise up against Jacob, he would fall into his hands.

After the death of Isaac, Esau’s sons provoked their father against Jacob and his offspring. And having armed himself with the aid of [various] nations, he came to war. But Jacob, having shut the gates ^B of the city, kept exhorting Esau to remember the commands and admonitions of their forefathers. When he would not comply, but rather behaved even more ferociously than before, at the urging of Judah, Jacob drew his bow and, striking Esau near the right breast, laid him low. Upon his death, the sons of Jacob went out of the city and destroyed almost all those who stood with Esau. The death of Rebecca was followed shortly after by the death of Isaac, when both had deemed Jacob worthy of the prerogative of the firstborn son.

Isaac was a hundred years old when Jacob pilfered the deserved blessing of felicity from Esau.

The Egyptians record that in the age of Abraham and Isaac there were men of many bodies, who are called Giants by the Greeks and likewise snaky-footed. They also say that the Curetes existed at that time. Others say they were descendants of the Idæans ^C, whom they claim to have existed among the Greeks; and Hercules was one of the Idæan Dactyls.

The Chaldæans trace their lineage from Shem, from whom Abraham was descended.

Joseph was seventeen years of age when he was sold by his brothers, five years after the death of Rachel, for eight pieces of gold.

[P. 35] In the 120th year of Jacob, Joseph began his rule over Egypt, being thirty years of age. And in the same year, his father Isaac died, having lived 180 years; and he was buried by his sons Jacob and Esau. In the 38th year of Joseph, [it] began…

XYLANDER AND GOARIUS’ NOTES

(45) It was known to the librarian, and in both places he wrote *Idæan* for *Judæan*; whom the word *Dactyl* could have kept from the error. Many people have written many things about the Curetes and the Idæan Dactyls: Diodorus Siculus, Vol. V, fol. 230 of the Greek, does so best, as does the Greek interpreter of Apollonius’ *Argonautica* most excellently in his annotations on Book 1, no. 42—not to mention others. Although I shall not even be loath here to transcribe the words of Clement of Alexandria from the first book of the *Stromata*, explaining this passage: “Some, more mythically, say that certain sorcerers were the first of those called Idæan Dactyls, to whom the invention of the so-called Ephesian letters and the discovery of musical things is attributed. For which reason ^D they have received the name ‘fingers’ from musicians. And these Idæan Dactyls were Phrygians and barbarians. Herodorus records that Hercules, becoming a prophet and a natural philosopher, succeeded Atlas the barbarian Phrygian in the pillars of the world, hinting by the myth that he received his knowledge of the heavens by learning.” He speaks there of the inventors of various arts and philosophy. Students of profane antiquity will also find something about the Curetes in the Orphic hymns. Shortly before, I rendered *multicorpores* (many-bodied) to the letter, which is what the author names; for they are said to have had not only vast bodies, but also a monstrous multiplicity of limbs—such as Ægæon, for example. Virgil’s verses are well known. XYL.

^A famine began; for, as Josephus testifies, the Nile had not overflowed during the entire seven years of its scarcity. Two years later, Jacob migrated into Egypt with his soul-endowed kin, being one hundred and thirty years old, and Joseph was forty. Jacob died at the age of one hundred and forty-seven and was buried by Joseph in Hebron. Goshen is the part of Arabia bordering Egypt. For Joseph died one hundred and ten years after the time of Jacob’s migration into Egypt. After the death of Joseph, the Hebrews served the Egyptians for one hundred and forty-four years. Therefore, the entire time that the Hebrews spent in Egypt was two hundred and fifteen years. As for the privileges (if I may say so) of the birthright, the offspring of Joseph succeeded to the place of Reuben on account of the purity of their parent, because Reuben had lain with his father’s concubine, whereas Joseph had by no means consented to the lust of the Egyptian woman. And although there were thirteen brothers, the land was divided among twelve, because Levi took tithes from all the rest.

While Joseph was still quite young, he was grazing his father’s sheep; and because his father loved him more than the others, his brothers were stirred by envy and harbored feelings of hostility against him. The hearing of his dreams increased their hatred. For he had recounted to them a vision he had seen: as they were binding sheaves, his own sheaf stood upright, and the rest bowed down in honor of him. When the brothers conjectured what this reality meant—namely, that he would one day have authority over them—they conceived a much more violent hatred against him. Joseph added to this earlier vision that he had imagined in his sleep ^B that he was being adored by the sun, the moon, and eleven stars. His father turned this into a jest and, saying, “Shall I myself and your mother and your brothers come and adore you with bodies prostrate on the ground?” he chided him and ordered him to be silent. Thus, those visions were a certain obscure information, denoting the truth some time in advance. For this is also a type of prophecy, and the foretelling of the future through dreams has been observed many times in many cases, occurring in those who are possessed of a superior power, as in the case of Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar and very many others.

It is worth the effort to discern the differences between prophecies. For one sort is spiritual and entirely true, such as that of God and the saints, which confirms the prophetic utterance with the outcome at the proper time. Another is demoniacal, which is operative in the votaries of demons; ^C this kind is manifold, such as the one called flour-divination and barley-divination, or that of the Pythia, or the babble from the Dodonean oak, or divination by entrails, or by the flight of birds, or the symbolic divination by sounds and sneezings—such as that which is derived from thunder, mice, weasels, the creaking of wood, the ringing of ears, or the tremor of the body. This kind is also called augury; it consists partly in the observation of birds, partly in the contemplation of tremors or twitchings of parts of the body, partly in augury, and partly in— ^D [alt-version omitted] XYLANDER AND GOAR’S NOTES. (For I am uncertain, regarding the etymon of the voice, which has also moved Suida to provide testimony, from whatever author it may finally be—for it is not clear to me—who explains what the twitching or tremor portends when it is predicted, for instance.)

^A Divination by the inspection of hands, part of it concerning manifest rumors, whence all things are snatched up, when everyone who is met is asked whence it is conjectured what is to come. Then the method of calling upon the dead by name, predicting from the stars, from waters, or from vain dreams, such as befall everyone every night; for truly rare are those that come from above. But all these modes of prophecy and conjecture are demonic, attaining truth by accident in some cases, while Erring in most. There is another, natural prophecy of brute animals; for swallows, ants, cranes, hedgehogs, and kingfishers naturally perceive the approaching winter. There is another, technical prophecy, such as is seen among physicians and pilots, which is named conjecture rather than prophecy. Besides these, there is also the common, vulgar one, as when someone says that in three days there will be a storm, that contention of soul often rouses hatred, and from hatred strife arises and is strengthened, and bitter envy is born; from this, hidden jealousy descends, and from this terrible wrath is kindled, and from wrath springs forth wicked murder, unless it is checked by truly superior providences.

^B When Joseph was sold in Egypt to Petephres, the eunuch, the chief cook of Pharaoh, and cast into prison, it happened that the chief baker and the chief cupbearer, the eunuchs of Pharaoh, were also shut up in the same prison where Joseph was. After some days had passed, both of them had dreams. The chief cupbearer saw a vine flourishing with shoots and putting forth ripe clusters of grapes, and it was supported below by three branches. "I was," said he, "squeezing the grapes into the cup and giving it into the hand of Pharaoh." And Joseph said that the three branches signified three more days, and that Pharaoh would remember his office and restore him to his former cupbearing. "But remember me, when it goes well with you, because I have been falsely accused and condemned to this stronghold." Upon these words, the chief baker also [P. 37] said: "I imagined, I said, that I was carrying three baskets of pastry, from the works of which the king eats, upon my head; and the birds of the air came and ate them up." And Joseph said: "Yet three days, and Pharaoh will take thy head from thee, and ^C

[XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES] ...of the right eye; and he says that Posidonius commented something on this matter. Indeed, among Theocritus also, one who draws a good omen for his love says thus: "my right eye twitched," that is, the right eye suggests to me. As for what should be attributed to divinations of this kind, you will best understand from St. Augustine in many places, and especially in *De Doctrina Christiana*, chapter [20] and the three following. And there, indeed, the presages of twitching members are also commemorated. Therefore I do not think those are censured with the best of right who translated *palmos* as tremor or concussion, especially since in that place also *palmos* is placed among those kinds of divination which, with the doctrine of the extispices and the palpitation of the entrails, do not seem to have much in common. Furthermore, I named Putiphar the prefect of the kitchen or, if you prefer, of the cooks, following the Greek term. For the Hebrew word sounds differently, especially if we believe the Chaldean paraphrast Ortelius, c. 39; which Jeremiah seems to support quite strongly, calling by this same title Nebuzaradan, who was sent by the king of Babylon to sack Jerusalem. For that affair is not, in my opinion, very appropriate to the office of master of cooks. Certainly, the blessed Jerome translates it as master of soldiers or of the army, and it signifies to slaughter, by which device we know that barbarian soldiers even now take pleasure. XYL.

^A And so it came to pass according to the judgment of Joseph. After these things had passed, two years later, Pharaoh himself saw a dream. He thought he saw seven cows, beautiful in form and fat in flesh, coming up out of the river and grazing in the ^B marsh-grass; and following these were seven other cows, ugly in form and lean, which devoured the fat and choice ones. Then, having awakened, and having again fallen asleep a second time, the king thought he saw seven ears of grain springing up from one stalk, beautiful and choice; and after them seven others sprouting up, blasted by the wind and thin, which devoured the choice and full ones. Having seen these things, Pharaoh was troubled, and there was no one who could recount to him the interpretation. Then the chief cupbearer remembered Joseph, who, standing by, said that the seven beautiful cows and the seven beautiful ears of grain were seven years of plenty, and that the seven lean cows and the seven thin and empty ears of grain were seven years of severe famine that would follow, which would consume all the goods of the years of plenty. The doubling of the dream signifies that it is true; and its being doubled by the ears of grain signifies that which is to happen by the produce of the earth—which God will also hasten to bring about.

Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh; to him he also gave as a wife Aseneth, daughter of the priest Pentephres, with whom he had begotten two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. Now, with the seven-year famine having occurred, he acquired for the house of Pharaoh all the gold and all the livestock and the land, and indeed also the slaves from among the people. In the seventh year, he gave seeds to all the land of Egypt for sowing, and established that the fifth part of the fruits should be paid to the royal treasury. Which, even until now, holds sway in Egypt, with the priests alone being exempt; for the land of the priests he left as the only land free of tribute. But the Egyptians, deeming this a great salvation and benefit, have received the custom up to this day of sending all the fruits of their land to Pharaoh.

Jacob lived in Egypt with Joseph for 17 years, and the total days of his life were measured out to 147 years. The day of his death drew near, and, calling Joseph to himself to place his hand under his thigh, as was the custom, and binding him with an oath not to bury him in Egypt. ^{C D}

^A but to transport him to the sepulcher of his ancestors. When he had assented and sworn, Israel immediately worshiped at the end of Joseph's staff. After this, Joseph, hearing that his father was struggling with ill health, took his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, and went to visit him. Israel sat up, and, beginning his speech, reminded him of the promises of prosperity God had bestowed upon him and what He had promised him in the land of Canaan. He adopts his two sons who were born to him in the land of Egypt—I mean Ephraim and Manasseh—saying that "these shall be mine as Reuben and Simeon, but their descendants shall be thine." For since Israel was about to tithe his sons to God like the others (for afterwards the tribe of Levi was set apart as God's portion), in order that the number of the twelve tribes might not be diminished, ^B for this reason, I believe, Israel regarded Joseph as two sons and assigned two tribes to his sons, namely one to Ephraim and another to Manasseh. Now Israel’s eyes were heavy from old age, and seeing dimly, he saw Joseph’s sons and asked who they were. These, having approached, he embraced and kissed, and he said to Joseph: "Behold, God has not deprived me of thy presence; indeed, He has even let me see thy seed." Joseph led his sons from Israel’s knees to worship him, then placed Manasseh on the right and Ephraim on the left, but he himself crossed his hands, placing his right hand upon the head of the younger and his left upon the head of the elder, ^C in a mystery of the sign of the cross; and thus he blessed them, so that they might increase upon the earth and that his name and the name of his fathers might be called upon them. This appeared burdensome to Joseph, and he took hold of his father's right hand, wishing to remove it from Ephraim's head and place it upon the head of Manasseh, saying, "This is the elder, father; place thy right hand upon him as is fitting." But he replied, "I know, child, I know; he also shall be a people and shall be exalted, but his brother who is younger shall be greater than he," just as the new Israel in spirit is acknowledged to be greater than the old Israel in the flesh. After this, Israel called all his sons together and addressed them all from the first to the last; to some he gave rebuke and blame for their deeds, to others a prophecy and manifestation of things to come, ^D and to others blessing and praise; and as the Spirit gave, the blessed one, having uttered to each what was necessary, thus departed this life. And the first pronouncement, not of blessing but of blame and rebuke, he addressed to the firstborn, Reuben, calling him the strength and the beginning of his children, but rebuking him for behaving harshly and insolently, among many other things, and for ascending his father’s bed and defiling his father's couch with Bilhah, his concubine. He admonishes him, therefore, no longer to be

^A insolent, and adds lawlessness to lawlessness. Second, he curses the anger and fury of Simeon and Levi, censuring their headstrong and cruel homicide against the Sichemites and all their violence inflicted upon the innocent, and the injustice of their intent, just as they had brought it upon the blameless for the sake of their sister Dinah, praying that his own heart would not join in their counsel. To Judah, however, clearly, because of the Christ who was to spring from his lineage, he prophesies praise, adoration, and victory over all his enemies. He calls him a lion’s whelp because of the naturally royal nature of the Only-Begotten, and a shoot springing from him because of his birth or incarnation from the Virgin; and the divine Israel clearly predicts for the first time that this one would also lie down to sleep and rise again because of the suffering of death and the resurrection. He says that neither prince nor leader would fail from the lineage of Judah, until he comes for whom these things are reserved, namely Christ, who is truly the expectation of the nations; ^B he who removes from the Jews all their arrogance and pride—inasmuch as they boasted of their kingdom, dominion, and entire authority—and, as Almighty, claiming for himself the entire sovereignty over all things, bestows it upon whom he wills. This one tied his foal, which is the Church from the circumcision, and the ass’s colt, the churches from the nations, to the vine, that is, to the Spirit of love. He will wash his robe, that is, the garment of his flesh, as if dyed in the wine of the grape, in his own blood; that is, he will transfer it from natural decay to a state free from decay, having been bloodied on the cross and rising from the dead pure and no longer subject to decay. His eyes are also bright, as if filled with the wine of the Holy Spirit, and his teeth are whiter than milk, indicating the surpassing brilliance and purity of his words. ^C Zabulon, choosing a seaside [region] for a harbor for ships, will dwell as far as the city of Sidon. Issachar, seeing that the land in the midst of his inheritance was rich, fruitful, and good, will choose to labor, and he will be a husbandman. "And Dan," he says, "will judge his people as also one tribe in Israel," or as the royal tribe of Judah, just as Samson did of old. And then the son of iniquity, like some serpent in the path, lying in wait secretly in this life, bites the heel of the horse—that is, the traveler who journeys through this life imprudently—turning him from the straight path. For thus biting ^D him, and having cast him down cunningly from God, the horseman, a faithful and pious man, will fall to the ground, repenting and calling again upon the help from God. Gad, he says, is a troop that raids, just as many raiding parties from the neighboring enemies fell upon Gad at various times, and Gad in turn brought a raiding party upon them in retaliation. And Asher will so abound in fruits that he will even provide food for princes, while Nephtalim...

^A will be likened to a spreading branch of a plant, yielding in abundance and beauty of strength, as the offspring of a multitude of fruits. Israel, prophesying such things to them, added these words. But blessing Joseph exceedingly, as one dearly loved, he said: “A son increased and glorified, how enviable or jealous-inducing and blessed is my younger son! Joseph, return to me, return to me, your father. Henceforth beware of returning to Pharaoh or to the impious Egyptians, but turn back to me and to the piety of your fathers. For those who plotted against you voiced insults and archers lay in wait, desiring to wound and kill you; just as your brothers were moved by envy before, so others will dare to do this later against your descendants. But by the hand of the powerful God of mine, who strengthens Israel, their bows were shattered and the tendons of their arms were loosened. And my God has blessed you with a blessing of heaven and earth, enriching you with heavenly gifts of good virtues and with all earthly blessings. And because of the blessings from the breasts and womb of your mother, and because of your father’s long-standing desires and love from your infancy, you have prevailed and become powerful over the prosperity of the everlasting mountains (that is, of kings reigning for a long time), and you have excelled all over the desires of the eternal hills (that is, of princes flourishing for a long life). These blessings, he says, be upon the head of Joseph and upon the crown of the brothers whom he leads. Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; he shall eat the plunder in the morning, and at evening he shall distribute food.” Such is the fate that his tribe has suffered. ^B

It ought to be known that if anyone sins with an obstinate mind, tempting God as if He would not pursue the wicked with punishments, such a person is deemed worthy of neither repentance nor forgiveness, just as many others, and this Pharaoh himself. Even if one says within himself, “Would that it be granted to me to walk in the perversity of my wicked heart, and I shall repent at some late hour,” just as Amas, the son of Manasseh—for this reason God destroyed him quickly. ^C

Geometry was first discovered by the Egyptians; astrology and the art of reckoning nativities by the Chaldeans; augury by the Arabs and Phrygians; the Chaldeans (or Cypriots, for they are said to differ, although they are a Persian race) instituted sacrificing to the gods; astronomy was begun by the Babylonians through Zoroaster, from whom the Egyptians received it; while magic, goetia, and sorcery came from the Medes and Persians. Magic is the invocation of supposed beneficent demons for the sake of procuring some good, such as the arts of Apollonius of Tyana. Goetia takes its name from the wailing and lamentations ^D of those who perform such things around graves. Sorcery is when a deadly mixture is given to someone to drink through the mouth as a love potion.

It must be known that Pharaoh is the common name for all the kings of Egypt, from the first Pharaoh, just as later with the Ptolemies, and the Augusti, the kings of the Romans, are called after Augustus.

^A Every one had his own proper name; and they allege that this stubborn Pharaoh of ours was called Petissonius by the ancients. Being beset on all sides by divinely inflicted calamities, he betook himself to the noble oracle that was at Memphis, and having performed sacrifices, he entreated the Pythia to explain to him who is the first and great God of Israel. And the spirit immediately answered, prophesying through the oracle thus: «From great Olympus descends the eternal Power, A fire lacking death, more splendid than any flame. This the heaven and the earth and the deep sea tremble at, And the demons whom Orcus holds in the lowest depths. This is God, lacking a progenitor, Father and same Person as Son, And one, blessed under a triple name. You, of the angelic nature, are but a tiny part; Having perceived these things, depart in silence.» ^B Having heard this, Pharaoh immediately ordered these words to be inscribed upon a stone tablet; and they stand carved there in the temple at Memphis. Having descended from there, he immediately released the Hebrew people. That from Adam to the death of Joseph there are 23 generations, and 3672 years. Moses was also called Admosis and Tethmosis; he was the son of Amram, grandson of Kohath, son of Levi, for Levi begat Kohath, and he begat Amram. And he, having taken Jochebed, the daughter of his father's brother, for his wife, begat first Aaron, then Moses, and their sister Miriam. Moses was of the tribe of Levi, and for this reason he is not reckoned in the genealogy with Joseph. There are 65 years from the death of Joseph to the birth of Moses. ^C And the four hundred and thirty years are completed from the 75th year of Abraham to the first year of Moses. But if you seek only four hundred (years), counting from the hundredth year of Abraham you will find them. For the years of servitude are calculated by some as 145, from the death of Joseph to the 81st year of Moses. They say that when Moses was born, he was called Melchias by his father, which signifies "king." But the name Moses was given to him later from the waters, forerunning the miracles performed by him in the Red Sea. And to his father, being a man acceptable to God, all that was to come to pass concerning the boy was divinely revealed. ^D For Pharaoh had ordered every male child of the Hebrews to be killed, having heard a prophecy from a certain clever sacred scribe, who said that the child born at this time would destroy the rule of the Egyptians. Muthidis, the daughter of Pharaoh, who is also called Phareis, being a queen, having taken him from the water, offered him to the accompanying women to be suckled. But he turned away from them all. Maria, the sister of the boy, who was with Muthidis, and who, when Moses was cast out, was watching to see what would happen, called his own mother, Jochebed, as if she were a stranger, and having been promised wages, gave the child to her to be brought up; and when he had reached early manhood, Muthidis bestowed upon him the name Moses, because she had lifted him from the water.

NOTES OF XYLANDER AND GOAR

^A And, it is said, "I took him up out of the water." Being of exceeding beauty, she adopted him as her son. Because of his beauty, afterwards, Tharbe, daughter of the king of the Ethiopians, having fallen in love with him, betrayed to him Saba, the metropolis of Ethiopia; which, many years later, Cambyses, son of Cyrus, having captured, named Meroe after his own sister. It is told ^B that once his foster-mother Phareis brought him into the presence of Pharaoh, and the king, having taken the royal crown from his own head, placed it upon the child as he played; but he threw it down and trampled upon it.

Moses flourished in the time of Inachus of the Peloponnesus. In other accounts, it is found that in the time of Inachus, who was the first to reign over Argos, Israel came into being, from whom the twelve-tribe nation of the Jews, named for Israel, was granted its title. And in the time of Semiramis, Abraham lived. But Moses, while later than these, is earlier than all those who are recounted in Greek antiquity—I mean Homer, and Hesiod, and even the Trojan War itself, and further, the Dioscuri, Aesculapius, Dionysus, and all the heroes, and Hermes and Apollo, and the rest of the gods of the Greeks, and their mysteries and rites, and Zeus himself, and all the deeds mentioned among the Greeks. ^C For the children of the Greeks teach that the history of all these is more recent than the age of Cecrops; but this present comparison shows Moses to have lived in the age of the dual-natured Cecrops, who was the first, as they say, to reign over Attica, 350 years before the Trojan War.

Moreover, from Abraham and Keturah is born Iexanus, father of Dadam. Dadam begat Ragum, Iothor, and Iobab, and from Iothor came Sephora, whom Moses married, as Demetrius relates, and as Eusebius also asserts in his Chronicle. And Moses is the seventh generation from Abraham, and Sephora is the sixth. As Africanus states, from Esau, aside from many others, Raguel was born, from whom came Zareth, from whom came Job, who by the permission of God was tested by the devil and overcame the tempter. But the divine Abraham again begat five sons from his last wife, Keturah, from whom is Midian, from whom are the Midianites, and Aphar, from whom is Africa, in which region he dwelt, and the land was named after him, just as the land of Ausitis was named from Esau. This land brought forth that blessed, long-suffering, and renowned Job, whose praises the divine Chrysostom ^D preaching, says: "There was a certain man in the land of Ausitis." He proclaims him both by his nature and by his land, so that just as, upon hearing that he was a man, you might marvel that he lived a life beyond that of a man, so also, having learned of the land from which such a fruit blossomed, you might be struck with wonder at what a rose blossomed in the midst of the thorns. For he is a descendant of the infamous Esau, just as Scripture calls him the fifth from Abraham.

NOTES OF XYLANDER AND GOAR: (49) [He] praises the beauty of Isaac, his emperor, worthy of being granted cities by the barbarians, just as once they were to Moses. Alas! Such inanities. Xyl.

^A Esau, as Scripture says, the fifth from Abraham. For it says: “Abraham begat Isaac; Isaac begat Esau; and Esau begat Raguel and Zara; and Zara begat Job,” who was a man temperate and honorable, saying thus: “If my eye has followed another woman, I made a covenant with my eyes.” Furthermore, he offered sacrifices daily for his own children, saying, “Lest they have thought evil against God.” Reasonably, therefore, it said: “And that man was blameless, just, pious,” and so forth. For, indeed, the philosophers on the outside, defining the term [of man], say: “Man is a mortal, rational animal.” But Holy Scripture does not say so, but rather: “Man is one who piously worships God, is just, and abstains from every evil deed”; since he who is not testified to by these virtues is not a man, but a beast. For if he possesses the character of his nature but defiles it by the depravity of his volition, he shall hear from the prophet saying: “Man, being in honor, did not understand, but was compared to the mindless cattle and became like them.” Just as, therefore, we ourselves, when sending a son or a servant [P. 44] on some business, say, “See that you act like a man,” and thus use the common name in a special sense; so, even if all men bear the name of man, only he is truly a man who preserves the image and does not disfigure the beauty of the archetype. Therefore, it called Job a man, and from the land of Ausitis, so that you might praise such a fruit produced from earth that germinates impiety. Seeing him, the author of all evil, moved by envy, sought from God permission to vex the just man, so that you too might become confident in spirit, perceiving that the devil has no power against the pious and truly Christian man who fears God, unless it be granted to him by God, whether for the sake of correction or by concession. For when God brings about a castingigation, He either exacts the penalties of sins in that manner or exercises divine virtue to prepare for victory through deeds well performed. For the devil could not have attacked Job without a command. And let this not be a wonder to you: for in the Gospels it has been heard that not even over the swine was anything permitted to him except by God’s permission. Indeed, the divine angels serve for the salvation of the pious. For all things, Scripture says, are ministering spirits sent forth to minister for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation; but the evil demons are put to use for the punishments ^D owed to sinners. For it says: “He sent forth against them the wrath of His anger, wrath and indignation and affliction, a mission by evil angels.” Therefore, the demons, even if they have shaken off the reins of the divine will in their intent, are nevertheless subject to the yoke of servitude, and are compelled like certain executioners to carry out what is commanded by God and the saints. And Paul declares this concerning the Corinthians (50), saying: “Whom I delivered to Satan, that they may be taught not to blaspheme.” For lest the demons be thought to—

affect all things by their own authority, they are commanded—even unwillingly—to execute what is prescribed. Proinde, God sends holy angels as ministers to the saints for their salvation, but permits demons to punish sinners. For when God pronounced judgment against Ahab, saying: “Who will go and deceive Ahab, and he shall fall?” (6) an evil spirit answered: “I will go,” (7) fully understanding that this was of his office. They are sent, therefore, particularly to exact punishment from the wicked; they are sent also to the righteous, not that they may punish them, but that they may tempt them. For because a holy angel is not commanded to perform such a trial—for God would not command anything unbecoming to a holy angel—it comes to pass that these trials are committed to evil spirits. Nor is there any reason to marvel that they are sent against the just, ^B since the Lord of all things was led from the Jordan into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. If, therefore, the devil tempted the Lord of the world, why do you now marvel if an evil spirit is sent to some righteous person, to make a trial of his endurance? He is sent, however, not by the command, but by the permission of God. For Scripture forms its language as if in a dialogue between persons, as when it says: “But unto the wicked God said.” (8)

What follows is from the great Cyril: “The sins committed by men throughout the world are measured at every time; and when they have reached a manifest and just quantity, then at last (that which remained) the offended Lawgiver and Lord inflicts punishments. Sometimes, yielding to the natural benevolence of His own nature, He tolerates and sustains the sinning, not being angry for all time. For He said even to Abraham that the sins of the Amorites were not yet full. ^C But to the Pharisees, whose injuries were greater than could be tolerated, He said: 'And you have filled up the measure of your fathers.' (9) Wherefore, if anyone wishes to pass his life rightly, and to cultivate that method of living which it is most advisable and advantageous to follow, and relying on a right and by no means perverse mind, to hold the course of things and swim through the dangerous waves of this age, he shall reap the fruit of being caught by no evils. And this is a true statement. For it is placed in our power that we may look to either, I mean, the good or the evil. Therefore, those for whom it will be a concern to choose that which by its own nature merits admiration, they shall attain virtue. But those who shall turn away to the opposite part and prefer injustice to better things, they shall ruin their own life, and shall be convicted of having been the authors of ruin to themselves and of having brought destruction upon their own heads. ^D To this effect also holy Isidore says: The increase of offenses compels the divine nature, which is foreign to all perturbation, as it were, to depart from its natural goodness to an anger not proper to its own nature. Thus Christ addressed the Jews: 'How often would I have gathered you, and you would not!' (10) For because, He says, you do not receive benevolence, you shall come to know the power of punishment. For when God

sees man declining into extreme malice, He removes His grace from him; stripped of this, man is provoked more and more by the devil, and the wrath of God, which he does not have within him, takes possession of him. ^A

In those times which have been recounted above, there arose from the lineage of Japheth a certain Seruch, the author of the Greek custom; and he instituted the cult of idols, as Eusebius Pamphili has written. For this Seruch, and those who were with him, honored their ancestors who, whether as warriors or as rulers, had performed some deed of chance or of note, by statues, and worshiped them with divine honors and sacrifices. But their descendants, being ignorant of the intention of their predecessors—that they had cultivated them only as a memory of those who were the founders of their race and inventors of goods—venerated them with honors and rites as if they were celestial gods. The procedure, moreover, for assigning someone among the gods is as follows: the name of the deceased was inscribed in the sacred records, and at a stated time they celebrated a feast day for him, claiming that his soul was in the islands of the blessed and was henceforth not subject to judgment or to fire. And these things prevailed until the age of Thara, who was the father of Abraham. Indeed, the most wise Sophocles also set forth these things in his writings: ^B

Truly there is one, there is one only God, Who founded heaven and the vast earth, And the bright face of the sea, and the force of the winds. But many mortals, led astray in their hearts, Have set up as a consolation for their sufferings Images of gods, of stone, or of wood, Or golden or ivory forms. And by making sacrifices and beautiful festivals To these, we think we are acting piously.

For the same Sophocles seems to have held that there is one Ruler of the universe. ^C

The Ionians, however, whose progenitor was Io, having become leaders of the Greeks, worshiped carved images—whom Plutarch of Chersonesus rebukes for introducing the error of images, by attributing the name of God to the celestial luminaries, to the sun and the moon, just as the theogony of the Egyptians holds. For he says that the entire world is governed and nourished by these, granting growth to all things by their threefold motion, the position of the five planets, and the rest of the constellations, according to births and the affections of the air. ^D

In the days of Moses, Erechtheus was king of the Assyrians, and Petissonius, who is also Pharao, was king of the Egyptians; he kept with him the magicians Jannes and Jambres. Under his reign the Hebrew race increased greatly throughout Egypt. Moses, moreover, had been instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. As for the Hebrews, because of their great number...

the Egyptians were afraid. Therefore, the Egyptians afflicted them by making bricks and carrying mud, setting over their work harsh taskmasters, ^A and they groaned in their oppression. Moses and Aaron took note of their groaning and implored the help of God. God commanded Moses to go to Pharaoh and in His name to order him to release the people of Israel to offer worship to their God.

Moses and Aaron approached the king and declared the command of God. Pharaoh said to them, “If you truly say that your God has commanded these things, behold, there are Egyptians with me who perform wonders; if you defeat them through your God, I shall grant what He commanded.” ^B He then set Jannes and Jambres over against Moses and Aaron. The magicians, by their sorceries, turned their staffs into serpents; but Moses cast his staff upon the ground, and it became a great serpent and swallowed up the serpents made by the magicians. But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not listen to them, just as the Lord God had spoken to them.

The Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, and he will come out with you to the river; strike the waters of the river with your staff, and you shall turn them into blood.” Moses did this, and all the water was turned into blood, and the fish in the river died, and the Egyptians were unable to drink the water ^C because all the water was turned into blood. The enchanters of the Egyptians did the same by their sorceries; but the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not listen to them. After seven days, Moses, having been entreated by Pharaoh, prayed, and the waters were made pure again. Moses said to Pharaoh, “Behold, you have seen the power of the God of Israel; release the people so that we may worship God.” But Pharaoh, making a compact, was putting it off.

Moses prayed to God to send plagues upon the Egyptians so that Pharaoh might be forced to release Israel. And the Lord God sent the ten-fold plague of wrath upon the Egyptians, such that they entreated Moses and said to him, “Pray to your God ^D that this land may be delivered from such great evils; and as your God lives, I will not prevent you from taking your Hebrew people to worship Him.”

Pharaoh then went to Memphis to that famous oracle, and having received the aforementioned response, he returned and immediately released Israel with Moses and Aaron. The people received as a loan from the Egyptians gold and silver vessels and much clothing. After they had departed, however, Pharaoh changed his mind and pursued them with his chariots, and he overtook them by the Red Sea. When the Israelites saw them, they cried out to God. Moses, having stretched out his hand, struck the sea with his staff, and the waters were parted, and all the people crossed over as if on dry land. Behind them entered all the Egyptians together with

their chariots. Seeing them crossing over, the Israelites were seized with boundless fear. But Moses, having stretched out his staff in a turning motion, ^A restored the water to its place. And all the Egyptians fled under the water, with none remaining. Seeing this, the Israelites glorified God who had saved them, singing: "Let us sing to the Lord, for he is gloriously glorified," ^B while their sister Mary followed with the women, beating the timbrel.

In the *Lesser Genesis* it is written that the infants of the Israelites were cast into the river for only ten months, until Moses was taken up by the queen. For this reason, ten plagues were inflicted upon the Egyptians over ten months, and in the end they were destroyed in the sea in the same manner as they had drowned the infants of the Hebrews in the river, so that in place of one Israelite infant, a thousand 7 valid Egyptian men perished. Furthermore, Pharaoh's daughter adopted Moses into the royal family, yet she did not remit the labor imposed upon the Israelites. When Moses had reached manhood, the Ethiopians crossed the river Indus and ravaged Egypt with severe incursions, to such an extent that they overturned almost all the cities, destroyed its army, and slaughtered its leaders. This war lasted five years. The Egyptians, reduced to extreme straits, were commanded by an oracle ^C to entrust the command to Moses, and therefore they contended for this with Thermuthis. She inveighed sharply against them, saying that through trickery and in league with the scribes of sacred matters, they had devised that plan for the sake of killing her son; nonetheless, she sent Moses forth as one who would fight for the fatherland. And indeed, Moses accepted this command most gladly and feared nothing at all. For he had grown up endowed with every virtue and had been trained in all the arts of the Egyptians, as befitted a king’s son, and he had a keen intellect and was brave in wars. Being thirty years old, he undertook such a war; and having spent ten years fighting the Ethiopians, he utterly destroyed Ethiopia, ^D took the metropolis Saba, which ruled as the capital of that kingdom, into his own power, and freed Egypt from all fear of enemies. From this point, envy toward him began among the Egyptians, especially on the part of Chenephris. For in the meantime, Palmanothes and Thermuthis had passed away. And so Chenephres attacked him with various snares, stirred by envy, and entrusted the slaughter of Moses to Chanathothes. Moses, having learned of these snares, killed him, and thus fled through the desert into Arabia to Jothor, who is also called Raguel, and took his daughter to wife, from whom he fathered Gersam and Eleazar. While he was in Egypt, he founded two cities in the name of his royal mother.

Eupolemus asserts that Moses was the first wise man, and that he first handed down letters to the Jews; from these, the Phoenicians, and in turn from the Phoenicians, the Greeks received them. Moses was the first to set down laws for the Jews. The same man, having left behind his association with men in Egypt, philosophized in the desert, being taught by the Archangel...

Gabriel ^A concerning the genesis of the world and the first man and those who followed him, and the Flood, and the confusion and variety of tongues, and the matters concerning the first man, and of the times elapsed up to his own day, and concerning the legislation which was to be given by him to the Jewish nation, and the positions of the stars, and the elements, and arithmetic, and geometry, and all wisdom, as it is set forth in the *Leptogenesis* (Little Genesis). And that in the 144th year of the servitude in Egypt, the Egyptians began to be afflicted by God with the ten plagues. In the month of June the waters were turned into blood; in July, frogs; in August, gnats. In September, dog-flies; in October, the death of cattle; in November, pustules and ulcers; in December, hail; in January, locusts; in February, darkness for three days; in March, the firstborn. On the 14th of this month, having despoiled the Egyptians, they went out, having done this by the command of God. After the exodus, Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, having taken Zipporah, the wife of Moses, and his two sons, reached Moses in the desert while he was still waging war against Amalek. And in the third month of the exodus of the sons of Israel, laws were given in the mountain of Sinai, and the Decalogue is given to Moses and Aaron and to all the people. And after this, Moses is again commanded by God, together with Joshua, to ascend the mountain and receive the tablets which were written, which God had previously legislated. Then he also sees the pattern of the tabernacle and all things concerning it. But the people make a calf, and Moses shatters the divinely-wrought tablets. Then he is again commanded to hew tablets and to ascend the mountain. And behold, the Decalogue is delivered by God a third time: first on Mount Sinai, when there were trumpets and a dark cloud; second, when the wonder of the tabernacle and the things relating to the tabernacle were shown; third, after the making of the calf. For even then he spent forty days on the mountain, neither eating bread nor drinking water, but also the glory of his face shone forth then to the people. ^C

And in the eleventh year of the exodus of the sons of Israel, Moses, being commanded to count the people from twenty years old and upward who had come out of Egypt, excluding women and children and the tribe of Levi, found 603,550, from the souls that had entered into Egypt, over 215 years. But all of these perished in the desert in various ways, some through blasphemy, others through idolatry, and others through unbelief, except Joshua and Caleb. And Joshua the son of Nun lived 110 years, and Caleb ^D the son of Jephunneh 160 years.

In the second census, when Moses and Eleazar counted the people, not a single man was found from the first census, when Moses and Aaron counted the people. For the first census took place near Sinai, and the second by the Jordan.

Moses, having with many prayers suppliantly entreated God that he might be permitted to cross the Jordan and behold the promised land, did not obtain it. But God said to him, ^A “Let this suffice thee; ascend to the top of the mountain, look upon that land from afar with thine eyes, for thou shalt not cross the Jordan.” And Moses died upon that mountain, years old 110. The leader of the people after him was Joshua for 27 years; he lived in all 110 years.

Indeed, I have deemed it worth the effort to explain the matters of the blessed Moses more clearly. For this inspired man, being about to receive the law a second time, ascended the mountain; and the Lord descended in a cloud, and he stood before Him for forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread nor drink water. And He wrote upon the tablets the words of the Testament, those ten words. And when, adorned with splendor, he had taken the tablets and was descending from the mountain, Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw the face of Moses, and it was glorified, and they were afraid to approach him. ^B And therefore he used a veil for his head whenever he spoke with them. For, having descended after forty days, and being angry because of the calf that had been made, he immediately broke the tablets and straightway ordered that all who were involved in that wickedness be destroyed by the sword. And having caused the calf to disappear, and having slain three thousand of the worst men in one day, on the following day he ascended the mountain to the Lord with haste, as if to strike Him with shame should He not assent to his entreaty. And hear what the Scripture says: “On the morrow Moses spoke thus to the people: You have committed a great sin. Now therefore I will ascend to God, that I may restore you to His favor, you who have provoked Him by your sin.” And returning to the Lord, Moses said: “I beseech Thee, this people has committed a great sin, ^C and they have made gods for themselves. And now, if Thou wilt forgive them their sin, forgive; but if not, blot me out of the book which Thou hast written.” But the Lord said to Moses: “Whoever has sinned before Me, him I will blot out of My book. But now go, and lead this people into the place which I have told thee; and behold, My angel shall go before thee. But on the day that I visit them, I will inflict upon them punishment for this sin.” Therefore it is beyond controversy that the blessed Moses, under divine inspiration, abstained from food for eighty continuous days, being nourished by the word of God according to the Lord’s saying. Now when Moses entered into the tabernacle of the testimony, the whole people stood looking on. And when Moses entered the tabernacle, ^D the pillar of the cloud would descend, and God upon the tabernacle. And the people saw the pillar of the cloud, and they worshipped, each from his own tent. And in this way the Lord spoke with Moses before the people. Furthermore, Moses, in his effort to deliver the people from the wrath of God, strove with such great exertion and took so little care for his own safety that he even stood in the breach of God according to David. But the Jews, being ungrateful as they were, rose up more and more against their prophet. And as many as did this, they in part [alt-version omitted: the footnote apparatus is ignored as instructed]

^A fell to the earth alive, and others became the victims of divine fire. For it says: "And the dead in the slaughter were fourteen thousand and seven hundred, apart from those who died on account of Korah."

And after these things, there was no water for the congregation, and the people reviled Moses and Aaron. And having cried out, God said to Moses: "Take this rod, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and speak to the rock before them, and it shall give its waters." And Moses took the rod from before the Lord, and assembled the congregation before the rock. And the Lord said to them: "Hear me, you rebellious ones: shall I bring forth water for you from this rock?" And Moses lifting up his hand ^B and striking the rock twice with the rod, much water flowed out, and the congregation and their cattle drank. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron: "Because you did not believe to sanctify me before the people, for this reason you shall not lead this congregation into the land which I gave to them." Therefore, let Aaron be added to his people, and let him die, because you provoked me at the water of strife." And Moses brought Aaron up to the mountain, and stripped him of the priestly garments, and clothed Eleazar his son with them. And Aaron died in the fortieth year of the exodus of the sons of Israel, having lived one hundred and twenty-three years. And the people mourned him for thirty days. And after these things, the Lord said to Moses: "Go up into Mount Nebo, and see the land which I give to the sons of Israel, and die there in the way that Aaron your brother died, because you disobeyed my word at the water of strife of Kadesh." ^C And Moses, having prayed much and often to God concerning this, and saying: "Shall I then, O Lord, cross the Jordan and see that good land?" the Lord said to him: "Let it suffice for you. See that you do not approach me again to speak concerning this, but having seen the good land with your eyes, die." And having written according to the command of the Lord the great canticle, and having laid his hands upon Joshua son of Nun to succeed him, he finished his life there by the word of the Lord, having lived one hundred and twenty years. And the people having buried him and mourned him for forty days, no one saw his burial. And there never again arose a prophet in Israel like Moses. From then on and until now, a luminous cloud overshadows that place, dimming and walling off the sight of those who see, so that they might not know his tomb for all eternity. ^D

After Moses, Joshua the son of Nun succeeded to the leadership, and having passed the Jordan, and having spent thirty-two years in the land of promise warring and distributing it by lot to the sons of Israel, he died having lived one hundred and ten years. And Moses indeed [lived]...

having struck down Sihon king of the Amorites and Og king of Bashan—who was left behind from the giants dwelling in Rephaim in Ashtaroth, being a descendant of Rephaim, whose iron bed was nine cubits long and four wide—took away all their land. ^A Joshua, having mastered all their land and the Canaanites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, and Hivites, and all their kings, who were thirty-two in number, gave their entire land to the sons of Israel. And as they were fleeing, the text says, before the sons of Israel, the Lord also rained down upon them hailstones from heaven, and there were more who died from the hailstones than those whom the sons of Israel killed with the sword under the generalship of Joshua.

But this great man, who showed himself to be a worker of wonders and very dear to God, was not without pain and various temptations. Concerning whom also the divinely eloquent Chrysostom said: “Consider what it is to be a righteous man. Joshua son of Nun said: ‘Let the sun stand still over Gibeon and the moon over the valley of Aijalon’; and it came to pass. For he says: ‘And the sun stood in the middle of heaven until the end of one day, and there was no day like it before or after, so that God obeyed man.’” This surpasses the deeds of Moses. ^B Yet this wonderful and great man and worker of wonders, having succeeded Moses, partook with him, so to speak, in all of his hardships. For not only during the time that Moses was still alive did he tear his garments and scatter ashes upon himself, but even after he had died, he fell into an even greater necessity, lying prostrate the whole day because of the sin of Achan and the slaughter of the people. For the Scripture says: “And Joshua tore his garments, and he fell on his face before the Lord until evening, he and the elders of Israel. And they cast dust upon their heads, and Joshua said: ‘I beseech You, Lord, why did Your servant bring this people across the Jordan, to surrender them to the Amorite to destroy us? What shall I say, since Israel turned their back before their enemy? And the Canaanite and all those who dwell in the land will hear, and they will surround us and wipe us out from the earth.’” ^C Do you see how he also, no less than Moses, is in anguish and turmoil? And perhaps he even despised his own life out of despair. I pass over mentioning the various wars and battles and anxieties and the deception of the Gibeonites. Indeed, even the distribution of the lots brought him much labor and many difficulties and troubles. In this way, then, all those who greatly pleased God, having been tested through trials and temptations, and having appeared approved, attained the freedom to enjoy love for God and boldness of speech; and there is no one who is held in high esteem by God who has been without trials, even if we are ignorant of this and of God’s judgments concerning them. ^D

^A After Joshua, God preserved the people through the judges, as they were harassed by the remnants of foreign nations. Among these, the first in order was Judas, who presided over the people for seven years. He brought Adonibezek, the king of the foreigners, into his power and cut off the extremities of his hands and feet. Then Adonibezek said: “Seventy kings,” he said, “had the extremities of their hands and feet cut off by me and were gathering the scraps of food beneath my table. Just as I have done, therefore, so has the Lord rendered to me.” After Judas, Gothoniel became judge, and after him, Aod. After Aod, Samegar served in the office of judge for seven years; he slaughtered six hundred of the barbarians in a single day with the ox-goad of a plow. After Samegar, Baracus became judge, with whom was Deborah the prophetess. In their age, Prometheus and Orpheus the Thracian, the wisest of the Greeks, were known, as well as Esculapius ^B the physician and Lycurgus the Spartan, who established laws for the Greeks. After Baracus, Gedeon—who is also known as Jerobaalus—officiated as judge for forty years. Having struck down the people of Madian with the three hundred who had been chosen, as will be told, by lapping water, he relied on his army to rout them and cut down their princes in the manner of a thresher, using thorns. After Gedeon, his son Abimelech succeeded him and presided for three years. He killed all his brothers, seventy free men, upon one stone; and no one of the brothers survived except for one, the youngest, Joathan, who, having climbed the mountain, told the Shechemites the parable of the trees—the olive, the fig, the vine, and the bramble—the reality of which parable was proven by the things that happened to them. You will find the rest concerning the judges in the progress of the work.

^C It must be known, says the renowned Chrysostom, that the name "parable" is used for many things. For a parable signifies both a discourse, and an example, and an opprobrium, as when David says: “Thou hast made us a parable among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples.” A parable is also an enigmatic discourse, which many call a "question"; it signifies something by allusions, but it is not immediately evident from the words themselves, rather it has a meaning hidden within, as when Samson said: “Out of the mouth of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.” And Solomon said: “Then shalt thou understand a parable and a dark speech.” A parable is also called a similitude. Hence this: “Another parable put he forth unto them, saying: The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field.” Tropology, when a thing is expressed with words that signify something else, also bears the name of parable. As here: “Son of man, put forth this parable unto them: The eagle with great wings,” etc., denoting the king by the name of eagle. ^D An image or exemplar is also indicated by the word parable, as when the great Paul says: “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac; and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son. From whence also he received him in a parable,” that is, in type and image. And a parable is a discourse comparing intelligible things to sensible ones, and presenting from things earthly and visible, things heavenly and invisible.

^A A problem is a speech characterized by shadowing and enigma, according to what has been said: "I will incline my ear to a parable; I will open my problem upon the psaltery." A problem is a theoretical construct contributing to contemplation and knowledge. An example is that which leads from the individual to the universal, or when we establish faith in a singular thing through another singular or similar thing. A proverb is an occult speech signified by another manifest thing. Allegory is that which is taken from inanimate things, such as mountains, hills, trees, and the like. Tropology is that which is taken from our own members, such as the head, the eyes, and the rest; it is called tropology from the word for "turning" (trope). From this, observe the actions of the judges.

^B We have deemed it necessary to make brief mention of the deeds of the judges of Israel, that we may bring them back to the memory of those who know them, and provide a small amount of information about them to those who do not.

After the death of Joshua, certain nations were left behind to test Israel; for by divine foreknowledge, God already knew of their apostasy, that they would be added to idols, and He handed them over into the hands of the enemies who had been left, and they humbled and exacted tribute from them. And the angel of the Lord came down into the valley and all Israel [with him]; and the angel reproved them for their apostasy, and that it was for this reason they were delivered to the nations. And all the people wept, remembering the benefits of the Lord and their present misery. Hence that place was called the Valley of Weeping; for because the Israelite people had not destroyed the nations that God had commanded them to destroy, but had rather learned their works, mingled with them, and counted their sculptured idols worthy of worship, for this reason they were delivered into the hands of the foreigners. ^C Moved, however, by His own philanthropy, God took pity on Israel, and raised up for them as the first judge Gothoniel, son-in-law to Caleb—which Caleb, having lived 107 years, served in war with strength as if he were a youth. And the Lord strengthened Gothoniel, and he struck the king of Syria. And the land had peace for 40 years, until his death. And again the Israelites departed from the Lord; and the Lord raised up against them Eglon, king of Moab, and he enslaved Israel for 18 years. And again the people cried out to the Lord, and He gave them as a judge Aod, ^D an ambidextrous man, who, having dared a noble deed, killed Eglon in his own house by treachery, and having escaped by flight, immediately took up the Israelite army and struck the Moabites with a great slaughter. Thereafter, for 80 years, all was peaceful for the Jews. After his death, when the Israelite people had again departed from God, for 3 years Sisera, the commander of the forces of king Jabin, humbled them. And Deborah the prophetess summons Barac (for she was at that time judging the people), and he goes with her.

^A She testified that this was the day on which the Lord would save Israel from the hand of Madian. Barac pursued Sisera, who had been put to flight, and shattered his chariots. Sisera himself descended from his chariot and fled alone, until Jaela, a distinguished woman, saw him and called him over, exhorting him to turn aside to her, free from fear. Having entered, she gave him milk to drink for his thirst, and having lulled him to sleep, she slew him with a peg. And the land was at peace under Barac for forty years. But Israel fell back into the worship of idols, and for seven years were in the hand of Madian. Then the angel of the Lord appeared to Gedeon, saying, "In your hand the Lord delivers Madian." Gedeon requested to offer a sacrifice to the Lord, and the angel touched the sacrifice with the tip of his staff, and fire came forth ^B and consumed it. Then the angel departed from him. Then Gedeon knew that it was an angel he was speaking with, and he was afraid. Thereafter he asks for the double sign regarding the fleece, and he obtains his request. Next, he destroys the altar where his father had worshiped Baal, and builds an altar there, and sacrifices a heifer to God. Then he summons the people and sends away those who are afraid, twenty-two thousand. Then he takes the remaining ten thousand, and at the command of God goes down to the river, and those who lapped with their tongue—three hundred—he keeps, and sends away the rest. As he was anxious because of the small number of his allies, he is permitted by God in that night to descend to the camp of Madian ^C alone with a servant. Upon descending, he heard them in the camp saying that a loaf of barley bread had been seen in a dream by a speaker in the Madianite camp, which, rolling through the whole host, reached the king’s tent, and the loaf struck the tent, and it fell. And those who were listening said, "This is nothing else but the sword of Gedeon; for the Lord will deliver this camp into his hand." And Gedeon heard and was strengthened. And he went up in that same night to the camp, and strengthened the three hundred men with him, and gave them jars, and torches, and trumpets. And after descending, he did as it is written. Now the Madianites were three hundred and twelve myriads, like a locust spread out in the plain, and there was no number of their people or of their camels. And when God struck them with panic, Gedeon pursued after them. ^D Those who remained, realizing this, seized the passes.

NOTES OF XYLANDER AND GOAR

(53) I doubt whether Cedrenus spoke thus. The matter is manifest, and for 'history' I suggest replacing it with 'on Mount Thabor'. XYL. (54) Whatever it may be, I do not state; nor do I think that my interpretation is far from the Greek or even from the Hebrew itself, [Hebrew text: see facsimile], which is, on account of its worthlessness, unsuitable for humans as food. Zonaras has it; Josephus adds that it was something not used by men for food on account of its worthlessness, Bk. V, ch. 8.

Further, the number of the Madianites which follows, I have expressed as I found it, 312,000. But this exceeds not only all belief but also the truth: nay, even if you read thousands for myriads, so that it were 31,200, still it might seem larger than is just. In Holy Scripture the army is numbered, although the comparison to locusts indicates that it was very great. Josephus is the authority that 120,000 Madianites fell in the battle. XYL.

^A God put them to flight, and Gedeon pursued them. The others, having learned of the matter, crossed the rivers and occupied the land as far as the Jordan. The Madianite princes, Oreb and Zeb, were captured in flight and their heads were cut off, and these they brought to Gedeon. Having crossed the Jordan, Gedeon struck the camp of Madian, and the kings of Madian, Zebee and Salmana, fled from the camp. Gedeon pursued them and killed them. He took the golden earrings from the spoils, and made an Ephod, which he set up in his own city, Ephra, in the territory of Manasse. All the people of Israel committed fornication there, and it became a snare to the people. And the land had rest under Gedeon, who was also called Jerobaal, for forty years.

In these times of Gedeon lived Orpheus the Thracian, ^B the lyric poet, Bryosius, a most wise and famous poet, who expounded the theogony, the creation of the world, and the formation of man, promising at the beginning of his work that he did not write any of these things from his own opinion, but that he had asked Phoebus Titan, the sun, to learn what the origin of the gods was, and who had created the world. There are extant in this work of his these verses:

King Phoebus, archer-god, vivid offspring of Latona, Light-mighty one, who shootest rays from on high; With thy rays, thou who puristly surveyest all things, Seeing the affairs of men and gods and governing all things: O sun, who liftest thyself aloft on golden wings, And swift seeking the liquid air with untouched pinions, This twelfth, now speaking to thee in my discourse, Is heard: my prayer has thee as its firm witness.

^C And there are many other verses of the same Orpheus on these matters; but even in those which we have cited, he indicates that, having obtained his wish, he wrote what he had heard concerning the race of the gods and the origin of the world; the rest were omitted because of their multitude. Inter alia, he also says this: that from the beginning the ether (if you wish to call it heaven) was shown to the world, having been fashioned by God; and on both sides of this ether there was chaos and dark night, covering everything that is below the ether, signifying that night was first. He had said in the same work that there was a certain incomprehensible being, prior and superior to all things, and the creator of all, both of the ether itself and of all things that are under it. And he said the earth was invisible because of the darkness. He expressed that the light… ^D

^A which broke through the ether had been previously mentioned as superior to all things. The name of this, the same Orpheus, having heard it from the oracle, uttered: *Metis*, which is interpreted as counsel, light, life-giver. He said in his exposition that these three divine powers of the names are one power, and the might of these is God, whom no one sees, and whose power no one can know in form or nature. And that from this same power all things were born, incorporeal principles, and the sun, and the moon, and authorities, and all the stars, earth and sea, and all things visible in them and invisible. And he said the race of men was formed by the divine himself from the earth and received from him an articulate soul, just as Moses explained. The same Orpheus, in his book, composed that through the same names of one divinity all things were made, and that He himself is all things. Concerning the miserable race of men, the same Orpheus set forth many poetic lines, of which these are some:

Brute beasts, and birds, and the wandering tribes of mortal men, Wild beasts, birds, and the [nations] of men that are consumed, Burthens of the earth, images fashioned hollow, Knowing not how to understand [the approach of] evil; Neither clever to turn away at all from [misfortune], Nor to turn back and do [well] when good is present, But in vain, godless, and unseeing.

^B And the same most wise Orpheus set forth many other verses concerning the human race. These things Timotheus the chronicler wrote down, saying that Orpheus, so many ages ago, had said that a consubstantial Trinity created all things.

In these times, Ilium was founded by Ilus, and after 34 years from the founding of Ilium, Cyzicus, the metropolis of the Hellespont and Asia, was founded by Cyzicus. And Tyre was founded 351 years before the temple in Jerusalem.

In the time of the Judges, Hercules the hero also became known, and the Argonauts, companions of Jason the Thessalian, who, as they were making their voyage up the Pontic Sea, were suddenly attacked by Cyzicus, king of the Hellespont. And joining battle with him in a naval fight, they killed Cyzicus and captured his city, Cyzicus. ^C But learning that Cyzicus, who was killed by them, was their kinsman, they sought forgiveness for their ignorance, and, having appeased the divinity, they built a sanctuary in that same city of Cyzicus, as we shall speak of later, both concerning the oracle given to them by the Pythian Pythia and other things.

^D Gideon did not consecrate the ephod to other gods, but to the true God. But because he did it in an alien place and against the law, this matter became a stumbling block to Israel, and it stood for the slaughter of Gideon’s family.

^A For this Gideon had seventy sons, begotten of many wives and concubines. From one of these was born to him Abimelech, who slaughtered his remaining brothers all upon one stone, with only Jotham escaping, who by flattery misled the people and reigned over them. But Jotham, his brother, ^B went up onto one of the mountains and called out to the Shechemites the benefits of his father, telling them a parable about the olive tree, the fig tree, the vine, and the bramble. And according to this parable it befell them; for the Spirit of the Lord troubled those who reigned over them, and the sword of Abimelech was effective against them, and their sword against him. And Abimelech played the tyrant for three years and razed the cities of the Shechemites. But while he was besieging one of the cities and approaching the wall, a woman cast a millstone from above and crushed his skull.

After Abimelech, Tholas arose, and he judged Israel for twenty-three years. After him, Jair the Gileadite for twenty-two years, who had thirty sons. And after him, Israel sinned against the Lord, and served the graven images of the nations. And the king of Moab, and Ammon, and all the nations round about troubled him for eighteen years. Then he returned to God, and put away the foreign gods. And He raised up for them a judge, Jephthah the Gileadite, the son of a harlot, who was mighty in strength, and he struck the king of Moab and his people mightily. ^C This man fulfilled his own vow not piously, sacrificing his daughter. He judged Israel for six years and died. Then Essebon judged him for seven years and died. Then Elon the Zebulonite judged him for ten years and died. Then Abdon the Pharathonite judged him for eight years; he had forty sons and thirty grandsons. Then the people fornicated with idols, and the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years. Then the angel of the Lord appeared to the barren wife of Manoah, and announced to her the conception of Samson. When Samson had grown to manhood, he set his heart—due to desire—upon an alien woman. Manoah and his mother tried to restrain him, not knowing that this had happened by the counsel of God for the destruction of the aliens. But Samson, having been mocked by his wife regarding the riddle he spoke: “Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness,” departed from her after she had answered: “What is stronger than a lion, and what is sweeter ^D than honey?” And her father gave her to another man. Because of this, Samson was enraged all the more against the aliens, and he set fire to their fields by means of three hundred foxes. Now the aliens burned Samson’s wife and her parents and their entire household with fire, because they were the cause of the injury they had received. Afterward, other things happened to Samson on account of the woman who was in the city of the aliens, when he also carried off the gates of the city upon his shoulders. Likewise also concerning Dalila

He judged the people for twenty years. And after having been shorn by the aliens and blinded, when his hair grew again, he shook the city of the aliens and overturned it, and in it he also died himself, having killed more aliens then than while he was still living. ^A And after him, Micha of the tribe of Ephraim gave two hundred pieces of silver to his mother. She consecrated the silver to the Lord, and made a carved and a molten image, and it was placed in the house of Micha, and the house of Micha was as the house of God. He also made an Ephod and Seraphim, and called a Levite to be his priest, and he was ministering in the name of God according to his command; for there was no king in Israel at that time, but each person did what was pleasing in his own eyes. The Ephod and the Seraphim are a garment and images. He says that an ephod and a face were made by Micha, a priestly garment and idols. At this time the events concerning the Levite and his concubine occurred, and how the tribe of Benjamin was wiped out. ^B After Samson, Samanes led the people for one year. In these times of the hierarchy, the people had peace with the aliens for thirty years. And after this, Eli the priest ruled the people for twenty years. A famine having occurred, many of the Hebrews became migrants; among whom were Elimelech of the tribe of Judah, and Noemi his wife, and their two sons. And they went down into the cities of Moab, and they took for their sons Moabite wives from the aliens. Elimelech and his two sons died there, and Noemi was left with her daughters-in-law. When the Lord lifted the famine from Israel, Noemi went up to her tribe, but Ruth, her daughter-in-law, did not leave her; and by the cooperation of God and the exhortation of Noemi, Ruth was joined to Booz as the kinsman of Elimelech. From whom he had a son, Obed, whose son was Jesse the father of David. Booz is descended from Judah and Thamar the alien woman, from whom came Phares and those following, as the genealogy shows. ^C In the year of Samson, the seventh, Eli was appointed high priest, who also judged Israel for fifty years, having become such for another forty years. In the fourth year of the priesthood of Eli, the prophet Samuel was born, and in the eighth year he was given to the temple, and in the thirty-eighth year he began to judge Israel, and in the seventieth he died, having served as priest for thirty-five years. And these things, indeed, we have noted from the book of Judges, as it were in passing, by way of an epitome. It seemed good to me also to set in order the more necessary topics of the first book of Kingdoms, ^D and of the third book of Kingdoms, the history...

^A of the kings and of the Chronicles, in an epitome, for the remembrance of those who encounter this book.

Elkanah and his wives, Anna and Phenanna, went up to Shiloh to sacrifice to the Lord. And since Anna did not have a child, Anna asked the Lord with deep sorrow that her womb might be opened, and that what was born might be given back to Him. And she bore Samuel, and she offered him to the tabernacle of God. And again Eli prayed for her that children might be given to her in place of Samuel, and she bore three sons and two daughters. But Ophni and Phinehas, the sons of Eli, did not only pollute the sacrifices with their transgressions, but also committed fornication with the women who stood at the gates of the temple of the Lord.

The first book of Kingdoms narrates, therefore, that the Barbarians waged war against Israel. And the Barbarians, having won the victory, carried off the ark of the God of Israel. And Eli the priest, having heard this, fell and died. The Barbarians brought the ark as a gift to their god Dagon into Azotus, and they placed it by the feet of the idol. But in the night their god Dagon fell, and appearing at dawn, they found him fallen before the ark. They stood him up, and on the following night Dagon fell again and was shattered, and his temple was no longer honored. But the Barbarians also perceived a disease inflicted upon their seat, and throughout the whole Pentapolis (a region having this name from its five cities: Azotus, Gaza, Ascalon, Geth, Accaron), there was a great pestilence among the inhabitants and in those cities. Their land also brought forth mice.

After seven months (though Josephus says there were only two months [58] that the ark remained with the Barbarians, ^B who are now called Palestinians), they sent out the ark with gifts and sacrifices, placing it upon a new wagon, and having yoked choice and untouched cows. They, with no one guiding them, completed the journey. And this was for the honor of the Israelite people, while the Barbarians, having seen the event, were struck with great fear.

The ark remained in the house of Aminadab for twenty years. But before this, the ark had arrived in Bethshemesh at the house of Osea, who, having broken up the wagon and set it on fire, offered the cows upon it as a sacrifice to the Lord God. But the sons of Jechoniah approached the ark unworthily, and men from among them perished, for they were impious and idolaters, as were nearly all the citizens of Bethshemesh; wherefore also fifty thousand men of that people perished. And so they sent the ark away from themselves to Kiriath-jearim; and those there gladly received the ark, and they placed it in the house of Aminadab which was on the hill, and he consecrated his son Eleazar to guard the ark of the covenant of the Lord. ^C And the ark remained there for twenty years, and the people then turned to obey the commandments of God; whom Samuel, having called them together to Masipham, exhorted to destroy all their idols. And the people obeyed his admonition.

^A Then the Barbarians marched in full force against the people of Israel. On their behalf, Samuel interceded with God in prayer, and God thundered. As the whole people marched in battle array against the Barbarians, God, by his hand, wrought a great slaughter of the Barbarians. After these things, the whole people came together to Samuel and addressed him thus: “Since thy sons Joel and Abias do not walk in thy ways, but allow themselves to be corrupted by gifts in the exercise of judgment, come, constitute a king for us who may be our judge.” This request seemed evil to Samuel. Yet God told him to obey the people, and that they had not despised Samuel, but him, in not wanting him to reign over them; their fathers had acted in the same way from the day that he had brought them out of Egypt. Therefore, Samuel anointed for them Saul, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, as their king. ^B Following these events, Naas, king of the Ammonites, besieged the city of Galaad. When the inhabitants, for the sake of salvation, promised to serve him in slavery, Naas refused to spare them otherwise than by gouging out the right eye of every man, to the reproach of the Israelite race. This excited great mourning among the Gileadites. Saul, however, having learned of the matter, called all of Israel to himself and numbered the men at six hundred thousand. Having divided them into three detachments, he attacked the Ammonites and slaughtered them. Then Samuel, taking the people, went down to Galgala and there inaugurated Saul in the kingdom, and he himself departed to Armatha. ^C Shortly thereafter, a multitude of Barbarians gathered at Galgala, at which time Saul had no more than six hundred men with him, and these unarmed. Therefore, in these straits, despairing of Samuel’s arrival, Saul offered sacrifice to God. But behold, Samuel came upon him and rebuked him for this act; and to Saul, who pleaded the paucity of his men and the narrowness of the time, he prophesied with certain imprecations that the kingdom would be given to another better than he; and he departed. ^D Jonathan, however, accompanied only by his armor-bearer, broke through and went to the position of the Barbarians, and having given a sign to the armor-bearer, he attacked the guards and slew about twenty men. But the Lord sent a terror into the camp of the Barbarians when they saw the flight of the guards from afar. Those who were on the hill with Saul, when they saw the confusion in the camp of the Barbarians, made the matter known to Saul. He ordered Achias the Levite priest, who was with him and wore the ephod, to consult God. [1 Reg. VIII, 5]

^A Yet as the camp of the Barbarians was being thrown into even greater confusion among themselves—for the mercenaries and servants who were with the Barbarians rose up against them and struck them with swords—Saul told Achias to restrain his hands, and he himself rushed upon the Barbarians with his six hundred. Then also the Hebrews who were hiding in the caves and crevices of the mountains came out, and they were with Saul, numbering about ten thousand. At that time Saul, led by ignorance, had imposed a curse that none of the people should taste food until he had destroyed his enemies. Now the whole land was tasting of food. Then happened the matter of Jonathan, who in his ignorance tasted the honey; but the people rescued him from death. Saul then fought against all the nations round about him, prevailing against them.

Afterward, Samuel the prophet comes to him again, and declares to him the destruction of the nation of Amalec, and gives him the commandment which he had received from God: not to spare any of them, from man to beast, from infant and suckling to elder, but to destroy even the whole female sex and all their cattle, and to utterly ruin all their baggage, because they had shown evil to the children of Israel when they were ascending from Egypt. Saul, however, having obtained the victory and wiped out the forces of Amalec, spared Agag their king, and the people also took a great spoil of the enemies' flocks, herds, and baggage. Behold, Samuel returns to Saul, who was staying at Galgala, and declares to him what God had spoken to him concerning the loss of the kingdom and the division of the people, just as he had torn off the hem of his cloak. Samuel is forced by the king to return with him, and the prophet slays Agag, the king of Amalec, with his own hands. ^B Because of this disobedience of Saul, God said to Samuel: "I have repented that I made Saul king, for he has turned away from following me and has not kept my words." Samuel reproached Saul much for this disobedience. He, however, cast the blame upon the people and the need to sacrifice the seized animals to God.

The prophet said to Saul: "Is it pleasing to the Lord that burnt offerings and sacrifices be made as much as heeding the voice of the Lord? Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice, and hearkening is better than the fat of rams. For sin is as an omen, and brings ^C the pain and labor of teraphim. Because you have despised the word of the Lord, the Lord will likewise despise you, so that you shall not be king over Israel." And Samuel departed from him, and he saw him no more. By the will of God, Samuel, following [God's] command, goes away to Bethlehem, and ^D there he anointed the eighth son of Jesse, David, as king, and the Spirit of God is given...

to him. ^A And then a wicked spirit came upon Saul, and it choked him. And his acquaintances told him about David, that the Spirit of God was with him, and that it was fitting for him to play upon the lyre, the psaltery, and the harp. And Saul sent to Jesse, and took his son to play and to drive away the spirit that was choking him. And the spirit departed from Saul, and he made him his armor-bearer. And David became beloved by Saul. Then the Philistines went out with a heavy force, and that which concerns David and Goliath came to pass, whom he slew in single combat, a man eight feet in height, thirty-three years of age. And the dancing women met them, saying, "Saul has struck his thousands, and David his ten thousands." And envy came upon Saul against David, because the thousands were given to him, and the ten thousands to the other. And a wicked spirit from God fell upon Saul, and he prophesied in the midst of his house. And David played with his hand as he did day by day, and the spear was in Saul's hand, and he said to strike David, but David bent down, and he struck the wall. Saul did this twice. And Saul, having learned that God was aiding David, made him a captain of a thousand, sending him out from his presence to enter and go out in battle, saying, "Let the hand of the Philistines be against him rather than my hand," and he gave him Michal his daughter as a wife. ^B And David, fleeing from the presence of Saul, went away to Samuel in the city of Armathaim, and he found a choir of prophets with Samuel. And Saul sent messengers once, and twice, and three times to seize David; and they remained prophesying. And Saul, being enraged, went himself to seize him; and he was astounded, and he also was prophesying, and he took off his garments, and lay naked all the day and the night. And after these things, David completely separates ^C from Saul, having acquired a band of four hundred fighting men. And after this Samuel dies, and he is buried in his house in Armathaim. But Saul was still pursuing David. And Abessai and Joab went down into the camp of Saul by night with David, and they took the spear and the cruse of water. And David fled to Achis, king of Geth, and he gave him the city of Sikelag, and he dwelt there for four months; where the parricide Absalom set up a pillar (64) in his own name, committing lawlessness in this also. ^D

^A Jebosthes the Canaanite, who with an unsheathed sword wounded six hundred men in a single battle, was stoned in the same place. He was not one of the Three, but was powerful beyond the three. Next was Adinon, and he wounded eight hundred with an unsheathed sword; then Eleazar, and thirdly Sameas. These three broke through the formation of the foreigners and brought water from Bethlehem for David when he asked to drink. Abessaus, brother of Joab and Asael, wounded three hundred with an unsheathed sword. He was set over the three, not because he equaled them in strength, let alone surpassed them, but because he was a kinsman of the king; for his power did not reach that of the Three. Furthermore, Banaias, son of Joaida and nephew of David, although he was compared to these three on account of his virtue, nevertheless did not equal their power. There were also thirty-seven other famous and powerful men, of whom Asael was the leader. Now, rhomphaia denotes a sword (65) and not a spear, as some think, just as David says to the foreigner: "You come against me with a sword, a spear, and a shield; but I approach you in the name of the Lord God of Sabaoth." ^B David ended his life at the age of seventy, having reigned over Judah for seven years and six months, and thirty-two years and six months over the whole people. When he began to reign, he was thirty years old.

Solomon, even before he built the temple, burned sacrifices on the high places, and all the people with him. But his greatest transgressions occurred after the building of the temple. For he had made his royal throne of ivory, having on its back the carved figures of two calves, and two such lions on either side near the throne. He also made six steps to increase the height of the throne, and on each step lions were likewise carved, so that there were twelve lions in total on the steps, and two near the throne. Josephus asserts that in this, too, he sinned and transgressed the laws given by God to Moses and the people. ^C For it was not permitted, for the sake of the eyes of those who pasture, to fashion animals or engage in paintings. Because of Solomon’s impiety, Jeroboam obtained the kingdom of the ten tribes, while only two tribes were left to Roboam, the son of Solomon: the Jewish and the Benjamine. For Jerusalem lies in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin, and therefore it was joined to the tribe of Judah.

^D The holy Scripture records the first transgressions of Solomon, as well as his glorious deeds, though the former less so. Regarding these transgressions, it appears that both before and after the building of the temple, he sacrificed and burned offerings on the high places. He also had foreign wives, which the law forbade. Yet for a time Scripture does not blame him, not because it records his deeds as if they were free from fault, but because it does not yet censure him. And again, not everything he fashioned in the temple was done piously.

^A God appeared twice to Solomon, in order to confirm him the more intently and to warn him to abstain from lawless deeds. Josephus relates that he died ingloriously for this reason as well: because, besides his other sins, he fashioned lions and oxen to be viewed in a high place. For the divine law forbids such things to be made even for the sake of being seen or viewed.

The prophet Achias the Shilonite, meeting Jeroboam, the servant of Solomon, tore the new garment he was wearing into twelve pieces, and gave him ten shreds, saying: "God gives you the ten tribes of Israel because of the sins of Solomon; yet you shall not obtain them until after his death."

Solomon sought to kill Jeroboam, having become suspicious of him. Knowing of this plot, he fled to Shishak, king of Egypt, and remained there until the death of his master, Solomon. He also took the daughter of Shishak as his wife.

The Temple in Jerusalem had four courtyards; into the outermost, all were permitted to enter, even foreigners, though women suffering from their monthly period were barred from entering. Into the second, all the Jews entered, and their women, provided they were free from all defilement. Into the third, the males of the Jews; into the fourth, the priests alone. Into the temple and to the altar, only the blemish-free priests, clad in priestly robes. Into the inner sanctuary, the high priest alone entered once a year, adorned in his proper vestments.

In his old age, Solomon wandered away from God, as his wives consecrated idols. For he who permits another the power to consecrate such things, in effect dedicates them himself. And for this reason, Satan Ader/Hadad was sent against him.

Jeroboam was a servant of Solomon, the son of a harlot, and he reigned over Israel in Samaria. Joining battle with Abijah, he was defeated, and five hundred thousand of Israel fell.

In the third year of the reign of Athaliah, Jehu slew Joram and Ahaziah and the sons of Ahab and Jezebel.

^C Ahaz, son of Uzziah, father of Hezekiah, king of Judah, cut up the carvings of the *mechonoth*. These were lions, oxen, and Cherubim. The *mechonoth* signifies a laver; then there were the brazen oxen which supported the brazen sea, which oxen Solomon had fashioned against the law. He placed the sea upon a stone base. The rest follows hereafter in its own place. Now, some things concerning the Annales.

The Annales are called *Paralipomena* in Greek because they generally report what was omitted, although they also omit historical events and often present a totally different viewpoint. For what is said in them, that Asa lived for God... ^D

his own, proving it by the example of David and his ancestors; though he holds a different opinion, as the deeds of Solomon which we have set forth demonstrate. Furthermore, Asa, aided by the Judeans and the auxiliaries of the tribe of Benjamin, slaughtered five hundred thousand of the Israelite people who were with Jeroboam. Nor did Jeroboam, son of Nabat, henceforth lift his head against Judah. ^A

The sisters of David were Servia and Abigail. Servia’s sons were Abessas, Joab, and Asael; Abigail’s son was Amessas. This man did not reach the rank of the three commanders of David.

Reuben, the firstborn of Jacob, lost his dignity because he had defiled his father’s bed; yet his father Jacob gave the prerogative of primogeniture to Joseph, while assigning the primacy to Judah. ^B

The second book of Chronicles states that there was nothing in the tabernacle except the tablets.

Joades, the wise high priest, when Gotholia was destroying the entire Davidic line, hid Joas, the youngest son of Ochozias, the son of Gotholia. This Joas, at seven years of age, obtained the kingdom over the Judeans, and he slew the impious Gotholia, who was born of Ahab. Joades lived 130 years and was buried in the sepulchers of the kings, because he had preserved and restored the Davidic lineage. Gotholia reigned for seven years. Joades hid Joas when he was a month old. ^C

Legates of the Babylonian princes came to Ezechias to inquire about the miracle that had occurred in the heavens when the sun turned backward. Ezechias, passing this by, displayed to them his treasures, his riches, and his kingdom. God was angered, and threatened Ezechias with evil, which, however, having regard for his virtue, He transferred from him to his descendants.

Manasses, having been captured by the Assyrian king on account of his impiety, when he repented from his heart and confessed his sins, was restored by God to his kingdom and thereafter obeyed His commandments.

In the testament of Ezechias, king of Judah, the prophet Isaiah says that the Antichrist will hold power for three years and seven months, which is a total of 1290 days; that after he is cast into Tartarus, the Lord of all, Christ our God, will come; and that there will then be a resurrection and a recompense for good and evil deeds. The prophet Daniel also speaks of these very things in his vision ^D in these words: "I said to the man clothed in linen, who stood over the water of the river: When will be the end of these wonders which you have narrated? He lifted his hands to heaven and swore by Him who lives forever that it would be for a time, times, and half a time. I heard and understood and said: And what will be the end of these things? He answered: From the time of the change of the continual sacrifice

^A a disgusting abomination shall be given, for 1290 days, and blessed is he who endures and reaches the 1335 days.

When Amasias was reigning over the Jews, the things prophesied concerning Nineveh in those times came to an end. Josephus, in the ninth book of his *Archaeology*, relates that Jonah, having been swallowed by a sea monster, was after three days and three nights cast out alive into the Euxine Sea.

From the third book of Josephus’s *Archaeology*: If any Hebrew suspects his wife of having committed adultery, he brings an *assaron* of barley flour to the priest; one handful of it is cast upon the altar of God, and the rest is given to the priests for food. The priest stations the woman at the gates of the temple ^B and, having uncovered her head, he writes the name of God upon a parchment. He commands her to swear that she has done no wrong against her husband and has not neglected her chastity; that if she has done otherwise, she should pray that her right leg might be disjointed and her belly burst, and so she might die. But if the husband, through excessive love and his own jealous disposition, was rashly moved by suspicion, she gives birth to a male child in the tenth month. When the oath is completed, he wipes the name of God from the parchment, squeezes it into a bowl, sprinkles into it some dust of the temple, if it happens to be at hand, and gives it to the woman to drink. If she is innocent, she conceives and gives birth in due time; but if she has been unfaithful to her husband and has perjured herself before God, she dies a shameful death, her leg being disjointed and her belly swollen with dropsy. ^C

From the fourth book of the same: Because the rod was of almond wood, it was seen to bring forth almonds and fruits.

Those who consecrate themselves by a vow are called Nazirites; they let their hair grow and abstain from wine. When they shear their hair for a sacrifice, they offer it to God through the ministry of the priests. And those who dedicate themselves to God as "Corban" (this signifies a gift in Hebrew), if they wish to be released from their service, pay money to the priests—thirty shekels for a woman, fifty for a man.

Balaam, falling upon his face, foretold the calamities that would befall kings and the most important cities, some of which had not even begun to be inhabited at that time. He also added the guile of the Midianite and Moabite women. ^D

From the fifth book of the same: Josephus explains the history of Samson differently than the Holy Scriptures. For he relates that one thousand men were slain by him with the jawbone of an ass, but he does not say that water gushed forth from it. Rather, he says that the place, having previously been nameless, was called "the Jawbone" because of that event, and that at that place a fountain of abundant and sweet water sprang from a rock, from which Samson slaked his thirst, and that the place retains this name to this day.

The seventh book of the same: David, being mindful of the laws given by Moses…

who had foretold that if the multitude should be numbered, a half-shekel should be paid to God for every head, ordered Joab to go out and number the entire host. Because of this, seventy thousand of the people perished, until David, by offering peace sacrifices, appeased the Divine. It so happened that the sacrifices were carried out in the very place where Abraham had intended to sacrifice his son Isaac as a whole burnt offering. ^A

That David prepared everything for the temple, but was forbidden to build it because his right hand was polluted by the frequent slaughter of enemies. He left, however, three thousand talents of gold to Solomon for the building of the temple. ^B

That Solomon composed five thousand books of odes and songs, and three thousand books of comparisons and types; for he made a comparison for every kind of tree, and also for cattle, and for all terrestrial animals, and for birds, and for those in the air. God also granted him to learn the art against evil demons for the benefit of mankind, and he left behind the science of composing incantations for diseases, and forms of adjuration by which evil spirits are cast out, never to return. This kind of remedy is of very great power among us today. For I saw, says Josephus, a certain fellow-countryman of mine, Eleazar, in the presence of Vespasian, his sons, the commanders, and a multitude of soldiers, delivering those who were possessed by demons by such an incantation. The method of this cure was as follows: he would apply to the nostrils of the demoniac a ring having a root in its bezel, such as Solomon had revealed, and when the demon perceived the odor through the nostrils, it would depart. Then, as the man would immediately fall down, he would command the demon never to return to him, reminding it of the adjurations of Solomon and reciting the incantations which he had composed. Josephus also writes that Solomon lived ninety-four years and reigned eighty years. ^C

From the tenth book of the same: That Isaiah the prophet foretold to King Hezekiah that all his wealth would be carried off to Babylon, and that his descendants would be castrated and serve the King of Babylon; and that God prophesied these things. ^D

We have also summarized the book of the blessed Job in a digest, briefly gathering here its most important arguments, so that they may call the matter to memory for those to whom this book is known. That book consists, in the manner of a theatrical drama, of six characters: the righteous Job himself, Eliphaz the Temanite, Baldad the Shuhite, Sophar the Minaean, Elihu the Buzite, and, sixth, God the Master. There are twenty-three dialogues held between them. Job begins, saying to each of his three friends that he has been wounded by the weapon of the mighty God; they assert that no one is unjustly wounded by the mighty and eternal God. This question is debated in six dialogues. Then Job again begins the discussion with them, claiming that he is conscious of no voluntary sin in himself; they, on the other hand, condemn him with arrogant insistence. This second question

inquiry. And again Job speaks first, saying that many of the wicked prosper in this life; and his friends could not withstand him in this, but kept silent, so that the dialogues reach seventeen up to this point. ^A For Sophar does not answer, but remains silent. Then Elius the Buzite is angry with Job and his three friends, because they had not condemned him for sins, and he makes the eighteenth dialogue. Then the nineteenth is God, speaking to Job through a whirlwind and a cloud: "Who is this that hides counsel from me?" and [he speaks of] his glory and power and majesty. Then the twentieth is again Job, saying: "Once I have spoken, but on the second occasion I will add nothing." Then the twenty-first is again God, rebuking Job and saying: "Nay, but gird up your loins like a man." And he points out to him the conceit of the power of the wicked, and how divine help overcomes him, and that he might appear righteous. Then the twenty-second is again Job, saying: "Before, I heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now, having given ear to your words, I have deemed myself earth and ashes." Then the twenty-third is the rebuke of the Lord God to Job's three friends, ordering them to sacrifice ^B to God for their iniquity, and to seek through prayers from Job a petition and forgiveness for their iniquity. Now Job was the fifth in the line of descent from Abraham, sprung from Esau, and a relative of Jothor, who was the father-in-law of Moses; and the fifth genealogy is taken thus: Abraham, Esau, Raguel, Zares, Job.

In the times of the kings of Egypt mentioned above, there appeared in the land of Caria a giant-born philosopher, of the race of Japheth, named Endymion, who, by speaking mystical prayers to the moon, begged her to teach him the divine name in a vision. And as he was praying, he fell asleep, and heard the divine name in a vision. And he never again stood up, but his remains exist to this day in Caria as a corpse that is stirred; and every year they open his tomb in that land, ^C and they see his remains as a stirred corpse, as they say. Concerning whom they say that the Moon loved Endymion.

That at Asirotha Aaron and Miriam murmur against Moses. It is recorded in the sacred Scripture in these words: And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom Moses had taken, because he had taken an Ethiopian woman. And they said: Has the Lord spoken only to Moses? Has he not spoken to us also? And the Lord heard it. And the man Moses was very meek above all men that were upon the earth. And the Lord said immediately to Moses and Aaron and Miriam: Come out, you three, to the tabernacle of witness. And the three went out. And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the tabernacle of witness, and Moses and Aaron were called, and they both went out, and he said to them: Hear my word: If there be a prophet among you ^D

^A to the Lord, I shall be known to him in a vision, and I shall speak to him in a dream. Not so is my servant Moses, who is faithful in all my house; mouth to mouth will I speak to him, in appearance and not by riddles, and he has seen the glory of the Lord. And why were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? And the anger of the Lord’s wrath was against them. And they departed, and the cloud departed from the tabernacle, and behold, Maria was leprous, as white as snow. And Aaron looked toward Maria, and behold, she was leprous. And Aaron said to Moses: I beseech thee, Lord, lay not this sin upon us, for we have acted in ignorance when we sinned. Let her not be as one dead, like an abortive birth coming out of its mother’s womb, and half of her flesh is consumed. And Moses cried out ^B to the Lord, saying: O God, I beseech thee, heal her. And the Lord said to Moses: If her father had spat in her face, would she not be ashamed? Let her be separated outside the camp for seven days, and after that she shall come in. And Maria was separated outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not set out until Maria was cleansed. And after this the people set out from Aseroth, and encamped in the wilderness of Pharan. And when the people came to the mountain of Sina, Maria the sister of Moses died. Then immediately there arises a murmuring of the people because of thirst, and Moses and Aaron provoked God at the water of contradiction. ^C And the Lord being angry said: Because you did not glorify me before Israel, you shall not bring the people into the land of promise. And Aaron died, having ascended the mountain of Hor, having received the judgment of death because of the water of contradiction. And after the water of contradiction, the people went down into Edom, and they murmured against God and Moses. And God sent serpents, and they killed the people. And then the brazen serpent is made by the command of God.

For in the second census, when Moses and Eleazar numbered the people, no person was found from the first census, when Moses and Aaron numbered those from twenty years old and upward, because the Lord had said to them: You shall die by death because of your murmurings. For those about Moses and Eleazar, as Levites, were not counted with the other tribes in the past either; and Jesus was of the tribe of Benjamin, and Chaleb was of the tribe of Judah. Observe also that those who were under twenty years of age were not deprived of the land of promise, nor were those of the Levites who survived until that time. Here Moses is commanded to ascend Mount Nabo, ^D and he too is reproved, like his brother, because of the water of contradiction. Therefore he is also deprived of the land of promise, and dies there at the age of one hundred and twenty years.

And that he [conquered] the cities and all the territory of the two kings, Seon king of the Amorites and Og king of Basan, beyond the Jordan.

^A

To Ruben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasses, he assigned [the land] across the Jordan.

When the children of Israel were passing through Mount Seir, they were commanded by God to purchase bread and water from the Idumeans, who were descendants of Esau. Therefore God said to them, "You shall not possess of the land of the Esauites even a footprint, for they are your brothers." Furthermore, God turned the Hebrews away from the land of the Moabites and their cities, because they were descendants of Lot.

In the repetition of the Law, Moses says, "These ten words you heard from the midst of the fire," so that even before they were inscribed on tablets, they were already promulgated by the divine voice. For the people did not hear a sound without words, but articulated [speech] from the midst of the fire at Sinai, as it is written: "And they heard his words from the midst of the fire." These are the holy words of the law, which he later engraved on tablets.

Moses, being eighty years old, led the Hebrew nation in their exodus from Egypt, established laws for them in the wilderness, and remained with them for forty years.

From the second book of Josephus's *Antiquities*: That Pharaoh at the same hour perceived both the visions of his dreams and their interpretations, but having forgotten the interpretations, he sought someone who would bring them back to his memory. That during the seven years of plenty, the Egyptians did not foresee the seven-year famine. That one of the sacred scribes reported to King Pharaoh that at that time someone would be born to the Israelites who, upon reaching adulthood, ^B would diminish the dominion of the Egyptians and exalt the Israelites. Therefore, by his advice, he orders every male child born to the Israelites to be thrown into the river. Yet no man can overturn the counsel of God, not even if he should contrive ten thousand arts toward this end.

The father of Moses is instructed by God in a dream concerning all the things that were to happen to Moses and Aaron, and he reveals this to his wife, Jochebed. That Thermuthis, the daughter of Pharaoh, having taken up Moses, orders that a woman be fetched to provide suck to the infant; but as Moses would not accept any of the many women brought to him, Miriam, who was standing by, said, "If you were to have one of the Hebrew women of his own kind brought here, perhaps he would accept the breast." Having been ordered to do this, she brought his mother, and the infant gladly attached himself to the breast.

That Pharaoh, showing affection to his own daughter, places the diadem upon Moses, but he, in the simplicity of infancy, casts it to the ground and tramples it with his feet. ^C When the aforementioned sacred scribe saw this and attempted to kill the boy, Thermuthis snatched him away and saved him. That the ibis, a bird otherwise tame, is fiercely disposed only toward the race of snakes, which it seizes and devours frequently, even more than it does lizards.

That a vast swarm of lice broke out among the Egyptians, erupting from their very bodies and afflicting them severely, yielding to no remedy. The Hebrews, having departed from Egypt, sustained themselves meagerly for fifteen days on unleavened dough which they had carried with them. In memory of which scarcity—

they celebrate a festival for eight days which is called the [festival] of Unleavened Bread. They departed after four hundred and thirty years. ^A That the species of quail, a multitude being nourished, flies over to the Arabian Gulf having crossed the sea that is between, and by the pressure of its flight, and [being] more terrestrial than the others, it was borne down upon the Hebrews. That the manna was commanded to be gathered by all in equal measure—an *assar* (this is a measure)—for each day, so that food would not be lacking for them, so that for those who were weaker it would not be difficult to obtain [it] due to the strength of those who were more powerful in the gathering.

^B Moses was deemed worthy of a vision of God in the bush at high noon, and though unwilling, he was entrusted with the leadership of his kin; and having been armed with signs and wonders, [and] having left behind Jethro, his father-in-law, his brother-in-law 69 (for he is called by two names), he set out for Egypt together with his two sons, Gersam and Eliezer, and his wife Sepphora, to whom an angel appeared and threatened death 70. But she averted this, even though she was a foreigner, by the blood of the circumcised child. Aaron also met him, having been sent by God, and he confirmed the power of the signs. Whence, upon Pharaoh resisting together with the Egyptians, he brought the first plague upon them, having turned all their water into blood; for Moses and Aaron and the Hebrews, however, it was pure and drinkable. ^C Whence the water found among the Hebrews was even sophistically countered by the [Egyptian] magicians so that it appeared to be blood. The same is to be understood regarding the second plague of frogs, that while all the Egyptians were tormented by the affliction, only the land of the Hebrews remained free from the plague. The third plague was the lice, the fourth the dog-flies, the fifth the death of cattle, the sixth the soot-dust, the seventh the blisters of hail, the eighth the locust, the ninth the palpable darkness, the tenth the death of the first-born.

[P. 25] The Decalogue. 1. I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt. 2. There shall be no other gods for thee besides me; thou shalt not make for thyself an idol, nor the likeness of anything. 3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. 4. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. 5. Honor thy father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee and that thou mayest be long-lived. 6. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 7. Thou shalt not kill. 8. Thou shalt not steal. ^D

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES. (68) The text is mutilated and corrupt here, and it troubled me, until I thought it was taken from Josephus; I found it intact there, *Antiq.* III. XYL. (69) Cedrenus also says that he was called *gambros* [brother-in-law/son-in-law], and it is clear that she was the daughter of this Jothor or Jethro. *Pentheros* means not only father-in-law, but also Herodotus says that Cyrus was the *gambros* of Croesus, being married to his sister Aryenis. By which rule Eustathius also writes that Eurylochus was the *gambros* of Ulysses, being the husband of his sister Ctimena. And in Sophocles, *Oedipus Tyrannus* says, since Creon was the brother of Jocasta, [he is] the *gambros* of Oedipus and his uncle and brother-in-law-by-marriage. These are properly called *kēdestai* [kin-by-marriage]... *gambrois*. Quoting from the *Trapaedia* in the same place, where it signifies father-in-law. I myself do not recall observing any other such example. And *gambros* seems to be spoken not so much from giving [a bride] as from taking one; whence the word in the Gospel, Matt. XXII. XYL. (70) The margin has: Note that in the *Leptogenesis* [Book of Jubilees] it is written that the one who met Moses was not an angel, but a multi-named [] Samael and Beliar and Mastelman, who is the devil. XYL. (71) So also Augustine on *Ad Marcellinum* ep. VII. XYL.

of the earth. 6. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 7. Thou shalt not kill. 8. Thou shalt not steal. 9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. 10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, or his house, or his field, or his man-servant, or his maid-servant, or his ox, or his beast of burden, or anything at all that is thy neighbor’s. ^B

This Decalogue is the arrangement of the general commandments. These divine teachings were ordained with a terrible and articulate voice, while the people saw and heard; and not being able to endure the sound of this voice, which was overwhelming and difficult for the ears, they asked that God should propose the rest of the commandments to them through Moses. These other fifty peculiar chapters concerned servants, voluntary and involuntary murders, indignities offered to parents and slander, theft, blows in fights leading to death or life, a freeman against a freeman and a master against a slave, and of a man against a pregnant woman, the striking out of a slave’s or maid’s eye, the goring of a bull by a bull, the theft of a calf, the killing of a thief in the act of breaking in, the burning of hay or a threshing floor, the deposit of gold or silver, and ^C the borrowing of every kind of beast of burden from a friend, the defiling of a virgin, congress with a brute beast, sacrifice offered to idols, the oppression of a sojourner, orphan and widow, money borrowed, curses against God or the prince of the people, the first-fruits of the threshing floor and the winepress, of firstborn sons and calves and sheep and beasts of burden; so that the men might be holy to God. He commanded that meat torn by a wild beast should not be eaten, but thrown to the dogs. [He commanded] not to entertain a vain rumor, not to aid a guilty man with one’s testimony, not to join with many in wickedness, not to pervert judgment to please the multitude, and not to show pity to the poor man in judgment; to bring back the ox or the beast of burden of an enemy if found wandering astray in the way, and to give aid to an animal ^D that has fallen under its burden, not to twist the just judgment of the poor, to abstain from every unjust matter, not to kill the innocent and the just, not to justify the wicked, not to receive gifts because they blind those who see and corrupt justice, to do good to the sojourner, to sow the land for six years, and in the seventh to grant a remission to it for the enjoyment of the poor or the beasts of the field, and in like manner for the vineyard and the olive grove. He instituted this for the sake of teaching humanity. In this year also he ordered that debts should be remitted and that Hebrew servants should be gifted their freedom; he also ordained the rest of the Jubilee year. The name signifies liberty and remission. They call the fiftieth year the Jubilee. In which he commands that he who sold a field should take it back, as well as the houses within it, and [commands] the remission of debts and the freedom of hired servants. He ordered work to be done for six days of the week, and to rest on the seventh. Not to swear by the name of a strange god, nor to utter it with the mouth. To celebrate three festivals in the year: the first, the feast of Unleavened Bread, for seven days in the new moon, that is, at the first full moon of the spring; the second, the feast of the harvest of the first-fruits, and the third, under the end of the year, when the fruits of agriculture have been gathered. He also reminded them of the Pascha (for that is the first festival), the exodus from Egypt, and the Pentecost (which is the name for the second feast)

^A of the entry into the promised land, and the Tabernacles of the dwelling in the desert; for they spent forty years living in tents. He commanded that none should appear empty before the Lord, and that every male should be presented before the Lord at these three festivals. That they should not offer the blood of the sacrifice of the Lord with leaven, but with unleavened bread. That the fat of the sacrifice should not remain until the next day. That they should bring the first fruits of the produce of the earth into the house of the God of all things. That they should not boil a lamb in the milk of its mother. Moses, coming from God, explained these statutes to the people, adding also other divine exhortations. The whole people responded with one voice and promised that they would obey all the words of the Lord. And all these things were written down.

^B Moses, having received glory from God, spoke to the Jews for forty years with his face veiled, for they could not look steadfastly at him. But when he entered into the presence of the Lord, he would remove the veil from his face. Truly, for those who read the Law following the dictates of the flesh, a veil of hardness of heart covers them, so that they cannot recognize the glory of Christ; but for those who enter through the Spirit, the veil of ignorance is removed. Moreover, on Mount Tabor Moses truly saw the back parts of God, namely the incarnation of the Only-Begotten, when, placed in the rock and covered by it—that is, by Christ—he saw God passing by in majesty, not naked, but incarnate.

^C The first tablets were hewn and written by the hand of God; and it was permitted that they should be broken, for they were a type of the first and literal law, just as the second ones, which Moses himself hewn and worked upon, were a clear type of the second and spiritual law. Just as the first people, who fashioned the calf, were a figure of the first Israel—and therefore it, together with the ancient law, was scattered by the wrath of God—so the second people signified the new and Christian Israel; and therefore, the latter people reverently received the second tablets from the face of Moses, which was illuminated with glory, and kept them whole, depositing them in the Ark of the Covenant.

^D Regarding animals in the Law, only the ox, the sheep, and the young goat are admitted for solid and other sacrifices, being gentle and pure animals, and representing the sheep of Christ. Of birds, only the turtledove and the pigeon are admitted for sacrifice and burnt offerings, the one as a lover of purity and quiet, the other as a lover of its mate and of mankind, both as pure and undefiled, reflecting the qualities of holy souls under an image.

Some say the Red Sea was divided into twelve parts, as the great Chrysostom also says, that a special path was provided for each tribe; others recognize only a single division, because Moses struck the sea with a single blow. When the Israelites had emerged from the sea, the sea, rushing back into its channel, brought the dead Egyptians to them; having first despoiled them, they gathered them in heaps; and the earth, having opened, swallowed them—

as it is written: “You stretched out your right hand, the earth swallowed them” (Exod. xv, 12). ^A And upon coming to Elim, they found twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, which were types of the disciples of Christ: the twelve springs signifying the twelve leading apostles, and the seventy palm trees their disciples, through whom they watered the world and showered upon the cosmos the sweet and solid food of the knowledge of God.

The manna given to them was gathered in equal measure by all, both by the strong and the weak; for as much as the strong was eager to gather, a gomer was gathered—which is thirty-two and a half ounces—and to the one who had become indolent, a gomer was also gathered. And if it was kept until the next day, it was destroyed by worms, except on the Sabbaths; for that which was gathered on Friday was kept unharmed on the Sabbath. This was a type manifesting the incorruption of the Master’s body at the time of the burial, which, though it naturally suffered similarly to us on the cross by nails and spear, yet underwent no corruption or dissolution at all. The manna also prefigures the most pure Theotokos and a life lived according to virtue. The Hebrews ate this manna in the wilderness for forty years; for the entire journey of the Hebrews from the exodus out of Egypt, from Kadesh-Barnea as far as the valley of Zareth, although it was no more than fifty days, was completed in thirty-eight years, as they were made to wander to and fro by God. ^B

That when the Israelites were fighting against Amalek through Joshua the son of Nun, who before this was called Nauses (73), Moses stretched out his hands in the form of a cross, and Israel prevailed over Amalek. But when he grew weary and lowered them, Amalek prevailed. Then Aaron and Hur, placing stones under his hands, kept him until the setting of the sun—whence Joshua also routed Amalek, killing him with the sword.

That Phoroneus, the son of Inachus and Niobe, is said to be the first among the Greeks to establish laws and judgments. And Crete was named from a certain Cres who ruled there.

That Scythopolis (74) was formerly called Basan.

Xylander and Goar’s Notes

(72) Regarding the manna, these things are in the margin: Moreover, I shall transcribe the words of St. Augustine from his letter to Januarius: “It also has force,” he says, “for this comparison, that in the first people, the manna tasted in the mouth of each according to his own will,” etc., which words, reviewing them himself in his *Retractations*, he says: “It does not occur to me whence this can be proven except from the Book of Wisdom, ^D which the Jews do not receive into canonical authority; yet it could have happened to the faithful, not to those murmurers against God, who surely would not have desired other foods if this manna had tasted to them as they wished.” The passage of the Book of Wisdom is ch. XVI, and that it is believed to be the book of Philo the Hebrew is known even from the preface of St. Jerome. XYL. (73) See Num. XIII and Euseb. *Hist. eccles.* I, 4. XYL. (74) I read Scythopolis, though the scripture seems to have *Sunthopolis*. But on what occasion mention of this city is made here, I cannot conceive. That the city of Scythopolis was in the borders of Galilee is taught by Strabo, l. XVI, where he relates how Pompey the Great took possession of Judea. The words of Stephanus are cor-

- rupt; yet for him it is [the city] that was once called (perhaps Baisan or Basan) by the barbarians. Pliny, V, places it in Decapolis, near Judea, and says that Nysa was previously called [so] after the nurse of Bacchus. In the second book of Maccabees, chapter 12, there is mention of the city of Scythopolis, which is indeed this very city, distant 600 stadia from Jerusalem. That Basan, therefore, was once the royal city of Og. See Josephus, *Antiquities*, IV, 5, and by comparing these, you will easily understand that Scythopolis is Basan, the capital of Galaditis or Gaulonitis, looking down upon Galilee. See also what Cedrenus relates below concerning this city in the fable of Orestes. But these things are handled more fully in our Geographical [notes], God willing. XYL.

^A Up to this point the five books of Moses contain the history and the deeds from Adam of three thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven years.

That the holy city offers the holy Pascha, the offering in the divine mystery, from the new grain.

That Moses saw with his own eyes on Mount Sinai all the equipment of the Tabernacle and the vestment of the priest, and all things pertaining to it—the clasp, which is the buckle or pin, and the breastplate which lay upon the chest of the high priest by means of twelve stones, signifying the favorable things by their brightness and the grievous by their darkening—and he built the tabernacle and its contents accordingly. ^B Then he also received the first tablets and heard God speaking in anger: "Let me be, that I may destroy them, and I will make of thee a great and mighty nation" (Exod. xxxii, 10). But he, having besought Him, appeased God; and having descended, he burned the calf with fire and ground it into powder, and sprinkled it upon the water, and gave it to the sons of Israel to drink. And having appeased God through civil war, he ascended the mount again, having fasted for another forty days, and received the second tablets. Then he also saw the glory of the Lord, seated at the cleft of the rock, and his face was glorified. And one must understand the "back parts" of God as His divine dispensations and operations, and the rock as the unwavering and unshakable [nature] of faith, and the cleft of the rock as the eye of faith (for this is why those who are of Moses behold the inaccessible and invisible things), and the veil as unbelief; for when a man believes toward the Lord, the veil is taken away, as the Apostle says (II Cor. iii, 16). Then he also constructs the tabernacle through Bezalel, the son of Mary, the sister of Moses, and Ur [Hur], who was with him and Aaron when they held up the hands of Moses ^C against Amalek. The works of the tent were completed in seven months, and it was erected on the first day of the first month of the second year of the Exodus; which even the Scripture attests in the third book, which is Leviticus. In the second month the census of the people took place, and they were found, from twenty years old and upward, as the fourth book of Numbers says, to be six hundred thousand and three thousand, without the Levites; but the Levites who were numbered were found to be twenty-two thousand. In the fortieth year of the Exodus, Aaron died at the age of 123, and Moses appoints Eleazar the son of Aaron. And Moses, in the eleventh month of the fortieth year of the Exodus, in the one hundred and twentieth year of his life, having blessed all the ^D people, [ascended] Mount Naban (also called Abarim), situated in the land of Moab, on this side of the Jordan, over against Jericho.

and having beheld the land which had been promised to Israel, he died. And no man saw his tomb, and his eyes were not dimmed, nor were his lips decayed. Now the devil tempted him as one who had sinned against God, attempting to drag him down with the other sinners. But he was driven off by the hand of the archangel as one rash, bold, and hostile to the friends of God. And a cloud and darkness arose about that place, so that no one could see where Moses was buried, just as Josephus relates.

It should be known that the five books of antiquity were composed by the most blessed Moses by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the Hebrew language; ^B which, after these events, along with the others, were translated into the Greek dialect by the Seventy Interpreters under Ptolemy Philadelphus. Genesis contains from the beginning the creation of the world, [P 80] the formation of man, the flood, the destruction of the Sodomites, then the birth, life, and death of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the oracles, and the reign of Joseph in Egypt. Exodus contains the affliction of the Israelite people, their crossing through the Red Sea under the leadership of Moses, their sojourn in the wilderness, how, upon receiving the law, they tempted God, and the construction of the tabernacle. Leviticus contains the varied ordinances of the sacrifices and the administration of the priests. Numbers contains the double inspection or enumeration of the sons of Israel: the first, by Moses and Aaron, occurring immediately after the exodus at Mount Sinai; the second, by Moses and Eleazar, after the destruction of the first [generation] — which occurred over forty years because of their unbelief — in the plains of Moab by the Jordan near Jericho. Deuteronomy recounts all the magnificent deeds of God and his benefits to the Hebrews from the beginning down to the death of Moses, and also the entire second canticle, and the tribal leaders who were to distribute the promised land ^C and all the heads of those tribes.

When the people of Israel had crossed the Jordan, Joshua circumcised all the people with stone knives; for during the forty years in the wilderness no one had been circumcised, and most of those capable of war were uncircumcised; the reason being that, since they were separated from all foreign peoples, they had no need of circumcision. Well, therefore, is it said by the divine Apostle that neither circumcision avails anything nor uncircumcision, but the keeping of the commandments. And when the people had eaten of the new grain on that same day, the manna ceased. At that time, Joshua the son of Nun also saw the archangel Michael at Jericho, by whom Jericho was surrendered to him; for when the people had circled it for six days, carrying the ark with them, once they had sounded the trumpets and raised a shout, ^D the walls fell down of their own accord, and Israel entered into it, and all the people of Jericho were slain and every animal, except for Rahab

the harlot and her house. There also Achan was stoned by Israel, together with all his own, because he had hidden goods. ^A Then also the Gibeonites, the descendants of Eve and the rest, as those who dwelt far away, made a covenant with Joshua, whom he later recognized to be neighbors; he spared their lives, but ordered them to serve and to gather wood for the people. When fighting against the Amorites, he commanded the sun to stand still at Gibeon and the moon at the valley of Ajalon, until he had destroyed the enemies. The kingdoms which Joshua, the son of Nun, took were twenty-nine in number, and the provinces seven, besides those of Jericho and Gath. He calls the city of Jericho also a city of the Phoenicians, and the Kenites the descendants of Jethro. Joshua therefore distributes the promised land to the Jewish nation by lot. He died having lived one hundred and ten years, having ruled over Israel for twenty-seven years. And they buried him at Timnath-serah, in the mountains of Ephraim, having buried with him also the stone knives.

Among the Argives, after Inachus, Phoroneus obtained the kingdom, and many others after him down to Lynceus, who waged war against king Danaus, killed him, and seized both his kingdom and his daughter Clytemnestra for his wife. After him, Meriopas, having reigned only five years, fell from power, and thus the kingdom of the Argives, having lasted five hundred and forty-nine years, had passed over to the Sicyonian Greeks. ^B In the age of Moses there was a certain great man, Gyges by name, of the stock of Japheth, who, being a native, held the kingdom of Attica for thirty-two years. In his reign a flood occurred in Attica alone, by which both the king perished and the whole region, which for two hundred years thereafter remained uncultivated.

At the time when the Israelite people departed from Egypt, a certain native of the land of the Molossians, Aides by name (whom the Latins call Pluto), ruled with his wife Melindia. This king had a daughter, named Proserpina. When Pirithous, the king's advisor, loved her and had arranged it with the virgin, he desired to carry her off by night. Pluto, having learned of this attempt, stationed the dog which he had, of vast body and savage, named Tricerberus, outside the door of Proserpina, she herself being unaware of the matter. Thus, when Pirithous was coming to her by night, the dog sprang upon him and killed him. The maiden, having come out at the disturbance, was herself torn to pieces by the dog. ^C Hence arose the fable that Pluto (which word signifies the wealth of the man), having snatched the virgin Proserpine, had departed to the underworld (that is, to Hades).

Egialeus was the first of the Sicyonians who held the kingdom for fifty-two years; after whom there were twenty-six other kings up to the one called Zeuxippus, who reigned over them for thirty-one years. And their kingdom lasted for nine hundred and eighty years. ^D

^A The regions toward the setting sun and the parts of Italy were governed by the sons of Picus, who was also called Zeus. Among the Greeks, Prometheus, Epimetheus, Atlas, and the all-seeing Argus became known; the latter they called "hundred-eyed" on account of his extremely keen sight and his circumspect mind. Atlas studied the science of astronomy, wherefore they fabled that he bore the heavens. Prometheus, they say, invented grammar. But the followers of Anaxagoras interpret Zeus as the mind, and Minerva as art. Whence comes also the saying:

And with hands bereft, he seeks the wise Pallas.

They interpreted Prometheus as the mind: for among men, prudence, which they call *prometheus* (foresight), arises from the mind. For this reason, they also fable that men were refashioned by him, it being evident that he brought the unlearned to knowledge. Epimetheus invented music, and Deucalion recorded the events of the deluge of Attica. Cecrops was named "double-natured," either because of ^B the length of his body, or because, being an Egyptian, he knew both languages. After the deluge of Attica, he reigned over the Athenians for 50 years, and from Athena he named the city Athens. In his time, an olive tree first grew upon the acropolis. From him, the country was first called Cecropia. He was the first to admire the ox and to name Zeus. In his time, the temple of Delian Apollo on the island of Delos was founded by Erichthonius, the son of Cecrops. He legislated that women, while still virgins, were to be married to one man of their choosing, and were to have regard for no other until death; for up to his time they had lived promiscuously, joining and separating whenever they pleased, so that it was unclear who was the father of anyone, with men procreating bastards like cattle through such intermixing. He claimed that this was the cause of the deluge. After him, Cranaus reigned for nine years, ^C who was also proclaimed as the first of the Muses—that is, Sappho. Then Phorneus and others reigned after him up to Codrus, for 21 years. Thus the Athenian kingdom lasted for 492 years. From then on, they handed over their republic to be administered by twelve rulers. Among these rulers, the first to legislate for the Athenians was one named Draco. After him, Solon abrogated the laws of Draco. Then Thales the Milesian legislated; and again Aeschylus, when he held tyranny over the republic for one year and seven months. After him, Alcibiades for two years, then others for 18, and again the kingdom of these was abolished. In those times, the judges also ruled among the children of Israel.

A recapitulation of the judges of Israel for the sake of the histories of the Greeks. After Joshua, the son of Nun, the tribes of Judah and Simeon ^D joined in mutual aid by their shared boundaries; and Caleb is said to have been the first to rule the people for 30 years. After this, the people, by rendering divine worship to idols, became worthy of serving Chusarthom, the king of Syria, which is Mesopotamia.

^A When, however, the people turned themselves back toward God, He raised up for them Othniel as their first judge, the younger brother of Caleb, who judged the people for 40 years. In his time, the flood of Deucalion occurred in Greece. And again, doing evil, Israel was delivered to Eglon, king of the Moabites, in the year 3942, and served him for 18 years. But when they turned back, God delivered them again through the double-handed Ehud, who gained this surname because he was accustomed in every matter to use his left hand just as he did his right. He led the people for 80 years. In his 21st year, Cecrops became king of Attica, and in the 77th year, a flood occurred in Thessaly and Ethiopia. Again, ^B because the people were mad for idols, the Lord delivered Israel into the hand of Jabin, king of Canaan, for 20 years. After these things, Deborah the prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth of the tribe of Ephraim, judged Israel. Under her leadership, Barak, the son of Abinoam of the tribe of Naphtali, joined battle with Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s forces, and overcame all his power. But Sisera himself, fleeing on foot, was slain by Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, having been pierced through the temple with a nail. At that time, Cadmus reigned in Thebes. After the death of Deborah, the people again sinned and were delivered to the Midianites to be vexed for 7 years. But Gideon, of the tribe of Manasseh, having acquired confidence in the victory through divine signs, rose up against them, and—with a hand of men who had lapped water in the manner of dogs—he destroyed their 120,000 and ruled the people for 40 years. ^C Abimelech his son for 3 years, Tola for 23 years, Jair the Gileadite for 22 years. After this, the people sinned and were delivered to the Ammonites and vexed by them for 18 years. Then, having made their return to God, they were saved through Jephthah the Gileadite for 6 years. After him, Ibzan for 7 years. At about this time, Ilium and Troy were founded, and Aesculapius practiced the art of medicine. Elon of Zebulun for 10 years. Abdon, son of Hillel the Pirathonite, who had forty sons and thirty grandsons, ruled the Israelite people for 8 years. At this time, among the Greeks, Orpheus the Thracian became known, ^D a lyricist and the most famous of all poets among the Hellenes; in his poetic verses he philosophized about the birth of the elements and the nativity of man, and about the outpouring of light from the ether; likewise concerning incorporeal principles, concerning the powers, concerning the sun and moon and all the stars, the earth and the sea and all things that are in them—whether they can be seen or escape the sight—teaching that all these things were fashioned by the Creator of all. He taught that the race of men was fashioned by the same God from the earth and endowed with a soul capable of reason; and that all things are referred to the one authority and power of the divine nature, namely to the true God, whom no one sees. He says there are three names in Him: Counsel, Light, and Life, in which the most wise Orpheus, nearly in agreement with the truth that we profess concerning God and men, [XYLANDRI ET GOARI NOTÆ]

^A pronounced things consistent with God and men. He is heralded as a lyrist and citharode, who with the sweetness of his speech, although he delights and soothes the soul. The rest we have related above.

At this same time, they say that Marsyas the philosopher also existed, who by musical art discovered the construction of pipes from reeds, and having lapsed into insanity, ^B he arrogated to himself the name of a god, saying that he had discovered sustenance for men through the song of the pipes; and it is said that he, having become deranged, threw himself into the river, from whence the river was named Marsyas: he came from Colchis.

Again, the people, having stumbled, were delivered to the foreigners for 40 years. But when they had turned back to God, He raised up Samson, the son of Manoah, of the tribe of Dan, who, having defeated the foreigners, ruled for 20 years. At this same time Hercules was known, he who accomplished the twelve labors. Samanes led the people for one year. ^C Anarchy having occurred according to the Hebrew traditions, and each doing whatever he wished, as is wont to happen in anarchy, for 40 years, all things remained at peace from the foreigners for 30 years under the leadership of Samane. And Eli the priest governed the people for 20 years. At this same time the Trojan War took place for ten years, and Ilium was captured. Samuel, succeeding Eli in the priesthood and the leadership, held authority over the people. They say that he was twelve years old when God first appeared and spoke to him: in whose days the ark ^D stayed in the house of Aminadab. And when the king was anointed, Eli was taking part for 70 years.

There flow, therefore, from the death of Joshua to the death of Samuel 610 years; from Noah and the flood 2120 years; from Adam 4382 years. Now Samuel, having grown old and managing the people's oversight more sluggishly, and his sons, having allowed themselves to be corrupted by gifts, repeatedly swerving from equity, with the people pressing and by God's permission, anointed as king over the people Saul, the son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin. This man, with Samuel strengthening him, reigned for 20 years, and for 20 years by himself. And while he reigned, Samuel both prophesied and functioned in the priesthood. Abner, the son of Ner, led the army.

When Saul had offended God many times, and more grievously on account of the transgression of His commandment—having spared Agag, the king of the Amalekites—he heard from the prophet: "It is done with you, ^D because you did not keep the commandment which the Lord commanded you. For He would have made your kingdom eternal over Israel. And now your kingdom shall not stand, but the Lord shall seek a man after His own heart as a ruler over His people." And after these things, when Samuel had anointed David, and then had grown old and died, Saul added all the more to provoking the Lord. Whence also the Spirit of the Lord departed from him, and an evil spirit began to choke him. For which reason David was brought to him, for solace, playing upon the lyre

^A. The same David killed the barbarian Goliath, who was four cubits and a span in height, his head armed with a helmet, his body with a chainmail hauberk whose bronze and iron weighed many thousands of ounces, his legs covered with bronze greaves, bearing a spear shaft like a weaver’s beam, the iron point of which weighed three hundred ounces, and wearing a bronze plate between his shoulders. Because of this deed, having been taken as a son-in-law by Saul, but envied on the pretext of the singing of the women leading the dances, he fled from his father-in-law. At that time, he ate the sacred bread, and Saul slaughtered the priests and ravaged the city of Nob with the sword, killing every man and beast, with only Abiathar, son of Abimelech, surviving, who had escaped in flight to David. This parricide by Saul surpassed all his other sins in impiety. For he who had spared Agag and all precious things, when moved by anger, destroyed the priests and their entire city, men and all. Truly the most inhuman Saul, frequently pursuing the most gentle David, once and again fell into his hands. But David was so far from returning evil for evil that he would rather say to him: “Why, O king, do you lie in wait for my life? May God judge our cause 45.” And while the house of David grew little by little, the family of Saul withered. At length, Saul died in his iniquities, pierced in the flank by an arrow from the Barbarians; and since that wound did not hasten his death, he brought about his own destruction by falling upon his sword, lest he be held up for mockery by the Barbarians ^B.

After Saul, David reigned for forty years, and in all his deeds he obeyed the will of God, as it is written: “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will execute all my will.” Therefore the Almighty was with David, and he was increased in prosperity. He had thirty-seven mighty men, of whom the least could be compared to a hundred men, and the greatest to a thousand. Among these was Sebochas, who struck down Seph, the son of Rapha, born of the giants; Eleanas, who laid low a robust Hittite man, whose spear shaft was equal to a weaver's beam; Jonathas, who cast down a man of huge strength and body mass, gifted with six fingers on his hands and feet; Adinon, who in one battle drew his sword against eight hundred men; Jesebadas, who in one fight wounded three hundred; Maras, who, when the Barbarians were rushing in and attempting to plunder a portion of the field sown with lentils, and the people were fleeing, stood alone and, having put the Barbarians to flight, defended the field; Eleazarus, who, when the people had fled at the beginning of the barley harvest upon the arrival of the Barbarians, stood alone and protected the barley, having defeated the Barbarians, of whom he wrought such a slaughter that his hand was wearied and stuck to the sword, and the people returned to gather the spoils; and Banaias, whose exploits were many. ^C The sons of Ariel of Moa^D

^A he struck down so many of the foreigners, until his hand, weary from the effort, cleaved to the sword, and the people turned back behind him to plunder. Manaiah: this man performed many deeds, and he struck down the sons of Ariel of Moab, and descending on a day of snow into a pit, he slew a lion. He also killed an Egyptian man, seven cubits tall, who was using a seafarer's timber in place of a spear; for having snatched the timber from him, with it he killed him. Abishai, the brother of Joab: this man struck down six hundred men, and Jesba, who was seeking to kill David (this Jesba was a descendant of Rapha), having a spear weighing three hundred shekels. When Abishai ran, he was like a roe in the mountains. And three of the other mighty men—when the foreigners once surrounded Bethlehem, and David desired to drink from the well in Bethlehem—the three broke through the camp of the foreigners [P. 87] and brought water to David from the well. But he, marveling at their bravery, did not drink the water, but poured it out as an offering to the Lord, saying: “Merciful be the Lord to me, if I should drink the blood of men who went with their very lives to fetch it.” ^B Likewise, the rest of them were also invincible men and very terrifying to their enemies, having shields and very large spears, and quick in their feet like roes upon the mountains, and their faces like the faces of lions. Now the number of the soldiers of the common people whom David had was 1,180,000, as they were counted by Joab, the commander-in-chief. For it says: “And the anger of the Lord was kindled to burn against Israel, and He stirred up David among them, saying: ‘Go and number Israel and Judah.’ And the king said to Joab, the captain of the host who was with him: ‘Inspect the people, and I shall know their number.’ And Joab said: ‘May the Lord God add to your people; but why does my Lord desire this matter?’ And the word of the king prevailed, and Joab went out and inspected the people. And all Israel was 1,100,000 men drawing a sword, and Judah was 480,000 men drawing a sword.” ^C But he did not number Levi and Benjamin, because the word of the king was detestable to Joab, and it seemed evil in the sight of God. And David’s heart struck him when he numbered the people; and the Lord sent Gad the prophet to David, and said: “Thus says the Lord: Choose for yourself to have either three years of famine in your land, or three months to flee before your enemies, or three days of death in your land.” And David said to Gad: “I am in great straits on every side; but I will fall ^D into the hands of the Lord, for His mercies are many. But into the hands of men…” [index: entries preserved]

He pleaded with the Lord, saying: "I have sinned, and I am the shepherd who has done wrong; but the sheep, what have they done? Let Thy hand be upon me, O Lord, and upon my father’s house." And the Lord, being moved, said to the angel, "Stay thy hand." And David built an altar there and immediately offered up whole burnt offerings. And the Lord listened to him, and the destruction of the people ceased. ^A [P. 88] ^B These things, says Theodoret, did not happen without a cause; rather, the people paid the penalty for their own transgression, for they had abandoned their pious and godly king and followed a tyrant and a patricidal son. Thus, also, through the slaughter of the Gibeonites by Saul, they were chastised by famine after his death. For all the people and Joshua the son of Nun had made covenants with the Gibeonites, and Eleazar the high priest had also shared in the oaths. Therefore, the descendants of those who had sworn ought not to have violated the oath. For Joshua said to them after the discovery of their craftiness: ^C "And now you are cursed. There shall not fail among you a bondman, nor a woodcutter and water-carrier for me and for my God." For this reason, they became woodcutters and water-carriers for the altar of God and for the entire congregation even to this day. Since, therefore, they had disregarded this, for this cause even after his death they endured the discipline of the famine. The Word thus teaches us not to violate covenants made under oath before God, even if the violation might seem to result in the advantage of others. David, however, ignorant of the cause of the divinely sent affliction of famine, consulted God; and having been taught by Him that the people were being punished because of the unjustly slain Gibeonites, he appointed these very people who had been afflicted by the injury as arbitrators, and inquired by what manner they wished to be appeased. The Gibeonites replied that they demanded neither gold, nor silver of Saul, nor any man from the people of Israel for death; but they desired to wipe out the memory of the man who had pursued them and had attempted to exterminate them from the Israelite nation. And so they demanded seven born of his stock, that with these they might expiate the outrage before the Lord on the hill of Saul. In that place, therefore, they crucified the men, in the place where he had dared to perform his lawless murders. Now these who were fixed to crosses were two illegitimate sons of Saul and five of his later descendants. Once this punishment was accomplished, the Lord was appeased, and the earth yielded its customary fruits. ^D After these things, it came to pass that one evening David had arisen from his bed and was walking upon the roof of the king's house, and he caught sight of a woman bathing from the roof, and the woman was very beautiful to behold. And when he saw the woman bathing, he did not flee from the sight as from something ruinous, but, being allured by the bait of her beauty, he swallowed the hook of sin. And perhaps as a remedy, albeit a worse one, for another passion—namely, that of pride of spirit—which he himself hints at in these words: "I, when I had been"

^A exalted, was humbled and brought to despair. And I said in my prosperity: I shall never be moved; yet you turned away your face, and I was troubled. But it was good for me that you humbled me, that I might learn your statutes." For through the insurrection of his son, he paid the manifest penalty for both murder and adultery, according to the divine prophecy. For the Scripture says: "Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house," and so forth. How much affliction, calamity, and distress profit the soul, we also learn from this history. For when David was being persecuted by Saul, he practiced every kind of philosophy; and while deployed in war and occupying his mind with the cares of battle, he lived according to the sacred laws. Having obtained, however, a brief respite, he fell into that ^B slip. But when the prophet entered in to him, and he endured his reproof, and having made confession said, "I have sinned against my Lord," the prophet replied, "You shall not die; although you have greatly provoked the Lord by your enemies." And God first smote the child of that adultery, and then, signaling the insurrection of his son against him, said: "And now the sword shall not depart from your house." Fittingly, therefore, he said: "The Lord has chastened me sorely, but He has not given me over unto death." For indeed God, like a most wise physician, subjected him to every kind of chastisement after the confession of his sin. The blessed David, therefore, before his departure from this life, calling his son Solomon to himself, said to him: "Solomon, my child, it came into my heart to build a house to the Lord my God. And the word of the Lord came upon me, ^C saying: 'You have shed much blood and have made great wars. You shall not build a house to my name. Behold, a son is born to you, and I will give him rest from all his enemies, for Solomon shall be his name. He shall build a house to my name. And now, be strong and show yourself a man. And behold, according to my poverty I have prepared for the house of the Lord one hundred thousand talents of gold and a thousand thousand talents of silver, and brass and iron of which there is no number; and in addition to these, provide what will serve for the building of the temple of the Lord.'" And David, being old and full of days, having installed his son Solomon in the kingdom, again said to him before the people: "Behold, I have prepared for the house of my God gold, silver, brass, iron, and every precious stone and costly stones ^D and...

in addition to these, I give, apart from what I have prepared for the holy house, three thousand talents of gold from Ophir ^A and seven thousand talents of refined silver, for the overlaying of the walls of the temple." And the princes of the children of Israel gave to the works of the house of God seven thousand talents of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and countless brass. And David having blessed the people and dismissed them, said again to his son: "And now, Solomon, know the God of your fathers, and serve Him with a perfect heart and a willing soul, for the Lord searches all hearts and knows every design. And if you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you forever." And David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the whole temple and of the Cherubim that spread out their wings and overshadow the ark of the covenant of the Lord. All things the Lord gave to David in writing by His hand, instructing his son: ^B "Be strong and of good courage, for the Lord my God is with you."

And after these things David died, rich in glory and piety, in a good old age and full of days, at the age of seventy. For Scripture says: "And it came to pass after Saul died, that the men of Judah came to Hebron, and they anointed him king over all Israel. David was thirty years of age when he began to reign. And he reigned forty years." But although he was counted worthy of the royal anointing by Samuel, the History nonetheless called the acclamations of the people "anointings" promiscuously. Having finished his life, therefore, he was buried in the city of Jerusalem in the great tomb which his most wise son Solomon had built by Siloam. David reigned ^C seven years while Saul was still alive, and thirty-three years after his death. David himself prophesied, as did Gad, Nathan, Asaph, and Idithumus. Joab was the king’s general, who numbered the people and found one million one hundred thousand, and of Judah four hundred and seventy thousand. The tribe of Levi and Benjamin were not numbered. And there fell by the wrath of God from among the people, in three hours, seventy thousand men.

It should be noted that when an unusual plague and wrath from God, who disposes all things in equal scales, awaits sinners and those who despise Him, it is permitted that some evil act be committed by the leaders of the people, so that it might not be thought ^D that evils occur rashly or by chance, but as a result of just judgment. Nor must it be supposed that pestilences, great calamities, and common slaughter of the people occur merely because of the sins of the princes. Nay, rather, when such a grievous and unusual calamity awaits those who sin and despise God, which God, who weighs all things with an even balance, is about to send, then it is permitted that some evil deed be committed by the leaders of the people—a thing wondrous to the foolish and senseless opinion of the common people of the present day. And see what it says: so that it might be believed that evils are brought on not senselessly nor by accident, but by righteous judgment. It must not be thought, however, that the death of the people and the great calamities and common slaughter of the crowds happen solely because of the negligence of the princes.

^A Moreover, all who transgress either the natural law or the written law, or both, are held liable and, in due time, meet with the punishments they deserve. And since, due to the infinite number of sins committed by individual men, Holy Scripture refrains from enumerating them all, it records the transgression of the king as the cause of the punishment for those who are ruled, as is clearly seen in the case of David. For just as the anger of the Lord was impending over Israel because of their manifold transgressions, the Spirit surely impelled David to number Israel. When this had been done, Gad, the prophet sent by God, appeared to him in the morning and suggested that he choose one of three things: "Either three years of famine upon your land, or three months of fleeing before your pursuing enemies, or three days of death to occur in your land." But he said, "I am in distress from everywhere; yet I shall fall into the hands of the Lord, for His mercies are many, but let me not fall into the hands of men, for they are merciless." And he chose death for himself. These were the days of the wheat harvest; and the Lord gave death from the morning until the meal hour, and seventy thousand men died. The angel of God was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. David cried out, "Behold, I have sinned; let your hand be against me and against my father's house." And having been appeased, the Lord checked the slaughter against Israel.

Now, because David had grown old, his garments no longer kept him warm, and they brought a young virgin, Abisag the Shunamite, and she would warm him in bed, yet the king did not know her. ^B Additionally, Adonias, the son of David, having exalted himself, seized the kingdom. And Bersabee entered to David, and bowing down, said, "O king, my lord, you swore to me in the Lord your God that Solomon my son would reign after me. And behold, now Adonias has become king, and you do not know it." Hearing this, David, having gathered the prophets and the priests, anoints Solomon and sets him upon his throne. ^C David fell asleep in his days upon the acropolis of Jerusalem, Zion, having pitched in it a tabernacle to God, in which he deposited the ark. In his time, Homer and Hesiod were known among the Greeks.

In the 4470th year from the creation of the world, Solomon began to reign, being twelve years old, and he held power for forty years. He had seven hundred Israelite and foreign wives, and three hundred concubines. He had only one male son, Roboam, and this one from a foreign woman, Naaba the Amanitess, unworthy of the rule. He himself built the temple in Jerusalem, where his father David had established Zion, beginning from the second year of his own ^D reign. He completed it, therefore, in seven years. The years from Adam until the twentieth year of Solomon's life are 4510. This Solomon was the second son of David by Bersabee; for the first, whom he had conceived from adultery, had died. For when that child was ill, David suffered in vigil, and wearing sackcloth and covered in ashes, he prayed to God for the

^A life of the infant. And a report went out that if anyone should say that he had died, he would immediately die himself. When the child had died, his acquaintances entered unto David, gloomy and dejected. But he, ^B knowing from their appearance, said: "The child has died." They said: "You have said it." And immediately descending, he washed and clothed himself and gave thanks to God and partook of food. Being asked the reason for this change, he said that while he was ill, he urged God for the child to rise; but since he has died, what is the need for me to labor? Can I make the soul of the child return into him?

God gave Solomon insight and wisdom exceeding great and breadth of heart, like the sand that is by the sea. And his wisdom was multiplied above all the ancients and above all the wise men of Egypt. Two women come to him to have a lawsuit judged, and one said: "I and this woman dwell in one house. And I gave birth, and after the third day this woman did also. The child of this woman died, since she slept upon it in the night. And behold, rising, she took my child from my arms while I was sleeping, and placed her own dead one [in its place]. When I rose in the morning to suckle it, the dead one was found. And having examined it, I saw that it was not my child." And the other said: "Not so; but the dead one is yours, but the living one is mine." And Solomon said: "Cut both the infants in two, and give to both women from the two children." And the woman who was the mother of the living one said: "No, my lord, but give her the living child, and do not let it die." But the other said: "Let it be neither hers nor mine; divide it." And the king answered: "Give the living child to the woman who did not wish for it to die, for it is her child," for this was indeed his mother. ^C

Solomon discoursed concerning the plants from the cedar of Lebanon even to the hyssop that grows out of the wall, and also concerning the cattle and the reptiles and the birds and the fishes, explaining their powers and their actions, as Josephus testifies. But he also devised incantations and exorcisms against demons, which some Jews, using, would cast them out; for by placing near the nostrils of the one ^D possessed by a demon a certain ring having a seal and a root, from those which Solomon demonstrated for these purposes, so that he might smell it, by its power the demon was immediately dragged out. And there was a sign of this: a cup full of water or some other vessel, which, as it fled, the demon would break.

When Solomon had finished the temple of the Lord, he dedicated it, having sacrificed twenty-two thousand calves and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep, and he celebrated a great feast for seven days. On the eighth day, having blessed the people, he dismissed them. And after he had prayed on behalf of the people and the temple, the Lord appeared to him, saying: "I have heard the voice of the prayer of

^A you have built, I have consecrated this house which you have built, to place my name there forever; and my eyes and my heart shall be there all the days. And if you walk before me as David your father walked in holiness and integrity of heart, to do according to all that I have commanded him, and keep my statutes and my commandments, I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as I spoke to your father saying: 'There shall not be cut off a man ruling in Israel.' But if you and your children turn away from me, and do not keep my commandments, and go and serve other gods and worship them, I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given him, and this house which I have consecrated to my name I will cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be for destruction and for a byword among all nations. And this house is high and great; everyone who passes by it shall hiss, and they will say: 'Because they forsook the Lord their God, and took hold of another god, therefore the Lord brought this calamity upon them.'"

Having prepared the city, being most great and fair in appearance, and having made its perimeter forty stadia, which makes six and a half miles, he made it impregnable on all sides. For ^B having enclosed it with three walls and steep trenches, he made the whole thing flow with water, so that by its outflow their gardens were watered. Along with these things he made eight hundred large hammered golden shields, and three hundred spears, and other very many golden weapons. And indeed, his vessels and all the basins were of gold, and silver was not accounted of in his days. For his ship went to Tarsus and returned every three years, bringing much gold and silver, and polished stones, and elephants' teeth, and apes. And Solomon gave the gold and the silver in Jerusalem as stones, and the cedars as sycamores in abundance. His daily provision for his meal was thirty cors of fine flour (the cor makes thirty modii) and sixty cors of ground meal, ten choice calves, eight pasture-fed oxen, and one hundred sheep, besides harts and choice and fattened birds. ^C And concerning his great understanding and wisdom, which he had received from God who appeared to him twice, hear what the Lord says to him again: "Behold, I have given you a wise and prudent heart; like you, there has not been before you, nor shall there arise after you one like you. And wealth and glory and riches I will give to you." And the Scripture, explaining this, adds, saying: "The Lord gave understanding to Solomon, and wisdom very great, and abundance of heart as the sand by the seashore." ^D Accordingly, he rightly remembered from the parallel of the excellent wise men who had existed of old, and added the Egyptians, as being considered by all to be wise and prudent. For even as the Greeks recount, and

^A Pherecydes the Syrian (86) and Pythagoras the Samian and Anaxagoras the Clazomenian and Plato the Athenian journeyed to them, hoping to learn a more precise theology and physiology from them. And indeed, the divine Word, in speaking of Moses, said that he was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. Solomon, it says, hid all these things when he received from God the gift of wisdom. Whence he added: "And he became wiser than all men, and he spoke three thousand proverbs; and his songs were five thousand; and he spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall; and he spoke of cattle, and of creeping things, and of birds, and of fishes." ^B From which the iatrosophists of the Greeks, having plundered them and having taken their foundations, established their own arts. These things King Hezekiah caused to disappear because the people, obtaining remedies for illnesses from them, neglected to seek healing from God. And Solomon was magnified above all the kings of the earth in wealth and wisdom; and all the kings sought to see his face and to hear his voice, and they arrived bringing each year their gifts, golden vessels and raiment and spices and horses and mules. And he had one thousand four hundred chariots, and forty thousand brood mares, and twelve thousand horses for chariots. And he was ruler of all the kings from the river Euphrates to the land of the foreigners and to the borders of Egypt. ^C And the Queen of Sheba, who was called Sibyl by the Greeks, having heard his fame, came to Jerusalem to test him with a riddle, and camels carrying many and exquisite spices and much gold and precious stones, and with [very] great power. And having entered to him, and having spoken to him all that was in her heart, he solved everything for her in an orderly discourse and with very subtle interpretation. But she added to the test of him in this also: for she presented to him comely youths and maidens adorned with the same clothing and the same haircut, seeking to make a distinction of either sex; for the Sibyl herself was also highly renowned for her keenness and wisdom and great experience. But when the king ordered them to wash their faces, he detected the nature of each, the males washing their faces vigorously and manfully, and the females softly and timidly. Whereupon the queen, being utterly astonished at the things which had been done by him and by those around him and by herself, said: "True is the word which I heard in my land, even though not even the half of it had been reported to me; for in truth I have seen much more"

Blessed, therefore, are your women and these your servants who stand before you and hear the words of your wisdom." ^A And having given him one hundred and twenty talents of gold, and many spices and precious stones, and indeed the root of the balsam, from which Palestine obtained this crop, as Josephus says, she returned to her own land, being exceedingly struck with amazement. Concerning her, the Lord also said: "The Queen of the South came from the ends of the earth to see the wisdom of Solomon."

To him, however, the most wise Sirach also said: "Solomon, you were made wise in your youth, and you were filled like a river with understanding. Your wisdom covered the earth, and you filled it with parables and enigmas. To far-off islands and remote lands your memory reached, and you were beloved in your peace, ^B which God prepared for you round about. And you were admired for your songs, proverbs, and parables. And you gathered gold like copper, and you multiplied silver like lead. But you inclined your loins to women, and you were brought into subjection in your body, and you gave a stain to your glory, and you defiled your seed, to bring wrath upon your children."

Not, however, that he himself did not also, through his own words, most clearly proclaim his own wisdom and wealth: "To me," he says, "may God grant to speak according to mind and to think worthily of the things that are said, for the Lord himself is the guide of wisdom and the corrector of the wise. For in his hand are both we and our words. For he himself ^C gave to me truthful knowledge of things that are, to know the structure of the world and the energies of the elements, the beginning, the end, and the middle of the times, the cycles of years and the positions of the stars, the natures of animals and the impulses of wild beasts, the powers of winds and the reasonings of men, the differences of plants and the virtues of roots; all things, both hidden and manifest, I learned. For the Artificer of all things taught me wisdom. And I, the Preacher, became King of Israel in Jerusalem, and I gave my heart to seek and to search out with wisdom concerning all things that are done under the heaven. And behold, I was magnified, and I increased wisdom above all who were ^D before me in Jerusalem, and my heart saw much, wisdom and knowledge, and I knew parables and sciences, and I magnified my works; I built houses for myself and planted vineyards for myself, and I made gardens and parks for myself, and I planted in them trees of every kind of fruit. I made for myself pools of water to irrigate from them the forest bringing forth trees. I acquired servants and bondmaids, and home-born slaves were granted to me, and indeed possessions of herds and flocks were granted to me in great number, above all who were before me in Jerusalem. And my wisdom remained with me. And all that my eyes desired, I did not withhold from them, and I did not restrain my heart from any joy." For indeed, in much peace and great prosperity,

^A he enjoyed security and delight; but later, this indulgence and pleasure became for him bitterness and a cause of profligacy. Whence he says: "I hated my whole life and all my toil, because all is vanity. For I found something more bitter than death, the woman who is a snare and a net for the heart." Regarding this, he says: "Now King Solomon was a lover of women, and he had seven hundred princesses and three hundred concubines. He took wives from the Moabites, Ammonites, Syrians, Idumeans, Hittites, and Amorites, from the nations about which the Lord had forbidden the children of Israel to marry. And it came to pass in the time of his old age, that his heart was not with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father, and the foreign wives turned his heart after their gods. And then Solomon built a temple for Chamos, the idol of Moab, and for Astarte, the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Melchom, the offense of the children of Ammon." Now ^B Astarte is what is called Venus among the Greeks, and Chamos was the god of the Tyrians. And thus he did for all his foreign wives, who offered incense and sacrifices to their idols. And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not walk after the Lord as David his father had done. And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice and commanded him not to walk after other gods at all. And the Lord said to him: "Because you have not kept my commandments and my statutes which I commanded you, I will surely tear away the kingdom from your hand and give it to your servant; yet in your days I will not do this, for the sake of David my servant and your father, and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I chose. And the Lord raised up an adversary against Solomon, Hadad the Idumean and Hadadezer the king of Zobah; and they were an adversary to Israel all the days of Solomon. And Solomon died at the age of 73, and was buried with his father." In his time lived Homer and Hesiod.

^C One might wonder, and very rightly so, just as with the most divine Moses, so too with this most wise Solomon, how each of them, having been deemed worthy of so much divine glory and providence long before, later—the one, having stirred God to indignation and grief, failed of the promise; the other, having provoked Him to anger and wrath, was utterly deprived of the reward for his previous excellent labors and furthermore lost his soul. For where did that intimacy with God and boldness—and those so many and so great toils, labors, and struggles of most divine Moses—end up? All of which were disregarded because of the sin at the waters of strife, and the just man was suddenly and inexorably deprived of entry into the promised land, as has been mentioned before. And where did that divine affection for Solomon and such great grace ^D and wisdom end up? And what was the benefit of that great prudence and understanding, and that preceding, most sober contemplation and knowledge of divine and human things, when in the end, having fallen from a madness for women into a madness for idols, as has been clearly shown? For in truth...

it is of no profit, ^A having begun in the Spirit, to finish in the flesh. For as long as Solomon enjoyed the providence from above, he lived in peace and tranquility, having all men subject to him, as has been stated before, and paying tribute in the highest degree; but since he was stripped of this, he became easily assailable by his enemies. Truly, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. For just as His mercy is ineffable, so also is His punishment insupportable. That he worshiped idols, having abandoned the truly existing God of his father David, is clear from what the prophet Ahijah said to Jeroboam: "Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and I will give you ten tribes, and two tribes I will give to him for the sake of David my servant and Jerusalem my city, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, because he has forsaken me, and has worshiped Astarte the abomination of the Sidonians, and Chamos the idol of Moab, and Melchom the abomination of the children of Ammon, and ^B many foreign women. And he also took the daughter of Pharaoh from the nations of which the Lord said to the children of Israel: Ye shall not enter into them, and they shall not enter into you, lest they turn away your hearts after their idols. But they turned his heart in the time of his old age after their gods. And he built a high place to Chamos the idol of Moab on the mountain, before Jerusalem, and to Melchom the idol of the children of Ammon, and to Astarte the abomination of the Sidonians; and thus he did for all his foreign wives, who were burning incense and sacrificing to their idols. And the Lord was angry with Solomon, and said: Because thou hast not kept my commandments which I commanded thee, I will surely tear thy kingdom out of thy hand, and will give it to thy servant; yet in thy days I will not do this, nor will I take the whole kingdom. One tribe I will give to thee for the sake of David my servant, and for the sake of the kingdom which I have chosen." ^C

After David had died, Solomon made a place for his tomb near Siloam, cavernous and built deep down, so that it might not be seen. He buried with his father many myriads of gold, as Josephus says. There also Solomon himself was buried after he died. They say also that later on, Hyrcanus the priest, when the city was being besieged, opened the tomb and carried off three thousand talents of gold from it. But they relate that Herod also, having opened the tomb after him, found no money, but carried off many golden ornaments and stored-up votive offerings, and that when he attempted to penetrate more deeply, he was prevented by fire.

After Solomon died, Rehoboam succeeded to the kingdom. And he also went to Shechem, because all Israel went there to make him king; and the people spoke to Rehoboam: "Thy father made our yoke grievous, but do thou now lighten it, and we will serve thee." And the king said: "Depart ^D

for three days; then return, and I will speak to you. ^A And Rehoboam reported the word of the people to the elders. And they said: "Do what they ask of thee, and they shall be thy servants for all their days." He also took counsel with the young men who were standing about him, and they said: "Speak to the people thus: 'My littleness is thicker than my father's loins. My father burdened you with a heavy yoke; I will add to his yoke. My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.'" Rehoboam told this counsel of the young men to Israel, as they returned; and all the people answered: "We have no portion any more in David, nor inheritance in the son of Jesse. Away to thy tents, O Israel; feed thine own house, David, and judge." And the kingdom of Solomon was divided; and to Rehoboam remained the tribe of Judah and that of Benjamin, but the other ten tribes set up Jeroboam, son of Nebat, as their king. The royal seat of Rehoboam was in Jerusalem, and the multitude subject to his kingdom was called Judah and the house of David, having taken its name from the more distinguished tribe. But Jeroboam had Samaria as his capital, and his royal seat was in Tharsae; ^B the people he ruled were called Israel because of the multitude, and Ephraim because of the royal tribe.

On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, Jeroboam went up to Bethel to the altar which he had built, in order to perform a sacred rite for the calves he had cast, and he appointed priests for the high places, whom he himself had established among them. And behold, a man of God arrived at Bethel by the word of the Lord from Judah, while Jeroboam stood by his altar to sacrifice. And the man spoke to the altar by the word of the Lord: "O altar, altar, thus says the Lord: 'Behold, a child shall be born in the house of David, Josiah by name; and he shall sacrifice upon thee the priests of the high places who offer sacrifice to thee, and he shall burn the bones of men upon thee.'" And he gave a sign immediately, saying: "Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the fat that is upon it shall be poured out." And when Jeroboam heard this, he extended his hand to lay hold of him; and behold, his hand withered, and the altar was rent, and its fat was poured out. And Jeroboam said: "Entreat the face of the Lord thy God, and let my hand be restored to me." And the man of God entreated, and his hand became whole. And the man of God went away from the presence of Jeroboam.

Now there was a certain other false prophet dwelling in ^C Bethel, an old man; and having learned what the man of God had done, he pursued after him, and found him sitting under an oak, and said to him: "Come home with me, and eat bread." And he said: "I will not eat bread nor drink water in this place, for the Lord commanded me thus." And he said: "I too am a prophet as thou art, and an angel of the Lord spoke to me to turn back and to give thee food." By this lie he persuaded the man of God so that he returned with him

and ate and drank. Then the word of the Lord came to the false prophet who had turned him back, and he said to the man of God: "Thus says the Lord: Because you have disobeyed the commandment of the Lord and returned and eaten and drunk in this place, your body shall not come into the tomb of your fathers." And a lion meeting him as he went out killed him. Jeroboam did not turn from his wickedness.

In the thirty-eighth year of Asa, king of Judah, ^A Ahab began to reign, the most wicked of all the kings in Israel, who set up an altar to Baal. He had Jezebel for his wife. In his time, Hiel the Bethelite rebuilt Jericho. When he was laying its foundations, he lost his firstborn son, Abiram, and when he was setting up its gates, he lost his youngest son, Segub, according to the word of the Lord, which He spoke by the hand of Joshua the son of Nun. Then also the ^B prophet Elijah said to Ahab: "As the Lord God of hosts lives, before whom I stand, there shall these years be neither dew nor rain upon the earth, except by my word." And he went according to the command of the Lord, and hid himself by the brook Cherith, which is before the Jordan, and he drank water from there; and the ravens brought him meat and bread in the evening. And when the brook had dried up due to the drought, by the word of the Lord he went to Zarephath. ^C And having been entertained by a widow woman, he ate, both he and she and her children; and the handful of flour did not fail, nor did the jar of oil diminish, until the famine ended. He also raised her son from the dead, who some say was Jonah the prophet. Then he also offered the sacrifice, in which fire coming down from heaven consumed the burnt offerings and the water and the dust of the earth. There also he slaughtered the priests of Baal and the prophets and brought down rain. Jezebel, when she learned of this, ^D threatened him, and Elijah fled from the face of Jezebel for a journey of forty days. Only Obadiah from his youth had been a prophet because of his piety, not born of the line of prophets. He was Ahab’s steward, fearing the God of Israel in secret. He had hidden a hundred prophets in two caves because of the fear of Jezebel (for she was plotting the death of all the prophets of God) and fed them with bread and water until the famine ended. Then also Elijah by the word of the Lord anoints Elisha as a prophet; for he finds him plowing with twelve yoke of oxen. And he immediately sacrifices the oxen, and kindles a fire with the implements, and having cooked them gives them to the people to eat. And he himself went after Elijah and served him.

Ahab, having captured the son of Adad of Syria, released him with gifts. And a man from the sons of the prophets, Michæas by name, said to his neighbor by the word of the Lord: "Strike me." And he would not. And he said to him: "Because you have not heard the voice of the Lord, behold, when you depart from here, a lion will strike you," which also came to pass. And another then, at the prophet's command, inflicted stripes and wounds

^A on him, and he was bruised. And the prophet, having bound his eyes with a band, stood where the king of Israel was about to pass; and as he passed, he cried out: "Your servant went out into the army for battle, and a man brought a man to me, saying: 'Guard this man for me. If he should escape, your life shall be for his life, or you shall weigh out talents of silver.' And it happened, as your servant looked this way and that, he was gone." And Ahab said: "You yourself have pronounced the judgment, and the ambush is upon me. You have murdered [him]." And the prophet, hastening, removed the band from his eyes, and it was known that he was one of the prophets, and he said: "Thus says the Lord: Because you let slip from your hands a man doomed to destruction, behold, your life shall be for his life ^B and your people for his people." And Ahab went away dejected and weeping.

There was one vineyard of Naboth the Israelite next to the threshing floor of Ahab, which Ahab sought to take, either by giving another vineyard or the price of it. But he said: "Far be it from me to give to anyone the inheritance of my fathers." Ahab having been saddened as he heard this, Jezebel, once she knew it, wrote to the elders who were in the city, under a pretext, to kill him. They falsely accused him as having cursed the king, and they killed him, and Ahab inherited the vineyard. And Elijah comes to him and says to him: "Thus says the Lord: As you have murdered and inherited, for this reason in the place where the swine and the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, there the dogs will lick your blood, and the harlots will wash in your blood; and ^C the dogs will devour Jezebel in the outer wall of Jezreel." Which also came to pass. [P. 102] For having gone out with Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, to make war against the king of Syria, he was shot in the liver, and he retreated to Samaria, and he died; and they washed his blood at the pool of Samaria, and the swine and the dogs licked his blood. And a little way below, the harlots washed in his blood. And Jezebel, having fallen from the wall, became food for the dogs, according to the word of the Lord.

Ahaziah, son of Ahab, held the kingdom of Israel for two years. He fell ill, and sent messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, if he would recover from his sickness. And behold, Elijah met them. And having turned back, they said to Ahaziah: "A hairy man met us, and a leather belt was about his loins, and he said to us: 'Return to the one who sent you, and say to him: Thus says the Lord: Because there is no God in Israel, do you go to inquire of Baal? Not so. The bed upon which you went up, you shall not come down from it.'" And he said: "[It] is Elijah the Tishbite." And he sent a leader of ^D fifty and his fifty men. And Elijah was on the summit of the mountain. And the leader of fifty said to him: "Man of God, the king calls you; come down." To whom Elijah said: "If I am a man of God, fire shall descend from heaven, and it shall con-

^Asume you and your fifty men." And fire descended from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty. Thus it happened also to the second group. But the third captain of fifty came and fell upon the earth, and besought him, and said: "Man of God, let my soul and the souls of these my servants be precious in your eyes." And the angel of the Lord spoke to Elijah, and he went down with them to the king, and said according to the former word: "Because you sent to inquire of the fly, turning away from God, you shall die and shall not live." And Ahaziah died according to the word of Elijah, and he rested in the cave of Moses. In the time of this Ahaziah, those inhabiting that region, being oppressed by famine, were driven to such an extremity that they slaughtered and ate their own children, using pigeon dung for salt.

In the four-thousand six-hundred and second year, Elijah was taken up. ^B Returning from there, Elisha enters Jericho and heals the foul waters with salt. While he was ascending to Bethel, little boys came out of the city and pelted him with stones and mocked him, saying, "Go up, baldhead, go up." But he cursed them; and behold, two bears came out of the forest and tore forty-two of the boys to pieces. From there he returned to Samaria. This Samaria the fifth king of Israel builds into a city (this is the one now called Sebaste), and he named it Seber, after the name of Sebar, who was the master of that mountain. At that time, Elisha also worked the miracle of the oil for the woman, multiplying it in abundance, and through that oil he paid off her debts; and he raised the son of the Shunammite from the dead. At that time also, the wild gourd was given to the men as food, and through flour it was healed. And the twenty barley loaves and the five clusters of dried figs satisfied one hundred men, with food still remaining. At the same time, Naaman was freed from leprosy, and it was transferred to Gehazi on account of the garments and silver he had received. In addition, this prophet also caused an axe to emerge from the river Jordan, and he revealed the ambushes of the king of Syria to the king of Israel. ^C But when the king of Syria had surrounded him on the mountain with a siege, wishing to bring him into his power, the servant of Elisha, seeing the chariots and the host, was terrified, and asked his master trembling what they could do to defend themselves. The prophet bade him be of good courage: for there were more with them than with the enemy. And at his prayer, God opened the eyes of the servant, and he saw the whole mountain full of horses and a chariot of fire round about Elisha. As they descended toward him, the Lord struck them with blindness. And he said: "Follow me, and I will lead you." And he brought them into Samaria, and their eyes were opened, and they saw, and behold, they were in the midst of Samaria. And the king of Samaria said: "Shall I strike them, Father?" And he said: "Do not strike them."

^A Give them bread and water. And having eaten, they departed to their lord, and the light-armed troops of Syria no longer attempted to come into Israel.

After Ahaziah, his brother Joram reigned, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord. And he was slain by Jehu, having reigned twelve years; he having subjected Mesha, the king of Moab, was receiving from him as an annual tribute one hundred thousand lambs and one hundred thousand rams. In whose time the great Elijah was taken up into heaven. ^B And the king of Syria came and besieged Samaria, and there was a great famine, such that an ass's head was sold for thirty pieces of silver. And Joram was passing along the wall. And a certain woman cried out to him: "Save me, O lord king." And he answered, saying: "If the Lord does not save you, whence shall I save you? From the threshing floor or from the winepress?" And the woman says: "No, O king. But this woman said to me: Give your son, so that we may eat him today, and my son tomorrow; and having boiled him, we ate him yesterday, and today she has hidden her son." Hearing this, the king rent his garments, and the people saw the sackcloth that was upon his flesh within. ^C And he answered and said: "God do so to me and more also, if the head of Elisha shall remain upon him today." And he sent the captain [(88)] upon whom he leaned. And the prophet said to him: "Thus says the Lord: Tomorrow, about this time, a measure of fine flour shall be for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gates of Samaria." And the captain said: "If the Lord should open the floodgates of heaven, this shall not be." And Elisha says: "Behold, you shall see it with your eyes, but you shall not eat thereof." ^D And four leprous men were sitting by the gate of the city, and not bearing the famine, they took counsel to desert to the enemy. And rising up in the darkness, they entered into the camp of Syria. And behold, there was no man there, for the Lord had made the camp of Syria hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army. And all fled in the darkness, leaving everything behind. And when the lepers had made it known in the city, the king sent men to know if the word were true. And having gone behind the Syrian king as far as the Jordan, behold, the whole way was full of garments and vessels which the Syrians had cast away in their terror when fleeing. And when those sent had returned, the people of the city went out and plundered the camp of Syria, and a measure of fine flour became a shekel and two measures of barley a shekel, according to the word of the Lord. And the king having appointed the captain over the gate, the people trampled him (and he died) without having eaten of the grain, according to the word of the Lord. [alt-version omitted]

τῆς gate, the people trampled him (and he died) without having eaten of the grain, according to the word of the prophet.

And indeed, the water of Jericho was healed through prayer. For it was by nature bitter and undrinkable, an obstacle to procreation, and deadly, and at times even unfit for irrigation; yet, once changed into something useful for men and beasts, it brought forth great fertility and salvation to that region. For even to this day it overflows and fertilizes a very large plain, and nourishes orchards and various kinds of date palms, most of which, when crushed and pressed, pour forth much honey. For the region is very honey-bearing and spice-bearing, producing citrus and behen-nut and much opobalsam; thus, because of its rare fruits, which are desirable to men, it may not absurdly be compared to paradise. ^B [P. 103] After Joram, Jehu, son of Nimshi, reigned (89). When he was entering the city of Samaria, Jezebel looked out from the window, her body adorned. The king ordered her eunuchs to cast her down. When this had taken place, Jezebel was trampled by the horses and eaten by the dogs. The king also struck down the seventy sons of Ahab and all his survivors in Samaria, according to the word of Elijah. Having gathered all the multitude of the people, he said to them craftily: "Ahab served Baal little, but Jehu will serve him much. Now therefore, call to me all the prophets and priests of Baal, for I have a great sacrifice for Baal; for everyone who is absent shall not live." When all had been gathered, and the idol-temple was filled, the king said face to face to the servants of Baal: "Search carefully whether there is any of the servants of the Lord among you." And when none was found, he ordered his ministers, and they struck them all with the edge of the sword; and he burned Baal and all that belonged to him. Yet he did not persevere to the end in walking in the law of the Lord. ^C But he was slain in war, having reigned twenty-two years.

After Jehu, his son Jehoahaz reigned. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and died, having reigned twenty-seven years. After Jehoahaz, his son Joash reigned, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and died, having reigned fourteen years. In his time Elisha died, having prophesied to Joash his former victory over the Syrians by means of symbols, bidding him shoot arrows into the ground five times. He struck the mark well the third time, but the fourth time he missed; and Elisha prophesied to him that he would be victorious over the Syrians in three battles, but would succumb in the rest. ^D Had he hit the mark five times, he would have defeated the Syrians entirely; but as it was, he missed the others.

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES. (89) The codex has these noted differently than the truth of Sacred Scripture declares. The histories themselves should be read, which are here both mutilated and noted in a less-than-optimal order, and are insisted upon. XYL.

^A five times in set battles, the empire of the Syrians would have been overthrown. For if he had aimed his arrows accurately up to the fifth, he would have broken the power of the Syrians by fighting five battles.

The sum of the years in which there was a kingdom in Jerusalem from David until Zedekiah is four hundred and ninety-eight. The kings were twenty-two in number, and all were of the one lineage of David. During their times there were prophets: in the time of Saul, David and Samuel; in the time of David, David himself, Gad, Nathan, and Asaph; in the time of Solomon and those after him, Micaiah the Shilonite, and Samias the son of Adon. In the time of Jehoshaphat and those after him, Micaiah, Elijah, Elisha, and Obadiah. In the time of Jehu, Oziel, Eleazar, and Azarias. In the time of Hezekiah and those after him, Hosea, Amos, Isaiah, and Jonah. In the time of Josiah ^B and those after him, Jeremiah, Zephaniah, Huldah, and Baruch. In the time of Zedekiah, Jeremiah and Habakkuk. And after the captivity, in the time of Joshua, Haggai and Zechariah. Daniel and Ezekiel prophesied in the captivity in Babylon.

Concerning the Rule of Jehu

Jehu, having been anointed king over Samaria by Elisha, took vengeance on the entire house of Ahab. For he shot King Joram with an arrow and killed him, and threw his mother Jezebel down a precipice. And having also destroyed the sons of Ahab, he displayed their heads at the entrances. Then, gathering together all the prophets and priests of Baal, pretending to perform a public sacrifice, he slaughtered them all, destroyed the temple of the idol, and turned it into a latrine. He reigned for twenty-eight years.

Joash, the son of Ahaziah, reigned after him for sixteen years. He killed Athaliah. During his reign, Jehoiada the priest served, having lived for one hundred and thirty years. It is to be noted that he appears to be the only one to have lived to such an age after Moses.

In the year of the world 4648, the prophet Elisha died and was buried. ^C Not long after, marauders of the Moabites made an incursion into the land of Israel, and they buried a man in the tomb of Elisha. As soon as he touched the bones of the prophet, he came back to life and stood upon his feet.

Jeroboam, the son of Joash, reigned for forty-one years; during his time, Jonah and Amos prophesied. Zechariah, his son, reigned for six months. Shallum, having killed Zechariah, reigned for ten months. Menahem, having launched a rebellion against Shallum, reigned for ten years. He, when those in Tirzah did not receive him, subdued them, killed the townspeople, and ripped open even the pregnant women. Pekahiah, the son of Menahem, succeeded his father and reigned for two years. Pekah, the son of Remaliah, having killed Pekahiah, reigned for eight years; ^D during his reign, Tiglath-Pileser, king of the Assyrians, campaigned against Judea and took possession of the greater part of their land. Hoshea, the son of Elah, reigned after Pekah for nine years. Then Shalmaneser, king of the Assyrians, attacked Samaria and took him captive, and all Israel with him, and settled them in Halah and Habor, cities of the Medes, and by the river Gozan, where they pay the penalties for their transgression against God.

^A But the Assyrian, having sent the Babylonians who had lived shamelessly and unlawfully into Samaria, ordered them to dwell there. God sent lions to destroy them. The Barbarian, having learned of this and understood, judged it necessary that the worship of God according to His law should be maintained in that land; and he sent ^B one of the priests, Esdras, and ordered him to perform the customary rites there. He, staying in Bethel, taught them the law and instructed them to reverence God. And thus, from that time, it came to pass that the land had rest from the lions. Men still call these people Samaritans from that region; wherefore they are also strange in their inclinations, but because of the instruction of the law they have a slight impression of godliness; for they were not deemed worthy to receive more than the Decalogue.

Here the years of the Israelite kingdom ended, extending to three hundred and three years and seven months, having begun from Jeroboam son of Nebat, and having ended at Hoshea son of Elah [and the] deportation of Israel by Shalmaneser from Samaria to the Medes. The aforementioned kingdom of those from David was also flourishing, having its beginning from the tenth year of the monarchy of Saul, and ending at Rehoboam the son of Solomon. Abijah, succeeding to his father's authority, reigned for three years in Jerusalem. Asa for forty-one years; he, now old, suffered from an arthritic ailment in his feet. Jehoshaphat followed him for twenty-five years; in his time, Micaiah, Obadiah, Eleazar, and Hanani prophesied. Joram succeeded his father Jehoshaphat for eight years.

In Samaria, Athaliah, the daughter of Zamri the king of Israel, [reigned] for eight years. She, having become the most wicked of all women, destroyed all the children of Ahaziah, seeking vengeance upon the Israelite king Ahab, for she seemed to have been of that lineage. But Jehosheba, the sister of Ahaziah, the wife of the high priest Jehoiada, stole Joash, the son of Ahaziah, who was eight years old, and brought him to Jehoiada. He, having anointed him, declared him king, after killing Athaliah. He became pious at first and tore down all the idols, except for those on the high places. But at the end, Joash practiced idolatry and stoned to death Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada the prophet, who rebuked the apostasy. He reigned for forty years. Amaziah his son [reigned for] twenty-nine years; in his time the Sibyl of Cumae became known. ^C Uzziah, who is also Azariah, the son of Amaziah, [reigned for] fifty-two years. He was a pious man ^D; but later, having attempted to enter [the temple] of the saints, he was struck with leprosy, and his son administered justice in his stead. The high priest was Azariah, and the prophets were Amos and Isaiah his son, and Hosea and Jonah. During these times, Lycurgus was legislating for the Lacedaemonians.

Jotham the son of Uzziah [reigned for] sixteen years. In the first year of his reign, Iphitus instituted the Olympiads, which is a four-year period. But among the Egyptians, the moon is strictly called an Olympiad, because it travels the zodiacal circle by the month, which the ancients

^A called Olympus. In this first Olympiad Romulus and Remus were born, who in the seventh Olympiad began to build Rome. You will find the narrative of these matters more fully in the list of the kings.

Hezekiah, succeeding his father Ahaz, reigned for twenty-nine years. In his sixth year, Samaria was captured and the Israelite people were led into captivity by Shalmaneser, who is also called Nabunassar, king of the Assyrians. This was the first deportation of the Israelites. This king was also called Sardanapalus, and he was the father of Nebuchadnezzar. It is necessary, however, to inquire concerning the kingdom of the Assyrians, why it is that Scripture names Shalmaneser king of the Assyrians, when 96 years before this, the kingdom had been abolished by Arbaces the Mede and transferred to the Medes. The reason is given: although the succession in the kingdom was of the Median race from Arbaces, it was nevertheless still called "Assyrian" on account of the nobility and antiquity of the realm and the name of the region. For this king of the Assyrians, while under the hegemony of the Medes, was established as king of the Assyrians. ^B Hezekiah himself, in the fifteenth year of his reign, was seized by a deadly illness; through the ministry of Isaiah he obtained an extension of life for fifteen years. This was confirmed to him by the miraculous sign of the return of the sun, which caused its natural movement to step back ten degrees, that is, ten hours, throughout the whole world, so that that day alone existed without its own night of twenty-two hours. This king, notwithstanding his devotion to chastity, upon recovering from the illness, prayed to beget children. He also took down and melted the brazen serpent which Moses had hung in the wilderness, because the people were offering incense to it. Moreover, he also burnt and destroyed the book of Solomon, upon which the remedies for every kind of disease were inscribed, as well as his books concerning comparisons and songs in which he had discoursed upon the nature of all plants and animals, both terrestrial, winged, and swimming, and from which the remedies for all diseases were to be sought—from which the medical physician-philosophers of the Greeks stole their material and, having taken the starting points from there, established their own arts. These books, then, Hezekiah burned and made to disappear, as has been told, because the people, obtaining the remedies for their diseases from them, neglected to seek healing from God. ^C In these days of Hezekiah, Sennacherib, the successor of Shalmaneser, marched into Judea. After he had loudly uttered many boastful things against the Lord and against His people, He who scatters the counsels of the nations and brings to naught the thoughts of the peoples and eludes the counsels of rulers was provoked. And having sent an angel, He slew 185,000 of the army of the Assyrians. And thus with shame and rage Sennacherib returned to Nineveh, ^D and cruelly slaughtered the Israelites who had been taken captive by Shalmaneser from Samaria. Upon him, divine vengeance immediately followed, and being slain by the hands of his own children, the righteous death stilled the unrighteous slaughter of the captives. There was then among the captives a certain merciful man named Tobias, who expended much effort in burying the slain Jews. On account of which [p. 109]

^A he was denounced to the king, and having consulted for his flight, he slept outside the walls; and as often happens, whilst he slept with his eyes open, sparrows dropped dung into his eyes, and by that chance he fell into a blight. There was in Ecbatana a maiden related to him; who, having married seven times, and the demon having killed each bridegroom before they could have relations with the bride, she besought God with prayers; and He, for her aid, sent the angel Raphael. Now Tobias, having instructed his son Tobias not to take a wife from elsewhere than his own tribe and kin, as the law commanded, sent him at once to recover ten talents which he had formerly deposited in Media, with a bond. The son, looking for a companion and guide for the journey, because he was ignorant of the road, fell, by the leading of divine providence, upon Raphael, who was standing in the market-place in the form of a man; and having hired him, who said he knew the way and called himself Azarias, he entered upon the journey in his company. ^B When they had arrived at the river Tigris, and the youth had entered the water for the sake of bathing, a huge fish attacked him. He was ordered by the angel to seize the fish, and having dissected its belly, to remove and preserve the liver, heart, and gall. Being asked by the angel for what purpose these would be useful, he answered that by the fumigation of the liver and heart demons are driven away, and by the gall blights are removed. Forthwith, the youth took the maiden of whom it has been spoken, his kinswoman, to wife, by the counsel and aid of the angel, the evil demon being driven away by the force of that fumigation; and having returned with his companion and wife to his father, he anointed his eyes with the gall; upon which the old man immediately recovered his sight. Then the angel revealed who he was, teaching that he was not a man, but sent by God ^C to help them and the maiden Sarah, and that was on account of their piety; he also said this to them, that while it is right to conceal the secret of a king, it is honorable to declare the works of God. »

At this time also, a certain man among the people of Israel was well known, rich and inhumane. When he had met a certain teacher and opened the book of the wisdom of Solomon, at first glance he fell upon these words: « He who pities the poor lends to God. » Therefore, reflecting upon himself and pricked in his soul, he went away and sold all that he had, and distributed the price among the needy, reserving for himself nothing except two coins. Having been reduced to the utmost poverty, and being pitied by no one (God so ordaining, that he might prove him), he at length, with a broken spirit, determined to go to Jerusalem and dispute with his God, who had induced him through deception to dissipate his goods. ^D As he was traveling, he saw two men fighting with one another, who had found a precious stone. He addresses them thus: « Why, brothers, do you fight? Give the stone to me, and take for it two coins. » Which they, whom the huge price of the stone escaped, did most gladly. He came, therefore, to Jerusalem, carrying the stone with him, and shows it to a goldsmith. As soon as he saw the stone, he worshipped [it], and being astonished, he inquired of him, saying, « Where [did you find] the precious... » saying to them: « A mystery of the king to conceal

^A and divine stone? For behold, for three years now Jerusalem has been shaken and unsettled because of this widely-talked-of stone. And go away and give it to the high priest, and you will become very wealthy. » As he was going away, an angel of the Lord said to the high priest: « Now there will come to you a man, having the lost, much-talked-of stone from the pontifical mantle of Aaron the high priest. Having taken it, give to the one who brings it much gold and silver. But at the same time, having struck him moderately, say: "Do not doubt in your heart, nor disbelieve Him who says through the Scripture: 'He who has pity on a poor man lends to God.' For behold, in the present age I have fulfilled for you manifold more than what you lent me; and if you believe, you shall receive in the age to come wealth that is insurmountable." » And the high priest did all that had been commanded towards the man, and spoke [to him]. And he, having heard and become trembling, left everything in the temple and went out, giving thanks and believing in the Lord and everything as stated in the Holy Scripture.

After Hezekiah, Manasseh his son reigned, and he did evil before the Lord, and died having reigned 55 years; he, being more lawless than all the kings before him in idol-madness and bloodshed, and having sawn the great Isaiah with a wooden saw, and having filled Jerusalem with unjust blood, no less practiced the idolatry of the Amorites. And having defiled the house of the Lord, and having set up a four-faced idol of Zeus in it, he did not cease from divining, sorcery, and shameful deeds. Therefore, also because of divine wrath, he was taken captive to Nineveh by King Merodach; and having been placed in bronze chains, through sincere repentance he besought God, and He appeased the king, and sent him back to Jerusalem. Having returned, he destroyed all the dwellings of the idols, and purified the temple of God, and performed the commandments of the law, and lived piously, giving thanks to God until his last breath.

After Manasseh, his son Amon reigned for two years. During these times Midas, the king of Phrygia, died, of whom it was said that he had the ears of an ass. ^C

Josiah, having succeeded his father Amon, took hold of the rule at eight years of age, having reigned 31 years. And he died having been struck by an arrow in ^D war. For Necho, king of Egypt, having campaigned against the Assyrians, [Josiah] was eager to assist the Assyrians. Whence Ezra says: « And the king of Egypt said to Josiah, "What have I to do with you, O king of Judah? I have not been sent from God the Lord to make war against you, but against the Euphrates. And now the Lord is with me. Depart, and do not contend against the Lord." » But Josiah did not turn back from him, but drew up a battle-line against him in the field contrary to the counsel of God. And having been struck by an arrow by the enemies, he said to his servants: « Take me away, for I am in great pain. » And immediately as he was turning back to

^A Jerusalem, he departed this life. There was great mourning throughout all Judea, and Jeremiah especially lamented for Josiah. In the eighteenth year of his reign, the priest Hilkiah (who was the father of Jeremiah the prophet) having found a book in the temple, brought it to the king. The king, being pious and more righteous than the kings before him, did not himself wish to read it. The priest, therefore, read it, and all the people wept. Upon reading this, the priest was deeply moved. The king, being exceedingly despondent, knowing that for so many years the law of the Lord had been trampled upon, tore his garments, and having become fearful, he sent to Huldah the prophetess to inquire what the Lord willed concerning him and all the people. She said: « Thus says the Lord: “Because your heart was softened and you were ashamed before my countenance, as you heard that I spoke against this place and those who dwell in it, that it should be for a desolation and for a curse, and you tore your garments and wept before me, behold I will gather you to your fathers in peace, and you will not see all the evils that I will bring upon this place and those who dwell in it, that it should be for a desolation.” » ^B Whence, moved by divine zeal, he not only uprooted the idols and objects of worship everywhere, but also destroyed the idolaters, slaying those who were still living and burning the bones of those already dead in their tombs. And having lifted his eyes to the tomb of the man of God, he said: « What is that monument which I see? » And the men of the city said: « It is the man of God who prophesied these words against the altar at Bethel. » And he said: « Let him be; let no one move his bones. » Furthermore, he also removed from Jerusalem the ventriloquists and the false prophets and every abomination and provocation; and he returned to the Lord with all his heart and strength and with all his soul according to the law of Moses. Wherefore, he also celebrated such a Passover as had not occurred since the days of Joshua the son of Nun and Samuel; at which he sacrificed twelve thousand oxen and thirty-eight thousand sheep. And it is said that the works of Josiah were accomplished before the Lord with a heart full of piety; for none like him was born before him, and none arose like him. Nevertheless, the Lord did not turn away from the fury of His wrath, with which He was angry against Judah, because of the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him. During these times also, Byzantium was founded by Byzas, king of Thrace; though some say the Megarians were the founders of this city. At that time also the Sibyl Samonea became known. ^C After Josiah, his son Jehoahaz reigned, who did what was evil before the Lord; and having been taken by Necho, king of Egypt, he was carried away to Egypt, where he also died, having reigned three months. From this time, the Israelites, as Josephus says, because the tribe of Judah had gained the upper hand and inhabited the city of Jerusalem, came to be called Jews, and the city, which was also called Zion, came to be called Judea; which was formerly called Jebus, because the Jebusites inhabited that place. But David named it Jerusalem, fashioning the name from what had happened: for it is built upon a very high mountain, on which mountain the Lord Da- ^D

^A appeared to David at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, during the slaughter of the people because of the irrational numbering. And the mountain is called "Ar" in the Hebrew tongue, but the city "Salem." David, therefore, while establishing a new place as a royal residence, named it Arsalem, which means "Type of peace." Upon being transferred into the Greek language, it has been called Jerusalem because of the euphony.

After Joachaz, Joachim reigned, who had his brother Eliakim as his colleague; and he did what was evil before the Lord. And Nabuchodonosor, the successor of Merodach, having come and besieged Judea, made it tributary to him. And when Joachim refused the tribute which he had covenanted, Nabuchodonosor came again to Jerusalem, and having mastered him, slew him, and ordered him to be cast from the wall and left unburied for a long time, having reigned eleven years. Of him Jeremiah says: ^B "Thus says the Lord concerning Joachim, son of Josiah: Woe to this man. They shall not lament him, saying, Alas, brother; nor shall they lament him, saying, Woe, master, and Woe, brother; but he shall be buried with the burial of an ass, dragged and cast forth" beyond the gate of Jerusalem. Then also Daniel was led away, and the three children, and many others of the people, and a portion of the vessels of the Lord, to Babylon. Now these three holy children are sons of Hezekiah. For when he had recovered from his sickness, and Merodach, son of Baladan, king of Babylon, had sent him letters and gifts (for he had heard that he fell ill and recovered), Hezekiah showed his treasures and all his wealth to the messengers of Meredach. Regarding this, the prophet Isaiah, being grieved, said to his king: ^C "Hear the word of the Lord. Behold, days are coming, and all that is in your house, and as much as your fathers have stored up until this day, shall be taken away, and they shall be carried to Babylon; and they shall take even of your sons who have come forth from you, and they shall make them eunuchs in the house of the king of Babylon."

In the twentieth year of the reign of Nabuchodonosor, which was the 4094th year from the beginning of the world, Daniel interpreted his dreams. Sixteen years later, these three holy children were cast into the kindled furnace. Balthasar, who is also called Riniglisar, while drinking at a banquet with his princes and concubines from the sacred vessels of the house of the Lord, ^D saw the fingers of a man writing upon the wall, which writing no one but Daniel alone interpreted. And so...

it is thus: *Mani*, which is, God has measured your kingdom and has brought it to fulfillment. *Thecel*, it has been weighed in the balance and found wanting. *Phares*, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. And on that very night Balthasar was killed.

After Jerusalem was captured, Jeremiah, even though he was fiercely pressured by the Chaldeans, preferred to remain there with the impoverished who had been left behind. And when they threw him into the mire, he composed a book of many lines. At that time also, the most divine Ezechiel, having been led away captive, while he was dwelling by the river Chobar, with the heavens opened to him, saw the glory of God, a wind coming from the north, and a cloud in it, and brightness round about, imagining thereby the Trinity. There he also saw the representation of the Cherubim, ^B outlined in the form of a man, and a calf, and a lion, and an eagle. And above these, as the likeness of a man, the prophet seeing God who assumed human nature through him, who constituted him as a prophet to the Israelites and initiated him into the knowledge of future things.

After Joacim, his son Jechonias, who was also called Joacim, received the kingdom by command of Nabuchodonosor. He also lived impiously and paid the tribute in bad faith. For this reason, Nabuchodonosor came again with an army to the city of Jerusalem, ^C and besieged it. Jechonias went out to him with his mother, his children, and his rulers. And the subordinates of Nabuchodonosor entered the city, and they brought out the treasures of the Lord and of the king, and the golden vessels which Solomon had made in the temple of the Lord. The barbarian appointed Sedechias to the kingdom instead of Jechonias, having deported Jechonias to Babylon along with his mother and his rulers, after he had reigned for three months. Regarding him, Jeremiah said: «Jechonias is dishonored as a vessel for which there is no need, because he was cast off and thrown out into a land which he did not know, says the Lord. Earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord; write this man as an outcast person, for there shall not grow from his seed a man who will sit upon the throne of David, ruling still in Juda.»

After Jechonias, his uncle Sedechias reigned, ^D and he did evil before the Lord. And concerning the taxation, since he likewise played the traitor, Nabuchodonosor came again to Jerusalem and besieged it for two years. And Jeremiah, having prophesied the capture of the city, was thrown into a pit in chains by Sedechias. After he was released from his bonds, having taken the ark and the altar and the table and the lampstand from the temple by the word of the Lord, as the city was now about to be taken, he hid them in an unknown place; and they have not been found again, as the book of the Maccabees says. Nabuchodonosor, having taken the city, burned it all. And having captured Sedechias, he slaughtered his wife and children while he was still alive; then he gouged out his eyes and led him in chains to Babylon, after he had reigned for three years. The people

^A he led away captive for seventy years. To this Zedekiah, some prophet had said before the captivity that he would be taken to Babylon. And another said to him, "Do not fear, for you shall not see Babylon." And both spoke the truth, for he did go down, yet he did not see it, for he was blind. Of whom Jeremiah again said: "Thus says the Lord concerning Zedekiah: Behold, I give him into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he shall strike him, and they shall take up a curse against him, saying: May the Lord make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire, because of the wickedness which they committed in Israel, and because they defiled the wives of the citizens, and spoke a word in my name which I did not command them, says the Lord."

^B In the third year of the captivity, Nebuchadnezzar sent Nebuzaradan, his captain of the guard, to Jerusalem. He burned the house of the Lord, the king's house, and all the remaining houses. The temple of God had endured for 442 years from the time it was first built. But he smashed the two great bronze pillars, the bronze sea, the twelve bulls placed under it, the bases, and everything of bronze in the temple of the Lord, and carried it away to Babylon; he also carried off the golden bowls, and the silver, and the bronze ones. There was no weight for the bronze of all the vessels which the captain of the guard took. He led the prominent men of the remaining Jews to Nebuchadnezzar, some of whom he put to death, and some he handed over as slaves. As for Zedekiah, he sentenced him to sit in darkness and work a hand-mill. Under this ^C Zedekiah, the total and first capture of Jerusalem occurred, no longer being ruled by Jews, but held by the Chaldeans. Therefore, Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem three times: first, when he came up in the third year of Jehoiakim and took, along with others, the three holy youths and Daniel, taking this place in the first year of his reign; second, when in the third month of Jeconiah, who is also called Jehoiakim, he took Jeconiah himself, his mother, and Ezekiel the prophet, in the eighth year of his [Nebuchadnezzar's] reign; and third, when in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, which was his nineteenth, he burned the temple, gouged out Zedekiah's eyes, slaughtered his sons, and led the multitude away captive for seventy years.

^D After the aforementioned Assyrian kings, as we have said, the kingdom devolved upon Nebuchadnezzar, who held it for twenty-four years. He held Jerusalem in his power for seven years, and he built a very great city, Babylon, of baked brick and hewn stone, each piece being three cubits wide and six cubits long. He made the perimeter of it forty stadia, which makes six miles; the height of the wall was eighty cubits, the width thirty; the height of the towers was one hundred cubits, the width sixty; and the gates being of bronze, the height was fifty cubits, and the width twenty. Very close to the city he dug a cistern, and encircled it well with a wall, forty fathoms deep, and with a circumference

^A of forty stadia. Above this, he planted trees of every kind, so that the garden appeared like a mountain covered in dense trees; he called it the hanging garden. Within it, he dwelt with his wives, looking down on everything from a vantage point, and unseen by any of those below. Walking there, he said with a proud mouth: “Is this not Babylon the great, which I have built as a royal house by the power of my strength, for the honor of my glory?” And while the word was still in his mouth, a voice came from heaven: “To you it is said, O Nebuchadnezzar: Your kingdom has departed from you, and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts, and you shall eat grass like an ox, and seven times shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men, and gives it to whom He will.” And in that very hour the word was fulfilled, and he was driven from among men, and he took up his abode in the wilderness and mountains; for the front part of his body together with his head became like an ox, and his feet together with his hindquarters like a lion. It was revealed to the holy Daniel concerning this, that because of his irrational love of pleasure and hardness of heart, he was subjected to the yoke of Beliar like an ox; but he earned the form of a lion because of his tyrannical, rapacious, and most beastly character—for the powerful possess this authority, but in the end, they snatch like beasts, destroying and killing. And he ate grass like an ox, and his hair grew, and his nails became like an bird’s claws, and his flesh grew thick over seven times and darkened with hardship, and his tongue was lifted so that he could not speak. And when he understood, he wept immediately, and from weeping, his eyes became like raw meat. And many who went out did not see him except for the holy Daniel; for this man was in prayer for him throughout the entire time of his transformation. And after the seven times had passed, he came back to himself, and he spent six and a half years bowing down and confessing to the Lord, eating no bread and drinking no wine, but living on soaked legumes and herbs according to the exhortation of the great Daniel, and propitiating the Lord for the whole time of his life. After these things, the same person speaks again concerning his own restoration: ^B “At that time my mind returned to me, and I came to the honor of my kingdom, and my form returned to me, and my lords and my great men sought me, and I was strengthened in my kingdom, and greater majesty was added to me. Now, therefore, I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and honor the King of Heaven, because all His works are true, and His ways are judgments, and those who walk in pride He is able to humble.” Therefore, the divine word, showing the wealth, strength, and splendor given by God, says through Jeremiah: ^C “Thus says the Lord: Behold, I have given all this land to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, to serve him, and the wild beasts, that they may serve him. And the nation and the kingdom which will not put its neck under his yoke, I will punish with sword and with famine, until it is consumed by his hand.” ^D

^A “And,” it is fierce, and he will not show mercy. His voice is like the surging sea. “He will set himself in array with many horses and chariots like fire, for war against you, O daughter of Zion.” And, “From the voice of his rushing and from the clash of his feet and from the shaking of his chariots and the sound of his wheels, fathers will not turn back to their children out of the weakness of their hands.” And, “From Dan, the voice of the swiftness of his horses shall be heard.” And through Ezekiel he speaks thus: “Behold, I am bringing against Tyre ^B Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon, who is king of kings, with horses and chariots and a gathering of very many nations, and he will cast up a trench against you, and will build around you a siege-wall and a barrier of weapons, and his spears will be directed against you. He will pull down your walls and your towers with his weapons; and by reason of the multitude of his horses, their dust will cover you.” And again, “Thus says the Lord Adonai: Behold, I give to Nabuchodonosor the land of Egypt, and he will take her multitude, and will plunder her spoils, and will take her prey. In return for the service which he has served against Tyre, I have given him the land of Egypt, and I will destroy the multitude of the Egyptians through him.” Rightly, therefore, did Daniel say to him: ^C “You are a king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given a strong and mighty kingdom, honorable in every place where the sons of men dwell; he has given into your hand the wild beasts of the field and the birds of the air, and has appointed you lord of all. And you are the golden head of the image, and the tree which you saw that was magnified, whose height reached to the heaven and whose breadth to all the earth, and under which dwelt the beasts; for you have grown great and become strong, and your greatness has reached to the heaven and your dominion to the ends of the earth.”

After Nabuchodonosor, his son Ulemarodach reigned for five years, ^D who, having loosed Jechonias from his bonds, made him his guest at his table. Concerning whom the history of the Kings and the divine Jeremias said: “And it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Joachimus the king of Judah, in the tenth month, on the twenty-fourth day of the month, that Evilmerodach the king of Babylon, in the year in which he began his reign, took the head of Joachimus the king of Judah and brought him forth from the house in which he was kept, and spoke kindly to him, and gave him a seat above the thrones of the kings who were with him in Babylon; and he changed the garment of his imprisonment, and he ate bread before him continually, all the days that he lived.” This Joachimus is also Jechonias; for his father was Joachimus, under whom Daniel was taken into captivity, whom Nabuchodonosor had killed and cast outside the walls of Jerusalem.

After Ulemarodach, his brother Balthasar reigned for three years, who, having profaned the sacred

vessels of God at the banquet which his father Nabuchodonosor had brought from Jerusalem, was killed by divine wrath. For Daniel thus addressed him at that time: ^A “The Most High God gave the kingdom and majesty to your father Nabuchodonosor, so that all peoples, tribes, and nations using any language were trembling and fearing before his face. And whom he wished he killed, and whom he wished he saved. And when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was strengthened to be haughty, he was cast down from the throne of his kingdom, and his honor was taken from him; he was driven out from among men and was given to the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses, and he was fed with grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, until he knew that the Most High rules over the kingdom of men, and to whomsoever He wills He will give it. But you, his son Balthasar, have not humbled your heart, and you, with your nobles, concubines, and mistresses, drank wine from the holy vessels.” For this reason, a knuckle of a hand was sent before his face, and he set down his writing, as was written above. ^B

After Balthasar was killed, Darius the Mede, who is also called Artaxerxes and Astyages, took the kingdom for seventeen years. He had as his wife Esther, chosen for her beauty from among the Hebrew maidens, who also rescued her own people, the Jewish people, who were about to be destroyed by the conspiracy of Aman, the commander-in-chief, and caused him to be impaled on that very wooden stake on which he had planned to impale Mardochai, her uncle, because he did not honor or bow down to him. For one of the nobles said: “Behold, Aman has set up a stake for Mardochai, 50 cubits high.” And the king said: “Let Aman be crucified there.” And it happened thus according to the command of King Artaxerxes. Therefore, the Scripture was rightly fulfilled which says: ^C “He who does evil things shall be rolled into them, and whoever kindles wickedness shall perish by it. And he who prepares a net for the face of his neighbor will wrap it around his own feet. And he who digs a pit for his neighbor shall fall into it himself.” And: “By what things a man sins, by those he is also punished.” Under this Artaxerxes, also known as Astyages, the visions were shown to Daniel by the archangel, and the time of Christ’s coming was revealed. The same Daniel, envied by the nobles because he was held in great honor by the king, was thrown into the lions' den, and he was kept unharmed by the grace of God. ^D

After Darius, Cyrus the Persian reigned for 32 years, who, having killed Darius, gained control of the whole earth.

In the times of the Judges, the Argonauts—the company around Jason the Thessalonian, Pollux, Hylas, Telamon, and the rest—sailed for Colchis, and wishing to cross via the straits into the Pontic sea, they killed Cyzicus, who ruled the Hellespont, when he resisted them in a naval battle, and captured—

^A Cyzicus, who was a metropolitan city of the Hellespont. And having learned that Cyzicus, whom they had slain, was a kinsman of theirs, they sought pardon and built a wonderful temple. Coming beside the oracle of the hot springs and having sacrificed, they inquired: “Prophesy to us, Phoebus Apollo, whose house might this be?” And they heard: “Whatever you do, perform it towards virtue and order. But I enjoin that you worship and fear only the one God who governs all, residing on a heavenly throne; whose Word, eternal and born before the ages, a Virgin knowing no man shall one day tenderly bring forth in birth; who, like an arrow sped by fiery storms, shall render the tamed world as a gift to the Father. This house shall be His; and Maria is her name.” Having written this oracle in bronze letters on marble, they set it on the lintel of the temple, at that time calling the building the temple of Rhea, the mother of the gods, but later, in the reign of the emperor Zeno, it was renamed the temple of the holy Theotokos.

^B From there, therefore, the Argonauts set out, and wishing to pass through the strait, they were hindered by Amycus, who was fighting against them. Fearing him, they hauled up their ships into a certain wild and wooded bay. And there, having seen a divine apparition appearing to them from heaven in the form of a fearsome man, outfitted with wings like an eagle, they were emboldened by this and joined battle with Amycus. And having killed him, they built a shrine at the place of the vision. And having erected a likeness of the form that had been seen by them, they named the shrine Sosthenium, because of their salvation in that place. ^C This shrine was later rebuilt by Constantine, the great among kings, after he was instructed in a dream, and he fashioned the altar to face the east, and named the temple after the archangel Michael, having designed it with every elegance and abundance of works.

After the victory over Amycus, the Argonauts, with Heracles, sailed out into the Pontic sea and built a city in the name of Heracles. Then, for the sake of the golden fleece, they crossed over to Colchis and returned, having taken both it and Medea, the daughter of the king of Colchis, who had fallen in love with Jason. At that time, Tros, the father of Ilus and Ganymede, ruled over the Phrygian territory. He built two cities, Troy and Ilium, and when he had invited the neighbors to the dedication of the cities, he forgot Tantalus, who ruled the Mycenians, and for this reason Tantalus turned against him in enmity. ^D Now Tros, before the building of the cities, had vowed a vow to Zeus, to send sacrifices and gifts to Europe. And when the cities were completed, he sent Ganymede with fifty men, and with gifts and sacrifices, to the temple of Zeus. But Tantalus, suspecting that a trick lay beneath this, sent a force and kidnapped Ganymede and those with him, saying that they were bringing sacrifices to the European Zeus. Ganymede, struck by the disgrace of the thing and by fear, fell ill, and although he obtained pardon, he died a short time later. Consequently, the gifts were delivered to the temple of Zeus at the order of Tantalus, and the remains of Ganymede were hidden within the temple. Hence the fable was concocted that Ganymede was

Zeus, having turned into an eagle because of the swiftness of the abduction, had taken up Ganymede to be his cupbearer.

^A In these same times of the Judges, Lapathus held the kingdom of Europe; he had two sons, Achaeus and Lacon. Upon the father's death, his rule was divided into two parts. Lacon, who had obtained half the territory, named it Laconia; and having reigned over it for thirty-three years, he built the maritime city of Gathynia. After him, other kings ruled until Thestius, who founded the city of Thestia by the river Eurotas. This Thestius, having reigned over the Laconians, fathered three daughters of superlative beauty, Leda, Clytia, and Melippa, who were also called Laconides. Tyndareus, however, took Leda as his wife; he who, after Thestius, gained control of the Laconian territory, and he had from her Clytemnestra, whom Agamemnon, the king of the Myceneans, afterwards took as his wife. Leda, however, while adorning herself in the suburb by the Eurotas, was, in the absence of Tyndareus, seduced by a certain youth named Cygnus, son of Ederion, king of Achaea; she committed adultery, and from this, in one birth, she bore three infants: Castor, Pollux, and Helen. Helen was a woman of supreme beauty, whom Tyndareus gave in marriage to Menelaus, the brother of Agamemnon, who at that time was reigning over the Argives. In vain, therefore, have the poets fabled that Zeus turned into a swan and had intercourse with Leda.

^B During the times of the judge Samson, Dardanus, son of Ilus, ruled the Phrygians, and Abas [ruled] the Greeks and Hellas for twenty-three years. Proetus [ruled] after him for seventeen years. His wife, Stheneboea, who is also called Anteia, was overcome by love for Bellerophon (whom Proetus had found abandoned, had raised him, and having deemed him worthy of honor, had him as a table-companion). Anteia, being manic in her love for him—and having sent intermediaries many times, and having been rebuffed by the youth, who was endowed with virtue and faithfully grateful to his benefactor—falsely accused him to her husband, Proetus. But he, saying that it was a sacrilege for one who had partaken of common salt to plot against the life [of a guest], said: "I shall write a letter to your father, Iobates—with whom he has never eaten bread—and he shall kill him." Having written the letter, then, and sealed it with the royal seal, he sent it off. He went away, suspecting no evil. Thus, he finds him at breakfast and, as one sent by his son-in-law, he treated him as a table-companion. But after reading the letter, he was neither able to kill the man easily because of the law of the shared meal, nor, understanding from many evident signs that the matter was a slander, did he harm him. Thus, it is known that virtue is able to deliver those who possess it from evils. After Proetus, Acrisius the Younger reigned for thirty-one years. After him, Pelops for thirty-two years; he, having founded a city, named the Peloponnese after it, from which also the Greeks are called Peloponnesians. At that time, Democritus the philosopher was also known, who ^C

among other things, taught him that he who wishes to philosophize must abstain from all vices, pursue temperance, and both think and do all things rightly, and only thus is it permitted to attain knowledge of those things which are marked by the nine letters. And thus, he says, you will see the Son of God, the Word, void of all suffering, who himself appeared anew subject to sufferings. ^A At that time there also flourished Hippocrates, a philosopher and a most excellent physician. He had a brother named Sosander (a name which denotes "one who saves men"), who practiced both the Hippocratic and the veterinary art; to whom they say Hippocrates remarked: "Either change your name or unlearn your art." After Pelops, the kingdom was held by Atreus for 20 years, then Thyestes for 22, after whom Agamemnon for 18, then Aegisthus for 7. Thus the kingdom of the Greeks, or the Peloponnesians, lasted for 164 years. ^B In times somewhat before those mentioned, Minos of Crete, the son of Europa, held the kingdom; and since he was very powerful with his fleet, he made war on the Athenians and laid down laws. At that time, too, the noble myths of Daedalus, Icarus, and Taurus provided an occasion for Pasiphae, the wife of Minos. Having committed adultery with Taurus, her scribe, she bore a son who was called the Minotaur. She herself, however, together with two handmaids, was shut up in a chamber and died of disease. Icarus, having fled from the prison, perished at sea while sailing. Daedalus was slain. Hercules, however, he whose labors are on everyone's lips, arriving in Libya after his return from Colchis with the Argonauts, encountered Antaeus, who practiced portentous and abominable demonic illusions; and having overcome him, he fell into a pestilential disease, and, driven to madness, cast himself into a fire and thus perished. ^C After Minos, the Minotaur, the son of Pasiphae and Taurus, entered upon the kingdom. But the senators, considering it a disgrace to themselves to have as king one born of adultery, encouraged Theseus, son of Aegeus, king of Thessaly, to attack the Minotaur in war, promising that they would both betray the Minotaur to him and hand over Ariadne, the daughter of Minos and Pasiphae, and all of Crete. Therefore, Theseus sailed immediately to Crete. There the general and all the rest, by a feigned flight, deserted the Minotaur, who had been left in Gortyna; sensing the betrayal, he fled to the place called the Labyrinth, and there lay hidden in a cave, until, upon the information of someone, Theseus found him there and slew him. Theseus introduced a triumph into Gortyna. His father Aegeus, however, having heard of the flight of the Cretans, and suspecting that Theseus had been killed by treachery, in grief

^A swallowed up by sorrow, cast himself into the sea and was drowned; whence also the Aegean Sea has been named. Theseus, having abandoned Crete, and having also spurned Ariadne—who, as they say, died a virgin while serving in the temple of Zeus—became king of Thessaly and took Phaedra as his wife. She was slandered as having committed adultery with Hippolytus, the son of Theseus by a concubine, and her own stepson. Now Hippolytus, while hunting a wild boar on horseback, was thrown from his horse, and the reins having become entangled with his fingers, he was dragged by the horse and ended his life on the sixth day. ^B Stung by this, Theseus, though he reproached Phaedra heavily—even while she was swearing many oaths—removed her from his sight. She, afflicted by an excess of grief, died of sorrow. At that time also, Eurystheus held sway over the Lacedaemonians for 42 years, and after him eight other kings. Their rule lasted for 325 years in all.

In the time of Saul, the Pisaeans first established a contest at Olympia and celebrated the first public festival to Olympian Zeus. From then on, by performing the contest and festival every four years, they counted the Olympiads, the four-year periods, in succession. At which time, also, the Corinthians, after the Lacedaemonians, having brought the region under their power, reigned over Greece for 318 years in total. And after Dardanus, the son of Ilus, and Laomedon, the son of Dardanus, Priam, the son of Laomedon, was proclaimed king of the Phrygian territory. In those days, Dardanus, Ilium, Troy, and all of Phrygia were besieged and destroyed by Priam. The cause of this devastation was Alexander, who is also called Paris. For when he was born to Priam, an oracle was brought to him of this sort: ^C “An unhappy Paris is born to you, who in the thirtieth year of his age will destroy the kingdom of the Phrygians.” Immediately, therefore, Priam renamed him Alexander and sent him to a farm called Mandros, to be nourished with milk and raised by a certain farmer, until the thirty years of the oracle should pass. He also built a great fortress in the field, which he called Parium. Living there, Paris, having become well-versed in letters and having received no ordinary education, composed a laudatory speech and a hymn to Aphrodite, saying that she herself was desire, from which both children and wisdom and arts are brought forth among rational and irrational creatures; and in a comparison, he preferred Aphrodite to Pallas and Hera. Hence, they fabricated the myth that, he having been chosen judge of the three, awarded the apple, that is, the victory, to Aphrodite as superior to the others. ^D After thirty years, Priam, calculating that the time of the oracle concerning him had passed, and feeling secure, brought Paris forward and commanded him, with letters, gifts, and sacrifices provided, along with one hundred young Phrygians, to cross over to the rulers of Europe and to sacrifice to Apollo Daphnaeus, and first of all to come to Sparta, a city of Greece, ruled at that time by Menelaus. He was truly the son of Pleisthenes, but having been raised by Atreus, king of the Argives, together with his son Agamemnon, he was called an Atride and brother of Agamemnon. Menelaus received Paris very graciously, and in his palace with every duty sta-

^A served him, bidding him rest as long as he wished, and so at length to depart for his sacrifice. But Menelaus himself, along with his kinsmen, immediately set sail for Crete to perform a sacred rite to Jupiter Asterius in the city of Gortyna. One day, therefore, Paris, having looked down into the garden of Helen, saw that she was of incomparable beauty: for she was slender, with shapely breasts, white as snow, with lovely eyebrows, an elegant nose, hair that was curly and yellowish, and large eyes. Struck by love for her, he corrupted her with the aid of Aethra, who was known to Menelaus, and he ravished her along with much wealth and finery and five attendant girls. And having neglected the sacrifices for which he had come, he passed over to Sidon to Proteus, the king of Egypt. But those who had been assigned to guard the house of Menelaus, having observed the abduction of Helen, immediately announced the whole matter to him in Crete. At this, Menelaus, in great distress, ^B sailed back to Sparta immediately and sent everywhere to search for Helen. Some time later Paris returned home safely from Egypt; whom Priam and Hecuba received, but upon seeing Helen they were stunned and inquired who this woman was and whence she came. She replied that she was a kinswoman of Alexander, and that she belonged more to Priam and Hecuba than to the son of Plisthenes, Menelaus: for Dardanus and Tros and the kings begotten by them drew their origin from Plesione, the daughter of Danaus. Furthermore, King Dymas, the father of Hecuba, derived his lineage from Agenor, the uncle of Danaus: since Dymas was a kinsman of Leda, her mother. Helen said these things, and at the same time swore that she had taken nothing of Menelaus’s goods with her, and having required an oath in return that she herself would not be betrayed, she remained with them, beloved and accepted. Learning ^C of this, those around Agamemnon sent envoys before the war, Menelaus himself and Odysseus, with letters from Clytemnestra, the wife of Agamemnon and sister of Helen, demanding that his wife be returned to Menelaus. But they were dismissed having achieved nothing. Therefore, Agamemnon and Menelaus, having brought together all the local rulers of Europe for the alliance of the war, including Achilles, the son of Thetis and Peleus, with the company of Myrmidons subject to him, and Nestor the Elean and Odysseus the Ithacan, the two Ajaxes, Diomedes, Idomeneus, and many other noble men, set out with a fleet of one thousand one hundred and ninety-eight ships to wage war against Ilium; and they first remained ^D through the winter in the place called Aulis. There, since they were detained for a long time by a storm, the seer Calchas declared that Agamemnon must sacrifice his daughter to Artemis, who was the goddess of that place; but Agamemnon refused this. But a woman, too, prophesied in accordance with the oracle of Calchas, that there would not be an end to the storm until the first-born daughter of Agamemnon...

Notes of Xylander and Goar

^A They did not wish it. But a woman also, prophesying in harmony with Calchas, said that if they did not offer Agamemnon’s eldest daughter to Artemis, the storm would not cease. Others say that this did not happen because of the storm, but because Agamemnon shot and killed a very large goat near the sanctuary of Artemis, and because of this, a pestilential disease resulted. A dispute having arisen, Agamemnon is deposed from the kingship, and Palamedes is appointed in his stead. Odysseus, being terribly affected by these events, pretends to sail away to his own land, but proceeds to Clytemnestra, Agamemnon’s wife, in Argos. Using forged letters, he takes Iphigenia (for she was the eldest of Agamemnon’s daughters), pretending she would be given as a wife to Achilles, who was distinguishing himself in the camp, ^B and returns with the dowry, delivering her to the priests to propitiate Artemis. As they were about to bring her to the sacrifice, a deer was found standing before the altar, which was offered as a sacrifice in place of the maiden. She having been saved and returned to her father alive, Agamemnon immediately consecrated her as a priestess in the temple of Artemis; and Odysseus arranged for the kingship to be returned to Agamemnon. But shortly thereafter, Odysseus, using forged letters and witnesses, accuses Palamedes of treason and causes the army to stone him, and having burned his remains, to send them to his father, Nauplius. This is Palamedes, who also invented the board ^C (95) for the distraction of the army, and established the composition of it with much philosophy. For he defined the board as the earthly world, the twelve squares (96) as the zodiacal number, the dice-box (97) and the counters within it (98) ^D as the seven stars of the planets, and the tower as the height of the sky, from which good or bad fortune is attributed to all. The same man invented the sixteen letters of the alphabet. Cadmus of Miletus added three to these, and for a long time they used only these nineteen elements; and when the ancients lacked the [Greek letter psi], they used [the word] for 'arch' [to represent it].

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES. (95) What kind of game the Palamedes board was, is not very clear. Our author calls it a *tavla*, or a table, which others call a *mensula*. That the word *tavlizein* was used for playing dice on a board is evident from Eustathius on the first book of the Odyssey. In Suidas, under the word *tavla*, you will find things nearly identical to what Cedrenus has here. It seems sufficiently apparent that it was a game of dice which were thrown through a small tower into a hollow or board placed underneath, and according to the variety of the lines or spaces, they made the condition of the game change. Eustathius teaches that there were five distinct lines in the place I mentioned; see him also on Iliad, book 2, line 300, and Pollux, book 9. I translated it as *talos* [dice], because I had no other word, although I am not unaware that they were different things. But I also observed this, that the interpreter of the Hecuba of Euripides attributes the invention of Palamedes indiscriminately. Although, why should I not translate it as *talos*, since the most excellent of poets, Flaccus, supports me? In whose work Volanerius, a gouty buffoon (Satire 11, line 7), who would take and cast *talos* into the tower for his own gain, fed himself by his daily wages. Martial translates this tower as *turricula*, and what Cedrenus calls *psiphobolon*, Suidas calls the throwing of dice; and Suidas mentions seven counters. I myself have seen a board distinguished by white and black squares, just as a chessboard is divided; and hanging above it is a funnel through which, when the dice are dropped, one plays on the board or *fritillus*. Cedrenus calls it that which Suidas denotes, with a more elegant and appropriate word: for I do not think *psiphobolon* is found elsewhere used like this by a reliable author. The passage from Martial, which I had almost forgotten to add, is in his *Apophoreta*, a distich on the board with which dice are played. GOAR. (96) Isaacius Porphyrogenitus substitutes "markings" in his *Paralipomena* regarding Homer, discussing the game invented by Palamedes, he says, and further down, GOAR. (97) *Psiphobolon*: the tower or conduit, from which they fall from the tower onto the board as a die and counter. GOAR. (98) *Kokkia*: the counters themselves, or rather in the number of seven, entering the various cells of the table, indicating various conjunctions of the planets and zodiacal stars, and thus revealing, according to the rules of the astrologers, the prosperous or adverse fate of life and the game. GOAR.

^A Furthermore, for a long time they used the nineteen [letters]; hence the ancients, not having the ψ, used to say "psalida" [scissors], and they pronounced and wrote many other words differently. To these, Simonides of Ceos added two, η and ω; and Epicharmus of Syracuse added three, ζ, ξ, ψ; and thus the twenty-four characters were completed. ^B When the Greeks arrived at the shore of Troy with their fleet, the Trojans tried to prevent them from landing; but a fierce battle having been joined, and many having been killed on both sides, along with Protesilaus, the champion of the Danaans, when night came on, the Trojans safely withdrew into the city, while the Greeks, having drawn their ships up onto the Trojan shore, waited for the dawn. About the middle of the night, a certain man named Cygnus, a kinsman of Priam and ruler of the city of Neander, having dared with a large force of soldiers to attack them, a conflict ensued in which Cygnus himself was killed by Achilles, and the majority of those who were with him were slain. When day came, they subdued the cities situated around Ilium and Troy, because they were aiding Priam. Diomedes, the son of Tydeus, having plundered and devastated Neander, the city of the aforementioned Cygnus, together with his sons and his entire territory, brought the booty into the middle of the camp. ^C Achilles, having made an expedition with the Myrmidons against Lesbos and the region subject to it, killed Phorbas, the ruler of those places, who was a kinsman of Priam; and he brought his daughter Diomede, together with the spoils he had gathered from that whole region, into the camp. Then, having moved toward Lyrnessus and taken the city, and having killed Eetion, its governor, he took his wife Astynome, who is also called Chryseis, the daughter of Chryses, a priest of Apollo, and brought her with all the wealth of that city into the camp, and placed it in the middle. Thence, having moved against the so-called Legopolis... ^D [he took] Hippodameia, the daughter of Brises, the wife of Amyntas who held the kingdom in that city, who was absent at that time. After this, having summoned the Lycians and Lycaonians for an alliance against the Greeks, since he came with a great multitude and weighted with wrath, having encountered Achilles, he was of no benefit to his daughter and sons and his city; but he himself and all who were with him became the work of war. All the other things were divided among the army, but Agamemnon kept Chryseis, and Achilles kept Hippodameia, who is also called Briseis, in the place of concubines. A pestilential disease having struck the army, by the prophecy of Calchas, Chryseis was returned to her father, while Agamemnon took Briseis away from Achilles for a time. In consequence, Achilles, being angry, withdrew himself and the Myrmidons from the battle for some time, until Agamemnon, having been worn down by heavy disasters, persuaded him with many gifts and supplications to go out into the battle-line again with the Greeks. Ajax the son of Telamon, however, was besetting the Thracians who dwell in the Chersonese. Fearing him, the king of these, Polymestor...

gave him much gold and as much grain as would suffice for the Achaean army for a year. He had with him Polydorus, the youngest of all the sons of Priam, whom Priam had given to him to be raised. He handed this boy over to Ajax as well, and made a written pact never to give aid to Priam, and thus dismissed Ajax in peace. ^B Ajax then set out from there and came to the toparch Teuthras, whom he killed, stormed his city, and seized his daughter Tecmessa as a captive, bringing all the wealth to the camp of the Greeks by night. On the following day, they set Polydorus up opposite the wall and signaled to Priam to send back Helen and receive his son, and that having done this and confirmed peace, they would return home. But when this did not happen, while everyone looked on from the wall, they slew Polydorus with a sword. Dictys was a scribe, [(2)] a man of note and wisdom, who was among those who had set out from Crete to Ilium for the sake of the war. He was with Idomeneus during the entire time of the war, and he wrote down the true history of all things that occurred from beginning to end. He described and accurately recorded the ^C traits of the champions, whom he had all seen, as well as the times, places, circumstances, and all things that happened in that war with precision, and he organized how many ships each of the princes had brought with him; this same thing is also set forth by Homer in the second book of the Iliad. Indeed, when Hector was pressing the Greek forces and killing many of them, the Greeks were compelled to implore the help of Achilles by sending envoys, and, yielding with difficulty, he sent Patroclus, his dearest companion, with the Myrmidons. After striking down many of the Barbarians and pursuing others as they fled, Patroclus is killed by Hector while fighting at the very gates of the city. When Achilles learned of this, and furthermore that Hector had decided to meet Queen Penthesilea by night, he secretly grasped the opportunity ^D and hid himself in ambush with his own army, and he killed Hector as he was crossing the river. And not only him, but all who were accompanying him, except for one, whom he maimed by cutting off his hands and sent to Priam as a messenger of the slaughter. He himself took the body of Hector, having attached it to his chariot, and carried it into his own tent before dawn, without any of the Greeks knowing. The next day, Priam, having assumed a mourning habit and taking with him gold, silver, and precious garments, and also bringing with him his daughter Polyxenam, a beautiful virgin, and Andromache, the wife of Hector, and his small grandsons Astyanax and Laomedas, dared to insert himself among the princes of the Greeks, and as a suppliant, he begged them to become interceders for him before Achilles, that he might allow Hector's body to be ransomed. Nestor and Idomeneus felt pity for the old man, marvelling with astonishment at his boldness; and the former...

[alt-version omitted]

XYLANDRI AND GOARI'S NOTES. (2) In the margin: Dictys—just as I do not deny that Dictys and likewise Dares composed a history of the Trojan War, so I can never be persuaded to believe that the booklets which circulate today under these titles are genuine, or worthy of belief, or even worthy of reading. XYL.

^A Having taken the costly ^B Polyxena, a beautiful virgin, and Andromache, the wife of Hector, with her infant sons Astyanax and Laomedon, [Priam] summoned the courage to come into the midst of the Greek commanders, and prostrating himself, he implored them all to be suppliants with him to Achilles for the ransom of Hector’s body. Nestor and Idomeneus were moved to pity, struck by the old man’s boldness; they approached Achilles’ tent and persuaded him to let Priam enter. Priam, with dust upon his head, along with Andromache and the children, fell face down upon the ground and cried out with loud voices to be pitied. Polyxena, having embraced the feet of Achilles, begged him insistently for her brother Hector, promising to remain with him and serve him if he would return the body. Those around Nestor desired to pity and show mercy to his old age. After many words were exchanged between them, Achilles nonetheless agreed to take a ransom and to yield the corpse to his own people. Thus, having taken the gold and silver and a portion of the clothing, he bestowed the rest upon Polyxena. Priam urged him to allow her to remain with him, but he promised to do so at another time. Priam returned home with the corpse and all those who were with him, and after Hector had been mourned sufficiently and cremated according to custom, he was buried outside the city walls.

While these matters concerning Hector were being managed, behold, the Amazon Penthesilea arrived from the Chersonese on the opposite side, bringing with her multitudes of brave men and Amazons. Learning of Hector’s death, she attempted to turn back, but Paris persuaded her to stay with the promise of much gold. A few days later, she led her forces onto the battlefield. Dividing her army into two parts, she positioned the archers on her right, and on the left wing the heavy-armed infantry, who were more numerous than the cavalry; Penthesilea herself took her station in the middle among the cavalry under the standard. Once the battle had joined and they were slaughtering one another, Achilles struck Penthesilea [who was] fighting bitterly with his spear and threw her from her horse; they dragged her by her hair and drowned her in the river Scamander. The Ajaxes routed the townspeople, so that they fled into the city and barred the gates. The rest of the Greeks pursued and slaughtered those who had been left behind near the wall; but they refrained from touching the Amazons, and after the battle, the army took them prisoner and divided them up. ^C After this, many Indians, both cavalry and infantry, and the most warlike Phoenicians, arrived by fleet with their kings, having been summoned by Priam to bring aid. The multitudes were so great that neither Ilium nor the entire plain could contain them all. All of them, along with the Trojans, went out onto the plain led by Memnon, the king of the Indians, who was the most powerful and warlike of all; the sons of Priam, the Trojans, and the entire army were drawn up by him, and he himself rode forth in splendor in his chariot. The Greeks were astonished, seeing terrible swords and weapons, slings, square shields, and many ^D Ethiopians—men who were fearsome to behold—rushing against them. The Trojans also, with great shouting and leaping, made an assault and were killing many of the Greeks. Consequently, the leaders of the Greeks, unable to withstand the violence of the multitude, retreated to their ships; these would have been burned by the barbarians had not nightfall supervened and checked their efforts. At nightfall, the Greeks cremated the corpses of their own who had fallen in the battle and diligently cared for the wounded. There, when the leading men of the Greeks were consulting as to who, while the others were occupied one with another, would dare to engage in hand-to-hand combat with Memnon, this duty fell by lot to Ajax, son of Telamon. Before

the sun rose, they armed themselves and went forth; the Greeks first, and immediately after them Memnon and all the soldiers under him. Thus, while others engaged one another, Ajax, with Achilles himself supporting him from behind, rushed against Memnon. ^B Memnon, having descended from his chariot, tested Ajax with his spear. But Ajax, first turning aside his shield, struck him heavily. When all the Indians with him turned their attention toward Ajax, Achilles, casting his own spear at Memnon’s uncovered neck, slew him, beyond all expectation. From that point there was a rout, slaughter, and wailing among the barbarians, and conversely, shouts and a brilliant and indisputable victory for the Greeks, at which time Polydamas, the valiant king of the Phoenicians, was also pierced and fell by the spear of Ajax. An unspeakable multitude of Ethiopians and barbarians died there, so that the field was filled with corpses, as the foot soldiers were dreadfully trampled and slaughtered by the horsemen.

After these things, Achilles challenging the Trojans to battle, the leaders Paris and Deiphobus, sons of Priam, went forth, along with his brothers Troilus and Lycaon, with the rest of the Trojan army; these Achilles, having pursued with the band of Achaeans fighting beside him, took some alive, and drowned others in the river Scamander. He also slew Troilus and Lycaon. After this, the festival of offerings arose, bringing a truce to the war, when all, Danaans and Trojans alike, were sacrificing in peace to the Thymbrian Apollo in the grove a short distance from the city. Polyxena having gone out with her mother Hecuba to the temple, Achilles saw her and was struck with admiration for her appearance. Priam, having observed Achilles, sent Idaeus to him into the grove to speak with him concerning Polyxena. The leading Greeks, seeing him conversing privately with Achilles, were disturbed, and sent Ajax, Diomedes, and Ulysses, admonishing him not to yield anything to the barbarians, nor to entrust himself to his enemies. They themselves remained outside the grove, ^C awaiting Achilles [P. 130] so as to instruct him privately. He had, however, promised Idaeus that he would take Polyxena in marriage; wherefore he remained waiting in the grove. After a short while, Paris and Deiphobus arrived, supposedly beseeching him regarding the marriage. He, suspecting nothing evil, received them while he was standing in the temple of Apollo. And Paris, standing at the altar, confirmed with an oath those things which had been said by both sides. ^D But while Deiphobus was embracing and kissing Achilles, he plunged the sword he was carrying into Achilles' vitals; and immediately, while Deiphobus was still holding him, Paris dealt a second blow. Achilles collapsed, his strength failing. They, having acted beyond suspicion, exited the grove by another way, and when they had proceeded a little distance from there, they rushed with rapid pace into the city. Ulysses, seeing them running with his companions, ran to the temple, and there found Achilles lying behind the altar, stained with gore. To whom Ajax said: "Indeed, no man could have killed you, but your own rashness alone destroyed you." Achilles, already drawing his last breath, replied: "Paris and Deiphobus killed me by guile for the sake of Polyxena." Therefore, they very quickly seized the body of Achilles, and placing it upon their shoulders, carried it to the camp.

^B and burned it, and buried it. After the death of Achilles, a battle took place and many fell on both sides; then Philoctetes and Paris entered into single combat. Paris, having drawn the first lot, shot at Philoctetes but missed the mark. But Philoctetes, shooting back, pierced the left hand of Paris, and in a second shot blinded his right eye, and in a third, striking him in the feet and ankles, threw Paris to the ground. Those who seized him brought him half-dead into Ilium. And he, seeing the three sons he had by Helen—Bunymus, Corythus, and Idaeus—standing by him as small children, remained speechless and breathed his last at midnight. His former wife, Oenone, hanged herself. Deiphobus immediately took Helen as his wife, whom Menelaus later mutilated by cutting off his ears, nose, and hands because of her.

The Palladium

On that night, miserable and abominable omens appeared to the Trojans, which they reported to the Greeks when they went out in the morning. For they say that when the Trojans were striving to perform a sacrifice to Apollo upon the altar, and had duly placed the wood and the meat upon it, the fire applied to the wood did not burn but was quenched. And although the fire was brought and applied many times and would not burn, everything that had been placed on the altar fell to the ground. The Trojans, judging by this portent that something opposed to them was being signaled, sent Priam and the others as an embassy to the Greeks, Antenor being the envoy, to ask that they might be granted the opportunity to purchase peace at a price of their own choosing. And Antenor, acting as envoy, said to the Achaeans: "We have suffered everything that those who have sinned deserved to suffer. Paris has paid the penalty for the injury he did to Menelaus; and the graves of the fallen are a testament to that for Ilium as well. Therefore, we the survivors bring you the price by which...

we might redeem ourselves. We implore you by the gods, by our fatherland, and by our children; since you are Greeks, have mercy on those who were once arrogant, but are now your suppliants.” ^A Moved by these words, the Greeks sent Ulysses and Diomedes to weigh out the sum of money. They cast two thousand talents of gold and two thousand talents of silver; and having taken all that they had decided upon, they departed from the city and returned to the army. After this, while the Greeks were offering sacrifices and preparing to sail away, Ulysses bound everyone by an oath during the sacrifices not to sail away from Ilium before the wooden horse was constructed. And so, having joined together the most suitable timbers and arranged them skillfully, they fashioned it by the craftsmanship of Epeius, wondrously and superlatively, with all sorts of mechanical devices, so that it could hide forty soldiers inside, and, being moved on wheels, it could easily follow the pull of the rope. When it was finished, they burned their tents and sailed to the island of Tenedos, where they hid themselves by the council of Ulysses, leaving behind only a traitor, a man of noble spirit, who, induced by praise and reward, had voluntarily offered himself to be wounded and lightly mutilated in his extremities. ^B When the barbarians asked him what this machine of a horse meant, he replied, saying: “The Danaans dedicate this to the temple of Athena, both as an apology for the wrongs they committed against her city, and as a gift they have deemed necessary for the sake of their safe return to their own homelands and as a memorial to them.” The Trojans, therefore, trusting in these words, took the wooden horse—or rather, their own destruction—with gladness and joy, dragging it with ropes and cheering, and having removed the lintel of the gate, they brought it with their enemies into the inner sanctuary of their goddess. In the middle of the night, those who were lying in wait inside the horse leapt out at a favorable time, killed Priam himself and his children, and mutilated Deiphobus; and after slaughtering the multitude of men, they showed a signal to the Greek fleet to return to them by means of very bright and frequent fires set on the wall. As soon as day broke, the rest were also there. Having killed all the Trojans who remained, they carried off their wives, as well as Hecuba herself, as captives, and divided among themselves all the cattle and household goods; then, having returned Helen to Menelaus and set fire to and destroyed the whole city, they returned home. ^C After Ilium was taken, Ajax son of Telamon and Ulysses both laid claim to the image of Pallas, each asserting that it belonged to him and that he would have it as a protective charm for his own city, as he had fought more heroically than all the others. And though many strategies were proposed by both of them, nevertheless the Palladium was given into custody to Diomedes until the morning. However, during the night, Ajax was secretly killed. When morning came and he was found dead, a great tumult arose, and Ulysses came under suspicion for the deed; and because the matter was leading to civil war, Ulysses was the first to…

pull up his ships and depart from Troy, and all followed after him, and this became the beginning of the departure of the Greeks. As for Hecuba, because she was cursing the army, those with Ulysses overwhelmed her with stones and cast her into the sea at a place called Maroneia, which they also named Cynossema, that is, the Tomb of the Dog.

From there he fell in with a Cyclops in Sicily—not one-eyed as the mythologies of Homer claim, but a man by nature like all human beings, as were the rest of the Cyclopes. These were of vast bodies, savage and monstrous, very cruel, most inhuman, and most addicted to human slaughter. Thence he was carried to the Aeolian islands, to Circe and Calypso, the daughters of Atlas; and from this Circe he also had a son, Telegonus. Afterward, he went to a marsh called Necyopa, where through visions he learned the things that were to happen to him. Thence he was cast upon the rocks of the Sirens, and to the so-called Charybdis and Scylla, which, situated in a narrow place, receives the currents of the Ocean and submerges those sailing by. Having lost there all his ships and his companions, he himself, having seized a plank, was borne along by the currents of the waters. The Phoenicians, finding him sailing, took him and brought him naked to Crete to Idomeneus. And he himself sent him to Phaeacia, now called Corcyra, to Alcinous, having given him two ships and thirty ^A chosen men.

Alcinous, therefore, having taken up more soldiers along with Ulysses, reaches Ithaca. And having killed the suitors and having cleansed his house of those who were plotting against him, he recovers his kingdom. Having lived, then, for many years, Ulysses meets his end at the hands of his own son, Telegonus, who had been born to him by Circe. For, fearing from some oracles the death at the hands of his son, he was wary of Telemachus and was refusing to live with him. When, therefore, Telegonus had reached Ithaca and had told the guards to announce him to his father—as it was night, and a great shouting having arisen—Ulysses, thinking that Telemachus was present, went to meet him with a sword; and having engaged with Telegonus, he was struck by him with the sting of a stingray, and in this way he perished.

^B Agamemnon the king, having sailed home to his fatherland with Cassandra, found Clytemnestra committing adultery with Aegisthus. For she, having heard that Agamemnon had taken Cassandra in Troy, decreed such a death for her husband. For, having dressed him in a tunic woven on all sides upon his return, she makes arrangements for him to be slaughtered by Aegisthus, and she takes Aegisthus. The son of Agamemnon, Orestes, who as a child had been sent by his father—when he was setting out for the war against Ilium—to Schoneus to be raised, having learned of this, came, and having killed Aegisthus and his mother, he recovers the kingdom.

Menelaus, having been cast into Egypt with Helen, and having with difficulty returned to Lacedaemon, upon learning of the fate of Agamemnon, lived in great fear. But Ajax, the son of Oileus, was drowned in the sea with his own army. Diomedes, the son of Tydeus, when to his own ^CD

^A city he returned by sea, he was not admitted, but being driven out by Aegialea his wife and the citizens, he fled to Calabria. He then founds a city there, which he called Argyripa, later renamed Maleventum and then Beneventum; and he lived in it, possessing also the Palladium which he had obtained at Troy.

That Orestes, after murdering his mother, fell into a rabid madness, and at one time he lived in peace, but at another he was vexed more violently. As the citizens were pressing him, he departs for Delphi and receives an oracle such as this: "Orestes, not otherwise do the fates of the god Grant you to be freed from grievous disease, Than by crossing the waves of the Pontic sea And reaching the Scythian shores and the land of Aulis. There, taken at the altar of Artemis, you shall be saved From the altars. Escaping thence from the land of the Barbarians, crossing the earth, you shall reach the land of Syria. Opposite the valley of Mount Silpius you shall find A mountain named Melanthium, where there is a great temple Of Vesta. There lay aside your rabid madness; Go quickly hence. What I have said shall come to pass." Having taken note of these things ^B Orestes immediately sailed away with Pylades and arrived at the Aulis region of Scythia. So, having crossed the Pontic sea and traveled by land for two miles, they see the temple of the goddess, and outside, the bones of men cast about, which the locals call in their own language *Crustemia*. And they were planning what they should do. Shepherds run to Iphigenia, saying, "Two young men have arrived by the dark sea." She, first questioning the strangers as to who they were, what they were, and what their names were, also inquired about her father Agamemnon and the Trojan War. Then they are bound to be sacrificed. And Orestes is kept for the next, but Pylades is stood at the altar of Artemis. And Iphigenia asked of what country he might be ^C and of what city. "I am of the land of Hellas," he said, "and I come as a wretched man from the city of Mycenae." She, having heard the city and the land, wept, suspecting that he had heard things about her from the shepherds. "Who," she said, "is king of Mycenae? And who is his wife? And who are his children?" "Agamemnon," he said, "formerly; his wife was Clytemnestra; and his children are Orestes, Electra, and Iphigenia, who they say was offered as a sacrifice to Artemis, but, having been rescued by the goddess, it is not known up to this day where she is. He also had daughters, Chrysothemis and Laodice." She, having heard this, orders him to be immediately released from his bonds. And having written a diptych, she gave it to him, saying: "Behold, the goddess grants you life through me. Swear to me by her that you will deliver this diptych to Orestes, and bring me back a letter from him." He swore to give the letter into his hands ^D and to bring Orestes to her. Having taken the diptych, he went out of the sanctuary, and coming to where...

^A Orestes was guarded, he asked the Scythian guards for access, and having entered, he gave him the diptych, saying: "Go with haste to Iphigenia, your sister." The Scythians then remained speechless at the event. And both of them went immediately to Iphigenia; and Pylades said, "Behold, this is Orestes, your brother." But she did not recognize him until she saw the sign of the Pelopid lineage, the olive-mark on his right shoulder. Embracing him, she ordered their ships to be pulled up into the dockyard, and kept them occupied with her the entire winter. When summer came, Orestes and Pylades, having secretly taken the solid-gold image of Artemis and Iphigenia herself, fled in the ships in which they had arrived. Having crossed the Diabena, they came to the east, to the Saracen Emet, and from there to Tricomin of Palestine. ^B And indeed, since Orestes was raving, the Tricomitae built a great temple to Artemis and asked Iphigenia—honoring her as a priestess—to sacrifice a virgin girl to the goddess. They brought a young girl named Nyssa, whom Iphigenia sacrificed as a victim. Having set up a bronze pillar there, they named the place Nyssa. When Orestes later recovered his senses, Iphigenia saw in a dream a hind saying to her, "Flee from this country." Accordingly, they immediately fled along the coast, reached Palestine, and from there went to Syria and Mount Melantium. Orestes, having found the temple of Vesta according to the oracle and performed the sacrifices, was delivered from that grievous madness. Then, crossing the Orontes River, he came to Mount Silpius and, having greeted the Argive Ionians as his kinsmen, he was escorted by them to the coast of what was formerly called Palaeopolis, but is now Seleucia. From there, having found a ship, he crossed over to Greece. Having joined his sister Electra in marriage to Pylades, he ruled the kingdom of the Mycenaeans until the end of his life. ^C Thoas, however, the petty king of Scythia, sent many Scythians in pursuit of Iphigenia on account of the image. When they had arrived at Tricomin and learned that those whom they were pursuing had sailed away, they remained there and, having built a city called Scythopolis, they did not return home.

Aeneas, having been entertained by Diomedes in Calabria, when he was about to depart, asked to receive the Palladium from him. To whom he replied, "Since the time when I first stole this with Odysseus from Ilium, neither I nor the army under me has ceased from distress and calamities until now. Therefore, I questioned the Pythia concerning it, and she commanded me to return it to the Trojans." Having said these things, Diomedes performed a sacred rite, and upon bringing forth the Palladium, presented it to Aeneas. Taking this, Aeneas set out ^D toward Latinus, the lord of Italy at that time, and with him campaigned against the Rutulians.

^A In this war, Latinus, the son of Telephus, fell. But Aeneas, having collected an army, made war against the Rutulians, and after routing them, took Latinus’ daughter, Albania, as his wife, and obtained the kingdom; he built a large city, which he called Albania, and deposited the Palladium in it. He himself passed away after reigning for 19 years after Latinus.

After him, Ascanius Iulus, the son of Aeneas by Creusa the Trojan—his first wife—reigned for 35 years. He built the city of Lavinium, and transferred there both the palace and the Palladium from the Albania that had been founded by him.

Albas, the son of Ascanius, ruled Lavinium for 35 years. He built the city of Silva, from which the kings came to be called Silvii. This Albas again moved the Palladium from the city of Lavinium to the city of Silva, which he had founded. From then on, the Aeneadae reigned there in succession for 331 years. Evander and Palas, sons of Aeneas, ^B while governing the province called Valens, built a house of great size and wonder, and it was for this reason that every royal house came to be called a "palace."

That the Romans divide the days of the month into three parts: into Kalends, Nones, and Ides. The Kalends are from the beginning of the month until the 9th day; the Nones from that day until the 15th day; and the Ides those until the 30th day and the beginning of the month, which is called *ene* (hëne) and *nea* (new) by the comic poet Aristophanes, ^C and Hesiod, and others. The days until the 30th are called Ides because at that time, beginning from the 16th, the moon is "eidos"—that is, its form is perfected—and then it wanes.

After the reign of Ardys, eight other Lydian kings reigned until Croesus the Proud and Cyrus, the king of the Assyrians. This same Croesus reigned for 15 years. Thus, the kingdom of the Lydians lasted for a total of 232 years. Croesus subjugated all the nearby kingdoms and seized those far from him. He sent word to Cyrus to leave his kingdom and withdraw, or else receive the presence of his army to wage war. Cyrus replied to him through ^D messengers: "What injustice has Croesus suffered from me, by seizing so much land from me and my kingdom?" Being anxious in heart and fearing the good fortune of Croesus, he considered fleeing to the land of India. But his wife, seeing him so troubled in spirit, and having inquired and learned the cause from him, said to him...

^A that "In the time of Darius, my first husband, there was a certain Hebrew man, a prophet, having the wisdom of God, by the name of Daniel. Darius the king held him in great honor, and without him he did nothing in matters of war; and after the death of that man, being rich and having grown old, he lived privately in the Marabitid region." Cyrus, having heard this, sent his nobles to him, so that they might bring him with honor. ^B Now Croesus, the king of the Lydians, having chosen some of his own household, and giving them both common and also royal gifts, sent them to Delphi to the oracle of Apollo, having said to them: "Change your garments and go up to the oracle, and give humble gifts to the priest, saying that we are Egyptians, and we have come to consult the Pythia, and from the length of the journey we have forgotten why we came to seek or to consult. But pray and ask the god why we have come. And if he should tell you why you have come, give also the royal gifts from me, and say to the priest: 'Do I win against the king of the Persians, Cyrus?'" And they, having done so, questioned the priest, who, having prayed, received this answer from the Pythia: "I know the number of the sands and the measures of the sea; I hear the mute, and I understand the one who does not speak. Croesus, king of the Lydians, and his people, are trying to mock me." And the priest, having gone out, said to them: "You are not Egyptians, but Lydians, and you did not forget, but you came mocking divine things." And he handed to them the oracle written on a diptych. And they, being astonished, handed over also the other royal gifts to the priest, saying to him that King Croesus had sent them, since he was at war with Cyrus, the king of the Persians, and wished to learn if he would defeat him. The priest therefore, having entered again and prayed, received this oracle: "King Croesus, having crossed the Halys River, will destroy a great empire." And having written this oracle on a diptych, he sent it to Croesus. ^C But the prophet Daniel came to King Cyrus, and Cyrus says to him: "Tell me if I defeat Croesus, the king of the Lydians." But Daniel delayed in answering. And Cyrus, having become angry at him, cast him into the den of lions; and he brought him up having suffered no harm from them. And Cyrus fell at his feet, saying: "I have sinned against you, but pray to God and tell me if I am able to go to war against this rapacious and proud Croesus, because he has subjected the whole earth and is not satisfied." ^D And Daniel, having prayed, said to him: "You will both defeat Croesus and take him captive; for concerning you, God, who made all these things that are seen, spoke through the prophet Isaiah: 'Thus says the Lord God to my anointed Cyrus, whose right hand I have taken hold of, to subdue nations before him; and I will break the strength of kings; I will open doors before him; I will go before him and make smooth the mountains; I will shatter bronze doors, and I will smash iron bars. I will open to you hidden treasures

so that you may know that I am the Lord God. I will raise him up in righteousness; all his ways are straight. He shall build my city, and he shall turn back the captivity of my people, not for ransom, nor for bribes, says the Lord Sabaoth." ^A And King Cyrus, having heard this, fell at the feet of Daniel, saying, "As the Lord your God lives, I will release Israel from my land, so that they may worship their God in Jerusalem." And having armed himself, he drew up his army against Croesus. But Croesus, having heard the answer of the oracle, went out against Cyrus with a great force, and having crossed the Halys river of Cappadocia, he engaged with Cyrus, while it was mid-winter. And having been defeated, he wished to flee, but as the river was in flood, he could not, and he was taken prisoner. His multitude perished, four hundred thousand of them. Cyrus took those who were left with Croesus as captives. And having placed him on a wooden tripod, tied up on high, he celebrated a triumph over him and brought him down into Persia. The same Cyrus released all the children of Israel out of their captivity to return to Jerusalem with Zorobabel, as the story will show as it proceeds. However, not all the Jews wished to leave with Zorobabel, except for two tribes and a half only, about fifty thousand. Nine and a half tribes remained in the Persian lands of their own free will, fearing the nations surrounding the Judean territory. He released them, however, at the request of Daniel.

After the kingdom of the Lydians had been destroyed, the Samians, having obtained mastery of the sea, ruled those parts. And after some time, Cyrus heard of this and marched against them. Having joined battle with them by sea, he was defeated and fled, and having returned to his own land, he was slain. Concerning this war between Cyrus and the Samians, Pythagoras the Samian wrote; who also states that he died there in the war. ^B

After the reign of Cyrus, his son Darius, who is also called Cambyses, and the others, reigned over the Assyrians. During the times of the reign of such a Darius, Anaximander was philosophizing among the Greeks, who also expounded upon the equinoxes and the solstices. But also Pythagoras wrote down arithmetic, and introduced to the Greeks the doctrine that there are incorporeal principles. In the reign of Darius, the son of Cyrus, a war was stirred up against him by the Ethiopians, who treated him badly. The Jews who were dwelling in the Median territory, having learned of this, abandoned it and seized Jerusalem; and there was a great multitude of Jews. And Darius, the son of Cyrus, having learned of this, sent his general, by the name of Holofernes, ^C [P. 139] with a great force to Jerusalem against the Jews; and he besieged Jerusalem. And it happened that a terrible deed was done at that time. For Judith, an Hebrew woman, plotted against the Persian Holofernes, pretending that she wished to betray the nation of the Jews; who also arrived in secret to Holofernes, who, having seen her beauty, fell in love with her. She says to him, "Do not let any of your men be near you here on my account. For they come to me, wishing to force me." And being persuaded, he spent time alone with her. Having persevered there for three days, as he was sleeping, having grown strong, her

the barbarian had made near the city. The Jews raised the head of Holofernes mounted on a pike above the wall, displaying it to the hostile army. At dawn, the Persians, having seen the head of their leader standing on a pike, took to flight, and the siege having been broken, the victory remained with the Jews. ^A

After Darius, Artaxerxes held the kingdom over the Assyrians. There existed at that time Nehemiah the Jew, tracing his lineage from David. This man, whom it was permitted to address the king freely, and since he was indeed loved by him and was even prefect of the eunuchs, moved him to bestow much money for the restoration of Jerusalem and to dismiss him to accomplish that task. At that time, Jerusalem had first been razed and the temple overturned. And the city had lain desolate for 70 years. Nehemiah, however, once dismissed, restored it. The same Artaxerxes, at the instigation of certain advisers, dismissed the remaining Jews as well; and those who wished returned to their homeland under the leadership of the prophet Ezra. To him the king also handed over the sacred vessels and the priestly books. This same Ezra provided the means for these books, which were not extant, to be written out from his memory ^B.

At that time, there was a kingdom in Macedonia. Cranaus was the first to hold it for 28 years; then other kings followed down to Philip, the father of Alexander. There were then among the Greeks teachers and poets: Sophocles, Heraclitus, Euripides, Herodotus, Socrates, and that great Pythagoras. Hercules also was born in the times mentioned above, in Lato of Thebes, born of Alcmena and Zeus the Great. This Hercules was raised in Spain, and when he had become a man, a fugitive from Spain, he then came into Italy, and in it held the kingdom for 38 years. He took as his wife Lytha, the daughter of King Aleta. And so the Italian kings who were begotten by him set up columns of beaten gold for him, which stand even to this day. ^C After him, Telephus, his son by Auga, held the kingdom of Italy; and after him, his son Latinus for 18 years, who gave the name of Latins to the Ctetæi.

While he was reigning, Aeneas the Phrygian, son of Anchises, fleeing from the destruction of Troy, arrived in Africa at Dido the Phoenician woman, who is also called Elisa; and having stayed there for some time, fearing Jarbas the king of Africa, he fled, having secretly abandoned Dido. Dido was a native of Charticha, a small city ^D of the Phoenician coast.

^A Between the borders of Tyre and Sidon, this Dido was very wealthy and had a husband named Sichaeus, whom Pygmalion, Dido’s brother, murdered while hunting, envying him for his great wealth and power. For as they were pursuing a wild boar on horseback, he struck his spear from behind into him and killed him, and taking his body, he threw it over a cliff. And having returned, he told those related to him that he had fallen off the cliff while pursuing the boar. But this same Pygmalion wished to dispose of his own sister, too, and to take her money. To Dido, her husband Sichaeus appeared in a dream and said, “Your brother has murdered me,” showing her also the location of the wound. And he said to her, “Flee, lest he murder you as well.” And so this same Dido, escaping her own brother’s notice, took all her wealth, and having boarded a ship, she sailed away from Phoenicia and came to Libya, and she founded Carthaina, which is Neapolis; and she reigned there, and having lived wisely, she passed away.

Diomedes, moreover, was from Aetolia, tracing his lineage from Oeneus. This Oeneus, after the death of Eriboea, married Althaea, from whom he had Meleager and Deianira, whom Achelous, the son of the senator Poseidonius, betrothed. Now Achelous, before the marriage, secretly defiled Deianira, and after this he said to the king Oeneus, “I will not take her otherwise, unless you grant me the governance of your kingdom.” But he was not persuaded. And so Achelous, the son of Poseidonius, rose up with his own father against Oeneus and made war upon him. ^B And Oeneus, being constrained, summoned from the region of Phthia a brave commander, Heracles, known as Polyphemus, promising to give him his daughter Deianira in marriage. He came with his own army and joined battle against Poseidonius and his son Achelous, and in the clash, Polyphemus slew with his sword Poseidonius, the father of Achelous. Because of this, the poets have invented that Heracles tore off the horn of Achelous, which is his ancestral power. Having seen, therefore, the fall of his own father, Achelous fled on horseback; thus they write that he was a hippocentaur. ^C And as Polyphemus Heracles was pursuing him, Achelous turned around and shot him with an arrow in the breast. And immediately, as Heracles was, he shot back at Achelous near the river Evenus. Achelous cast himself from his horse into the streams of the river and perished; and from that time, the river was renamed Achelous. But Polyphemus Heracles died after a few days from the wound in his breast. ^D

Meleager, the son of Oeneus, brother of Tydeus and Deianira, performed a great feat, having killed a boar that was ravaging all that region, after the huntress Atalanta had first wounded the wild boar with an arrow. And after the killing of the beast, Meleager gifted its hide to Atalanta, having fallen into love with her. Meleager then went away to his own father Oeneus and asked of him the tokens of victory for the beast. And having learned that he had gifted the skin to Atalanta, enraged against him, he took the

^A olive branch which Althaea held, the branch which she, ^B being pregnant with the olive leaf, had desired and eaten; and having swallowed the olive leaf, she immediately brought forth the olive leaf together with Meleager. Concerning this leaf, an oracle was given to his father Oeneus, that Meleager would live for as long a time as the leaf that was born with him was preserved. This leaf Oeneus burned, being angry against his own son, and he immediately died. Euripides also published a drama concerning Meleager.

After the reign of Oeneus, there reigned over the Aetolian land his other son, Tydeus, the father of Diomedes, who, after the death of his father, reigned over the land of the Argives, having taken a wife from Argos named Aegialea. And being bereft of his senses, he destroyed his own land and kingdom in war, subjecting it under the kingship of the Argives; and he immediately set out with the Achaeans for Ilium. And having returned from Troy to his own kingdom, he was not received by his own people. But having learned that his wife Aegialea was contriving a trap for him, having fornicated with Cometes, her councillor—who, along with Ajax the son of Nauplius, who was caught in the same disgraceful act, resisted him mightily—and since they, on account of their love for her, fought against him with great strength, and seeing these men and the entire Argive land resisting him, and not being able to return even to his own land of Aetolia, he departed, sailing off to the Calabrian land, and there founded a seaside city, which he named Argyrippa, which is now called Beneventum.

^C [P. 142] That the Mede Darius was also called Artaxerxes and Astyages and Nabogiadus. It is said that he had the ears of an ass; he was the grandfather of Cyrus. This man was joined to Esther for her beauty, and appointed Daniel among the chief men of the kingdom. And a conspiracy having been formed against Daniel by the chief men, he cast him into the den of lions; but he being preserved, those men, having been cast into the same, were devoured by the lions. When Cyrus the Persian had slain this Darius, he held Babylon for thirty-two years. To him Croesus the Lydian, elated by the great multitude of his gold and victories, sent word that he should either cede the kingdom of the Persians to him or meet him in war. But Daniel, having been called by Cyrus, heard him exhorting him to be of good courage, that, "You shall conquer Croesus with might, and you shall return the people of Israel to Jerusalem." In his time occurred the events concerning Mordecai and Haman, and the salvation of the Hebrews brought about by ^D Esther. In his time Daniel saw the visions through Gabriel, and learned the time of the coming of the Lord. At these times also, the Sibyl was known in Samos.

The first year of Cyrus was the year of the world 4952. This Cyrus, having taken many kings captive and keeping them in custody, ordered them during a certain festival to pull the four-horse chariot upon their shoulders in which he himself was riding. One of the kings, looking back frequently, watched the wheels turning up and down. Which when Cyrus observed, being indignant, he asked why he kept turning himself around and obstructing the straight course of the chariot. He timidly answered that, as he looked at the wheels going up and down, he was...

^A considering the instability of life, how things at the bottom are turned to the top, and things at the top to the bottom. Hearing this, Cyrus, sensing the meaning, released him, and having honored him kindly, he raised him up into his chariot, and granted freedom not only to him, but also to the rest. This Cyrus ruled over the Persians, Medes, Chaldeans, and Assyrians, ^B as well as Syria and Lydia.

This same Cyrus took Croesus prisoner. And wishing to burn him in fire, he spared him on account of Solon in this manner. As Croesus was being led to the flames, he cried out, “O Solon, O Solon!” Hearing this, Cyrus inquired for what reason he was calling out Solon, and he heard from him that: “When I took you prisoner, O Solon, and brought you here, boasting in my glory and in the wealth of my kingdom, I said to him, ‘Can you find, ^C O Solon, anyone more fortunate than I?’ And he said to me that Diogenes the Cynic was more fortunate than I, as were many others. Having dismissed him then as being out of his mind, I have just now realized that all the things of the world are nothing. For look, I have been helped not at all by the wealth of my kingdom.” At that, Cyrus, considering the matter, not only left him unpunished but also honored him, accepting him as an advisor and tutor to his son Cambyses. This Croesus, wishing to wage war against Cyrus, asked for an oracle, and received one such as this:

Croesus, crossing the Halys, will destroy a great empire.

Unaware of its meaning, he destroyed his own kingdom. ^D Cyrus, therefore, having subjected Croesus, had Daniel as a companion in life and at his table because of his prophecy. And he decreed the return of the people with a glorious proclamation. At that time, Bel was also destroyed by his counsels, and the dragon was killed by the wisdom of Daniel, and its attendants were destroyed, and he was saved a second time from the cruelty of the lions, and those who had slandered him were killed in their place. This man was called Cyrus in Greek, but Artaxerxes and Arthasasthas in Persian. This Cyrus was killed by the queen of the Massagetae; for having pretended through messengers that she was his slave, she sent him gifts, sheep, and much wine in skins, and when Cyrus and his men were drunk, she attacked and killed nearly all of them, and taking his head, she said: “Be satisfied, O insatiable Cyrus.”

After Baltasar the son of Nabuchodonosor, Darius the Astyages held the power for 17 years; during whose time Daniel recognized the seventy-year period of the exile, and the mystery of the seven weeks was revealed to him. And if anyone should wish to examine the account precisely and number the times, beginning from the fulfillment of the words according to the prophet to rebuild Jerusalem, that is to say, from Nehemiah the son of Achele, the chief cupbearer of Artaxerxes, who being petitioned and authorized goes up to rebuild Jerusalem, he will find the seventy weeks, that is 490 years, completed until that time when the transgression is blotted out and sin is brought to an end.

^A And the vision is sealed, and it prophesies, and the Holy of Holies is anointed, that is to say, concerning the coming of Christ and the rest of the work.

Cyrus the Persian, having overthrown the empire of the Medes and Assyrians and having subdued all Asia, reigned for 31 years. In his first year, the seventy-year period of the captivity is completed. In the following year, he grants permission to those of the Hebrews who wished to go up to inhabit Jerusalem, and he commanded that the temple be built. The leaders of the return were Jesus, the son of Josedec the high priest, and Zorobabel, the son of Salathiel, and the prophet Haggai, and Zacharias, the son of Iddo. When those around Jesus had laid the foundation of the temple, they were hindered from completing the work for a total of 42 years, until Darius, the son of Hystaspes, in the second year of his own kingdom, restrained those who were obstructing it and permitted the complete construction of the temple. And it is completed in another four years, so that it was finished in 46 years in total.

Cambyses, who is also called Artaxerxes, reigned for 8 years. Splendanes and Cimerdius, brother magi, for 7 months. Darius, a descendant of Cyrus and son of Hystaspes, having attacked the magi and gained the victory, reigned until the completion of Jerusalem for 6 years, and 30 years in addition to these. In his time, Hippocrates the physician was known.

Xerxes, the son of Darius, reigned for 20 years, Artabanus for 7 months, Artaxerxes Longimanus for 40 years. In his time, the events regarding Esther, Mordecai, and Haman took place. In his time, Jerusalem was built, while those building ^B it girded it with arms. From the eighth year of this man, one must count the seventy weeks of Daniel’s vision until the coming of the Lord.

The affairs concerning Rome should have been placed before these as being older, but for the sake of the continuity of the sequence, they were postponed, and they will be set down in order after the completion of the kingdom of the Assyrians and the captivity of the Hebrews.

Xerxes, the son of Artaxerxes, nicknamed Nothus (for that is what *Nothus* signifies), having killed Sogdianus, reigned for 19 years. Darius, [son] of Hystaspes and Parysatis, for 36 years—in the year of the world 4992. While he was still living as a private citizen, he vowed to God that if he should obtain the kingdom of the Persians, he would restore the temple in Jerusalem and return all the sacred objects of the Jews along with the captives and restore them to the ancestral customs. Zorobabel, the son of Salathiel, who was a listener and advisor to him, later reminded him of these vows, since he was familiar to him. For the people had indeed been sent away earlier, and the foundations of the temple had been laid, but the construction was halted because of the slander of the neighboring Samaritans. And they were in that same state for 46 years until the second year of Darius. Then the temple is completed in 6 years through the reminder and the hands of Zorobabel and Jesus, the son of Josedec—that is to say, in 46 full years from the first year of Cyrus. Hence it was also said by the Jews to the Lord: ^D "In 46 years this temple was built, and will you raise it up in three days?"

Solomon had ^A spent seven years on the building of his temple. The number of the Jews returning from the Babylonian captivity was 42,360, and 7,037 slaves.

The account concerning the admonition by Zorobabel was as follows: Three bodyguards of the king, having consulted among themselves, said: "Let us propose questions to the king, each one on what is strongest in the world and conquers all things; and whoever is found to have conquered, he shall be honored by the king." The first said: "Wine is strongest, and it conquers all." The second said: "The king conquers, for he has the power to carry out his will." The third, who was Zorobabel, said: "A woman prevails, but truth is more powerful than all things." He was approved, and a request was granted to him. He reminded the king of his vow, and he released all the people and rebuilt the city and the temple. ^B

In the second epistle of the Maccabees, it is written to the Jews dwelling in Egypt concerning Neemias, that after he had rebuilt the temple and the altar, and was about to offer sacrifice, he sent the descendants of the priests to the pit where their fathers had hidden the fire taken from the altar in the time of the captivity, as Jeremias says, to bring fire from it. Those who were sent did not find fire, but thick water. Neemias ordered them to draw from this and to sprinkle it upon the wood on which the victim was laid. When the sun shone from behind the clouds, a great fire was kindled upon the sacrifices and consumed them, so that all were filled with ^C wonder and glorified God with prayers.

This Xerxes, having taken Egypt and come to Athens, having bridged the Hellespont, burned the city. And in Rome, a certain virgin named Portila, condemned for incest, was buried alive. Also, the laws of the twelve tables were sent to Rome from Greece. In those times, Mount Etna in Sicily cracked and gave forth fire. And because of earthquakes, the land near Locris, Atalanta, was split and became an island. In these same times, the Athenians also used 24 Greek letters, whereas before there had only been 16. And Socrates, because of the folly of the Athenians, died having drunk hemlock poison. Helice and Bura, cities of Achaia, were swallowed up by great earthquakes; the traces of these are still seen in the sea by those sailing from Patras to Corinth on the right. ^D

That Scipio Africanus, the Roman dictator, having destroyed Carthage, gave the name Africa to the region. That the Galatians and Celts captured Rome, except for the Capitol. Aristotle was a student of Plato from the seventeenth year of his age. At that time, Dionysius was tyrant of the Sicilians, to whom [P. 146] Plato traveled, for the sake of studying the so-called craters of the Etnaean fire, and was known to the tyrant. He also asked Plato who is happy among men, and...

hoping to hear from the philosopher that it was he, he received the reply: "Socrates of all, and those philosophers who lived in his time." Again he asked what was the duty of a man who governs a commonwealth, desiring to hear that it consisted in judging rightly, for in this he himself boasted. But Plato replied that it consisted in making the citizens good and noble. Then Dionysius asked: "To whom does it seem to be the duty to judge rightly?" Plato said: "I judge this to be a small part of political science. For judges seem to me like tailors who sew together torn garments." A third time he asked him: "What does it seem to you to be a tyrant?" Plato replied that it seemed to him a most miserable thing, because it even feared the barber's razors. ^A

Artaxerxes, surnamed Ochus, reigned 26 years; Arses Ochus 2 years; Darius, son of Arsames, 6 years. Indeed, when Alexander the Macedonian, of whom more will be said in the review of the kingdoms, was crushing the Persians, Bessus killed Darius in Bactria; and thus the Persian kingdom was destroyed, having lasted in total 300 years, of which 70 belong to the Jewish exile, and the remaining 230. It reached until the 4743rd year of the world. ^B

Romulus and Remus, twin brothers, were born of a single birth to Julia, daughter of Amulius, who was a priestess of Mars and had been seduced by a certain soldier. The grandfather, Amulius, incensed at the violation, exposed them in the forest. A woman tending sheep found them and raised them on a mountain. It was the custom among the men of those places to call women of this sort "she-wolves" (lupae), because they habitually spent their time in the mountains among the wolves; hence arises the story that these twins were nourished by a she-wolf. This Romulus founded the city of Rome, named after himself. He chose one hundred men outstanding in age and prudence, whom he named patricians and presiding officers in the administration of the republic, and likewise senators on account of their age. ^C From these he chose ten as leaders, whom he called "fathers" (patres), the name being derived from their office of being fathers. He also enrolled an army to guard the city, consisting of three hundred cavalry and three thousand infantry. He distributed the multitude of the people into four tribes. He built a great temple to Jupiter Picus, and there he consecrated the arms of Hercules, son of Jupiter Picus, which he had found somewhere. He also restored the Palatium, so called from Palas. He built a temple also to Mars, which, when they dedicated it in the month that was previously called the first by them, they imposed the name of Martius upon that month. In that temple, the Palladium, once brought from Troy, was then deposited. Remus, rising against Romulus, had been killed. From this, the tumults and seditions in Rome... ^D

^A did not cease, nor the civil wars, until he learned from the oracle of the Pythia that "These things come to pass on account of the murder of your brother, and they will not cease unless he is enthroned with you in the kingdom." Therefore, having made a golden statue representing the face of his brother, he arranged for it to be placed where he himself was. He also ordered his officials to do the same, and whatever he commanded, he announced it as if from both, for example: "We have commanded, we have decreed, we have permitted." In this way, the earthquakes and the disturbances of the city ceased.

He first built a horse-racing track in the city of Rome, which the Romans call the Circus, for the festival of the Sun, dividing the city into four parts in honor of the four elements: earth, sea, air, and fire. He designed the twelve gates to represent the twelve houses of the zodiacal circle; the floor ^B represents the whole earth, the Euripus represents the sea intercepted beneath the earth, the bend at the gates represents the east, the one at the starting-rope represents the west, the seven zones represent the course of the seven planets, and the air represents the heaven. He gave these names to the parts: to the earth, the green, which is grassy; to the sea, the blue, because that is the color of the waters; to the fire, the reddish; and to the air, the white. The green he called "prasinos" from the metaphor of the *present* [(14)], because it is permanent; for it is property of the earth to be grassy at all times. The blue he named from Venetia [(15)]. And he attached the white to the earth, that is, the air, because each has need of the tempering of the other. Similarly, he also subordinated the reddish to the blue, because fire is positioned beneath the water.

He also instituted the so-called Brumalia, just as farmers, after their labor, resting and feeding one another in turn, would celebrate, holding festivals and spending the nights, each in the name of the other. Moreover, he filled Rome with people, as it was at first lacking in citizens. And he set a law that sons should be subject to their fathers in the manner of slaves, a law which remains in force among the Romans to this day. Having reigned alone over the Romans for thirty-seven years, Romulus departed from life. He renamed the city and the nation after his own name—Romans—though they were previously called Latins, and before that, Aborigines. ^C

Xylander and Goar’s Notes

^A After Romulus, Numa Pompilius the Sabine became king. He waged no war whatsoever, but most usefully organized the affairs of the city. For he established civil and peaceful laws, by which he brought the citizens to humanity and civilization. He was the first to discover the [true] year; he dedicated very many shrines and sacred groves to the gods; and he instructed the Vestal virgins to have the care of fire and water, and to preserve their virginity throughout the whole course of their lives—she who betrayed it was to be buried under stones. He built the Capitol (which name signifies the head of the city) from its foundations. To the year, which until then had been used as a ten-month period, he added two months, January and Sextilis. He derived the wearing of the cloak from the Isauri. He was the first to bestow upon the Romans *asses* coined from silver and bronze, whereas before this they had made use of leather, wooden, and earthen currency for their necessities; and he named these coins *numi* after his own name. Thus, by the industry of these two, the city quickly gained both strength and beauty, since the former [Numa] had organized matters of state and peace, and the latter [Romulus] matters of war. Having ruled over the Roman kingdom for forty-seven years, Numa died of a disease.

After him, Tullus Hostilius [reigned] for thirty-two years. He made the city of Rome larger, and expanded it with a harbor and a bridge. Struck by lightning, he was consumed along with the royal palace.

Then Ancus Marcius, born from the sister of Numa Pompilius, reigned at Rome for twenty-four years. ^B He extended the *pomerium* of the city of Rome beyond those before him, and he built a city at the mouths of the Tiber river by the name of Ostia (as if one were to say "a door"). It is distant from the city about sixteen miles. Disease took this king away.

Tarquinius Priscus succeeded him in the kingdom. He fortified Rome with a great wall, having only defined the outline of the prior wall. And the same man made underground conduits, through which water from the neighborhoods might be carried down into the Tiber, a work most useful to the city. When he had held the kingdom for thirty-nine years, he was killed by the sons of Marcius, to whom he had succeeded.

Upon his death, the kingdom devolved to Servius Tullius. His mother was indeed noble, but held as a captive and slave on account of misfortune. When she was brought to Rome pregnant and gave birth a little later, she named the son Servius from his servile condition. ^C He also increased the size of the city, and dug a very great trench around the walls. He was the first of all to conduct a census of the Roman multitude. ^D [alt-version omitted]

^A Having counted them, he found eighty-three thousand citizens, besides those who lived in the country. He divided this multitude into classes, and having assigned to each individual a census tribute according to their own means, he was the author of a most just and highly beneficial constitution; by this means he also facilitated the method of raising armies, the collection of taxes, and the estimation of every person’s property; for he invented four instruments of the census. After having reigned for forty years, he was killed, being murdered by Tarquinius Superbus.

Tarquinius Superbus

This man, having possession of the kingdom, immediately began to do everything according to his own will, and made the government of the republic more burdensome to the citizens, both by altering the laws and by appointing magistrates, through whose agency he cruelly punished the people with various kinds of fetters, forced labor in mines, and many exiles. For he invented chains, whips, stocks, prisons, guards, shackles, foot-irons, fetters, exiles, mines, and whatever other evils there are. He was, moreover, as much of a warmonger as anyone ever was, a despiser of men, and arrogant; whence the Romans also gave him this surname, for the Romans call the proud "superbus." ^B Being hated by the Romans for this and other reasons, and also because of his namesake Tarquinius, who, having returned by night from the army, had forcibly violated Lucretia, the wife of Collatinus, a noble matron. She disclosed this disgrace shortly after her husband returned, as well as to her father and the rest of her relatives; and having invoked many dire curses upon her kinsmen if they should leave her calamity unavenged, she drew a sword which she wore secretly under her garment, ^C and slew herself in their presence. This deed inflamed the whole city with hatred for Tarquinius; and Brutus, a relative of Lucretia, a man of the people and hostile to tyrants, moved the citizens in a major way to revolt against the king. Thus Tarquinius was stripped of all his power. For as soon as the citizens in Rome rose up against him, the Roman army that was then at Ardea also deserted the tyrant, paying no heed to him whether he called them back or begged them to remain. Tarquinius, destitute of counsel at this outcome, when he hastened toward Rome with the hope of calming the tumult and recovering his kingdom upon his arrival, was repulsed by the citizens and departed with his family, having held the kingdom for twenty-four years. At that time Rome cast off the yoke of tyranny. ^D

Thenceforth the people preserved Rome in a commonwealth for forty-three years, with two leaders exercising power every year, whom they called consuls, as being commanders and those who should take the lead in counsel; the Greeks call these *hypatoi*. In this state of the republic, the Gauls, embarking on tyranny, came against the Romans. The Romans sent out Manlius as commander against them, who, having routed them, returned. There was at that time in the senate a certain man of the Gallic party named Februarius. He, when Manlius, who had the surname Capitolinus, had come into the comitium, and had been the author of a useful proposal, [finished]

^A bitterly reproached Manlius, accusing him of contemplating treason. For this reason, Manlius was disgraced and stripped of his rank. After these events, when the Gauls had swooped down upon Rome in a winter night, and had slaughtered the guards and were slaying everyone in the middle of the city, while those who were able fled to the Capitol, Manlius, known as Capitolinus, having learned of this, did not hold back because of those who had wronged him; but gathering as many of the citizens and local people as he could, and falling unexpectedly upon the Gauls, he slew them all together with their king, Briso, and delivered the city from the calamity. For this, Manlius was alone voted the right to administer the Roman state. And immediately capturing his enemy Februarius—the man who was responsible for his exile—he cast him out of the city naked, covered in a rush mat, his loins girded with a rope as if for a farce, and ordered him to be beaten with rods and sacrificed to the gods of the underworld. The month was then Sextilis, which, as a mutilated month, Manlius named Februarius. Hence, every year the Romans place a mat in the market square and beat it with rods, calling out: "Februari, leave the city" ^B.

At the time when the supreme power at Rome resided with the people, the king of Egypt, Nectanebo, unable to withstand the incursion of Artaxerxes, who then occupied Egypt, cut his hair, changed his royal attire, and arrived at Pella, a city of Macedonia situated near Thessalonica. There, demonstrating certain tricks and Egyptian magic and prophesying the future, he became known to Philip and Olympias; he was rumored to have slept with Olympias by means of some sorcery and to have begotten her son Alexander. Diodorus says that Alexander derived his lineage on his father's side from Heracles and on his mother's side from the Aeacidae. Some mythologize that he was conceived from Zeus-Ammon. At that time ^C also, Rhodes was shaken by an earthquake and the statue of the Colossus fell.

Philip, having reigned over Macedonia for twenty-one years and having subjugated a great part of Greece, and having lost his right eye in a war against the Athenians and Demosthenes, was killed by Pausanias, his own bodyguard. Macedonia remained without a king for four years. But when Philip’s son, Alexander, had just advanced to the prime of his life, the first men of the Macedonians chose him as king. And when Alexander came to power, he brought honor to his lineage on both sides. For there has never been found in all the world a man so distinguished by such great achievements ^D.

^A For as Dexippus relates, he was trained in all bodily exercises, and having been a most genuine disciple of Aristotle, he was found to be excellent both in discourse and praised for his deeds. He performed wonders in warfare, accomplishing deeds worthy of persuasion. For having reigned for eight years, he subdued the Macedonians, the Illyrians, and the Thracians; he crushed Greece, and having taken vengeance on those who murdered his father and subdued the Paeonians, he crossed over into Asia. And having subdued the city of Priam and Sardis in Lydia, he arrived in Cilicia, and having waged war against Darius and defeated him, he wrought an unspeakable slaughter. He took the coastal cities of Phoenicia, where also, during the siege of Tyre, he saw a Satyr in his sleep; the dream-interpreter explained it to him thus: "Sa Tyros," that is, "Thine is Tyre, O Alexander." ^B Having devastated Tyre and Sidon, he came to Judea, and having gained possession of it, he was honored by the high priest Addus. He offered a holy sacrifice to God, inasmuch as he had received the world into his own power from Him. He appointed Andromachus as governor of those places, whom the Samaritans later killed, but they did not bear the punishment for that act with impunity. After these things, having taken Gaza, Cyrene, and Galilee, he arrived in Egypt. There, he beheld the waterless land, the bitter lake, the temple of Ammon, and the other things that are fabled in Egypt; and having honored them with sacred votive offerings, he founded at the mouth of the sea a city named after himself, Alexandria, in the seventh year of his reign. And through the canal of the Nile he came to the land of the Assyrians, and having fought against Darius, he destroyed three hundred thousand Assyrians. Darius himself, fleeing, was beheaded by his own satrap (named Bessus) and perished; but the satrap paid the penalty for his crime, and the body of Darius was honorably buried. Crossing even to Persepolis, where the royal palace of the Persians was, ^C he took that city, as well as Susa, and the daughters of Darius together with his mother and grandmother. And having burned the cities and taken away the wealth that was in them, he marched against the Mardi, the Gedrosii, the Hyrcanians, and the so-called Arimaspi, from whom he received the Thalestris, the Amazon, as an ally in war. He visited the Paropanisadae and those living by the Thermodon river and the so-called Aornus rock, and marched towards the land of the Indians, over whom Porus reigned—a man greatest in form and deed, who, having entered into conflict with Alexander, and having lost many of his Indians and been wounded in the elbow, fell with his elephant, but having received much care, he became an ally of Alexander. Crossing from there to the further parts of India and the kingdom of Candace the widow, he was captured by her in the following way: It was Alexander's custom, when changing his royal attire, to carry out embassies together with his own commanders, so as to learn the appearances, customs, and ways of the barbarians in their regions. ^D Having heard of this, and having recognized the features of his face, Candace detained him in the royal palace and said, "King Alexander, you took the world, yet a woman has taken you." Astonished at her wisdom, he made peace with her and refrained from all wrongdoing in her territory. Thence he arrived at the Phasis, Gades, and the British tribes, and having prepared a thousand ships, he sailed the right side of the Indian river himself, while the left

^A he committed to Hephaestion and sailed toward the Ocean. Having waged war against King Xandames and routed him, he arrived at the Brahmans, whose life—both wonderful and surpassing that of men—and whose piety and worship of the God of all he experienced, he was greatly astonished; and he became enamored of the philosophy of those men. In that place he also set up a pillar and inscribed: "I, the great King Alexander, reached this far." For in that island dwell those who are called Macrobii; most of them live for about one hundred and fifty years on account of the great purity and temperate climate of the air. For at no time is fruit of every kind lacking there throughout the whole year; for in this place, while one is flowering, another is now ripening, and another is being harvested. There, too, the greatest Indian nuts grow, and those items which reach us with difficulty and are held in the highest esteem—spices and the magnet stone.

Now, the Brahmans ^B are a most religious race, leading a life entirely destitute of wealth, and living naked, they continually praise God. Among them there is no beast of burden, no agriculture, no iron, no building, no fire, no gold, no silver, no bread, no wine, no clothing, no eating of meat, nor anything at all of the things which pertain to work or to enjoyment; but breathing in the liquid, sweet, and most temperately balanced and most beautiful air, which is empty of all infirmity and corruption, and feeding on a little fruit and most limpid water, they worship God sincerely and pray unceasingly. The men dwell in the part toward the Ocean, but the women are beyond the river Ganges, which flows into the Ocean, in the part of India. The men, then, cross over to the women in the months of July and August, when they are cooler, since the sun has moved toward us and the north. Thus, they say that these more temperate months stimulate them to Venus. In the same way they say that the Nile also does not swell and flow at the same time as other rivers, but rather in the middle of summer it floods Egypt, because the sun at that time is traveling through the more northern zone and is troubling and diminishing other rivers, while remaining very far from the Nile. The Brahmans, having stayed with their wives for forty days, return again to their own affairs. After the woman has given birth to two children, the husband no longer crosses over to her; and for her to have relations with another man thereafter is a transgression. But if any woman happens to be found barren, her husband visits her for up to five years; and if, after this has passed, she does not give birth, he no longer approaches her. Thus it happens that there is not an abundance of people among them, both because they desire little and because they are naturally continent. ^C They say that the river is crossed with the greatest danger on account of the *odontotyrannus* (as if one were to say "beast raging with its teeth"). It is a truly huge creature, to such an extent that it can swallow an elephant whole. It lives in this river, though they are also accustomed to living on land; which class of animals the Greeks call amphibious. By the command of God, this beast ^D

^A is a witness to the wisdom and glory of the Creator. Furthermore, in those more desolate places, there are dragons of extremely great size, terrifying in their ^B length and thickness, clearly and openly recounting the wisdom and glory of the Creator. Scorpions, moreover, are found there a cubit long, and ants the size of a palm. For this reason, those desert places are difficult to traverse and uninhabitable on account of the most fearsome and venomous beasts. Elephants are very numerous in those regions, such that they graze in entire herds.

Indeed, even the great Caesarius, brother of the great Gregory, explaining the customs, habits, ways, and laws of various nations in a summary, says this: "For in every country and among all nations, in some cases there is a written law, and in others custom prevails; for what has been handed down from ancestors is considered law." The Seres, who inhabit the edge of the earth, have as their law the custom propagated by their ancestors, that they should abstain from every kind of fornication, adultery, theft, slander, murder, and wickedness altogether. Among the Bactrians, or Brachmanes, the law is the instruction and piety received from their ancestors; they do not eat meat, nor drink wine, nor indulge in licentiousness, nor commit any kind of wickedness, because of their great fear of and faith in God, even though the Indians residing near them act quite the opposite ^B without any fear. In the inner parts of these regions, there are those who are cannibals and slay those who visit them and eat them, such as the Cabes. The law of the Chaldeans and Babylonians is filled with wantonness and indecency. Another law exists among the Agelaeans: that women should farm the land, build houses, and do the work of men, and also engage in fornication as they wish, not being hindered at all by their husbands. Among them are those who are most warlike, and they hunt animals that are not overly strong; they rule and lord over their own husbands. In Britain, one woman is common to many men, and many women are joined to one man. The Amazons, however, have no husbands, but like brute beasts, once a year around the spring equinox, they go beyond their borders and mate with neighboring men, considering that time to be a kind of grand public assembly and festival; and having conceived, they all return home. At the time of birth, they destroy the male, but they keep the female alive, nursing and rearing them with care.

Alexander, however, after returning from the Brachmanes, having occupied Egypt, founded the great Alexandria ^D in his own name, which was formerly called Racasta. He desired to see the marsh because of the legendary tales told about it. So, having disregarded many omens and dreams, and having spurned the divination of the Chaldeans, he crossed over to the aforementioned marsh with a few ships, and his diadem of royal authority...

^A fell away, as he was drenched by a great rain and storm, and he barely swam to land. And immediately, having been given poison by Cassander, his own general, he was torn by pains. And so he, after such great achievements, departed this life, having enjoyed the rule for twelve years and six months, and having lived in all thirty-two years.

Once, while setting out from Jerusalem to Persia, he had taken into his army certain Jews, among whom was a man of superior quality named Mosomachus, who was most excellent in spirit and most skillful at hitting a target with an arrow. When they were traveling on the road to Babylon and a certain augur was performing bird-divination and holding everyone back, the people asked the reason for their delay. And the bird-watcher, pointing to the bird, said: "If it remains motionless, it is advantageous for all to wait; but if it rises and flies forward, to advance; and if it flies backward, to retreat." Mosomachus, having heard this from the augur, secretly drew his bow and shot the bird. ^B When the augur and all who were enslaved by that error were angry at this, Mosomachus took the bird into his hands and said: "Why do you blame me, you wretched men? For how could this creature, not even foreseeing its own safety, have announced what is advantageous for you? For if it could have foreseen the future, it certainly would not have come here." By saying this, he struck them with great shame.

Indeed, he accomplished countless other victories that are difficult to recount and surpass any description. And for this reason, the prophet foresees him ^C as a winged leopard, predicting his speed, his fiery vehemence, and the way he was to suddenly fly over the inhabited world with victories and trophies.

Alexander also, having heard from a certain philosopher that there are infinite worlds, heaved a deep sigh and said: "And I, alas, have not yet even conquered one!" Thus magnanimous and noble-minded and temperate was he; for, having been a pupil of Aristotle, he was educated to the highest degree in every logical science. Some, indeed, say that after the victory over Darius, he corrupted his mind and slipped into the pleasures of the body—he who formerly did not even endure to look upon the daughters of Darius, afterwards adopting Persian attire and being guarded by ten thousand youths and using concubines, such that he changed the entire Macedonian custom of kings into the Persian. ^D For which reason he also slew very many of the leaders of the Macedonian army.

After the death of Alexander, his kingdom was divided into many parts. Perdiccas obtained the Macedonian kingdom by lot; Ptolemy, son of Lagus, Egypt and Alexandria; Seleucus, who is also called Nicanor because he had advanced to Babylon and conquered the barbarians, Syria and Babylon; Antigonus, Cilicia, which is by the Taurus; Philon, Media; Python, Phrygia and Lydia; Meleager, Paphlagonia; Eumenes, Cappadocia; Cassander, Lycia and the Hellespont; Lysimachus, Thrace; Antipater, Pontus; Oxyartes, Bactriana; Philippus, Drangiana; Porus, India; Phrataphernes, [original-script column: see facsimile]

^A of Parthia and Hyrcania; Tripolemus, of Persis; and Arcesilaus, of Mesopotamia. And they did not cease from continually rising up against one another, until the Roman empire abolished all these local governorships.

[P. 156] Cassander, however, having taken Thessalonica, the daughter of Alexander, as his wife, founded the city of Thessalonica in her name. Others say that Aeneas founded it after he had escaped the Trojan war; hence the region is called Aeneas. Others claim that Thessalonica was the daughter of Philip, son of Amyntas. As for the citadel which is in Pallene, having been built by Aeneas himself—since he had heard from his subjects that a daughter had been born to him who was named Cassandra—he himself named that place Cassandrea, and set a stone statue in the form of a woman, looking toward Troy, upon the wall. ^B

At that time also Aesop the fabulist flourished, and Anaximander, who said that the earth is in the center of the whole universe, that the sun is not smaller than the earth, and that the air is the source of all things, from which all things arise and into which they are dissolved. He also set forth the equinoxes and the solstices of the year and other things, as we shall speak of later. Pythagoras the Samian wrote on the science of numbers and was the author of the doctrine of incorporeal powers and principles. He also wrote the Golden Verses, which, to speak in summary, decree the following: First, he urges the honoring of the Divine as is proper; second, those who are equal in power to Him; third, to excel over bodily powers; fourth, to respect oneself everywhere; fifth, to take care of justice in all things; sixth, to be content with the lot bestowed by divine judgment; seventh, to always shift one’s opinion toward the better; ^C eighth, to be inseparable and unenslaved entirely in the keeping of virtue; ninth, to use good counsel before actions, from which the state of having no regrets in one's works arises; tenth, to be free of opinion; eleventh, to be gentle, without anger, and accommodating toward those one encounters; twelfth, to arrange the body and external things for the cooperation of virtue. "These," he says, "practice; these study; these you ought to see; these will place you in the footprints of divine virtue." That is to say, "These will lead you into practical philosophy and into contemplative science—that is, the activity according to the intellect, perceiving the intelligible—and a most excellent beginning will be yours, and you will become like God through the practice of the virtues." Therefore, wishing to arouse the listener entirely toward the practice of good works, he confirms what has been said with an oath, speaking thus: "By Him who gave the [P. 157] ^D Tetractys to our soul, the fountain of eternal nature." This oath itself is one of the decrees for them. This Pythagoras taught the doctrine of transmigration; wishing to confirm this, he said that he had been Aethalides before the Trojan war, Euphorbus during the Trojan events, and after these Hermotimus...

GEORGII CEDRENI ^A Samian, after whom Pyrrhus the Delian, and fifth, Pythagoras.

Before him was Thales, who attempted to explain the nature of things, saying the beginning and end of all things is water and fire; and that all things consist of these, from which also earthquakes, the swirling of winds, and the motions of the stars arise. ^B Thales was the first to bear the name of wise man, and the first to say that the soul is immortal, and he grasped the eclipses and equinoxes. He also left behind very many maxims, including the famous one: "Know thyself." For the saying "Give a pledge, and mischief is at hand" belongs rather to Chilon, who claimed it for himself, as well as the saying, "Nothing in excess."

The third philosopher is Empedocles. Following many absurd tales, he also taught these things: saying that the beginning of the universe is strife and love, and that the intelligible fire of the monad is God, and that all things consist of fire and are resolved into fire again—to which the Stoics almost agree, expecting a conflagration. He also said that the soul passes into all animals, following the doctrine of Pythagoras. For he says: "Greetings; I am now an immortal god, no longer mortal. For I was once a boy and a girl, and a bush, ^C and a bird, and a mute fish from the sea, and an ox in Olympia."

The fourth is Heraclitus, who also pronounced things almost in agreement with Pythagoras. He said this also: that one must entirely neglect the body and consider it more worthless than dung, and attend to the needs of the body with as little effort as possible, as long as God commands us to use the body as an instrument. He lived in the time of Darius Hystaspes. There were also others who wrote down their opinions about the nature of things, differing in nothing from those said before, which we did not deem it necessary to record.

The fifth is Anaximander. He said the principle of existing things is a certain nature of the infinite, from which the heavens and the world contained in them came to be; and that this is eternal and ageless, and contains all worlds. ^D He also said that the earth is suspended, held by nothing, and remains in place because of its equal distance from all things; and that it is situated in the center, and its shape is curved, round, snow-white, and like a stone. He was the first to discover the equinox and solstices, and introduced the gnomon for sun-dials, which is what is fixed in sun-clocks, and in general he showed the outline of geometry. He says the stars are a circle of fire, enclosed by air. Eruptions are certain porous vents, through which the stars appear; hence he says that when these vents are blocked, eclipses occur. And the moon appears sometimes full and sometimes waning because of the blocking or opening of the pores. The circle of the sun is twenty-seven times that of the moon, and the sun is at the highest point, and the spheres of the fixed stars are at the lowest. Animals are born from vapors raised by the sun, winds, when thin...

arise from the finest vapors separating from the air, and when they gather and move, rains are formed from the mist rising from beneath the sun; and lightning occurs when a wind breaks forth and cleaves the clouds. Mankind was in the beginning like a fish.

Sextus was Anaximenes. He posited infinite air as the first principle of all things, from which all things that are, have been, and shall be, and even gods and divine things, have their origin. He held that the earth, because of its breadth, rests upon the air. Likewise, the sun, moon, and all other stars are fiery in nature and are carried upon the air because of its breadth. Stars were born from the earth because moisture is drawn up from it, out of which, when it is rarefied, fire is produced. There are also earthly natures in the place of the stars, which revolve together with them. He flourished in the age of Alexander the Macedonian, whose teacher he also was. ^B

Seventh was Anaxagoras, surnamed "Mind," because he ascribed the origin and keeping of all things to matter and mind, in such a way that the latter acts, and from the former things are made. For when all things were of one nature and confused, Mind supervened and separated them, bringing them into order. He is the one who said that the sun is a glowing mass, that is, a fiery stone; a mass is unrefined, red-hot iron. The verse is: "He once declared the sun to be a glowing, red-hot mass." Because of this, Anaxagoras was near death, and also because he said the sun was larger than the Peloponnese. ^C He was from Clazomenae and abandoned his lands to be grazed by sheep and camels. Thus, Apollonius of Tyana said that he philosophized more to sheep than to men. But Crates the Theban cast his wealth into the sea, serving neither the utility of sheep nor of men. He flourished about the first year of the eighty-eighth Olympiad, at which time Plato is also said to have existed.

Eighth was Archelaus. He followed the opinion of Anaxagoras regarding the mixture of matter and first principles alike. Concerning animals, he said that when the earth first grew warm in its lower parts, where the hot and cold were mixed, animals and men appeared; later, it happened that they procreated their own kind. He was a contemporary of Anaxagoras and also composed a work on natural philosophy. ^D

Ninth was Plato, a disciple of Socrates; and Socrates...

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES

^A Having heard the natural philosopher, he held Plato as the most excellent of all his disciples. He perceived the principles of the universe to be God, matter, and the exemplar—which he terms the thought of God and the idea, a kind of image upon which, he says, God gazed when He created all things. He makes God exempt from body, form, and corruption, and someone who can be known only by wise men, calling Him God who created and adorned this universe and provides for it; but matter he calls the underlying subject of all things, which he names nurse, from which, once it was ordered, the four elements came into being, from which the world is constituted, as he says in the *Laws*: ^B “God indeed, as the ancient saying also holds, having the beginning, the end, and the middle of all things, proceeds in a straight path according to nature. And Justice always accompanies Him, the avenger of those who have fallen away from the divine law. Whoever is to be blessed follows her, observing her humbly and composedly. But if anyone, elated by arrogance or puffed up by riches, walks with insolence, he is left bereft of God.” Moreover, he asserts that matter is coeternal with God, and that the world, which was made of matter, has always existed. Now, that which has no beginning, it is doubtless consistent that it will never come to an end. He also establishes other infinite gods, as when he says: “Gods of gods, of whom I am the creator and father.” Sometimes he also speaks of definite ones, saying: “The great Zeus in heaven, driving a winged chariot,” and when he recounts the series of those born of Heaven and Earth. Having established the one God, he also introduces generated gods, and, because they have been brought into being, they have of necessity to perish, yet by the will of God they are made immortal again. The same man shows the Creator of the universe to have care for human affairs and to bear patiently with certain wicked and depraved men; then he demonstrates what ruin awaits them and the perdition into which they are finally to be utterly destroyed; ^C and he teaches that, although such men may seem for a little while to be blessed, nevertheless, after some time, they will bring total ruin upon themselves, their house, and their city. The same man writes in the *Phaedo*: “He who is not initiated and purified in the sacred rites, when he arrives in Hades, dwells there with God.” And again: “For he who has lived his life justly and holily, when he dies, dwells in the islands of the blessed in all happiness, exempt from evils; but he who has lived impiously and unjustly goes to the prison of judgment and justice, which they call Tartarus, and to Acheron and Cocytus.” Plato also acknowledged the existence of demons, some of them good and others evil; he declares that the soul is sometimes without origin and death, when he says: “Every soul is immortal; for that which is ever-moving is immortal;” and sometimes he attributes to it an origin and death, ^D with respect, of course, to the divine will. At other times he claims it is composite, born, subject to internal harm, and again immortal; he also affirms that judgment takes place after death and that there is a tribunal in the underworld, and that good souls receive a good reward, while evil ones receive fitting punishments. He also hands down that the souls of the dead 284 transfer into other bodies.

And that some of the souls are with Zeus, and others with different gods. He also says that fate exists, but that not everything happens according to fate. Plato, therefore, having brought together the three parts of philosophy in its entirety—the physical, the ethical, and the logical—formulated his dogmas in this way. Plato was so named because of the breadth of his chest (for *platos* is "breadth" in Greek); or, as others think, because of the breadth of his discourse. He lived eighty-two years.

The tenth is Aristotle. Having been a pupil of Plato, he brought philosophy into a [systematic] craft and became more logical, setting forth the elements of all things—for instance, substance and accident. He placed substance as the one thing underlying all, and accidents as nine. Substance is such as God, man, and animal, about which also the accidents are considered. Quality is such as white or black; quantity is such as two cubits long, double, half, or greater; relation is such as father or son; place is such as in Athens, in Megara, at home, or in the marketplace; time is such as yesterday, last year, or in the tenth Olympiad; action is such as writing, cutting, burning, or generally doing something; ^B being-acted-upon is such as being cut, being burned, or being struck; having is such as possessing or being armed; position is such as lying down, reclining, sitting, or receiving. This same Aristotle agrees with Plato on almost everything except the doctrine concerning the soul. For he believes that it remains after the body but is later destroyed along with the fifth body. For he adds a fifth body, ^C besides the other four elements, as if it were a spirit. For he says the soul of the whole world is immortal, and the world itself is eternal, but that the souls of individuals perish, as we have said before.

Aristotle lived for 70 years and was in the time of Artaxerxes Ochus. Those who followed Zeno from the "Painted Porch"—which the Greeks call *Stoa Poikile* because of the variety of its paintings—are named Stoics. But the followers of Aristotle are called Peripatetics from walking about, because they used to hold their inquiries while walking in the Lyceum.

The eleventh school is that of the Stoics. These also posited God as the beginning of all things, and they asserted that everything happens according to fate. They say the moon is immortal. They say its body was formed from the cooling of the surrounding air; hence they also call it *Psyche* (soul), since *psychos* in Greek signifies cold. They establish that the number of souls is finite, and that they migrate from bodies into [other] bodies.

The twelfth is Epicurus. He held opinions contrary to almost everyone. He posited atoms and the void as the principles of all things—the void, as the place for receiving things that are born; atoms, as the matter of all things. And he held that from the atoms coming together, both God and the elements and all things in them came into existence, so that nothing is born nor stands firm unless it is from the atoms. They call "atoms" the most subtle particles, which, because of ^D their center or point, cannot be divided.

^A And the God, being eternal and incorruptible, they say takes no providence over anything at all. In fact, providence, he says, does not exist, nor fate, but all things happen by spontaneity. He says that the habitation of God is outside the world, in those places so called "intermundia"; for he sits at rest in the highest joy, and neither wishes himself to have troubles nor to provide them for another. The end of good things and that to which wise men tend, he says, is pleasure, whether that which follows mortal desires or that which accompanies virtues. He says that souls are blood, and that they are dissolved along with the bodies just as they are born with them. He says there is neither judgment nor tribunals, but that those who have done lawless deeds will be completely unpunished.

The thirteenth are the Sextians and Pyrrhonians; Sextus, ^B by dogmatizing that nothing is at all knowable or graspable, suspends judgment and opposes; this man also argued against every art and science. But Pyrrho, being a philosopher, was called "ephectic" [abstaining from judgment], opposing the one who held the opposite view, and he, too, was a philosopher. This man asserted that nothing is knowable and graspable, and thus, by debating, they were destroying one another's arguments.

The Academics and Pyrrhonians are another sect of philosophers. They were called "Academics" because they held their discussions in the Academy. ^C Pyrrho, from whom the Pyrrhonian philosophers were named, was the first to introduce the incomprehensibility of all things, such that he attempted to argue both sides, but not to state anything definitively; for he used to say that nothing, neither intelligible nor sensible, is true, but it only appears to human beings to be so. Therefore, all these men thought and taught regarding the nature and origin of the universe what we have recounted; and remaining below the knowledge of God, they occupied their study in knowing the nature of perishing things, stupefied by the magnitude of created things and believing them to be the Divine itself, and, one preferring one part of creation and another another, they did not recognize the God and Creator of these. But we, having resumed the order of the ensuing histories, shall hold to [the thread of] our discourse.

Ptolemy, son of Lagus, reigned over Egypt for forty years (in his time the philosopher Epicurus became known), after Darius, son of Arsames, whom we passed over for the sake of referencing the kings of the Romans, having reigned for 6 years. ^D Upon his being killed, Alexander abolished the Persian kingdom, which had lasted 240 years. Alexander, having obtained the empire of almost the whole world, died in Babylon. His kingdom was divided among his magnates, and they reigned: Ptolemy, son of Lagus, over Egypt, and successively thirteen other Ptolemies down to Cleopatra, daughter of Dionysius; Antigonus held all of Asia; and Seleucus Nicanor held the kingdom of Assyria, Babylon, and Palestine. After Seleucus, his son Antiochus reigned, and fifteen others after him. Then reigned Antiochus Epiphanes, son of Seleucus Philopator, under whom occurred the second capture of Jerusalem, and the deeds of the Maccabees, and the temple, as previously fore-

foreshadowed by Daniel, was defiled ^A. For at that time the land was filled with calamities, after the root of sins, Antiochus Epiphanes, son of Seleucus Philopator, arose. This Antiochus, being a fierce and greedy man, committed many robberies and lootings, collecting great wealth of silver and gold; and from great licentiousness and excess, he lowered himself among the mimes in the sight of all, shamelessly indulging his lust for women. Advancing in the face of his kingdom, he desired to make one empire of both Antioch and Egypt. And indeed, having seized Egypt with a heavy crowd and chariots and elephants and a large fleet, he joined battle against Ptolemy the king of Egypt; and having routed him, he despoiled him, and mastered the cities in Egypt, and all [P. 163] while the holy city was dwelling in all peace because of the high priest Onias’s hatred of evil and his piety, it happened that throughout the whole city, for nearly forty days, there were seen in the air armed horsemen galloping, having golden vests, and skirmishes of both sides taking place, and movements of arms, and the gleaming of golden ornaments and caparisons of all kinds of armor. Therefore, all prayed that the portent might turn out for the good. But it actually signified the miserable arrival of Antiochus. For, returning from Egypt, Antiochus, elated by a great victory and with a bestialized soul, took the city by force; then, ordering the soldiers to slaughter without mercy whoever they encountered, one hundred and eighty thousand were killed. Having dared, therefore, to enter even into the sanctuary in great pride, and having set up an altar and an idol, Abomination of Desolation, and having defiled the temple through unclean sacrifices, naming it the temple of Zeus Olympius, and sitting in a high place, he ordered the guards to compel every single Hebrew to taste of swine’s flesh and of meats sacrificed to idols, and if any were unwilling, these were to be killed. As many were seized, among whom was Eleazar, one of the leading scribes, already advanced in age, he was compelled to eat of the forbidden food; but he, choosing a glorious death rather than a life defiled by pollution, voluntarily submitted himself to the rack, and so, having undergone many previous tortures and whippings, he departed this life, leaving his death as an example of courage and virtue not only to the young but also to the elderly. After him, seven others, brethren with their mother, having been tortured in various ways, gloriously took up the crown of martyrdom. By these, the tyrant, being convicted of turpitude and burning with greater fury, taking all the sacred vessels and infinite gold and silver, and having plundered the whole city and slaughtered the livestock, and having caused a great slaughter of men, and boasting, he returned to Antioch ^C. And after two years, preparing for an expedition against the Persians, he sent a commander to exact tribute from the city of Jerusalem; who, having arrived with a large force and having spoken peaceful words with deceit to Jerusalem, and having entered, he struck it with a great blow and pulled down the walls, and burned the city; and the temple also ^D

^A he filled with impious sacrifices, and he slaughtered without mercy those of the Jews who refused to use Greek rites. Having then slain many, he departed, leaving behind a governor to torture the Jews. But a certain priest named Matthias, having five sons, of whom Judas Maccabaeus was one, being stirred by the indignity of the matter, made an attack upon the governor, and having slaughtered him, he gathered all his own people, and overturned the unclean altars of the Greeks, and slew those who had fallen away from the divine law. ^B But Antiochus, returning shamefully from Persia after sustaining a defeat, fell into disease from excessive mourning, and confessed to his intimates that he was tormented by insomnia and consumed by anxiety: that now he remembered what evil deeds he had practiced in Jerusalem, and perceived that on account of these things he had arrived at such calamities, and was perishing in a strange land. At the same time he commanded his charioteer to drive at full speed, clearly perceiving the punishment sent from above. He was vexed by an incurable pain of the bowels. And it happened that he was cast headlong from his chariot with force, and by that fall his whole body was cruelly tormented, and worms also broke out, and by most grievous pains his flesh even fell away. Thus he exchanged life for a most shameful death in a strange land. ^C His son Antiochus Eupator succeeded him. Against this man Judas Maccabaeus, because he had cast down the royal garrisons, led a huge army, twenty thousand horsemen, one hundred thousand footmen, three hundred chariots, and 55 elephants trained for war. He drew up the battle line in such a way that, dividing the elephants into phalanxes, he joined to each elephant a thousand men armed with breastplates and bronze helmets, and five hundred chosen horsemen assigned to each beast, and wooden towers on each beast by mechanism, and on each thirty-two armed men of force. And as the sun shone upon the golden shields and the chariots, the mountains glittered from them; for the encampment was very great and strong. And as the battle intensified, Eleazar the brother of Judas, seeing the elephants burning and archers carried upon them, and seeing one taller than the others and armed with royal breastplates, and supposing that the king was being carried upon him, ^D he leaped from the ranks and plunged into the mass of the enemy, and after killing many of those around the elephant, he went underneath it, and striking the elephant in the belly, he caused it to fall and crush him, for the beast killed him. Judas, seeing this and sensing that the battle was uneven for him, fled to Jerusalem. And Antiochus, pursuing him, besieged the city. Then, after making peaceful words with an oath, he was admitted into the city by Judas; but violating the oath, he tore down the walls completely, and having plundered the inhabitants, he returned to Antioch. After this, in three years, Judas restored the ancestral religion, which had been almost obsolete, waged great wars, erected famous trophies, and after all the commanders of Antiochus had been routed and the temple cleansed, by the consent of the whole people he was made high priest.

The Compendium of Histories

^A Roman affairs were previously administered by consuls for 364 years until Julius Caesar. He, because he was not born—for his mother having died in the ninth month after conception, they cut open her womb and extracted him—took the name Caesar from that incision, which from him passed to all the kings of the Romans.

In the year of the world 3211, Ptolemy Philadelphus began his reign over Alexandria and Egypt, and he ruled for 38 years. He translated the sacred Scriptures and the remaining books of the Greeks, Chaldeans, Egyptians, and Romans—which numbered up to 400,000—being written in foreign languages, into the Greek tongue by means of the most learned Hebrews, and he deposited them in his library at Alexandria. The translation of the Hebrew books was completed in exactly 72 days. ^B The king, being astonished at the beauty of the sacred Scriptures, while the nobles were present, along with Menedemus the philosopher and Demetrius of Phalerum, asked what was the reason that no historian or poet had made mention of the sacred Letters, which possess such great dignity. Demetrius answered that no one had dared to handle them, since Theopompus, having also attempted to examine them, became mentally deranged, and was warned in a dream that this had happened to him because he had curiously tried to inquire into sacred matters; and Theodectes, the writer of tragedies, was blinded for making mention of these sacred books in a certain drama. Both, however, by desisting from the attempt and propitiating the divine, became healthy.

Ptolemy Euergetes, son of Philadelphus and Arsinoe, [ruled] for 27 years. In these times, Jesus the son of Sirach, who wrote [the book of] Wisdom, was renowned among the Hebrews.

Ptolemy Philopator, son of Euergetes, reigned for 17 years. Under him, the people of the Jews, having been abducted as captives into Egypt, experienced such a thing: the king ordered his bodyguards to make the 500 elephants he possessed drunk on frankincense wine so that he might destroy all the Jews with them. But as they prayed, the elephants rushed toward his own soldiers and the crowds and slaughtered a large number of them in their fury; thus the Jews were saved and with thanksgiving were released to their own land. ^C

Ptolemy Epiphanes, son of Philopator, reigned for 24 years. Ptolemy Philometor, son of Epiphanes, [reigned] for 35 years. Under him, Antiochus punished the Maccabees, who would not eat forbidden food. Under him, Judas Hyrcanus and Aristobulus served as priests. And the kingdom of Israel endured up to this Hyrcanus. And Herod the foreigner obtains his kingdom from the Romans, who also draws near to the time of Christ. ^D

^A And Hyrcanus was supported by the common people, but the priests by Aristobulus. There was a certain man named Onias, pious and just, from among the priests, who had also once ended a drought by his prayers. Him they forced to pray for victory. But he, praying, said: "O Lord Master, do not grant help to the people against your priests, nor to the priests against the people." Him these cruel and impious men immediately stoned to death. The divine vengeance followed upon them immediately; Pompey, the general of the Romans, came and captured the city. Entering the Holy of Holies, moved by piety, he touched none of the sacred vessels, although there was much wealth there, but rather ordered the temple to be cleansed and the sacrifices performed. And Aristobulus sent to Pompey as a gift a golden vine weighing two hundred talents.

Ptolemy the second, Euergetes, 29 years. Ptolemy, who was called Physcon because of the bulk of his body, 17 years and 6 months. * Ptolemy Alexas, 10 years. Ptolemy the second, Soter, the son of the second Euergetes, 29 years. Cleopatra, 8 years. Ptolemy the younger, Dionysius, reigned 30 years. Cleopatra, the daughter of the younger Dionysius, succeeded her father, and her brother Ptolemy was her colleague in the kingdom; having fallen into a dispute with him, she killed him and held the government alone, and reigned 22 years. But in the computation of the times, only 4 years of this reign of Cleopatra are to be reckoned.

The first king of Asia, having become Antigonus, built Antigonia on the Orontes river. Seleucus, the father of Antiochus, rebuilt this and called it Antioch; this is the great Antioch. This same Seleucus also built Laodicea, Seleucia, Apamea, Edessa, Beroea, and took Pella and Babylon. And in the new cities he had the Jews live together with the Greeks.

That the physician Erasistratus, called Diaphanes, diagnosed that Antiochus, the son of Seleucus, was suffering grievously from a disease due to his love for his father’s wife, the daughter of Demetrius; wherefore Seleucus, being greatly saddened by the suffering, yielded his wife to his son Antiochus. This Antiochus called Soter had from the daughter of Demetrius—the wife of his father Seleucus—Stratonice, a male child nicknamed "the God" [Theos], who also reigned after him over Syria and Asia for 15 years.

^D In the 5281st year of the world, Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, built Nicomedia, named after himself, which was previously called Astacus. Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria, having captured and plundered Jerusalem and profaned the temple, set up in it an abomination of Zeus Olympius, according to the prophecy of Daniel—that is, the abomination of desolation.

That for 150 years the Jews were tributaries to the Romans from the time of Seleucus.

^A Julius Caesar, in the fourth year of the reign of Cleopatra, having been proclaimed consul by the Romans, came into the East with a great army, and having defeated many there and made them tributaries, he appointed his own overseers of those regions. He appointed Antipater the Ascalonite as governor of Palestine. This Antipater was the son of a certain Herod, who was numbered among the temple attendants and those serving there in the temple of Apollo. Once, when the boy Antipater had been snatched away by Idumaean brigands, they held him captive, hoping to receive a ransom for his release; but since his father had fallen into extreme poverty, he remained among those who had captured him as a slave, being brought up in their customs.

^B When a certain Jew named Balichus had taken away Antipater by poison, envying him his great prosperity, Antipater’s sons succeeded to the rule, Herod and Phasael; and the one was allotted the territory of Idumaea and Jerusalem, and Herod the territory of Judaea and Galilee. And Herod, having learned that Hyrcanus, who had ruled before him, had opened the tomb of David and taken three thousand talents, he also opened it; but he found no money, yet he took away much gold jewelry and precious heirlooms. And as he attempted to penetrate further, where the bodies of David and Solomon were laid, a fire erupted and destroyed two of his bodyguards.

^C Coming into Egypt, Julius secured Cleopatra’s kingdom, having repelled the plots of those who were attacking her. And having settled all matters in the East, he returned to Rome as sole monarch.

That the month of Julius was called Quintilis, but was renamed by Antony because Gaius Julius was born to him in that month. And Sextilis was named Augustus by Augustus, which means "venerable."

That among the Romans, prophecies are called *carmina* and divination *carmentia*.

[P. 168] That the Romans call the first day of the month the Calends; but regarding the Nones and Ides, in January and February, and April and June, and August and September, and October and November, they call the Nones the 5th of the month, and the Ides the 13th of the month; but in March and May and July and December, they hold the Nones to be the 7th of the month, and the Ides the 15th of the month. Therefore, when you find the Calends of January, you should understand it as the 1st of January. ^D And "before three" is the third, and "before one" of the Nones of January is the 4th, because, as we said, the 5th is called the Nones. After the 5th, you might say "before eight" of the Ides of January, which is the 8th of that month, and "before seven" again on the 7th, and so on in order, "before three," "before..."

the 1st of February," and then we have the Kalends of February. And it is the same for the other months as well.

^A Janus was called Cibullius by the Romans because he favors banquets. There is also Janus Quirinus, as if he were a defender, and Consæus, as if he were someone of the road, and Patricius as a local inhabitant. Dio the Roman says that Janus was a certain ancient hero who, because he had provided hospitality to Saturn, was endowed with the knowledge of past and future things; and for this reason he is depicted by the Romans with two faces; from him the month was called January, and it is the beginning of the year.

The Romans believed Februa to be a certain goddess of expiation. Anysius, in his book *On Months*, says that in the Etruscan language "februum" is what is called that which is in the underworld. Labeo thinks that February is named from *dolor* (pain), because "februs" is said by the Romans to mean pain. In that month they honored the dead. Moreover, *februare* means to purify.

The Romans gave the name to Mars from "death," or because he is the mover of arts, or because he is honored by males alone, or from "fighting" (*pugnando*), according to Philoxenus. In the Egyptian language he is called Ertosi, which word designates the life-giving procreation of every kind, and the power of all nature and matter to permute and bring to life.

"Kerdos," in Latin *lucrum* (gain), is said to be that which is given for a time. "Milliarisia" comes from *militia* (military service): for Scipio, when destitute of gold and with Hannibal pressing hard, fashioned them for the soldiers and distributed them.

Those the Romans call "delatores" (informers) are, to the Greeks, "diaboli" (accusers) and "sycophantæ" (calumniators).

Spatharius is, to the Romans, a bodyguard; "oratio" is a formal address; and "fabricenses" are the makers of arms.

The Romans call modest women "matronæ" (matrons), while the Greeks call them mistresses of the family. ^B They were so studious of modesty that they would not even associate with common women, but would set aside quiet places for themselves in the baths, away from the crowd, which are even now called *Matronalia*.

Among the Greeks, those who were chaste were: Bellerophon, who abstained from Stheneboea; Tenes, who abstained from Alphesiboea; Peleus, who abstained from Astydamea; and Hippolytus, who abstained from Phædra. ^C

"Ao," in the language of the Chaldeans, is interpreted as "luminous understanding," which... ^D

^A is perceived by the mind in the Phoenician tongue; and Sabaoth is he who is above the seven heavens, namely the Creator, God.

That the first day of the month is called *Nea* among the Attics, that is "new," and the last is called *Ene*, as if to say "tacit." The *Kalendæ* (Kalends) are used for the new moon, from *calando*, that is "calling," of Greek origin; for then the pontiff, having convoked the people, would announce the day of the Nones, which indicates the middle of the month, which they in their native tongue call the Ides. It should be noted that March, May, July, and October have their Nones on the seventh day and their Ides on the fifteenth; the others have these on the thirteenth and the former on the fifth.

Fortuna is among the Romans what *eudaimonia* is to the Greeks.

That the number ten (*dekas*) is called a receiver (*dechás*) as being capable of the infinite. The same is also called *cladouchos*, because all numbers sprout from it as if they were branches.

*Sporta* among the same people is a basket, which is also called a *fiscella*, although they differ: for a *fiscella* is said to be that which is woven from twigs, while a *sporta* is that which is made from cork-bark. There is also another type of *sporta* which is placed on the head in place of a cap; it is called *camela* by the Italians, whence also *camelauchia*.

It pleased the Romans to call it *mapparium* for such a cause: it was the custom for the consuls to feast in the theaters. After they had finished their feasting, they would throw down the napkin which they held in their hands, which is also called a *mappa*, and the one who is called the *mapparius*, snatching it up, would signal the start of the contest. Those who contended with chariots would not complete more than seven circuits or spaces (or, if you wish to call them *missi*, that is, rewards) around the pyramid, which they now call an obelisk, because there are as many of these as there are spheres of the planets, which the Chaldeans call firmaments, outside the sphere of the moon, up to which point the dregs of elementary things ^C extend, according to the oracle.

That *vexillatio* are the Roman cavalry, and *vexilla* are cloths of square shape, woven from purple and gold; hanging these on long poles, they carry them around the king, and thus shield him. These perhaps are what are also called *flammula*.

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES

(24) Moderns write *camelauchia*, and they call those things made from camel hairs, reaching only to the very top of the head and flowing down to the neck, thus. Suidas otherwise: the word is Roman, *Camelauchion*. It might be said in Greek to be because it drives away the heat.

(25) For *spatia* I have written *spatia*. What *misos* might be in this place, I do not know. *Misthos* (reward) is a word closer to the contest. Although in shows and contests there was also the use of things of this kind to be cast, which were thrown into the people as gifts. The custom of throwing napkins is referred to in Suetonius, ch. 13 of Nero, and somewhere in Martial, and Tertullian also mentions it, both elsewhere and, as it were, by way of an adage at the end of his book *Against the Valentinians*. XYL. — What this might be here, Xylander confesses he does not know; he should have admitted he did not know it as well. It is, however, a contest. Dempster calls it an *exercitamentum* in *Antiq. Rom.* V, 4, and it was called by the proper term *commissio*. Suetonius in *Augustus* c. 94: "He warned the praetors not to let their name become obsolete by commissions." Whence "to commit" is used for to fight, to contend, etc. Of which examples exceed the whole number. Therefore, the commission of those contending in the Circus is what is written as *misos* instead of the contest. GOAR.

(26) That it is excrement, which is despised and cast away as being most vile, just as D. Paul calls human and perishable things in his *Epistle to the Philippians*, and in Phocylides they are called things given to sycophants and those who live at others' tables. The oracle, of which mention is made, has been lost. Now *bixilationes*, what they are, I do not know: I know of *bigae* and *bigariae*, of which I would have thought he was speaking, if he had not soon made separate mention of them. I have boldly rendered *bix* as *vexilla*, as the description suggests it. Anyone can see how great Cedrenus's knowledge of Roman antiquity was. I could have rendered *bixilationes* as *vexillationes*, but I omit it. XYL. *Vexillationes* are the columns of Roman cavalry. The *Notitia Imperii* has the same. GOAR.

OF PLINTHS, MATRICES, AND OTHER MATTERS

The Greeks call cooked brick *plinthon*. ^A There was also a certain public *plinthus*, in which the names of senators and legions were inscribed in a square shape. This *plinthus* was on the wall. Some call it a *titulus*, though *titulus* is not a square figure, but a prescription of dignities.

The Romans call thick and wide wood a *matrix*. For the ancients used tablets made of wood, bark, and the inner bark of the linden tree for writing. There is also a linden tablet on which words of freedom were accustomed to be written. *Tilia* is the linden tree among them, from which comes *codex* (the book). But *codex* properly signifies a trunk among them, and *liber* (a book) signifies the bark. The same is called a *matricula*; and those who work the wood are called *matricarii*. ^B

They say that Geryon was three-bodied, not because he was endowed with three bodies, but because three islands located in the Ocean provided him with aid.

The Romans call two-yoked chariots *bigae*, from which they are also called *bigarii*. They call their own inhabitants *Latins*, those who speak Greek *Hellenes*, and those who are lictors they call *decani*.

These are the seven wonders: The empty pride of the ancients, the pyramids, Which artful Egypt boasted of. And the tower of Pharus, touching the highest stars. That great colossus, famous in Rhodes, And the tomb of Mausolus, heard of by all, And the house of Cyzicus, ignorant of ruin, ^C The house of Diana the noble in Ephesus, Of which Artemisia is said to be the author; Mausolus once had this wonderful spouse. The theater built in the Lycian city of Myra, Which the offspring of Ishmael leveled to the ground. And the grove called Rufinium in Pergamum, Whose beauty was known throughout the world.

Caius Julius Caesar reigned for four years and seven months. He was called *Caesar*, which means "cutting," because when his mother died in the ninth month, they cut her open and brought him forth. He was also called *Dictator*, that is, monarch; for a dictatorship is a magistracy subject to no laws. A horse was born for him having cloven hooves and admitting no other rider but him, just as Bucephalus received only Alexander. When he was still a youth, he imagined in his sleep that he was cohabiting with his own mother. ^D

The same man, as Plutarch writes, having vanquished the Germans, Gauls, and Britons in the greatest battles, rendered five hundred cities, crowded with people, tributary to the Romans.

^A That night which preceded the slaughter of the same man, his wife saw in a dream the house of her husband Caesar collapsing, and him, overcome with many wounds and covered in blood, falling into her bosom. As he was about to go out of the courtyard gate to go to the senate-house, an image of Caesar himself standing in the vestibule fell down of its own accord. Furthermore, someone handed him a scroll containing all the plots being devised against him; but thinking it was about some other matter, he did not read it, but gave it to another to keep. He was killed by Brutus and Cassius in the senate-house, being fifty-six years of age. He left behind as his heir and adopted son Octavius, the son of his own sister Julia, who was in his sixteenth year.

Octavius Augustus Caesar, the nephew of Julia, reigned for fifty-six years. From him, the Roman emperors and the month of August take their name, which means "August" or "Venerable," being previously called Sextilis. On the night he was born, his father, while asleep, dreamt he saw the sun rising from his wife's bosom, while his mother dreamt that her own entrails were snatched up and carried into heaven. And when Nigidius, a senator and astrologer, asked his father the reason why he had come out of his house late, and he replied that a son had been born to him, Nigidius exclaimed: "O, what have you done? You have begotten a master for us." While Octavius was being reared in the country, an eagle flew down and snatched the bread from his hands, and returning again, placed it back into his hands. That while he was still a boy, Cicero saw him in a dream holding a whip and being let down from ^B heaven by a golden chain into the Capitol. At the end of his life, lightning struck his image and obliterated the first letter of his name, so that the seers said he would soon die. Having summoned the senators, he said: "I received Rome built of mud, and I leave it to you built of stone," implying the greatness of its power. He was made consul in the month of Sextilis, and in different years he won many victories in that same month, ^C and it was in that month that he died; thus that month was given the name of August. Maecenas was dear to him, a wise man; he was also the first to invent the method of writing by shorthand. Once, when Caesar was administering justice and condemning many to death, and Maecenas could not approach him because of the crowd of people, he wrote on a slip of paper: "Rise, executioner," and having sealed it, he threw it into Caesar's lap. Having read this, Caesar stood up and ordered the execution of the sentences he had passed to be deferred. He was, moreover, very attentive to his friends. For when one of those who had served in the army with him requested his presence in the senate-house, and Caesar replied that he was occupied, but that he would send a friend to attend to his need, the other, becoming angry, said: "As many times as you required my aid, I did not send another in my place." Then Caesar, moved by ^D shame, went with him and assisted him in his cause.

In the reign of Augustus Caesar, a ship from Alexandria arrived at the port of Rome, carrying four hundred thousand modii of grain, 1,200 marines, 200 sailors, and then

^A pepper, linen, papers, glass, and the great obelisk, along with the emperor himself, standing in the great Circus, eighty-seven and a half feet high.

He also had Athenodorus the Alexandrian, a most wise man. Caesar indulged in an insane love for the wives of others; and the husbands even served his disgrace. For when any senator would come to him, who had a beautiful wife, Caesar would send his own ring to him, and would demand that he send his wife in a covered litter, sealed, and that he send back the ring; and thus, receiving the woman in the litter, he would satisfy his lust and send her back sealed to her husband. Caesar had once requested this same thing from a certain man, who, not daring to refuse, was lamenting his misfortune. Athenodorus, having chanced upon him weeping, learned the cause, and asked to be hidden himself in the litter and sent, sealed, to Caesar, carrying a drawn sword. When he was brought there, Caesar, thinking that the wife of the senator had been brought to him, opened the doors of the litter; Athenodorus leaped out,剑 naked ^B and with the sword drawn, and completely terrified Caesar with the suddenness. He reassured him, though he was afraid, and bound him with the greatest oaths never to do such a thing again. This was so pleasing to Caesar that he convened the senate and praised Athenodorus with many words, adding also this, that when he had been living a shameful life, he had been corrected by Athenodorus.

Now advanced in age, Athenodorus asked leave to return to his fatherland; for he said that Caesar was now perfect in all philosophy and action. Caesar only with difficulty permitted his departure. As he was about to leave, he bade him farewell and, leaning into his ear, urged him that as often as he was moved to anger, he should not command anything to be done before he had counted to himself the twenty-four letters of the alphabet; for he knew that Caesar’s spirit was quick to burn with sudden anger, and easily changed. Then Caesar, perceiving this, said: "Well, you have reminded me that I am not yet perfect and that I stand in need of your teaching. For this reason I will not yet allow you to return to your homeland."

In the second year of Augustus, the indictions were established, and the bissextile, and he proposed civil laws. At that time also, the poet Virgil became known among the Romans. Under him also, they report that Judas the Galilean, who is mentioned in the Acts, stirred up a sedition, and that Antipater, the father of Herod, was made king of Judaea by the Romans.

Antonius, however, the Roman consul and general, as Dio Cocceius writes, having slain Brutus and Cassius, the murderers of Julius Caesar, ^C came into Syria for the purpose of refreshing his army. Captivated by love for Cleopatra, he set himself against Augustus Caesar; whence he did not contemplate returning to Rome, lest he be obliged to give an account. This Antonius, having taken counsel with Cleopatra, the queen of Alexandria and Egypt, and with Dexiophanes the engineer ^D charged with that work, using the labor of a great multitude of men and much toil and expense, filled in the sea strait which flowed between the city of Alexandria and the island of Pharos, having a width of about four miles. This strait, then, with much work, haste, and expense, Dexiophanes...

^A of Cyprus, an engineer who was in charge of the work, filled in; he made it solid land, whereas before it was impassable, and provided that one could travel without hindrance to Pharos.

In the 14th year of her reign, and the 42nd year of the monarchy of Augustus Caesar, Christ our God is born. This year of the creation of the world, according to more accurate records, is 5506, in the month of December, on the 25th day, on the fourth day of the week. The cycle of the sun was 18, and the cycle of the moon was 15. Now, wishing to know the day on which Christ our true God was born, we set down the four epacts of the sun for the present year, and to these we add the days from the beginning of the first month: April 30, May 31, June 30, July 31, August 31, September 30, October 31, November 30, December 25, for a total of 291. Divide this by seven thus: seven times 40 ^B is 280; 11 minus 7 leaves 4. We understood, therefore, that on the same day on which He created the luminaries, Christ our true God was born, as He is the Sun of righteousness.

In the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar, He is baptized by John, in the first indiction, in the river Jordan, on the 13th day of his 31st year, on the 6th of the month of January. Therefore, Christ our God was born in the 5506th year from the creation of the world. And He was baptized in the 5536th year, as has been stated. After all the people had been baptized, as the holy Scriptures say, and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form as a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven saying, "Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased." ^C Then, wishing to know also what day of the week it was that the Lord was baptized, we set down the 5536 years. We add to these the quarter [of a day], and they become 6920. We divide these by seven, saying: seven times 900 is 6300; seven times 80 is 560; seven times 8 is 56. There remain four epacts. To these we add the days from the first month up to the very day on which the Lord was baptized. Thus you have the 4 epacts. April 30, May 31, June 30, July 31, August 31, September 30, October 31, November 30, December 31, January 6, for a total of 285. Divide these by seven, saying: seven times 40 is 280, 5 remains. We understood, therefore, that the Lord was baptized on the fifth day of the week. On that same day on which the Lord Himself had commanded the waters to bring forth swarms of living creatures, He Himself, at the end of the ages, ^D was baptized and sanctified the water, and rendered it life-giving for us.

After being baptized, and tempted by Satan in the desert, and having conquered the tempter, He came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, and He commanded the disciples who had believed and accepted the proclamation of piety to go up with Him to Jerusalem to celebrate the legal Passover. Then, wishing (28) to know...

if the month had reached the present year 5536, finding its beginning on the twentieth of March, the fourteenth day of the first month of the moon, we divide 5536 by 19; 7 remain. The undecuple of this is 77. Twice thirty is 60; take this away, and 17 will remain. Add to these the three days that are before the conjunction of the luminaries: 7 before the moon, and 7 others from the twenty-first day of March. The sum is 42; subtract 30 from here, and 14 remain. Thus, the fourteenth day of the first month of the moon falls on the twenty-seventh day of March. Furthermore, wishing to know what day of the week it was, add its quadrant to 5586, which is 1396, and the sum will be 6982. Divide this by 7, as above, and 4 epacts remain. To these, add the days preceding the conjunction of the luminaries and the 7 days from the twenty-first of March. The sum is 14. Divide by 7: nothing remains, so it was the Sabbath.

In the nineteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, the Lord submitted Himself to the passion, the year of the world 5539, the twenty-third day of the month of March, the sixth day of the week ^B. He arose from the dead on the twenty-fifth of the same month of March, in which time it was completed on the first day of the week. Hence, the Church has received the custom of celebrating the Lord's Passover on the twenty-fifth day of March. At that time the Jewish Passover was being performed on the twenty-fourth day of March, the seventh day of the week, that is to say, the Sabbath. The cycle of the sun was 23 and of the moon 10, both counted from the twenty-first of March of the present year, in the fourth indiction. And it was the eleventh year of the natural nineteen-year cycle of the moon, and the twenty-sixth year of the natural twenty-eight-year cycle of the sun. This, however, is the fourth Passover in which Christ, our true God, suffered for us. The Gospel itself bears witness to this in these words ^C: "But they themselves did not enter into the praetorium, so that they might not be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover on the next day." And again: "The Jews therefore, so that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, because it was the preparation day (for that day of the Sabbath was a great one), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and they might be taken away." In the time, therefore, when the Lord suffered in the flesh for us, He did not eat the Passover according to the Law, but He Himself was sacrificed for us. That He did not celebrate the Passover on the fourteenth day, but anticipated it by the mystical institution of the Supper, at which time the sanctification of the unleavened bread and the preparation for the feast were taking place, is evidenced by the fact that He did not distribute to the disciples ^D a victim or unleavened bread, but bread and a cup. Those who write that Christ was born in the year 5500 and suffered in the year 5533 are in error, not knowing the year with precision.

During the times of the bodily sojourn of Christ, our true God, on earth, there was a certain ruler of the city of Edessa named Abgar. Now, when the report of the miracles of Christ our God had spread...

^A The report of the miracles of Christ our God having spread everywhere, the aforementioned toparch himself, upon hearing of these things, was struck with wonder and longed to see Christ. But he was unable to do so, because he was suffering from an incurable disease. Therefore, he wrote a letter to Him, which he sent by Ananias, one of his couriers, who happened also to have experience in the art of painting. Abgar gave orders to him to capture the likeness of Christ’s appearance on a board. The letter of Abgar, according to the account, runs as follows: “Abgar, toparch of the city of Edessa, to Jesus the good Savior who has appeared in the city of Jerusalem, greetings. I have heard regarding You and Your healings, that they are performed by You without medicines; for it is said that You make the blind see, the lame walk, cleanse lepers, cast out unclean spirits by Your word, heal those tormented by long-term illnesses, and raise the dead. Having heard all these things about You, I concluded in my mind that You are God and have come down from heaven to do these things, or that You are the Son of God, doing these things. Therefore, having written this, I have besought Your power and goodness to take the trouble to come to me, so that You may heal the affliction I have. For I have also heard that the Jews murmur against You and wish to harm You. My city is very small, ^B but it will suffice for both of us. Farewell.” The courier went to Jerusalem, and having given the letter to the Lord, he was intently gazing at Him; but unable to stand close to Him because of the surging crowd, he climbed upon a rock that rose a little above the ground and sat down, and there he immediately fixed his eyes on Christ and his hand to the paper, attempting to portray the likeness of the figure that appeared. But this effort was in vain, as the Lord kept changing His countenance. But Christ, to whom the hidden thoughts of the heart were manifest, knowing his intent, called the man to Himself; and wishing to wash His face, after He had washed it, He impressed a likeness of His divine and immaculate face, by a great miracle, onto a four-folded cloth that was offered to Him. He handed this linen cloth to Ananias, commanding him to carry it to his master, along with a letter which He wrote back in these words: “Blessed are you, Abgar, who have believed in Me without having seen Me. For it has been written concerning Me, that those who see Me will not believe in Me, but those who have not seen Me will believe and live. Regarding what you wrote to Me, for Me to come to you, it is necessary for Me to fulfill all for which I was sent, and after fulfilling it, to be taken up to the Father who sent Me. When I have been taken up, I will send ^D one of My disciples, by name Thaddeus, who will both heal your affliction and will grant eternal life and peace to you and to yours, and your city will become sufficient so that none of your enemies shall prevail against it.” At the end, He set a seal marked with seven Hebrew letters, which, when translated, denote these things: A divine wonder of God held in view. The toparch Abgar, having received Ananias with great joy, fell down and worshipped the holy image ^C and immaculate face of the Lord with great faith and longing, and was immediately healed of his diseases, though some small traces remained on his face. For he had been afflicted with two diseases, specifically the long-term pain of his joints and a black leprosy, which, consuming his body, had so disfigured him that, out of shame, he would scarcely ever show himself to men.

^B After the passion of Christ and His ascension into heaven, the apostle Thaddaeus arrived at Edessa, led Augarus to the pool, and baptized all who were with him in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And he came up from the water pure and healthy, the small trace of the leprosy that had remained on his forehead having also been wiped away. From then on, Augarus worshipped and honored with the utmost devotion the venerable imprint of the Lord's form, the toparch adding this to his other righteous deeds. ^C Of old, from ancient times, before the public gate of the city of Edessa, a statue of one of the Greek gods had been erected on high, which anyone wishing to enter the city was compelled to worship and offer vows, and only then enter the city. This, therefore, the impure and demoniacal statue, having taken down and delivered to total destruction, he set up in its place this image of our Savior and God, made without hands, mounted upon a board and adorned, with this inscription upon it: "Christ God, he who hopes in Thee shall not fail." And henceforth he decreed that everyone intending to enter through that gate should pay the appropriate reverence and honor to the most miraculous and wonder-working image of Christ, and thus enter the city. And such a pious decree of the man was maintained as long as he lived, as well as by his son. But his grandson, having succeeded to his grandfather’s authority and kingdom, cast off this piety and defected to the worship of idols, and again wished to erect the demoniacal stele and tear down the image of Christ. The bishop of Edessa, learning this through divine revelation, took what preventive measures were possible. Since the place was cylindrical in shape, he lit a lamp before the divine image and placed a tile in front of it; then, having blocked up the remaining space with lime and bricks, he leveled the wall into a smooth surface, and since the envied form was no longer visible, the impious man abandoned his attempt. A long passage of time therefore elapsed, and the concealment of this sacred image faded from the memory of men. Afterward, during the reign of Justinian the Roman Emperor, Chosroes, King of the Persians, while plundering and destroying the cities of Asia, also besieged Edessa. He attempted to conquer it with every machine and exertion, pressing upon it with engines of war, the battering of walls, and the breaking through of gates, and he struck great fear and anxiety into the townspeople. They, having fallen into helplessness and despair and being in the utmost straits, took refuge with God, and seeking Him with an agonizing heart and with tears, they found Him, ^D for, as the divine David sang, "He is near to all who truly call upon Him." Thereupon, at night, a woman of form and attire more august than what human nature allows appeared to Eulalius the bishop and warned him that the venerable image of Christ lay hidden above the gate (simultaneously indicating the place and the method); and when it was found and recovered, all things…

^A succeeded propitiously. The bishop, filled with ineffable joy, reached the spot and broke through it—O miracle!—to find the divine image unharmed and intact, and the lamp wick not extinguished after such a long time; and furthermore, on the tile that had been placed before the lamp for protection, another likeness was imprinted, identical to the prototype. Taking this with immense joy, and having offered prayers and thanksgiving, the bishop reached the place where the Persians were digging. And as they approached one another in the trench, he poured oil from that lamp onto the fire they had prepared, destroying them all utterly. But even the pyre lit from outside by the Persians against the men, which an immense quantity of fuel fed, was turned back—when the bishop approached it with the divine imprint, a violent wind suddenly arose against those who had ignited it, and turning back, it burned them. Having suffered these things rather than doing them, ^B the Persians retreated in shame, empty-handed, not once, but twice and many times.

Since the most holy and beautiful things were flowing from all sides toward the Queen of Cities, and it was indeed the divine will that this sacred and divine image, among others, should be stored there, Romanus Lacapenus, the sovereign of the Romans, made it his concern to secure it and enrich the Queen of Cities. On various occasions he had sent envoys to Edessa, without achieving anything. For he was pressing them, while they were stalling and evading him. Finally, having been persuaded, they yielded; for the Emperor of the Romans, in his desire for such a treasure, gave way to all their demands, and granted them two hundred Saracens and twelve thousand pieces of coined silver, and bound himself by a golden seal that the Roman legions would never act hostilely against those four cities nor plunder them, and thus he gained his request. Since it was permitted to take place and the Emir consented, the bishops—both of Samosata and of Edessa—and some other pious men took the holy image and the letter written by Christ and began their journey; ^C and again infinite miracles were performed. When they arrived in the region of the Optimatoi, at the church of the Theotokos called "of Eusebius," many who approached with faith were healed of various diseases. There also approached a certain man afflicted by a demon, and as if by divine instinct he prophesied these words: "Receive, Constantinople, glory and joy; and you, Porphyrogenitus, your kingdom." And immediately the man was healed. On the fifteenth day of the month of August, in the 6432nd year from the creation of the world, those who were carrying the holy image reached the church of the Most Holy Theotokos at Blachernae, which was received with reverence and great joy, and worshipped by the Caesars, the nobles, and all the rest. The day after the salutation and adoration, the Supreme Pontiff Theophylactus and the Emperor’s sons (for the old man was detained by infirmity), along with all the senators and the whole ecclesiastical body, carried the image of Christ on their shoulders.

^A It was received with great joy and venerated by the Emperors, the officials, and all the others. On the following day, after the kissing [(30)] and the veneration, the high priest Theophylact and the young emperors (for the old man was detained by infirmity), as well as the entire senate and the whole ecclesiastical body, carried the image of Christ on their shoulders, with the appropriate guard of honor, as far as the Golden Gate. From there, having again taken it up in the same manner with psalms and hymns, they reached the famous and greatest church of the Holy Wisdom. Then they went up to the Emperor, and in the church of the Mother of God, the Pharos, they deposited the precious and holy image of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the greatest protection for the Queen of Cities and for all Christians. And so much for this; now we shall return to the sequence of our history.

^B When our Lord Jesus Christ was born in the flesh, Augustus Caesar immediately brought all things under his power, and having abolished all the ethnarchies and individual kingdoms, he subjected everyone to the Roman reins, and deep peace prevailed everywhere. For as divine help appeared, the enemies turned their backs, and kingdoms that had previously held the opposite view bowed their necks and accepted the saving yoke. For in truth, and by the testimony of events, God, as if using a voice, demonstrated His own majesty. God, therefore, foreseeing the madness of the Jews, said through the prophet: "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." And revealing to us who this is, and as if exulting with us, the prophet adds: "The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our helper." Nor is mention made of Jacob without a purpose; but it was done because he was the first to prophesy the calling of the nations. His words are: "A prince shall not fail from Judah, until he comes for whom it is reserved, and he ^C is the expectation of the nations." ^D Therefore David, already predicting the change of the nations, fittingly says that the God of Jacob, who had prophesied these things, had brought them to pass.

Accordingly, in the 48th year of the reign of Augustus, in the 5506th year from the creation of the world, the counting of the years according to the Antiochians began. And when Herod, a foreigner, had already been proclaimed king of Judea, and our Lord Jesus Christ had been born in the flesh, and Herod had miserably exchanged life for death, that oracle was fulfilled which said that the prince born of the people of Judah would not be lacking until He to whom the highest things were reserved—that is, Christ—was born. For when Herod, an alien to the faith, having put aside his uncircumcision, obtained the kingdom over the Jews, and appointed the alien Ananilus to the high priesthood, the Jewish empire, which had held sway until then, was immediately ended. For the priests had presided over public affairs until Pompey, the Roman general, having arrived, took Jerusalem by force, polluted the holy places, and sent Aristobulus, who had until then held the kingdom and the priesthood by succession from his ancestors, in chains to Rome, and the Jewish people

^A made tributary to the Romans. And thus, for the first time, the foreigner Herod, as I have said, was entrusted with the Jewish nation. At which time, the arrival of Christ being clearly imminent, the priests and leaders of the Jews ceased to exist.

Christ, therefore, having been born, did not himself sit upon the perceptible throne of David, but Scripture calls the eternal and indissoluble kingdom the throne of David. For he is the expectation of the nations, not of the smallest part of the inhabited world. "For there shall be," he says, "the root of Jesse, and he who shall rise to rule the nations; in him shall the nations hope." And, "I have set you as a covenant of the race, for a light to the nations." And, "I will set his seed for ever and ever, and his throne as the days of heaven." He therefore remained also king of the whole earth, even if he did not receive the scepters of Judea; and God is king of the whole earth, and the liberty of Jacob was confirmed, and all the tribes of the earth were blessed in his seed, and all nations shall call Christ blessed.

^B But that it may become clearer how the priestly tribe was mingled with the royal, we shall explain it thus. Judah begat Pharez, and Pharez begat Esrom, and Esrom begat Aram, and Aram begat Aminadab, and Aminadab begat Naasson, and Naasson begat Salmon, and Salmon begat Booz, and Booz begat Obed, and Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat the king David. Since, therefore, Naasson was the son of Aminadab, the great high priest Aaron—the brother of Moses—who was of the tribe of Levi, took his sister Elizabeth as his wife. Furthermore, the divine high priest Jodaas, himself also a high priest of the Levitical tribe, took as his wife the sister of Ochozias, who was of the tribe of Judah. From this point, then, the royal tribe having been mixed with the Levitical, most appropriately the Lord, being born of the Virgin Mary—his mother ^C according to the flesh—and being genealogized thus, is found to be both King and Priest unto God, as I have said, to men, and is clearly proclaimed eternal King and Priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek.

From this point, therefore, begins the fourth kingdom, which Daniel, in the vision of the four beasts, tropically names the fourth beast, differing from the others, upon which also the Creator of the first four elements, who bound together the four-cornered world in these things, Jesus Christ, was incarnate for our salvation. Wherefore, quite rightly was Augustus great, more illustrious than all, and being powerful, he subjected all local kingdoms, on account of him who was to be born in his days, the King of all and Lord, according to the prophecy of Isaiah; for he says: ^D "And it shall be in the last days, the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest, and the house of God on the tops of the mountains. And it shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall come to it. And many peoples shall go and shall say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob. And he shall declare to us his way, and we shall walk in it. For from Sion shall go forth the law, and the word"

of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among many nations, and shall rebuke a strong people. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks. Nation shall not take up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. ^A That these things signify the time after the coming of the Lord, reality clearly testifies. For before the Roman Empire began, frequent uprisings of nations against one another occurred, inasmuch as the kingdom was divided according to each individual nation; but when the sovereignty of all was transferred to the Romans, a deep peace possessed the inhabited world, so that no longer did nation make war against nation, but they occupied themselves with agriculture. Therefore, the end of the prophecy is shown most clearly. For this reason, Daniel also prophesies, saying: ^B "And you shall know and understand from the going forth of the word to answer, and to build Jerusalem unto Christ the prince, seven weeks and sixty-two weeks." These years total 483; such are the years that those of the beginning of the anointed leaders exist, of whom the last, Hyrcanus, being taken captive by the Parthians, Herod received the kingdom from Augustus; whose descendants subsequently held it until the destruction of Jerusalem. For no longer from that time were high priests ordained to God from the lineage of the high priests or the Asmoneans, who are also called Maccabees, as Josephus says, but rather some obscure men, some for a year, others in another manner, purchasing the priesthood from the Romans with money. For this reason, Daniel also prophesies, saying: [P. 182] "And after the seven and sixty-two weeks, the anointing shall be done away, and there shall be no judgment," and the rest. You should divide the weeks thus: the seven, after the return from the captivity until the building of the temple; the 62, joined to the seven, were the time during which the anointed leaders held power; and the one week, during which the Lord preached the new covenant, in the middle of which week He came to the saving passion, and the covenant delivered through Moses was removed from the midst. And again: "And he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week, and in the middle of the week, the sacrifice and the drink offering shall be removed. And upon the temple ^C the abomination of desolation shall be given in the end, upon the desolation of Jerusalem." And you will find the rest in the reign of Titus.

Augustus, having gathered troops throughout Italy, descended against Antony. And a battle having taken place, Antony was defeated and fled with Cleopatra into Egypt. And Antony, for his part, took his own life, and Cleopatra, fearing to be taken into the triumph at Rome, offered herself to be bitten by an asp, a venomous beast, and so died. Helios and Selene, their children, having been captured, were led in the triumph of Rome. ^D Under this Augustus, as Eusebius Pamphili says, the fourth kingdom begins, which Daniel in the vision of the four beasts names the fourth terrible beast. Then, for the first time, at the beginning of the fourth kingdom, Augustus held all power alone, at which time our Lord Jesus Christ, for our sake, deigned to accept birth from the ever-virgin. The same Eusebius also says that this…

Augustus, having gone to Delphi, asked who would rule after him; and since the Pythian [oracle] answered nothing, and Augustus asked again why the oracle was silent, the Pythian spoke these words:

The Hebrew boy, who rules among the blessed gods, Commands me to depart this temple, And to return again to the shades of the dead; Depart, therefore, in silence from our shrines.

In the 5506th year from the creation of the world, which was the 42nd year of the reign of Augustus, a decree went out from him that the whole world should be registered. In this year, our Lord Jesus Christ was born, while Herod, whom Caesar Augustus had appointed, held the kingdom of Judea. This Caesar, having subjected to himself the whole world, as he was about to die in Rome, commanded all the leaders that at his departure they should clap their hands and laugh, as was done at the end of mimes. He ordained this to be done, mocking human life as a thing worthy of laughter. ^B [P. 183] That Herod is called a child-slayer not only because of the children in Bethlehem who were slaughtered by him in his mania against Christ, but also because he killed his own three sons, and added to these crimes the murder of their mother, and the brother of his wife, and many others of his household, and a crowd of not a few Jews upon his own death.

It should be known that the great Herod had three sons: Herod who is also called Antipas, who ordered the beheading of the Forerunner (in whose time Christ was also crucified, during the reign of Tiberius Caesar); Herod who is also called Philip, whose first wife was Herodias, by whom he had a daughter, Salome, the one who danced; and Herod who is also called Agrippa, who killed James, the son of Zebedee.

That Herod the Great died having lived seventy years, of which he reigned over Judea illegally for 37 years. ^C For in his time the prophecy of the patriarch Jacob was fulfilled, which said: "A ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his loins, until he comes for whom it is stored up," that is, Christ. For Herod was the first alien to rule over the Jews, being an Arab Idumean, and he was the first to appoint an alien high priest, Ananilus, as Josephus says.

That Herod the bloodthirsty, in addition to the many murders of his kin, also slew Hyrcanus, the former high priest, and his son, and his own sister-in-law, who was his wife, and his two own sons who had reached manhood, and his mother-in-law, and the husband of his own sister Salome; and when she married another, he added this man to his list of victims, and in addition to them, the interpreters of the sacred laws and those who were zealous for the ancestral rites. Stricken by a divine blow and suffering from dropsy, he gave off worms from his body, and thus in severe pain, he perished. ^D

[alt-version omitted]

Christ returns from Egypt at five years of age. ^A Augustus appointed Archelaus, the son of Herod, ethnarch of the Jews, and he divided the remaining region into four parts, and over these he placed the remaining brothers of Archelaus, naming them tetrarchs because of the fourfold empire. Their names were Herod, who had the same name as his father, and Antipater, named after his grandfather, and Lysanias and Philip. At that time there was such a shortage in Rome that a modius was sold for twenty-seven pieces of gold.

In the year of the world 5519, and in the thirteenth year of the divine incarnation, a third Herod, surnamed Agrippa, obtained the kingdom over the Jews; he was a foreigner, the son of Herod, and brother to Archelaus. He reigned for twenty-four years. For Archelaus, after having reigned for nine years, was sent by the Romans into exile to the city of Vienne in Gaul. This Herod, who was also called Antipas, killed John the Baptist in the thirteenth year of his reign, ^B which was the thirty-second year of the Lord’s incarnation; under him, our Lord Jesus Christ also willingly underwent the saving passion for our sake. Under him, the city of Paneas was renamed Caesarea Philippi because it had been rebuilt by the tetrarch Philip. He founded the city of Tiberias in honor of Tiberius Caesar, and he reconstructed the city of the Gabinians, formerly known by the name of Samaria, and named it Sebaste, that is, Augusta. And having surrounded its harbor, the Tower of Strato, with a wall, he named it Caesarea after the same Caesar. Later, he also built Antipatris. And he constructed a shrine to the idol Pan at Paneas, in what is now called Caesarea in Palestine; and he rebuilt the temple of Jerusalem double its size. Having been sent into exile to the city of Lugdunum in Gaul, he died in extreme poverty living with his adulteress, Herodias. As for the girl who danced and obtained the beheading of the Forerunner, the earth swallowed her alive. Others say that while she was playing on the frozen marsh, the ice broke and she fell in, and her head was severed, so that while all her body went down into the deep, her head was left upon the ice.

The oracle of Daniel was fulfilled in the time of Herod. ^C For up until him, the anointed ones, that is, the high priests, had ruled the Jews, beginning from the restoration of the temple in the time of Darius and ending with Hyrcanus the high priest, who was so named because he had subdued the Hyrcanians. The years between these were 483, which the prophecy of Daniel also sets forth, saying: *"Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the word that the decree shall be given, and Jerusalem shall be built, unto Christ the leader, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks."* (Dan. IX, 25). These sixty-nine weeks complete 483 years, and for as many years the Jewish empire remained in the hands of the anointed ones. The last of these, Hyrcanus, having been captured by the Parthians, Herod, the son of Antipater, received the kingdom over the Jews—which did not pertain to him at all—from Augustus and the Roman senate, and it remained in his lineage thereafter until the destruction of Jerusalem. Therefore, Herod was the son of Antipater the Ascalonite, by his mother Cyprus the Arabian, at which time regarding the birth of Christ

the succession of the priesthood and the rule of the Jews from their ancestors were dismantled, as the prophecy of Jacob was fulfilled.

^A Daniel also prophesies, saying: “And after the sixty-two weeks, anointing shall be destroyed, and judgment shall not be in it, and the people of the coming leader shall destroy the temple and the sanctuary, and they shall be cut off in a deluge of war.” And he continues: “And upon the temple, the abomination of desolation, and until the completion of time, a completion shall be given regarding the desolation.” That the anointing is to be destroyed and no judgment to be in it signifies that the city and the sanctuary shall be destroyed. This can also be understood in reference to Christ; for when he came for the salvation of the nation, because of the lawlessness and insult against him, their priesthood entirely ^B and the sanctification and the city were taken away. But as there was one week left toward the completion of the seventy, the half of it is to be understood as the time of the preaching of the Gospel. For the Only-Begotten, having fulfilled the work of the Father in three and a half years, was taken up. And having filled the holy disciples with the Holy Spirit, he kept them in Jerusalem for another three and a half years, both to prepare them for the greatest struggle and the contest of converting the nations, and at the same time to receive through faith those from the nation who were appointed for life, and to lead them away from the shadows and types of the Old Testament, and to bring them to the truth of the Gospel and of the New Testament. Wherefore the holy word also says: “And he shall strengthen the covenant for many, one week,” ^C that is to say, through the aforementioned seven years for those who believe in Christ.

That in the year of the world 5506, and the 48th of Augustus Caesar, and the 32nd of Herod, in the seventh month according to the Hebrews, the tenth, namely September 23rd, Zacharias, while burning incense in the sanctuary according to the order of his division, saw the archangel Gabriel announcing to him the conception of the great Forerunner and Baptist John.

That Joachim died at the age of eighty, and Anna finished her life at seventy-nine. The Theotokos, having been brought by them into the temple of the Lord at the age of three, lost her parents when she was eleven. She did not leave the temple at all, ^D but if she ever needed anything, she would go only to Elizabeth, as she was a kinswoman and lived near the temple. She learned the Hebrew letters while Joachim was still alive. There was a set-aside place in the temple near the altar where only the virgins were accustomed to stand. And the others, to be sure, would return to their own homes when the people were dismissed; but the Virgin remained in the temple and was fed by an angel. She was of medium stature, wheat-colored, freckled, beautiful-eyed, with joined eyebrows, straight-nosed, long-handed, long-fingered…

and she loved garments of natural color. When she reached the age of twelve, at midnight while she was praying, she heard a voice sent from God saying to her: "You shall bear my Son." She told this to no one until Christ ascended into the heavens. ^B When she was fourteen years old, and the Jews assumed she was about to experience the common infirmity of women, she was no longer permitted to remain in the temple. The priests therefore prayed to God regarding her, and Zacharias, the high priest and father of the Baptist, took the twelve rods of the elders who were her kinsmen and placed them upon the altar, saying: "Show, O Lord, to whom this virgin should be betrothed." The rod of Joseph the carpenter blossomed, and they joined her to him, he being eighty years old. He brought her down to his own house, and she lived there fasting and not going out in public with his two daughters. After six months had passed, the prince of the angels, Gabriel, appeared to her, bringing the good news of the salvation of the world. She kept this secret until she had given birth. This event took place in the first month, that is, March, on the twenty-fifth day, the first day of the week and the first day of the moon; for this is also the sixth month since the conception of John. ^C When the archangel had departed, the Theotokos went into the hill country, namely to Bethlehem (for this place is situated at a higher elevation than Nazareth), and she greeted Elizabeth, who was her kinswoman, and made known to her the vision of the angel, and that she had conceived a male child, and that Zacharias had seen a vision; for Elizabeth did not know of it, as Zacharias had lost his voice. After three months, she returned to Galilee. Now Joseph, returning home from his travels and finding the Virgin pregnant, was troubled and intended to send her away secretly; but being emboldened by the appearance of the angel, he kept her. Then, because neighbors were calumniating and bitterly reviling him—saying that he had taken the Virgin from the temple not for marriage but for safe-keeping, and had thus kept her from marriage—they both drank the water of testing and were sent into the mountains; and when their accusers saw them return unharmed and having suffered no evil, they absolved them of the charge. ^D Furthermore, as the census was being taken, Joseph went with Mary into Judea; but failing to arrive in time, they stayed in a suburb of Bethlehem, which was the estate of Salome the midwife, the kinswoman of the Theotokos. There Emmanuel was born of Mary, and on the eighth day she circumcised the child. And after forty days she brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord according to the Law, and he was received by the just Simeon. For this Simeon, the God-bearer, was a Jew, and was one of the seventy, who had translated the ancient divine Scripture from Hebrew into the Greek tongue under Ptolemy Philadelphus, the king of Egypt, before the time of Christ's advent, as the divine Chrysostom records in his work on the six days. And this Simeon, with the prophecy of Isaiah...

when he had read the declaration of the prophet ^A saying, "Behold, the virgin shall conceive in the womb and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel," he remained in disbelief of this, claiming that it was impossible, as far as human nature is concerned, for a virgin to give birth. Having thus been disposed, he received a divine revelation that he would remain in this life until the divine prophecy of the prophet should be fulfilled; which the divine Gospel clearly teaches us, saying: "He was endowed with the Holy Spirit, and it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ." Having, therefore, seen him in the temple as a babe of forty days, and having received him into his arms, and saying, "Now you dismiss your servant, O Master, according to your word in peace," he departed hence to him, rejoicing. ^B After two years, Herod committed the slaughter of the innocents, and slew Zacharias while he was performing the sacred rites within the altar. Elizabeth, taking John, went out into the desert, and was hidden in a cave for forty days, and then died. John, having been guided by the angel in the desert and brought up there, remained until the manifestation of the Lord.

After five years, Joseph returned to Nazareth from Egypt, and Cleopas, his brother by the same father and mother, took his daughter Mary as his wife, and from her he begat Symeon, who after James, the brother of the Lord, became bishop of Jerusalem, and in the reign of Domitian, having testified ^C, he was crucified. Judas, his brother, begat two sons, Zocteres and James.

John was in his thirty-first year when he came out of the desert. And many followed him as he was preaching, among whom were also Andrew and John. And while some said that he was the Christ, others that he was a prophet, on one day many came beyond the Jordan to the region of Bethabara, and were baptized. And when Jesus arrived, as soon as John saw him, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God." And having heard this, Andrew and John followed Jesus. After he had returned to Nazareth, Joseph died at the age of 110. And when Zebedee had also died, John and James brought their mother, ^D and she lived with the Theotokos. Having sold their property to Caiaphas, they bought Sion, where the mystic Pascha was celebrated by Christ, and into which he entered while the doors were shut. After the Lord's ascension, the Theotokos dwelt in Sion until the end of her life. Fifteen days beforehand, she became aware of her departure. And three days before, the archangel came to her, bringing the prize. She delivered her holy soul to the Lord and her Son and God, being seventy-two years of age; others say fifty.

^A Thus she lived for twenty-four years after Christ’s ascension into the heavens.

In the eleventh year of Herod the tetrarch, the high priest Ananus died. After him, this dignity was held for a year, as Josephus records. The holy Gospels bear witness to his truthfulness in what they say regarding Caiaphas: "He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year, he prophesied."

When the fame of the wondrous return of our Savior to life and his ascension into the heavens had already spread far and wide, Pilate, anxious in mind because he had reported nothing to the Emperor concerning the miracles that had occurred, was finally compelled by necessity to write to Tiberius Caesar explaining that Christ had received life after death, describing the miracles he had performed, and noting that, having returned to life from death, he was now believed by many to be God. Tiberius, therefore—in whose time the name of Christians had come into the world—upon learning of ^B this, communicated it to the Senate, clearly indicating that the religion pleased him. The Senate, however, because it had not itself approved it, rejected it; the true reason for this, in reality, is that the saving teaching of the divine proclamation in no way requires human approval and commendation. Tertullian reports these things. The same Tiberius threatened death to the accusers of Christians.

In the nineteenth year of Tiberius, John the Baptist was beheaded by the younger Herod and Cleopatra on account of Herodias, as Josephus writes in the eighteenth book of the *Antiquities*. At that time also, a war was undertaken against Aretas, who complained that his daughter had been treated with contempt by Herod. He says that in this war, the entire army of ^C Herod perished because of the death of John.

In the nineteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, our Lord Jesus Christ underwent his passion, just as the prophets had foretold concerning him. At which time, we record here in their very words the things noted in the Greek commentaries: "There occurred an eclipse of the sun greater than any known before, and night arose at the sixth hour of the day, so that the stars were visible in the heavens; and a great earthquake occurred in Bithynia, which destroyed much of Nicaea." Thus says Phlegon. Africanus also narrates that on the very day of the passion, most terrible darkness covered the whole world; by an earthquake, rocks were rent, and much of the earth was crushed. The Jews call this darkness an eclipse of the sun ^D —absurdly, in my judgment, and contrary to the truth. For the Hebrews institute the Passover according to the moon, and the events concerning the Savior occurred on the day before the Passover; but an eclipse of the sun happens when the moon passes under it, and it cannot occur at any other time except at the new moon, when the luminaries come together or are in close proximity.

^A How then could the darkness be considered a solar eclipse, when at that time the moon was almost in opposition to the sun? But let us accept that which has been proven by many, and because of an error of vision when darkness was cast over the whole world, let us consider it to be an eclipse of the sun. But what, in the meantime, does an eclipse of the sun have to do with an earthquake, the splitting of rocks, the return of the dead to life, and such a great commotion of the world? Certainly, no one has ever recorded such a thing happening in the course of so much time. Indeed, the darkness was created by God, because on that day the Lord happened to die. This is the truest explanation. The time of this salutary punishment was even more accurately noted by the Romans, for it happened during the consulship of Geminus, which was in the first year of the 202nd Olympiad. A proof that the Savior suffered in this specific year could be the testimony of the Gospel according to John, which asserts that His teaching lasted for a period of three years after the fifteenth year of Tiberius. ^B In the thirty-third year of Herod, Cyrenius was sent by the Senate into Judea and took a census of the inhabitants and their property. In the same year, Jesus Christ our God was born in Bethlehem of Judea. In total, from Abraham to the birth of Christ, there are 2105 years. Herod, being afflicted by a severe dropsy and with worms swarming from his body, departed from this life. After the death of Herod, Augustus appointed his son Archelaus as ethnarch of the Judean people, and granted him the regions around Jerusalem, the Samaritan nation, Sebaste, Caesarea, Joppe, Antipatris, Lydda, and the plains. To Philip, he gave the regions near what is now called Paneas, and Batanea, and Trachon, and Acrabatene, and Gaulonitis, and Galatha, where the city of Gamala was. To Herod, he gave Galilee, the plain beneath Parna, Narbathus, and Peraea. He founded Tiberias. To Lysanias, he gave Idumea, Ziphene, and the regions under his jurisdiction, and Abilene. ^C There are, therefore, from Adam to the flood, 2242 years in total; and from the flood until Phalec and the building of the tower, 538 years; and from Phalec and the building of the tower until Abraham came to the land of Canaan, 616 years; and from Abraham to the death of Jesus son of Nave, 526 years; and from the death of Jesus until David received the kingdom of Judea, 480 years; and from David to Sedecias son of Jechonias and the Babylonian captivity, 448 years; and from the captivity to Zorobabel, and to the first year of Cyrus king of the Persians, 70 years; and finally from the first year of Cyrus until...

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES

From the first year of Cyrus, king of the Persians, ^A 70 years; and from the first year of Cyrus to Augustus Caesar, in whose time our Lord and God Jesus Christ was born, 512 years. Total years, 5,506.

After Augustus, Tiberius reigned 23 years, who founded a city in Judea, Tiberias. And in the 15th year of his reign, our Lord Jesus Christ was baptized and began his evangelical preaching. And in the 18th year of his reign, the Lord was crucified. He rose again on the 25th of March, on the dawn of the Lord's Day, which is the first of all, and at once the Lord's Pascha; for on this day God created the light, and on this day the true light, Christ, rose from the tomb. He also confirmed the prophecy of Daniel, coming as he did in the midst of the week of years to his saving suffering. For he says: "And upon the temple there shall be the abomination of desolation, and ^B towards the desolation shall the consummation be given." For in this week the New Testament was given to those who believe, and he fulfilled them with all power, since in the middle of this week the sacrifice according to the Law was taken away, the true sacrifice being offered. The Lord also prefigured the signs of the desolation, saying: "When you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, know that its desolation is near." And so that the Jews might not think they would again recover the temple and the city, he adds: "And until the consummation of the season, a consummation shall be given upon the desolation." For he says, until the consummation of the world, the consummation of the desolation remains, admitting no change. David also spoke of this: "In the wrath of the consummation, and they shall not be; and they shall know that God rules over Jacob ^C and to the ends of the earth." And they will know it all the more when they see the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. For just as through wood death entered, so also life entered through wood; since we find in the Holy Scriptures that seven times someone received life from the dead, and after the seven, the eighth, the Lord, rose from the dead, who had raised the seven. For before the resurrection of Christ, only seven resurrections of the dead occurred; the first, in the Old [Testament], that of the son of the widow of Zarephath, whom Elijah raised; the second, that of the son of the Shunammite, whom Elisha raised; the third, that of the soldier who, being buried near Elisha, leapt forth as if from fire; the fourth, in the New Testament, that of the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue; the fifth, that of the widow's son; the sixth, that of Lazarus; the seventh, that many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep arose; and the eighth, the resurrection of the Lord after his saving ^D passion. At the time of which passion, a great earthquake occurred, and it is found in many Greek commentaries that a great earthquake and darkness covered the whole world, such that stars even became visible. Josephus also records that a certain oracle was found in the holy writings, containing that at that time, from their country, a man would arise and rule the whole world, whom he himself, under Vespasian,

interpreted as having attained fulfillment, but he strayed entirely from the interpretation; for this man did not rule over the whole world. It remains, therefore, that this was fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom the Father says: “Ask of me, and I will give thee the Gentiles for thine inheritance, and the ends of the earth for thy possession.” ^A Hence, the sound of his holy apostles went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. Since, then, at that time God created the universe—and the blossoming of the trees gives witness to this—for this reason he also delivered Israel at that time from the Egyptian servitude, and the archangel Gabriel brought the good tidings to the Virgin. It is fitting, therefore, that at the same time Christ also endured his saving passion.

Pilatus, after the crucifixion of Christ, later brought images of Caesar into the temple by night. But when morning came, the Jews, having seen them, were so disturbed that Pilatus, being terrified, removed them elsewhere. Tiberius, moreover, being very concerned for justice, wrote to the rulers of the cities that if he should ever write anything commanding that something be done contrary to the laws, they should not pay heed, as if he had acted in ignorance. Therefore Pilatus, knowing his love of truth and love of justice, communicated to him all the wonders of Christ and the doctrines of piety in a summary, as Tertullian relates in his Apology for the Christians, and [he noted] that after death he rose again and is now believed by all to be God. And that Tiberius, being astonished by this report, announced everything to the Senate. But it did not accept it, saying that it must obey an ancient law that no one be deified ^B unless he were judged worthy by their vote and decree. The emperor accepted this law, but he commanded that no one hinder the preaching of Christ; and he even threatened death to those who dared to accuse the preaching.

Pilatus, however, out of hatred toward the Jews, plundered the sacred treasury called the Corban and [killed] many of them. He also mingled the blood of certain of them with their sacrifices in the days of Caesar, in the following manner. The Galileans, who followed the doctrines of Judas the Galilean, of whom Luke also makes mention in his Acts of the Apostles, learned vanity and error from him, as Josephus said. ^C For under the pretext of piety, they asserted that one ought not call any man “lord” even as far as the mouth, neither for the sake of honor nor out of courtesy, and that the honor and glory befitting God alone should not be bestowed upon men. Whence also many of them endured harsh tortures for refusing to call Caesar “lord” and “master.” These people, furthermore, taught that no sacrifices should be offered to God other than those ordained in the Law of Moses. Consequently, therefore, they prevented the sacrifices that were being offered by ^D the senate of the people for the salvation of the emperor and

of the king’s salvation and the nation of the Romans. Pilate justly grew angry at these Galileans on this account, and commanded that they be killed at the sacrifices which they ^A seemed to be offering according to the law, so that the blood of those offering was mingled with the sacrifices being offered.

But truly Tiberius, who in his youth had lived most uprightly, endowed with philosophy and the art of rhetoric and the best customs and deeds—that noble man—upon reaching old age, suddenly changed to better [intentions] in mind, so that he was thought to be out of his senses and was driven by some demon to every unholy act, and to murder and to frantic madness. And not only did he defile himself excessively in those things that are in accordance with nature and contrary to nature, but to these he added ^B every kind of injustice and tyranny. Having thus administered the empire, and having lapsed from benevolence into wickedness, he ended his life in terrible cruelty and foul greed and obscenity, having gathered no benefit from his previous goodness and excellence, but rather having become hated by all, since in the end he had abused and corrupted everything. He therefore departed to endure eternal punishment along with his like; for as for those who turn aside to crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them away with those who work iniquity. It is fitting, therefore, what the Apostle said: “He who began a good work in you will complete it.” And the Lord says: “He who perseveres to the end, this one shall be saved.”

^C Eusebius, a man of great erudition and distinguished by the knowledge of many things, writing in his Annual Tables in summary about the Antiochi, the Seleucids, the Ptolemies, and the high priests who presided over the Jewish people after their return from Babylon, says these things: Alexander, the king of the Macedonians, in the sixth year of his reign, having overcome Darius the son of Arsames, destroyed the Persian empire, which had lasted from the time of Cyrus to him for 230 years. The Macedonian kingdom from Cranaus to Alexander lasted for 518 years. And when he ^D died in Babylon, the administration of the kingdom fell to Philip for Macedonia, to Antigonus for Asia, to Ptolemy son of Lagus for Egypt, and to Seleucus Nicanor for Syria. He built two cities in the parts of Cilicia and another in Syria, and he named Seleucia after his own name, Antioch after that of his son, and Laodicea after his daughter. Those who reigned over Syria after Alexander are these: Seleucus Nicanor, Antiochus nicknamed Soter, Antiochus the Bastard, Seleucus Callinicus, Alexander Antiochus, Seleucus Philopator, Antiochus Epiphanes, who deposed Onias the high priest of the Jews from the priesthood and set out to remove the whole nation from its ancestral religion. And he defiled the temple, called it the temple of Olympian Zeus, and subjecting the nation to unbearable punishments, forced them to adopt Greek customs. At which time also the Maccabees were martyred. The sanctuary was decimated for three years until Judas Maccabaeus, having driven out the impious worship from Judaea, restored it. After Epiphanes succeeded Antiochus Eupator, then Demetrius Seleucus, Alexander the son of Balas, Demetrius

Nicanor, Antiochus Tryphon, Ptolemy, Antiochus Sidites, Demetrius, Antiochus Grypus, Antiochus Cyzicenus, Seleucus the son of Grypus, under whom Antioch was captured by the Romans and the kingdom of Syria was abolished, having lasted 250 years. ^A

The kings of Egypt after Alexander were these: Ptolemy the son of Lagus, in whose time Menander the comic poet was known, and Theophrastus the philosopher; Ptolemy Philadelphus, in whose time 70 learned men of the Hebrews translated the Law; Ptolemy Euergetes, in whose time Jesus the son of Sirach, who composed the most excellent book of wisdom for the Hebrews, was known; Ptolemy Philopator, in whose time the Jewish people, having been brought as captives into Egypt, suffered such a thing. For this man commanded his bodyguards to prepare 500 elephants, and to make them drunk with wine [and] frankincense, so that they might kill the Jews. But as the Jews prayed, the elephants, having rushed upon the king's own soldiers and the crowds, destroyed a great multitude of men in their maddened state. And thus, unexpectedly saved, the Jews were released ^B unharmed to their own lands, giving thanks to God their benefactor. After him, Ptolemy surnamed Soter held the kingdom; then Ptolemy Alexander, Ptolemy his brother, Ptolemy Dionysius, and Cleopatra his daughter, whom Augustus, reigning in the 14th year of his own reign, killed, and having taken possession of Egypt, destroyed the kingdom of the Ptolemies, which had lasted 290 years.

Now the high priests who governed the Jewish people after the return from Babylon are these: Jesus, Josedecus with Zorobabel, Jacobus the son of Jesus, Joadas, the son of Josebus, Iliasimus the son of Jacimus, Johannes the son of Jodam, Jadus; while he was holding the pontificate, Alexander worshipped God in Jerusalem. ^C For being struck with wonder at the strange sight of the high priest's vestments, he alone descended from his chariot, worshipped the divine name, and greeted the high priest; whom all the Jews together with the high priest greeted in return with one voice. But as the kings of Syria and the others were amazed at this occurrence, and thought that Alexander had lost his mind, and especially Parmenion the commander of the army wondered what the matter was, because the king had prostrated himself on the ground like one of his own subjects, Alexander replied that he had not offered this honor to the pontiff, but to the God whom he served, and who had promised him aid against his enemies. For at the time when I was contemplating the war against the Persians ^D and was fearing the magnitude of their power, God appeared to me in a dream in the form of this high priest, and exhorted me to be of good courage and to proceed energetically with my plan, saying: "For into your hands I shall deliver the kingdom of the Persians." Therefore, having seen this man in such vestments, and being reminded of the vision in my sleep, I reasonably worshipped. Having said these things and having taken the high priest by the right hand, with the sacred men accompanying him, he entered the city of Jerusalem. There, the doctors of the sacred Scriptures

brought forward the book of Daniel and interpreted the prophecy to him, ^A how it behooved one of the Macedonians to conquer the kingdom of the Persians. Being greatly pleased and overjoyed at this, and having gone up to the temple, he sacrificed to God according to the instruction of the high priest; and having honored the high priest himself and all the priests worthily, and having decorated the temple with bright and magnificent offerings, he marched against the Persians. After Jaddus, [there were] Onias, Jaddus, Eleazar, Onias, Simon, Jonas, Simon; Janes, who is also Hyrcanus; Aristobulus, who was the first to add the royal diadem ^B to the high priesthood; Janeas and Alexander, [being] king and high priest at the same time. Up to this point, the anointed leaders from Cyrus held the supreme power, lasting for 483 years, which are 69 weeks of years, just as Daniel also said: "And you shall know and understand from the going forth of the command to answer and to build Jerusalem unto Christ the leader, seven weeks and sixty-two weeks." Which are 483 years. From Cyrus to Antiochus Epiphanes and that destruction of the city, there are 394 years. ^C Furthermore, he teaches us whence the start of the counting must be taken, namely not from the day in which the return to the fatherland occurred, but from the going forth of the command by which the decree was made concerning the restoration of Jerusalem. But that city was not rebuilt under Cyrus, but under Artaxerxes Longimanus. For after the return of the Jews to their fatherland, Cambyses came, then the Magi, and after them Darius the son of Hystaspes, and after him Xerxes the son of Darius, and Artabanus. Then Artaxerxes Longimanus obtained the Persian kingdom. In the twentieth year of his reign, Nehemiah went up and restored the city, just as Ezra narrated. From ^D then, 483 years have passed until the destruction of the city, as Josephus the Hebrew testifies.

Josephus records that on the very day of the Lord’s crucifixion, sounds were heard in the temple first, and then a great voice was heard from within from the innermost shrine: "Let us depart from here."

That Pontius Pilate, in the reign of Gaius Caesar, as those who have written the history of the Romans assert, was beset by various calamities and laid hands upon himself. Others say that Mary Magdalene went to Caesar to accuse him on account of Christ, and that he died by being enclosed [in a sack]—as is the custom of the Romans—of a newly flayed ox-hide, along with a cock, a viper, and an ape, and placed in the burning heat of the sun. Others say that he was skinned like a wineskin and thus died.

That the kingdom of the foreigners over Judea lasted until the younger Agrippa for one hundred years, in this manner: Herod the first, who killed the infants, [reigned] 37 years; Archelaus his son, 9; Herod his brother, 24; Herod Agrippa, he who was consumed by worms, 7; Agrippa the younger, his son, 27 years.

That the Hebrews calculate the month according to the moon, [namely] twenty-nine

and a half days, and the cyclic solar year consists of 365 and one-quarter days, the lunar twelve-month period falls short by eleven and one-quarter days. For this reason, the Jews interpose three intercalary months in eight years; for eight times eleven and one-quarter makes three months.

Tiberius, the aforementioned son of Caesar, had a brother, by whom Caius was born. Tiberius was a constant student of the astrologer Thrasyllus. Such was Thrasyllus’ skill that when Tiberius, in a fit of rage one day, had suddenly decided to throw him headlong from a wall, Thrasyllus immediately assumed a face of sorrow; and when asked by Tiberius the reason, he said that he perceived that particular hour to be most dangerous for him according to the law of the climacteric years. Tiberius, filled with admiration, spared him, says Plutarch.

Tiberius wrote to the city prefects that if he should ever command something ^B against the laws in his rescripts, they should not obey him, but attribute it to his ignorance. He also sent successors to the provincial governors slowly, sparing his subjects in this matter. When asked the reason, he told the fable of the flies that had settled on the wounds of a man, and of someone who wanted to drive them away, but was forbidden by the wounded man, who said that he was afraid that others, starved for blood, would arrive in their place.

Eusebius says that in the fifteenth year of Tiberius our Lord Jesus Christ was baptized, in accordance with the Gospel, and in the eighteenth he underwent the saving Passion, in the year of the world 5539. Josephus also writes these things concerning John the Baptist: "Some of the Jews thought that the army of Herod was destroyed by God as a very just retribution for the punishment ^C of John, called the Baptist." For Herod had killed this good man, who urged the Jews to exercise virtue, to practice justice in their dealings with one another, and piety toward God, and to receive baptism. Concerning Christ, the same author says again: "At that time, Jesus was a wise man, if indeed it is right to call him a man; for he was a worker of miraculous deeds and a teacher of men who gladly received the truth; and Christ drew to himself many even from the Greeks." After Pilate had crucified him, those who had first loved him did not cease to proclaim him; for he appeared to them on the third day alive again, the divine prophets having testified and predicted these and other ^D wondrous things about him. Tiberius, aroused by the fame of the miracles performed by Christ, wished...

[alt-version omitted]

XYLANDRI AND GOARI NOTES. This matter is debated much more correctly elsewhere. The notes which the Greeks use in designating numbers are partly obscure and to most people incomprehensible, and partly too much exposed to the depravation of inept books. Twenty-nine and a half, 29 1/2... it is necessary from the fact itself that it designates a quadrant. But certainly, multiplied by 1/4 the days make up, which is beyond three lunar months still a time of 1/2 day. Otherwise, it is clear that the lunar month was 29 1/2, the lunar year 354, the solar year 365 1/4 days.

...to the time to which these things are referred; so that this precise calculation can in no way be seen here. I have felt it necessary to warn of this, so that no one might think me to be concealing anything, for the other parts of this passage are not all intact.

^A Tiberius, having heard of the miracles concerning Christ, wished to proclaim Him God by imperial decree, but was opposed in this by the senate, as Eusebius relates. For in the time of Tiberius, after the ascension of our Lord and God, Matthias was chosen by the apostles to replace the traitor. This Judas, after hanging himself, although exhorted daily by the apostles to come to repentance, did not obey; and when he heard that Christ had been taken up into heaven, he immediately swelled up and burst asunder in the midst and perished. For if he had come to repentance, He who wishes all men to be saved would surely not have rejected him.

Tiberius was cruel by nature and given to wine; therefore the Romans called him "Biberius," which in their language signifies a drunkard. Caius, born of his brother, suffocated him as he lay ill by piling many garments upon him.

^B Gaius Julius Caesar then reigned for 7 years. He was a man utterly given over to debauchery. Once, as he was going through the forum and saw mud on the road, he summoned Flavius Vespasian, who was then aedile but later became emperor, and ordered the mud to be thrown onto his clothes, as though he were neglecting public affairs; this signified that he would receive the state in turmoil. During the reign of this same Gaius, Agrippa, king of Judea, and Simon the Magician were baptized by Philip, one of the seven deacons.

^C Claudius puts Gaius to death. Under him, Cornelius was the first of the Gentiles to be baptized by Peter, and Paul, the vessel of election, was revealed as an apostle through the manifestation of Jesus Christ. Claudius reigned for 13 years and 9 months. He was so fearful that he ordered all who approached him to be searched, lest any by chance be carrying a dagger. Even at banquets, armed guards stood by him; from him, this custom came to be practiced by the rest of the emperors as well. In his time also lived Apollonius of Tyana, a Pythagorean philosopher and sorcerer. When he had come to Byzantium, at the request of the inhabitants he practiced his magic arts to ensure that neither snakes nor scorpions would approach, nor mosquitoes be present, nor horses become restive or rage with madness against one another or against anyone else. He also restrained the river Lycus, lest by its flooding it should harm Byzantium.

^D Then an Egyptian bandit led the sicarii into the desert; the governor Felix took vengeance upon them. He called them sicarii from the *sicae*, which are small daggers carried secretly in order to strike those nearby unnoticed. About that same time, an island 30 stadia in circumference rose up between Thera and Therasia.

^A Claudius founded a city, calling it Claudipolis after his own name, and expelled the Jews from Rome. In his time, a disturbance having arisen among them during the celebration of the Passover in Jerusalem, thirty thousand were found to have been crushed ^B and died. He tyrannized not only the Jews but also slaughtered all the prominent men in Rome, and seized their estates. Furthermore, having enacted legislation for the enslavement of all, he permitted slaves to accuse their masters if they knew of any transgression committed by them. From this, a terrible calamity befell the whole world ^C as servants subjected their masters to great punishments. Moreover, having turned to madness, he committed certain lawless acts. After he had killed the murderers of Gaius, he was taken off by his own wife with poison.

During his reign, James the son of Zebedee suffered martyrdom, and Mark the Evangelist wrote the Gospel according to him at the exhortation of Peter, and being sent by him into Egypt, was the first to establish a Church there; he set up many monasteries, which were then called ^D *Semneia*, just as Eusebius Pamphili says: "We know that Mark was the first to have written the Gospel in Egypt and the first to have established a Church at Alexandria itself." Such a multitude of men and women who had believed there at the very first onset applied themselves to the most strenuous and most philosophical exercise of virtues, so that Philo, that most wise man—who also, having become an eye-witness, heard and conversed with the apostle Peter in Rome—deemed their practices, gatherings, and all other conduct of their excellent life worthy of being described. For, approving the life of the ascetics among us, he highly lauds and magnifies the apostolic men of his own time, who seem to have been descended from the Hebrews and to have been well instructed beforehand in the asceticism and life of the Essenes, which [sect] far surpassed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees. For they were descended from Jonadab the son of Rechab; these intensified [the practice of] all-virtuous poverty, righteousness, temperance, and austerity, even as Josephus says regarding... [index: entries preserved]

them: that the Essenes are Jews by race, who love one another more than others ^A do; who turn away from pleasure as from a vice, and who consider temperance, self-restraint, and remaining untroubled by the passions to be virtue. Among them, marriage is disregarded, but they take in the children of others while they are still of tender age, teaching them and regarding them as their own kin, and imprinting them with their own customs. And while they approve of lawful and chaste marriage and the succession propagated thereby, they utterly turn away from and reject wicked, God-detested unions and lewdness. Among them, wealth and the possession of many things are despised; they embrace lack of possessions as a state that is free from distraction and virtuous. And before the sun rises, they speak no profane word, but offer up prayers and psalms from the middle of the night until dawn to God with reverence and solemnity. And thus, each one is sent by the prefect ^B to the craft in which he is skilled. And until the sixth hour, having lived with watchfulness and theology, they gather in the dining hall with great reverence and much silence. The baker in his turn places the loaves before them, and the cook brings to each a vessel with a single kind of food. And before they partake of the food, which is pure and chaste, the priest prays; for they consider it unlawful to taste anything before the prayer. And again, after they have eaten, the priest prays. And, in short, both when beginning and ending, they unceasingly glorify God. And again, having endured at their tasks until evening, and having dined in the customary silence and solemn demeanor, they gather together again for prayers, having shaken off their very short and light sleep. The cause of this is their continuous fasting, and the fact that there is measured out to them food and drink that is sparse, plain, and meager. For among them there is no gluttony or filling of the belly, but rather great deficiency and frugality. He who approaches them to emulate their life is not admitted immediately ^C without scrutiny or training, but is ordered to remain outside for a year, following the same diet and regimen, and they give him a small hatchet and a loincloth and a shabby garment, and train him in good works and words. Then, after this demonstration of endurance, for two more years his character and his obedience in all things are tested; and, having appeared worthy and approved, he is thus admitted into the sacred assembly. Before all things, they require of him terrible oaths: first, that he will be pious and serve the Divine with his whole and pure soul and body; next, that he will keep all things that are just toward men and will act without partiality, and that he will not harm anyone by intention, nor will he agree with those who are unjust, but that he will, according to his power, both care for what is just and strive entirely to turn away from a life of pleasure, excess, and unbridled conduct until death. In addition to these things, they swear again to pass on none of the doctrines and these holy customs to anyone else, except as he himself exactly received them, and to refrain...

^A from every contrary opinion and worship, and to devote themselves to this divine religion and state until death, with piety and reverence. Many of them obtain this through perpetual exercise and purity, so that by divine nod and grace they even foresee the future, while they are instructed by constant study of the oracles of the prophets and the rest of the sacred Scriptures, to which they are intently devoted.

In this study, when Josephus had progressed to the highest perfection and desired to make even greater strides, having heard that someone was living a life of solitude in the desert named Abbas—who was covered by clothing of tree leaves and used food that the earth produced of its own accord—he was moved by emulation of such absolute exercise and repaired to him, and after spending three years with the man he returned to the city and followed the righteous life of the Pharisees. ^B

Furthermore, Philo, as has been said, makes clear mention of our Hebrew ascetics who have appeared, in the book which he inscribed concerning the life dedicated to contemplation, whom he named Therapeutae, and the women using the same habit and manners, Therapeutrides. And he says they were called Therapeutae either because they heal, like physicians, the souls of those who come to them from the passions of wickedness, which in Greek is *therapeuein*, or because they serve God by worshiping Him purely and sincerely: for the Greek word also signifies to serve, or to be a servant. Philo then adds: Therefore, when these men first apply themselves to the study of wisdom, they resign their goods and possessions; then, having bid farewell to all the cares of life, they depart from the cities and pass their lives in solitary villas, gardens, or mountains. ^C For knowing the custom of those who sin, which is ruinous, they emulate and imitate the life of the prophets of old. This class of men is in various parts of the world (for it was necessary for the perfect good to reach both Greeks and Barbarians), but in Egypt its abundance is great, especially around Alexandria. And in every company there is a sacred building, which they call a *semneum* and a monastery, in which, living in solitude, they are initiated into the mysteries of the venerable life, bringing with them nothing—no drink, no food, nor any of the other things that are necessary for the needs of the body—but the laws and oracles inspired through the prophets and hymns and other things through which knowledge and piety increase and are perfected. ^D All the time from dawn until evening is for them an exercise; for by reading the holy Scriptures they pursue the philosophy of their fathers. They place continence as a kind of foundation in their soul, and build the other virtues upon it; for no one of them would take food or drink before the setting of the sun, since they judge that to philosophize is worthy of light, and that darkness is appropriate for the needs of the body. Some even for three days are mindful of food, in whom the desire for knowledge is more deeply implanted. Others are so gladdened and delighted, feasting richly and abundantly on the doctrines provided by wisdom, that even for a double—

^A space of time they endure, scarcely having accustomed themselves to taste food every sixth day. But the explanations ^B of the divine oracles are produced for them by means of allegories. For all the legislation seems to these men to resemble a living creature, and to have as its body the literal sentences, but as its soul the invisible mind stored up beneath the words. ^C Likewise, there are women of the same holy way of life and state, most of whom are aged and virgins, having preserved their chastity not by necessity, as some of the priestesses among the Greeks do for the sake of temporary praise, but from a good choice, longing for the future and eternal goods.

That Philo wrote these things at the time when the proclamation of the Gospel was first spread abroad, when he himself had seen the first established customs of the apostles, is clear to everyone, and Eusebius testifies to this in his Ecclesiastical History and in his writing to Marinus. The same thing is also said by the great Athanasius. For he says there are two kinds of life and ways of living in the world: the one more moderate and human, which is in marriage; the other, angelic, apostolic, and incomparable, which is that of virginity and the monastic life. If someone enters into the worldly one, that is, marriage, he is not to be blamed, yet he will not receive such great gifts; he will receive them, however, because he is one who bears thirtyfold fruit. But if someone embraces that chaste and supermundane life, even if it seems harsh and difficult in the beginning, yet once the struggle is legitimately completed and the hardships endured, he will obtain gifts worthy of greater admiration; for he has brought forth hundredfold fruit, perfect and fully— ^D —complete, splendid in every way, and distinguished by holy dignity. Therefore, just as the old law was divided into two kinds of life, one Pharisaic and sublime, the other inferior and subject to the necessities of this life, so also the new law according to Christianity is distributed into a monastic and sublime manner of living, and a common one.

Pharisees, therefore, are so called by interpretation as those who are separated and divided, because they separated themselves from all others so that they might lead a life most pure and most accurate according to the prescription of the law. The teachers of the law, called Scribes, also followed this same way of life. On both sides there are the same practices of continence, virginity, fasting twice in the week, the washing of measures, plates, and cups, and the tithing of first-fruits, constant prayers, and all the rest. The marvelous Essenes, however, are superior to them, far excelling them. Indeed, Paul, having followed the Pharisaic life as most excellent, does not obscurely boast of this fact, calling himself a Hebrew from the Hebrews and a Pharisee according to the law. Therefore, our Lord, clearly prescribing the more perfect and angelic life, not unjustly warned those who desire the heavenly inheritance that they would not enter into the kingdom of heaven unless they had attained a righteousness more abundant than that of the Pharisees and Scribes.

^A And hence that apostolic Dionysius, preaching the holy order of monks, speaks thus: "The highest of all sacred orders is the order of monks, purged most exactly according to their entire capacity, and adorned with the total chastity of their actions. It is for this reason that our blessed forebears thought themselves worthy to be called by sacred names, styling themselves Theraputae and monks, because they serve God chastely."

I have deemed it necessary to gather and report these few things out of many for the sake of those who dispute when and whence the order and way of life of monks began. Where then are those who oppose images, who impiously and foolishly reject and spit upon the monastic life together with the other divine traditions and institutions of the apostolic Church, those fresh Jews? Who, following their own impious and god-detested initiator, Copronymus, assert that this order is new and recent, deceived by the height of insanity, madness, and stupidity, understanding neither what they say nor of what they speak with such certitude? But we, following the doctrine of the holy Fathers, believe it to be ancient and old. ^B

But also the great Basil, when speaking of self-denial and the monastic life, said thus: "For this reason, our philanthropic Lord, providing for our salvation, divided the lives of men into two kinds, marriage and virginity, so that he who might be unable to endure the struggle of virginity and asceticism might enter into the cohabitation of a wife, knowing this: that he shall be required to give an account of self-control and holiness, and of his likeness to those saints who, both in the Old and New Testaments, lived in matrimony. For all men, both monks and those in marriage, shall be required to give an account of their obedience to the Gospel." For it will suffice for him who has entered into marriage to receive indulgence for the sake of his incontinence, his desire for the female, and their sexual union. But the rest of the commandments, having been ordained for all alike, are not safe for those who violate them, ^C as the Lord says to his own disciples: "What I say to you, I say to all." But also the great theologian Gregory and the holy John Chrysostom and many others of the divine and blessed Fathers, in their various works, ^D confirm from every side in their writings that this ancient and apostolic way of life [is]...

[alt-version omitted]

^A is truly the tradition of the solitary life. And if we should also bring forward some witnesses from outside to this testimony, let no one find fault with us. For it is with good reason that Plato, indicating how rare those things are which are absolute, says: "It does not seem possible to me for men to become blessed and happy, except for a few. As long as we live, we define this; for many are wand-bearers, but philosophers are rare and few. A good deed and faith is to attain all things after death." Whereupon he brought in a man simple and noble, according to Aeschylus. "There shall be for him honors and gifts, since he is thought to be such. It is unclear, therefore, whether he is such for the sake of justice or for the sake of gifts and honors. He must, therefore, be stripped of everything except justice, and made to be the opposite of the former. For, possessing nothing, let him have the reputation of the greatest injustice, so that he may be tested for justice, not being disposed toward evil reputation or ambition and what arises from it, but let him be changed until death, appearing unjust throughout his life." And indeed, even his teacher Socrates said to him: "Are we to fear and obey the judgment of the many, or rather, despising all others, are we to revere the judgment of the one, if there be any who understands what is right, and fear and be ashamed before him more than all the others? If we do not follow him, we shall be terribly harmed. Therefore, O best of men, we must not consider what the many will say to us, but what he understands of the just and unjust, which is the truth." ^B These things truly appear to be closer to our own sacred and apostolic words, in which the great Paul says: "By the weapons of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed," and so on. Such, therefore, was the teaching which Socrates and Plato absolutely set forth concerning justice and a life pleasing to God—truly marvelous and worthy of praise, as it is consistent with the natural reason of men. For nature instructs all men in moral teachings. For when God had created the human race, He implanted in its nature the discernment of good and evil; He also instructs the nations and endows man with knowledge. ^C Wherefore, not only Socrates and Plato and certain others of the Greeks loathed the unjust life, but even many of the Barbarians. For they say that the Hyperboreans dwell beyond the Rhipaean mountains, applying themselves with assiduous zeal to justice; for they do not eat flesh, but are nourished by the fruits of trees and drink water, and the Brahmans dwell in the forests, covering their bodies with leaves and practicing [virtue] beyond human capacity. They also say that Anacharsis the Scythian was a philosopher, and was so inflamed by the love of wisdom that he became most renowned for his great discipline and temperance. For not only, while awake, did he struggle against the motions of the soul, silent and quiet, ^D but even while sleeping he gave evidence of the signs of temperance and self-control. For he was accustomed to...

^A keep his private parts with his left hand, and to hold his lips with his right, signifying that the contest against the tongue is much more serious, and that it requires greater protection to ensure its safety. The Greeks also relate that Chiron the Centaur was a teacher of justice and purity, a fact to which Homer also testifies, calling him the most just of the Centaurs, surely because of his great endurance, self-control, subjection of the body, and disciplined care. Hence Plato likewise clearly teaches, saying: "One should tend to the body for the sake of the soul's harmony, through which one is able to live and to live rightly, and to proclaim the message of truth." This the divine Paul also said: "I discipline my body and bring it into subjection," ^B meaning that I train it with knowledge and prudence for exercise and stability, and for the cooperation of the higher faculties, not making provision for licentiousness. Plato, therefore, is in perfect agreement with our teachings, having exhorted us to provide the necessary and proper care for the body. He further indicated and explained how the passion of base desire and wicked habit begins and increases, saying that the beginning of love is sight, but hope increases the passion, memory feeds it, and habit preserves it. For this reason, Socrates taught that one should avoid the gazes and kisses of the beautiful, because they are accustomed to inject poison more harmful than that of scorpions and vipers. Hence, seeing a certain young man kiss a handsome youth, he said: "This man would easily leap upon swords or cast himself into fire," knowing that he had dared to kindle such a pyre within himself. Diogenes, seeing a young man adorned more lasciviously than becomes his sex, said: "If you adorn yourself thus for men, you are unfortunate; if for women, you act unjustly." For men use ornamentation to capture women, while women and effeminate men use it to capture men. Indeed, Agesilaus also loved a beautiful boy, and when the boy offered him a kiss, he rejected it, avoiding the harm. Alexander did not even consent to look at the daughters of Darius, though they were exceedingly beautiful and virgins, deeming it shameful for one who had conquered men to be vanquished by women. Thus, too, Cyrus, king of the Persians, would not even look at a certain young woman who had been set aside for him and was praised for having beauty beyond measure; and he even dissuaded the man who told him that he saw her frequently and suffered no harm from it, saying that he should neither do nor say such a thing. "For fire," he said, "burns those standing near it, but beauty burns even those standing at a distance." Since, therefore, loving is born from sight, and from loving comes consent, and from consent the deed is brought to completion, for this reason Christ also judged the one who intemperately feasts his eyes an adulterer, checking ^D not only the act but also the thought beforehand. And Socrates again, teaching that one should fiercely guard against and keep watch over intemperance, said that one should not eat unless very hungry, nor drink unless urged by a vehement thirst; and indeed the Lord declared such ones blessed in the enumeration of the beatitudes.

^A After Claudius, his son Nero reigned for fourteen years. Concerning him there was an oracle: "The last of the descendants of Aeneas shall rule as a matricide," for he was descended from the lineage of Aeneas, Romulus, and Augustus. Having secured his power, he slipped into unholy acts and practiced things foreign to a kingdom, playing the lyre, performing tragedies, and dancing in the theaters. In addition to these things, he added to all his lawless crimes the abomination of fighting against God, becoming the first persecutor of the Divine Word. After this, when a plot against him was revealed, he was driven to the height of madness and killed his mother, his sister, his wife, and countless others of his own kin and noble men in Rome, fearing he might be attacked by them in an uprising. After killing his wife, he married a eunuch. This man Nero slew the chief apostles Peter and Paul and many other martyrs. During his reign, the Jews also killed James, the brother of the Lord, who from his mother’s womb had remained chaste; he had never drunk wine or other intoxicating drinks, had never eaten anything that had breathed, no razor had ever touched his head, nor had he been anointed with oil or used a bath. This man was established as bishop of the Church in Jerusalem while the Lord was still present; his knees had become calloused like a camel's from constantly bending to worship God. ^B Because of his transcendent justice and marvelous way of life, he was called "Just" and *Oblias* (46), which signifies the fortification and justice of the people. Since this angelic James was held in reverence and was greatly renowned, at the time of the Passover festival, when many myriads of Jews had flocked into the city, the scribes and priests set him upon the pinnacle of the Temple; and wishing to scatter the preaching of Christ, they said with a loud voice: "We ask you, O Just One, to tell the people not to be led astray behind the one who is called Christ. For we all obey you, knowing that you are just and impartial. Tell us, what is the gate of Jesus?" And he, answering, said: "Why do you ask me about Christ? He himself is sitting in heaven at the right hand of God, and he is going to come upon the clouds of heaven and render to each according to his deeds." Many, therefore, being convinced by the testimony of James, cried out saying: "Hosanna to the Son of David." But when the lawless high priests and Pharisees heard these things, ^C they cried out: "Woe! Even the Just One has been led astray," and in their fury they cast him down. Falling, he did not die, and they began to stone him; but he, having placed his knees on the ground, prayed, saying: "I beseech thee, O God the Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."

Xylander and Goar's Notes

^A One of the sons of Rechab cried out, saying: "Cease, what are you doing? The Just One prays rather for us." And a certain fuller running up struck him on the head with his fuller's club and killed him. They buried him near the temple and raised a pillar over his monument. After his martyrdom, Jerusalem was besieged at the very feet [of the event]. For Josephus says: "These things happened to the Jews in retribution for James the Just, who was the brother of Jesus the one called Christ, since the Jews slew a man who was most righteous."

Under this Emperor Nero, Simon Magus came to Rome and, performing many signs through sorcery, called himself God. When the great apostle Peter at that time reached Rome and went to the magician, he found a dog of great size bound by a chain at the gate, by which Simon, having bound him, prevented anyone he did not wish from entering to him; and this was the ^B first wonder for one about to enter to Simon. Peter, seeing the dog so large and savage, and learning that he had killed many who had attempted to enter before the commissioning of Simon, took hold of him and released him, saying: "Enter to Simon and say to him with a human voice, 'Peter the servant of Christ desires to enter to you.'" And when the dog immediately ran in and spoke thus, those who were with Simon were astonished, saying: "Who is Peter, and what is such great power of his?" To whom Simon says: "Let this not strike you as strange, for I also will do this." And he ordered the dog to say with a human voice to Peter to enter. When the dog had done this, Peter entered to Simon, and by engaging with Simon in miracle-working, Peter prevailed by healing ^C diseases, and many, having believed, were baptized. And there was a great disturbance and confusion in Rome before Peter and Simon, because they were performing miracles against one another. The prefect reported these things to Nero. Nero, having ordered them to be brought before him, says to Simon: "Are you the one they call Christ?" He says: "I am." When he similarly asked Peter if this man was truly the Christ, Peter answered: "He is not; far be it. For I am a disciple of that one who was crucified and rose again and was taken up into the heavens." Nero, as if they were both triflers, quickly drove them from his presence. They continued ^D dwelling in Rome and performing miracles against one another. One of the days, Simon, having ordered a bull of great size to be brought to him, spoke into its ear, and immediately the bull died. Peter, having prayed to God, raised it up. The people, seeing this, marveled, saying: "Truly, to bring to life is a greater miracle than to kill." And indeed they performed many other signs, not only in Rome but also previously in Syria, which Clement the Roman, a man most wise, a disciple of Peter and companion on his travels, recounted, from which we shall set down a few things here.

When the blessed apostle Peter was teaching the people to reverence and worship the one who is over all, [original-script column: see facsimile]

^A Simon, who was standing outside the crowd, shouted: "Why do you attempt, by lying, to lead the simple crowd surrounding you into error, persuading them that they should neither think that gods exist, nor that they exist at all, even though the books of the Hebrews say that there are many gods? But concerning the God of whom you spoke: if I show that He is not the highest and almighty God, inasmuch as He is ignorant of the future, imperfect, needy, not good, and subject to various passions according to your own Scripture, then another must necessarily remain who is prescient, perfect, indigent of nothing, good, and exempt from every passion—of which the one you boast of as the Maker of the world and the highest God is the opposite. ^B For instance, Adam, who was created in the likeness of your God, was created blind and without knowledge of good or evil, and he is found to be a transgressor, is cast out of Paradise, and is condemned to death. Likewise, the one who fashioned him, since he does not see everywhere, says concerning the destruction of Sodom: 'I will go down and see whether they are acting in accordance with the cry that has come to me, and if not, that I may know'—and he shows himself to be ignorant. And his saying concerning Adam, 'Let us cast him out, lest he stretch forth his hand and take of the tree of life and eat and live forever,' is a sign of ignorance and envy. Just as these words, 'And God regretted that He had made man,' are evidence that he is subject to regret and ignorant of future events. And the words, 'The Lord smelled a sweet savor,' are a sign that he is needy, just as his testing of Abraham and others is not a sign of a good being who already foreknew the end of their endurance." ^C But Peter said to Simon: "If Adam was created blind, as you say, how did God, when commanding him, point and say, 'But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat'?" And Simon said: "His mind was blind." And Peter said: "How could his mind have been blind when he had, before the tasting of the fruit, appropriately given names to all the animals?" That Adam and Eve had their eyes of both soul and body open, is clear from this: "For the woman saw," it is written, "that the tree was good for food and pleasant to the eyes to behold and beautiful to consider, and having taken of its fruit, she ate, and she gave also to her husband." If, therefore, they ate having seen that the tree and the fruit were good, it is evident that even before the eating of the fruit they had knowledge of good and of evil, and very keen sight capable of seeing each thing. ^D Therefore, the words "their eyes were opened" are not set down in this sense, as if they had only been gifted with sight after the eating and the transgression, seeing as I have demonstrated that they were endowed with it before; but because they had lost through the transgression their simplicity, which was ignorant of all evil and which provided an indifferent knowledge, it was said that their eyes were opened. For the eye is of such a nature that it is stirred by the mind toward the things it sees, because the eye does not have understanding of itself, and hence it is often occupied with other things of the mind.

Thus, when we are accused, we excuse ourselves by attributing the cause to the preoccupation of our reasoning. So too were Adam and Eve awakened by the sense of the mind toward the object ^A of sight. For [p. 209] "Their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked" denotes a revelation that had come to be in the intellect, not a new power of sight for the eyes, and thus Scripture has called the sense that comes after sin by that name; for immediately after sin, the conscience is struck. And Simon says: "If Adam had foreknowledge, why did he not foresee the deception through sight and the woman?" And Peter says: "If he did not have foreknowledge, how did he impose names upon his sons, corresponding to their future deeds, as soon as they were born?" For he named the firstborn Cain, which means "Zeal," since he, having felt ^B zeal, slew his brother Abel, the name of which is interpreted as "Mourning," for it was over him, the first to be murdered, that his parents mourned. If Adam, being God's work and creature, had foreknowledge, much more so did God, who created him. For that God truly foreknows, He declares to Abraham: "Know you shall know that your seed shall be a sojourner in a foreign land, and they shall enslave it for four hundred years; but I will judge the nation whom they shall serve, and after these things they shall go out from here with many possessions; but you shall go to your fathers, having been nourished in peace in a good old age. And in the fourth generation they shall return here." What then? Did not Moses and the remaining prophets foretell the sins of Israel, and its disobedience toward Christ, and its dispersion among the nations? If Moses and the other prophets knew the future through the grace of God, how is it that God Himself, who spoke in them, does not know the things that are to be? Therefore, expressions such as "He bethought Himself," that is, he repented, and "Having descended I will see" are spoken ^C economically. And indeed, the statement "He was tempting Abraham," and "The Lord smelled," and whatever else of this kind there may be, have been spoken condescendingly because of our infirmity; for that He does not crave sacrifices is shown by the prophet David, saying: "Shall I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?" Hence, the Son of God, who was begotten of Him before all ages and in the last times was born of the Virgin for our salvation, interpreting these and such things to those who were ignorant of the fact that God the Father foreknows all things, said: "For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things before you ask him." And to those who supposed that He does not see all things, He said: "Pray in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you in the open." And to those who thought Him not to be good, He rebuked them saying: "If ^D you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask Him?" And to those who suppose that He craves sacrifices, He declared: "God desires mercy and not sacrifices." And to those who assume

to bestow good gifts, how much more shall ^A your heavenly Father give good things to them that ask Him? To those who thought He was desirous of sacrifices, He expressly declared: Mercy is required by God, and not sacrifice. To those who thought He was evil, He thus exhorts them: Be merciful, as your heavenly Father. To those who through error thought there were many gods, on their account He says: That they might know Thee the only true God; and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. Also, I praise Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth. And furthermore, to the scribe who asked what was the first commandment of the Law, He answered: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.

^B But Simon, seeing himself brought into a tight corner by Peter with testimonies of the sacred Scriptures in the dispute regarding God, and not wishing for a judgment to be made on the controversy, slunk away, defeated and with great shame. For that most wicked man was highly skilled in diabolical operations, but devoid of spiritual doctrine. Indeed, he was so well-practiced in magic arts and the deceits of Satan that no one who had been famous before him for diabolical inventions and sorcery could easily be compared with him. For he made statues to walk, and when rolled into fire he was not burned; he would fly into the air, turn stones into bread, become a dragon, change himself into gold, and transform himself into serpents and other animals; he would become two-faced, open doors that were closed and secured with bolts, untie iron chains, and in feasts he would set up phantoms of all sorts of shapes; he would make household utensils move of their own accord for service, with no one appearing who carried them; he would also make many shadows precede him, which he said were the souls of the dead. And many who had tried to expose him as a sorcerer and impostor, he would invite to a feast after pretending to return to their favor, and there, after slaughtering an ox and treating them in diverse ways, he would strike them with the most difficult diseases and evil spirits, and he did many other things through the ministry of demons. Once, when sought by the Caesar for punishment as an impostor, he fled, having imposed his own form upon Faustus, a disciple of Peter; and this Faustus, returning to Peter, was harassed by everyone who took him for Simon. Peter, looking upon him, as he saw him sad and weeping, said: Simon the Magus, O Faustus, has perverted your form. For fearing for himself because he was being sought by Caesar, he fled, having imposed his own form upon you, so that by your being captured and killed, he might bring upon us great sorrow and calamity. But God will soon deliver you from the form of that seducer of the people and adversary of the truth, and will restore your own to you. And this was done instantly, while Peter was still speaking, with all of us watching. These and other similar things Clemens wrote were said and done in Syria.

^C But at Rome, when, as we have related, Peter and Simon had gone out from Nero, Simon said to Peter: You say that Christ your God was taken up into the heaven. ^D

^A And I also am being taken up. And when Peter saw him being lifted up by magic into the air in the middle of the city of Rome, he prayed, and immediately Simon fell and was crushed and died. The place that received his unclean and most polluted body was thenceforth called the Simonium. Concerning him, the great apostle Peter thus speaks in the Apostolic Constitutions: "The beginning of the new heresies took its rise from Simon Magus, who both in Syria performed many monstrous things and, having come to Rome, greatly vexed the Church by magic and diabolical energy and experience. For indeed at Caesarea Stratonis, having met me, Peter, he attempted to distort the word of God, while the holy children were with me—Zacchaeus, who had once been a tax collector, Barnabas, and Aquila, the brother of Clement the Roman—having also been a disciple of Paul our fellow-apostle and coworker in the Gospel; and having argued with him a third time in their presence from the words of the prophets and concerning the monarchy of God, I defeated him by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ and cast him into speechlessness, and I drove him as a fugitive into Italy. But, as I said, when he was in Rome, he greatly disturbed the Church, overturning many things and claiming them for himself, and deceiving the nations by magic art and the energy of demons. And he, having once gone out in the middle of the day into the theatre, promised to fly through the air, with all wondering at this. But I, Peter, was praying to myself. And indeed, being lifted up by demons, he was flying high into the air, saying that he was going up into the heavens and from there would provide good things to the people. But the demons, applauding him as a god, I stretched my hands toward the heights and implored God to dash down the destroyer. Having fixed my gaze, therefore, I said to Simon: 'If I am an apostle of Jesus Christ, and not a deceiver like you, O Simon, I command the evil powers to let go of your grasp.' And when I had said this, he was brought down with a great sound and was crushed; and when the crowd shouted, 'There is one God whom Peter proclaims,' thus the first of the Simonian heresies was destroyed in Rome and was utterly extinguished. For this reason the Romans also keep the day of that Saturday as a festival." ^{B C} Nero, however, hearing that Simon had been killed by Peter, and being indignant, ordered him to be crucified. And Peter, having entreated the prefect that he might not be crucified upright as the Lord was, was crucified head downwards. ^D But after the death of Peter, as Eusebius is the author, the apostle Paul, having come after the first defense from Judea as a prisoner, having made his defense before Nero, was sent to preaching the word. And from there, as it seems, Luke wrote the Acts of the Apostles up to that time, for as long as he was with Paul. For he was not with Paul at the time when he was put to death; which the Apostle clearly says: No

^A one stood with me in the first defense, but all deserted me. May it not be reckoned against them. He wrote the second epistle to Timothy while he was in prison, at the same time signifying his former defense before Nero, whom he rightly called a lion because of the inhumanity and beastly nature of his character. And he attaches the end which was at hand, saying: “I was delivered from the mouth of the lion; and the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will save me for his heavenly kingdom,” intimating that his martyrdom would soon occur. Which he also declares more openly in the same epistle, in these words: “For I am already being poured out, and the time of my departure is at hand.” Having therefore finished his first defense and having again set out upon the ministry of preaching, he then returned to Rome a prisoner, and having been likewise handed over to Nero, he received the crown of martyrdom by the sword on the 29th of June, the same day on which Peter had been crucified a year before; after a period of one year, as were also Mark and Luke the evangelists and James the brother of the Lord, as has been said before. Now, the blessed Luke was crucified upon a fruit-bearing olive tree, as no dry wood was found in that place for the making of a cross. ^B And someone took his body and, having buried it among many other tombs, made his grave unknown. When his disciples later sought it and could not find his tomb because of the multitude of the monuments, God, moved by their prayers, rained down medicinal salves *that night upon the tomb of the Apostle—symbols of the craft he had practiced—and by these the tomb became known. His holy and venerable relics were brought in the time of Constantius (47), son of Constantine the Great, through the agency of Saint Artemius, to Constantinople, and were placed in the Church of the Holy Apostles, beneath the holy altar, together with Andrew and Timothy the holy apostles.

^C The Jews, therefore, after the ascension of the Lord, remained unassailed for forty years, the divine forbearance granting them time for repentance, that by acknowledging their error they might amend their wrongdoings. But they rather inclined toward the worse, and being moved by envy, they slew the saints: Stephen, James the son of Zebedee, James the brother of the Lord, and others. Therefore, they justly drew upon themselves the divinely-inflicted total destruction. Whence awesome and manifest portents were shown to them, foretelling the capture that was about to befall them. For at the time of the feast of Unleavened Bread, about the ninth hour of the night, such a light shone around the altar and the temple and lasted for a whole hour that it seemed to be day. Then a star in the shape of a sword appeared above the city. At another time, the gate of the city, which ^D

^A is called the Eastern Gate, composed of bronze and reinforced with iron bars, and which thirty men could scarcely open, was seen to open of its own accord about the eighth hour of the night. Again, before sunset, chariots and armed armies were seen in the sky, coursing through the air and surrounding the cities of Judea most terrifyingly. Four years before the destruction, on the feast of Tabernacles, while the city was still at peace, a man named Jesus suddenly came into the midst of the people and cried out: "A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four quarters of the world, a voice against Jerusalem and the entire nation." This he went about crying incessantly throughout the whole city for several days. Because of this, certain of the citizens, becoming indignant, scourged him, but he cried out at every blow, "Woe, woe, woe to Jerusalem!" During that same festival, an ox brought for sacrifice gave birth to a lamb in the middle of the temple—a portent which, I believe, clearly signaled the utter destruction that was to befall them.

^B When the Jews had rebelled against the Roman subjection, Nero sent his son Vespasian and his grandson Titus, who destroyed it. By divine revelation, all the Christians had departed from Jerusalem, and only the Jews from every part of the country were in the city, having gathered there for the Paschal feast, where they were trapped as if in a prison, the number of the multitude being counted at about three million. And all of them justly received the destruction threatened them by God on account of their fighting against God and their slaughter of Christ our God, which they dared to commit. For Vespasian, while residing in Palestine, was named emperor by the army after the death of Nero and departed for Rome, leaving his son Titus there. He constructed siege engines and all kinds of towers, and warred against the walls of Jerusalem in two ways. He drove the Jews from the outer wall and forced them back to the second. Thence, after great struggles, he drove them back to the third wall, where a fierce battle was joined, and many from both sides were slain. In the meantime, while the city was being ravaged by an unbearable famine, one could see atrocities within, committed by lawless plunderers, far worse than the damage cause by the enemies outside. For if they saw a door locked, they would break it down, rush in, and snatch the morsel from the very mouths of the people. ^C Because of this, they would torture the elderly, lacerate women, and dash infants to the ground. They would stop up the natural passages with peas and pierce the posteriors of the miserable wretches with sharp rods, thus forcing them to reveal a single handful of hidden flour. They would even eat uprooted weeds, and mothers neglected their own infants as they withered away in their hands from hunger, taking no account of those dying before their very eyes. Every house was filled with corpses, and, emitting a stench, they brought on a grievous plague, by which more perished than by the war. For what was not consumed? At that time, also, a certain noble and wealthy woman, Mary by name, who had fled from the countryside into the city, after having been despoiled of all her property by the soldiers, slaughtered the infant whom she was still nursing at her breast:

she cooked and ate half of it, and kept the rest. The soldiers, perceiving the smell ^A and bursting in, threatened to kill her if she did not show them the portion. She brought out the remains of the little child and said, "This was once my own genuine offspring, but now it is a most miserable meal. Eat also, for I too have eaten; and do not prove yourselves more compassionate than I, who gave birth to him. But if you are averse to it, leave the remainder for me." When they saw and heard these things, they beat their faces and went out trembling. Thus, the infant who had been well brought into the world from the womb returned wickedly into the same womb. And this, too, is recorded as a sign of the divine wrath. For, as the battle was joining fiercely in that region, a sudden and violent whirlwind fell between the two sides, which directed the missiles launched by the Romans straight at the Jews, while it deflected the missiles launched by the Jews against them. When the Romans saw the eyes of their enemies obscured by the whirlwind, they secretly climbed up and slaughtered them with intensity ^B.

After two years, Titus, having taken Jerusalem, burned all of it and the temple within it with fire. Then indeed the anointing and the judgment were abolished, and the desolation of it was fulfilled in the end, that is to say, they reaped as fruit their finished destruction and the fullest desolation of their disobedience. But why should I say much? That very man, Josephus, being a lover of truth, chronicles this, having been present there during the war and the ruin of the city. Anyone who reads him will know more clearly. He says that the people, with their infants and wives, were numbered at three million; and he writes that one million, one hundred thousand men perished by famine, by civil war, and in the tunnels into which they had voluntarily shut themselves and slaughtered one another. He wrote that those among them who were in the prime of life and physically excellent were taken to Rome in a triumph to fight with wild beasts; of the rest of the multitude, those over seventeen years of age were sent in chains to the works in Egypt, and most were dispersed into the provinces to be destroyed there in theaters by swords and wild beasts; but he ordered those under seventeen years of age to be led away as captives to be sold—and he estimates the number of these men alone to be ninety thousand.

^C Then it is said that such a plague occurred in Rome that for many days more than ten thousand people were carried out dead every day. Then also they say that the Rhodians erected a Colossus, a bronze statue to Zeus, one hundred and twenty-seven feet high.

After the capture of Jerusalem, Symeon, son of Cleopas, succeeded to the throne of Jerusalem. ^D

This Nero, filled with irrational madness, slew his own mother, his sister, his wife, and all his kinsmen, as well as most of the notable Romans. Because of his foul and lustful life, his table was struck from heaven. Immediately, certain primary men began to plot against him

^A and intended to kill him. He urged those accompanying him to kill him. And as no one dared to do this, “I alone,” he said, “neither have a friend who might save me, nor an enemy who might kill me.” His soul desired to die, but his hand would not obey. And finally, saying, “O Zeus, what an artist and cithara-player dies with me!” he took his own life. After he was dead, some wore felt caps, as though they had obtained their liberty. Regarding him, Flavius, one of those who conspired against him, when questioned by Nero—with whom he was quite intimate—as to why he also was against him, said, “I have pursued you, more than any other, with both love and hatred; I loved you because I hoped you would be a good emperor, but I now hate you for your deeds; for I cannot serve a charioteer, a hunter, or a cithara-player.”

In the time of Nero, Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus was shown to be the best consul in Rome. The senate sent men to summon him to assume the office. He happened at that time to be working his field for sowing, following his oxen without a tunic, wearing only a loincloth and a cap on his head. When someone ran forward and commanded him to adorn himself more appropriately, he went into his hut, dressed, and came forth. They greeted him as consul and clothed him in the purple-bordered robe. Quinctius waited a little while and wept, saying, “Then my field will not be sown for me this year? And shall we be in danger of having nothing to eat?”

That the name of the annual cycle, in the Roman tongue, indicates the message—for the beginning reveals the period—is what is called the Indiction. But Greece appropriately named it the *epinemesis* (apportioning). For in ancient times, the tax was not imposed upon the subjects in an unalterable and fixed amount, but was imposed upon them humanely according to the yield of the crops, so that when it was meager they paid less, and when it was abundant the tax was not increased. Thus, they contributed to the collectors in proportion, and only when necessity required it. When no one was demanding it, they paid no tax at all, but the entire fruit of their labor was left to the farmers.

Galba reigned for 9 months and 13 days; he was of the patrician class, and had Otho as a rival for [the] empire. When Otho saw that Galba had chosen Lucius for adoption, he was consumed by envy and, having stirred up the army against him, killed him. When Otho was demanded by the soldiers for the money which he had promised them, he replied that an emperor ought not to be coerced. ^D Otho reigned for 3 months and 8 days; he was of an obscure family. Once, while performing a sacred rite in the temple, Otho mixed the songs of Venus into the sacred acts, and for this reason, Vitellius having stirred up sedition against him, he [took] his own [life] with a small sword.

^A saying, "For what need had I to sing or play upon long pipes?"

Vitellius ruled for one year, being of an illustrious family. He commanded all astrologers, astronomers, and magicians to depart from Italy within a specified day. They distributed a pamphlet, predicting that his life would end within that specified day. The outcome confirmed this prediction, as Vitellius was killed by soldiers.

Vespasian, the son of Nero, ruled for ten years and eight days. The empire was bestowed upon him in Palestine, while he was still besieging the cities of the Jews. He also took the historian Josephus captive. Setting out for Rome, having been declared emperor by the army, he left his son Titus to besiege Palestine. In the first year of Vespasian, the Capitoline temple was burned down, and in the fifth year, he himself began to rebuild it. ^B

Titus, his son, succeeded Vespasian and ruled for three years. He captured Jerusalem and burned both the city and the temple, as Josephus records. He frightened the guilty with threats, not with punishments. For while he was emperor, not a day passed in which he did not bestow some gift or benefit upon one of his subjects. He used to say that it was the role of an emperor to do good and to be ready to grant petitions. He would grant the requests of all who addressed him. And when one of his familiars asked him why he did this, when he often did not fulfill his promises, he replied, "Because no one should depart from the emperor sad." ^C This Titus, having traveled all day in the heat of summer, and blood having gushed from his nostrils, and having been scorched by the sun, fell into a faint; while he was still alive, his brother Domitian cast him into a wooden chest full of snow, as if to apply a remedy, and thus killed him. That admirable Titus, therefore, well-formed in philosophy, most eloquent, most warlike, and most moderate, adorned with great benevolence, temperance, justice, and prudence, demonstrated his readiness to show pity especially in the destruction of Jerusalem. For he then vehemently deplored the Jews, who were tormented by God, and he wept even more when he saw the temple of God burning; and he prayed to God for pardon, because these things did not happen by his own will, but because of the impious perversity of the Jews. And when, after the city was razed, his own people proclaimed him victor and triumphant, he rejected these titles, saying that he had not done these things himself, but had lent his hands as a minister ^D to divine wrath. Then, because he was held in honor and love by all for his virtue and humility, he perished in the manner we have described. Moreover, such great mourning arose in Rome at his death that for a long time men, remembering and reflecting upon his virtues, mourned publicly and privately in their homes, as if each had suffered his own personal misfortune.

In his second year, there was a great fire in Rome. And by decree of the Senate, Titus was called a god. This Titus

^A in a two-year siege captured Jerusalem and burned and destroyed it entirely, as had been foretold, and he burned the temple according to the Lord’s prediction. For when the disciples spoke to Him about the temple, that it was adorned with beautiful stones and votive offerings, He said: “All these things which you see, days will come in which there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.” “And when you shall see Jerusalem compassed about with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is come.” “And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days.” For there shall be great distress and wrath upon this people, and they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the nations until the times of the nations be fulfilled. And there shall be such affliction as has never been, nor shall ever be. Now the Jews, the enemies of their own life, have suffered all these things, having been subjugated by the Romans, because they had rejected Christ, the King of all, and had impiously drawn upon themselves the kingdom of the Romans, crying out, “We have no king but Caesar,” and, “His blood be upon us and upon our children.” Wherefore, even until the completion of time, their children shall possess the dispersion and the misery into all nations, like some fugitive slaves branded with marks, unable to perform any of the lawful rites. For the Romans, having them as tributaries, do not permit them to use their own laws, because they willingly drew slavery upon themselves, saying, “We have no king but Caesar,” and, “If we do not kill Christ, all will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away our place and nation.” Which things they prophesied ^B even unwillingly. For indeed the nations have believed in Him, and they themselves have been deprived of their power by the Romans and of their worship, and they are prevented from killing whom they wish and from sacrificing when they desire. Wherefore they are also accursed, being unable to perform the things that are commanded. For it says: “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all that is written in the Book of the Law, to do them.” And it is impossible for those who are in dispersion among nations to perform completely the things of the Law and the worship prescribed in one place, as Moses commanded in the word of the Lord.

What then do you say to these things, O Jews? And what is the cause of so many and such great evils that have overtaken you? Have you at last understood that it was not by offending a fellow-servant, but by offending God Himself, that you have deservedly suffered these things and are enduring such unforgivable pains? For Isaiah speaks of you in the person of God, saying: “I have begotten and raised up children, but they have rejected Me.” And, “What shall I do to My vineyard, and I have not done it to it? For I waited that it might bring forth grapes, but it brought forth thorns. And I waited that it might perform judgment, but it performed lawlessness, and not justice, but a cry.” But what thorns does He speak of, and what lawlessness and cry? ^C It is manifest that, ^D You too, Jews, what do you say to these things? What is the cause of so many and such great evils that have happened to you? Do you understand that it is because you have offended not a fellow-servant, but God Himself, and that therefore you are paying such heavy penalties without forgiveness? For Isaiah indeed speaks of you as follows, in the person of God: “I have begotten and raised up children, but they have rejected Me.” Likewise, “What more remains that I should still expend as labor upon this vineyard, which I have not yet expended? I awaited that it might produce grapes: but behold, it produced thorns. I awaited that they might act justly, but they brought forth injustice and a cry.” What, indeed, are these thorns and

what is the clamor that he notes? None other than the thorns from which you wove the crown for him, amid unjust sufferings, shouting: “Take him away, take him away, crucify him!” Thus also Jeremiah says: “My inheritance has become for me as a lion in the forest; it has raised up its voice against me, therefore I hated it.” Solomon also says: “Go forth, ^A you daughters of Zion, and behold the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding.” By mother, according to the flesh, he means the synagogue of the Jews; for he says, “My flesh is of them.” The day of his wedding is that on which he betrothed to himself the Church from the Gentiles. But that foolish synagogue, having placed a crown of thorns upon his head, mocking him, said: “Hail, King of the Jews!” To whom, remonstrating more severely, Isaiah said: “Against whom have you made merry? And against whom have you let loose your tongue, you children of destruction and wicked seed?” Hence the Lord himself, through the prophet Hosea, laments them thus, saying: “Woe to them, for they have started away from me.” They are miserable, because they have acted impiously against me and have devised evil things against me; and therefore Israel has been swallowed up and has come to nothing, and is as a useless vessel among the nations. And through Jeremiah, again, he says: “Your own defection will chasten you, and your wickedness will convict you, and you will know that it is bitter for you to forsake me.” But the blessed David, as if cut to the heart against you, prays against those who had insolently vexed the Lord, saying: “Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see, and bow their back down always. Pour out upon them thy wrath, and let the fury of thy anger take hold of them. Add iniquity unto their iniquity, and let them not enter into thy justice. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous. Scatter them by thy power, and bring them down, O Lord, my protector. And let them be taken in their pride in the wrath of completion, and they shall not exist. And they shall know that God is Lord of Jacob and of the ends of the earth.” By which, indeed, it is implied that they, having been justly dispersed by the judgment of God, will by all means know that Christ is the God of their father Jacob. In the same way, Moses also, who saw God, rebukes you as impure, stupid, and ungrateful. “Children,” he says, ^C “worthy of blame, a crooked and perverse generation, do you thus repay the Lord? This is a foolish and unwise people. Is not he himself your Father, who bought you, and made you, and fashioned you?” And hence God rightly declares: “I said, I will scatter them; I will cause their memory to cease from among men.” And indeed, the illustrious Jeremiah, explaining very clearly who this is who has been treated thus by you, says: “The Spirit before our face, Christ the Lord, was taken in your corruptions,” of whose ^D crown they spoke when they shouted: “Take him away, take him away, crucify him!” As also in Jeremiah: “My inheritance has become to me as a lion in the forest. It gave forth its voice against me, and for this reason I hated it.” And Solomon says: “Go forth, daughters of Zion, and behold in the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding.” By his mother according to the flesh, he means (49) the synagogue of the Jews. For he says, “My flesh is of them.” And the day of his wedding is that on which he betrothed to himself the Church from the Gentiles. But that foolish synagogue, having placed a crown of thorns upon his head, mocking him said: “Hail, King of the Jews!” To whom, remonstrating more sharply, Isaiah said: “In whom have you made merry? And at whom have you let loose your tongue, you children of destruction and wicked seed?” Whence the Lord himself through the prophet Hosea said complainingly: “Woe to them, for they have leaped away from me.” They are miserable, because they have acted ungodly against me and have devised evil things against me. And for this reason Israel has been swallowed up and has come to naught, and as a vessel useless among the nations. And through Jeremiah again he says: “Your apostasy will chasten you, and your wickedness will convict you, and you will know that it is bitter for you to forsake me.” But the divine David, as if being sawed apart against you, prays against the dishonored Lord, saying: “Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see, and bow down their back always. Pour out upon them thy wrath, and let the fury of thy anger take hold of them. Add iniquity to their iniquity, and let them not enter into thy justice; let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and let them not be written with the righteous. Scatter them in thy power, and bring them down, O my protector Lord. And let them be caught in their pride in the wrath of destruction, and they shall not exist. And they shall know that God rules over Jacob and the ends of the earth.” Upon which, of course, having been justly dispersed, they will surely recognize that God is the Christ of their father Jacob. So indeed also the God-seer Moses, shaming you as detestable and foolish and ungrateful [P. 220], said: “Children worthy of blame, a crooked and perverse generation, do you thus repay the Lord? This is a foolish and unwise people. Is not he himself thy Father who acquired thee and made thee and fashioned thee?” And thence rightly says God: “I said, I will scatter them, and I will cause their memory to cease from men.” And moreover, the glorious Jeremiah, very clearly explaining who this is who has suffered these things at your hands, says: “The Spirit before our face, Christ the Lord, was caught in your corruption, of whom

we said, ‘Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.’” ^A Such things, moreover, Solomon also explicitly heralds beforehand in your person, you who oppose God, saying: “Let us lie in wait for the righteous, because he is difficult for us and opposes our works, and reproaches us with sins against the law, and boasts of having knowledge of God, and calls himself the Son of the Lord. He has become to us a reproach to our thoughts, and he is grievous to us even in being beheld, because his life is unlike others and his paths are changed. We were considered by him as counterfeit, and he abstains from our ways as from uncleanness. He declares blessed the latter end of the just, and boasts that God is his Father. Let us see if his words are true, and let us test what will happen at his end; for if he is righteous and the Son of God, he will help him and deliver him from the hand of those who rise up against him. ^B Let us test him with insult and torture, that we may know his gentleness and prove his forbearance. Let us condemn him to a shameful death, and let us see if there will be for him a visitation from his words.” He brought these things forward, mocking your madness and ill-will very well: “These things they reasoned and were led astray; for their evil blinded them, and they did not know the mysteries of God.” ^C And indeed, the divine Isaiah, lamenting those whom he also addresses in harmony, says: “Woe to their soul, because they have devised an evil counsel against themselves, saying, ‘Let us bind the righteous man, because he is difficult for us.’” Thus the cause of your alienation and abandonment by God, and of the continuous and endless misery, has been demonstrated most clearly, if you wish to hear and understand. And while the prophets have spoken of a definite time for your captivity in Babylon, they also heralded your return and the rebuilding of the city. For listen to Jeremiah saying to you: “Because of the sins you have committed against God, you shall be led away captive to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Entering therefore into Babylon, you shall be there seventy years. And after this I will bring you out from there in peace, says the Lord.” And again: “They shall serve the barbarians for seventy years, and at the completion of the seventy years I will restore Israel to his place, says the Lord.” And concerning the rebuilding of the city, Isaiah said: “Thus says the Lord to my Christ, Cyrus, whose right hand I have taken hold of, to cause nations to obey before him. He shall build my city and shall send back the captivity of my people.” ^D Concerning this building, Haggai also says: “In the second year, in the time of Darius, the Lord spoke to me, saying: ‘Speak now to Zerubbabel, and to Joshua the priest, and to all the remnant of the people, saying: Who among you is there who saw this house in its former glory? And how do you see it now, as if it were not before you? And now be strong, Zerubbabel, and Joshua, and all the people, and build the house; and I will be glorified in it, and the glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord.’” Just as therefore the first temple was built by Solomon, so the later one, and after which no other

builder of the second and last. For Zechariah says: “The hands of Zorobabel have laid the foundations of this house, and his hands shall finish it.” If then another were intended to rise again, the prophet would have said, “And the glory of this latter house shall be greater than those before.” But by saying, “greater than the former,” he indicated the second to be the latter and final one. For just as there is no building prior to the first, so there is no building subsequent to the final one. ^B Therefore, if he had said that the second was greater than the first, it would be reasonable to expect a third building; but since he called the second the “latter,” he clearly indicated that it was the final building of both the city and the temple. And you are deceived in vain, O Jews, awaiting the restoration of these after the destruction by Vespasian and Titus. Nay, the sacred psalmist David, even before these events, says in the person of the captive people: “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion, and they who held us captive asked us for hymns.” And elsewhere he adds, concerning the city: ^C “The Lord building Jerusalem will gather together the dispersions of Israel.” And again, in the person of the people, he says: “When the Lord returns the captive people to their homeland, Jacob shall exult and Israel shall rejoice.” Therefore, you are in great error, being ignorant of the Scriptures and the mystical and divinely inspired predictions contained within them. Regarding this final captivity, God has fixed no time, nor did the prophet show any restoration; but all the prophets proclaimed the captivity, the cessation of your kingdom, and the desolation of the city, not a return and restoration of the city in any way, but only its total destruction, your ruin, and the perpetual ^D punishment and dispersion among all nations. For the archangel says to Daniel: “The anointing shall be abolished, and there shall be no judgment; and he shall destroy the city and the sanctuary with the leader who is coming; and they shall be cut off as in a flood, and sacrifice and libation shall be taken away, and upon the temple there shall be the abomination of desolation, and a completion shall be given.” For by the “anointing,” he indicated the priesthood; by the “judgment,” he indicated the kingdom and the administration of the commonwealth; he indicated the destruction of all other things, and by the “flood” and the “cutting off,” he marked the extreme betrayal. When therefore, O blind Jew, you hear “completion,” what else do you look for? But if, reading these things, you do not perceive—as indeed you do not perceive—about your own unexpected recall, and therefore, not understanding the truth, you resist it: listen in this digression to the voices of the prophets, and lay aside your insane zeal for contention. The prophet Hosea speaks thus: “I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel; and I will no longer have mercy on that house, but in every work I will be opposed to them, says the Lord. Because their evil strivings are hateful to me, and I will cast them out of my house, and I will no longer love them, says the Lord.” The roots of Ephraim are corrupted; it is dried up, nor does it bring forth fruit.

^A And God shall thrust them away, because they did not listen to Him, and they shall be wanderers among the nations. Malachi also says: “There is no pleasure for me in you, says the Lord Almighty, and I will not receive a sacrifice from your hands; for from the rising of the sun even to the setting, my name is glorified among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure sacrifice. For my name is great among the nations, says the Lord Almighty; but you profane it. ^B Therefore I will deliver you up, despised and brought low among all nations, because you did not keep my commandments.” Therefore Jeremiah says: “Thus says the Lord Almighty: Behold, I have sworn by my great name, that henceforth my name shall not be called upon in the mouth of any man of Judah.” If he says that he will remove his name from the Jews, it is manifest that the same is to be understood regarding the law and the sacrifices. Therefore, it was not primarily according to the divine will that the legislation concerning sacrifices was given. And hence, he spoke these things through the prophets: “Who has required these things from your hands?” And, “Do vows and flesh take away your sins?” And, “Did you offer me sacrifices and victims for forty years in the wilderness?” And, “Why do you bring me incense from Saba, and cinnamon from a land far away?” ^C Therefore he says: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire.” And, “Does God want whole burnt offerings and sacrifices, or obedience to him?” and, “Obedience is better than sacrifice.” And, “If you had desired sacrifice, I would have given it; but you will not approve of whole burnt offerings.” And indeed, he casts out the feasts as well, adding and saying: “I have hated and rejected your feasts, and remove from me the sound of your songs; and I will not hear the psalm of your instruments. And I do not endure the great day, and my soul hates fasting and idleness; and I did not choose such a fast.” And, “I will give you statutes that are not good, by which you shall not live in them.” ^D Therefore, it was according to the hardness of your hearts, and not according to his goodness, that he gave you those statutes; and indeed, there is no change. Since, therefore, Israel was ungrateful and most thankless from of old, and had forsaken the truly existent and pre-existing God, who had created and benefited him in many parts and in many ways, and had completely departed from God his Savior, and sacrificed his sons and his daughters to demons, and had worshiped and bowed down to the creature instead of the Creator, saying to wood and stone: “You are my god, you have be

begotten me” [Jer. 2:27], did the wretch not shudder and become stupified at ^A denying the living and true God who had begotten him, and forgetting the God who had nourished him? Wherefore, finally, God loathed him as useless, and turned away from him entirely, saying through David: “And my people did not hear my voice, and Israel did not attend to me, and I sent them away to follow after the devices of their hearts” [Ps. 81:11–12]. Likewise, He also says through Zechariah: “And I said, I will not shepherd you; let that which dies, die, and that which perishes, perish” [Zech. 11:9], and the rest. “Let each man eat the flesh of his neighbor” [Jer. 19:9]. And having thus rendered himself hateful, corrupt, and in every way abominable through his most shameful and God-hated practices, he was, quite naturally and most justly, finally cast down and abandoned, just as the divine Malachi again says: “Israel fell, and shall not rise again” [Amos 5:2]. Thus also Isaiah says: “Who will spare thee, Israel, or who will return you to peace? says the Lord. You shall go backward, and I will stretch out my hand, and I will destroy you, and I will scatter you, and I will no longer release you” [cf. Isa. 47:3; Jer. 15:6]. “And behold, I am taking and scattering you, and the city which I gave to you, and I will give you over to eternal reproach and eternal dishonor, which shall not be forgotten” [Jer. 23:40]. Those things which concern this final and ultimate destruction, the great and divinely-speaking Moses, and after him the ^B divinely-inspired prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah, having fore-declared, have made them very clear, and exceedingly plain even to the most unlearned. For Moses says in Deuteronomy: “And the Lord will bring nations against you from afar, from the end of the earth, like the swooping of an eagle, and a nation shameless of countenance, and it will crush you in all your cities, until your high and fortified walls are pulled down, in which you have put your trust. And you shall eat the offspring of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters, because of your having nothing left in the straitness and affliction where the enemy shall afflict you in all your cities. And the tender and delicate woman among you, she who went out from her womb, even the child which she will bear, will eat in secret, because of the lack of all things in that straitness and affliction [Deut. 28:49–53, 56–57]. You shall be a proverb, a parable, and a narrative among all the nations to which the Lord will lead you away, until He destroys you. And you who were equal to the stars of heaven in number will remain in very few numbers, because you did not heed the voice of the Lord your God. And it shall be, in the same way the Lord rejoiced over you, to destroy you, you shall be removed from that good land, and the Lord your God will scatter you among all the nations from the end of the earth even to the end of the earth. Moreover, even among those nations, He will not grant you rest, nor shall there be a place to stand for the sole of your foot. And the Lord your God will give you there a despondent heart, and failing eyes, and a soul wasting away with grief [Deut. 28:37, 62–65]. You shall be in fear day and night. Morning, from the fear of your heart, you will wish for evening, and at evening for morning” [Deut. 28:66–67]. Let these things be for Ezekiel: “Thus says the Lord God: Behold, O Jerusalem, I am coming against you, and in your midst, before the nations, I will judge you. I will do in you things which I have not done before to anyone, nor will I do thereafter; and this because of the fullness of your impiety. Fathers shall be eaten by children and children by their parents in your midst. I will take vengeance on you, and I will scatter all the survivors to all the corners of the world, for the reason that, besides the rest with which you have offended Me, you have also polluted My temple. And so I will repel you from Me, and I will have no mercy on you at all. A fourth part of you shall be consumed by pestilence, and a fourth [part] of you shall perish by the sword in your midst, and a third part of you shall be scattered into every wind, and I will draw out a sword after them."

^A And you will say in the morning, out of the fear of your heart, "Would that it were evening!" And in the evening you will say, "Would that it were morning!" But Ezekiel said: "Thus says the Lord Adonai: Behold, I am against you, O Jerusalem, and I will execute judgment in your midst before the nations, and I will do to you what I have not done, and I will not do the like of them again. Furthermore, because of all your abominations, for this reason fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers. And I will execute judgments in you, and I will scatter all the remnant into every wind, because you defiled my holy things with all your abominations. And I will cast you off, and I will not have pity on you anymore. Your fourth part shall be consumed by death, and your fourth part shall be completed by famine before you, in your midst, ^B and your fourth part shall fall by the sword around you, and your fourth part I will scatter into every wind. And indeed, war and the sword shall destroy from without, while famine and death shall destroy from within. And those of them who are saved shall be consumed. And I will leave a remnant of them from the sword and the famine and the death, so that they may declare all their iniquities among the nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord who strikes." For this reason, the holy Chrysostom also says: "He does not destroy all utterly, but scatters them." For the divine David, foreshadowing this, said to Him: "Do not slay them," that is to say, all at once, "but scatter them," that is, from among them, "in your power."

Concerning, however, His second coming and manifestation, and the great and unconsolable affliction, Zechariah spoke of them: "Then the Lord our God shall come, and there shall be a great wailing in Jerusalem; for they shall look on Him whom they pierced." But into Him whom they pierced? What is the "into Him"? It was the Cross into which they pierced. For before the terrible coming of the Lord, just as a royal sign—called a *signum* by common custom—runs ahead of the presence of Christ, being glorified and announced beforehand by the angels, so too then a sign will ^C precede Him. For the Cross will appear from the earth, hiding the sun and dimming the moon, as the Lord says: "Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven." And that the word of Zechariah might be fulfilled, Christ adopted this very expression, taking it into the truth, saying: "Then they shall look on Him whom they pierced."

Jeremiah, likewise, says: "Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing evils upon this place, so that the ears of everyone who hears them shall tingle, because they have forsaken Me and have estranged this place. And I will slaughter the counsel of Judah and the counsel of Israel in this place, and I will strike them down with the sword before their enemies. And I will give their dead bodies to be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth. And I will make this city a desolation and an everlasting hissing, so that all who pass through it shall be amazed and shake their heads." ^D You, therefore, O foolish and senseless Jew, see whether these divine predictions have not been fulfilled in every detail by your calamities, and in fact even those which Christ predicted? For He pronounced concerning Jerusalem and the temple that was in it, that stone [should not be] left upon stone.

^A And has it remained? Not at all. And, "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate." Has it not been laid waste? Indeed, it has, and exceedingly so. And, "There shall be tribulation such as has not been." Has it not come to pass? Read the history of Josephus, a man who was a Jew and a lover of truth; and you will not even be able to catch your breath while listening to what the miserable Jews suffered at that time because of their rabid fury and madness against Christ. For so that no Jew might doubt these things, the Truth provided not some foreigner, but a fellow-countryman ^B and someone of the same religion and highly devoted to the Jews, to describe in tragic fashion those pitiful and heart-rending calamities. For they suffered a divine devastation such as history has never known since the time that man was created upon the earth. And with good reason; for as long as they sinned against their fellow servants, they obtained forgiveness, but when they assaulted the common Lord of all, they were subjected to punishment without any mercy.

And you will understand that this was inflicted upon them by Christ from the parable proposed by Him: "Those, however, who did not want me to be king over them, bring them here and slay them." Therefore, He also said to them: "The kingdom shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation producing its fruits." ^C And to Jerusalem He says: "The days shall come upon you, and your enemies will throw a rampart around you, and will encircle you, and will close you in on every side, and will dash your children to the ground in you!" And to the unbelieving Jews He adds, saying: "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate."

This is also what the divine Daniel predicted, saying: "And the city and the holy place he will destroy with the coming leader"—that is, God the Father of all the Jews will overturn their venerable and celebrated things. But also the Son, Christ, whom they were expecting as their redeemer and Savior. For He did not say, "The city and the temple will be destroyed with the leader," as some absurdly imagine; ^D but He means this: "The Father will destroy the temple and the city, while that leader whom the Jews treated with insults will work with Him; concerning which leader Micah speaks to Bethlehem: 'Out of you shall come forth a leader,' etc."

And Christ also commanded His disciples thus: "When you see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place, then let him who reads understand." That has indeed been fulfilled. First, at the time of the destruction, the Roman army entered into the house of God when the city was being captured and devastated; and for this reason, some take it as the sign of desolation, for since those soldiers were profane and wicked, they are rightly called the abominable sign of desolation in the prophecy. Next, it can be understood as the statue which the emperor Hadrian placed for himself, and he completely devastated the city. Again, Theodoret, interpreting the Danielic oracle, says: "The sacrifice and the libation shall be abolished in the middle of the week, and in the temple shall be set the abomination of desolation, and desolation shall consume," [referring to] certain images of Caesar, which, as it was forbidden by divine law,

were introduced into the temple by Pilate. And that the Jews might not think they would again recover the temple, the city, and the kingdom, the prophet added: "And until the consummation of the time, a consummation shall be given upon the desolation." For, he says, until the consummation of the world, the consummation of the desolation remains, admitting of no change. This also David said: "In the wrath of consummation, and they shall be no more; and they shall know that God rules over Jacob and to the ends of the earth." ^A For concerning this final captivity of the wretched Jews, the theologian also spoke with his tongue; for he says that the cross drove them to the final madness which they devised against our Savior and God, not knowing the God who was clothed in human nature, and they brought upon themselves the iron rod which had long been threatened against them—I mean the command and kingdom that now prevails, and their final abduction and migration, and the yoke of slavery that now remains upon them, and the notorious humiliation and dispersion under the Romans, which they now possess and will possess for a very long time. For I am persuaded by the prophecies regarding them [to ask]: who is there among those who know how to write lamentations and to equal such miseries with words, who could sufficiently deplore the fortune of these people? What books ^B can contain these things? The whole inhabited world, into which they were scattered, serves as a column for them on which their calamity is inscribed; then, [their] worship was abolished, and the soil of the city is barely recognizable. Josephus, indeed, who was present there at the war, writes that three million Jews perished. Concerning these things we have spoken more fully in the empire of Nero.

^C But the divine Chrysostom, refuting the madness of these same people, among many other things also says this: "But if you dispute, O Jew, about the end, learn the present from things that have already passed. For consider it thus: You descended into Egypt; but that was an exile of four hundred years, and God soon freed you from that slavery, although you were living impiously and were polluting yourself with the foulest prostitution. You were led out of Egypt and worshipped a calf; you sacrificed your sons and your daughters to Beelphegor and to demons; ^D you polluted the temple; you perverted nature. You filled the mountains, the groves, the hills, the springs, the rivers, and the gardens with abominable sacrifices. You slaughtered prophets; you tore down altars; you went through every form of wickedness and displayed every excess of malice and impiety. But even so, after God delivered you for seventy years to the Babylonians, He again brought you back to your former freedom, and your country and the temple were restored to you, and the original gift of prophecy, and again you had prophets and the spirit...

the holy spirit. Nay, even when you were a captive, you were not destitute of these: for there too were Daniel and Ezekiel, and in Egypt Jeremiah, and even before those times Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. ^A Following these, you returned to your habitual wickedness and, reveling in impious fury, you embraced the Greek religion when the impious Antiochus was reigning. And when for three years you were given over to him, soon by the work of the Maccabees you again set up glorious trophies. Now nothing of the sort [happens], but on the contrary everything is quite the opposite; which is most ^B to be wondered at, that while the sins have ceased, the punishments have been intensified, and there is not even any hope of change. For not only have [so many] years passed, but many more; one cannot find even a shadow of hope, and this [happens even though you] do not deserve it by the worship of idols, as of old, nor by other customary crimes, nor are you doing anything for which you did not even dare to hope before.

On recounting the third and fourth,

That we may recount these matters more clearly and thoroughly, let us begin again from above. The Jews underwent three most grievous servitudes, and divine justice brought not even one upon them without a prophecy; rather, it caused both the place, and the time, and the manner, and the affliction, and the return, and all other things to be foretold ^C with great precision. Concerning the first, or Egyptian [servitude], God thus warned Abraham: "Know certainly that your seed will be sojourners in a foreign land; they shall be enslaved and afflicted for four hundred years, and in the fourth generation they shall come here." Concerning the second, Jeremiah had prophesied thus: "Thus says the Lord: When the seventy years to be spent in Babylon have been completed, I will visit you, and I will establish My good words to you, to restore you to your place; and I will turn back your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I had dispersed you, says the Lord, and I will lead you back to the place from where I had deported you." Thus ^D the account has briefly explained these two exiles; and according to those oracles they came to pass for them, being neither so grievous nor unlooked-for. It remains, therefore, that we refer to the third of their calamities, and then speak of the fourth, in which they are even today; and let us demonstrate openly that no one of the prophets promised them even a mitigation of their evils, much less an end.

What then is the third? That into which they were cast by Antiochus Epiphanes. For when Alexander, king of the Macedonians, had died—he who, after defeating Darius, had brought the supreme power to himself—many kings arose after him. From among these also arose that Antiochus, long after, who burned the temple, laid waste to the holy of holies, abolished the sacrifices, subjugated the Jews, and overturned their entire commonwealth. All these things Daniel foretold most precisely, even with the number of days specified, when each would be, by whom and in what manner they would come to pass, what end, and what change they would have. You will understand these things more clearly if you hear the explanation of the vision of Daniel. In which the prophet, through...

^A parables, announces to you: he calls the king of the Persians, Darius, a ram, and Alexander, king of the Macedonians, a goat of the goats. He says the four horns represent those who arose after him, from among whom later that very Antiochus is revealed. For he says: "I saw in a vision, and behold, there stood a ram, and it had high horns, and the one was higher than the other. And the high one came up at the last. And I saw the ram pushing against the sea, and the north, and the south, and no beast could stand before him, and there was none that could deliver out of his hand. And he did according to his will, and became great." By this, he describes the Persian power, which traversed the whole earth. Then, discoursing about the Macedonian Alexander, he says: "And behold, a male goat came from the west over the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground; and a horn was seen between the eyes of that goat." ^B Then, relating the attack and encounter that occurred with Darius and the overwhelming victory, he says: "The goat came," he says, "unto the ram that had the horns, and was moved with choler, and smote the ram, and broke his two horns, and there was none to deliver him out of his hand." Then, recounting the death of Alexander and the succession of the four kings, he adds, saying: "And when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven." Then, coming henceforth to the kingdom of Antiochus, and showing that he is from one of those four, he says again: "And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east." And signifying that he will destroy the Jewish polity, he says: "And by him the sacrifice was taken away, and transgressors did this, and it prospered. And the sanctuary shall be desolate, and sin shall be given against the sacrifice." For the altar having been cast down and the holy places trampled, he set up an idol within, and sacrificed to demons unlawfully. Wherefore he says: "And it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practiced, and prospered." Then again, speaking a second time of that same kingdom of Antiochus Epiphanes, and of the captivity and the capture and the defilement of the temple, he adds also ^C the time. For beginning from the kingdom of Alexander, ^D and at the end of the book recounting all the intermediate events—as much as the Ptolemies and Seleucids, clashing with one another, and their generals caused, their treacheries, victories, expeditions, battles, naval and land engagements—he proceeds to Antiochus and finishes again, saying: "And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and shall give the abomination; and such as do wickedly against the covenant (that is, the Jews who have defected from the law) they shall corrupt by flatteries, and they shall carry them away; but the people"

^A that know their God shall be strong (he refers to the events under the Maccabees and the actions of Judas, Simon, and John), and the prudent of the people shall understand many things. And they shall be weakened by the sword and by flame—explaining again the burning of the city—and in captivity and by the plundering of days; and when they are weakened, they shall be helped by a small help, signifying that between those evils they shall be able to take breath and recover from the hardships that have overtaken them; and many shall join themselves to them through flatteries, and because of those who have come to an understanding, they shall be weakened, showing that many even of those who stood firm shall fall. Then he also relates the cause for which God permitted them to fall into such calamities. And what is this? That He might refine them, he says, and choose them and make them white even unto the time of the end. For these things, he says, God allowed, in order to cleanse them and to show who among them were proved. Then, explaining the power of that same Antiochus, he said: And he shall do according to his will, and he shall be exalted and become magnificent. And indeed, speaking also of his blasphemous judgment, he added that he shall speak great things against the God of gods ^B and shall prosper until the indignation is accomplished, showing that it was not by his own judgment, but because of the wrath of God conceived against the Jews, that he was thus prevailing and was strong. Having therefore said in many other words what evils he will wreak upon Egypt and Palestine, and how he will return, and at whose summons, and by what necessity urged, he then also sets forth the change of these affairs, and that the Jews, having been punished by all these calamities, shall at last obtain some assistance, an angel being sent for their help: For at that time, he says, Michael the great prince shall stand up, who stands for the children of thy people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as has never been since there was a nation upon the earth even unto that time. And at that time a great multitude shall be saved, those written in the book, that is to say, those who are worthy of salvation. But what is chiefly sought has not yet been shown, namely, the time of these evils. For just as God defined years for the first calamity, and likewise seventy for the second, let us see if a certain time is also appointed here. This, therefore, we find in ^C those words which follow in the prophet. After Daniel heard of these many and great calamities, of the burning of the city, the abrogation of the law, and the servitude of the people, he desires at last to know their end, and if there be any future change of these evils. And so he asks thus: O Lord, what shall be the end of these things? And it is answered: Go thy way, Daniel, for these words are shut up until the time of the end 47. Thus the obscurity of the sayings is hinted at. And the cause is added why it was permitted for these evils to happen: Until, he says, many are chosen and refined by fire, and the ungodly shall do ungodly, and the wicked shall not understand, but the prudent shall understand. Then he names the time, how long these evils would be pressing upon the Jews: From the time, he says, that the daily sacrifice ^D shall be taken away. The daily or continual sacrifice is called the quotidian: for daily the Jews were accustomed morning and evening to dedicate to God the sacred thing.

and for this reason that sacrifice was called the constant sacrifice. ^A And it ^B changed. For this reason the angel says that from the time of the change of the constant sacrifice—that is to say, from the cessation of the sacrifice—there are 1290 days, which is three and a half years. Then, signifying that there will also be a release and deliverance from these evils, he added: "Blessed is he who waits and arrives at 1335 days," not providing 45 days in addition, because in a month and a half it happened that the conflict occurred, in which the victory was pure and the complete deliverance from the impending evils took place. For by saying, "Blessed is he who waits and arrives at 1335 days," he signaled the deliverance. And he did not say simply, "He who arrives." Since many of those who had acted wickedly saw the change, he does not call them blessed, but only those who stood firm during the times of the evils and did not betray their piety, and thus obtained relief. Could anything be clearer than this?

It is time, therefore, to come to the matter in question and to the present captivity and slavery, on account of which we have moved all these points. That the three previous captivities were foretold—one having 400 years, another 70, and another three and a half—has been sufficiently demonstrated from this, as far as possible. Come then, let us speak also of this one. For that this prophet also foretold regarding the final, fourth, and last (captivity), we shall provide Josephus himself as a witness, who held the same opinions as them. For since he spoke concerning the captivity of Antiochus and brought forward the prophet as a witness, he adds also regarding this one, and says: "In the same manner Daniel also wrote concerning the rule of the Romans, and that Jerusalem would be devastated by them and the temple destroyed." But you, observe for me the truth-loving nature of the man, who, although he was a Jew, yet did not endure (the urge) to emulate the Jewish spirit of contention and falsehood. For having said that Jerusalem would be devastated and the temple destroyed, he wrote, but he did not add where the things of the desolation would stand, since he did not find that the prophet had added anything of the sort. Where then did Daniel say that the temple would be devastated? Hearken. For since he made that prayer in sackcloth and ashes, Gabriel came to him and says: "Seventy weeks are cut off for your people and for the holy city." Behold, here too a time is mentioned, not of the captivity, but after how much time the captivity was to occur. Then again he says more accurately: "And you shall know and understand, from the going forth of the word to answer and to build Jerusalem, until Christ the leader, there shall be 7 weeks and 62 weeks." Here, pay attention to me carefully: for the whole matter in question is here. Weeks then of 7 and weeks of 62 are 483 years. For here he does not speak of weeks of days, nor of months, but weeks of years. And from Cyrus until Antiochus Epiphanes and that captivity there are 394 years. ^C Then, instructing us ^D that it is time to return to the restoration, for whose sake we brought forward these things, let us speak of the final exile of the Jews. For we have demonstrated clearly enough that the times of the three prior calamities were explicitly foretold: of 400 years, of 70 years, and of three and a half. Let us speak therefore also of the fourth: for even concerning this fourth and last, one may cite Daniel as a witness, or Josephus, a man of their own party. For when he had spoken of the Antiochian destruction and confirmed his own account by the testimony of Daniel, he brings in the following concerning the fourth: In the same way Daniel also prophesied regarding the Roman empire, that Jerusalem would be devastated by them and the temple overthrown. And consider in that man the love of truth, who, though he was a Jew, yet did not choose to imitate the Jewish lust for contentiousness and lying. For when he had written of the destruction of the city and the temple, he did not add when the end for that calamity would be, because he saw that the prophet himself had added nothing of the kind. But hear where Daniel predicted the devastation of the temple. After he had put on sackcloth and had been sprinkled with ashes and had prayed to God, Gabriel came to him and says: 70 weeks are cut off for your people and for the holy city. Behold the time, not of the delay of the calamity itself, but when it would be, is designated. Soon he says more explicitly: You shall know and understand, from the going forth of the word, when the decree shall be made to restore Jerusalem, until the dominion of the anointed one, there shall be 7 weeks and 62 weeks. And here note for me the point carefully: for this is indeed what is sought. 7 weeks and another 62 make up 483 years: for they are not understood as weeks of days, nor of months, but of years. Now from Cyrus until Antiochus Epiphanes and the city captured by him, there are 394 years. He teaches us further, from what beginning the years are to be counted: not from the day of the return, but from the publication of the decree for the restoration of the city. And yet it was not under Cyrus, but only when Artaxerxes Longimanus reigned that it was restored. For from the return of the Jews there supervened Cam-

- byses, then the Magi, and after them Darius, son of Hystaspes, after whom followed Xerxes, son of Darius, and Artabanus. Then Artaxerxes Longimanus held the Persian kingdom; in the twentieth year of his reign, Nehemiah went up and rebuilt the city, which Ezra has accurately ^A related for us. If, therefore, we place four hundred and eighty-three years from this point, we shall arrive precisely at the destruction of this city, as Josephus also bears witness yet again, saying: "It came to pass that the destruction of the city and of the temple took place according to the prophecy of Daniel, four hundred and eight years before." For this reason he says: "The street and the wall shall be built." When, therefore, it rises and receives its own form, from that time count the weeks. And after the weeks the anointing shall be blotted out, and judgment shall not be in it, as has been said before. For after the destruction that took place under Vespasian and Titus, ^B the Jews gathered together under Hadrian in a vain effort to restore their former commonwealth, fighting against God in their folly. The emperor, however, subdued them and destroyed the whole city, obliterating all its remains, and having rebuilt it after this, he named it Aelia after his own name. Hence Christ, appearing after the times of Antiochus Epiphanes, and foretelling the captivity that was about to occur, and showing that Daniel had prophesied concerning it, says: "When you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, let him who reads understand." For since every idol and every human image was called an abomination by the Jews, by hinting at that statue, he revealed simultaneously both when and by whom the city was to be destroyed. And that this is spoken of the Romans, we have also shown by the testimony of Josephus, as we have already stated. What argument then remains for them? ^C When the prophets are seen to have proclaimed the captivities together with specified times, but for this one they have set no time, but on the contrary have said that the desolation shall be until the end of the world. That they would have foretold if the present bondage were going to have an end, and would not have kept silence, we have sufficiently demonstrated, having shown that all the captivities happened according to prior declaration; for we have shown that both the manners and the times of each of these were proclaimed beforehand through the Holy Scriptures. But for the present one no prophet has fixed a time, but Daniel did predict that it would come, and would desolate everything, and would change the commonwealth, and after how much time from the return from Babylon it would happen; but that it would have an end and that matters would be settled in this regard, ^D neither he nor any other prophet declared, but rather, as has been said, they predicted the contrary, that this misery would hold them until the end of the world. And very rightly so; for the fact that so much time has elapsed since that destruction bears witness to what has been said, in all of which not even a trace or beginning of a beneficial change has shown itself. And indeed the Jews often attempted to rebuild the temple under Hadrian, Constantine, and Julian, but were prevented, first by soldiers, and under Julian by fire bursting forth from the foundations and averting their untimely and impious attempt. Let them tell us indeed what reason there is for the fact that also in Egypt the

^A long time passed while they suffered in misery, and God pitied them, and they were led captive into Babylon and thence were brought back into their fatherland, and though affected by so many evils by Antiochus, they nevertheless recovered their former dignity; yet now nothing of the kind happens, but after 500, or rather now that 1,000 years have passed since the destruction, we do not even see a semblance of the former changes appearing? But if they put forward their sins and say, "Because we sinned against God, for this reason we do not recover our own land," I, in turn, will reasonably ask them: "Is it because of your sins, O Jews, that you spend so much time outside Jerusalem? And what is new and paradoxical in this? For do you suppose that now you only live in sins, whereas at the beginning you lived in righteousness and good works? Were you not from above and from the beginning reared in lawlessness? Was it not while the sea was being cleft and the rocks were rending ^B and so many miracles were happening around the desert that you worshiped the calf? Did you not often attempt to kill Moses by throwing stones at him and in countless other ways, and did you not provoke God by blaspheming? Were you not initiated into Beelphegor? Did you not sacrifice your sons and daughters to demons and serve alien gods? Did you not exhibit every kind of sin and malice? How then did God not turn away from you then, but after your infanticides and idolatries, after your great ingratitude, even sent you various prophets, and they worked signs and strange wonders? Why then, whereas formerly you were wicked and committed ten thousand terrible deeds, did you enjoy such goodwill and protection and providence from God, while now, neither committing idolatry nor infanticide, you spend your life in captivity and misery? Unless, perhaps, the God of that time is different from the God of now, and it is not the same One who ordered those things and is bringing these things ^C about now. Otherwise, why would He have held you in such esteem when you were committing graver sins, but now, when you are delinquent in lesser things, has He turned away from you entirely and handed you over to endless disgrace? But even if you should be silent, the stones will cry out. For since you laid hands upon the Master, for that reason there is no correction remaining for you, nor pardon, nor place for defense. For those former injuries of yours were directed by you against servants; but by killing Christ in your frenzy, you have obliterated your former crimes with the magnitude of this new one. For that reason you are now afflicted with graver punishments. And yet, not even so do you set aside the folly and madness of your ancestors, still calling Christ an impostor and a violator of the law. For if He had been such as you say, it would have been fitting for you to be in even greater esteem than before on account of the death you inflicted upon Him. For if Phinehas, by slaughtering one violator of the law, appeased the wrath of God which had flared up against the whole ^D people (for it says in Scripture, "Phinehas stood and appeased God, and the slaughter ceased," and that act was reckoned to him as righteousness), how much more should it have been so acted toward you, if indeed He whom you sent to the cross was a violator of the law? Yet you still dare to ask whence it is confirmed that God has turned away from you entirely, when the matter itself cries out, and gives a voice clearer than a trumpet—the destruction of the city, the temple

and all other things. But you say, "Men brought this about, not God." If, then, these were the works of men and not of the wrath of God, your shame and suffering should have stopped at the capture [of the city] and not proceeded any further.

But let it be granted, according to your argument, that men destroyed the walls, tore down the city, and overturned the altar. Did men also cause the people to cease existing? Did men abolish the grace of the Spirit and the other magnificent things among you? Of this kind is the fact that now, neither ^B as in the past, does a voice issue from the mercy seat; nor is the efficacy of the anointing maintained; nor does the stone signify anything to the priest. For the Jewish religion did not have all its principles from earthly things, but many of the most important ones had their origin from heaven. What do I mean? When God permitted sacrifices to be offered, the altar was below, and the wood, and the knife, and the priest; but the fire that was to go into that sanctuary and consume the sacrifices had its origin from above—for man did not bring fire into the temple, but a flame brought down from heaven completed the service of the sacrifice. Again, if at any time it was necessary to learn anything, a voice would issue from between the Cherubim and the mercy seat ^C and would foretell future events. Likewise, from the stone that hung upon the breast of the high priest, which they called the "declaration," a certain brightness would emerge, foreshadowing the future. In the same way, whenever someone had to be anointed, the grace of the Spirit would descend upon him, and the oil would bubble up. Prophets were the ministers of these events, and a cloud and smoke would often occupy the sanctuary. Therefore, lest you act shamelessly and attribute your calamities to men, God not only allowed the city and the temple to be destroyed, but also caused those very things which had their origin from heaven to be taken away.

Why then are you now destitute of prophets and of all those other divine things? Is it not ^D plain that this is because God has turned away from you? From what, you ask, is this evident? From the fact that, although you were previously utterly impious, you now—after the crucifixion of Christ—appear to live more decorously, yet you pay greater penalties and possess none of the former good things; nor will you ever possess them, just as the divine predictions clearly show. Do you wish us to summon yet more prophets to our aid, who plainly declare that your affairs will meet an end, while ours will flourish, and the proclamation will be extended throughout the whole world, and another manner of sacrificing will be instituted, yours having been abolished? Indeed, I will not yet bring forward as witnesses Isaiah or Jeremiah or the others who lived before the Babylonian exile, lest you say that the evils they threatened have already been fulfilled, but rather Malachi, who, after your return from Babylon and the restoration of the city, clearly prophesied concerning your affairs. He, therefore, when the Jews

had returned and recovered the city and were building the temple and performing the sacrifices, foretelling this coming complete and final desolation and the cessation of the sacrifices, says: "Will I take a sacrifice from your hands, says the Lord Almighty? For from the rising of the sun even to its setting, my name is glorified among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure sacrifice. But you profane it" ^A. When, then, O Jews, were these things fulfilled? And when was pure incense and a pure sacrifice offered to God in every place? You could not name any other time than that which was after the coming of Christ. For if the oracle does not foretell this time, and did not intend for our sacrifice to be understood, but rather the Jewish one, it would stand in opposition to the law of God. For since Moses commanded that sacrifice be brought to no place other than the place which the Lord God had chosen, and confined those sacrifices to one single location in Jerusalem, the prophet, in saying that incense and a pure sacrifice would be offered in *every* place, contradicts and fights against Moses. But far be it from us to say this; for the one spoke of a different sacrifice, and the other of a different one. Listen also to Zephaniah saying the same things: "The Lord will appear to all the nations and will destroy all the gods of the nations, and they shall worship him, each from his own place." Although this was not permitted by the law, but Moses commanded to worship in one place only. When, therefore, you hear the prophets foretelling and proclaiming ^B beforehand that it will no longer be necessary for people to be forced to gather always into one city or one place, but that each one sitting at home will worship the Divine, what other time could you name for this matter than this present one, in which our affairs flourish throughout the whole world, while yours have been scattered, and you wander in darkness throughout the whole world? And that God did not require such sacrifices from you from the beginning, learn from the words of Isaiah: "What is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? says the Lord. And who has required these things from your hands?" If, however, he had required these things from the beginning, he would have compelled all those ancient men who shone among you to be the first to follow this practice. Why, then, he says, did he permit these things? By condescending to your weakness. And just as a physician, seeing a man suffering from fever, peevish and impatient, longing for a cold drink and threatening to kill himself if he does not receive it, desiring to prevent the greater evil, allows the lesser one to save him from a violent death—so, too, has God acted with you. For because he saw you burning with an insane desire for sacrificing, and prepared—if it were not granted to you—to defect to strange gods (or rather, not merely prepared, but having already defected), he permitted the sacrifices. And that this is the cause, it will become manifest ^C from the fact that it was only after that incestuous sacrifice which you offered to the demons at the calf that he gave you the power of sacrificing, just as if he were saying:

Are you mad and do you desire to sacrifice? Then sacrifice to me. ^A Yet even having permitted this, he did not leave it so until the end, but led them back through a very wise method. And just as that doctor, having indulged the desire of the sick man, then brings a vessel ^B from his own house and commands him to drink cold water from that alone, and once the sick man is persuaded, secretly instructs his household to break that vessel, so that he might unconsciously and without suspicion lead him away from that desire of his; so too did God act: having permitted to sacrifice, he did not allow this to be done in any place of the inhabited world, but only in Jerusalem, whence David says: "To thee a hymn is due, O God, in Zion, and to thee a vow shall be paid in Jerusalem." Then, after they had sacrificed for some time, he destroyed the city. As the doctor by the smashing of the vessel, so too did God by the destruction of the city lead them away from the matter, even against their will. For since if he had clearly said, "Depart," they would not have readily complied, through the necessity of the place he secretly led them away from the madness regarding the matter. Let the doctor, therefore, be God, the vessel the city, the sick man ^C the recalcitrant people of the Jews, and the cold drink the concession and license for the sacrifices. For if he did not wish to contrive this, for what reason did he enclose such a sacrifice in one place, who is present everywhere and fills all things? For what reason, having gathered the worship into sacrifice, the sacrifice into a place, the place into a certain time, and this into a single city, did he then destroy that very city? And it is truly a wonderful and paradoxical thing that while the whole inhabited world is granted to the Jews where it is not permitted to sacrifice, only Jerusalem, in which alone it was permitted, has become inaccessible and desolate. Concerning which matter, indeed, the divine word in the Apostolic Constitutions ^D speaks thus: "Now that Christ is conducting the matter in the flesh, God openly rejects the sacrifices of the Jews, since they had sinned against him so often and thought that they could appease God with sacrifices, and not with repentance." For he says through the prophets: "Why do you bring me incense from Saba and cinnamon from a remote land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, and your sacrifices do not please me"; and, "Gather your burnt offerings together with your sacrifices, and eat the meat, for I gave you no command when I led you out of the land of Egypt concerning sacrifices and burnt offerings." And, "What is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? I am full of burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of lambs and the blood of bulls and goats I do not desire, nor if you come to appear before me. For who has sought these things from your hands? You shall no longer tread my court. Your new moons and sabbaths and the great day I do not tolerate. Fasting and idleness

^A and your feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me. And, “Remove from me the sound of your songs, and I will not hear the melody of your instruments.” And, “I will not accept calves from your house, nor goats from your flocks. For the inhabited earth is mine, and the fullness thereof. Shall I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Sacrifice to God a sacrifice of praise.” And, “A sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit.” And simply, in all the Scriptures, God likewise rejects sacrifices because they sinned against Him out of extreme wickedness, disobedience, and hardness of heart. For the sacrifices of the ungodly are an abomination to the Lord, for they offer them unlawfully; and their sacrifices are to them as the bread of mourning, and all who eat them shall be defiled. Therefore, even to Saul the divine Samuel said, “Obedience is better than sacrifice, and to hearken is better than the fat of rams. For behold, the Lord desires sacrifice as He desires hearkening to Him.” ^B If, therefore, even before His coming, He sought a pure heart and a contrite spirit rather than sacrifice, much more, having come, did He put an end to those sacrifices of blood—not that He wanted them of old, as has been said, but that He permitted them for those who wished (them), provided they offered them with a right intention. If you desire to sacrifice, sacrifice to Me, though I do not require it. But when they became unmindful of this, and instead of God called upon a calf as their god, and attributed to it the cause of their journey out of Egypt, saying, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt”—and having denied the God who had visited them in their affliction through Moses, who had performed signs by His hand and rod, who had smitten the Egyptians with ten plagues, who had divided the Red Sea into parts and led them through the midst of the water as on dry land, who had drowned their enemies, who had made the bitter spring of Marah sweet, who had caused water to gush out of the craggy rock for their fill, who had overshadowed them with a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire against excessive heat, ^C and had illuminated and led those who did not know where to go, who had rained manna upon them from heaven and satisfied them with flesh from the sea by sending quails, who had given them the law in his mind, who had deigned that they hear the sound of His divine voice out of the thunders: this God they denied, saying to Aaron, “Make us gods who shall go before us.” And they made a molten calf, and sacrificed to the idol. Hence, then, the long-suffering God, having been angered, inasmuch as He had been treated with ingratitude by them, bound them with indissoluble bonds, with piles of burdens and the hardness of a yoke. And He no longer said, “If you do,” as He had spoken before the calf-making, but, “Make an altar, and sacrifice continually; for you are forgetful and ungrateful, that you may constantly remember Me.” Since, therefore, the wretches and thoughtless ones used their freedom badly, the Lord subsequently imposed upon them the necessity of sacrificing and abstaining from certain foods, and ^D He made a distinction between clean and unclean animals, although every animal is clean—for all things that God made are good indeed. And indeed, [the]

^A He enjoined certain separations, purifications, ablutions, tithes, abstinences, and various feast days, and he appointed a penalty for those who disobeyed, so that, being hard-pressed and constrained by the collar, they might depart from the error of polytheism. Therefore, for the hardness of their hearts He bound them, so that through offering sacrifices, abstaining from labor, purifying themselves, and observing such things, they might come to a knowledge of God who ordained and legislated these things for them; yet, on account of the wickedness of their manner of life and their ungrateful disposition, they did not cease from the very beginning to the end to forget God, and, turning aside, they worshipped the creature instead of the Creator. And sometimes, as has been said, they fashioned a calf; at other times they worshipped Beelphegor; at other times Baal, and Chamos, and the Sidonian Astarte, ^B and Moloch; and sometimes the sun, and the moon, and the stars, which God created for the illumination of men, and not for worship. At other times they even honored irrational animals, as among the Egyptians the Apis bull and the Mendesian goat, and silver and gold gods, as in Judea. For this reason, God clearly threatening them, said through the prophet: “Is this a small thing to the house of Judah, to commit these abominations which they have committed? For they have filled the land with iniquity to provoke me to anger.” Therefore, they were deservedly destroyed, since they provoked God to anger and defiled that holy land from the beginning up to this last and final destruction under Vespasian and Titus. For indeed, although different men ^C had captured and destroyed Jerusalem, says Theodoret, it was always restored to its ancient dignity and form, except for the final destruction. For first, Thelaphalasar led away captive the greater part of the ten tribes; second, Salamanassar subdued Samaria and the cities around it and drove the inhabitants into slavery; third, Sennacherib besieged the other cities of Judea and led away many captives, but having campaigned against Jerusalem, he was insolently and impiously lifted up against God and paid the just penalties for his impious blasphemies; having lost his army by a divine stroke and having departed with shame, he was killed by his own sons. After him, Nebuchadnezzar, in the third year of the reign of Joachim, the son of Josias, having arrived in Judea with an army, and having taken many talents of gold and silver, and having led away many captives of royal blood, and having taken a portion of the sacred vessels, returned home after imposing a tribute. And after a short time, Joachim ^D defaulted on the tax, and Nebuchadnezzar, in the eleventh year of his reign, and the eighth year of his own rule, campaigned against Jerusalem again; and having killed Joachim and ordered that he be thrown from the wall, he left him unburied for a time, concerning whom Jeremiah also says: “Thus says the Lord concerning Joachim, son of Josias, king of Judah: Woe unto this man! They shall not lament for him, saying, ‘Alas, brother,’ nor shall they lament saying, ‘Alas, lord,’ and ‘Alas, brother’; but he shall be buried with the burial of an ass, and being putrefied he shall be cast

^A beyond the gates of Jerusalem. Having taken all those in authority as captives, and having appointed Jeconiah, the son of Eliakim, as king over those who were left behind, he departed to Babylon. Then, learning that he too had rebelled after three months, he returned again, and having bound him with fetters, he led him away, along with many young men, as a prisoner of war, setting up after him Zedekiah, his uncle’s son, to reign over those who remained, having bound him by oaths before God not to revolt. But when he too violated the oaths, and neither wished to pay the tribute, nor kept his goodwill, but fled to the Egyptians, he [Nebuchadnezzar] came again; and having overcome Zedekiah and blinded him, and having taken the city itself, he burned the palaces, the divine temple, and every house, and led away as captives those who had been saved from the famine and the war, along with the precious vessels of the temple of the Lord.

Joel, describing the multitude of their calamities, says that first the palmerworm would come, and what was not consumed by it would be consumed by the locust, and whatever escaped this would be devoured by the cankerworm, and finally, the mildew, being brought on, would leave nothing at all unscathed. For he says: "The residue of the locust hath the cankerworm eaten," and the rest. For these things must be interpreted tropically as referring to the Assyrian and the Babylonian: designating as the palmerworm Thelaphalasar, as the locust Salmanasar, as the cankerworm Sennacherib, and as the mildew Nebuchadnezzar, who finally campaigned against and laid waste to Judæa, and enslaved those who had escaped death, as has been said. ^B Very often, therefore, it has happened that Judæa has been captured, as the great Cyril says again, by the Assyrians, and by the Egyptians, and by the Syrians, and by the Moabites, by the Idumæans, and by those called Philistines, that is, the Palestinians; but having suffered little and having sometimes fallen into moderate calamities, it was again liberated, God only chastising and again protecting the people. But now, after the crucifixion of the Lord, it has perished utterly.

Just as, therefore, the kingdom of the Assyrians was destroyed by the Babylonians, and that of the Babylonians by the Persians, and that of the Persians by the Macedonians, and that of the Macedonians by the Romans, so the Roman empire will be destroyed by the Antichrist, and that of the Antichrist will be brought to naught by Christ. Therefore, through the four winds, the great Zechariah teaches of the four great kingdoms: that of the Chaldæans, that of the Persians, that of the Macedonians, and that of the Romans. And the two mountains, he says, are the two climates of the inhabited world; for it is divided into two parts, namely Asia and Europe. And the red horses signify the murderousness of the Chaldæans; the black, the slaughter brought upon the Babylonians by the Persians and Medes; the white, the manifest glory of the Macedonians (for this kingdom was not like the other kingdoms); the grisled and spotted denote the power and vigor of the Roman empire. Since the Medes and Persians campaigned against the Babylonians, for this reason they are said to go, and indeed even to appease the wrath of God. For because the Babylonians had treated the people of God harshly, they were therefore delivered into the hands of Cyrus the Persian. Moreover, that the white horses followed the black from behind ^D

signifies that the Macedonians would conquer the kingdom of the Persians. The fact that the dappled ones go toward the south implies that the Romans were about to march against Jerusalem; for the city lies in the south. And that they were commanded to circle the earth teaches, again, that every kingdom is established by God. ^B There are, therefore, from Adam to the final destruction of Jerusalem, 5262 years; from the first building of the temple of Solomon and of the city, 1088 years; from the restoration, 596 years; from the siege of Antioch, 248 years; and from the ascension of Christ to the destruction of the city under Titus, 42 years.

In the third year of the reign of Titus, son of Vespasian, Mount Vesuvius in the west was ruptured at its highest peak and breathed forth so much fire that the region and the cities lying around it were set ablaze. When the Greeks saw this, they were vehemently amazed, and they questioned some of the prominent Christians how and whence this fire had erupted from the innermost parts of the earth. They replied that it had been sent forth from the Gehenna prepared for the devil and his angels and for all sinners and impious men, for the sake of admonishing them to repentance and for the awareness of those who sin. And [they said] it is evident from what your own renowned teacher Plato said, when discoursing in the *Phaedo* about the destinies and fulfilments of souls, that those who have lived wickedly are punished in the fiery Cocytus, in the Phlegethon, and in Tartarus, which things are in the depths of the earth. And these things those men replied to the Greeks who were at that time inquiring about the cause of the matter. ^C But the blessed Patricius, bishop of Prusa and martyr, when questioned by the proconsul judge before the whole people about the cause of the hot springs—that is, the waters that erupt from the earth hot of their own accord—responded thus: When God created fire and water from nothing, by the power of his word he made from fire the light, the sun, and the remaining stars, and ordained them to provide light for day and night. For his power is as great as his will. Furthermore, from the water he constructed the firmament of heaven and set the earth above the waters, and he crafted all things within them with a foreknowing efficacy, so that man, whom he was about to form, would lack none of the things necessary and useful for his needs. ^D In which he also prepared two eternal places; one he fashioned to be illuminated with light and filled with infinite good things, and the other he made to be shrouded in darkness and [destined] for the punishments of eternal fire, so that those who had pleased him and had not slipped into the deception of the devil, after the resurrection, having received that place of light-bearing good things, might reign eternally with him; but those who had provoked him and followed the common enemy should, with him, lament while paying the penalty in that dark prison without end. Having, therefore, separated the fire from the water, just as he had separated the darkness from the light, he distributed it in minute parts throughout all his creation. And so, the water above the firmament is the ether; and fire and water are beneath the earth.

^A And the water which is above the earth, being gathered into one collection, was called the sea, while that which remained beneath the earth was called the abyss, from which, as if through certain pipes, the springs are sent forth for the life of us and of all living creatures. Hence also the warm waters arise. And those waters which, by the providence of God, are further removed from the subterranean fire are brought forth colder, while those near the fire, being heated therefrom, are carried upward exceedingly hot; but as for those—

^B And the fire which is beneath the earth serves for the punishment of demons and sinful men, and the water at the lowest depth, being colder and frozen into blocks of ice—which is also called Tartarus—likewise serves for the torturing of those who have violated the commandments of the Lord. That there is fire beneath the earth, the fire which is manifest in Sicily and Lycia and in other various places should persuade you, likewise demonstrating that in the fearful Gehenna all those who have committed the works of fire shall manifestly be burned. Of this fire, the great Moses also speaks in the person of God, saying: *A fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains* (Deut. XXXII, 22). Thus also Isaiah exclaims, plainly proclaiming to sinners the punishment of inextinguishable fire that has long been awaiting them. *Who,* he says, *among you will declare to you that fire burns? Who will announce to you the eternal place? Walk in the light of your fire, and in the flame which ye have kindled.* (Isa. LXI [LXVI], 24). *And they shall go forth and look upon the limbs of those men who have transgressed against me, for their worm shall not die and their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be a spectacle to all flesh.* ^C And indeed, the divinely-spoken Chrysostom also says: "Observe again another paradox, opposing natures coming together. For what is more fiery than lightning or colder than water? Yet they unite in such a way that they are neither confounded nor tempered, but each preserves its own properties, both the water in the fire and the fire in the water: for the fire does not dry up the water, nor does the water extinguish the fire." And truly, lightning is sharper and brighter than solar fire; which the eyes bear witness to, for although they are perpetually illuminated by the solar rays, they cannot endure the splendor of the lightning for even a brief moment. And the sun spends the whole day traversing the heaven, but the lightning pervades the whole world in a single moment of time, as Christ also testifies, saying: *As the lightning cometh out of the east and appeareth even unto the west.* Then he adds: *He bringeth the winds out of his treasuries.* This is another nature, one which provides us with no small utility, but so much that it contributes in large part to our life, to refresh our weary bodies. For the office of the winds is to stir the air, so that it may not— ^D

^A remain stagnant and become corrupt, but may ripen the fruits and nourish the body. Who could explain their usefulness in navigation, and the fixed seasons in which they rise and yield to one another, dancing upon the sea and conveying sailors; where one winds up its blast, another succeeds it? And their conflict, as they travel in opposing paths and perform their commissions, becomes useful again for our life. And one could speak of ten thousand works of the winds. But yet the prophet, passing over all these things and declining to recount them, set forth only the ease of the creation. For in saying, "Out of his treasuries," he does not mean that there are certain treasuries of winds, but signifies how easy it is for Him who commands, to have all things at hand according to His own will. For just as we easily take from a treasury what we have in it, or, if it seems good, put it back, so the Maker of the universe made all things without effort and delivered them to nature. ^B You have seen how great is the variety in the air, just as in fire and in water there are many changes. For of water, one kind is from springs, another is sea water, another is aerial, another is in the clouds, another is above the heavens, another is above men, another is subterranean, from which also hot springs gush forth in diverse places, wonderfully heated by the fire that is under the earth. Fire, too, is of one kind in the sun, another in the moon, another in lightning, another aerial, another that issues from wood by our hand and from lamps, another that breaks forth from the earth: for in many places we see it emerge no differently than springs. Another fire is that which is cast out by the friction of stones, and another by the friction of tree branches; another is in the lightning from the ether, another is wont to leap forth from water and most pellucid and purest glass. Thus also as regards the air, one kind is thicker, which surrounds us, and is the cause of corruption and of many dangerous diseases: another is thinner, which brings to bodies a good temperament ^C and strength; another is drier and hotter. Likewise there are differences of the winds according to thinness, thickness, cold, dryness, humidity, and heat. Therefore, when the prophet had fallen into the inexhaustible abyss of these and such-like benefits of God, by which the power and wisdom of God are demonstrated, and seeing that he had entered an immense sea, he recoiled with this exclamation: "How magnified are thy works, O Lord; in wisdom hast thou made all things, and with wisdom hast thou filled both the animate and inanimate." ^D

After Titus, his brother Domitian succeeded to the empire, and he held it for 15 years and 11 months. He was slain in a temple in Rome by the plotting of his own wife. For when he had become his brother’s successor, he did not emulate the patrician and fraternal excellence of government, but rather the wickedness of Tiberius and Nero, diametrically opposed to it. And having wallowed in every kind of vice, murders, and lust poured out upon both males and females, finally, this man, estranged from God, called himself a god.

^A From then on, having shown himself to be hateful and detestable to all because of the savage and beastly nature of his polluted mind, he justly reaped the rewards of his own malice and finished his filthy and profane life by a most shameful death, as has been related.

This man, investigating the births of the leading men of Rome, and finding that there were not a few who were destined to possess great power, did away with them upon finding a pretext. He commanded that no one should plant vines in the cities. Furthermore, he ordered that those of the lineage of David and of Christ be sought out and destroyed, for he feared the coming of the Lord just as Herod the child-killer had. Now that the preaching had already gained power, ^B they brought the kinsmen of the Lord to Domitian. He asked them if they were of the descent of David and Christ, and they confessed that they were. "How great, then," he asked, "are your worldly goods?" They replied that all of them together had nine denarii and a few acres of land, from which they paid their taxes, and they showed their hands, calloused from labor. He then asked, "And what kind is Christ's kingdom, and when will it appear?" They answered that it was not worldly or earthly, but heavenly, and that it would come to pass at the end of the ages, when He would judge the living and the dead. Because of these words, he despised these men, set them free, and commanded that the persecution against the Christians be brought to a halt.

This same Domitian commanded that a certain Nerva, who had been condemned for a capital crime, be thrown alive into a fire. But when the astrologers predicted that he would be torn to pieces by a dog, a sudden heavy rain fell and extinguished the pyre, and when dogs were sent in, they devoured him while his hands were still bound. ^C A further astrologer, Largius, told Domitian to his face that he would die on that very day. Domitian ordered him to be kept in chains, so that he might kill him the following day, once that day had passed. But by the fact that the emperor was killed by his freedman Stephanus, the astrologer was released unharmed.

This man, Domitian, had Apollonius of Tyana shorn and brought in chains to the tribunal. It is said that at that time Apollonius spoke that famous verse:

"You shall not kill me, for I am not destined by fate to die."

And instantly he was removed from the sight of men, and was found at the same hour at Puteoli, a three days' journey from Rome, where he met his disciple Damis and told him what had happened to him, as Philostratus records. And he foretold the death of Nerva, who was to reign after Domitian, in his own letters. Under his reign, the apostle Timothy and Onesimus suffered martyrdom, ^D and Clement was put to death for the sake of Christ, and the evangelist John was banished to the island of Patmos as a condemned criminal.

Apollonius, having come from Rome to Byzantium, and having been entreated by the inhabitants of that city...

and drove away the multitude of snakes and scorpions from the city, so that men might not be harmed by them, and curbed the ^A unruliness of the horses in the assemblies of the rulers. Likewise, having come to Antioch, he did the same by request. For when the Antiochenes were being plagued by scorpions and mosquitoes, he fashioned a bronze scorpion, buried it in the earth, and set up a small column over it; he commanded the people to carry reeds, and as they went throughout the city, to shake the reeds and shout, "No mosquito for the city!" And thus both the scorpions and the mosquitoes were made to disappear from the city. And having been asked also about the earthquakes threatening it, he groaned and wrote these things on a tablet: "Woe to thee, miserable city, for thou shalt be brought low by many earthquakes and fires. And even the Orontes by the seashores shall weep." Concerning whom the great Anastasius, ^B Bishop of Theopolis, writes thus: "In certain places, to this day, the works of Apollonius stand and hold their efficacy, some for averting four-footed beasts and birds capable of harming men, others for damming the streams of a river flowing in disorder, and others stand as talismans for other things that bring detriment and harm to men." And not only during his life did the demons do these things and the like through him, but even after his death they persisted at his tomb and performed certain signs in his name for the deceit of miserable men, who easily allow themselves to be led into fraud in such matters by the devil. What, then, could one say about the magical works according to Manetho? He, who became such a master of magical trickery that he always openly mocked Apollonius as not having possessed an accurate philosophical ^C experience in these matters. "For it was fitting for him," he said, "to accomplish what he wished by word alone, as I am accustomed to do, and not to rely on the accomplishment of works to achieve them." Now all these things happen by the permission of God and the efficacy of demons, so that by such occurrences our orthodox faith may be tested, whether it is firm and steadfast, remaining attached to the Lord, and not allowing itself to be torn away by these illusions and diabolical prodigies, which are brought forth by the ministry of the servants of wickedness. Indeed, some have even prophesied in the name of the Lord, as Balaam, Saul, and Caiaphas, and others have cast out evil spirits, as Judas and the sons of Sceva. Thus divine grace sometimes acts even through the unworthy, in order that it may benefit others. For Balaam was a stranger ^D to both—to a good life and to faith—yet grace acted through him for the sake of the benefit of others. Pharaoh was also such a one, and yet to him were revealed things to come. And to the most impious Nebuchadnezzar, nonetheless, were revealed those things which would happen many generations later. Whence it is certain that many, even those who are opposed to the true religion, under the pretext of the name of Christ, perform miracles by another artifice to deceive the unlearned. Such was Simon Magus and Menander, and after them others like them. Therefore it has been excellently said: it is fitting not to be deceived by miracles, much less by a mere promise, but the truth of what is said must be investigated. "For by their fruits you shall know them," says the Lord.

^A Nerva reigned for one year, four months, and nine days; he was a temperate and equitable man. When news of the victory of Trajan arrived to him from Pannonia, he proceeded to the Capitol, offered incense, and having ascended the platform, he stood there and, in the presence of the Senate and the people of Rome, cried out with a loud voice: "May it be fortunate and auspicious; I adopt Trajan as my son." He forbade the castration of anyone in Rome. He died of illness. This same Nerva recalled John the Theologian from exile and allowed him to reside in Ephesus, as he was the only one of the twelve disciples still living in the world, and there he composed his Gospel and rested in peace. Concerning him, the polymath Eusebius says in his *Ecclesiastical History*: "Thomas was allotted Parthia, John Asia, where he resided until he died in Ephesus." And again: "At this time John the Evangelist also dies in the city of Ephesus in Asia, and is buried by the faithful there. Similarly, Philip, one of the seven deacons, dies in Hierapolis and is buried with his daughters." Regarding them, Polycrates, the bishop of the parish of Ephesus, writing to Victor, the bishop of Rome, says as follows: "For also in Asia great luminaries have fallen asleep, which shall rise again on the last day of the coming of the Lord; John, who reclined upon the bosom of Christ, who also wore the petalon, and having become a teacher in Ephesus, has fallen asleep; and Philip, one of the seven deacons, dies in Hierapolis." This is he who also baptized the eunuch and instructed Simon. Furthermore, the divine Hippolytus of Rome, while discussing about the divine preaching and the death of the apostles, said: "John, the brother of James, while preaching the Word of God in Asia, was deported to the island of Patmos under the emperor of the Romans, Domitian. Thence, having been recalled from exile by Nerva to Ephesus, and having composed his Gospel and having seen the revelation, he died at the age of one hundred and six; his body was sought, but not found." ^B And Caesarius, the brother of the great Gregory, died in Ephesus. This James also wore a golden petalon on his head.

Xylander and Goar’s Notes

(53-54) And thus it is also read in Eusebius, [from whom] it appears that Cedrenus took these things. But what the *petalon* is, I do not yet know sufficiently, unless I suspect, according to the collections of Suidas, that it was a woolen cap, an insignia of a doctor, which was worn for the sake of honor and authority by a primary doctor of the Church, such as the *apices* of the *flamines* were formerly. XYL. That the doctor also adorned the doctor with insignias, and that he wore a woolen cap in the manner of the *flamines*, Xylander believed. Thus he balances gold with wool, and endows the apostle, inspired by the Holy Spirit and a primary doctor of the Church, with the honor of the *flamines*. But did the Apostle not rather wish to manifest the dignity of an ancient priest, equaled by some title, and the majesty of a new one, by assuming a certain insignia of his, when he displayed a golden plate or lamina hanging upon his forehead? Jerome, *On Ecclesiastical Writers*, on Polycrates: Concerning the note existing in ancient editions of Cedrenus, conjoined by two letters, I conjecture it to indicate or, as Xylander opines, or finally, unless the *e* stands in the way, let another choose a conjecture that pleases him or bring forward a more certain one. GOAR.

^C Regarding James, the brother of the Lord, Epiphanius relates a similar thing in *Heresies* LXVI: "This interpreter James wore a *bractea* on his head." GOAR.

(55) Likewise Suidas and in the Greek [text], ... I do not know how to read: perhaps it is "senate". That this Caesarius was master of the palace of Theodosius the First is in Nicephorus XII, 44. That differs greatly from what Gregory of Nyssa has in his *Life of Nazianzen*, that Caesarius died while Constantius was emperor. XYL.

^A . . . at Constantinople, when asked about this, he answered saying: John himself in the Gospel according to him, at the end, made this clear, saying: And having said this, Jesus says to him (that is, to Peter): "Follow me." But Peter, having turned, sees the disciple whom Jesus loved following, and says: "Lord, but what of this man?" And Jesus says to him: "If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?" Since, therefore, he had found them fishing, he ordered Peter alone to follow him. And he, wishing for John also to go along, said: "Lord, but what of this man?" Jesus, having foretold that he should wait at the fishing, says: "If I want him to remain here and fish until I return and come again hither, what is that to you?" Thus, therefore, most excellently correcting their mistaken supposition, he spoke reasonably, and Jesus did not say to him that he would not die. For, indeed, in many instances they were often mistaken regarding the questions and answers of Christ, and they heard, "O foolish men and slow of heart," until the Holy Spirit came and guided them into all truth, according to the word of the Lord. But if anyone, contentiously and rashly answering ^B or supposed to be gathering from these sacred utterances and testimonies untimely, says: "He was left alive in the flesh after Enoch and Elijah to herald the second coming of Christ," let him hear that he speaks only of those two whom he himself, through the revelation, says will be the two witnesses for the Lord, Enoch and Elijah, saying thus: "And I will give to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy 1260 days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two lamps. Fire goes out of their mouth and devours their enemies. And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the abyss will make war with them, and will conquer and will kill them, and their bodies will lie unburied for three days and a half on the square of the great city, where also their Lord was crucified." In vain, therefore, do some babble, saying that he still lives in the body, and not understanding what they say or what they are so confidently asserting, presenting this invention from their own minds and not from sacred interpreters, recklessly and boldly as they do.

After Nerva, Trajan reigned 19 years, 6 months, 15 days. He was ^C hostile to the wicked and a lover of justice. For once, having unsheathed a sword in the presence of all the nobility, he gave it to the prefect, saying: "Receive this; and if I rule well, use it for me; but if not, against me." He was appointed by Nerva because of his virtue, as he was a man most warlike and had performed many great achievements in Rome and everywhere on earth. When a certain friend of his was accused of having plotted against him, and had plucked out his own eyes with his own hands and shaved his beard, as he was led blind to Trajan, being much grieved for his friend, he appointed him to the city which he had built and named after himself, the now Trajanopolis, and sent him there to live as master of the city, looking after him throughout his life with every care. The same man issued an edict that Christians should not be sought out, but if they were brought before him, they should be punished. Under him, Menander the Samaritan, an heir of Simon Magus.

a sorcerer and deceiver who called himself Christ, succeeded him. Cerinthus was also of that time, as was Nicolaus, one of the seven deacons, both heads of sects and enemies of the truth. Under him, Saint Ignatius the Theophorus and Symeon the son of Cleopas suffered martyrdom. Trajan dies, having appointed his son-in-law Hadrian as emperor. ^A

Aelius Hadrianus reigned for twenty-four years. He was an African by descent, a lover of letters, skilled in both prose and poetry, a kinsman of Trajan, and adopted by him. While hunting in Mysia, he founded a city and renamed it Adrianotheras, in the hunting grounds. Likewise, he founded another city in Thrace, calling it Adrianople, and [built] a temple in Cyzicus. ^B Under him, the Jews revolted and intended to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem; he was extremely angered at them and, a war breaking out between them, he killed fifty-eight myriads of them in one day. ^C Having razed the old remains of the city and the temple, he built a new Jerusalem, which indeed he called Aelia. Placing his own statue in the temple, he ordered Greeks to dwell in the city. A sign of its destruction occurred: the monument of Solomon fell apart of its own accord. ^D He highly honored a certain Simelus, a man adorned with wisdom, equity, and many virtues, and raised him to great authority. But having held office for a short time, he withdrew from it and, after spending seven years in the countryside, he died, having ordered this to be inscribed on his monument: Simelus lies here, having lived many years, but having truly lived for seven. This Hadrian cancelled the debts that the cities and citizens under him owed to the public treasury, by burning the documents. He restored Nicaea and Nicomedia, which had been cast down by an earthquake. Under him, Justin the philosopher acted bravely against all heresies; for as Clement the Stromateus says, under Hadrian active heretics, enemies of the Christian faith, were Saturninus, Basilides, and Carpocrates. Hadrian dies by the violence of a disease, crying out: "O Jupiter, how miserable it is to desire to die and not be able!" Dying, he appoints Antoninus as his successor.

^A For when Trajan had died, he feigned a letter as if written by him to the senate, in which he declared him his son and successor to the empire.

Antoninus the Pious reigned for 24 years, having been adopted by Hadrian. He was the first of the emperors to be surnamed Pious, by reason of the virtues of every kind with which he was endowed. Clement writes that in his time there were famous sect leaders in Rome: Valentinus, Cerdo, and Marcion; and among the Phrygians, Tatianus, Bardesanes, ^B Priscilla, and Maximilla, the false prophetesses. The physician Galen was also held in admiration at that time. And there was a certain Bardesanes, a Syrian by nation, a most subtle disputant and a learned man, whose discourse on fate Antoninus admired. Marcion, having met Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna, asked him: "Do you recognize us, excellent Polycarp?" Polycarp replied: "I recognize you as the firstborn of Satan." Dying, Antoninus entrusted the empire to his son-in-law, M. Antoninus. Under him, Polycarp, the disciple of the evangelist John, and Justin the philosopher, and Dionysius, the bishop of Corinth, suffered execution for their profession of the divine truth.

M. Antoninus reigned for 19 years: of these, he reigned 10 years and 9 months with Verus, his son-in-law. ^C While he was waging war against the Germans and Sarmatians, and his army was endangered, being pressed by thirst, the soldiers of the legion called Melitene, who were Christians, through earnest prayer to God, obtained that the enemy army should be struck by lightning, and that rain should refresh the Roman forces. The emperor, having greatly admired this event, conferred honors upon the Christians by edict, and gave the legion the name "Fulminatrix" (the Thundering Legion). During his reign, a certain Hebrew traveling through the wilderness with some Christians, having fallen into a grave illness and being in danger of death, implored the Christians in the name of God to baptize him. But since there was no water at hand, nor yet a Christian priest, they stripped the man of his clothes, and one of them, having taken up a handful of sand with his hands, poured ^D it three times upon his head, saying each time: "Theodorus is baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." And that Hebrew, as soon as he was baptized in this manner, was immediately and completely freed from his sickness. After they arrived in Alexandria, the matter was laid before Pope Dionysius for judgment. He ordered the man to be baptized again.

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES: (60) These things neither can be attributed to Antoninus, nor do they pertain here at all, but rather to Hadrian, who was adopted by Trajan through letters fictitiously written by Platina Augusta. This is evident from Xiphilinus, Spartianus, Zonaras, and others. XYL. (61) The name of Bardesanes is here falsely inserted, a man of, to put it mildly, Syria. Read "among the Phrygians" Priscilla, etc. Concerning Bardesanes see Eusebius at the end of the fourth book of his Ecclesiastical History. Regarding the heresy of the Cataphrygians, of Montanus and the false prophetesses Priscilla and Maximilla, see the same, book five, and elsewhere. XYL. (62) The second apology of Justin the martyr has that letter of Antoninus itself subjoined: but it is uncertain whether it belongs to him or to the Philosopher [Marcus Aurelius]. It is sufficiently evident from Orosius, book 5, that this event occurred under the Philosopher, as also from the order of the narrations of Eusebius, and because it is established that the other Antoninus (that is, Verus) waged the German war and had obtained water for the Christians through their prayers (book 5). But Melito also calls him the nephew of Hadrian a little before. Xiphilinus and Zonaras also narrate this in the reign of the Philosopher. Julius Capitolinus also clearly indicates that these acts were performed in the Marcomannic German war, and records that he elicited the lightning against the enemy's machines of war and water for his own men as they were suffering from thirst through their prayers. XYL.

He also ordained as a deacon the man who had baptized him with sand, finding him worthy of that office. And rightly so; for ^A the great Gregory, having enumerated the types of baptism, says: "Moses baptized in water, and before that in the cloud and in the sea; John also baptized, but no longer according to the Jewish custom; for it was not in water only, but also unto repentance. Jesus also baptizes, but in the Spirit; this is perfection. I know also a fourth baptism, that which occurs when blood is shed for the confession of the truth. I know also a fifth, that of tears." Therefore, because he had experienced neither of these, he was not justly accepted. ^B Under his reign, Oppian also wrote the *Halieutica*. This Marcus was most wise and virtuous, and having saved Rome from wars, he was greatly loved by the citizens. He died, poisoned by his own son, Commodus. The Senate, cherishing the memory of his virtue, honored him after his death with a golden statue.

Commodus, the son of Marcus, reigned for 12 years and 9 months. He had blond hair, resembling gold. He was a great lover of hunting and most licentious, and they say that he killed twelve lions in a single day. He also suffered from gout in his feet and was heavy in his lower parts. Many evils befell Rome in his days; for a famine having occurred, two thousand died in a single day. The chronicler Africanus says that in his time, Clement the *Stromateus* was famous in Alexandria, and Origen became a pupil of Clement. There was also at that time the heresiarch Montanus, who claimed to be the Paraclete. ^C This Commodus, having cut off the head of the Colossus at Rhodes, fixed it upon his own statue. Narcissus, one of his servants, strangled him in a bath.

Pertinax reigned for 87 days, not bringing his wife or children into the palace, but leaving them to live with his grandfather. Under his reign, as Eusebius says, lived Symmachus, one of the interpreters of the Hebrew Scriptures, an Ebionite by heresy. ^D There was also Porphyry the philosopher, who wrote against the Christians, and Africanus the chronicler. Under him, Leonides, the father of the perverse-minded Origen, was martyred. This Pertinax was slaughtered by the soldiers.

Julian Didius reigned for 66 days. He was called Didius because he had obtained the empire through gifts. He was most base in his habits, a worker of evil deeds, and a lover of money; because he lived shamefully and inhumanely, he was condemned to death by the Senate and slaughtered.

Severus reigned for 17 years and 3 months. Severus

^A is called a heretic by the Latins. This man, having been victorious in the war in Britain, built a wall across that island from one sea to the other for a thousand stadia. He captured Byzantium and tore down its walls. Byzantium had seven towers, starting from the Thracian gate and extending to the northern sea. And if anyone approached any of the other towers, no sense of it reached the others; but if one shouted or moved a stone in the first tower, that sound, even if he kept silent, was carried to the second tower, and from there to the third, and so on in order. He also built the Zeuxippus bath for the Byzantines, and he began the circus; but he also constructed a venue for animal hunts and a theater for them. Under him, Paul of Samosata renewed the heresy of Artemon. This Severus, while at leisure from wars, died of a disease, leaving behind three sons.

^B Under him flourished Origen, who, when he was in Alexandria, devoted great study to sacred matters. For he was not only the cause of great benefit to Christians, but also to not a few heretics; for those who received the doctrine of the faith from him became zealous for the truth. Among these, the most prominent was Ambrose, a man of distinction and a scholar, who, having taken pains to come to a knowledge of the man, departed from the sect of Valentinus and Marcion, having sufficiently tested his divine teaching. Very many of the philosophers also who did not acknowledge Christ, resorting to him, received ^C much assistance for their own crafts from him. For he was held in high regard by them, since he taught them geometry, arithmetic, and other sciences that contribute to learning. For this reason, not a few of the Greek philosophers bear witness to him, bestowing mention upon him in their own writings as a teacher. For he was naturally gifted from childhood and exceedingly inquisitive. When, in his childhood, he inquired about the deeper meaning of the Holy Scripture, his father reprimanded him, warning him not to seek things beyond his age; and he congratulated himself for having such an offspring. He accustomed himself from boyhood to such purity and continence that four obols a day were sufficient for his daily sustenance. ^D And he continued in this practice for many years, sleeping on the floor and on a mat, and allotting no great part of the night to sleep, but dedicating the greater part to the meditation of the divine oracles. Being intent on these things, he macerated himself with fasting, watchings, and lack of clothing, and he so wore down the vigor of his body that he appeared to have thoroughly withered away.

^A For by abstaining from wine, and oil, and the rest of such things, he endured the greatest subversion of his chest. Because of this, having become famous as one who stood out in work and in word, he caused many Greeks who were abominated by the worship of false gods to crown themselves with the crown of martyrdom. Since, therefore, much fame was running about concerning him, and many were flowing to him from far-off places, he drew not only Greek philosophers and prominent heretics to the true religion, but he also confirmed those who were already Christians with more solid doctrine.

The aforementioned Ambrose, whom we have mentioned, having besought him with many prayers and having almost compelled him at Caesarea, and having provided him with seven shorthand writers and many who could write elegantly, made him interpret the divine Scriptures. Ambrose provided Origen with all the necessary things, and he, during his leisure, dictated the interpretation to the shorthand writers; while the copyists and women, knowing how to write skillfully, transcribed it from there into many copies. He completed that version in eighteen years. Furthermore, it is said that Origen wrote six thousand books. ^B

So great and so ardent was the zeal of this Ambrose for the narration of the sacred Letters, that Origen bears testimony to him in a certain letter in this manner: "The holy Ambrose, who is sincerely devoted to God, greets you much. Since he holds me to be capable of enduring labors and eager to know the sacred Scripture, he explored this with his own zeal for labor and love for learning sacred things. He has left me so far behind, however, that there is a danger that I might despair of answering as many questions as he proposes to me. Neither does the comparison of copies between us allow us to dine, nor is it permitted to walk after dinner or to relax the body with rest, but even at that time we are forced to be free for letters and to correct the copies. Not even for the sake of refreshing the body is it granted to us to sleep the whole night, as the labor extends late into the night: not to mention the morning labors, which extend to the ninth, and sometimes even the tenth hour. For whoever wishes to serve in these occupations spends those times in examining divine oracles and reading." ^C

Origen, therefore, when he had interpreted the entire sacred Scripture, died at the age of sixty-nine. Concerning him the great Epiphanius writes thus in the *Panarion*: "Ambrose provided food for him, and for the writers, and for the ministers, and he liberally made other expenditures. Origen, however, by incredible watchings and industry, worked out the labor of divine Scripture; and he put together with great labor what are called the *Hexapla*, and all the rest. For he not only collected those distinguished editions, but he also added the fifth and sixth, which were then found in a jar at Jericho; and having composed and arranged all things in one, so that in order they might correspond to one another and also to the Hebrew text which he added, he compiled those *Hexapla* very skillfully and learnedly according to his expertise." ^D

^A Yet the glory of that man did not remain unimpaired to the very end. For that effectiveness of such manifold skill afflicted him in the end with a very grave fall, and indeed it became a stumbling block to many and a cause of perdition. For wishing to leave nothing of the Holy Scriptures unexplained, he involved himself in the introduction of sin and wrote lethal words. For from him Arius also took the occasion for his error, and those who followed thereafter—the *anomoeans* (those unlike in essence) and the *anosioi* (the impious) ^B and all the rest. For this man dared to claim at the beginning that the only-begotten Son cannot see the Father, nor the Holy Spirit the Son, nor the angels the Holy Spirit, nor men the angels. Moreover, he does not wish the Son to be of the essence of the Father, but a creature, and that he is called Son by grace; and he taught the pre-existence of the human soul, the restoration of the demons to their original state, and that there would be an end to punishment, along with the rest of his blasphemies. He compiled, therefore, a great treatise on each Scripture, and as many things as he said in homilies and through prefaces concerning morals and the natures of animals and irrational creatures, roaming in a middle way, he often narrated eloquently; but as many things as he decreed concerning the faith, he is found to be more absurd than anyone else. He also seemed to have embraced an ascetic life, ^C and to have devised something regarding his own body; some say he mutilated a nerve so that he would not be troubled by pleasure, while others said that a drug was applied by him to his parts to dry them up. Others attribute other things to him, such as that he also found a medicinal herb to sharpen memory. It is said that he suffered many things for the sake of Christ, being a very learned man and raised in the Church. But having been calumniated to the authorities of power, it was devised through a diabolical trick how he, being circumvented, could be driven away from the right path. For they procured a certain base man, an Ethiopian, who, if he refused to sacrifice, would abuse his body for obscene lust. Origen, not bearing the baseness of this machination, when the choice was left to him, burst into this utterance, that he wished to sacrifice. And immediately incense was put into his hands, which he threw upon the pyre of the altar, and thus he was repelled from the dignity of martyrdom by the judges and expelled from the Church. Having left Alexandria ^D because of the disgrace, he reached Judea. But having gone up to Jerusalem, as a learned man and an interpreter, he was urged by the clergy of the Church to speak; for he had previously been a presbyter. And when he was greatly pressed by the priests, having stood up, he said only this verse: "But to the sinner God said: Why do you declare my statutes and take..."

my testament into your mouth?" And having closed the book, he sat down, wailing and weeping, while everyone who was present wept with him out of pity for the man. There are many other things said and sung about him regarding his erudition and the composition of his books, from the multitude of which he was called ^A *Syntacticus* (i.e., "the Collector"). It appears he did not obey the saying of the most wise Solomon, who thus commands: "My son, beware of making many books; nor make haste to speak, nor let your heart be quick to bring forth a word before the face of God, for God is in heaven above and you are on earth below. Therefore, let your words be few; for there are many words that multiply vanity. And do not be too righteous, for a righteous man is destroyed in his own righteousness. And do not be wise to excess, lest you become ungodly." Having bypassed these sacred admonitions and having disregarded them, he did not even attend to the mind and wisdom of the inspired Paul in his own writings. For the thrice-blessed Paul, though having a display of ^B all kinds of words, delivered the briefest epistles to the written record, although he had ten thousand ineffable things to say, having been initiated into contemplations reaching as far as the third heaven, and having been caught up into the divine paradise itself, and having been deemed worthy to hear ineffable words there. And indeed, the rest of the students of Christ—the twelve apostles, and the seventy disciples, and countless others besides these—were not lacking in words; and yet, from all the Lord’s discourses, only Matthew and John have left us memoirs, to the writing of which, as the story goes, they were compelled by necessity, just as Mark and Luke were later. Therefore the great Maximus says: "He who writes books does so either ^C for the sake of his own remembrance, or for the benefit of others, or for both, or to harm some, or for the sake of demonstration, or by necessity."

After Severus, his sons Antoninus and Geta reigned for two months. And having slaughtered his own brother in the bosom of their mother, he reigned alone for six years. A certain mathematician, named Serapion, said that Antoninus would die before long and that Macrinus would succeed him, and he pointed him out with his finger as he stood ^D with the senate. But he, whether out of anger or rather by the impulse of fortune, did not recognize the face of Macrinus, but ordered another man standing nearby to be killed in his stead. But Macrinus took pains to forestall Antoninus’s attempt; and having sent a centurion to him when he had dismounted from his horse during a hunt to relieve himself, he slew him, saying to him: "Just as you slaughtered your brother, so do I kill you." During his reign, Philadelphus was established as the first bishop of Byzantium for three years; for previously, a certain presbyter had presided over the Church for eight years. After Antoninus, Macrinus succeeded, whose native land was

^A Cappadocia, and he reigned for 8 years. Some, however, say that Eutychianus took hold of Avitus as if he were the son of Antoninus, and—being an adulterous child—he put a diadem on him, proclaimed him emperor, and having given money to the soldiers, he stirred them up and waged war with Macrinus. And Macrinus, being defeated, fled and was slaughtered together with his son.

Avitus, or Pseudantoninus (the false Antoninus)—though some call him Aurelius Antoninus Heliogabalus—reigned for 3 years, 9 months, and 4 days. He was circumcised and did not partake of swine's flesh; and he had an idol which he named Heliogabalus. Being effeminate, he was so disposed toward that passion of lewdness that he even made Hierocles his lawful husband. And Dio says that Avitus implored a physician to make him hermaphrodite by means of a surgical operation. He was slaughtered ^B because of his impurities, defilements, and profligacy, coming to a wretched end of his life.

Alexander, the son of Mamaea and cousin of Avitus, reigned for 13 years and 8 months. During his reign, there was such a famine in Rome that they even tasted human flesh. He, having gone on an expedition against the Persians, was defeated in a pitched battle, and being despised by his own men, was slaughtered together with his mother. She happened to be a Christian and had summoned Origen, who was staying in Antioch, to come to her, wishing to be taught the mystery according to Christ. During his time, Narcissus, bishop of Jerusalem, when the oil for the sacred unction had run out while he was baptizing, commanded that water be poured into the basin, and having prayed, he transformed it into oil.

Maximinus reigned for 6 years. He, having been a shepherd at first, then having become a soldier, and after that a general under Alexander, was appointed emperor by the senate and the people of Rome on account of the strength of his body, his intelligence, and his prudence. Because of his hatred for Alexander, who had honored many Christians who were with him, he stirred up ^C a great persecution against the Christians. [P. 237] He met a fate worthy of his unholy intent, being slaughtered treacherously by Maximus and Balbinus.

Maximus, Balbinus, and Gordian reigned for two months.

Xylander and Goar's Notes

(69) Apropos of what Xiphilinus says from Dio, which Zonaras followed, he is read to have been a Moor from Caesarea in Sicily; what this is, I do not see. Certainly, if he were a Moor, he could not be a Cappadocian or a Sicilian. It is probable that he was from Caesarea in Mauretania. XYL.

(70) Those who possessed the Roman empire after Maximinus up to Philippus are recorded here in a rather obscure and confused manner. However, since Herodianus, Capitolinus, and Zonaras are at hand, I prefer to refer the reader to them rather than to transcribe these things here. For "Puplianus" (p. 431, v. 5) I have restored "Pupienus" from history. But what this "Junior" (ibid., v. 2) means, I do not conjecture. Indeed, the mention of "protectors" (as a rank) is most frequent in Ammianus. He indicates that he himself was among the domestic protectors under Constantius (bk. 15), and from book 30 of the same author, it appears that this was the rank next to the tribunitian dignity, and they are called such among our authors. He also says that Jovian was a protector under Constantius. ^D Regarding Marcellinus, the mention of "palatine schools" is not rare. And I think it is clearly enough understood that the name "schools" was given to the legions which were supported by perpetual pay; the commander of these is repeatedly called "domesticus," and sometimes also "ex-commander of the schools" (scholarius). XYL. Marcellinus (bk. 25 and 31) lists the "candidati" as a military rank. And that they fought in almost identical circumstances when Julian and Valens were about to perish by violent death. The same author mentions "protectors," as well as "scholarii"; all of whom, Henri de Valois shows with great erudition in his annotations, were the emperor's bodyguards and satellites. In most places he calls them *jus Graeco-Romanum*. GOAR.

Moreover, that Marcus, who was elected after Gordian, reigned for three years (ibid., v. 16) is utterly false, since it is evident even from Zonaras that he died before having accepted the empire. To him succeeded Severus Hostilianus

^A and was slain by the soldiers. Now Gordian had previously been named Caesar by Maximin. But Philip the prefect forbade grain from being carried into the camp; he was the father of the holy martyr Eugenia. At that time, holy Babylas was bishop of Antioch, and the holy Laurentius and Cyprian suffered martyrdom for the truth. And Eugenius received the bishopric of Byzantium and held it for 25 years.

After Balbinus, Pupienus reigned for 2 months, and was slain in war.

After him, Junior reigned for three months; he was the first to institute candidates and protectors and organized the order of scholars, whom he named Juniors after his own name.

After him, his son Gordian reigned for 4 years ^B. And having fallen with his horse in war and broken his thigh, he died.

After Gordian, his son Uniorus reigned for two years, and died of dropsy. In his time, Sabellius the heresiarch became known.

After him, Marcus [reigned] for 3 years.

After Marcus, Hostilianus [reigned] for two years; and having been bled, his blood flowed while he was sleeping, and fainting away, he died.

After him, Philip reigned for 7 years, who was a student of the Christian faith, adorned with intelligence ^C and fairness. He originated from Bostra (71) in Europa, where he also built a city, naming it Philippopolis. He made peace treaties with Sapor, the king of the Persians, who was admired for his magnitude of body (72); for until that time such a man had not been seen. He was killed together with his son, while fighting on behalf of Christians against Decius.

Valerian [reigned] for one year; and he was slain by his own people. In his time, because God had sent a great wrath upon the whole world, a pestilential disease destroyed the human race. For from the earth and the sea, certain vapors arose, and in addition to these, winds and breezes ^D from rivers and marshes breathed out moist vapors, so that the dews seemed to be the ichor of the dead. Consequently, constant plagues gripped the earth from this, and heavy and incurable diseases, and the destruction of men became infinite and innumerable, so that the greater part of the dead were left unburied.

After Valerian, Gallus and Volusianus reigned for 2 years and 8 months. And the plague prevailed in those days, having moved from Ethiopia as far as the West, so that no city

^A remained immune to it. It invaded the city many times, and even twice. It held sway for 15 years, beginning in the autumn and ending at the rising of the Dog Star. This disease was transmitted even by clothes and by the mere sight of the sick. For there was no house in which there was not a dead person. And some, for fear of catching the disease, left their dead unburied; but the more pious, nursing the sick without precaution, drew the disease upon themselves, and either with them or after them, they departed this life. At this time the Scythians, having crossed the Ister, plundered all the West and Italy, and occupied the East and Asia, with the exception only of Ilium and Cyzicus. And Volusianus was the son of Gallus. And Gallus was slaughtered while sleeping by his own wife, and Volusianus by the soldiers.

Decius reigned for two years. He punished many saints and delivered them to death. And blessed Cyprian and blessed Justina were martyred, and the seven youths in Ephesus, and a great multitude of saints. He decreed in Rome that Christian women must not cover their heads, hoping that through this supposed disgrace they could be drawn to false religion. But they preferred to go out with heads uncovered, considering as an honor what was thought to be a humiliation before men for Christ's sake; whence it is that to this day the strict Christian women go forth with heads uncovered, while the Jewesses and pagans go about covered. Under him, Babylas of Antioch, Flavianus of Rome, Alexander of Jerusalem, and Dionysius of Alexandria ^B bore witness to the divine truth by suffering death. And Novatus, being a priest, fell away from the Church, he who did not accept those who had sacrificed during the persecution and were repenting. At this time also the heresiarch Elcesaeus became known. Decius was destroyed by the Scythians by the machinations of Gallus, having been suffocated in a marsh with his own son, so that their bodies were not even found, as they received a death worthy of their savagery.

Aemilianus reigned for one year, and was slaughtered in the palace by the soldiers. ^C

Valerian and Gallienus reigned for 15 years. This Valerian, having waged war against Sapor the Persian, and having been taken captive at Caesarea while leading twenty thousand men in his army, had his skin flayed and thus died. His son Gallienus, succeeding him, was the first to establish cavalry squadrons, for until then the Roman soldiers were mostly infantry. He too was killed by the soldiers near Mediolanum. ^D Under him flourished the miraculous Gregory, and the heresiarchs Artemon and Synepon became known.

Claudius reigned for two years. He was the grandfather of Constantius, the father of Constantine the holy and great. Under him the Scythians, having poured into Europe and plundered the cities, and among them even Athens, [having laid waste]

^A gathered together all their books and wished to burn them; but a certain man among them, far wiser than the others, dissuaded them from this plan, saying that the Romans, if addicted to books, would neglect military matters. He died, having designated Aurelian as his successor.

Quintilian, the brother of Claudius, held the empire for a few days. For when he heard that Aurelian was coming to seize the empire, he took his own life, having ordered the vein of his arm to be cut by a physician, and did not stop the bleeding, so that he died from the resulting faintness.

Aurelian ruled for six years. He was killed by his soldiers between Heraclea and Byzantium, in a place called the New Fortress, which in the local tongue is called Kenophlorion. For Aurelian had a certain eavesdropper who reported to him everything that was being done and said. ^B Being once threatened by him for some reason, and fearing him, he imitated the emperor's hand and wrote a list, in which the chief men were marked down for death; and the chief men, having read this, in order to escape their own peril, killed the emperor. Under him the holy Chariton confessed, and Paul of Samosata was cast out of the throne of Antioch. Under him also arose that impure and thrice-cursed Manes, who assumed for himself the appearance of Christ and the Holy Spirit, and, gathering some evil from every heresy, by the permission of God crept from Persia into the Roman territory.

This mad Manes, also called Scythianus, was a Brahman by race, but had as his teacher Budas, who was formerly called Terebinthus. He, having been educated by Scythianus in the doctrines of the Greeks, embraced the sect of Empedocles, ^C who held that there are two mutually opposed principles. When he entered into Persia, he claimed that he was born of a virgin and reared in the mountains. And having written four books, he named one *Of Mysteries*, the second the *Gospel*, the third *Of Treasuries*, and the fourth *Of Chapters*. And Budas, who was also called Terebinthus, perished, being crushed by an unclean spirit. But a certain woman, whose hospitality he used and with whom he left his belongings, having inherited those impious books, bought a young boy of seven, by name Cubricus, whom she taught letters, and having granted him freedom, she established him as the heir of all her possessions. ^D He then, having obtained the books and wealth of Budas, went through Persia, calling himself Manes and spreading the error of Budas, and he boasted that those books were his own compositions. The king of the Persians had him flayed alive because he had brought death upon his son. For when the king's son was ill and was being treated by doctors with great diligence, Manes promised that he would restore him to health without medication; and thus, having removed the doctors, he killed the boy through neglect and his own nonsense. And for this he rightly received the reward he deserved, having the skin stripped from his wretched body. This deranged Manes, therefore, rejecting the Old Testament, and impiously slandering the creation of the world and man, [claimed it was] not made by a good God, because it is subject to destruction and change. He accepts the New [Testament] as being of the good God, and [maintains] that Christ appeared not in actual reality but only to the opinion of men, and

^A in addition to this, he practiced certain defiled, nocturnal rites, illicit couplings, and unspeakable abominations. He professed fate, the transmigration of souls into other bodies, and many other things, teaching those wicked and vain opinions of the Greeks, and he strove to fortify them, being himself God-hated and divinely driven. Of him, Theodore, presbyter of Raithu, says: "Mani, the inventor of the opposing darkness—or rather, the figment of the power of darkness—fancied and dreamed that the Lord appeared in a mere phantasm and a hollow shape of a human body, and that He only appeared to act and suffer for our sake what is written, while in reality nothing of this occurred, but rather he deceived men with imposture and opinion, among whom he was thought to be moving. For this reason, he rejects the two natures of Christ, conceding to Him only divinity."

There was also a contemporary of this Mani, a certain Paul who was by race a Samosatene and bishop of great Antioch. He impiously asserted that Christ was a mere man, and that the Word of God dwelt in Him just as in any other of the prophets. Hence, he maintained that there were two natures in Christ, divided from one another and joined by no bond at all, so that Christ was one thing and the Word of God ^B dwelling in Him was another. These, therefore, are the first two heresies that were born, which wrongly and impiously attribute one or two natures to Christ, the one detracting from the divinity of Christ, the other from the humanity.

Later in time, there arose a certain Apollinaris, bishop of Laodicea in Syria, the author of new vanities. For while the Arians said that the body of Christ was entirely inanimate, he claimed that the Lord assumed flesh animated by a vital soul, but that He did not assume our mind. For he says that that flesh, being governed by the Word of God which had clothed Itself with it, had no need at all of a human mind, nor could that body admit any other faculty of understanding besides the divine one. Having posited these things, he contends that there was one nature of the Word and the assumed flesh, since flesh was not sufficient for the constitution of a man, nor did it deserve the name of man.

After these appeared a certain Theodore of Mopsuestia, which is a city in Cilicia, whose bishop he was. Being opposed to Apollinaris, he dared ^D with an intrepid spirit and a fearless heart to heap not minor insults upon the Lord Christ, calling Him one man among us, one common man, and saying that He was called God only through progress and that, through the baptism in the Jordan, He was deemed worthy of the gift of the Holy Spirit, being baptized first in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; and that the Word of God, because of His surpassing virtue, dwelt in Him by His own good pleasure and imparted to Him divine dignity and made Him worthy of being adored after His death. This and many other things of this kind he...

^A impiously asserted, teaching that there were two natures in Christ, each limited to itself and separated, and joined only by a certain relation. This is another offshoot of those who do not confess the one nature and the two natures in Christ as the truth requires.

Successor to these was a certain Nestorius, who came from Germanicia in Syria to seize the Constantinopolitan see. He likewise perversely abused the term "two natures" in Christ, following Paul [of Samosata] and Theodore, his forefathers. For he was the son of that Cilician, and had the Samosatene as the founder of his lineage; on this account he waged an implacable war against the holy Virgin, an evil and shameless servant who denied his own Lord and heaped insults upon his Lady. Thus this pernicious Nestorius became the leader of this Judaic heresy, teaching in accordance with his ancestral error that Christ was one thing by Himself, and the Word of God another.

In opposition to the parties of Manes and Apollinarius, a third champion arose, Eutyches, head of a monastery in Constantinople. He could not endure to confess that the flesh of the Lord was consubstantial and of the same nature with our own; he denied that two natures remained in Christ after their union and commingling. Furthermore, he invented another unheard-of and monstrous doctrine, saying that the body of the Lord descended from heaven, and that the Word of God, having been clothed with it in the heavens, passed through the Virgin as through a pipe, so that He might seem to have been born of a woman, although He was not born of her. This is a Manichaean notion, and more absurd even than the ravings of Manes. He too, with a perverse heart, stood for a single nature in Christ. ^B

Afterward, a certain Severus, having seized the episcopate of Antioch, again attempted to defend the heresies of Manes, Apollinarius, and Eutyches, expending all the strength he had to disturb the peace of the Church. Driven from Antioch, this seditious man and instigator of trouble descended like a storm and whirlwind upon the levity of the Alexandrians. There, when a contrary wind had raised a tempest against him, the whole populace was thrown into great tumult. For he was disrupted by a certain Julian, bishop of the city of Halicarnassus in Asia, a most spirited champion of the Eutychian falsehood. For while Severus said that there was one nature in Christ but acknowledged a difference, Julian likewise affirmed one nature but denied the difference. ^C Thus those impious men became the cause of a great crowd and tempest, truly ignorant, as the Apostle says, of what they were saying or about what matters they were contending. They fight against us when we use the constitution of man from soul and body as an example of the divine union, and they say that we posit three natures in Christ. ^D Yet these ignorant men ought to know that when we speak of two natures [I Timoth. 1, 4.]

we are not speaking of God and the body, nor of God and the soul, but of God and man. For that which is a part of human nature is not properly called the nature of man. Both body and soul are parts of man, and these parts are themselves divided into their own further parts, with the divisions continuing repeatedly into smaller ones. Thus, the distinct parts of Christ are the divine and human nature; soul and body are other parts, parts of a part, to be sure. ^A Furthermore, the parts of the parts of man, concerning the soul, are the substance endowed with reason and the quality devoid of bodily form. Of these, one part is the governing faculty, another the irascible, another the appetitive. Of these, one is the intellectual and cogitative, capable of memory and deliberation, another is appetitive and attractive, and another is defensive. Many other things are subdivided into these. Let us leave aside for now the question of whether these exist in the soul as parts or as faculties. The division of the body, again, is made into similar parts, and these further into head, hands, and feet, and these into bones, nerves, and flesh, and these into the four elements, and these into matter and form. Doctors also philosophize about many other natural faculties, one of which they call attractive, another alterative, and another expulsive. They speak much also of the senses, of the faculty of imagination, and of the vital and organic spirit imparted through its instruments, which preserves animal life, and which they deem to be distinct from the one that serves the intellect. Therefore, just as it is sufficient to name either flesh or the body of man in order to commemorate all these things at once, so too, by the mention of the soul endowed with reason, its parts—into which it is divided and of which it consists—are sufficiently understood. ^B But these men do not speak thus so that they might proclaim man as perfect, but rather to calumniate the Lord and alienate Him from our nature, so that it might be believed either that He did not assume our nature from the beginning, or that He did not preserve intact what He had received from us. By sophistically arguing these and similar things, and by perverting the example proposed in bad faith, they have insinuated themselves into inextricable labyrinths from which there is no exit. ^C Indeed, Theodoret also writes as follows concerning these and similar impious men: "There are, however, some who bear the name of Christian but who openly war against the doctrines of the truth. Some of them divide that which is unbegotten into three, calling one the good, another the evil, and another the just. Others depict two unbegotten principles, diametrically opposed to one another by definition. Others, while professing to combat these impious opinions, enter upon another path of impiety; for while confessing the Only-Begotten Word of God to be the Son, they number Him as a creature among created things, and they place the Creator along with the creation; and by their impious discourse they banish the Holy Spirit from the divine nature. Others, straying in different ways from the straight path, and refusing to follow in the footsteps of those who went before, have wandered far from the truth, and some of them entirely deny the dispensation concerning our salvation wrought by Christ in the flesh, while others confess the being of the man, but ^D

entirely rejected the economy of salvation accomplished for us. Others acknowledge that the Word of God became man, but contend that He assumed only a body. Others call the flesh that was assumed ensouled, yet deny that there was a rational and intellectual soul within it, perhaps adducing their own folly as evidence for this. But we know of no human soul other than the one that is rational and immortal. ^A Again, others cut the one Christ into two, maintaining that the one who was born of the Virgin as a perfect man is one person, and the Word from God the Father is another; they set the former apart as man, and name the latter God by nature and in truth. Still others say that the Word from God the Father was transformed into the nature of bones and nerves and flesh—all of which are impious doctrines.

Tacitus reigned for 2 years. He appointed his kinsman Maximinus to Assyria, but because he committed many injustices, the soldiers slew him; and fearing that Tacitus might avenge this slaughter, they killed him as well, at the instigation of Florianus.

Probus and Florianus reigned for two years and four months. This Probus, by feigning madness, killed Florianus. In his time, a rain fell containing much wheat mixed with water, which they gathered into great heaps. They also say that drops of silver rained down. Victorinus, a friend of Probus, requested that a friend of his be appointed as governor in Britain; but upon arriving ^B there, he rebelled. Because this rebellion was a disgrace to Victorinus, he was sent to quell it. Pretending, therefore, that he had fled from the emperor, he was received by the rebellion's author as a friend, and he killed him. Returning thence, as he was leaving the ship, he loosened his belt and threw it into the sea, and entered before the emperor without a sash. The emperor, suspecting that he had been treated in this way by someone else, became angry. Victorinus said that he had done this of his own accord, and begged that he no longer be appointed over any matter, for he had discovered that all commands are dangerous and subject to certain ruin. The emperor granted him leisure and bestowed great gifts upon him. He also killed all those who had slain Tacitus and Aurelian, having invited them to a feast at Perinthus. He himself was also slain. ^C

Carus and Carinus and Numerianus reigned for 2 years. This Carus took Persia and Ctesiphon—this being the fourth time it had been captured, having previously been taken by Trajan, and by Verus, and by Severus, and by Carus. After Carus died of a plague, and Numerianus was blinded, his father-in-law, Aper by name, killed him; and Numerianus, who happened to be Duke of Mysia, reigned. In his time, the holy Babylas was martyred at Antioch. Diocletian killed him. Diocletian reigned for 22 years, a Dalmatian by birth. ^D

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES

^A Migne’s Latin text here rather indicates that, having gained the upper hand in affairs, he declared Maximian Herculius, his own son-in-law and friend, to be Caesar. Under their rule, a great persecution of the Christians was set in motion. For they commanded that throughout every city and country the churches of Christ should be razed, their sacred Scriptures burned, and those who were found to be Christians should be compelled to offer sacrifice to the demons. For this reason, many attained the crown of the holy contest, among whom are Peter of Alexandria, and Anthimus of Nicomedia, and Procopius and George, the renowned martyrs. At that time, too, Sabbatius, he who confirmed the heresy of the Quattuordecimans, became known. And a certain holy and admirable woman, one who was a virgin in her life and beautiful, was very much seized, and though the tyrants tried by many devices to force her to sacrifice, she was not overcome. They ordered her to be handed over to a soldier for vile intercourse, and that if she did not consent to this, she should be put to death by beheading. Being thus beset by great distress, she sought the counsel of Anthimus of Nicomedia, who had not yet been delivered up for martyrdom, asking which of these things she should choose. ^B And he, being a man who was truly good and a faithful and prudent steward of the Word of God, answered her thus: "My daughter, the duty of preserving chastity is excellent and divine; yet the commandment of faith, which is the foundation of all good things proceeding from piety, takes precedence over it. Therefore, do not prefer those things which are lesser to those which are greater. For just as a person in danger would rather have his garment torn than his body, so too in temptations it is better for the sake of preserving the soul from contamination to expose the body to the lust of men, rather than for the nobility of the soul to be betrayed." Hearing this, she departed with an anxious mind, for she was seeking both goods. Yet the divine goodness preserved her virginity in the following way. As she was shut up in a house with the soldier, she said to him, "Do not do anything untoward to me, man, and I will give you a worthy reward; for I—for I am a pharmacist—will give you a medicine that is a charm against death: for one anointed with it shall remain invulnerable in war. And if you wish to put this to the test, let me prepare it." When the soldier had very gladly granted this, the blessed one took wax and mixed it with oil, and having softened it, she anointed her own neck with it and told him, "Strike, as hard as you can." ^C The man then, with all his might, brought down his sword and immediately cut off her venerable head. And thus, having overcome the malice of her adversaries, she increased the crown of her martyrdom with the crown of chastity. ^D In the same manner, another woman, a most fair maiden who was a student of preserving virginity, was denounced for having shown contempt for the gods. Having been seized and beaten with scourges, as she did not yield to their impiety, she was handed over to a brothel, with a command given to the pimp who provided her with food that he should collect from her three coins daily.

She set herself as available to those who wished it, and when many rushed toward her, she turned them all away, pretending that she had a sore in a secret place and that she was waiting for a cure for this. Thus deceiving them, she prayed to God to preserve her virginity unstained. And indeed, God listened to her. A certain illustrious and very pious young man came in the deep of night to the pimp and gave him five coins, saying, "Leave this girl to me..." [He took] his garments, and having covered her head, he sent her away intact and untouchable. When day broke and the incident became known, the young man was condemned to death; and by this, he fulfilled the Lord's saying which states: ^A *Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends* (John xv, 13).

Similarly, when another monk was seized by the wicked, and had not been overcome after many torments and lashes, they finally devised a wicked plan to corrupt the chastity of the just man. For in a certain garden they spread a bed and bound the holy man upon it, and sent in to him a shameless woman, so that, being unable to escape her enticements, he might be dragged even against his will into a shameful act. But as she embraced and kissed him, he bit off his own tongue with his teeth and spat it into her face; and by this act, he brought upon himself pain and agony instead of pleasure, while he utterly terrified the woman and filled her with disgust with the flow of blood. Hearing of these things, the Greeks marveled at the continence and perfection of the monks. ^B

The impious tyrants Diocletian and Maximian, being overcome by the multitude of those being killed, issued a decree that whoever was found to be a Christian should have his right eye gouged out; they considered this torment heavy, not only because of the pain, but also because of the conspicuous ignominy and the kind of punishment unusual to Roman customs.

In the seventh year of their reign, they razed to the ground the cities of Busiris and Coptos in the Thebaid of Egypt, because they had revolted from the Roman empire. In the ninth year, the impious ones wrote upon a monument against us that, "With all Christians destroyed, the Roman empire will be filled with all prosperity and mildness," as the hellish ones supposed. For this reason, then, famine, pestilence, drought, and whatever other evil can be named, overtook mankind, together with a portion of another disease. It was a sore, aptly named a fiery carbuncle, which, as it crawled over the whole body, caused dangerous risks to those afflicted. ^C But it also fell especially upon the eyes, and having become widespread, it rendered countless thousands of men, together with women and children, blind. And along with these, the war against the Armenians also fell upon the tyrant. All these great evils, pressing down at the same time and in the same period, refuted his impious and bold boasting against God, since he, by the fact that he offered divine worship to idols and fought against the Christians... none of these, nor at the same time

things, then, all came upon him at once, and gripped the beginnings of his downfall. ^A For his part, he was struggling with the war against the Armenians alongside his own troops, but as for the rest of those dwelling in the cities and regions under him, famine and pestilence were sorely afflicting them, and countless numbers were dying in the cities, and even more in the fields and villages, with almost everyone perishing through the lack of food and the pestilential disease. For some, by eating grass and ruining their physical health, were destroyed, while others, consumed by emaciation and resembling dead shades, wandered about here and there with failing spirit, stumbling until they collapsed in the streets. ^B Hence, naked corpses, left unburied for many days, lay scattered about, presenting a pitiable and wretched spectacle to those who saw them, and some even became food for dogs. Furthermore, the pestilence ravaged every house. Not long after, the tyrants themselves received the wages due for their own impiety, as if receiving from that point on a pledge of the punishments that were to follow them after death. For Diocletian, after his abdication from the empire, fell into a most grievous disease; his whole body was afflicted with intense pains, his entrails were corrupted by a most violent inflammation, and his entire flesh melted away like wax. Moreover, the wretch was deprived of sight and was left maimed. ^C From there, miserably consumed by putrefaction, he cast out from his throat a multitude of worms along with his tongue, which had rotted away; and he smelled no better than the stench of cadavers decomposing in their tombs. Amidst these things, breathing and groaning, he called for death, and with his final breath he uttered these words: "Woe is me, wretched and worthy of lamentation, how just are the penalties I pay for my impious attempts against the Christians!" These things, then, happened to that wicked man later on.

The ninth and tenth year of his reign, Diocletian and Maximian appointed as Caesars Constantius, who took the surname Chlorus on account of the pallor of his face, and Maximian Galerius, having persuaded them to dismiss the wives they had and to marry their own daughters. Constantius married Theodora, and Galerius married Valeria, the daughter of Diocletian.

In his tenth year, when Alexandria and Egypt had rebelled under the leader Achilleus, a great slaughter was inflicted by the attack of the Romans.

In the eleventh year, they stirred up a terrible persecution against the Christians and made many myriads of martyrs. This year was the year of the world 5787. ^D Then Eusebius says that Adauctus, the *magister*, suffered martyrdom.

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES.

(76) The name "Adauctus," which is worn away by a clerk's error in the Greek letter and also in the Latin, is therefore not inappropriately agreeable to an Italian [name], such as Honoratus, Consentius, Innocentius, and others. But what he reports about his wife and daughters, Eusebius does not at all attribute to these men in the following chapter, but to others in Antioch who escaped in this manner by defilement. Furthermore, what the dignity of *magister* is, [is clear] from Eusebius' [account] concerning Adauctus.

^A When his wife and daughters were being sought, in order that their chastity might not be violated, they threw themselves into the river. The question therefore arises as to whether they should be numbered among the martyrs.

In the twelfth year, Maximian Herculeus held Gaul and Britain, and Constantius, Alania and Africa.

In the thirteenth year, they dismissed the Christians from military service.

In the seventeenth year, Galerius Maximian set out on an expedition against Narses, the king of the Persians, pursued him, took his wife and all his possessions, and after a great slaughter, returned to Diocletian, bringing with him caskets full of precious stones and pearls. From this time, Diocletian began to use robes and footwear adorned with precious stones and gold, and ordered himself to be adored contrary to the former custom, and he celebrated a triumph. The name *triumph* comes from the songs by which Bacchus is celebrated: for they call the poetic frenzy *thriasis*. Or else it comes from *thria*, the leaves of the fig tree, which are sacred to Bacchus. At this time, also, the great Silvester presided over the Roman Church for twenty-eight years.

Constantine, the son of Constantius, was in the East and in Palestine with Galerius. When Galerius observed that he was minded toward the Christians, growing in prudence of soul, strength of body, and natural aptitude for learning, and foreseeing that he would be the destroyer of his tyranny and his dogmas, he plotted to put him to death by guile. By divine providence, however, he secured his safety by flight and was saved, reaching his own father, giving many thanks to Christ, the author of his salvation, for having saved him.

In the eighteenth year of Diocletian, Galerius, persuaded by the trickster Theotecnus, stirred up a persecution against the Christians. This Theotecnus, at the bidding of Maximian, composed a narrative of things allegedly done regarding Christ before Pilate, and sent his commentary—full of all manner of impious maledictions—through every city and village, as Maximian had commanded the schoolmasters to teach these things to the children, so that our mystery might be mocked.

XYLANDER'S AND GOAR'S NOTES

^D ...carried out; for he thought it indicated the prefecture of the *magister* or the dignity of the *magister officiorum*; I remained silent about the *quaestor generalis* as a duty distinct from the *magister officiorum*, for a single man could not have held both in the vastness and complexity that the empire possessed at that time; nor can the terms which the conjunctive particle in Eusebius sought to connect be separated; so that Adauctus' *magisterium* was *generale*, and extended to many (as it must be distinguished from the *magister rei privatae*): and he commanded not only the palatine and prince’s ministers, as Pancirolus says in his *Notitia Imperii Orientalis* c. lxii, but also the troops handling arms in the palace schools, and even the factories and the frontier generals and counts. Cedrenus recounts that many were adorned with this dignity; Luitprand numbered twenty-four of them in his own time, as he left recorded in book vi, last chapter, and all of them, as they were possessed of this dignity, were also possessed of the highest authority in the centuries of the empire's decline. Goar.

^A to instruct the children in these things, so that our mystery might be mocked.

In the nineteenth year, an imperial edict was issued that the churches of Christ should be razed to the ground, the holy books burned, and every Christian should either sacrifice to the idols or perish in unbearable torments.

In the twentieth year of his reign, Diocletian and Maximian Herculius, driven by madness, abdicated the empire in a single day, appointing in their place as emperors: for the East, Galerius Maximian, the son-in-law of Diocletian; and for the West, Constantius, the son-in-law of Herculius. Diocletian, after having lived as a private citizen for twelve years, died when his tongue and throat had rotted and cast out a multitude of worms. Herculius, having attempted to recover the empire and his efforts having come to naught, ended his life by hanging. Galerius died having been consumed by worms.

Constantius, however, being a very good and pious man, trained his son Constantine likewise, and he in no way participated in the persecution against us, but even permitted his own subjects to practice our religion openly and without hindrance. He died in Britain, having reigned for two years. He had been Caesar for thirteen years. By Helena, his first wife, he begat Constantine, who is surnamed the Great, near the city of Dacia; and he declared him emperor in his stead in Rome before the eyes of all the people, while also surviving were his other children—Constantius, I mean, the father of Julian, and Gallus, also called Dalmatius, the father of the younger Dalmatius. He also had a daughter, Constantia, who was the wife of Licinius, born of Theodora, the daughter of Herculius. This Constantius, the father of Constantine the Great, was the grandson of the Emperor Claudius. ^B

Constantine the Great was in stature of medium height, broad in the shoulders and thick in the neck, whence they also nicknamed him "Trachylas" (thick-necked); his complexion was ruddy, his head hair not thick nor curly; his beard was sparse, covering his face in only a few places; his nose was somewhat hooked, his eyes lion-like, gracious and very serene. He was moderately educated, but adorned with the most perfect temperance in curbing the desires of the belly, by which he avoided many bodily illnesses, for his constitution was not healthy, threatening leprosy and producing many evil humors. ^C

Galerius Maximianus, therefore, having returned to Italy, appointed two Caesars: Maximian his own son for the East, under whom also those who were fathers to the great Basil, because of his persecution ^D [P. 270]

Xylander and Goar's Notes

^A forced to flee in far-off, desert places, while Severus ruled Italy. But the soldiers in Rome proclaimed Maxentius, the son of Maximian Herculius, as Emperor.

The most divine and most Christian Emperor Constantine reigned over the Gauls and Britons. In his first year, which was the year 291 from the birth of Christ, and 5797 from the creation of the world, he had four colleagues in the empire: Galerius, his son Maximian, and Severus—these two as Caesars—and Maxentius, the son of Herculius, designated emperor by the soldiers in Rome. These men vied with one another in persecuting the Christians, passing their lives in every wickedness and lust. They would even excise the fetuses of pregnant women and use them for divination, given over to plunder, bloodshed, and other such foul deeds.

^B Upon the death of Severus, the Romans created Licinius as Caesar out of favor for Constantine, whose sister Constantia he had as a wife, though he falsely pretended to be a Christian. However, the injuries of Maxentius toward the Romans were atrocious; he snatched their wealth, their wives, and their daughters, slaughtered them in various ways, and obeyed demons for the performance of any sort of wickedness. For this reason, the Romans sent legates and summoned Constantine against Maxentius. Maxentius joined the river that flows past Rome by means of a bridge constructed of ships and set his camp against the camp of Constantine. As Constantine feared the sorceries of Maxentius and was therefore held in grave anxiety, at the sixth hour of the day the ^C venerable cross appeared out of light with an inscription made of stars: "By this, conquer." During the night, the Lord also appeared to him in a vision, standing by and promising him victory if he would use the sign shown to him. Therefore, Constantine ordered a golden cross, which exists even to this day, to be fashioned in a hurried work and to be borne before him into battle. When the engagement took place, the army of Maxentius was defeated, and many were slain. Maxentius himself, fleeing with the rest, came to the bridge, and it collapsed by divine power, throwing them all into the river and drowning them. The Romans, liberated from the tyranny of the wicked Maxentius, adorned the city with garlands and received the victor Constantine into it with joy, together with the victory-giving cross, and proclaimed him Savior with auspicious acclamations.

^D In the seventh year of his reign, the great Constantine held nothing more important than to honorably bury the relics of the holy martyrs and to recall the exiles. At that time, also, he was baptized by Silvester, the most holy Pope of Rome, and was freed from his leprosy in this manner. When he had entered Rome with the victory over Maxentius, he summoned physicians to him to drive away the disease. But behold, certain Jews approached the emperor, who [proposed] a bath—

GOAR’S NOTE.

^A And so, certain Jews came saying that a pool must be made from the blood of infants at the breast, and that by washing in it he would be cleansed. The infants were therefore gathered together with their mothers. And what need is there to speak of the mothers' wailing, the tearing of their hair, and all the rest that those pained to the depths of their souls experience? Seeing this, he, too, became tearful and said: "It is better that I alone should die a wretched death than these infants. But who knows what the outcome will be?" Having said this, he treated the mothers kindly with gifts and sent them away in peace. ^B For this reason, he saw in a dream those two great apostles, Peter and Paul, urging him to seek out Silvester, the bishop of the city; "And he will show you a pool by which you shall be healed of the diseases of both soul and body." Silvester, therefore, who had been living in exile on account of the pressing persecutions, came and, having catechized him, baptized him. Immediately, as Constantine ascended from the holy pool, certain things like fish scales fell from his body, and he was cleansed and became entirely healthy, like a little child. Seeing this, an infinite multitude of people were baptized, and also Crispus, the son of Constantine.

Those, however, who say that he was baptized at Nicomedia at the time of his death by Eusebius of Nicomedia, the Arian, are mistaken. For they say that he delayed his baptism because he hoped to be baptized in the Jordan. But what was there to prevent him—while he was at war with Galerius in the East and marching into Persia for the second time—from going to be baptized in the Jordan? But also to slander him as a bastard is of the utmost wickedness. ^C For his royal lineage existed even before Diocletian. For his father, the great Constantine, was Constantius, born of the daughter of the Emperor Claudius; and as has been indicated by us, he begat the Great Constantine from Helena, his first wife.

After Constantine was baptized, God performed great miracles through the blessed Silvester. Passing over all else, I will recount one only. At the foundations of the Capitol at Rome, at the descent of three hundred and sixty-five steps, there lived at the bottom a dragon of great size, to whom the Greeks offered sacrifice daily. For if this were not done, it would suddenly rush out and harm many. Silvester descended there, and having found a small chamber to which brazen doors were fitted, he closed them in the name of Jesus Christ and killed the dragon. ^D

In the ninth year of the reign of Constantine, Metrophanes was created bishop of Byzantium. When Maximian Galerius in the East heard these things, he stirred up war against the Christians. In the tenth year of his reign, Constantine the Great, together with Licinius Caesar, gathered an army against Galerius, and having routed his army, put everyone to the sword. Galerius himself, casting off his diadem and having fled with a few most loyal companions, went from village to village, and the priests of the idols, and the mystagogues, prophets, and soothsayers as deceivers...

^A he slaughtered. In the eleventh year, when Maximian was on the point of being captured by Constantine the Great, divine wrath anticipated the emperor's attempt by seizing him. For a flame, arising from his bowels and limbs, caused both his eyes to start from their sockets, and his flesh, having rotted, fell from his bones, and being thus disposed, he gave up his soul that warred against God. In the same manner also Maximin, the most wicked son of this wicked man, who had devised countless and unspeakable things against the Christians, was subjected to innumerable punishments, and having been tortured by unnatural diseases and terrible plagues, he died.

In the twelfth year, after demanding from Licinius an oath that he would do nothing evil against the Christians, he declared him emperor and, marking off a portion, gave him the Roman lands. From then on, by the grace of God, the persecution against the Christians ceased. Under this Licinius, the holy martyr Theodore suffered his punishment.

In the fourteenth year, Constantine the Great, having become sole ruler of all the Roman ^B lands, turned all his mind toward divine cares, erecting churches and enriching them generously. He wrote also the first law, that the temples of the idols be surrendered to the temples dedicated to Christ; the second, that only Christians should serve in the military and govern nations and armies, and that those who persisted in idolatry should suffer capital punishment; the third, that two weeks of the Paschal season are to be kept as holidays, the one before Easter and the one after it. He also legislated that the measurement of the cubits of the Nile's rise be recorded in the church, and not in the temple of Serapis, as was the custom of the Greeks. But it is necessary to insert a few things here concerning the discussion of Saint Sylvester.

Concerning the Discussion of Saint Sylvester

^C In the fourth year of the reign of the most pious and Great Constantine, a discussion took place in Rome between Christians and Jews. Of the Christians, the great Sylvester, being Pope of Rome, presided; of the Jews, among many other learned men, Zambres the magus, a Hebrew and sorcerer, in whom the Jews placed all their hope, was champion. The Jews therefore said: "Choose twelve Christians, who ought to plead their cause against us." Saint Sylvester said: "We hang upon the power of God. For there is One whom we address: 'Arise, O God, judge your cause' (Ps. LXXIII, 22). For as much as we lack human help, so much the more do we rely on the power of God." To this, Abiathar the Jew said: "These words are those of our prophet." And Saint Sylvester said: "Today we intend to bring forth everything that we propose against you from your own books; for then the victory is illustrious, when the opposing side is defeated by the authority of its own doctrines." The emperor said: "This is a just judgment, in which each is compelled ^D to be defeated by the authority of his own religion." Abiathar said: "The Almighty God, our God, I say, saying with His own mouth, 'See, see, I am God, and there is no God beside me' (Deut. XXXII, 39; Isa. XLV, 5). How"

^A do you Christians say that three must be worshipped: the Father, in whom we also trust; the Son, whom our ancestors sent to the cross; and third, the Holy Spirit? Therefore, those who worship three necessarily offend Him who said that there is only one God." Silvester replied: "We worship and profess one God. Yet we do not deem the Godhead so desolate that it does not possess a Son in whom it rejoices. We say that this is the Son of whom your prophet speaks: 'By the Word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all their power by the spirit of His mouth' (Ps. XXXII, 6). We call Him the Son, to whom the Father cries out through your prophet, saying: 'You are my Son; today I have begotten you' (Ps. II, 7). But God is as much 'yesterday' as 'today,' and has no end, since He is beyond time. Thus He exists without beginning; therefore the Father is also without beginning. For to whom did He say, 'Let us make man according to our image and likeness' (Gen. I, 26)? For if He had said, 'I will make man according to my image and likeness,' He might have seemed to be indicating His own singleness. But by saying, 'According to our image and likeness,' He clearly ^B indicated both the Son and that equality. For He cannot receive anything greater, since He admits no increase in magnitude; nor indeed does He take to Himself anything less. Rabbi Jonas said: 'Faith should not be entrusted to human reasoning. For what kind of God does it advise one to believe in, who is called both Father and Son and Holy Spirit?' Silvester said: 'When you read in the holy Scriptures about the Father calling upon His own Son, "You are my Son" (Ps. II, 7), and likewise in another place, "He will call me, Thou art my Father" (Ps. LXXXVIII, 27), then the thing of which we speak will be evident to you, and you will not suspect us of saying anything novel about the holy Trinity. But concerning the Holy Spirit, hear again your prophet speaking as he prays: "Do not take your Holy Spirit from me" (Ps. L, 13). And the same one again: "And by the spirit of His mouth all their power" — that is, of the heavenly powers.' Constantinus Augustus said: 'I marvel at the impudence ^C of the Jews, who, being refuted in many ways from their own entire Scripture, nevertheless still wish to seek for something against the truth. Therefore, because satisfaction has been given regarding the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, let them bring forward other things if they have any.' Codolias the Jew said: 'We, he said, are speaking of Him who was born, who, as is described in His Gospels, grew in stature and wisdom; who was tempted by the devil, and afterward, in time, was betrayed by His own disciple, delivered up, seized, mocked, scourged, given vinegar mixed with gall to drink, crowned with thorns, stripped, had His garments divided by lot, was crucified himself, died, and was buried.' Silvester replied: 'Today we will demonstrate that all these things were predicted and prescribed ^D concerning Christ by the prophets. Regarding the birth of Christ, Isaiah says: "Behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and His name shall be called Emmanuel" (Isa. VII, 14). But that He was to dwell among men, hear Baruch prophesying. "This is our God, and no other shall..."

be reckoned in comparison with Him. He has found out all the way of knowledge, and has given it to Jacob His servant, and to Israel who is beloved by Him. After these things He was seen ^A on earth and dwelt among men" (Bar. III, 36, 37).

That He was to be tempted by the devil and would overcome him, the prophet Zechariah says: "I saw Jesus the high priest standing, and the devil was standing at his right hand to tempt him" (Zech. III, 1). And Jesus said to him: "The Lord rebuke thee, O devil" (Zech. III, 2). That He would be apprehended, Wisdom reveals through the words of Solomon: "The ungodly said among themselves: Let us bind the just one, for he is troublesome to us" (Sap. II, 12). That He would be betrayed by his disciple, the author of the Psalms predicted: "He who eats my bread has lifted up his heel against me" (Ps. XL, 10). The same [prophet] prophesied that Christ would be stripped of His garments, and that they would be divided by lot: "They have divided my garments among themselves, and upon my vesture they have cast lots" (Ps. XXI, 19). That He would be accused by false witnesses, the same prophet demonstrated: "Unjust witnesses have risen up against me" (Ps. XXVI, 12). That He would be crowned with thorns, Jeremiah predicted with these words: "This people has compassed me about with the thorns of their own sins" (Jer. IX, 2). That gall would be given to Him for food and vinegar for drink, David forewarned with this oracle: "They have put gall into my food, and for my thirst they have given me vinegar to drink" (Ps. LXVIII, 22). That He would be held in derision, Jeremiah again indicates: "I am made a derision to this people," he says (Lam. III, 14). That the Jews would bind Him and nail Him to a wooden cross, Esdras predicted: "You have bound me, not as the Father who delivered you from the land of Egypt. Crying out before the judge's tribunal, you humiliated me, and delivered me to be suspended upon the wood." That He would also be buried, Jeremiah predicted, saying: "He shall be buried, and this will restore life to the dead." For at that time, when our Lord Jesus Christ gave up His spirit in His precious Passion, the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had slept arose, the sun was darkened, the veil of the temple was rent, and a great earthquake occurred throughout the inhabited world.

"If you can deny, O Jew, that all these things were predicted by your prophets, you will surely convict me of lying. But if these are truly their oracles, you must believe your own prophets and, even against your will, adore our Christ." Constantine said: "If these things are contained in your books, it is superfluous, O Jews, for you to contradict these sufferings of Christ, which the prophets predicted in order would happen to Him, and which Christ fulfilled through their oracles." Aunan the Jew said: "You ought to demonstrate to us that it was predicted concerning Christ that He would be born, captured, treated with contumely, mocked, affixed to a cross, would die, and be delivered to burial." Silvester said: "It is necessary, therefore, for me to expound all the Scriptures. First, however, confess that you embrace them and judge them to be true." Aunan: [Of the prophets...]

^A Since all confess that the things spoken by the prophets are true, although you say that what is spoken regarding others happened to others, the holy Silvester said: "Do you therefore offer someone else who was nourished with gall, offered vinegar to drink, crowned with thorns, crucified, buried, and who rose again?" And when he was silent for a long time, the Emperor Constantine said: "If Aunan cannot show another, let him know that he is clearly defeated." [P. 276] Doeg the Jew says: "Most powerful Emperor, Silvester promised he would provide the just cause for why He had to be born, be tempted by the devil, and suffer." The holy Silvester said: "Since, therefore, you have admitted that the prophecies are true, confess that the Virgin conceived and brought forth Immanuel, which means 'God with us'." ^B And when the Jews remained silent, the Saint said: "You certainly know from the Holy Scriptures how God formed the first man from clay, who then, by the counsel of the serpent, was cast out of paradise and fell to death. Therefore, answer me, O Jew: was the earth from which Adam was fashioned exempt from corruption, or was it subject to it?" Cusech answered that it was exempt. Silvester said: "You have spoken well; for it was indeed incorrupt and virginal, since it had neither received the curse of thorns and thistles, nor had it ever contained the burial of a human body. Therefore, it was necessary for the new Adam to be born from the Virgin Mary, who was to overcome the conqueror of the first man—the serpent who tempted him. And since He conquered Adam through food, He was defeated by fasting. ^C He who thus conquered the devil restored paradise to us and opened the gates of eternal life." And the Jew said: "When you were asked for the cause not only of Christ's birth, but also of His mockery, betrayal, suffering, and death, you taught only a few things concerning His birth. It is necessary, therefore, to provide an account of everything." The holy Silvester said: "Concerning whom did that great Isaiah say these things: 'Behold, the virgin shall conceive in the womb and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which is, God with us'? And: 'Before the child knows how to call father or mother, he shall take the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria, before the king of the Assyrians.' And Balaam: 'A star shall arise out of Jacob, and a man shall arise out of Israel, and he shall crush the princes of Moab, and he shall spoil the sons of Seth, and he shall rule over many nations.' That He would appear as a man is foretold through these things; but that He is Lord of all, the prophets again signify, saying: ^D 'Behold, the Lord sits upon a light cloud, and He shall come into Egypt, and the man-made things of Egypt shall be shaken.' And, 'Behold our Lord God shall come and save us, and then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped, and the lame shall leap as a deer, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be clear.'" The prophecy indeed...

^A speaks of God visiting the earth, and it indicates the certain signs of the time of His advent; for then those things were fulfilled which had never before happened in Israel. And concerning His passion, he says again: "A man in a stroke, and knowing how to bear infirmity, he was disgraced and accounted as nothing. He bears our sins and is in pain for our sake. And we accounted him to be in toil and in a stroke and in affliction; but he was wounded for our sins and was weakened for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him; by his stripes we were healed." And that "his life is taken from the earth." And who shall describe his generation? And Moses says: "You shall see your life hanging before your eyes, and you will not believe." But David also says in the person of Christ: "They pierced my hands and my feet, and divided my garments among themselves," and the rest. That there also was hope for the nations, ^B Jacob indeed said: "A ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his thighs, until he comes to whom it belongs, and he is the expectation of the nations." And Isaiah said: "And there shall be the root of Jesse, and he who arises to rule the nations; in him shall the nations hope." And these are but a few things for the demonstration of what has come to pass, but the whole Scripture is full of refutations of your unbelief. For who of the righteous and holy prophets recorded in the divine Scriptures was ever said to have his birth from a Virgin alone? And whose birth was preceded by a star in the heavens, which indicated to the world the One who was born? And what king, before he was able to call his father or mother, reigned and took trophies over his enemies? Who, then, has been a king in Israel in whom all the nations have placed their hope, and not rather have set themselves against him from every side? For ^C as long as Jerusalem stood, there was an unceasing war against them, and they were at strife against Israel, the Assyrians oppressing them, and the Egyptians pursuing and warring against them. For did not David war against the Moabites and was warred against by them? Did not Josiah look to his neighbors? And indeed, did not Hezekiah fear the arrogance of Sennacherib? And to Joshua the Amorites were opposed, and against Moses, Amalek set his battle array; and so, there was truly unceasing strife between Israel and the nations, as the scriptures bear witness even to this day. And the scribes answering said: "We do not deny that all these things have been written, but we await the Word of God, who has not yet come." But Silvester ^D said: "And how have you not heard of Daniel, who openly predicted both the time and the divine advent of the Savior? For the angel who was speaking with him says: 'Seventy weeks have been determined upon your people and upon the holy city, to finish the sin and to make an end of iniquity, and to seal sins and to wipe out iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal the vision, and to anoint the Holy

^A of holies. And you shall know and understand from the issuing of the word for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, until Christ the prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. And as for other things, you perhaps make excuses by postponing the written prophecies to a future time; but what are you able to say to these things, or how can you answer them at all, when both the one anointing is indicated and the one being anointed is not called a man, but the "Holy of holies," and until his coming Jerusalem stood, and after that every prophet ceased, and vision in Israel? David, indeed, was anointed of old, and Solomon, and Hezekiah, but Jerusalem still stood and the holy place, and prophets prophesied. Besides, those who were anointed were called holy men, but not "Holy of holies." And when did prophet and vision cease from Israel, if not now, when the [one who was] prophesied and the Holy of holies, Christ, has come? An truly great and manifest sign and token, therefore, of the God Word and of his coming is that Jerusalem no longer stands, nor is a prophet active, nor is vision revealed to them. And rightly so; for when the one signified and prophesied has come, what is the need of signs and those who prophesy? For it was for this purpose that they prophesied, until the one prophesied of should come and redeem all men from their sins. ^B

What prince, therefore, went forth from Bethlehem and shepherded Israel, whose going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity, whose name abides before the sun, and whose generation is inexpressible, as it is written? For we know the generation of all the holy ones recorded, and we have the births and deaths of all the rulers of Israel consigned to historical monuments. You must therefore remember, O Jew, that I have said that the Son of God was not subject to suffering in his own essence at all; but rather the man who was united to him according to hypostasis, without confusion, from the holy Virgin Mary, whom God promised to Abraham, saying, "In your seed shall all the nations be blessed," and similarly to David, saying, "Of the fruit of your belly will I place upon your throne." This one, we say, was tempted, so that by conquering the devil who tempted him, he might make him captive; he suffered, that he might bring all things into subjection to ^C himself; he died, that he might overthrow him who had the power of death. The Jew said: "Are there therefore two sons of God, one whom the blessed Virgin brought forth, and another whom the almighty God begat?" Saint Silvester said: "Christ is one Son. For just as he is truly the invisible Son of God, so also is he the visible Son of man; for being perfect God, he became perfect man immutably, that he might provide perfect salvation to men." The Jew said: "And how is it possible for the assumed man to suffer without him who assumed him?" Saint Silvester said: "You therefore must be taught by some example, so that you may know ^D

^A that of two natures united in the same way, the one falls under injury, while the other escapes it." And the Hebrew said: "It is impossible to persuade me that in one there are two certain things, and that while they are joined together and suffering something, only one of them is maltreated." Saint Silvester said: "Listen, O Hebrew: Is it possible for a tree upon which the rays of the sun fall to be cut?" Tharras says: "It is possible." Saint Silvester said: "Show me where the sun's ray is cut off while the tree is being cut." And when Tharras was silent, Saint Silvester said: "Do you not see that the blow of the cutting iron is first received by the ray, before that blow reaches the wood? And yet the radiance which is there ^B can neither be cut nor severed. Thus, therefore, the Divinity of Emmanuel, being inseparable, could not suffer or be cut. But that [humanity] was subject to passion which, like that tree, could be bound and held. For this reason, the Lord deigned to take upon Himself a flesh endowed with mind and soul from our own mass, so that He might make us partakers of the divine nature and unite our nature to Himself. And by 'union' I mean one that is without confusion, without change, and without alteration, which He alone knows." Simeon answered and said: "If your prophets have prophesied about your Christ, I would like you to explain to me the reasons why He had to be subjected to such insults, mocking, suffering, and death, so that we too might be able to confess with you that this is the promised Christ." Saint Silvester said: "From the beginning of the age, from the time when man was circumvented by the envy of the devil and cast out of paradise and condemned to death, ^C God found the holy and faithful Abraham out of the whole mass of the human race, and deemed him worthy of this promise, that in his seed all nations would be blessed. Chosen, therefore, for the merit of his faith, he begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob. And they conducted themselves so blamelessly that the Almighty God wished to make the dignity of His own name explicitly attested among them, having said that He is their God, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. This is my name forever throughout all generations.' (Exod. III, 6). There arose, therefore, causes—which it would be long to relate here—for which the descendants of Abraham came down into the land of Egypt and were subject to the kingdom of Pharaoh. But God, mindful of His own promises, brought them out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, as you all know. Later, in the course of time, Christ was born according to the flesh from the seed of Abraham, from the holy Virgin, ^D so that we might be reborn from the womb of the virgin Church. He was tempted, that we might be liberated; He was sold, that He might redeem us; He humbled Himself, that He might exalt us; He was taken by men, that He might free us from the captivity of the demons; finally, He was sacrificed upon the wood of the cross, that He might wipe away the sin of the whole world. He returned from the dead to life, that He might bestow life upon us; He ascended into heaven, that He might carry us up with Him; and He sits now at the right hand of the Father, that He may grant the prayers of the faithful. But He will come in

fine mundi judicatum vivos et mortuos, ac cuique ^A dignam suis factis mercedem redditurus.

He has ascended into heaven, that he might lift us up with Him. He sits now at the right hand of the Father, that He may look down upon the churches of the faithful. And He shall come at the consummation of the ages to judge the living and the dead, and to render to each according to his works.

^B When Silvester had spoken at length, and with great precision had demonstrated from the divine Scriptures the matters concerning Christ, and the Jews had been greatly overcome, one of them, named Zambres, said to the rest of the Jews: "If you heed the words of Silvester, you must needs abandon the laws of your fathers and follow a vain man, whom they condemned to death. But let the emperor listen to me, and let a wild bull be brought, so that I may show him this day the power of the name of our God; for I wish to demonstrate the truth not by words, but by deeds." Silvester, having urged the emperor to command such a bull to be brought, meanwhile asked Zambres why he required the bull. Zambres said: "Because no created nature can hear the name of our God without dying; I wish to show its power openly in this bull." Silvester: "How then did you learn that name? Have you heard it from someone, or have you read it?" Zambres: "Neither paper nor stone nor wood is capable of holding that name. But I, having fasted, and having poured water into a new silver basin, learned it." While these things were being said, the bull was brought, dragged by many men from all sides, bound with ropes, being most savage and very large. And Zambres, mocking Silvester, said, "Now, [P. 281] ^C the words and the arguments of your discourse will have an end. If, therefore, you trust in the name of your God, speak it into the ears of this bull, and you shall be shown to be a worshiper of the Almighty; but if not, I shall speak it, and all shall immediately run to me and have faith in me." With the Jews and others urging Zambres to say the name into the ears of the bull, and upon his saying it, the bull immediately let out a great bellow, its eyes popped out, and it expired. Here, with the Jews exulting and casting many insults at Silvester, while the Christians were overcome with great sorrow, Silvester asked the emperor to command silence for the crowd. This being done, standing in a high place, the blessed Silvester said: "Listen to me, nobles and princes, and all you peoples, and attend to my words with your ears. I preach the Lord of the whole world, Jesus Christ, who restored sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf, who granted the mute to speak, who healed withered hands, who restored the lame to perfect state, cleansed lepers, made firm dislocated limbs, and brought the dead back to life. Hence it is clearly ^D demonstrated that the name which Zambres invoked to kill the bull is of the devil. For if he cannot restore life to the dead, he is certainly an enemy of life and salvation, who can kill the living, yet cannot make the dead to live." Then Zambres, tearing his tunic, said, "Very well, O emperor,"

[alt-version omitted]

[index: entries preserved]

^A eternal, you said that Silvester could be vanquished by no man; I have vanquished him by the aid of Almighty God. It is just, therefore, that he not be allowed a long time for speaking. For he constantly invents unheard-of things and never ceases to say things contrary to God, and by his prattling he becomes a burden to your empire." To whom Augustus said: "The name and invocation of Almighty God provides, first of all, for the life and salvation of all. Therefore, since you also claim to be from God, call the bull back to life: then we shall believe that you have achieved victory through divine power. But if you cannot perform this, it is evident that you have used diabolical trickery." But Silvester also said: "Listen, O Jew, to the truth set forth from your own Books. In Deuteronomy, God Himself says, 'See, see, that I am, and there is no God besides Me. I will kill and I will make to live, I will strike and I will heal.'" (Deut. xxxii, 39). Therefore, when invoked at the right time, He kills, and when invoked at the right time, He restores to life. Proceed, then, and call the name of God into the other ear of the bull; and if it revives, we shall put faith in your words." Zambres: "Did I not say, most excellent emperor, that Silvester can be vanquished by no one in words? Command him, therefore, to prove his claims ^B to us not by words, but by some deed." The blessed Silvester said: "Do you wish, therefore, O Jew, that I raise the bull by the invocation of my Lord Jesus Christ?" Zambres says: "You will not do this, not even if you were to fly with wings." The emperor said: "I marvel at your impudence, Zambres. You asked that, omitting words, a contest be instituted by deeds. Now Silvester promises to do that which you contend cannot be done. It is just, therefore, for you to confess that this is the true God, who has the power to restore the dead to life, and that the other is an impostor and a devil, who kills and cannot restore life." Then Zambres swore, saying: "If Silvester raises the dead bull, we all shall abandon the Jewish law and embrace the Christian faith." But the blessed Silvester, having kept his hands ^C stretched toward heaven for some time, and having prayed with tears, approached the bull and said with a loud voice: "O my Lord Jesus Christ, I invoke Thy most holy name before all, that this people may understand that the name of the devil killed this bull, but by the invocation of Thy life-giving and most manifest name it has been brought back to life." And approaching the bull, he said with a great cry: "In the name of Jesus Christ, whom the impious Jews on account of Pontius Pilate crucified, arise with majesty." And immediately the bull, moving its whole body, arose. And having loosed its bonds ^D he ordered it to depart to whence it had come, and, while going, to harm no one. The Jews, seeing so great a miracle, and stricken by it, immediately threw themselves at the feet of the blessed Silvester, all of them, and begged him for holy baptism. The most happy Queen Helena herself also fell at the feet of Silvester, and asked that a place be granted to her for penance. Upon this, the emperor, a lover of Christ, and the most blessed Augusta and all the people rejoiced greatly, all

^A crying out for two hours: "Great is the God of the Christians." And thus the God of the Christians and His minister, the holy Silvester, were marvelled at by all. At that very hour, many who were possessed by demons were healed by the prayers of the holy pope, and many other ailments and diseases were cleansed by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is glorified in His saints. Upon the baptism of the multitude of the Jews, there was great joy in all of Rome and its surrounding regions.

In the 14th and 15th years, Licinius began to stir up a persecution against the Christians, having forgotten the prior agreements. Though Constantine the Great urged him by letter to desist from such wickedness, he could not persuade him. ^B

In the 16th, 17th, and 18th years, matters concerning the impious Arius were transacted, and the first holy and ecumenical council of the three hundred and eighteen holy, God-bearing Fathers was held at Nicaea, which anathematized Arius and those who thought as he did. At this time, he also restrained those who were celebrating Easter in the Jewish manner, through the work of the most holy bishop of Corduba; and he appointed his son Constant to be Caesar and sent him to Gaul. During these days, there came to his memory the commandment given to him by the Lord near Rome in a dream, which said to build a city ^C to the Theotokos in the place which He would show him. And so, investigating the regions and places, he arrived at Thessalonica, and being pleased with the location, he spent two years there. Having constructed magnificent temples, baths, and aqueducts, when he saw a plague beginning to break out, he left that place and proceeded to the Bithynian city of Chalcedon. Finding it razed to the ground by the Persians, he began to rebuild it. But immediately, eagles snatched the stones from the builders and dropped them toward the city of Byzantium. As this happened frequently and held the minds of all in suspense, one of those serving the emperor, named Euphratas, explained the matter, saying that God desired a city to be founded there for His Mother. The emperor immediately crossed over, and having inspected and approved the site, he left Euphratas ^D charged with the work, furnished with great resources and wealth. He himself departed against the Persians. Where, having fallen into the hands of the enemy, he escaped them through divine providence, and to Byzantium

^A he returned. Euphratas, however, having constructed subterranean conduits, blocked all the water fountains and began to build walls. Again, the Persians made an incursion into Romania; but the emperor, having entrusted to Euphratas the commission for the construction of the temple, also gave him charge over the settlement of the city. Having taken the districts of each of the principal lords, he built magnificent houses, and brought their wives, with their children and all who were under them, to the imperial city. The emperor himself went on an expedition against the Persians once more, and having routed them, he returned.

In the 19th year of his reign, Constantine, seeing Licinius acting more madly in the persecution against the Christians, and meditating treachery against his own benefactor, armed himself against him by land and sea. For eleven and eight months the war lasted between Constantine and Licinius, until a battle was fought in Bithynia; the impious man was captured in Chrysopolis and sent to Thessalonica to be kept in custody, having previously fought and been defeated in the city of Philippi and then at Adrianople. But when Constantine perceived that he was once again stirring up rebellion in Thessalonica and hiring barbarians, he ordered that he be beheaded by the sword; ^B and thus, finally, affairs enjoyed perfect peace. Then Constantine established his own sons as Caesars, and built in honor of God, in various places, churches for the restoration of the nations.

In the 20th year of the reign of Constantine, the city having been completed, it was laid out ^C by Valens the astronomer, on the eighth day of the festival of its dedication, which was the eleventh of May, the second day of the week, in the third indiction, in the year from the creation of the world 6838. The whole calculation sums to 696 years. In this year, Crispus, the son of Constantine, a Christian, fell asleep. And Helena, the mother of the emperor, having been warned by a vision, went to Jerusalem; and there, having discovered the sacred places, she found the venerable cross.

^A She restored everything, and having built temples in those places, she adorned them splendidly. At that time, the emperor who loved Christ built the church of Saint Sophia, that is, of Wisdom, and of Saint Irene, that is, of Peace, and of the Holy Apostles, and of the holy Mocius and Agathonicus, and of the commander-in-chief [(86)] in Anaplus and Sosthenius, where he also miraculously heard and saw the presages of divine voices. He also ordered the shrines dedicated to the idols of the Greeks to be destroyed and their revenues to be bestowed upon the churches he had built. Under this emperor, many nations embraced the Christian religion, from the Celts and Gauls of the West, and also the inner Indians, the Iberians, and the Armenians, beginning with Tiridates as their leader. For then, the great Gregory, bishop of Greater Armenia, was released from that terrible pit and came to King Tiridates, and the whole of Armenia was converted to the faith of Christ. And likewise ^B among the Persians, through the teaching of Bishop Simeon. But Uthaxadus the eunuch, the tutor of Sapor, king of the Persians, was put to death for confessing the Christian religion.

Furthermore, when the Greek philosophers reproached Constantine for having innovated in religion, he brought forward one of the philosophers to dispute about the faith with Bishop Alexander. Alexander was a man of God, but unlearned in rhetoric. When he saw the philosopher babbling, he said, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ, our true God, to be silent and to speak no more." While Alexander was still speaking, the philosopher became mute and could not utter a word. At that time, in Campania, thirteen cities were leveled by an earthquake, and there was such an eclipse of the sun that the stars were seen at midday. At that time, too, a kind of serpent of every sort appeared in Melitene, and they fought and killed one another, so that a heavy stench arose in that region. Constantine also punished the Jews who were again rioting and attempting to build the temple, and he dispersed them.

The blessed Helena, having returned ^C to Jerusalem and having given many instructions to her son, the emperor, regarding the faith in Christ, ended her life at the age of eighty and was buried in the church of the Holy Apostles. This blessed woman, therefore, having been adorned with all virtues, also practiced the humility of Christ, both toward all people and especially toward those who live a solitary life. For she would gather maidens and, placing them on cots, she herself served them in the manner of a handmaid, setting out food and offering cups and pouring water upon their hands, fulfilling the work of a servant. In this way, she also taught her illustrious son to remain free from pride, to attend to virtue and a disciplined life, and to serve the Lord with fear and trembling; and he, obeying his mother's instructions accurately, brought forth fruit a hundredfold.

Xylander and Goar's Notes

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY

In the twentieth year of Constantine, the first holy and ecumenical council was held in Nicaea, with ^A the gathered holy Fathers. Presiding over it were the representatives of Pope Sylvester of Rome, the priests Vitus and Vincentius, along with Metrophanes of Byzantium, Alexander of Alexandria, Eustathius of Antioch, and Macarius of Jerusalem. ^B It was held against Arius, previously a priest of Alexandria, who impiously declared the Word of God to be a creature and of a different substance than the Father, and who maintained that there was a time when He was not. The council, having deposed and anathematized him along with those who thought as he did, dogmatized that the Son is consubstantial [(87)] and co-eternal with the Father, and that He is true God and the Creator of all things.

After all the aforementioned Fathers had been gathered in Nicaea by public transport, the emperor also arrived, desiring to see the multitude of high priests. Having prepared a very large hall in the palace and ordered many thrones to be placed in it, he allowed the high priests to enter. ^C He himself entered last, with only a few, and standing in the center, he urged everyone to sit. Then, a small throne having been set down, he was ordered by them to sit, and he sat down as the last of all; such was the reverence and respect the emperor held for the men. The Fathers, crowning his head with the flowers of their praises, rewarded his zeal for divine things with blessings. The emperor, having delivered an address exhorting them to concord and unanimity, honored many of them with words and gifts, ordered many couches to be prepared, and invited them all to a single banquet, so that he might keep the more distinguished ones at his own table and distribute the rest among other tables.

Seeing that some had their right eyes gouged out, and learning that they had suffered this under Diocletian and Maximian for their confession of Christ, he brought his lips to their wounds and kissed them, trusting that he would draw a blessing from those kisses; such was the degree of faith, reverence for the saints, and modesty in which that admirable man was resplendent. ^D The next day, all the bishops and the emperor gathered in one place, summoned Arius along with those who thought as he did to the council, and gave him the power to state his own opinions.

These were the dogmas of the impious and thrice-cursed Arius: God was not always Father, but there was a time when God was not Father. The Word of God was not always; but He was made out of non-existent things, for God who was, created him who was not, out of what was not. Therefore, there was a time when He was not; for the Son is a creature and a product. Nor is the Son similar to the Father in essence. Nor is He the true and natural Word of the Father, nor is He His true wisdom; but He is one of the things that were made and is generated, yet is called Word and wisdom figuratively, having been made himself by the proper Word of God and by the wisdom which is in God, by which God made all things and the Word and wisdom [in] which God created all things and Him. Therefore, he is mutable and changeable.

in his nature, just as are all rational beings. The Word is strange and foreign and removed from the substance of God, and the Father is invisible to the Son. For the Word neither knows the Father perfectly and accurately, nor can he see Him perfectly. For he does not even know his own substance, as he is the Son; for he was made on our account, so that God might create us through him as an instrument; and he would not have existed at all had God not wished to create us. Arius was also asked by someone whether the Word of God could be changed, as the devil was changed; and he was not afraid to say, "Yes, it can be changed, for it is of a mutable nature, being generated and created."

But the miracle which happened at the council cannot justly be passed over in silence. ^B Moved by the novelty of the emperor's decree, philosophers and orators highly skilled in the art of discourse had gathered at the council. Among them was a Greek who was the object of everyone's admiration, and to whose disputations a great multitude of people would rush. The bishops were not able to refute the philosopher and orator while he was holding forth, because he met all objections with the greatest of ease, cleverly dissolving the points raised and, like an eel, could not be grasped; but when he seemed most constrained, he would slip away and press his adversary even more strongly; such was the power of his intellect, and the fluency and volubility of his tongue. Yet God then showed that His kingdom does not rest on words but on power. A certain one of the saints, by the name of Spyridon, bishop of Trimithus, of most simple disposition and unversed in the art of discourse, requested that a place be granted to him to dispute with this philosopher; and paying no heed to the Fathers, who, knowing his ^C crudeness and simplicity, tried to prevent him, he accosted him: "In the name of Jesus Christ," he said, "listen, philosopher, to the decrees of the truth. There is one God, who created heaven and earth, and fashioned man from the earth, and founded all other things, both those which escape sight and those which meet the eyes, by His Word and Spirit. This Word we know to be the Son of God, and therefore we worship Him, believing that for the sake of our salvation He was born at the last time from the Virgin, and by His suffering, death, and return to life, has liberated the human race; and we expect the same One to return, and to judge all men justly. Do you believe these things, philosopher?" He, however, as if he had never learned to dispute, ^D became silent like a mute, saying only this: "It seems to me also that things are thus." Then the old man Spyridon said: "Therefore, rise and follow me to the church, so that you may there accept the token of this faith." The philosopher, having turned to his disciples, said: "Listen, O men; as long as the matter was being conducted with words, I opposed words with words and refuted what was proposed with the art of speaking. But after a certain power went forth from the mouth of this old man in place of words, words were of no avail against that power; for man cannot resist God. Therefore, if any of you can understand as I have, let him believe in Christ and follow this old man with me, through whose mouth God

has spoken. In this way, then, the Christian philosopher, having been defeated by the old man, rejoiced.

^A Present at that time was also the divine Paphnutius, a wonderful man and a confessor, whose right eye Maximian had gouged out. When the council wished to decree that the clergy should abstain from marriage, he refuted that opinion as too harsh, and was the author of the rule that celibacy should be imposed only upon bishops.

After a very careful examination, all were of the opinion that the true faith must establish that the Son is consubstantial, that is, of the same essence and nature as the Father. This opinion all firmly and unanimously approved, except for the impious Arius and six others ^B who thought as he did. These, having been condemned by the holy Fathers, the emperor ordered to go into exile.

Following this, since hostile men had handed over to the emperor written accusations against certain bishops, he took them, tied them together, and having sealed them with his ring, ordered them to be kept. Afterwards, having reconciled them to peace and unity, he burned these documents in the sight of everyone, giving his oath that he had read nothing of what was written in them. For he said that the faults of priests ought not to be made known to the multitude, lest men, seizing on that as a pretext for scandal, should sin without fear. "If I should see with my own eyes a bishop committing adultery, I would even cover the shameful act with my own purple robe, lest the sight of it should harm others." Thus, therefore, he proclaimed those who thought rightly as victors, and exhorting those who resisted the truth to consent, he brought it about that all of them were of the same mind regarding the controversial matters. And so, having praised all of them and honored them with awards and gifts, he commanded each to return to his own flock. He also established that the holy Pascha be celebrated in the way it is now received; for previously some used to celebrate it on the fourteenth day of the moon.

After some time, persuaded by his daughter Constantia, he allowed Arius to return home from exile, thinking that he had repented. ^C When Arius had returned, he was asked by the emperor whether he stood by the decree and exposition of the Nicene Council. He immediately affirmed that he did. The emperor, surprised, bound him by an oath not to dissent from that council, and having done this, he let him go, saying to him: "If your faith is indeed correct, you have sworn well; but if it is impious and perverted, may God the Lord quickly judge the matter." Consequently, Constantine also demanded of the great Athanasius

^A that he receive him into communion, as one who had repented. But when he did not accept, knowing accurately the depravity of Arius, he banished the holy man from his throne, having believed the slanders cast against him by the Arians. And this is no wonder; for often even divine men, by accepting without investigation slanders leveled against pious persons, have strayed from the truth and have harmed and grieved the pious, just as the marvelous David, having been deceived by the servant Siba, who falsely accused his master Memphibosth of harboring thoughts of the tyrant Absalom, harmed him and took away his own possessions ^B and assigned them to the servant. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate accusations with great accuracy and deliberation, and not to believe accusers rashly, however worthy of trust they may be held to be. To this opinion Nicodemus also forcefully rebukes the lawless Jews, saying: "Does our law judge a man, unless it first hear from him and know what he is doing?" [John VII, 51] Indeed, the wise men among those outside this clearly intimate, saying as follows: If a controversy judges, let it be suspended; if it is a trial, let the proofs be examined; if there are questions, let that which is equitable be prescribed, the limit be defined, the written things be ratified; let those things which are decreed be fulfilled in deed. Thus all contention is removed, and friendship abounds again. ^C Then in the Apostolic Constitutions the divine Word commands thus: "Let the judge be impartial, neither revering the rich or flattering them beyond what is fitting, nor sparing the poor." For it is written: "You shall not regard the dignity of the powerful, nor shall you have pity on the poor in judgment." For the judgment of God will justly pursue justice; and to the just person nothing unjust will be proven. Therefore, one must not lightly believe any charges without the matter being investigated. For it is possible that someone, driven by hatred or envy, might falsely accuse a brother, just as the two elders did against Susanna, and the Egyptian woman against Joseph. You, therefore, O man of God, do not accept such things readily, and do not slay the innocent, and do not kill the just, nor allow yourself to be corrupted by gifts in order to kill; for gifts blind the eyes of the wise and obstruct righteous words. ^D If, therefore, you conduct judgments impartially, you will discover the one who has accused his neighbor with false testimony, and having convicted him of being a slanderer, deal with him in the manner he plotted to do to his neighbor, and remove the wicked man from your midst. For as far as he was concerned, he murdered his brother, having taken possession of the ears of the judge beforehand. For it is written: "He who sheds the blood of a man, his blood shall be shed in return for that blood." But let no one at all accept a single individual testifying against another, however trustworthy he may be. For by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word shall be confirmed, said the Lord.

^A To find what is just is a task, but not to corrupt it once found is a greater task, since one must not cast oneself away in judgment. Then, indeed, the boundary of justice will be rightly preserved, when judgment is applied to the cause, and the vote, which determines the punishment according to the quality of the offense, is applied to the judgment.

^B It must be known, then, that even in the Old Testament the doctrine concerning the holy, consubstantial, and life-giving Trinity is mystically disseminated, so much so that Philo, although he was a Jew and a most zealous student of the Jewish religion, nevertheless in the commentaries which he left to posterity fought against his own religion. For, pondering that which is said, "I made man in the image of God," he was compelled by the truth and forced to theologize also about the Word of God. For what does it matter if he calls the Word, who is co-eternal with the Father, second, and superior in number and time, not having arrived at the truth? Yet he had the conception of another person. He did not undergo this only at that point, but also in attempting to interpret "God" and "Lord," he had the conception of the most sovereign Trinity. For saying that God is one, he did not run to the number of the monad, but to the mystery of the holy Trinity, which is more of a unity than those things which are divided in every way, and more abundant than those which are altogether solitary. And so powerfully did this sentiment occupy his soul that he was compelled to state it openly and to leave it written down as well. For he said there are two faculties of the Existent Being, of which that which is creative and beneficent is by nature called God, and that which is sovereign and punitive is called Lord; not walking far from Him who said: "Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Cor. 1:24); a power not without subsistence, but subsistent, and omnipotent, and the creator of subsistence, and of equal strength to Him whose power it is.

And again the same Philo, explaining the spectacle of God which Moses saw in the bush, said in expressing it: "A most astonishing spectacle." Then he adds shortly after, "in the midst of the flame, a certain most beautiful form, resembling nothing of visible things, a most godlike image, light shining more brilliantly than the fire itself; which if anyone supposed to be the image of the Existent, he has rightly inferred." If anyone wishes to learn exactly about this image, let him hear Paul saying concerning the Son: "Who is the image of the invisible God" (Coloss. 1, 15). Therefore ^C he also touches upon orthodox theology. For do not seek precision from one who was able, through a sincere mind, to perceive the truth at all, and to fight against his own religion. But consider this, that he did not confine theology to a single person, as the unlearned and idle teachers of the Jews do, who follow an opinion handed down from ancestors.

And I do not think that these things alone, although they have the greatest weight, furnished Philo the reason for thinking this way, but also these: "Let us make man according to our image and likeness" (Gen. 1, 26); and, "The Lord rained fire from the Lord" (Gen. 19, 24); and, "The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand" (Ps. CIX, 1); and ^D "For in Thee is God, and Thou art God." For those who say [P. 291] ... [the Latin here continues: "...he has attained to the decrees; nor is there reason why you should demand from him such perfection, that you would think he could perceive the truth with a sincere intelligence and cast off his own religion. But consider this, that he did not confine the disputation concerning God to a single person, as the unlearned and ill-at-ease masters of the Jews do, following an opinion handed down by hand from their elders. Nor do I consider that these things only, although they have very much moment, have given Philo the cause for thinking thus, but also these: 'Let us make man to the image and likeness...'"]

'"] ^A Since those who dare to reinterpret the "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord" in a different way than the Trinity are clearly refuted by the words: "I sought thy face, thy face, O Lord, I will seek; turn not thy face away from me." For if the author by these words had not mystically indicated the holy Trinity, he would deservedly be condemned for the vain repetition of words. And not only in this (for I think a still clearer statement should be brought forward), but also in this: "Offer to God a sacrifice of praise, and pay your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of your trouble; and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me." For if the Trinity were not clearly proclaimed here, it ought to have been said: "Offer to God a sacrifice of praise, and pay your vows to the Most High, and call upon him in the day of your trouble, for God is a thousand times holy, and the Holy One, and he will deliver you, and you shall glorify him." But it was not said in this way, but rather as it was said. ^B For clearly through these and many other places the Old Testament proclaims that it does not signify the dominion of one person, but of three substances of one nature and same essence, so as to denounce the unsound opinion of the Jews concerning a single person. Sabellius also followed them. Perhaps, however, he was led to define a single person by being too intent upon the equality of the Son with the Father, and he banished the polytheism of the Greeks, whose followers were found to be Arius and Eunomius, who absurdly introduced diverse essences from the distinction of persons. But if anyone should ask why these things were not manifested clearly and explicitly from the beginning, I would reply that to those who heard with understanding, this demonstration and doctrine was highly clear, even as it seemed to the wise Philo. ^C But it must be considered that since these things were promulgated more obscurely, when the prophets were prescribing laws to the Jews who were prone to establish a multitude of gods, it did not seem advisable to mention the distinction of persons, lest they, imagining also diverse natures of the persons, might fall away into a false religion; but rather, having been taught from the beginning that there is one Lord of the world, they would gradually be instructed in the doctrine concerning the persons, which itself returns to the unity of nature. Thus, those things which are spoken of God in the singular number confirm the unity of nature; those which exceed that number indicate the properties of the persons encompassed in one essence. For to establish diverse natures in the Godhead is Greek, and a single person is Jewish; but to divide the holy and consubstantial Trinity into three persons and to gather them into one nature is the most correct and true doctrine. ^D In summary, I add to what has been said that natural demonstrations of things exceeding nature cannot be given everywhere. For even though the Word of God was made true flesh, yet the Christ who became man is not a bare man, but rather God from both natures, he exists as the Son of God, God transcendent, even if he [is spoken of] explicitly.

^A comparing the greater and the lesser in the Father and the Son, defining the Son as heterousios and unlike the Father. For they do not know, as it seems, that the greater and the lesser is sought and judged among things of the same essence, just as one man is greater than another, one ox than another, and one horse than another, and in a word, the rule of comparison is appropriate for things of the same genus. Therefore, he who boldly pries into the things of God, and calls the Father greater than the Son, must accept the comparison as being [between things] of the same essence, even if he does not wish to; for things of different essences cannot be compared with one another, nor is a man said to be greater than an ox, or greater than a camel, or greater than a fish. However, those things in Holy Scripture that exceed the singular number are indicative of the difference of the hypostases, while those expressed in the singular denote the identity of the nature. The former are said so that Sabellius and the Jews might be silenced, while the latter [are said] so that Arius and Eunomius and the pagans might be branded. For those who extend the number of properties to the holy Trinity, but contract them into one essence, define things most correctly and follow the teachings of the heavenly oracles, neither falling into polytheism because of the difference of nature, nor slipping into Judaism because of the constitution of one person. And how are they not ashamed, worshiping a creature and fighting against their own votes? For while forbidding the worship of a creature as pagan, they themselves, in doing this, are unaware of it. ^B It is necessary to know this also, that the same names do not always signify the same things, nor does homonymy in every way signify synonymy. For example, in the case of the Son, the term "begotten" is used properly, but in the case of creatures [it is used] improperly; in the former case, it is for the sake of truth and consubstantiality, but in the latter, for the sake of honor and adoption. For willing it, He begot us by the word of truth. Therefore, let not homonymy here give birth to equality of honor, nor let things said improperly be thought to be spoken properly, since no sane person would claim that anger, wrath, and all other things not befitting the divine nature are properly ascribed to God, when they are ascribed to Him by an abuse of words. For it is clear that for each passage and each word, the appropriate and fitting explanation, when applied, gives birth to the truth. ^C Let those who speak impiously concerning the Holy Spirit and separate Him from the divine essence also answer: how did our God and Savior, having become man, hand down that the all-holy Spirit should be the complement of the holy Trinity, and that in the invocation of divine baptism He is numbered and invoked together with the Father and the Son, as one who frees men from their sins? And at the mystical supper, when the Holy Spirit is declared to have formed the body of the incarnate Word, how could He be a created thing, or created, or of a servile nature, and not rather [of] the sovereign, creative, and royal substance, [to which] the Holy Spirit is akin and consubstantial? For if He is a servant, let Him not ^D be numbered with the Lord; for He is united and counted together, since with the precision of such…

^A a dogmatist as Christ it is fitting to believe, who teaches surely and safely concerning His own essence, even if to the fighters against the Spirit it seems better to be thought wiser and to know more of heavenly things than God, or rather to speak with boldness and impiety. If, therefore, the divine Daniel, having seen an angel and having marveled at the beauty and the greatness of the one who appeared, fell prostrate, struck with amazement at the paradox of the vision, what excuse will those have who boldly thrust themselves upon the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and attempt to weigh and explain the ineffable nature with words?

The Scriptures, therefore, call the procession of the Son from the Father, which is timeless, eternal, ^B without mediation, and superior to every word and intellect, a generation, not to describe an affection, but to indicate the consubstantiality; for things begotten are of the same nature as those that beget. And lest one should bring in a fantasy of affection, they call Him Word. Lest He be thought of as younger, they say, "In the beginning was the Word." Then, also proclaiming His relation to the Father, "And the Word was with God." Then, also His dignity, "And the Word was God." From the Son, we learn consubstantiality; from the Word, His impassibility; from "in the beginning," His co-eternity; from "with the Father," His relationship [to Him]; and from "being God," His dignity. And having cast off from each title that which is inappropriate and unbecoming—as, for instance, from the Son, that He is younger, and from the Word, that He is lacking ^C in substance—we may know and worship Him as eternal God, consubstantial and good, and He who progressed from the Father without time.

After the death of Eustathius, the most holy bishop of Antioch, Flavian the Great was appointed. In these times, the heresy of the Messalians—or rather, the Euchites, Enthusiasts, Lampetians, and Bogomils—sprang up (for it is many-named, named after Adelphius, Dadoa, Saba, and Simeon, the leaders of the heresy). From this sect, the great Flavian gathered many monks, and since they denied that they were in this heresy, he refuted them in this way. Having taken aside an old man of great reputation among them, he addressed him craftily as follows: "We, O elder, who have lived longer, have come to know human nature more accurately, and we have clearly ^D recognized the machinations of the opposing demons; and by experience, we have learned that the grace of the Spirit is supplied. But these men, being young, and having perfect knowledge of none of these things, cannot endure to hear more spiritual discourses. Tell me, therefore, how do you say that the opposing spirit is driven away by your prayers and exercises, and that the grace of the all-holy Spirit comes to indwell by means of your prayer and practice?" The old man, beguiled by these words, vomited forth all the hidden and soul-destroying poison, and he said: "We deem that no benefit is conferred by baptism to those who are accounted worthy, but that only earnest prayer makes the demon, who dwells within a man and is united to his substance, to be driven out.

^A For as each one of those born draws forth the nature from the ancestor, so also indeed does he draw forth the slavery to demons; when these demons are profligated by earnest prayer, then the holy Spirit rushes in, in such a way indeed that He can both be seen and felt. For by most manifestly indicating His advent, He completely frees the body from the movement which proceeds from the passions of the soul, and removes from the soul every inclination toward worse things, so that there is no longer any need for fasting to subdue the body, nor for teaching to bridle the soul and restrain the mind from every wicked action and thought. Nor does such a man only obtain release from the most shameful passions and insolence of soul and body, ^B but he also clearly predicts future events, beholds the holy Trinity with his eyes, and is gifted with the knowledge of divine things and sacred mysteries. Thus the divine Flavian, having unearthed that diabolical heresy, addressed the most impious old man thus: "O you who have grown old in evil days, does not your own most filthy mouth convict you? Your lost and unclean lips have borne witness against you." Now that that diabolical heresy and wicked error had been detected, its professors were expelled from Syria and went off into Pamphylia, and filled that region with this pestilence, which now occupies the greater part of the West also. ^C In the twenty-first year of the reign of Constantine, Sapores, the king of the Persians, being exasperated by calumnies against the Christians, persecuted them severely, and put to death more than eighteen thousand of them. The cause of the rupture of the peace between the Romans and the Persians was this: A certain Persian named Metrodorus, under the pretext of philosophizing, went off to India and the Brahmans, and having practiced much self-restraint, became venerable to them. He also built watermills and baths, things hitherto unknown to them. This Metrodorus, because he had gained for himself a reputation as a pious man, entered into the inner sanctums of the shrine and stole many precious stones and pearls; he also received from the king of India things to bring as a gift to the Emperor. Returning thence to Byzantium, he offered them to the Emperor as if they were his own; and he said that he had brought other things, too, by land, but that these had been taken from him by the Persians. Constantine, therefore, wrote severely to Sapores, requesting that they be sent to him, and when he received them, he did not send them back. On this account the peace was dissolved. ^D From these stones the Emperor made a work and sent it as a gift to the peoples living beyond the Danube, having inscribed upon the greatest one a dedication to him who surpassed the others. This inscription was ruinous to the barbarians. It is said that he was the first of all the emperors to use a diadem and to be adorned more proudly with pearls and gems. Moreover, he also fashioned golden volumes of the Gospels, adorned with pearls and precious stones, and placed them in the Great Church, worthy of admiration. At this time, also, the holy and blessed Helena departed to the Lord, being eighty years of age, and she was the first of all to be buried in the church of the Apostles. Before her death, she had given many instructions to her son concerning piety towards Christ.

^A In the 22nd year, Constantine the most pious, having campaigned against the Germans, Sarmatians, and Goths, won a mighty victory through the power of the Cross, and reduced those nations to ultimate servitude. And he rebuilt Drepanum near Nicomedia in honor of Lucian, who had there borne witness to the truth by capital punishment, and called it Helenopolis after his mother.

In the 23rd, 24th, and 25th years, the octagonal church began to be built at Antioch. And he himself crossed the Danube, bridged it with stone, subjugated the Scythians, and established the tribute ^B together with two great porticoes; and in that same forum he erected a monolithic, all-purple column brought from Rome, binding it with inscribed bronze bands. On top of it, he placed a statue in his own name, upon which is inscribed: "Constantine. It shone like the sun, which was the work of Phidias and was brought from Athens." And he placed the seven baskets and the twelve hampers, in which Christ our God worked miracles, at the base of the column. And he brought the relics of the holy apostles Luke, Timothy, and Andrew into the city through the holy martyr Artemius.

In the 26th and 27th years of his reign, he applied himself to the destruction of idols and their temples, and he assigned their revenues to the Churches of God. Then also the basilica at Nicomedia was struck from heaven and burned.

In the 28th year of his reign, the impious Arius, by means of a feigned repentance and deceitful words, after his deposition, bewitched the ears of the most serene emperor. Taking two books, one of which contained his own perverse opinion written by his own hand—which he kept hidden with him—and the other written by someone else's hand concerning the faith set forth at Nicaea, ^C he handed this latter to the emperor, swearing that he truly believed exactly as he had written. By this fraud, he so deceived the emperor that he ordered him to be received into communion at the church by the high priest Alexander without delay. The high priest, therefore, being anxious as was proper, spent the whole night in prayer to God, making it a matter of petition. For on the next day, as the impious man was proceeding to the church with display and arrogance, when he was in the forum near the so-called senate, his stomach pinched him; he retired to the nearby latrines, and was struck by an angelic hand, his belly and intestines rupturing along with his soul, and they were cast into the latrines. ^D

In the same year there was a great famine in the East; the emperor relieved this shortage by sending much grain.

NOTES OF XYLANDER AND GOAR

(89) Simocatta: *a glorious tax of the city.* It also boasts a name derived from Latin. Goar.

(90) *Hence* the forum was flanked *with porticoes.* According to Allatius, these are structures of various beams joined together with roof tiles placed on top, built to avoid the discomforts of the sun and sudden rains, and also for the sake of shade and strolling. They are so called from the fact that an entrance is open to them and through them. Asconius calls them projecting boards. But, if you add that they were built by Constantine with stones, supported by marble columns, and covered with vaulted work, it provided the most pleasant spectacle for those walking, just as it provided a very ample space for those entering them. Goar.

(91) *The senate.* The wide side of the curia was established on both sides. This was called the 'Senate' or 'Col.' Zonaras writes that it was the greatest room in the senate. Goar.

^A Antioch alone received 36,000 modii of grain per year. An earthquake having occurred in Cyprus, the city of Salamis fell and destroyed a considerable multitude. In the 29th year, Dalmatius was named Caesar. Calocaerus, who had usurped power in Cyprus, was burned alive in Tarsus of Cilicia by Dalmatius. In the 33rd year of his reign, Constantine the Great died. For, having moved against the Persians, he arrived from Nicomedia at the natural hot springs 92. And having fallen ill, and having come from there through Helenopolis to the camp, he was seized by a violent fever and died, in the ninth year after the founding and dedication of Constantinople. He was laid to rest in a porphyry or "Roman" sarcophagus, [P. 297] he himself and his mother Helena, who had died twelve years before his own passing, as well as his wife Fausta, daughter of Maximian Herculius, who had died two years before the death of her husband. He left the empire ^B to his three sons, Constantius, Constantine, and Constans, having determined that Constantius should hold Thrace and the eastern regions, Constantine those things of the West towards the Ocean, and Constans Crete, Africa, and Illyricum. It was believed that Constantine the Great had been extinguished by his brothers through the administration of lethal poison, and that for this reason he had instructed his son in his own handwriting to beware of his uncles and to avenge him; and that Eusebius, the bishop of Nicomedia, having received such a document, delivered it to Constantius who had just returned from the East, and from this he also obtained the bishopric of Constantinople. But it seemed absurd that one should wish to kill all these uncles at the same time; and therefore it was decreed that the matter should be handled cautiously. Constantine the Great died piously, having reigned thirty-two years and ten months, having lived in all sixty-five years.

Constantius reigned twenty-four years, Constans seventeen years. Constantine perished quickly ^C and in this manner: He was going to his brother Constantius 94 to confer with him about certain matters, accompanied by great forces and power, which caused Constantius to fall into fear that he might be coming to him to attempt some new thing; and having hit upon evil counselors who urged him toward war, he led an army out against him. And the battle having broken out, Constantine was found among those who were fleeing at the final turn, and he was killed, being the third of the brothers, and Constantius became master of all the Western regions. Constantius was of ^D tall stature, industrious, of fierce aspect, of inconstant mind, abstinent in sexual matters, affable toward friends, practicing temperance in food, sub- [index: entries preserved]

^A behaving with temperance, keeping the reins on his appetite, and being kindly disposed regarding the petitions and judgments of his subjects, from which he had altogether abstained. In the largesses of the rulers, he always observed what was appropriate. He would not admit any man lacking an education into the senate, since he himself had learned to write prose and compose verses. Only one fault was attached to him, his perverse opinions concerning religion.

In the second year of the reign of Constantius, Dalmatius Caesar was put to death by the soldiers, not by the order of Constantius, yet neither did he forbid the slaughter. Gallus and Julian, the sons of Constantius, the brother of Constantine the Great, were also on the point of being slain together with him; but disease rescued Gallus, and his tender age rescued Julian, for he was only eight years old. Constantius, however, although he had previously embraced the opinion regarding the Son as consubstantial, later turned away from it through levity of mind and the fraud of the Arian presbyter ^B and Eusebius, the chief of the eunuchs, and Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia.

In the third year, when Constantine had come into the territory of his brother Constans, a battle was joined and he was killed by the soldiers, as we have already told. Constantius, emperor of the East, handed over Gallus and Julian to be educated in a place which is called Macellum, not far from Caesarea in Cappadocia. These two brothers became readers (they call them *anagnostai*), and they eagerly desired to build a church to the holy martyr Mamas. But the part which fell to Julian to build, the earth did not receive the material [he placed] there. Julian, having shorn his hair, pretended he wished to live a monastic life. Constantius and Constans enacted a law that no Jew should purchase a slave, and if they did, the slave should be confiscated; and if any man should dare to circumcise a slave, he should be punished by the sword and his property confiscated.

In the fourth and fifth years, Antioch was in peril for three days from a great earthquake.

In the sixth year, Constantius celebrated a triumph over the defeated Assyrians. Sapor, king of the Persians, persecuted the Christians, and Constans in the West ravaged the Franks. In this year, a certain Didymus, a man of renown, known for being deprived of his sight, became famous. The great Antony, coming to him in Alexandria, said: "There is no reason, he said, for you to be distressed over the loss of your eyes; for you have lost such eyes as even flies and gnats have the power to injure. Rejoice rather that you possess eyes with which even angels see."

In the seventh year, as a result of a ^D great earthquake, Neocaesarea was engulfed by the sea, only the episcopal seat and the church surviving. At that time also, Paul the confessor was ordained bishop of Constantinople.

In the eighth year, because of a great earthquake, the island of Rhodes was laid waste.

^A In the ninth year, the city of Dyrrachium in Dalmatia was destroyed by an earthquake, and Rome was also in danger, trembling for three days; twelve cities of Campania were destroyed. When Constantius came to Byzantium, he stripped Paul the bishop of his throne and brought in the most impious Eusebius (who did not live up to his name at all), introducing him as a robber and unlawfully, that sink of vices. Eusebius dedicated the church of the great God which had been completed by Constantius according to the testamentary command of Constantine the Great; and he brought from Antioch the relics of the holy martyr Pamphilus and those with him—Theodulus, Porphyrius, and Paul—and deposited them within it. But the Alexandrians slew Gregory, who had seized the bishopric of Alexandria by robbery and had kept the great Athanasius away for six years. In his place, George, an Arian—a certain Cappadocian monster—was ordained by the Arians. ^B In the tenth year, Constantius built the harbor of Seleucia in Syria, having cut away a great part of the mountain, and rebuilt the city. He also founded Antaradus in Phoenicia and named it Constantia. In the same year, there was an eclipse of the sun on the sixth of the month Daesius, at the third hour of the day. And the orthodox bishops who had been driven out arrived in Rome along with Athanasius. In the eleventh year, trusting in the letters of Pope Julius of Rome, they recovered their own thrones. But Constantius, residing in Antioch, drove them away at the instigation of the Arians. In the twelfth year, a great earthquake occurred in Berytus of Phoenicia, such that the greater part of the city fell. In the thirteenth year, Sapor, the Persian, besieged the city of Nisibis in various ways; having diverted the river against the city and employed all kinds of siege engines, he was defeated and, fleeing, retreated to his own country, having lost the greater part of his army. ^C In the fourteenth year, Constantius promoted his cousin Gallus to Caesar, renaming him Constantius, and sent him into the East. In the fifteenth year, the Jews in the East of Palestine rose up and slew many of the Greek tribes and Samaritans. But they themselves were utterly wiped out by the Romans, and their city, Diocaesarea, was obliterated. In the same year, the great Athanasius was deported by Constantius to Britain, and Felix was ordained in his place. In Mediolanum, a council of the Fathers was gathered, but it dissolved without accomplishing anything. ^D In the eighteenth year, Gallus, meditating tyranny, killed Domitian, prefect of the East, and Magnus, the quaestor, who had informed Constantius of the conspiracy. Constantius, having summoned him, slew him at the island of Thalanion. He kept his brother, Julian, in custody; but Eusebia, the wife of the emperor, having petitioned for him, sent him to Athens with permission.

^A Traveling through Greece, Constantius consulted soothsayers and diviners as to whether he would obtain what he had in mind. He happened upon an impious man who professed to foretell such things. This man led him impiously into a certain cave dedicated to superstition and called upon deceitful demons. When they appeared with their customary display, Julian, compelled by fear, marked his forehead with the sign of the cross; upon seeing which, the demons instantly vanished. The impostor, having grasped the cause of their flight, rebuked Julian, saying that they had not fled, as he supposed, but had departed in abomination of the cross. Thus having beguiled the captive, he initiated him and filled him with filth; for, having washed away his divine baptism with abominable blood, the thirst for empire stripped the thrice-wretched man of his piety.

^B Not long after he had attained the empire, the most impious Julian openly and shamelessly waged war against piety. In the beginning, he polluted the fountains both inside and outside the city with unspeakable sacrifices, so that everyone who partook of the water was compelled to become a partaker of his wickedness. Then he filled with this defilement the goods exposed for sale in the marketplace; for bread and meat and fruits and vegetables and all other edible things were sprinkled with it. Seeing this, the Christians groaned and lamented at what was being done, yet they still ate of them, holding to the apostolic law which commands them to eat whatever is sold in the shambles, and to make no distinction for conscience' sake. This most wicked Julian, arming the Jews against the Christians, asked them why they did not sacrifice, since the law commanded them to do so. When they replied that their sacrifices were limited to the temple in Jerusalem, the godless man immediately ordered the temple which had been cast down by the anger and will of God to be rebuilt. Upon hearing this with great joy, they announced the order to their people throughout the world. They flocked together from everywhere, contributing money and zeal for the rebuilding of the temple; and he himself sent with them governors and much service and assistance; indeed, he sent silver spades and urns to the impious Jews. But after the impious Jews began to dig, violent winds suddenly blew and scattered everything at once. And as for the other terrible things they suffered, I shall write of them when I have advanced to the third year of his reign.

The accursed man, having entered Persia, sent a demon to the West to bring him an answer from there with speed. But the demon was hindered from his onward journey for ten days by a certain monk, so that the demon, being unable to proceed, returned to Julian.

He then asked the cause of the delay, and the demon answered him, "I waited, but I returned without accomplishing the task. I was waiting for a certain monk, Publius, in the hope that he would cease his prayer; but as he did not cease for ten days, he prevented me from performing your will." Having heard this, Julian was gripped by grave indignation and threatened that, upon his return, he would destroy the race of monks. When one of his nobles learned of this, he was struck with great admiration; after his return, he distributed all his possessions to the poor, went to that old man, and became a renowned monk, preaching to all the power and strength ^A of the monks, which they received against the dark-formed demons.

In Carrhae, a city founded by the Emperor Carus, while Julian was making his journey against the Persians, he entered a certain cave and, having performed unclean sacrifices there, he locked and sealed the doors and set guards over them. When these doors were opened after his fall, they found a woman hanging by her hair with her hands stretched out; the cruel man had sliced open her belly, having, as he supposed, learned of his victory over the Persians from her liver. At Antioch, many chests filled with human heads were found in the palace, and many wells filled with the bodies of the dead. For the idol-loving Julian had cut open countless pregnant women and inspected their livers with the embryos, and he slaughtered many infants and buried them under the idols to which he was fervently devoted. The demon-possessed and God-hated man also destroyed a great multitude of other rational beings of various ages by diverse kinds of death, sacrificing them in the name of Neptune and the other demons to whose worship he, as a man hated by God, had addicted himself. Moreover, he offered white horses to the sun, and red ones to the fire and the winds. Furthermore, he did not cease to slaughter dogs, monkeys, ravens, and almost every kind of quadruped, bird, and swimming creature, and he devised all sorts of rites, more numerous and worse than those established among the Greeks, in order to surpass ^B all those before him who had followed the Greek religion, as the godless one thought that by such things he would be deified and considered a god. But we shall describe the matters concerning him in the order of his God-hating reign, as briefly as possible. Let the narrative now proceed to what follows.

In the 19th year of the reign of Constantius, on the day of Pentecost, there appeared in Jerusalem the sign of the life-giving cross in the sky, luminous and stretched from Golgotha, where Christ was crucified, as far as the Mount of Olives, from whence he was taken up; and it was encircled by a ring, having the appearance of a rainbow. On that same day it also appeared to Constantius, with Cyril at that time being bishop of Jerusalem. ^{C D}

^A In the 21st year of the reign of Constantius, Eusebius the impious, bishop of Constantinople, having died, Athanasius and Paul returned to Rome once again to Pope Julius and to Constans, the brother of the emperor Constantius. When the Christians of Constantinople wished to appoint Paul as bishop, while the Arians chose Macedonius, they joined battle with one another, and many fell on both sides. Hermogenes, the commander of the army, sent by Constantius to expel Paul, was killed by the orthodox and cast into the sea. Upon learning of this, Constantius occupied Constantinople and sent Paul into exile, though he did not install Macedonius in the bishopric. Later, however, Paul returned from Rome with letters from Pope Julius, but he was ordered into exile at Thessalonica. Macedonius, like a brigand, seized the church, in the course of which three thousand one hundred and fifty men were killed; and thus the Arians gained control of the Church. Athanasius and Paul returned once again to Rome to Constans and reported the whole matter to him. Indignant at these events, Constans wrote to his brother, expressing his displeasure and demanding that Paul and Athanasius be restored to their own sees. But when Magnentius had seized power as a tyrant in Gaul and had killed the pious Constans, Constantius, on learning of this while in Antioch, immediately expelled Paul from the city to Cucusus. There, he was strangled by the Arians with his own omophorion ^B. Macedonius again seized the episcopal throne, while Athanasius once more sought safety in flight. Constantius brought Julian, the brother of Gallus, out of confinement, declared him Caesar, and sent him into Gaul, giving him in marriage his own sister, Helena, who also went by the name Constantia. The wife of Constantius was the celebrated Eusebia, the fame of whose beauty had spread over the whole world. But her husband, being softer than was fitting, and moreover infirm, was unable to attend to his wife; and so, burning with the vigor of nature in the flower of her youth, she fell into cruel torments of the womb and, wasting away little by little, she perished, deriving no benefit from her beauty, her youth, or her empire. For whatever else a woman may endure, if her husband fails her, her life likewise fails. ^C In the 22nd year, the Arians persuaded the emperor Constantius to decree a capital sentence against Athanasius; but even then, the saint secured his safety by flight. A great earthquake occurred in Nicomedia at the third hour of the night, taking hold of the city and destroying a great multitude of people, along with their bishop, Cecropius. Macedonius, therefore, holding the bishopric of Constantinople, undertook to transfer the body of Constantine the Great from the church of the Holy Apostles to the shrine of Saint Acacius, using as his pretext that the temple of the Apostles was collapsing. But as the people resisted, a great slaughter took place, so that the well of testimony, the ^D streets, and the hall were filled with blood.

^A Having learned of this, Constantius deposed him and replaced him with Eudoxius, exchanging a great evil for a greater one. This Eudoxius dedicated the temple of Holy Sophia a second time, because after its first completion and dedication by Eusebius, it had fallen and been rebuilt again by the same Constantius. In the time of this Eudoxius, who was a disciple of Eunomius, lived St. Ephrem the Syrian, a man great in word and deed, who left many profitable writings behind him.

In the twenty-third year of Constantius, Flavianus, bishop of Antioch, first divided the choirs of singers and taught them to chant the Davidic melody in alternating fashion. After him, Peter, surnamed Cnapheus (which means "fuller"), having tyrannically seized the throne of Antioch, was the first to conceive of the ointment ^B being consecrated in the church in the presence of all the people, and that the invocation over the waters should take place in the evening during the holy Theophany, and that in every prayer the Theotokos should be named, and that the symbol of the faith should be recited at every gathering, whereas previously it was said only on Great Friday.

Constantius, having heard that Julian, having distinguished himself in the wars in Gaul, had been proclaimed emperor by the army, set out against him while he was residing in Antioch for the sake of the Persian war; and having come to Mopsucrenae, he died there on the 3rd of November, having greatly condemned his own ignorance. He was baptized at that time in Antioch by Euzoius the Arian. His body was ^C carried off by Jovian—who afterwards became emperor, but was then a protector—and deposited near the body of his father in the Heroon, along with Eusebia, his first wife.

And as soon as Julian was proclaimed emperor in Gaul, the trulla of the holy Great Church of God, which was vaulted, fell, and crushed the ambo and the soleas, which were made of onyx stone. ^D

^A And Julian, having seen this temple afterward, said: "Now the Christians have a temple. But when I return from the Persian war, I shall make the middle of it a storehouse for hay, and the parts on either side stalls for my horses, so that I may see where they place their hope."

Julian was short in stature, with a beard, black hair, and was extremely abstemious regarding sleep, luxury, and venery, but otherwise most ambitious and impious. Having brought the whole empire under himself alone, he insolently usurped the Greek religion, washing away the holy baptism with the blood of sacrifices, and doing everything by which demons are worshipped. He therefore sent Oribasius the physician and quaestor to Delphi to restore the temple of Apollo. When he had come there and begun the work, he received the following oracle from the demon:

Tell the king: fallen to earth is the masterful hall; No more has Phoebus a dwelling, no prophetic laurel, No speaking fountain. Even the babbling water has dried up. ^B

In his first year of rule, when he had assumed the diadem before the death of Constantius, divine wrath was immediately sent upon the Roman dominion and evils occurred. Then this impious man, in order to show that Constantius had been unjust and contrary to the laws, began to make a pretense of justice, recalling bishops from exile, putting to death Eusebius, the chief of the royal eunuchs, as one supposedly guilty, and driving out the rest of the eunuchs from the palace because of the wife dismissed and repudiated by him, whom his brother Constantius had betrothed to him. Likewise, he dismissed the cooks because of the simplicity of his diet, and the boys ^C because, as he said, one was sufficient for many. He also cast out the camels, asses, and mules from the public service, permitting only horses to be used for tasks, out of the great greed to which he was enslaved.

Then the Greeks in the East, having been emboldened, immediately seized and killed Bishop George in Alexandria. Athanasius then, who had been hiding for a long time at the house of a certain virgin, went out into the public and convened a council, and having confirmed the decrees of Nicaea, recovered the churches. The Arians, however, after George, appointed Lucius for themselves and held meetings in a common house. The Greeks of the religion crucified and slaughtered many Christians. Indeed, in Gaza and Ascalon, they killed presbyters and perpetual virgins, and opening their bellies, filled them with barley and threw them to the pigs. In Phoenicia, having killed Cyril the deacon, they tasted his liver. ^D And he who dissected that deacon and tasted his liver, his tongue rotted and fell out, he lost his teeth and his eyes, and having been tortured by dreadful pains, he perished.

But what need is there to recount what was perpetrated at that period through the cities and fields by the Greeks? For they exceed every account and writing. At that time, even the great Basil in the church of the Cappadocians

^A was a presbyter, and Libanius the sophist, and Proclus and Maximus the philosophers were renowned.

[P. 305] In the second year, the impious Julian decreed that Christians should not participate in Greek studies. But Apollinarius, taking his material from the Holy Scripture and imitating all the forms of the poets, wrote works for the Christians to learn from. But that apostate, imitating the benevolence of the Christians, ordered that the needs of strangers and beggars be provided for, deceiving the simpler folk. And he ordered that his own images be inscribed with [the names of] Zeus, Ares, Hermes, and the other demons, and that those who deferred their worship of these be punished as enemies of the emperor. While distributing the imperial largesse ^B to the army, he would place fire and incense there, and forced the soldiers to offer incense.

In Caesarea Philippi, which is now called Panais, the woman whom Christ had delivered from the flow of blood had set up a statue to the Lord Christ, and under the base of the statue grew an herb that was a remedy for every kind of illness. Envying this herb, the wretch took down the statue and set up a likeness of Julian in its place. But the Christians took the statue of the Savior and placed it in a church; as for that of Julian, fire sent from heaven consumed it.

In Nicopolis of Palestine, which is also called Emmaus, there is a spring that is a healing for every kind of illness for both men and beasts; for they say that our Lord and God washed His feet in it after a journey. In Hermopolis of the Thebaid, a persea tree stands; if anyone were to take a leaf or a chip of its bark, it is healing for every malady; this tree, they say, bowed down and worshipped Christ when He was fleeing into Egypt, and afforded Him shade. Envying this, Julian blocked up the spring with refuse and cut down the tree. The same wretch opened the reliquary of the Forerunner of Christ, consigned his remains to the fire, and scattered the ashes.

They say that in the northern part of the ravine at Caesarea Philippi, a flame-like root grows, which they call "battaritis," from which an inaccessible and unapproachable light shines forth toward evening, which causes anyone who approaches it to die immediately. Therefore, they dig up the earth in a circle around it and tie a dog to the root. The dog, eager to follow its masters, pulls and uproots the root. It dies on the spot, but they use the root, when tied to [the afflicted], to heal those possessed by demons. ^C And they say that in Galilee there is a coastal city, past which a river flows at a distance of two stadia. This [river] has within it an island, about one hundred cubits in circumference, whose white sand, when blown away by the winds, is immediately transformed into glass; and when this is removed, it is filled up again. ^D

NOTES OF XYDANDER AND GOAR

^A As Julian was passing through the city of Chalcedon and sacrificing in the temple of Fortune, Maris, the bishop of that place, cast many reproaches in his face, calling him a deserter, a madman, and a stranger to the glory of God. But Julian, as one who pretended to be a philosopher, took vengeance on Maris with this one saying: "Depart, wretch," he said, "and lament your own blindness, for the Nazarene, whom you adore, has brought no aid to your suffering." For Maris was afflicted with a cataract. But he replied to the Apostate: "I give thanks to my Lord Christ, who has provided this for me, that I might not behold your most impudent and most impious face."

The same Julian, at the instigation of the Greeks, expelled the great Athanasius from the church. As he was leaving, he ordered the Christians who were weeping over him to be of good courage, saying: "Take heart, O people of Christ; it is a little cloud, and it passes quickly."

While Julian was living in Antioch, and frequently going up to Daphne and worshipping the idol of Apollo—which was there, an admirable work of the statuary Bryxis, which no one else had been able to equal by imitation—he sought an oracle from it, but obtained no answer. Thinking that the relics of the holy martyr Babylas (14), which were deposited in Daphne, were the cause of the silence, he ordered them to be moved from there. This having been done, that same night a fire suddenly descended from heaven and consumed the temple and the statue, so that not even a trace of it remained. Struck by this event, and thinking it had been done through the scheming of the Christians, the wicked man proceeded to interrogate the priests. And having tortured them in every way, so that some even died, he received from them only this answer: that it was not by the work of Christians nor of any other human design, but that fire which descended from heaven had burned both the temple and the statue. Enraged, therefore, the Apostate and enemy of God closed the great church of Antioch and plundered all the sacred objects. And when the counts who had been sent, Felix and Julian, the emperor’s uncle, said that they thought there was some invisible power that had hindered them, the wicked man mocked them.

^C Artemius, moreover, the duke of Alexandria, who during the reign of Constantius had shown great zeal in Alexandria against the worshippers of false gods, was beheaded after many tortures for the sake of the faith in Christ, and his goods were confiscated. The same was done with two presbyters, Eugenius and Macarius.

^D In the third year of his reign, Julian subjected many who professed the Christian religion to torments. He also ordered the Jews to rebuild their temple. When this work was begun, first a whirlwind scattered the lime, of which there were more than two hundred thousand modii. And when the Jews set about the work again, fire broke out from the foundations and burned them, and thus that work was abandoned. That impious Julian wrote [against the Gospels—]

which the great Cyril of Alexandria and other lovers of Christ corrected. Indeed, Julian and his like corrupted all the Holy Scriptures; of which the impious adulterations the pious have blotted out.

At that time a divine cross appeared in the heavens, surrounded by a luminous crown, extending from Golgotha to the holy Mount of Olives, brighter than it had been under Constantius. Furthermore, the sign of the cross appeared automatically on the altar cloths, in books, and on other vestments; indeed, it appeared on the garments not only of Christians but also of Jews, not just in Jerusalem but in Antioch and other cities as well. And that which the Jews and Greeks impudently denied, they found inscribed upon their own clothes. In some cases, these crosses were black.

Meanwhile, Julian, fortified by divinations, sacrifices, the incantations of demons, and deceptions, as Agathias says, made his expedition against the Persians; at which time he also received an oracle that ran as follows: "Now we all, the heavenly host, have rushed forth To win trophies of victory by the Tigris river. And I, the bellicose Ares, shall lead the gods into battle."

As he was entering into Persia, in the house of a certain Christian woman, a water jar was found standing full, which suddenly changed into sweet, bubbling wine. This was seen perhaps as a symbol of the change of affairs for the better, soon to happen with the death of the tyrant. For having marched against the Persians, he was persuaded by certain deserters ^B to burn his ships. Then, having made his journey through deserts and rugged regions for a sufficient time—all the necessities and provisions having been left behind, and those with him suffering much hardship—when the time for battle arrived, while he was riding around and drawing up his battle line, he was struck in the hypochondrium by a spear from an uncertain hand, so that he cried out. Taking his blood in his hand, he sprinkled it into the air, saying: "You have conquered, Christ; feast, O Nazarene." And thus he gave up his wretched soul, having before this cursed his own gods with many maledictions, calling them impostors, deceivers, and liars.

His miserable body [P. 308] was carried to Constantinople and placed in a porphyry sarcophagus of cylindrical form, upon which was written this epitaph: "Against the Persians he marched in vain to empty war, The king, both a good and valiant warrior in arms, Julian lies here, far from the swellings of the Euphrates, Where the silver Cydnus rolls its surging stream, Brought hither, and after his death rests beneath this tomb."

^C When Jovianus, who reigned after him, accidentally trod with his foot upon the purple, while walking behind him on a downward slope, Julian turned, and discerning from the event that he would succeed him in the empire, said: "So be it, provided he be a man." ^D

^A Jovian reigned 9 months and 15 days. He was a tribune of the soldiers, a most gentle man and a true Christian, who was proclaimed emperor by the entire army at the place where the Apostate was slain. He was of such tall stature that none of the imperial robes fitted him. After a single clash of war, peace was raised as if by divine providence by both the Romans and the Persians, and it was established for thirty years. But Jovian refused the empire, saying that he could not rule an army that had embraced the Greek religion. To him, all shouted with one voice: "We are Christians, most august emperor." Therefore, he sent edicts throughout the entire Roman empire ordering that the churches of God be restored and recalling the Christians from exile. He also asked for letters from the holy Athanasius so that he might accurately record for him in writing the doctrine of the undefiled faith; having done this, he was confirmed in the Christian faith to a higher degree.

Upon returning to Antioch, he found many chests in the palace filled with human heads, and many pits filled with human corpses; for Julian had disemboweled countless pregnant women and inspected the entrails of their fetuses, and had slaughtered many infants and buried them beneath idols. Furthermore, this most unholy man had sacrificed white and red horses and various other kinds of animals to the sun, to fire, to the winds, and to all his demons. ^B And so it is not incredible, as is reported, that the earth cast out his buried corpse, and that he was buried commingled with the bones of impure animals, a fact which demonstrated that the man was alien to both gods and men.

But Jovian, setting out from Antioch toward Constantinople, when he had reached the city of Ancyra in Galatia, proceeded a day’s journey and arrived at the town of Dadastana. There, as he slept in a room newly rendered, which was giving off a heavy vapor from the lime, he was suddenly suffocated by that vapor. Others say he died from eating poisonous mushrooms. His wife was Charito, who did not even see him as emperor.

^C Valentinian was proclaimed emperor by the army in Nicaea, which is a city of Bithynia. He reigned for 13 years. That he had been sent into exile under Julian on account of his confession of the Christian faith led to his elevation to the empire. He was of large body, ruddy, with red hair, and beautiful eyes that were somewhat bluish-gray, so that many said he was like David; for Scripture also says of him that he was red and endowed with beautiful eyes. ^D Justice and admiration lent praise to his austerity: he did not employ austerity rashly, but always held the law of justice first, and would not allow himself to swerve from it in any matter. Whatever he had once decreed, he would not

^A change. Having entered Byzantium, when some urged him to choose a colleague for the empire, he said: "I shall take whom I will as my colleague." ^B To which the senator Daglaiphus replied: "If you love your own kin, you have a brother; but if you love the commonwealth, look to whom you entrust the purple." Putting more trust in natural bond, the emperor chose his brother Valens as his partner in the empire, and, distributing the Eastern parts to him, he himself kept the West.

In the first year of his reign, ^C Augustus Valentinianus declared his son Gratianus Caesar. A synod having been held at Lampsacus, which condemned the dogma of the Arians, the impious Valens, who was a most fervent Arian, overturned the acts of that council and exiled the bishops who had assembled there, bestowing the see of Constantinople upon Eudoxius, who was of his own mind; thus the orthodox were left without either pastor or church. Before Valentinianus became emperor, he was helped with money by a certain Sallustius; he promised him everything. But when he had become emperor and Sallustius demanded a province of him, he replied that promises were not to be kept when the matter looked to the detriment of the public interest. In that same year, outside the city of Antioch, an infant was born, dead, female, having two heads divided from the neck.

In the second year of the reign of Valentinianus, Liberius, bishop of Rome, Athanasius of Alexandria, Meletius of Antioch, and Eusebius of Samosata, ^D being recalled from exile, shone forth in the doctrine of the true faith. Presiding over the Arians in Alexandria were Lucius, Antiochus, and Euzoius. As the Christians were divided into two groups, Paulinus led one, and Meletius the other.

In the third year, Procopius, a cousin of Julian, rose in rebellion, and having advanced with a very large army as far as Nacolia, he struck terror into Valens. This caused him to abate his furies against the Church for a short time, until Procopius was betrayed by his own generals, Agilo and Gomarus. Valens had Procopius violently torn apart by being tied to two trees, and he sawed asunder those who had betrayed him, by the just judgment of God, because they had favored an unworthy man. He also tore down the remaining walls of Chalcedon because the citizens had protected Procopius. When these were razed to the foundations, an oracle was found inscribed on tablets, which says:

When sacred Nymphs in joy shall lead the dance Through city squares, with garlands crowned in state, And walls shall be the bath’s much-suffering aid, Then countless tribes of scattered men arrive, Fierce, withering, endowed with wicked might,

^A over the Cimmerian Bosphorus they shall pass with the sword, And shall destroy the Scythian land and the Mysian earth. And having set foot upon Thracian soil with maddened hopes, there too shall they find the end of their life and disaster. And indeed, everything happened exactly so. For after the victory over Procopius, Valens returned and adorned the city with a magnificent aqueduct, which he named the Valens. Then the prefect of the city, in order to show the joy that had arisen among the people as a result of this benefit, built a Nymphaeum in the Taurus, worthy of the grandeur of the city, and celebrated a festival ^B and feasted all the people. And not long afterward, the barbarian nations followed, just as the oracle had predicted, having poured into the land of the Thracians, and afterward they were destroyed around it. And again Valens stirred himself against the Church. There was a great earthquake throughout the whole world, so that in Alexandria ships anchored at the shore were lifted up onto the great walls. Some sailors reported that at that very hour, while sailing in the middle of the Adriatic Sea, their ships had bottomed on the seafloor, and after a short time the water returned, and in this way they sailed away. ^C In the fourth year, he built the water conduit which he named the Valentinian. To this Valentinian, a woman named Berenice approached, complaining that her property had been seized from her by Rodanus the praepositus; having judged the matter, the king ordered that her own property be returned to her. But when the praepositus did not obey the orders, the woman approached the king again in the Hippodrome and reported the defiance of the praepositus. The king therefore ordered a pyre to be lit in the sphendone and the praepositus ^D to be burned in his clothes in it, and all his goods to be adjudged to the woman. In the fifth year of Valentinian, Valens, along with Eudoxius the impious, stirred up a more bitter persecution against the orthodox than before on behalf of the pagans. And in the sixth year, the orthodox sent an embassy to Valens, men of priestly rank, whom Valens ordered to be burned along with the ship, and all were consumed together with the vessel, the ship having lasted as far as Dacibyza.

In the seventh year, the impious Valens gave the Greeks liberty to perform sacrifices and hold festivals. He also honored the Jews in the same way. But he was severely persecuting only the Orthodox and those of the Apostolic Church.

In the eighth year of Valentinian, Valens came to Antioch in Syria and inflicted terrible evils upon the Orthodox, slaughtering many with the sword and drowning others in the Orontes river flowing by. Similarly, in Edessa, he seized and murdered a multitude of the Orthodox. And a certain Orthodox woman, dragging her own child along in haste, said: "Come, child, it is the time of witness; let us bear witness for Christ." This caused Valens shame and checked the evil, God himself having ordained it so. Likewise, in Cappadocia, he sought to hand over the churches to the Arians, having seized upon the occasion of the conflict which had arisen between the great Basil—who was at that time a presbyter of the Church of Caesarea—and his bishop, Eusebius, whom he was inciting to a zeal for orthodoxy. ^B

In the ninth year, after the much-enduring Athanasius had departed to the Lord, having served as bishop for forty-six years, and having been vexed by persecutions and struggles for the sake of piety, Peter succeeded to the bishopric, whom the Arians then drove out. At that time, many of the Orthodox were impiously abused, and many were perfected through tortures. In the same year, the great Basil also became bishop of the Church of the Caesareans, upon the pious death of Eusebius.

In the tenth year, Ambrose succeeded Eudoxius in the episcopate of the Church of Milan, while the emperor Valentinian was tarrying there. For when Ambrose had been sent to resolve the quarrels of the disputing heretics, being still a catechumen, the people requested him, baptized him, and entrusted to him the bishopric of Milan. When the emperor Valentinian heard of this, he said: "I give thanks to you, O Lord God Almighty and our Savior, that while I had entrusted to this man the bodies of men, you have entrusted to him their souls, and thereby have shown my choice to be righteous." ^C Since the whole West confessed the consubstantial Trinity, they entreated Valentinian, and he convened a council in Illyricum and confirmed the faith of Nicaea. Valentinian also sent an edict to the bishops in Asia, Phrygia, and all in the East, charging them to remain fixed to the decrees of the council, and including his brother Valens and his son Gratian as his partners in that edict. It was then that Gregory the Theologian also set out for the Church of Constantinople, by the promptings of Basil and Meletius and the other defenders of the true religion. And had he not timely recalled the city, the whole Arian and Eunomian plague would have occupied everything, since already ^D everything...

save for the oratory of the holy martyr Anastasia—was held by them. Demophilus was then the bishop of the Arians. At that time, Gregory of Nyssa and Peter, brothers of Basil, were shining forth. Valentinian reproached his brother Valens for his heterodox opinions, and when Valens requested aid against the Goths, he sent none, saying that it was not right to support a man who fights against God. ^A

In the eleventh year of his reign, Valentinian the Great departed this life, after having reigned for eleven years, in the following manner: the Sauromatae, having been defeated by him, had sent envoys to him asking for peace. When he was questioning them as to whether all the Sauromatae were of such supreme standing, and they replied that he had before his eyes and could see the best of them all, he cried out violently, saying: "It is a terrible state of affairs for the Roman Empire, that it should come to an end in Valentinian, if the Sauromatae, being such most wretched men, rise up against the Romans." From this straining of his voice, and from the clapping of his hands, a vein ruptured, and after discharging a great amount of blood, he died in a fortress in Gaul. ^B

Then the Romans acclaimed his brother Valens as Augustus, and he reigned for three years. In his time, the Goths crossed the Maeotian swamp, guided by a hind, and came into Thrace; having split into two parts, they fought against one another. The one part requested reinforcements from Valens, promising to give their name to Christ; having obtained these, they were baptized and became followers of the Arian religion, as Valens himself was. Afterwards, having violated the treaties after their baptism, they attacked the city. In those same years, the heresy of the Massalians, which is also called that of the Euchites, Enthusiasts, and Bogomils, arose. Valens, however, devastating all the churches, came to Caesarea, incensed with fury against the great Basil. And at that time he performed those acts which Gregory the Great recounts in the funeral oration for the great Basil. At that time also, Galates, the son of Valens, and his wife Dominica were afflicted with a grievous disease. In addition to this, when a certain Demosthenes, one of the cooks of Valens, in a conversation held with Valens had criticized Basil and spoken in a barbaric fashion, they say that Basil replied: "Behold, we have also seen a Demosthenes without letters." ^C

In the third year, the Goths again launched an incursion into the territory of the Romans and devastated many provinces

Scythia, Mysia, Thrace, Macedonia, Achaia, and all of Greece, over twenty provinces. ^A There were seen also in the air images of armed men, displayed in the clouds. And at Antioch a child was born, fully formed in all members, but having a single eye in the middle of its forehead, four hands, and as many feet, and a beard. Then Libanius the sophist and Jamblichus, the teacher of Proclus, instituted the so-called cock-divination; for, having written the twenty-four letters on dust and placed a grain of wheat upon each letter, they let loose a cock upon the letters. The cock took the grain from the letter Θ (theta), then from the E (epsilon), the O (omicron), and the Δ (delta). And the divination of these men proved ambiguous, for such are the deceptive things of this kind. Upon learning this, Valens, without cause, punished many Theodosiuses, Theodotuses, and Theodoruses, and others whose names began with these letters. ^B Jamblichus, fearing for himself, drank poison and died. Having learned at Antioch of the Goths, Valens came to Constantinople; and there the citizens reviled him as effeminate and a runaway from battle. As he was going out to the war against the Goths, a certain Isaacius, one of the great monks, seized the bridle of Valens' horse and said to him: "Where are you going, Emperor, waging a campaign against God and having God as your adversary?" Enraged, Valens handed him over to custody, threatening to inflict punishment upon him upon his return. Before his own death, the emperor saw in a dream a certain man saying to him: "Speedily depart, wretched one, to great Mimas, There a fierce end of death shall seize you." Awakening from sleep, he asked who Mimas was; and having called for one of the wise men, he inquired of him who Mimas was. ^C He said to him: "It is a mountain, master, the greatest in Asia, stretching toward the sea, near the island of Chios, of which also Homer makes mention in the Odyssey with these words: 'Past windy Mimas.'" And the emperor said: "What need have I for the mountain of Mimas, that I should go there to die?" This was a deception of demons and a dream of deceitful phantoms. A little later he left Thrace to fight the Scythians; and having joined battle with them and been defeated significantly, he fled into a certain village and, entering a barn with his companions, he hid himself. When the Scythians—in ignorance of those hidden there—threw fire upon it, all who had taken refuge in that building were burned to ashes, having been consumed by fire. ^D Later, after the departure of the enemies, when some were searching for the body of the emperor, there was found in the building where he had hidden himself the tomb of a certain ancient man, inscribed as follows: "Here lies Mimas the Macedonian, leader of the army." The divine Isaacius, while in custody, perceived the stench through the purity of his soul and said: "Thus wretched Valens is being burned," which was confirmed by those who returned from the rout. Valens was of medium stature, stubborn in his ways, and proud, and most ready for the shedding of blood, having a heart void of sympathy and alien to all mercy, his judgment darkened by austerity and all...

^A ignorance. His wife, Dominica, worshipped the Arian sect most fervently.

Gratian, the son of Valentinian, reigned alone for three years, and for as many again with Theodosius as his colleague. For envoys had been sent from Byzantium to Gratian, who was in Pannonia, requesting an emperor for the city. Theodosius the Great was therefore given and declared emperor. He reigned for seventeen years, five months, and four days. Under Gratian, there was such an earthquake in Alexandria ^B that the sea retreated far from the shore, leaving ships stranded on dry land. When a great multitude of people had gathered to witness this unusual spectacle, the water suddenly returned with great force, and fifty thousand mortals were submerged. At the same time, a great part of Crete, Achaia, Boeotia, Epirus, and Sicily also perished from the inundation of the sea; indeed, ships were cast onto the mountains up to a hundred stadia from the shore.

There was, moreover, a certain Briton named Maximus, who, seeing that he had been passed over and that Theodosius had been assumed as a partner in the empire by Gratian without any honor being afforded to himself, incited the Britons against Gratian and sent Andragathius against him. Andragathius was carried in a closed litter, spreading a rumor that Gratian's wife was arriving from Britain. Gratian, therefore, out of love for his wife, approached the litter, and having opened it, he found Andragathius inside, by whose order he was immediately slaughtered ^C by soldiers prepared for this purpose. Gratian was of such skill in casting javelins that some said his missiles possessed a mind of their own. Theodosius transferred his body to the imperial monuments.

Gratian’s brother, bearing the name of his father Valentinian, while still alive, recalled the bishops from exile and restored their own churches to them, having driven out the Arians, being aided in this matter by Damasus, the Pope of Rome. At that time, Gregory the Theologian also taught the truth of the Word with greater boldness in Constantinople, in the oratory of Saint Anastasia, which was still small, having spent ten years and a little more there. There, indeed, unheard-of miracles were produced by the most chaste Mother of God. For a double reason is given for the name of the temple of Saint Anastasia: ^D one, because the doctrine of the true religion was revived there; the other, from the miracle performed there. For it is said that a certain woman fell from a height and died, but, after public prayers were offered by the Christians, she was recalled to life. That oratory, being small at that time, was later expanded by the pious emperor Marcian into the structure as it is seen today.

^A Theodosius the emperor was by birth a Spaniard, a noble man and admirable in wars, a pious professor of the true religion. He straightway conquered the Barbarians in Thrace in a great battle. He was a man of moderate stature, irreproachable from foot to head, with a reddish face, blond hair, a thin and aquiline nose, graceful in conversation, and of most charming manners. He had a wife named Placilla, who made him a father to Arcadius and Honorius. Upon her death, he married Galla, the sister of Gratian. While staying in Thessalonica, he fell into a sickness and was baptized by Ascholius the bishop. He issued a law in favor of the orthodox concerning the consubstantiality of the Son with the Father, which he sent to Constantinople. When he himself came to Constantinople, he ordered Demophilus to either desist from the error of Arius or to depart quickly from the Church. Demophilus, having gathered a multitude of Arians, held meetings outside the city; Lucius, the Arian bishop of Alexandria, was with him. And so finally the divine Gregory, with those whom he had enlightened with the doctrine of the true faith, received back all the temples, which had been occupied by the Arians for a little more than forty years.

In the fifth year of Theodosius, at Antioch, a woman gave birth at one time to four male children; they lived for two months, and one after another they died. ^B In the sixth year, the great and ecumenical holy second synod of one hundred and fifty orthodox bishops was assembled in Constantinople for the confirmation of the dogmas decreed at Nicaea, and against Macedonius the Spirit-fighter. Present were Timothy of Alexandria, Meletius of Antioch, Cyril of Jerusalem, and Gregory the Theologian. Macedonius is anathematized for blaspheming against the Holy Spirit, and with him Sabellius and Apollinaris, and further, Arius and Eusebius of Nicomedia, Euzoius and Acacius, Theognis and Euphronius, and the rest of the heretics. The second synod was sixty years removed from the first. The synod confirmed the bishopric of Constantinople for Gregory the Theologian, ^C as one who had labored much and had cleansed the Church of the corruption of the heresies. But when the most blessed man learned that certain ones from Egypt were envious of the affair, having demonstrated his farewell discourse, he willingly withdrew from the throne of the royal city, having held the bishopric for only two years. The emperor and the synod appoint Nectarius, who happened to be still unbaptized up to that time. He also added to the Creed the theology concerning the Spirit. ^D He set forth... [index: entries preserved]

^A canons wherein he assigned to the throne of Constantinople the prerogatives of Rome. At that time, the head of the Forerunner was brought to Constantinople, as was the body of the holy Paul the Confessor.

In the 7th year of this reign, Theodosius Augustus created his son Honorius, born of Placilla, consul and prepared to make war against the tyrant Maximus.

In the 8th year, in Palestine, in a village called Emmaus, an infant was born that was complete from the navel downwards but divided into two chests and two heads, and each part possessed its own senses. One would eat or drink, while the other would abstain; one would sleep, while the other was awake. Sometimes they would even play with each other, and both would weep, or strike one another. They lived for two years; then one died, and the other passed away four days later.

In the 6th year of the reign of the great Theodosius, the second holy and ecumenical council of the 150 holy Fathers was held in Constantinople, under Damasus, Pope of Rome. It was presided over by Timothy of Alexandria, Meletius of Antioch, Cyril of Jerusalem, and Gregory the Theologian, against Macedonius, who had been bishop of Constantinople and was still living at that time. He was following the error of Arius and denying that the Holy Spirit was the true God, judging Him instead to be a creature. After a short time, ^B Gregory, observing that some of the Egyptians were envious of his dignity, delivered his farewell sermon on the constitution of the Church, resigned his bishopric, and returned to his estate in Cappadocia. There, having rested a little and withdrawn from the many tumults and being given more leisure for the contemplation of divine things, the old man, full of days, departed this life. He was a man full of the Spirit and of complete knowledge and contemplation. ^C The holy council anathematized Macedonius, and with him Sabellius the African, who asserted that there was only one person in the Holy Trinity; and also Apollinaris of Laodicea, who taught that the Word who became man was a human being, but that the Word served in the place of the mind to the soul. The council proclaimed that the Holy Spirit is life-giving God and consubstantial with the Father and the Son, having added to the holy creed regarding the Holy Spirit the words: "The Lord, the Life-giving," and so forth.

At that time, the great Amphilochius besought the emperor to expel the Arians from all the cities. But the king, thinking the request too cruel, did not comply. ^D At that time, the most wise Amphilochius remained silent, but not long after, when he had entered the palace, he greeted the emperor honorably as was fitting, but passed by his son, who was standing beside the father in royal attire, without honoring him. The emperor, believing it to have been done through forgetfulness, urged Amphilochius to show the son the honor of greeting that was due to a king. Amphilochius said that the private greeting he had offered him was sufficient. When the emperor became indignant, saying that the insult offered to his son pertained to himself, Amphilochius cried out with a loud voice: "Do you see, Emperor, that you do not bear the ignominy cast upon your son? Therefore, believe that God also [is angry with] those who blaspheme His Son."

^A Having heard this, the Emperor, being greatly struck with amazement, immediately wrote a law forbidding the assemblies of the heretics. The devil, the hater of all that is good, envying this good deed, contrived to bring about something savage and inhuman. For when the Emperor was traveling from Constantinople to Rome, he happened to pass through Thessalonica; and since his soldiers were troubling the city due to their billeting (28), the Thessalonians rose in sedition, insulted the Emperor, and stoned some of his officials. Upon learning of this and unable to curb the impetus of his wrath, the Emperor entrusted the judgment of punishment to the prefect of that city, who, having received such authority, like a lawless tyrant, unsheathed his unjust swords against all and slaughtered the innocent together with the guilty—seven thousand, or as some say, fifteen thousand. ^B Having heard of this calamity, the great Ambrose, bishop of Mediolanum—which is a city in Italy—met the Emperor when he arrived and wished to enter the church as was his custom. Stopping him before the vestibule, the holy man forbade his entrance and said to him with frankness: "You do not know, as it appears, Emperor, the gravity of the crime committed; nor does the power of your empire perhaps permit you to recognize your sin. For, being deceived by the purple, you are unaware of the frailty of the body it covers. Know that, just as you are mortal and corruptible, such is the strength of your power, and that a little later you will render an account to the King of kings for your deeds. With what eyes will you behold the temple of the common Master? With what feet will you tread that holy ground? How will you stretch out your hands, still dripping with the blood of those unjust murders? How, with such hands, will you receive the inviolate body of the Master? How will you bring to your mouth the precious blood, having shed so much illicit blood through the utterance of your wrath? Therefore depart, and do not try to augment your former transgression with further sins, and accept the bond which God above confirms." ^C Yielding to these words, the Emperor returned to the imperial residence of that city, groaning and weeping. Eight months having passed, and the Emperor not appearing in public but afflicting himself with repentance, the festival of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ approached. Seeing that the Emperor would not even perform his customary procession, Rufinus the master [of the offices] said to him: "If you desire, master, I will hasten to the bishop and persuade him to release you from the bond." "I know," said the Emperor, "the precise justice of Ambrose." At length, after Rufinus had spoken much on the matter, and had promised that he would obtain his release, ^D [P. 318]

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES

^A and sent him away; and not long after, lured by hope, he followed the man himself. As soon as Ambrose caught sight of Rufinus, he said: "You emulate the impudence of dogs, Rufinus, you who were the accomplice and instigator of such a wicked slaughter. And I will again prohibit the emperors from the doors of the temple." Having heard this, Rufinus quickly reported it to the emperor. The emperor, receiving the message when he had already traveled halfway, said: "I will go, and I will endure the well-deserved reproaches." When he came to the temple, he begged the bishop in the strongest terms that he might be released from the bonds. But Ambrose said that this arrival was tyrannical and that the emperor was raging against God. But Theodosius, pierced by heavy sadness and pain of heart, replied that he was not present to fiercely fight against the sacred canons, but to entreat the release of the bonds. Being asked by the bishop what repentance he had shown after such a great crime, and by what remedies he had treated those wounds that were difficult to heal, he said: "It is yours to teach and prepare the medicines, mine to do what is commanded." Then at last Ambrose said: "Since you have followed anger in judging, now establish a law which rescinds the decrees of anger, so that capital sentences and those concerning the confiscation of property be suspended for thirty days, until they are examined and judged by right reason." When Theodosius immediately dictated that law and confirmed it with his own hand-subscription, Ambrose released him from the bond and allowed him to enter the church. The emperor, having entered, fell prone upon the pavement and cried out with a loud voice: "My soul has cleaved to the ground: give me life according to thy word, O Lord." ^B He also tore the hair of his head with his hands, struck his face, and moistened the earth with his tears, praying to God until the hour of the oblation. Then, rising and proceeding to the cancelli, when he wished to enter, he was prohibited by Ambrose, who warned him thus: "Know, O emperor, that it is permitted only to priests to approach the interior; to all others these things are inaccessible and untouchable. Depart, therefore, and share the station with the others; for the purple is used to make emperors, not priests." He accepted this also with a calm mind and declared in return that he had not done this out of pride, but because he had learned this custom in Constantinople, and he gave thanks to Ambrose for this correction as well. So great and illustrious in virtue were both the emperor and the bishop. Indeed, even after returning to Constantinople, when he had offered his gift at the sacred table during the solemn sacrifice, he immediately went out from the sanctuary. And when he was asked the reason for his action by Nectarius, who was patriarch at that time, he said: "With great difficulty have I finally learned the distinction between an emperor and a priest. For I know only Ambrose, who deservedly bears the name of bishop: such great utility does reproof bring when it proceeds from a man illustrious in virtue." ^{C D}

^A The emperor had also another opportunity for his own benefit, for his wife, Placilla by name, kept reminding him constantly of the divine laws. For her position as empress did not puff her up in spirit, but the magnitude of the benefit caused her to love the benefactor all the more intensely. For she took every care of the brothers who were Christian, those who were afflicted with diseases or mutilated in their limbs, serving them herself with all diligence, offering them cups and setting food before them with her own hands. Visiting even the hospitals of the Churches, she ministered to those lying in bed, and she herself performed the tasks that are considered the work of servants or handmaidens. She kept repeating this again and again to her husband the emperor: "It is always proper for you, my husband, to consider who you once were and what you have now become. Govern, therefore, this empire lawfully, and in this way you will honor Him who gave it." It happened that this wonderful and truly praiseworthy empress died before her husband.

After some time, being pressed by continuous wars, the emperor imposed a new tax upon the cities. The city of Antioch did not bear this new burden; for the people, seeing those who had been forced to pay being punished, initiated a riot and threw down the bronze statue ^B of the most highly praised Placilla and dragged it through a large part of the city. Upon learning of this outrage, the emperor burned with very grave indignation and stripped Antioch of its privileges, assigning the primacy to the neighboring city of Laodicea, which had long been its rival. Beyond this, he threatened to set fire to the city and to reduce the town to a village. The prefects had even killed some who were caught in the very act, before the tragedy could be reported to the emperor. ^C But all these things the emperor indeed commanded, though he did not carry them out, being hindered by the law which he had enacted at the advice of Ambrose the Great.

When those who were carrying those threats arrived in Antioch, a great terror truly seized everyone because of fear of them, and they sought their safety in flight. But the monks who were practicing virtue in the mountains, who were many and excellent in those regions, entreated those sent by the emperor with many words. At that time also the most divine Macedonius, who was ignorant of any of the arts which pertain to living this life, and entirely unlearned in the sacred scriptures, accustomed to dwell on the summits of the mountains and to pray to God night and day, fearing nothing of the emperor's wrath or the power of his legates, betook himself into the middle of the city, and having seized the chlamys of one of those sent, ordered him to dismount from his horse. The legates, looking at the little old man ^D clothed in cheap rags, were at first indignant; but soon, having been informed by certain persons about the man's virtue, they dismounted from their horses and, touching his knees, asked for forgiveness. But Macedonius, filled with divine wisdom, addressed them in these words: "Tell the emperor these words from me: You are not only an emperor, but also a man; therefore, consider not only your empire, but your human nature as well. For since you are a man, in

^A you hold sway over those who share your own nature. Now, the nature of men has been created in the image and likeness of God. Do not, therefore, so cruelly and inhumanely condemn the image of God to death, for you will provoke the Creator by destroying His image. Consider also that you do these things out of anger over a bronze image. To those who have understanding, it is manifest how much the ensouled, living, and rational image differs from the inanimate one. Furthermore, consider this as well: it is easy for us to manufacture many bronze images in place of one, but for the emperor it is utterly impossible to recreate even a single hair of those who have been killed. Those admirable men, having heard these things, delivered the words to the emperor and extinguished the flame of his wrath. And instead of those threats, he wrote an apology and explained the cause of his anger: "It was not right," he said, "that a woman most worthy of all praise should be subjected to such outrage after her death just because I had erred, and that the indignation of those who were angry should have been vented upon me." He added also that he was greatly troubled and distressed that some had been killed by the prefects. I have recounted these things, both because the boldness of that most celebrated monk did not seem to me to deserve being consigned to silence, and to show the usefulness of that law which was passed on the advice of the great Ambrose.

^B Under the reign of Theodosius, the venerable head of the honored Forerunner and Baptist John was also brought to Constantinople; it had previously been found among certain monks of the Macedonian heresy, who had set out from Jerusalem and were living in Cilicia. When the eunuch Mardonius learned of this and informed Valens, it was commanded to be transported to Constantinople. But when the vehicle reached the village called Cosilaos, the mules would not move any further, however much they were urged on by lashes. Thus, the head was deposited then in that village, since God judged Valens unworthy of such a gift. To Theodosius, however, God granted this reward for his piety, that he should bring it to Constantinople and deposit it in the church of John the Baptist.

^C After the defeat of the tyrant Eugenius, when the emperor was oppressed by ill health, he divided the empire between his sons Arcadius and Honorius; so that the elder should hold the Constantino-politan empire, and the younger the scepters of Europe. He exhorted both to true piety, admonishing them that by it peace is maintained, wars are ended, enemies are routed, trophies are erected, and victory is awarded. Having instructed his sons and successors with these and similar precepts, he brought his life to a close, leaving behind him an eternal glory to be admired by all.

^D That the letters C. O. N. V. O. on the coins of victory...

^A indicate this: Civitates Omnes Nostrae Venerationi Obediant—that is, "May all cities obey our reverence."

That the column in the Pittacia bears the statue of Leo, who was the husband of Verina.

That in the Praetorium is the tripod of Hecate, and the great Constantine on horseback, carrying a cross.

That the bronze, splendid hall was erected by the artisan Etherius and the wise counselor Anastasius.

That above the arch of the Milion ^B stand two statues, of the great Constantine and his mother, having a cross between them; and behind them is Trajan on horseback, with Aelius Hadrian the knight nearby.

That in the Lausos there were various small buildings and certain guest-houses where the "hospitable one" supplied water, whence it got its name. There also stood the statue of the Lindian Athena, four cubits high, made of emerald stone, a work of the statuaries Scyllis and Dipoenus, which Sesostris, the tyrant of Egypt, once sent as a gift to the Lindian tyrant Cleobulus. And the Cnidian Aphrodite in white stone, naked, shielding her modesty with her hand, a work of the Cnidian Praxiteles. And the Samian Hera, a work of Lysippus and Bupalus of Chios. And an Eros, winged, holding a bow, brought from Myndus. And the ivory Zeus of Phidias, which Pericles dedicated in the temple at Olympia. And the statue representing Time, a work of Lysippus, bald at the back of the head, but with hair in front. And unicorns, and tigers, and vultures, and camelopards, and bulls-elephants, and Centaurs, and ^C Panes.

That in the arch of the Forum facing the sunrise, the great Constantine is established with his mother, having a cross between them.

That the porphyry column was set up by him in the Forum, and his statue is upon it, on which are inscribed four verses:

To thee, Christ, Lord of the world and governor most excellent, I have rendered this city that it may now serve thee, And the scepters and all the power of Rome. Defend it, do thou, always from all evils.

And there lie beneath the column also the twelve baskets.

^A On the northern side of the forum is the senate-house, which was burned by Leo, the husband of Verina. There is the gate of the Ephesian Artemis, a gift of Trajan, having recorded upon it the causes of the Scythian war, the battle of the Giants, the thunderbolts of Zeus, Poseidon grasping his trident, and Apollo equipped with a bow, and below, the giants rushing on like serpents, casting clods of earth aloft with their hands, and glaring with a grim look. There stand toward the forum's square two statues; one toward the west, that of the Lindian Minerva, wearing a helmet and the Gorgon monster, with serpents coiled about her neck—for thus the ancients recorded her image—having the pincers of a crab upon her temples. Toward the east is Amphitrite, having [the pincers of a crab] upon her temples. She too was brought from Rhodes.

Constantine set up the great cross. ^B

That four-legged structure, which men call the contention of the winds, the great Theodosius raised, depicting the form of a pyramid and adorning it with molded animals, sprouts, fruits, and pomegranates. Naked Cupids stand there, smiling gently at one another and mocking those who pass below. Other youths, on the contrary, are crouching, blowing winds into brazen trumpets. A brazen image flying aloft indicates the sharp blasts of the winds.

That Theodosius the Great set up the column of the Bull, containing his own victories and battles against the Scythians and barbarians. It has also a path leading upward inside. And the rider standing at the bivium is Theodosius the Great himself, extending his right hand toward the city and pointing out the trophies inscribed upon the column. ^C

The brazen bull came from Pergamum, and it was a furnace in which the holy martyr Antipas was burned.

That it is called the Amastriana, whether from some pauper who originated from Amastris and came to the city in poverty and died there, or from the great notoriety of that place, because every evildoer and murderer pays the penalty there, it received a most disgraceful name on account of the wickedness of the Paphlagonians. There was once there a very great temple of the Sun and Moon, in which statues stood in order toward the north; in the middle, however, was a bay like a well-rounded shell-niche, and above it the Sun on a white chariot, while the Moon, crowned in the manner of a bride, was being carried on a two-horse chariot. These were the works of Byzas, of the husband of Phidalia. ^D Below, at the foundations of the building, sat a scepter-bearer on a throne, and he ordered the people to obey the magistrates. And there, low to the ground, was a likeness of Zeus from white stone, a work of Phidias, appearing to sit upon a couch.

^A That the Xerolophos is the work of Arcadius, similar in all respects to the Bull. That the elephants at the Golden Gate are similar to those upon which Theodosius once rode when he drove into the city.

The same great Theodosius desired to reach Jerusalem, and putting on the garb of a private citizen, he came to the gate of Saint Anastasia, and when he knocked, one of the servants opened it. But as all the lamps had been extinguished, upon the Emperor’s entry they were suddenly rekindled as if for a festival. The porter, astonished at the miracle, led him to John the high priest. Through prayer, he recognized him and called him blessed, because, being an emperor, he had come in such attire to worship at the holy places.

^B This same great Theodosius, while warring against the tyrant Eugenius, found an oratory on the mountain; he prostrated himself on the floor, weeping and beseeching God to aid him. And having fallen asleep for a while out of distress of soul, he saw in a dream two men sitting upon white horses, telling him to be of good courage and to stir up the army for battle. Of those who appeared, one called himself John and the other Philip, the Apostles. One of the soldiers also saw this vision and reported it to the Emperor. And when the battle was joined, the army of Eugenius abandoned him for the Emperor. The image of Hercules led the army of Eugenius, while the venerable cross led that of Theodosius.

The Emperor Theodosius also set up the Column of the Bull. And he founded a city in Thrace, naming it Theodosiopolis, which was previously called Apron from its founder, Aprus, ^C who was the father-in-law of Carinus, and who also killed him. He also built another city in the name of his son, Arcadiopolis, which was previously called Bergulium.

When Eugenius had seized power by tyranny, Arbogast, a Gaul, joined him in his tyranny. When the young Valentinian, son of the great Valentinian, heard of this in Rome, he took his own life by hanging. The great Theodosius hastened to avenge him. Setting out against the tyrant Eugenius, he did not rely on his own strength, but, armed with the staff of a certain great Egyptian monk, John, instead of a spear, and using his cowl as a helmet, he overcame the wicked man, capturing him alive and killing those who were with him. ^D After this victory, he entered Rome and bestowed great benefits upon the city; he abolished the custom by which slaves, in the place of beasts that were dying, were given over to the mills and forced to grind until old age, and he also abolished the practice where the fornications of adulterous women were publicly advertised by the ringing of a bell.

In the eleventh year, he conquered Maximus the tyrant and killed him, along with his general Andragathius, as being the murderer [cont, see next page: ...of his son.]

^A of Gratian. When he came to Rome, he inaugurated his son Honorius as emperor, and returned to Constantinople. And upon the request of Theophilus, the bishop of Alexandria, all the temples of the false gods of the Greeks were razed, and the idols were melted down and turned to the use of the poor. At that time also, Marcellus, the bishop of Apamea (a city of Syria), was killed by the Greeks while destroying the Greek temples. Furthermore, with the destruction of the temple of Serapis at Alexandria, sacred characters of letters dating from old were found, having the form of a cross. When the men of the Greek religion saw these, they embraced the Christian faith, saying that in the sense of hieroglyphics the cross signifies the life that is to come. [P. 325] Some say that this Serapis was Zeus, others the Nile, because he bears a modius on his head and a cubit. Others say that Apis was a wealthy man in Egypt, who, when a famine occurred, provided for the Alexandrians from his own means; and upon his death, they built a shrine and a statue for him, and his ox was publicly nurtured and addressed by the name of its master. This was a symbol of the farmer; but they changed the name of that man to Gorasin and ^B the statue to Serapis. In the temple of this Serapis, there stood a huge and terrible statue, composed of different materials, and with its two hands it reached the two walls of the temple. Within this was another shrine, an idol, and a bronze statue, not large. They had fixed iron to its head, and directly above, in the coffers of the roof, they placed a magnet stone, and thus they had brought it about that the statue appeared to be suspended in the air, touching neither the ground nor the roof.

You should know that there is this difference between an idol and an image (indalma): an idol is a sign of nothing that exists in nature, while an image is a likeness and representation of some thing. An idol is, for example, Sphinxes, Centaurs, those with canine faces or bovine heads—for these do not exist anywhere. But images are likenesses of existing things, such as the sun, the moon, ^C the stars, men, beasts, reptiles, and others of that kind.

You should know that the Chaldeans worshipped fire as that which consumes all things, and they refuted all the gods of the Greeks. When they arrived also at the priest of Canopus, he used such a ruse as this: he prepared an earthenware jar in the form of a statue, and beneath it he made small holes, which he stopped with wax and painted over; and having cleverly fitted onto the vessel the head of an ancient statue, he brought it near the fire, and thus he refuted the power of the fire, as it was gradually extinguished by the flow of water.

In the 15th and 16th years of his reign, Theodosius wrote a law that no woman should be accepted to the office of deaconess unless she had surpassed ^D the age of 60 years. In the same year, Placilla, the wife of Theodosius, fell asleep; she was pious and solicitous for the poor, ministering to the sick and those in poor health with her own hands. The people of Antioch broke her statue because of the public taxes imposed by the emperor; regarding this matter, John Chrysostom, being a presbyter of Antioch at that time, published marvelous orations concerning those statues. At that time also, the one in Thessalonica

^A in which Theodosius slaughtered fifteen thousand of the people took place, and the actions of the holy Ambrose, bishop of Milan, toward that emperor followed. For this reason, he established a law that a delay of thirty days was to be granted for the consideration of sentences for those condemned to death or the confiscation of property.

In the same year, when the river Nile did not overflow according to custom, the Greeks rejoiced, ^B saying that the cause of this was that they were forbidden to sacrifice to their gods. Upon learning this, the pious emperor said, "God forbid that a river should ever rejoice in sacrifices to irrigate the earth." God accepted this response and blessed the rising of the river, so that all the people of Egypt were seized with fear lest the flood of water should even submerge Alexandria itself.

While the emperor Theodosius was in Milan, the Jews who lived in Constantinople, by the order of the prefect Honoratus, built a synagogue of many talents in the Chalcopratia. The prefect, being a follower of the Greek religion, gave no heed to the Christians who were grumbling against him on account of this affair. Consequently, they set fire to it at night and burned it down. The prefect wrote of this to Theodosius, accusing the citizens; the emperor decreed that those who had done this should pay a fine and that the synagogue should be rebuilt. The citizens implored the help of the great Ambrose. When the festival of the birth of Christ arrived and the emperor was about to enter the church, the great Ambrose preached, ^C speaking only a few words concerning the festival, but spending the greater part of his discourse sharply rebuking the emperor. He addressed him as if in the person of God: "Did I not take you from being a shepherd of sheep, having rescued you from those who lay in wait, and set you up as a shepherd and emperor of my people? Did I not adorn your head, which was disheveled and covered with lice, with a golden crown and decorate it with a band of gold and purple? Why, therefore, do you grant the prime position in your judgment to the slayers of my Son? Why do you afflict my people and my inheritance with many torments?" The emperor said: "What are you doing, Bishop? You have abandoned the matter of the solemnity and directed your whole sermon against me?" Ambrose replied: "It is not against you, Emperor, but for your sake that this is done; for what could be more grievous to be established against Christians than that they should rebuild the synagogues of the Jews?" Then Theodosius said: "Does it seem just to you, then, that an unruly crowd should act according to their own whim in a royal city?" Ambrose answered: "What? Do you think it is just, most pious emperor, ^D that in a city which is the citadel of the empire, Jews should send up blasphemous songs against God? Do not proceed in this path, best of princes, for the prayers of the Jews are blasphemies, insults, and unspeakable imprecations against God." Moved by these words of Ambrose, the emperor remitted the fine for the Christians and issued a law that the Jews could not have a synagogue in Byzantium, nor should they dare to pray in public.

At this time also, the festival of the Olympics, which used to be celebrated every fourth year, ceased.

^A Such a festival began when Manasses was king of the Jews and was observed until the beginning of the reign of the great Theodosius. And the indictions began to be counted, commencing from the fifteenth year of the reign of Augustus Caesar. The "indiction"—which is to say "renovation"—is named after the victory at Actium. Actium is a promontory of Nicopolis in Epirus, where Augustus, after fighting a battle, defeated Antony and Cleopatra, and was declared sole ruler at that time.

The great Theodosius, at the beginning of his reign, brought the great Arsenius from Rome, having heard of his wisdom and divine knowledge, and entrusted to him his sons, Arcadius and Honorius, to be instructed in the sacred letters, and he made him "father of the emperors." This man, while praying one night to God, heard a voice saying to him: "Arsenius, flee from men, and you shall be saved."

^B This same Theodosius completely destroyed to their foundations the temples of the false gods, which Constantine the Great had only ordered to be closed. In Milan, he died of an illness at sixty years of age, having reigned for sixteen years, leaving behind two sons: the elder, Arcadius, whom he set over the East, and Honorius, with Placidia, over the West. Honorius established his royal seat in Ravenna, while Placidia, the daughter of Gratian, remained in Rome. Arcadius brought his father's body to Constantinople and placed it in the church of the Holy Apostles. Nectarius held the episcopal see in the year of the world 5888, and of the divine incarnation 394.

Arcadius, son of the great Theodosius, reigned for 14 years. In the fifth year of his reign, he built the great rostrum opposite the praetorium. Arcadius was of a very deformed body, dark in complexion, and insignificant in stature; he had only one notable quality, that he wrote well, having been so taught by the great Arsenius. ^C Under him, the relics of the holy prophet and Forerunner John the Baptist were transferred to Alexandria. He also established a special military unit in Constantinople, which he called the Arcadians.

In the sixth year of his reign, Chrysostom is chosen as bishop in Constantinople, to whose eloquence even Libanius bore witness. For when asked by his students whom he would appoint as his successor in his school, he replied: "John, if only the Christians had not snatched him away." In that same year, there was born to Arcadius by Eudoxia Augusta a son, Theodosius the Younger, whom John Chrysostom received from the holy baptismal font.

^D In the eighth year, Gainas seized power against Arcadius and brought many evils upon Byzantium. Although he had made peace at Chalcedon at the church of Saint Euphemia, having given and received oaths, he violated them, and, entering the city, he engaged in looting and other atrocities. Then, departing for the Chersonese of Thrace, and having constructed rafts, he set his course toward the cities of the East.

^A Much fighting having occurred by land and sea, he perished along with his armies.

When Chrysostom was directing the affairs of the orthodox Church, there approached him a man of the Macedonian heresy who had repented. Having exhorted his own wife to turn back, repent, and share in communion, he with difficulty persuaded her, as it seemed. She, having given the maiden a communion portion of the Macedonians, bade her keep it with her. And indeed, having approached Chrysostom and received the holy communion from his hands, she pretended to partake of it, but gave it to the maiden; then, taking the Macedonian portion, she brought it to her mouth, and discovered that it had become a stone. Trembling therefore with fear, she threw herself at the feet of the holy bishop, confessing her wicked deed and sincerely coming to the Church.

Cyril, the most holy Archbishop of Alexandria, was a cousin of Theophilus ^B according to the flesh. For a certain time, he too, serving prejudice as a man and following Theophilus as his uncle, both thought and spoke ill of Chrysostom. But since his zeal, even if not according to knowledge, sprang not from envy nor from diabolical opposition, he was considered worthy of correction through a certain mystical revelation. In it, he seemed to find himself in a certain fearful and beautiful place, where a multitude of holy angels stood before the Mother of God, and near her was the great Chrysostom. Attempting to draw near, Cyril was pushed away by the order of John, but the Mother of the Lord interceded for him, asking that he be admitted, because he had labored not a little for her glory in having her called Theotokos. Having returned to himself, the holy Cyril condemned himself, followed Chrysostom in all things, and subsequently set forth twelve dogmatic chapters and sent them to Nestorius in Constantinople. Nestorius, despising these, was the cause of the third synod being convoked against him. The great Arsenius, having despised all things in the world and having withdrawn from the world, pursued divine philosophy in Egypt in the habit of a monk.

In the tenth year of Arcadius, the first exile of Chrysostom took place, from which he returned when sixty bishops had gathered and justly annulled everything that had been done against the divine John by Theophilus and those with him. In the eleventh and twelfth years, the plot against Chrysostom gathered strength again. ^D In the thirteenth, when he also composed the speech whose beginning is: "Again Herodias rages," then the Empress's hatred against him became absolute, and again there was deposition and exile to Cucusus, and from there to Pityus. And having arrived in Comana, a town of Armenia, during his transit, he passed to the Lord from this life. It is worthy to briefly repeat the account concerning our holy Father and illuminator of the world.

John Chrysostom; for perhaps to those who love beauty this will not seem a digression.

Being in his eighteenth year, he left his teacher, Libanius the sophist, and having been baptized by Meletius, the most holy bishop of Antioch, he was designated for the office of reader. And having remained in the church for three years, he withdrew and went to a certain monk and abbot named Carterius, and remaining with him for four years, he became a monk under him. And having been instructed by him in the divine Scriptures and the precision of the monastic life, he withdrew for a time into a cave ^B alone for two years, seeking quiet. But not having lain down during those two years, neither by night nor by day, he mortified his lower parts, for the cold destroyed the vigor of his kidneys. Being unable to serve himself, by divine providence he again returned to the church for the salvation of many. Meletius then made him a deacon, and having served at the altar for three years, and his virtue in teaching having by then become known, he was ordained priest by Flavian the bishop, and having distinguished himself for four years in the church of Antioch, he adorned the priesthood there with his life's virtue.

He was indeed an ascetic in the highest degree, and very sleepless, and a great lover of quiet, and through his zeal for temperance he was frank of speech and slow to anger, and he used his freedom of speech toward those he encountered without measure, showing grace rather by anger than by respect. And while he was very useful in teaching for the sake of profit, in his meetings he seemed arrogant and a contemner of men to those who did not know him. And so, even when raised to the episcopate, he used a greater haughtiness toward his subjects, changing his manner and words for the correction and salvation of each one. Therefore, no one will condemn him for arrogance unless he be a flatterer; nor will one who is himself a flatterer and of small mind believe him to have been of a mediocre spirit. But it must be understood that he held this state which befits a free man. For it is fitting that one be magnanimous, not proud; brave, not rash; equanimous, not of a base spirit; moderate, not a simulator of humility; liberal, not servile. Just as Chrysostom himself says: Therefore it is necessary for the shepherd and teacher to be varied. I say varied, not deceitful; nor a flatterer or an insulter, but full of great freedom and boldness; ^C one who knows how to yield usefully when the subject matter requires this, and to show himself as gentle as he is austere. For it is not necessary to treat all subjects in the same way, since it is not good for doctors to apply one remedy to all diseases, nor for a pilot to know only one method of resisting the winds. Consider, therefore, what kind of man he must be who is destined to sustain such a tempest ^D and such heat and so many waves, so that he may become all things to all men, that he might gain all. It is necessary for him to be grave, devoid of pride, terrible, placid,

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES. It is an iambic trimeter, indicating that it is better for a good man to be angry with you than for a bad man to honor you. Likewise: For he was a lover of truth, according to the word: The mouth of the wise shall speak truth.

^A To become all things to all men, that he might gain all. For it is surely necessary for such a one to be dignified and guileless, and terrifying and accessible, and authoritative and sociable, and incorruptible and attentive, and humble and independent, and cheerful and gentle, so that he may be able to contend easily with these things. Therefore, the virtuous and prudent man ought to avoid flattering and being flattered, and to be neither arrogant nor a sycophant, but to punish the excess of both these evils, and to be free, neither inclining toward pride nor falling into cringing. For toward the good, it is necessary to be humble, but toward the insolent, to be lofty, since the former consider gentleness to be virtue, while the latter consider insolence to be manliness. And it is right to show humility to the former, but to the latter, manliness, which quenches their opinion derived from insolence, so that he might profit the former and humble the mindset of the latter. ^B This is what the great Basil also expressed, explaining the word of the most wise Solomon: "There is a time for every matter." One must know that there is a proper time for humility and for authority, for rebuke and for consolation, for lenity and for plain speech, for kindness and for severity, and, in a word, for everything, so that at one time one might demonstrate humility and imitate children in humility according to the Lord’s word, and at another time exercise the authority which the Lord gave for building up and not for tearing down, whenever the need demands plain speech; and at a time of consolation, to show kindness, and at a time of severity, to manifest zeal; and in each of the other things, likewise, to arrive at a discerning and just judgment—for the thoughts of the just are judgments. And indeed, the God-bearing Isidore, who was once a disciple of the blessed one, also says: ^C "The ruler must be both good and terrifying, so that those who live rightly may have confidence, and those who do wrong may be afraid." For if one of these is missing without the other, it is anarchy rather than rule. For if all were obedient and lovers of virtue, kindness alone would be needed; but if all were lovers of sin, fear [would be needed]. Since, however, it is necessary for there to be both good and evil men among the subjects, the ruler and leader must employ both, so that kindness may sustain the good and the sober-minded, while fear may restrain the failings of the most wicked. Those, therefore, who are ignorant of these things, it seems, and do not understand well how to discern and compare such matters, the enemies of the divine John hate him unreasonably and foolishly, and slander him as someone harsh and quick-tempered.

For this reason, John had delivered a discourse against women in church, which his enemies spread a rumor was spoken against Eudoxia, and by this means they introduced the discourse. And she, complaining to Arcadius and saying that she had been grievously insulted, incited him against John. She arranged for Theophilus to be summoned, being a manifest enemy of John; and he, having arrived at the Oak—which is now called Rufinianae—the [conspiracy] against John...

[GREEK COLUMN] [LATIN COLUMN]

...[the English so far ends, starting from the beginning of the text provided in this page]

^A ...conspired against John. Upon learning this, the people raised a great tumult, not permitting him to be cast out of the city. Eudoxia, softened by the lamentations of the people, sent Brison the eunuch to recall John from Praenetum; by which event, Theophilus and those in conspiracy with him, being terrified, sought their safety in flight. Sixty bishops were then found who gathered together, and by voting that all that had been done at the Oak ^B was void, they justly confirmed John in his bishopric. But when the events regarding the silver statue of Eudoxia and the widow’s vineyard occurred again, once more there was hatred and once more anger, once more enmity and a display of words, the beginning of which was: "Herodias rages again." From that point, the bishops of his party, foreseeing that he was about to be sent into exile, gathered to him and with many tears said: "It is necessary for us, O master, because we hold the churches, to be forced both to commune and to subscribe." The blessed man said to them: "Commune, if you must, so as not to tear the Church asunder, but do not subscribe; for I am conscious of nothing in myself worthy of deposition." He had as disciples, of the bishops, Proclus and Palladius and Brison and Theodoret; and of the monks, Mark and Nilus and Isidore of Pelusium. ^C The great Epiphanius of Cyprus, having come to the Hebdomon, held ordinations and synaxes against the will of John. And although John wished to yield to him, and exhorted him to come to him at the episcopal residence, Epiphanius refused to do this; for he had been preoccupied by the slanders of Theophilus. The praiseworthy John, therefore, having served as bishop for five years and a half, was exiled to Cucusus; and from there, after three years and two months, he was transferred to Pityus, and while passing through Comana, he died there ^D in great distress, being fifty-two years of age. But the Pope of Rome, Innocent, having heard of his death in exile, writes to Arcadius as follows: "The voice of the blood of my brother John cries out to God against you, O King, just as once the blood of the righteous Abel cried out against Cain the fratricide. And you shall certainly pay the penalty in every way, because you have devised an unjust persecution against the Church of God and its priests, and you have unjustly cast out from the throne of his episcopacy—without a trial—the great illuminator and doctor of the world, together with..."

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES

^A from the throne of his episcopacy, illegally and without judgment, having driven Christ away along with him. But that new Delilah, Eudoxia, who little by little shaved you with the razor of deceit, brought upon herself a curse and a hatred, and having bound a heavy and unbearable burden of sins—just and indelible—she added it to her previous many and terrible transgressions. The great Isidore, writing to someone, says this: "You ask about the tragedy concerning the inspired John, but I am at a loss to describe it; for the drunkenness of the deed overcomes the mind. But learn a few small things: the things which Egypt ignored, rejecting Moses and taking pharaoh to herself, scourging the humble and afflicting those worn by labor, building cities and defrauding laborers of their wages. And practicing these things even until today, ^B bringing forward Theophilus, who is gold-mad and a worshiper of gold, fortified by four accomplices and deserters, she warred against the man who was truly God-beloved and a theologian, having found the hatred and malice against my namesake (49) to be the base of operations for her own hardness of heart. But the house of David is strengthened and progresses, while the house of Saul grows weak and is put to shame and hindered, as you see, even though the man of God has been removed from the storm by Him and, crowned, has gone to the heavenly tranquility."

When Epiphanius was returning to Cyprus, and had learned from God that his own end was nearing, it is said that he spoke to those who were accompanying him: "I hasten, I hasten, and I leave behind to you the empire, the city, and the hypocrisy." ^C He who reached the above-mentioned calm and victory also declared the death of John in exile; and John, in like manner, indicated to Epiphanius his own end of life on the ship; the blessed men were forewarned of these things by divine inspiration, so that no one might suppose that they had harbored enmity against one another. For such heralds of God and pious men and teachers, and genuine disciples of the peace-making Christ—who said, "By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another"—could not have died possessing hatred and malice. Far from it! For even if a small, previously mentioned scandal occurred between them, an evidence of human weakness for a short time, nevertheless they were soon brought back to the pinnacle of virtues, love, ^D concerning which Paul the apostle says: "Love suffers long, is kind, is not easily angered, thinks no evil"; and "God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God."

After the death of John, a certain holy bishop, Adelphius by name, said that he had an unbearable sorrow, because such a man, the teacher of the world, who had gladdened the Church of God with his words, had died outside his throne. Therefore, I entreated God with many tears that He might show me him, in what state he is, and whether

^A he is numbered with the patriarchs. For a long time, then, while I was praying for this, I found myself in an ecstasy and saw a man of very noble appearance, who took me by my right hand and led me into a certain place, shining and full of majesty, and there he showed me the teachers of the Church. But I, says Adelphius, cast about my eyes, to see if I might discern the one I desired, Chrysostom. But he, having shown them all to me one by one and told me their names, again took my hand and led me out. I followed him, sorrowful because I had not seen holy Chrysostom among the Fathers. As I was going out, the one standing at the door stopped me and said to me: “No one who has entered here comes out sorrowful.” Then I said to him, “This is the cause of my sorrow, that I have not seen the one most dear to me, John, the bishop of Constantinople, among the other teachers of the Church.” He answered me again: “Do you speak of John the penitent?” I said to him, “Yes.” And he answered me, saying: “A man still living in the flesh cannot see him; for he stands there where the Lordly throne is.” Thus the thrice-blessed John, having finished his life after infinite sorrows and labors, departed to heavenly blessedness, having lived fifty-two years in all. While he was in exile, the people of the city burned the church. As others say, however, a fire came forth from the altar and consumed everything. And many incurred danger on account of John. Arsacius succeeds Chrysostom. ^B

In the same year, Eudoxia also dies, the wife of Arcadius and the cause of many evils to him, a barbarian woman and fierce. He had children by her: Pulcheria, then Flacilla, Arcadia, and Marina, who lived their time as maidens; and with them she bore Theodosius the last, who also succeeded to his father’s kingdom. After the passing of thirty-five years, the body of the great Chrysostom was brought back to the city from Comana, with Proclus, bishop of Constantinople, applying just diligence. ^C

Eudoxia, however, as I have recalled, died not long after, having survived John by only three months. For when she was carrying in her womb and was already near to giving birth, the fetus perished in the womb; and when she wished to bring it forth, it was in vain, and for four whole days the dead fetus was retained in the womb and putrefied, and also caused an abscess of the womb. When the fetus would not come out and the pain did not end, someone placed magical letters upon her; by which thing she at once cast out the dead fetus and, wretched woman, gave up her soul at the same time.

In the 14th year, at Rome, the earth roared for seven days. Arcadius also dies, having lived 31 years and reigned 26; he even ordered Isdigerdes, king of the Persians, to be the guardian of his son Theodosius, and destined for him a fee of gold pounds. ^D

^A At his death, he ordered all the most excellent men around him to be killed, because their spirit was considered too great; among these was also Rufinus, who had been very powerful under him. His body was placed in the church of the Holy Apostles, in the southern portico, where his wife Eudoxia also lies.

Isdigerdes, therefore, having accepted the testament of Arcadius, preserved the empire for Theodosius in peace. And having sent a certain Antiochus, a wonderful and most learned man, as steward and tutor, he wrote to the Roman senate to keep the child safe from plots, lest he provoke an implacable war against the Romans. And there was peace between the Romans and the Persians, especially as Antiochus wrote much on behalf of the Christians; and in this way Christianity was propagated even in Persia.

Theodosius the Younger, an orthodox emperor of the Romans, reigned for 42 years and 2 months. During his reign, his sister Pulcheria, being a virgin of 19 years, managed the empire well; she instructed her brother in piety toward God and in all other things. He was of medium stature, having eyes that stood out beyond his eyelids, dark, and seeing sharply. His nose was thin and straight. ^B Being of a honeyed complexion, he was versed in all learning, even in astronomy; he was trained in riding and archery beyond the ordinary, and he had acquired by natural dexterity many of the handiwork arts, such as painting, molding, and very many others. He was gentle in manner and extremely urbane. Therefore, he let many public affairs slip through his hands, restrained by his reverence for his eunuchs. For, having been deprived of his father, he served Antiochus, who had been sent by Isdigerdes in the place of a guardian; then he was under the master Eutropius; after him, Lausus, Calapodius, and Chrysaphius abused him as if he were their slave. Pulcheria, however, established many churches, guest-houses for the poor and for foreigners, and also monasteries, and she endowed them all with sufficient revenues in royal magnificence. Sozomen says that she was also deemed worthy of a divine vision.

In the 2nd year, Atticus, bishop of Constantinople, having admonished a certain paralyzed Jew, and having persuaded and baptized him, led him out of the font whole.

In the 3rd year, while Theodosius was emperor of Rome—that is, of the West—and was in Constantinople, while Honorius was in Ravenna, Stilicho, a most illustrious man, was slaughtered in Ravenna, along with other powerful men. He was the father-in-law of Honorius and was in charge of the affairs of the whole empire. At that time, Rome, a city so great and so celebrated in the whole world, and which had avoided such a calamity for nearly an infinite time, was captured by Alaric the Goth, the leader of the Vandals: for the years from its founding... ^{C D}

Xylander and Goar's Notes

1160. And meanwhile, for a long time, it had indeed been tested by much greater wars; but then it was captured, as it had been ordained by fate, on account of the stupidity of its rulers. There are those who report that Scipio Africanus, while destroying the walls of Carthage, wept and spoke this Homeric verse regarding Rome: "The day shall come when sacred Ilium shall perish." ^A This was then brought to fulfillment; and so great a city, which had obtained supreme power and had abounded in the abundance of all things and had subjugated almost the entire world, was then suddenly laid waste. This destruction of Rome happened on the twenty-sixth day of the month of August, in the ninth indiction, in the year 5965 from the beginning of the world. When the report of this was brought to Ravenna, a certain man, weeping and wailing, said to Honorius: "Lord, Rome has been taken by Alaric, the leader of the Vandals." ^B Honorius, struck by grief, wrung his hands, and said: "It was here just now, how then did it fall into the hands of the Goths?" Then the other, groaning, said: "I am not speaking of the bird, lord, but of the city." Honorius then said: "You have struck my spirit, for I thought you were speaking of the bird." For Honorius had a bird in which he delighted, which he had named Rome: a huge proof of the stupidity, not to say insanity, of the man. And there is no reason for you to marvel that such a man held the empire, since others also have ruled Rome whose deeds and insane desires offend the hearing; for consider the Neros, the Aviti, the Galbae, the Othones, and whoever else of this brand there were. ^C Rome having been taken, Honorius died of dropsy, when he had lived forty years and had reigned thirty-one, leaving a shameful and unpraiseworthy memory of his life. When his death was announced in Constantinople, the whole city was in an uproar for six days. At the time when Honorius died, Theodosius was in the twenty-fourth year of his age and the seventeenth of his reign. His tutor, Antiochus, as it is in the comedy, "was flashing, thundering, and throwing all things into confusion." Thus the empire was almost nothing, and all things were full of brigands. In the fifth year, the Jews in Alexandria treated the Christians very badly. For having agreed among themselves to wear rings made of palm fronds as a token, they arranged for criers to proclaim by night that the church was on fire, ^D and when the Christians ran together to extinguish the fire, they slaughtered them. When the plot was discovered, the Christian magistrates expelled the Jews from Alexandria and confiscated their property. In the same year, the blessed Pulcheria took command of the whole administration, the Persian Antiochus having been removed. In the same year, the Magi in Persia

put many Christians to martyrdom, and the great church was rebuilt after the fire. ^A

In the seventh year, the Jews in the Immos field caught a Christian boy, and as if in sport and to mock the cross, they tormented him and hung him upon a piece of wood. The emperor, having discovered the matter, punished the Jews with fitting penalties.

In the 14th year, there was a famine in Pontus, such that the Paphlagonians castrated their own children and sold them. In this year, Leontius the philosopher died in Athens; he wrote in his will: "I leave all my property to my sons, but to my daughter Athenaïs I leave 100 gold pieces; for her own fortune is sufficient for her." Pulcheria, having taken this Athenaïs after she was brought from Athens to Constantinople, and seeing that she excelled in beauty of body and was adorned in the clear-sightedness of her soul and in eloquence, sent her to Atticus, the archbishop of the city, who baptized her and named her Eudocia; and she betrothed her to her brother, the emperor, as his wife. In this year, Bishop Atticus enrolled the name of John Chrysostom in the sacred diptychs. ^B After the death of Patriarch Atticus, Sisinnius is ordained.

But although Eudocia was a woman of such stature and quality, envy cast a crooked eye upon her, and wrought the following drama: A certain Paulinus, a master of offices, was beloved by Eudocia for being most learned and most handsome, and with him she conversed frequently and privately, as he had helped in the matter of her marriage. On the day of the holy Theophany, therefore, as the emperor was going to the great church, a poor man from Asia brought him a large and extraordinary apple [(56)], which he sent to the Augusta, having given the poor man one hundred gold pieces. She, however, sent it to Paulinus, who was ill at the time, as a pledge of his recovery. ^C But Paulinus, being unaware, sent it two days later to the emperor. The emperor, having recognized it, hid it, and entering, said to the Augusta: "Where is the apple which I sent you?" She said: "I ate it." And again he adjured her by his own salvation, saying: "Did you send this to anyone?" She again said that she had eaten it, adding also the safety of the emperor. Then, stirred to anger, the emperor ordered the apple to be brought in, and having sent for Paulinus that very night, he beheaded him. From that time on, there was grief and separation between them. And the Augusta, having learned of this, ^D ashamed at the injury, instituted a monastery in the holy places and...

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES.

(53) The double tablets, of which one contains the names of the living that are read during the solemnities of the Mass, the other those of the dead in the church, are the *diptychs*, GOAR. (56) Regarding the apple given by Eudocia as a gift to Paulinus, in Nicephorus XIV, it is read not as an apple but as a sheep. And indeed, both signify something. Yet the narrative of Cedrenus, seeing that in all its circumstances it points more to an apple than a sheep, seems most probable. What is read in Nicephorus, that Eudocia replied to her husband that the gift was peacefully consumed at her home—if this is the case in the Greek—it seems it must be accepted entirely as a sheep. How the Greek texts have it there, I do not know. Certainly, Zonaras has it the same way as our author, that Eudocia replied that she had eaten it: who would believe such a reply regarding a sheep? And in Nicephorus, after chapter 40, this same thing is called an "apple of contention," as is noted in the margin; and it is known that it was an apple that was proposed at the wedding of Peleus. And that the author played upon the ambiguity from a sheep to an apple does not seem very probable to me. I have thought it necessary to warn the reader regarding this, so that he might not think that I, for any purpose, had written something different from the Latin Nicephorus. XYL.

^A She died, and, ashamed at having been insulted, she hurried to the holy places, and she died in Jerusalem, and was buried in the church of Saint Stephen. At the time of her death, she bound herself by oath that she had not been privy to the accusation brought against her concerning Paulinus. Some write that the following was fulfilled in her: "Do good, O Lord, in thy good pleasure unto Zion; and let the walls of Jerusalem be built," because she had performed many good deeds in Jerusalem after Helena, the mother of the great Constantine.

In the nineteenth year, the relics of the prophet Zechariah, and of the holy protomartyr Stephen and of Laurence, were deposited. Then, for the first time, the commemoration of the great Chrysostom was solemnly celebrated.

In the twentieth year, Theodosius, in imitation of the blessed Pulcheria, sent much money to the Archbishop of Jerusalem to be distributed to the needy, and a golden cross adorned with precious stones to be fixed on Cranion. The archbishop, in return, sent him as a gift the relics of the right hand of the protomartyr Stephen. ^A When these arrived at Chalcedon, the blessed Pulcheria on that same night saw Saint Stephen saying to her: "Behold, your prayer has been heard and your request has come to pass, and I have come to Chalcedon." Rising and taking her brother with her, she went out to meet the holy relic. And having brought these into the palace, ^B she founded a magnificent church to the protomartyr, and there she deposited the holy relics.

In the twenty-first year of this reign, Theodosius, moved by great piety, even though he had vanquished the Persians by force, strove for peace, considering the Christians living in Persia, and sent ambassadors. This having been brought about, the persecution against the Christians ceased.

In the twenty-second year, Sisinnius the patriarch died.

In the twenty-third year, after his death, Nestorius succeeded to the bishopric of Constantinople. He was a Germanician by birth. And as soon as he ascended the throne, his evil faith and the perversity of his opinions were immediately revealed. For he delivered a sermon concerning the faith to his syncellus ^C (57), ordering it to be proclaimed in the church, which contained the following: "Let no one call Mary Theotokos; for Mary was a human, and it is impossible that God should be born of a human." Eusebius, a certain scholasticus, was the first to take exception to this statement, along with Anastasius, a presbyter who had been sent with him from Antioch. Him he had held in high honor and used as an adviser in his affairs.

NOTES OF XYLANDER AND GOAR

(57) If I am not mistaken, it is that Anastasius the presbyter, of whom mention is presently made. What a syncellus is, I have explained in the first annotation. But this history in the codex is quite confused and concise. You may usefully read Socrat. VII and following, and Evagr. I. I. XYL. That the matters concerning the syncellus ^D have been deferred to another place, I advise that nothing here be rashly forced, and that the word is a mark of dignity and honor, not of office; and that patriarchs distinguished with this title one whom they admitted into their society as a companion of private life, a confidant of their mind, an adviser in business, a director of their spirit, a father confessor, and therefore a sharer of their hearth and a fellow-dweller (for as the laws say, *cella* is a chamber). Hence this syncellus of Nestorius, Anastasius the presbyter, is described by Evagrius VI, 2, as his fiercest supporter and as being attached as a companion to him as he proceeded to the bishopric; and as syncellus afterwards, according to the testimony of Socrates VII, 32. What Xylander mentions elsewhere regarding the syncellus is superfluous and inappropriate here. For by what reason could he have been designated as successor to the patriarch, he who did not succeed, and who was usually not declared by the patriarch, but by the emperor as heir to the pontifical throne in those times? GOAR.

^A of the empress. Then many of the Byzantines were troubled. Nestorius, hastening to confirm his word, everywhere poured forth his own filthy babbling, calling the Lord a mere man. On one Sunday, while Nestorius was presiding, Proclus, having been moved to explain, delivered a homily on the Theotokos, the beginning of which is: "Today, brothers, a feast is held concerning the Virgin." From that time, the impious Nestorius became hateful to all because of his arrogance and evil belief. For he had a certain presbyter from Antioch, Anastasius, whom he ^B greatly favored as a man like-minded to himself, and who most audaciously blasphemed against the ever-virgin Theotokos in the church. Eusebius of Dorylaeum was the first to inveigh against him. By acting in this way, he stirred up many disturbances and troubles. In the same year, the terrible miracle of the seven holy youths in Ephesus also occurred, when they rose after having been asleep for one hundred and seventy years.

Then Cyril of Alexandria and Celestine of Rome wrote to Nestorius to abstain from his perverted dogmas and to hold fast to the right faith, and if not, that he would not be in communion with the priests. But others also wrote to him in the same vein. Nestorius himself, knowing that they would not keep silent, persuaded the emperor to write a sacra—an imperial decree—to Cyril ^C to terrify him, and he thought by this means to strike him down, but he provoked him all the more. For then Cyril wrote to the emperor and his sisters regarding the right faith and Nestorius’s evil opinion, while at the same time requesting that an ecumenical council be held, so that the matters concerning Nestorius might be examined canonically. Therefore, in the twenty-fifth year of Theodosius’s reign, the holy and ecumenical third synod of the 318 Fathers was assembled in Ephesus, at a time of four hundred and one years from the second, and in the year of the world 5915. Cyril of Alexandria, who held the place of Pope Celestine of Rome, and Juvenal of Jerusalem, presided. ^D The accursed Nestorius said that the Theotokos is not the Theotokos, but Christotokos, and he mythologized two sons in the one Christ, the Son of God, and two hypostases, saying that the Word who was begotten of the Father was one, and another was the man born of Mary, and that the Word of God was united to him by relation, and that he was called Son by homonymy. He, having been summoned by the synod and not having appeared, was deposed ecclesiastically by them as one who did not wish to consent to the right dogmas, and he was anathematized; and Maximianus, a presbyter of the same Great Church, was ordained. This same council clearly defined one hypostatic union of our Christ and God, and two natures, that he is the same God and man, and that holy Mary is properly and truly the Theotokos. John, the bishop of Antioch, when he arrived at the council after Nestorius had already been condemned, having summoned...

the bishops who had come with him, among whom were also Theodoret, bishop of Tyre, and Ibas of Edessa, ^A condemned Cyril and Memnon, the bishop of Ephesus, because he believed that they had instituted the synod against the canons of the Church. Cyril and his followers, for their part, condemned their acts as illegitimate and absurd. Thus, at that time, the Orientals and the Egyptians parted ways, at variance with the Ephesian council. But afterwards, the emperor brought them into concord, and it was brought about that the Orientals also consented to the true profession of faith made at Ephesus and to the condemnation of Nestorius, sending a written epistle regarding this matter to the Alexandrians through Paul, the bishop of Emesa. Nestorius, however, was banished to Oasis, or, as others report, to Thasus. There divine vengeance overtook him; for putrefaction invaded all his members, especially his wicked tongue; punished by this, after the example of Arius, he cried out as much as he could: "Up to this point we have not been persuaded to confess Mary to be the Theotokos."

The emperor, moreover, having gone out to hunt, and having escaped the notice of all his retinue, came after a long journey to a certain monk sitting in a cell near the suburbs of Constantinople. ^B The old man recognized the emperor, but nevertheless received him as if he were one of the soldiers. Since the emperor was exhausted from the road and the heat, the monk moistened some bread and set out vinegar and oil. The emperor ate, and drank water. And he said to the monk, "Do you know who I am, Father?" The monk answered, "God knows you." He replied, "I am Theodosius the emperor." Immediately then the monk arose and did him homage. The emperor therefore said, "Blessed and thrice-blessed are you monks, who are truly free of the cares of this world. In truth I affirm to you, Father, that I have never in my palace enjoyed food and drink with such pleasure as today." When the multitude arrived, and the emperor had venerated the monk in the sight of all, and had commended everyone to his prayers, he departed with things settled, and from that time he held that monk in honor. But he, ^C by flight, withdrew himself and returned to Egypt.

At this time also that great Symeon, who is named Stylites from his pillar, fleeing the glory of men, ascended a pillar. For since many were coming to him and everyone desired to touch his leather garments, he ascended a pillar. At first, he ordered the pillar to be made six cubits high, then twelve, and after that twenty-two, and finally it was raised to thirty-six cubits. His station, I believe, was not without divine providence, that it might be for the benefit of the more slothful, just as God commanded Isaiah to walk naked and without sandals, and Jeremiah to prophesy with his loins girded with a loincloth, and at other times ^D with wooden and iron collars

^A And He commanded Hosea to take a harlot as a wife and again to love the wicked and adulterous woman, and Ezekiel to lie upon his right side for forty days and upon his left for one hundred and fifty, and again to dig through the wall and flee, and to depict captivity for himself; and at other times to sharpen a sword and shave his head with it, and to divide his hair into four parts. And that I may not relate everything, the governor of the discourse commanded each of these things to be done, that those who would not obey the word might at least be enticed by the unusual spectacle, the novelty of which is a sufficient pledge of the teaching. For just as that most radiant lamp, the great Symeon, when placed upon a lampstand, sent forth its rays in all directions like the sun, ^B it was possible to see Iberians, Armenians, Persians, and Ishmaelites coming daily and partaking of holy baptism. So much grace did that blessed man propagate into various regions that they brought the idols of their ancestral gods to that divine column and shattered them, and were taught by him the pure and blameless faith of us Christians. For he led them to it through many and very great miracles. Rightly, therefore, does the word of Christ hold: *He who believes in me, the works that I do he also will do, and greater works than these he will do.* ^C He, therefore, Symeon, being illuminated by the brightness of the Holy Spirit, cast his rays in every direction, just as Basil speaks in these words: "Just as bright and transparent bodies, when rays fall upon them, are themselves illuminated and emit a new splendor from themselves, so too souls that are apt for receiving the Spirit, once illuminated by the Spirit, become spiritual themselves and communicate His grace to others." From thence comes foreknowledge of things to come, understanding of mysteries, comprehension of hidden things, distribution of gifts, the heavenly life, dancing with the angels, infinite joy, dwelling in God, likeness to God, the perfection of desire—to become God by grace.

After some time, the divine Daniel in the Anaplous, having seen the great Symeon and having been filled with divine zeal in his heart, ^D came to the Anaplous and he himself ascended a column, becoming the author of many and very great miracles. He remained on the column until the fourth year of the Emperor Leo the Great, and thus he departed to the Lord, full of good works.

In the twenty-sixth year, Valentinian came from Rome to Constantinople and married the daughter of the Emperor Theodosius, Eudoxia, who was born to him by Eudocia, and he returned again to Rome. Cyrus, the prefect of the city, a man most wise and capable, demolished the terrestrial wall of Constantinople and, having added two other intervals, constructed another wall within sixty days.

^B Whence also the populace, astonished at the speed and the beauty of the construction of the wall, shouted while the emperor was sitting in the Hippodrome: "Constantine built, Cyrus restored." For this reason, having become an object of envy, he was slandered as being Greek-minded; his goods were confiscated, his head shaven, and he was chosen bishop in Smyrna.

When Procopius was leading a campaign against the Persians, it was suggested to him by the Persian that, "Let us provide single combatants, and whichever side is defeated, let it grant the terms of peace for fifty years." The general Procopius therefore selected Areobindus, the Count of the Foederati, who ensnared the Persian with a noose, and having cast him down from his horse, slew him. And thus a peace pact was composed between the Romans and the Persians. Areobindus, having entered the city, was received honorably by the emperor and elevated to the consulship.

Anno 28: A collapse of the theater of Alexandria crushed 572 men. Maximianus having departed this life, the most holy Proclus was chosen bishop of Constantinople; and he brought back the relics of Chrysostom in the thirtieth year of the reign of Theodosius and deposited them in the temple of the Holy Apostles. Under him, great earthquakes occurred in Constantinople for four months, so that the townspeople, for fear of danger, lived outside the city in the field. When Proclus, together with the clergy and the people, was persevering there in supplications to God, about the third hour, ^C suddenly, in the sight of all, a youth was snatched up into the air and heard a divine voice commanding him to announce to the bishop and the people that they should pray in their public deprecations in this way and say: "Holy God, holy Strong, holy Immortal, have mercy on us," and add nothing else. And immediately, as the people chanted this, the earthquake ceased. Deeply struck by that miracle, Theodosius and the blessed Pulcheria ordained that the holy hymn should be chanted in this way throughout the whole world.

Anno 35: The relics of the prophet Isaiah were brought from Paneas and deposited in the temple of Saint Laurence.

Anno 36: The emperor Theodosius made Antiochus—the praepositus and patrician, his own tutor—a *papa*, having also confiscated his house, because he had committed [offenses] against the emperor. ^D

Xylander and Goar's Notes

^A for he had extolled himself in contempt of the emperor. Therefore, he also issued a law that no eunuch should be adorned with the dignity of patrician. This emperor was excessively fickle, and so prone to obeying his intimates when they persuaded him of something, that he would often sign documents without even reading them. When his sister Pulcheria observed this, and having scolded him often to no avail, she set upon him craftily. For, under the pretext of requesting a favor, she asked him by letter that Eudocia, the wife of her brother, be handed over to her as a slave. The emperor, having received these, confirmed them with his seal. Afterward, when they were read, he was sharply rebuked by Pulcheria, and from that time forward he exercised greater care in such matters. During his reign, the Goths were divided into four nations: Goths, Hypogoths, Gepids, and Vandals. From among these, the Avar began to traverse the Roman territory.

In the 39th year, Cyril of Alexandria and Proclus of Constantinople died piously. Proclus was succeeded by Flavian, a presbyter and keeper of the vessels of the Great Church of Constantinople; but Cyril was succeeded by the impious Dioscorus, a man in no way fit for teaching, but useless and savage, and especially one of the enemies of Cyril: for from his tenderest years he had imbibed the heresies of Origen.

In the 41st year, that infamous and lawless synod was gathered to adjudicate the controversy of Flavian and Eutyches, [held] by the impious Dioscorus at the instigation of the eunuch Chrysaphius (who was called Zummas by another name), ^B who had imposed his will upon the emperor’s simplicity by this persuasion.

In the ensuing time, that is, in the 42nd year, Theodosius, realizing that he had been deceived by Chrysaphius, first banished him to an island, and he also turned fiercely upon Eudocia Augusta, calling her the cause of all evils, as though she had also driven Pulcheria from the palace, while at the same time reproaching her concerning Paulinus, who had been put to death on account of the apple. Not bearing the indignity of the matter, she requested that she be allowed to depart for Jerusalem; this having been granted, she betook herself thither, accompanied by the presbyter Severus and the deacon John. But the emperor, learning that these men had frequented her company even while in the city, sent executioners and had their heads cut off. He comforted the holy Pulcheria with many words and brought her back into the palace. She immediately sent men to Ephesus to bring back the body of the holy Flavian. At that time, she also erected the church of the Chalcopratii in honor of the Theotokos, since that place had previously been a synagogue of the Jews. ^C

XYLANDER AND GOAR’S NOTES

^A Anatolius succeeded Flavian in the bishopric. Some time later, the emperor went out to ride, and his horse having fallen, he was injured and carried home in a litter—that is, a carriage. Having called his sister Pulcheria, he told her that Marcian must succeed him, for, as he said, John the Theologian had revealed this to him while he was in Ephesus. Having also summoned Marcian, he said to him, in the presence of Aspar and the senate: "It has been shown to me that you must become emperor after me." Two days later he died, and his body was placed in the church of the Holy Apostles. His wife was Eudocia, daughter of the philosopher Leontius, from Athens.

The wise and noble Pulcheria, before the death of her brother was made public, sent for Marcian—a man distinguished for his temperance and dignity, advanced in age, and most capable—and said to him: "Since the emperor has died, and I have chosen you out of the whole senate for your virtue, give me your word that you will preserve the virginity which I have consecrated to God, and I shall proclaim you emperor." Upon his agreeing to this, she summoned the patriarch ^B Anatolius and the senate, and proclaimed him emperor. Marcian was venerable in his manner, priestly, having a flush on his face tempered with grace, magnanimous, free from greed, temperate, religious, holding the faith correctly, compassionate toward those who sin, but inexperienced in secular education. He immediately recalled everyone who had been in exile. The blessed Pulcheria handed over that most hateful eunuch, Chrysaphius, to Jordan, the son of John, who then killed him in return for his having killed his father by treachery.

Marcian, having previously been a common soldier, was marching from Greece with his own *numerus* toward the Persians, and upon arriving in Lycia, fell ill. ^C Being left behind in the city of Sydimo and spending some time there, he became attached to two brothers, Julius and Tatianus, who took him into their own home and cared for him. Once, when the three of them had gone out hunting and were resting at midday, Tatianus—who had awakened earlier than the others—noticed Marcian lying on the ground, and a huge eagle hovering in the air above him, which, with wings spread wide, was providing shade for the man. Seeing this, he awakened his brother and showed him the sight. Both marveled for a long time at this portent, and finally awakened Marcian, asking him what gift he would command them to expect from him if he should ^D ever gain the empire. Marcian said that he was not the sort of person to whom such a thing could happen. When they repeated the same words again, he said: "If this should happen to me by God's will, I shall make you my patricians."

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES. (74) Marcian was the first of the Christian princes to receive the imperial insignia from the pontiff. GOAR. (72) Nothing is more common than *numerus* among the Latins. From them the word passed to the Greeks. Each having cast off their own, the Greeks called the "number" from their own store, of which I spoke above. OEcumenius in Acts xv: "Speira" is what we now call a *numerus*. But what says Suidas: multitudes of troops, phalanxes, *numeri*. GOAR.

^A Then they gave him 200 coins, saying: "Go in the city, and remember us when God exalts you." A short time having passed and Theodosius having died, he was declared emperor, as we foretold, and, being reminded of the kindness in Lycia, he summoned Tatian and Julius, proclaimed them patricians, and made Tatian prefect of the city, and entrusted the rule of the Lycians to Julius. But having been captured again by Gizericus and taken to Africa, this happened to him while he was still a soldier; whence Gizericus secured him by an oath that if he should become emperor, he would never make war on the Vandals, and he released him. Therefore, the blessed Pulcheria, along with many other churches, especially built the temple in Blachernae and consecrated it to the Mother of God at the beginning of his reign.

^B In his second year, the fourth holy council was held at Chalcedon by 630 Fathers, in the martyrion of the all-praised Euphemia, against Eutyches and Dioscorus and Nestorius the vain men, who said that the flesh of the Lord was not co-essential with us, but that the union was spoken of from two natures, yet that one nature was completed after the union, and mythologized that the Lord bore flesh as if in a phantom, and assigned passion to the divinity. Overseeing the council were the vicars of Pope Leo of Rome, Paschasinus and Lucentius, bishops, and Boniface the presbyter, Anatolius of Constantinople, and Juvenalis of Jerusalem. The heretics were therefore deposed and exiled to Gangra, and Proterius was ordained bishop of Alexandria in place of Dioscorus. The holy council declared perfect God and perfect man the same one in two natures, unconfusedly, indivisibly, our Lord and God Jesus Christ. They spoke of two natures by the rationale of distinction, not by the rationale of division. They also received the letter of Pope Leo of Rome to Flavian as a pillar of orthodoxy. They also confirmed the deposition of Nestorius. They admitted Theodoret and Ibas as those who had anathematized Nestorius.

In the third year, the blessed and pious Pulcheria fell asleep in Christ, a virgin and uncorrupted, having distributed all her possessions to the poor.

^C In the fourth year, Valentinian, the emperor of Rome, though he held to the correct dogmas of the Church, yet used great lawlessness in his own way of life; for although he lived with a most beautiful wife, Eudoxia, the daughter of the Emperor Theodosius, he wickedly abused others. He also conversed continually with those who practiced curious arts; therefore he was delivered to a wretched death. For Maximus, the grandson of that Maximus who acted as tyrant in the time of Theodosius the Great, and who held the rank of patrician among those at Rome, having entered the palace, slaughtered Valentinian and defiled Eudoxia and seized the empire; for by the things through which one sins, by those also is one punished. Grieved at this, Eudoxia sent for

^A Gizericus from Africa to Rome, asking to be delivered from the tyranny of Maximus. When Gizericus had sailed to Rome with a great fleet, Maximus attempted to flee, but those who were with him slew him. Gizericus, meeting with no resistance, entered Rome on the third day after the flight of Maximus. Having taken all the wealth and the votive offerings of the city, which included solid gold and jeweled ecclesiastical treasures and Hebrew vessels—which Titus had taken away from Jerusalem—he carried off the Empress Eudoxia herself and her children and sailed back to Africa. Thus occurred the second capture of the great city of Rome, the first having been by Alaric, the second by Gizericus. He joined Eudoxia to Huneric, his eldest son, and upon learning that Placidia had Olybrius the patrician as her husband, he kept her with her mother Eudoxia. Upon learning of the death of Maximus, Majorian reigned over Rome for two years, and after him Avitus for two years, and after him Severus for three. After him, there was no longer an emperor in Rome, but Ricimer administered the state, being a military commander and invested with great power. In the East, however, everything was peaceful, to such a degree that those times were called golden. At that time, too, Symeon the monk, standing upon a column, was illustrious in life, doctrine, and miracles.

^B In the fifth year, three huge stones fell from the sky in Thrace. Eudocia, the wife of Theodosius, died in Jerusalem, having bequeathed much to the churches, and, dying, she swore that she was innocent of the charge imputed to her regarding Paulinus.

In the seventh year, the Emperor Marcian died, and his body was laid in the mausoleum of the Holy Apostles. His wife was Pulcheria in name only, for he did not consort with her. Anatolius held the episcopate of Constantinople, having succeeded Atticus; the year was 5950 from the creation of the world, and 456 from the incarnation of the Word.

^C After Marcian, Leo the Great reigned for seventeen years; he was orthodox. He was lean in body, with sparse hair on his beard, adorned with prudence, but unskilled in literature and the sciences. His wife was Verina, the sister of Basiliscus. He was called Macellus (“the Butcher”) because he had slain Aspar and Ardabur ^D as being Arians; for in Latin, *macellum* is the term for a slaughterer. Aspar had requested the emperor to appoint a city prefect agreeable to him and of the same mind. The emperor, though having reluctantly agreed to do so, while unwilling, ordered a certain senator to come to him quickly by night, and when he arrived...

he appointed him prefect of the city. Aspar, seeing that this had happened contrary to his expectation, seized the emperor’s garment and said: "Emperor, it is not fitting for one clothed in this purple to lie." The emperor replied: ^C "Indeed, it is entirely fitting for an emperor to yield to no one and to be no man's subordinate, especially when doing so would be to the detriment of the commonwealth."

In the first year of his reign, there was an earthquake at Antioch, which laid waste almost the entire city. This emperor was a Thracian by race, and a tribune by rank. He was crowned by Anatolius, the patriarch.

Since all the Churches of the inhabited world accepted the Council of Chalcedon, the wicked man Timothy, surnamed Aelurus (the Weasel), stirred up the city of Alexandria. By using magical deceptions, he would go about the monks' cells by night, calling each of them by name. When they answered, he would say: "I am an angel, and I have been sent to tell everyone to withdraw from the communion of Proterius and from the things of Chalcedon, and to entrust the bishopric of Alexandria to Timothy Aelurus." Having hired a throng of turbulent men, he took possession of the episcopal throne of Alexandria through tyranny. Thus, he who had been condemned was elected by ^B two (others who were) condemned; and though he was not created bishop by lawful suffrages, he gave others the right to create a bishop, and he performed baptisms, not being a presbyter. With a kind of unbridled madness, he heaped insults upon the holy fourth council. On Great Sabbath, he slaughtered the blessed Proterius, who gave place to wrath, along with six others who were with him. The factious crowd dragged his body throughout the city and burned it with fire. In this year, the relics of the holy martyr Anastasia were brought from Sirmium and deposited in her church, which is at the rostra of Domninus.

In the second year, the Emperor Leo, having learned of the unjust murder of Proterius and the unlawful promotion of Aelurus, sent those to cut out the tongues of those who were privy to the murder of Proterius. He did not punish Aelurus, leaving his judgment to the bishops. In the same year, the marriage of Zeno and Ariadne, the daughter of Leo, took place.

In the third year, the emperor sent letters to the bishops of each province, asking each of them to write to him regarding his own opinion as to whether they were satisfied with the definitions made at Chalcedon, and what they had to say about the ordination of ^D Aelurus. In these letters, he wrote also to the holy Symeon the Stylite and to other miraculous and holy Fathers, testifying that they should make their judgment concerning the controversial matters as those who were about to render an account to God. They, with one voice and one mind, all approved the holy Council of Chalcedon, and accepted the definition published by it, and unanimously condemned Timothy as a murderer and a heretic. The emperor banished him to Gangra. But since he began to hold assemblies there as well, he was deported to Cherson. Another Timothy, surnamed the White and Salophaciolus, a good man who thought rightly concerning religion and was dear to all, was created bishop of Alexandria.

In the fourth year, the great Symeon Stylites died, being the first to introduce this kind of life. ^A

In the fifth year, a fire occurred in Constantinople, starting from the harbor and reaching as far as the church of the blessed Thomas of the Amanti. Marcianus, however, the steward of the Great Church, who had recently built the church of the Holy Anastasia, saved this from the fire, having climbed onto the roof with the Gospel and incense, and having appeased God with tears. For this fire was extremely powerful; having started from the harbor, it extended towards the east as far as the church of St. John the Mendicant in the west, while in the south it ravaged everything in the middle of the city from the Lausi up to the Tauri. ^B The fire destroyed buildings that were prominent and superior to the others: in the Forum of Constantine, the great building called the Senate, adorned with bronze statues and porphyry stone, in which the chosen counselors were accustomed to meet, and where the emperor would enter once he had donned the consular robe; likewise, the Nymphaeum, situated opposite this senate, in which the weddings of those without homes took place; and in the Tauri, a building also suitable for the counselors and the emperor, where they gathered to consult on state affairs, and where the emperor presided in his consular robes. It was supported by various columns of Trojan stone, twenty-five feet high; these supported the building on the south and north sides, while on the east and west it was supported by arches. Its length was two hundred and forty feet, and its width eighty-four. Two very large churches, ornamented with stones of every kind, were also consumed, one situated near the Tetrapylon and the other in the Forum of Tauri. Moreover, the fire ravaged many other things, such as porticoes, rostra, squares, and dwellings from sea to sea, as far as the church of the holy martyrs Sergius and Bacchus. ^C

In the sixth year, a painter who had dared to paint the Savior in the likeness of Zeus had his hand wither. Gennadius healed him through his prayers after he confessed his crime. Some historians attribute to Christ hair that is sparse and curly. This Gennadius at night saw an apparition of a demon at the altar; when he rebuked it, he heard it shouting that for now, while he was alive, it would give way to him, but that after his death it would certainly take possession of the Church. This same Gennadius had often rebuked a certain cleric of the church of St. Eleutherius who was living wickedly. But when he was unable to move him, he brought the matter to St. Eleutherius, standing in his temple and saying through one of his ministers: "Holy martyr Eleutherius, either correct your cleric, or cut him down." At once the cleric expired. ^D In the same year, Studius built the temple of John the Baptist, a monastery. [index: entries preserved]

and placed in it monks of those who are called the Acoemeti, that is, the sleepless. ^A In the seventh year, the Emperor Leo appointed his son-in-law Zeno as commander of all the East. Now there was in the retinue of Zeno a certain Peter Cnapheus (which means "fuller"), a presbyter of the temple of the holy martyr Bassa, which is in Chalcedon. Because he followed the errors of Apollinarius, he stirred up infinite disturbances against the faith, condemning those who deny that God was crucified. And a schism having occurred among the Antiochian laity, he inserted into the Trisagion hymn the phrase, "who was crucified for us"; which even today holds among the Theopaschites. And when Martyrius, the bishop of Antioch, resigned his throne, saying, "I resign from an insubordinate clergy, a contumacious people, and a church defiled with filth, while reserving to myself the dignity of the priesthood," that Peter Cnapheus seized the episcopate. But soon, hearing that he was condemned to exile, he fled; and Julian was appointed to the bishopric of Antioch. ^B In the same year, the holy Gerasimus became of great fame for his virtues and miracles on the banks of the Jordan. Then also the anchorite Cyriacus (that is what they call those who withdraw from the company of men into the wilderness) came to Jerusalem. He lived 107 years. In the same year, the prophet Elisha was translated to Alexandria, into the mansion of Paul the leper. For he who had healed a leper had also inflicted leprosy on another, and he was deposited in the house of the leper.

In the eighth year, Daniel the Stylite ascended the pillar at the Anaplus, and Anthimus and Timocles, the poets of the ^C troparia, became known.

In the ninth year, a sign appeared in the sky, a cloud having the shape of a trumpet, seen for forty days toward evening.

In the tenth year, Isocasius, the quaestor of Antioch, who was also a philosopher, was denounced to the emperor as holding to the Greek religion; and he ordered him to be examined by the prefect of the city of Constantinople. When he was brought with his hands bound behind his back, the prefect of the city, Posaeus, spoke to him thus: "Do you see, Isocasius, in what state you stand?" But he replied, "I see, and I am not amazed; for being a man, I have fallen into human calamity. But you render justice to me, just as you used to render justice with me." On hearing this, the people praised the emperor; and when the emperor learned of it, he rejoiced and sent him back home. ^D

In the twelfth year, the Emperor Leo [marched] against Gizerichus, who held Africa and since the death of Marcian had been harassing the Romans.

^A He dispatched a great fleet, having gathered 1,113 ships, each carrying one hundred men. In this, 650 thousand of gold and 700 thousand of silver were expended, in addition to what was provided from the treasury and from Rome in the West. Yet this great fleet returned without having achieved anything, due to the poor counsel of the one in command, and he did not even manage to save half of the soldiers. He proved indeed the truth of the one who said that an army of deer led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by a deer. In the same year also Aspar’s son, being a patrician, was created Caesar by Leo, and sent to Alexandria in order to draw Aspar away from the Arian heresy and make him benevolent toward the emperor.

In the fifteenth year, the holy Euthymius fell asleep in Christ, having lived 97 years.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth years, the events of the war against Gizerichus occurred one after another.

In the seventeenth year, the Emperor Leo declared Leo, the son of Zeno and his own daughter Ariadne, and his own grandson, Caesar, and crowned him emperor ^B. At that time also, the garment of the most holy Theotokos was brought from Jerusalem, having been found with a certain most pious woman, a Hebrew virgin. And the relics of the holy Anastasia were brought from Nicomedia and placed in her church. At this time, a certain Romulus, nicknamed Augustulus, was established as emperor of the kingdom in Italy, one thousand and eighty years after Romulus, the king who founded Rome. It should be noted that the empire of the West, which flourished from Romulus, ceased again under Romulus after such a span of time.

When the younger Leo had been created Caesar and an equestrian ^C spectacle was being held, at the sixth hour of the day deep darkness covered the city, and suddenly dust fell in the appearance of snow, as the clouds seemed to glow as if with fire, so that everyone thought it was raining fire; and the dust lay to the depth of a palm. As for the Emperor Leo...

as he suffered from a flux of the bowels ^A and was pricked within by cruel torments, this disease demonstrated that the art of medicine was of no effect in such dangers. For as often as he sat upon the close-stool, whether there was a light behind him or in front, his belly and back would shine through. Being thus extremely emaciated, he ended his life, and his body was placed in a green sarcophagus in the mausoleum of Constantine the Great. His wife was Verina, the sister of Basiliscus, who had served as commander of the great fleet sent against Gizericus.

Leo, the son of Zeno and Ariadna, was created emperor by his grandfather Leo the Great while he was yet a boy. He reigned for one year, and after placing the diadem upon his father Zeno, with Verina and Ariadna assisting him, he departed this life.

Zeno, Emperor of the Romans, reigned 27 years and 4 months. He was an adherent of the heretical and confusionist sect called the Acephali, which confounds the natures in Christ. Under him, Ammorium was built. In his first year, at the very beginning of his reign, the Saracens made incursions into Mesopotamia, and the Huns into Thrace, while the emperor was most shamefully corrupting the state and was addicted to pleasures and absurd activities. ^B For Zeno was born of the vilest and most hideously deformed tribe of the Isaurians, hairy and most repulsive in form, such as the Greeks paint Pan, goat-footed and thick-legged, dark in complexion, disproportionate in stature, irascible, vengeful, and full of envy. His wife was Ariadna.

Meanwhile, Basiliscus, the brother of Verina, residing at Heraclea in Thrace, stirred up sedition against Zeno. Fearing him, Zeno fled with his wife and great riches to Isauria, to a fortified castle named Ubara. Basiliscus was proclaimed emperor in the camp; he made his son Marcus a Caesar and crowned his own wife, Zenodia, as Augusta; and immediately he waged war against the true faith. Upon his becoming emperor, a fire broke out which destroyed the most flourishing part of the city. ^C For, having started in the middle of the Chalcopratia, it devoured both porticoes and all the adjacent buildings, including the so-called "Basilic," in which was stored a library containing 120,000 volumes. Among these books was also the intestine of a dragon, 120 feet long, upon which the poems of Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey, had been inscribed in golden letters, together with the history of the deeds performed by the heroes. The fire also destroyed both porticoes on either side of the middle of the palaces, as well as the most beautiful votive offerings of Lausus. For many ancient statues were set up there, such as the famous statue of the Cnidian Venus, and that of the Samian Juno, and the Lindian Minerva made of a different material, which Amasis, King of the Egyptians, had sent to the wise Cleobulus, and infinite other things. The fire spread even as far as the forum of Constantine the Great. For these reasons Basiliscus was in the hatred of all the citizens, and was called "the fire and destruction of the city": for they punned on the name of the basilisk serpent. ^D

^A The senate therefore wrote to Zeno; and he, having taken to himself Illus, the Isaurians, the Lycaonians, and others who were excited toward innovations, returned to Byzantium with a royal force, and again seized the tyranny (for I cannot call it a reign). He brought Basiliscus out of the church, to which he had previously fled, and after binding him with ten thousand most terrible oaths, he exiled him to Cucusus in Cappadocia, where he shut him inside a tower with his wife and children and destroyed them by famine. He also recalled Timothy Aelurus, and Peter the Fuller, who had been hiding in the monastery of the Sleepless Ones, and all other enemies of the holy Council of Chalcedon who were speaking boldly against the truth. ^B Aelurus, having gathered the unruly Alexandrians who were staying in Byzantium, came from the palace to the church riding on an ass; but when he reached the Octagon he fell, broke his foot, and returned in disgrace. Basiliscus, while he was still in power, had sent him to Alexandria with imperial edicts to combat the Council of Chalcedon. When his followers saw him entering Alexandria, they asked him, "Have you fed your enemies, Papa?" To which he replied, "I have indeed fed them food in this way." He had also sent Peter the Fuller to Antioch with the same intent. ^C But Salophaciolus Timothy, the bishop of Alexandria, hearing this, withdrew to the monasteries of Canopus, to which he had originally belonged and where he had practiced asceticism. No sooner had the Fuller gained the episcopate than he set to work with condemnations and tumults. Thence arose slaughters and confusion, because the Fuller had added to the most holy hymn: "Who was crucified for us." Furthermore, Basiliscus had rejected the Council of Chalcedon by a general edict; and when he commanded Acacius, the bishop of Constantinople, to do the same, the entire city, with their wives and children, gathered in the church against Basiliscus and prevented him. Acacius, moreover, donned black vestments and abandoned the throne and the altar. At that time, also, the great Daniel, impelled by a fervent zeal for God, descended from his pillar and attended the assemblies of Acacius and the people. ^D In the third year, Zeno deposed the Fuller because he supported Basiliscus, doing so by the authority of the Oriental synod, and exiled him to Pityus; but he secretly fled to the holy Theodore in Euchaita. Meanwhile Aelurus died.

^A And in his place Petrus Mongus was brought in, an evil man and an enemy of the truth, who, having already been deposed, was ordained by a single bishop, and that one also deposed. The monks, coming upon him with zeal for God, cast him out of the episcopate after he had held it in a predatory manner for thirty-six days, and they rightfully restored Timothy Salophaciolus to the throne ^B in his place.

In the fourth year, a terrible earthquake occurred in Constantinople on the 25th of September. Many churches, houses, and porticoes collapsed to their foundations, and an immense multitude of people were buried. The sphere of the statue in the Forum also fell, as did the column of Theodosius the Great which had been placed on the Column of Taurus, along with a significant portion of the inner walls. That earthquake persisted for a long time, to such a degree that the city was overcome by a stench. During this time, the remains of the holy apostle Barnabas were found in Cyprus, under a cherry tree, holding upon its breast the Gospel according to Matthew written by the hand of the apostle Barnabas himself. On account of this, Cyprus became a metropolis from that time forward, such that it was no longer considered to be under Antioch, but solely under Constantinople. Zeno placed this Gospel in the palace, in the church of St. Stephen in Daphne.

In the twelfth year, Felix, having held a synod in the church of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, sent two bishops and an exarch ^C to Constantinople, having written to Zeno and Acacius to cast out Petrus Mongus from Alexandria as a heretic.

In the thirteenth year, those from Rome having been intercepted at Abydos by the will of Zeno and Acacius, and their letters having been taken away and they themselves thrown into custody, Zeno threatened to kill them if they did not enter into communion with Acacius and Petrus Mongus.

In the fifteenth year, Zeno, by the counsel of Acacius, compelled the bishops throughout the East to sign the *Henotikon*—which Acacius himself had composed out of his own heart—and to enter into communion with Petrus Mongus. He also persuaded the apocrisiaries of Rome with money to enter into communion with Acacius, contrary to the instructions given to them. Upon learning of this, Felix deposed them, writing also a letter of deposition to Acacius. Receiving this, Acacius treated it with indifference and removed the name of Felix from the diptychs.

In the sixteenth year, Petrus Mongus died in Alexandria, and Athanasius, called Celetes, was ordained in his place. Zeno the king, having attained respite from the tyrants, expelled Calandion from the church ^D of Antioch, and then...

^A restored the episcopate to Peter the Fuller. ^A Upon returning to Antioch, he committed many evil deeds, again introducing anathemas against the Council and the ejection of blameless bishops, followed by illegitimate substitutions, ordinations, and similar things. Previously, he had added to the most holy hymn: "Christ the King, who wast crucified for us." Later, however, after arriving, he removed the words, "Christ the King." Xenaias, a servant of Satan, also taught that one should not receive the icon of the Master and the saints. For he was a Persian by race and a servant by condition. Having fled from his own master under Calandion, he was turning the villages around Antioch away from the faith. Though not yet baptized, he claimed to be a cleric. Calandion had driven him out, but Peter the Fuller ordained him bishop of Hierapolis and renamed him Philoxenus. Learning later that he was unbaptized, Peter said that his ordination sufficed in place of baptism. Euthymius, most orthodox of men, drove Anastasius the Silentiary—who later reigned over the church in an evil manner—out of the Church as a heretic and one who agreed with Eutyches.

In the seventeenth year, Zeno asked Marianus, ^B a most wise count who knew certain secret things and used to predict them to him, saying, "Who will reign after me?" He said, "One of the Silentiaries will succeed to both your empire and your wife, and you will kill me unjustly." Both things came to pass in their own time. In the same year, Peter the Fuller died, and in his place Palladius, a presbyter of the church of the Holy Protomartyr Thecla at Seleucia, was put forward as bishop of Antioch. John of Constantinople and Anastasius, who later reigned evil-ly, the Silentiary, were also joined in his election.

Zeno, however, having been puffed up with arrogance, proceeded to confiscations and unjust murders, and he would destroy any man based on ^C any accusation whatsoever. To speak the truth, gripped by melancholy and by a demon, he wretchedly and inhumanely killed the Master of Offices, through whom he had held onto his life and his throne. He also kills [the rest of the text for this column is found in the notes or is a repetition of the Greek liturgical text fragments: "Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us" and the definition/etymology of "Silentiary"]. ^D

"]. ^A and had raised him to the empire. He also killed the patrician Pelagius, a man of distinction and famous for his writing of poetry, because he, for the sake of his own prudence and justice, taking the liberty of speaking for himself, openly rebuked Zeno’s wicked crimes. As he was about to die unjustly, he uttered such words as these to God, the governor of all things, stretching his hands toward heaven: "O most just God, an unjust death is being brought upon me, because I, with free speech, restrained many of Zeno’s violent crimes, and because I did not want his foolish brother to be appointed Caesar. But You, Lord almighty, who have regard for the reckoning of justice, deal out the penalties for their murderous acts as soon as possible." There exists a history written by him in verse, beginning from Augustus Caesar. He also composed what are called the Homerocentra, and ten thousand other things worthy of admiration. Zeno suffered similar things, as did Zosimus the rhetor from Gaza, and Arcadius the prefect, and others of the illustrious men. ^B For Zeno having turned out to be of such a kind and of such magnitude in murders and impious deeds, the Divine did not neglect his destruction, but having enveloped his whole body in vehement and unknown pains, it removed him violently from life. A report was carried about that by some divine power his head was severed invisibly, with only the skin connecting the head to the neck. Therefore, his wife and the chamberlains, looking to their own safety, left the dead man lying naked on a board, and hardly at dawn, one of those who had no connection to him threw a shroud over the corpse. Furthermore, the guards who were posted to watch the tomb in which he was laid reported that they had heard a lamentable voice emitted from his tomb for two nights: "Have mercy, have mercy, and open for me." ^C When they said that another was now reigning, he said, "I care nothing for that; take me to a monastery." But when they did not open it, it is said that after some time the tomb was opened, and Zeno was found therein, having in his hunger eaten his own arms and the boots (92) which he wore, because he was frequently seized by the falling sickness (epilepsy); and while he was still living, Ariadna was already in love with Anastasius, and so she had ordered the guards of the royal tomb henceforth not to open it for Zeno (63).

At these same times, Perozes, the king of the Persians, having again campaigned against the white Huns, who are called the Nephthalites (94), perished with his whole army. ^D For the Huns, having dug a deep trench and laid reeds over it and heaped earth upon it, remained inside, and having sent out a few to meet them, they turned again into flight and crossed through the narrow passes which were known to them. The Persians, therefore, suspecting nothing terrible,

^A indiscriminately pursued them; and all of them, together with Perozes and his sons, fell into that chasm and perished. But Perozes, perceiving the danger, took the pearl he wore, which was most white and large—valuing it exceedingly—from his right ear, and threw it away, so that no one might be able to search for him later or recognize him as the king, since he was exceptionally worthy of being seen. And thus Perozes perished with his entire army. The barbarians then held the Persians as tributaries for two years. When that time had passed, the surviving Persians established Cabades, his son, as king.

Regarding the pearl—how and in what manner it was found—we have discovered the following story. In the Persian Gulf, which is situated towards the North from the Red Sea, pearls are nourished by scallops, which some call Zambaci. Among these scallops, one was found nourishing within itself a pearl of immense size and great brilliance. As it grew and exceeded its usual measure, shooting forth rays of its splendor like lightning, a certain sea-dog fell in love with the brilliance of the pearl ^B and began to follow its beauty perpetually; and wherever the waves carried the scallop’s shell, there too the dog, moved by the impulse of some pernicious demon, would go and rave. A certain fisherman, observing this strange prodigy, decided to steal the scallop by some mechanism; but the dog would not yield, and snatching it, dragged it into the depths of the water. The fisherman therefore informed the king of the Persians of the beauty of the pearl; and the king gave him men who would assist him in the capture of the pearl. They went to the sea and, having waited there for some days, it happened that the dog withdrew for a little while. Immediately the fisherman shot into the sea, and having dived to the bottom, seized the scallop and brought up the pearl; and having run back up, he lifted his hand, but the pearl was snatched away by those who were with him. Before he could manage to get into the skiff, the dog arrived and tore the poor man to pieces. The pearl was brought to the king, who, delighted by the sight of it, rewarded the children of the fisherman with great gifts. ^C Wishing to purchase this pearl, Justinian the Great sent one hundred pounds of gold to the barbarians; but they refused to sell it, keeping it as a monument to Persian folly.

Cabades, however, the youngest son of Perozes, having seized the kingdom, began to use his authority more violently, and even enacted a law that wives should be common to all. Hence the Persians drove him from power and, having bound him, threw him into a prison called Letha (which means oblivion), and made his brother Balbas king. When Cabades’ wife ministered to him while he was dwelling in prison, the prefect of the prison began to love her (for she was most beautiful). When Cabades learned of this, he persuaded his wife to submit to the man, in the hope that perhaps by some means he himself might be able to escape from the fortress. ^D When she had granted the prefect of the prison power over her body, afterwards—with no one to prevent her—she visited her husband and ministered to him. A friend of Cabades, named Sesoïses, kept Cabades informed through the wife, saying that horses and men were gathered…

^A in a certain place. When night fell, Cabades persuaded his wife to exchange clothes with him, and so he departed, leaving her in the prison. Thus, having left the dungeon and mounted a horse, Cabades went with Sesoïses to the Hephthalite Huns. Their king gave his daughter to him as a wife and, having provided a large army, sent him against the Persians. Upon invading Persia, Cabades seized the kingdom without any effort, blinded his brother, and threw him into prison. He guarded the kingdom securely (for he was sharp-witted and energetic) and ruled thereafter for eleven years, having abolished all the laws which had previously been set forth.

[P. 357] After the death of Zeno, the empress, the senate, and the army proclaimed Anastasius the Silentiary as emperor, ^B even though he was of the heresy of the Acephali, or Synchytici. He was of very tall stature, with bright, moderately gray eyes, and was somewhat bald and gray-haired. Urbicius the eunuch, who at that time held the greatest power under the empress, brought him to the monarchy. After his proclamation, Euthymius the patriarch demanded from him a written confession so that he would not disturb anything regarding the Church and the faith, calling him unworthy to rule over Christians. Being pressured by Ariadne and the senate, he gave the patriarch a document signed by his own hand, in which he professed to ratify the dogmas of the council of Chalcedon regarding the faith. Only then was he crowned and took Ariadne as his wife, not yet having lived with a married woman before. He reigned for 27 years and 4 months. Under his reign, ^C the Manichaeans and Arians grew bold: the Manichaeans because the emperor’s mother was a zealot for their sect and friendly toward them, and the Arians because Clearchus, the emperor’s maternal uncle, held the same beliefs as they did.

In the first year of his reign, Euthymius of Constantinople, having gathered the bishops present in the city, confirmed the holy council at Chalcedon. When this Anastasius had taken up the imperial habit and was sitting in the hippodrome, the entire populace, as if with one mouth, cried out pointedly: "As you have lived, so also reign, master." For before the crowing of the cocks, he used to go to church and stand there until the dismissal, appeasing God, fasting much, and distributing his own possessions to the poor and needy. This man completely cut off the informers (delators) from the city. He also abolished the tax called the ^D *Chrysargyron*, which one might translate as "gold-silver tax." This tax was a certain thing of this kind: every needy person and beggar, and every prostitute and divorced woman, and every slave and freedman, made a common contribution to the public treasury for urine and dung, and for the pack animals and dogs residing in the fields and cities; and a man would contribute a silver coin,

and the woman likewise, while a horse, a mule, and an ox would contribute the same, and an ass and a dog six folles. And there was great lamentation in both country and city as these were being exacted without pity. But when the emperor had received the envoys from the ^A monks in Jerusalem, and Timotheus of Gaza—a man most wise in all things—had composed a tragedy about such matters, he put an end to these things. At the same time, the emperor also displayed his illustrious generosity when he abolished that four-year tax, which was called the Chrysargyron, which was gathering a huge number of talents to the great ruin of everyone, and he burned the tablets containing the description of that tax in the hippodrome in the presence of the whole people. And while he thus magnificently improved public affairs, in ecclesiastical matters he showed himself harsh and shameless: for in the second year of his reign, he forcibly ^B extracted his profession [of faith] from Euthymius.

In the fifth year, he subdued the tyrants through the agency of John the Scythian. He also sent word to Bishop Euthymius, who was his adversary on account of the faith: "Your great prayers have besmirched your friends with soot." He deposed this man from the episcopate and sent him into exile; and he appointed Macedonius as bishop of Constantinople. And the latter, wickedly persuaded by Anastasius, subscribed to the Henotikon of Zeno.

In the eighth year, Macedonius, by the counsel of the emperor, strove to unite the monasteries of the royal city, which had been severed from unity on account of the Henotikon of Zeno. And having gathered the bishops who were then staying in the city, he confirmed in writing that he upheld the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon. Now Theodoric the African, having a deacon who was dear to him and a professor of the right religion, when that man had changed over from the faith to Arianism for the sake of his master's favor, beheaded the man with a sword, saying, "If you did not keep the faith for God, how will you keep it for me?"

In the tenth and eleventh years, there was again an incursion of Saracens in Phoenicia and Syria, and the Bulgarians made incursions into Illyricum and Thrace.

In the twelfth year, Anastasius made peace with Arethas, and henceforth all of Palestine, Arabia, and Phoenicia enjoyed great serenity and peace. When an earthquake was about to occur at Neocaesarea, a soldier who was traveling saw two soldiers coming towards him, and another from behind shouting, "Keep away from the house in which the shrine of Gregory is located." When the earthquake occurred, the greater part of the city was leveled, except for the church of Saint Gregory.

In the thirteenth year, Cabades, the king of the Persians, having set out on an expedition, besieged the city of Amida.

^A In the fourteenth year, war was frequently waged with Cabades. In the same year, when an equestrian contest was being held, a disorder occurred between the two factions, and many were killed on both sides, among whom was the emperor’s son, whom he had by a concubine. Being greatly grieved at this, the emperor punished many. In this year, he melted down many bronze works which Constantine the Great had set up, and made his own statue from them, and placed it on the column of Taurus; for the first one, which had been placed there, of Theodosius the Great, had fallen down from the earthquake and been shattered. At that time, also, a certain man, a trickster, skilled in the arts of deception, being clever in bedazzling people’s eyes with impostures, offered to money-changers and others the hands and feet of statues and other golden objects, saying that he had discovered a treasure, and having deceived many, he reduced them to poverty. When a rumor about him became known, he was seized and brought to Anastasius. He presented to him a horse’s bridle, made of solid gold and studded with pearls; when the emperor took it, he said, "As you have deceived everyone else, you will certainly not deceive me." And he exiled him to a certain fortress, where he also died.

^B In the sixteenth year, being relieved from wars, he made haste to turn the patriarch Macedonius from the true faith. Many of the bishops, wishing to gratify Anastasius, opposed the Synod of Chalcedon. Anastasius also brought from Cyzicus a certain painter, a Syro-Persian, in the guise of a presbyter, who dared to paint things foreign to ecclesiastical holy images, and phantasmagoric things in the palace at the will of the emperor, who delighted in Manichaean trifles; whence a great sedition of the people also arose. Macedonius was so far from avenging the injury of a certain Ascholius, by whom he had been attacked with a drawn sword at the instigation of his enemies, that he even ordered a monthly grain allowance to be given to him; for the man was gentle. And he had treated a sacrilegious man in the same recent manner. Two bishops disputing about the faith, an Orthodox and an Arian—the Arian having skill in debate, the Orthodox relying on piety and faith—the Orthodox proposed that, setting aside arguments, they should enter into the fire, and thus it would be known which of them was superior in piety. The Arian having refused this, he himself entered into the fire, and standing in the midst of the flames, he spoke to the multitude, God keeping him unharmed.

^D In the seventeenth year, he fortified Daras, a large and strong place in Mesopotamia, lying in the midst of the borders of the Romans and the Persians. And he built a church, and granaries, and cisterns, and porticoes, and two public baths, having named it Anastasiopolis, and he granted it the rights of a city.

^A In the 20th year, Deuterius, the bishop of the Arians, while baptizing a certain man named Barbarus, dared, contrary to the ordinance of the Lord, to say: "Barbarus is baptized in the name of the Father through the Son, in the Holy Spirit." At these words, the baptismal font immediately dried up. And Barbarus, struck with terror, fled and made the miracle known to all. In these years, the heretics, together with the Emperor Anastasius, rose up against Macedonius, the orthodox bishop of Constantinople; by whom Macedonius was exiled to Euchaita, and the scoundrel Timotheus, who is called Litroboles and Celon, was brought in.

In the 22nd year, the lawless Emperor Anastasius and Timotheus, the unholy bishop of Constantinople, inflicted many evils upon those who fought for the wonderful Macedonius and the council. Desiring to add to the Trisagion the words "who was crucified for us," and persuaded by Severus the Acephalite, Anastasius ordered the logothete and the prefect of the city to ascend the ambo and proclaim this. Because of this act, a popular riot broke out, with people shouting for another emperor. ^B Having set fire to many houses and insulted the emperor, they went to the monastery of Saint Philip, near the cistern of Saint Mocius, where there was an anchoret who was a friend of the emperor; and having killed him because he was loved by the emperor, they fixed his head upon a spear and cried out: "This is the friend of the enemy of the Holy Trinity." They also slew an anchoret woman in whom the emperor had great faith, and having dragged the corpses of both, they burned them in the monastery of Studios. Terrified by these events, the emperor desisted from his heresy for a while.

In the same year, when Alamundarus, the phylarch of the Saracens, had been baptized by the orthodox by the providence of God, the impious Severus sent two bishops to him to infect him with the stain of his own heresy. ^C He refuted them with an admirable stratagem. For he said to them: "I received letters today which say that Michael the Archangel has died." And when they replied that it was impossible for him to die, he said to them: "And how, then, could God nakedly be crucified for us and die, if Christ did not consist of two natures, since not even an angel dies?" And so, with shame, those bishops of Severus departed. Now Cabades had hamstrung certain Christians in Persia, who nevertheless walked about afterwards.

In the 23rd year, Vitalianus, having occupied the whole of Thrace, Scythia, and Mysia, and leading with him a multitude of Huns and Bulgarians, captured many cities and also Cyrillus ^D

the prefect of Thrace, and advanced plundering as far as Constantinople. Then Anastasius, his circumstances being desperate, sued for peace by legates, swearing together with the senate that he would recall the exiles, restore to Macedonius and Flavian their own episcopal sees, and hold a council at Heraclea, having summoned also certain ones from Rome. When all had agreed to these conditions, Vitalianus, peace having been made, returned home. But when about 200 bishops had assembled at Heraclea from various regions, the impious emperor, having violated the agreements with the assistance of Timotheus, the bishop of Constantinople, mocked them; and they departed with nothing accomplished.

^A In the 24th year, Vitalianus, angered at Anastasius because of his perjury, inflicted many losses upon the armies of Anastasius and the rest of the commonwealth; for he both plundered it and disarmed the captured soldiers, and finally, for the sake of insult, he sold them off for a single obol each.

In the 25th year, the Huns who are called Sabiri, having passed through the Caspian gates, made raids upon Armenia, Cappadocia, Galatia, and Pontus, and they came near even to bringing Euchaita into their power; wherefore the holy Macedonius also, having fled and being in near peril, escaped to Gangra. Learning of this, Anastasius bitterly ordered him to be guarded strictly there, having sent—as they say—even an executioner. But Macedonius, having died at Gangra, was buried in the church of the holy martyr Callinicus, performing many healings. When he was about to be placed in the tomb, before that occurred, he lifted his right hand and sealed the sepulcher with the sign of the cross, and thus he was laid to rest. He also said to a certain Theodorus, one of his acquaintances, in a vision: "Take these words and go, and recite them to Anastasius, saying: 'I, indeed, Macedonius, am departing to my fathers, in whose faith I have remained; ^B yet I will not cease from importuning my Master, until you too come, and we enter into judgment.'" In this same year, very many at Alexandria, men and women and children, being severely beaten by demons, would bark incessantly. And in their sleep, one saw a certain terrible person saying that it was because of the anathemas issued in that council that they were suffering. In the same year, the Augusta Ariadna deceased. The base Anastasius, hearing of a certain bishop called Oeniandes that he was very eloquent, and one who shut the mouths of all who held to his own dogma, summoned him and said: "Become of my party, most admirable one, and whatever you request from us you shall receive most quickly." But he [replied] to him: "You rather become of the orthodox party, and do not, by following the opinion of the impious Severus, Eutyches, and Dioscorus, inherit the eternal fire." And having said these things, he seized hold of the emperor's chlamys, saying: "This garment, O Emperor, shall by no means descend with you into Hades, but only piety and the acquisition of virtues shall accompany you. ^C Leave alone the Church, which Christ redeemed with His own blood. You are unlearned and irrational. You do not understand any of the dogmas of the Church accurately, but you frighten the senseless only with deceits and scurrilous slanders. Be content, being Emperor, with your own station, and those

^A who are overseers of the churches, do not punish." The Emperor was put to shame and remained speechless. But that very wise and extremely poor bishop did not wish to accept even as much as an obol from the Emperor; such was his independence, caring only for faith in God and piety.

^B There is a fortress on the border of the Persians and Indians, named Tzudader, in which much money, pearls, and precious stones were stored and guarded by demons. Cabades, having learned of this, sought to seize it. But being hindered by the demons, he tried every trick of the Magi and then of the Jews in his service, yet failed in his purpose. Persuaded, however, that he could obtain it through the prayers of the Christians to God, he entreated a certain Christian bishop among those living in Persia regarding this. The latter, having gathered a synaxis and partaken of the divine mysteries, approached the place, drove out the demons dwelling there, and handed over the fortress to Cabades without labor. Amazed by this miracle, Cabades at first granted the bishop the place of honor, which until then the Manichaeans and Jews had held, and gave permission to those who wished to be baptized.

Anastasius, holding many captive—among whom were Justin and Justinian—shortly before his death, having been informed of the plots made against him, ordered them to be arrested and killed. When he had decided to kill them, a certain terrible figure appeared to him in a dream, saying: "To you, O Emperor, it is permitted to destroy the rest of your conspirators, but from Justin and Justinian keep away from all harm. For it shall not be allowed you to harm them, however much you wish." And when Anastasius said that they were guilty of crimes against the imperial majesty, he replied that they were vessels fitted for the execution of the counsel and providence of God, and that each of them was to serve God in his own time. And so Anastasius released both of them from the charge of lese-majesty. It came to pass that everything happened just as the apparition had declared; for after the death of Anastasius, both reigned in their own times.

In the 27th year, Anastasius saw in a dream a terrible man carrying a book, who, after opening it and finding the name of the Emperor, said to him: "Behold, because of the perversity of your faith, I strike out fourteen years of your life," and he struck them out. When he awoke, Anastasius called Amantius the praepositus and told him the vision. And he said: "I, too, imagined that as I stood before your majesty, a great pig came and, grabbing my garment, threw me to the ground and devoured me." When Proclus, the interpreter of dreams, arrived, he proclaimed that both of them would shortly depart this life. Since it had been revealed to him that he was to perish by fire, Anastasius opened the cistern in the palace which is called the "Cold" (Frigidia) into many openings and, having placed a bucket at each, he hastened by this means to render the oracle void. But it was in vain; for he was struck by a divine thunderbolt and became thunderstruck. His corpse

^A His body was placed in the church of the Holy Apostles, in an Aquinntian sarcophagus, along with his wife Ariadne, who had departed from life before him. This Anastasius is said to have burned the records of the chrysargyron tax.

Justinus, the great Emperor of the Romans, reigned for 9 years. He was a pious man, elderly and of manifold experience, having started from the rank of soldier and advanced to the dignity of the senate. He was an Illyrian by birth, although some say he was a Thracian. In body he was middle-aged, with broad shoulders and chest, grey-haired, with a grim and broad face suffused with redness. He showed himself to be excellent in all things, both a zealot for the orthodox faith and greatly successful in wars. He had as his consort Lupicinia, whom he crowned ^B Augusta; when she was crowned, the people called her Euphemia, changing her name. To this Justinus, a certain Eulalius, who had fallen from being rich to being poor, as he was about to die, named Justinus as heir in his will, tasking him to raise and provide a dowry for his three small daughters who were being left behind, to pay all his debts to his creditors, and to take back his debt-bonds; all of which Justinus fulfilled with royal munificence, astounding everyone who heard of it.

Vitalian, who was mentioned before, became very intimate with the Emperor, and being orthodox, he urged the Emperor that Severus be deposed. Learning of this, the latter fled with Julian, the bishop of Halicarnassus; and having gone down to Egypt ^C and stirred up the discourse concerning the corruptible and incorruptible, they caused disturbances there, while Dioscorus was bishop of Alexandria. When bishops sent from Rome by Pope Hormisdas arrived in Constantinople, through the zeal of Vitalian—while John the Cappadocian was still holding the bishopric of Constantinople—it was brought about that the holy fourth council at Chalcedon should be inscribed in the ecclesiastical registers alongside the other three councils. Severus the impious having been removed, Paul was ordained bishop of Antioch, he who had previously presided over the Eubulian xenodochium. Furthermore, the Emperor exiled Xenaias, who is also called Philoxenus, bishop of Hierapolis, who held Manichaean opinions, and Peter, bishop of Apamea, along with all those who partook of their pestilence; and he put to death Amantius the praepositus ^D along with some others who had meditated a tyranny. He also recalled all those who had been unjustly exiled by Anastasius.

In the same year, a comet appeared in the East, which had rays emitting downwards, which the Greeks call "pogonia" [bearded] from the similarity to a beard; it had a ray pointing toward the sunset. In the same year, the Blue faction held sway over the people in all the cities, causing disturbances and many murders. The misfortune of this disorder came from Anti...

and was wreaking many slaughters. The cause of this evil originated at Antioch. And they were not only slaughtering the Greens they encountered, but even those hiding in their houses, as the magistrates were not able to exercise restraint. ^A These things continued until the sixth year of Justin.

In the third year of his reign, Justin having made peace with Cabades, the king of the Persians, focused his attention on settling ecclesiastical matters. ^B

In the fourth year, Dyrrachium and Corinth in Hellas suffered from a divine calamity; the emperor restored them with extraordinary generosity.

In the fifth year, Tzathus, king of the Lazs, having defected from the Persian kingdom, came to Byzantium and requested to become a Christian and to be proclaimed king of the Lazs by Justin. ^C This he did with joy, and he proclaimed him his son and gave him a noble Roman woman as his wife, whom he took back to his own land with joy, having received many gifts. Cabades, however, upon learning of this, declared to Justin that while friendship and peace existed between us, you are behaving as an enemy and taking in those who are subject to the Persian empire. ^D The emperor replied to him: "We have not taken in any of those subject to your kingdom. Tzathus came to us to be freed from foul Hellenism and impious sacrifices and the deception of demons, and to become a Christian and to recognize the true God. We baptized him and sent him back to his own land." From then on, hostility again arose between the Romans and the Persians. In this same year, the events concerning Saint Aretas in the city of Negra were carried out by the Homerites (11), as well as the war of Elesbaan, king of the Ethiopians, against the Homerites, and his victory.

In the sixth year, Cabades, the king of the Persians, slaughtered the Manichaeans within his own borders. Justin, having sent out imperial edicts everywhere, ordered those who were creating disorder to be put to death and their property to be confiscated; and he restrained the agitators of the people, having punished many of them severely. He also crowned his wife Theodora as Augusta, as Euphemia had already died. He appointed Secundus as consul, patrician, and commander of the East on account of the Persians and the incursions of the Saracens, and he launched a great persecution against the Manichaeans and punished many of them.

XYLANDER'S AND GOAR'S NOTES

^A In the seventh year, Anazarbus, the second capital of Cilicia, was laid low by a most terrible earthquake. In the same year, Edessa, a great and celebrated city, was submerged by the waters of the Scirtus river, which passes through its midst; this river, flooding like the sea, dragged away the houses along with their inhabitants and drowned them. It is said that this had happened another time as well. After the waters ceased, there was found on the bank of the river a stone tablet inscribed with hieroglyphic characters to this effect: "The Scirtus river shall leap a wicked leap for the citizens"; for the name of the river in the Greek tongue alludes to leaping. The Emperor Justin provided much for the restoration of both cities.

In the same year, a woman appeared from Cilicia of the race of giants, exceeding any perfect man in height by one cubit, and very broad. Going about the cities, she would receive one follis from every workshop. At that time, a star also appeared in the heavens above the bronze gate of the palace, shining for twenty-six days and nights. ^B There also occurred a most terrible earthquake, by which a calamity beyond description was foretold, in various places in Constantinople, and in Antioch. For on the fourth day of the month of October, the beginnings of the wrath of God came upon it by way of fires and earthquakes; and this fire, which began in the middle of the city, lasted for six days. Many houses were burned and many people died, and no one knew whence the fire was kindled; for so greatly did the wrath of God descend upon it that nearly the entire city fell and became a tomb for its inhabitants. Some who were buried but still alive were consumed by fire coming up from the earth. And another fire descended from the air like sparks, and, like lightning, burned those it touched. The earth was shaken for one year.

^C In the ninth year, while the earthquake was still prevailing, Euphrasius, the bishop of Antioch, was buried by the earthquake and died, and every house and the church fell, and the beauty of the city vanished; for no such visitation of divine wrath had occurred in any other city within the memory of men. Many myriads of men and women, and many children and infants as well, were covered by the mass of fallen buildings heaped up like a hill... And thus, at last, this city, so very renowned and elegant, met its end—which, from its very beginning, when Seleucus the First founded it and named it Antioch after his father, had stood for eight hundred years. ^D When the disaster was announced, the emperor grieved profoundly in his soul, and casting aside his diadem and purple, he mourned in sackcloth and ashes for many days; and even on the feast day, he entered the church in a humble habit, not bearing any sign of imperial rank. But all those who were in the city, putting on mourning clothes, went out in a body for seven days to the field that lies seven units before the city, for the sake of supplication. The emperor sent to cleanse the site of Antioch and for its restoration. [alt-version omitted]

^A with fifty centenaria of gold and master-builders, and it was his concern to restore the fallen city of Antioch. In his time, the custom was established for us to celebrate the feast of the Hypapante (13), which until then had not been celebrated. Indeed, Pompeiopolis in Mysia was also rent asunder and swallowed up in the middle along with its inhabitants, and the people, being under the earth, cried out, "Have mercy!" On the fourteenth day of the month of April, at the festival of Pascha, Justinus, having fallen ill, appointed his own nephew Justinian as co-emperor and crowned him, and he reigned with him for four months. In the month of August of the same fifth indiction, the most pious Justinus died; his body was placed in the monastery of the Augusta, in a green sarcophagus, together with his wife Euphemia, where also the robes of the holy apostles were found. At that time John held the throne of the high-priesthood. Upon the death of Euphrasius, bishop of Antioch, Euphraemius the Amiden (14), who was Count of the East, was ordained in his stead, a man of divine fervor against those separated from the Church.

Anno Mundi 6021, from the incarnation of God 526, Justinian the Great took up the Roman empire to govern alone. He reigned for 38 years, 7 months, and 13 days. He was ^B of a bodily stature slightly exceeding the average, ruddy in complexion, with a grim and restless gaze (15), and his head was slightly bald, which was a mark of beauty. He reigned for 45 years. Upon becoming sole ruler, he bestowed a consulship (16) such as no king had ever given. He also launched a persecution against the Greeks and every heresy. Finding many of the nobility infected with the Arian heresy, he struck great terror into others by confiscating their goods and inflicting penalties, also enacting a law that no one but an orthodox person should hold public office. And he took the temple of the holy Sergius and Bacchus (17), adjacent to the Palace toward the sea, and close to this, the church of the Holy Apostles, his own house that had existed previously, and dedicating all his former property to these two temples, he established a monastery of illustrious men (18). ^C

In the same year, the King of the Persians made war on Tzathos for having entered into an alliance with the Romans. Justinian therefore sent him assistance, an army and three generals: Belisarius, Kerykos, and Peter; they, however, being driven by mutual envy in the conduct of the war, were defeated. Grieved, therefore, the ^D

emperor received them ^A back, and sent Peter, his notary, as commander-in-chief. And joining battle with the Persians, aided by the Lazi, he was victorious and slew many.

In the same year, the king of the Heruli, called Gretas, turned to the Romans, and traveling to Constantinople with his people, he requested of the emperor [to become a Christian], and he became a Christian along with his senators and kinsmen; he returned home with joy, having promised to assist the Romans in whatever matter they might require of him.

In the same year, the emperor appointed as commander-in-chief of Armenia a man named Tzitas, a warlike and most capable man; for Armenia ^B had previously no commander-in-chief, but only dukes and counts. But he became the leader of an Armenian multitude. The emperor also gave him an army from the East, four thousand strong, and this became a great security and assistance to the Romans. He also married him to a woman, the sister of Theodora Augusta, named Komito.

In the same year, a certain woman from the Huns, called Sabir, a barbarian named Bareza, a widow, turned to the Romans, having with her one hundred thousand Huns; she was governing the Hunnic regions after the loss of her own husband, Malach. When the king of the Persians, Kavadh, had urged two other kings of the inner Huns, Styrac and Gloes, to assist him against the Romans, and they were passing ^C through her territory toward the Persian lands with twenty thousand men, she seized them and cut down the entire host. Styrac she sent in chains to the emperor at Constantinople, while Gloes was slain in the battle. She herself maintained peace and alliance with Justinian.

In the same year, also, the ruler of the Huns near the Bosphorus, named Gordas, turned to the emperor and became a Christian. The emperor gave him many gifts and sent him back to his own country, after he had promised to guard the Roman interests and the city of Bosphorus, which was so named ^D because the inhabitants paid the Romans an annual tax, not in money, but in oxen; for they were required to provide the tribute of oxen. Having returned to his own country, he recounted to his own brother the emperor’s love and generosity, and that he had become a Christian, and he shattered

^A all the idols of the Huns and melted them down. Being angered by this, the Huns, together with his brother Moageras, murdered him and made Moageras king. Having come to Bosporus, they killed the tribune of Dalmatia and the soldiers. When the Emperor heard these things, he sent John, an ex-consul and son of the patrician Rufinus, with a large Scythian auxiliary force, and Godilas, the commander of the troops, by the land route from the city of Odyssus. Terrified by the fame of their arrival, the Huns dispersed, peace was restored to Bosporus, and the Romans held it without fear.

Furthermore, Emperor Justinian granted all the temples of the heretics to the Orthodox, with the exception of the Arian Exocionitae. He also issued a constitution regarding bishops, stewards, foster-fathers of orphans, and hosts of strangers, so that they should not have the right to bequeath or hand down to heirs anything other than what they possessed in their own estate before they held those offices; from the hour they entered office, they would not be permitted to bequeath what they had gained, but all these things would, by hereditary right, belong to the holy church. He also renovated the cistern ^B which was in the middle of the courtyard of the imperial palace, which he also made larger, and he completed the bath of Dagistheus, which Anastasius had begun to build.

In the second year, Isaias, bishop of Rhodes, and Alexander of Diospolis in Thrace, and many others, were caught as sodomites. The emperor ordered that for some of them the genitals be amputated, and that for others sharp reeds be inserted into the genital passages, and that they be led naked through the forum as if in a triumph. There were also many of the citizens and senators, and not a few of the chief priests, in the same guilt; these, having been castrated and paraded naked in the forum, perished miserably, ^C and by their example taught the rest to cultivate chastity. Justinian enacted harsh laws against those who were lewd, and he renewed all the old laws and gathered them into one volume, which he titled the Novellæ Constitutiones.

In the same year, on the twenty-ninth day of November, at the third hour of the day, again the wrath of God afflicted great Antioch, two years after it had previously suffered. For a great earthquake occurred for one hour, with a fearful roaring from the heavens, and all the buildings collapsed to the ground, as did the walls. And those of the old buildings that had not fallen in the first earthquake were now brought down. And all the beauty that had been created in the city, both from the emperor's ^D generosity and what the citizens had built at their own expense, all collapsed. There died in this fall four thousand eight hundred and seventy people, and the survivors fled to other cities. There was also a very grave tem-

and heavy winter, so that all went out unshod, with frequent lamentations. ^A A man who piously worshipped God appeared to someone in a vision, saying that he should tell everyone to inscribe upon their lintels, "Christ with us, stand." This having been done, the wrath of God subsided. And again, the emperor and the Augusta bestowed much money for the restoration of the city of Antioch, and they renamed it Theoupolis.

In this year, Samaritans and Jews in Palestine crowned a certain Julian as king, and having taken up arms against the Christians, they carried out acts of plunder, murder, and arson. God handed them over into the hands of Justinian, who destroyed them all and beheaded Julian. After the persecution of the Greeks and of every heresy, and after a decree was issued that those who Hellenize or are heretics should not hold public office, but only orthodox Christians, he prescribed a three-month period for such people to repent.

^B In the fourth year, a great and terrible comet appeared, sending its rays toward the western part to the heights; it was called a lampadias, and it remained shining for twenty days.

In the fifth year occurred the sedition of the so-called Nika, and the people of the demes crowned as emperor Hypatius, the kinsman of the Emperor Anastasius. A large part of the city was burned, as well as the Great Church and its charters of privileges and all its revenues, and the Hagia Eirene and the hospices, both that of Sampson and that of Eubulus, along with the sick, and the proscenium of the palace ^C and the Augustaion, and the bronze-roofed part of the palace, which ever since that time and even now is called the Brazen, because it was roofed with gilded bronze tiles. Two rostra also were burned as far as the forum. The people were cursing and insulting the Emperor Justinian as well. This sedition was suppressed by Belisarius, Mundus, and Narses, who slew thirty-five thousand people, including Hypatius himself. Then also the Octagon was consumed by the fire, and the bath of Severus, which bore the name Zeuxippus, in which there was a varied spectacle and splendor of arts, of marbles, and stones, and mosaics, and images made of bronze of the men of old, works ^D of the ages, lacking only the souls of those whom they represented. There stood, therefore, among those peerless works surpassing the intellect, even Homer, such as he was,

^A collecting his mind, his hands joined beneath his chest. His beard hung down in a neglected state, and the hair on his head was likewise thinning on both sides of the crown. His face was hirsute from old age and from cares concerning the universe; his nose was in equal proportion to the other parts, and his eyes were fixed within their lids, in such a way that they presented the appearance of one blind, just as the account concerning him holds, showing him as sightless. He was wrapped in a rough cloak over a tunic, and [P. 370] as far as the base under his feet, a sort of bronze strap was placed. There were also bronze columns of all the famous men of wisdom, of poetry, of the art of rhetoric, and of all who were renowned for manhood. ^B There also came, along with these, the house called the house of the evening lanterns, for it too had a wooden roof; in it were the riches of those practicing trade in silks, precious goods, and gold-embroidered garments. Everything of the city’s beauty, which had remained from the previous great conflagration, perished. In the same year, there was a great movement of stars, so that all were struck with fear and said: "Behold, the stars are falling; what, then, is to be, we do not know."

In the 6th and 7th years, the wars of Belisarius in Africa took place, which Procopius of Caesarea recorded in eight books. He subdued Carthage and many other peoples; and he besieged Gilimer, [who had fled] to the mountain of Numidia, Pappua, and having left Pharas to blockade him, returned to Constantinople. Gilimer, living most miserably in winter quarters, wrote to Pharas, asking that bread, a sponge, and a lyre be sent to him. For among those Moors, neither wine nor oil nor grain is cultivated; but they eat boiled barley and spelt like brute beasts. ^C Pharas was perplexed about these requests, until the one who brought the letter said that he desired to taste and see bread; to use the sponge to wipe away his tears; and the lyre, so that he might sing of his misfortunes. Having heard these things, Pharas was moved with deep sorrow and, mocking the futility of human fortune, sent everything to him. ^D Again the emperor sent the general Belisarius with an immense multitude, and with ships and a large amount of gold, to vanquish the Vandals and to subdue Africa. He, using his noted cunning, prudence, and fortitude, subdued Africa and, having brought Gilimer into his power, led him off to Constantinople with great riches. He triumphed in the Circus and held the consulship in the city. And he was so acceptable to Justinian that he caused a coin to be struck, having himself on one side and the armed Belisarius on the other, with this inscription: "Belisarius the glory of the Romans." But envy, as it is wont to do in most prosperous

Xylander and Goar's Notes

(30) Above I noted regarding the consulship which the consul was to give to the people, at the beginning of the reign of Justinian... You will understand how this place holds or does not hold here. Zonaras [says] regarding this matter thus: "In Procopius, who described this affair of Gilimer in the first book of the Vandalic War, it is read thus, in the translation of Volaterranus: 'A little later, a triumph was decreed for Belisarius in the manner of the ancients. For he was made consul, and carried on the shoulders of captives in a curule chair of silver, he distributed golden belts and other riches from the spoils of the Vandals to the people, although he seemed to do a new thing.'" Xyl. "He held the consulship in the city," Xylander expressed; whence he also deals poorly with the translator. Toward the mind of the author, he distributed a donative to the soldiers and a congiarium to the people, or distributed money to the people in the ancient manner of the consuls. For as for his victoriate coins... etc. Goar.

^A The glory of the Romans. But such is the fate that envy 31 is accustomed to produce in the midst of great prosperity, that it labored even against Belisarius. For, being slandered, he was removed from his command and his glory, and Solomon was sent as general in his place, who, being unable to guard what had been gained by Belisarius, surrendered everything to the Vandals. And a certain saying was current among them from of old, that the third shall pursue the first, and again the second shall pursue the third. For Gizerich first routed Bonifacius, and later Belisarius routed Gilimer. In this time the sun, like the moon, gave a dismal light without rays for the whole year, and it resembled one in an almost perpetual eclipse. In this time, neither war nor death ceased for mankind.

^B In the second year of this emperor, Justinian rebuilt the Great Church of God from the foundations to a beauty and size exceeding what it was before, and he also handed down a troparion 32 to be sung there, composed by himself: "Only-begotten Son and Word of God." He also made the horologium of the Milion.

In the eighth year, the king of the Iberians, Zabanarzus, came to the emperor Justinian in Constantinople with his wife and his senators, asking to be enrolled as a genuine ally and friend of the Romans. The emperor welcomed this and bestowed many honors upon him and his senate. And the Augusta also presented his wife with all kinds of adornments made of pearls, and dismissed them in peace to their own kingdom.

In the tenth year, Agapetus, the bishop of Rome, convened a council in Constantinople against the impious Severus and Julian of Halicarnassus and the rest of the Theopaschites; among whom Anthimus, the bishop of Constantinople, who shared their views, was deposed, having held the episcopacy for ten months after Epiphanius. In his place was ordained Presbyter Menas, who was the administrator of the hospice of Samson 33, by Agapetus, the pope of Rome. Then the bishop of Rome died in Constantinople, and Silvester was ordained in his place, who lived for one year 34.

In the eleventh year, the dedication of the Great Church took place.

NOTES OF XYLANDER AND GOAR

^A And a procession went out 35 from the Holy Resurrection with the patriarch and the emperor with the people. From the day of its burning until the dedication, 5 years, 11 months, and 10 days elapsed; for in the 6008th year from the creation of the world 36, in the 15th indiction, on the 23rd day of the month of February, at the first hour of the day, Justinian began to do the rebuilding of the Great Church.

In the 12th year the Bulgarians went out into Mysia and devastated the lands, and killed their soldiers. But Acumus the Hun, king of Illyricum, having heard this, went out against them, and having joined with the Romans, he cut down a multitude of the Bulgarians. Then, as they were finding them secure after their victory, other Bulgarians ^B slaughtered a great multitude of people, and captured their heads and Acumus himself, and returned to their own land. And in the same year Chosroes took great Antioch and Apamea and other cities.

In the 13th year [P. 372] Mundus of the race of the Gepidae, son of Giesmus, king of Sirmium, joined the Romans; and the emperor, having treated him and his son with great honor, and having made him commander of Illyricum 37, sent him away. And upon his arrival in Illyricum a multitude of Bulgarians went out against him. And having thoroughly defeated them, he sent the better part of the captives to Constantinople; whom the emperor scattered into Armenia and Lazica and other nations. From then on deep peace took place in Thrace, with the Huns no longer daring to cross the Danube.

In the 14th year Chosroes, the king of the Persians, made his fourth ^C invasion into the Roman land; and having arrived in the region of Commagene, he planned to journey toward Palestine and Jerusalem. But Justinian, having learned of this, sent Belisarius, who had just returned from the West, against him. And he, having made use of the public post-horses, arrived with great speed in the region of Euphratensis 38. And having heard that the guardians of the East and the commanders were huddled in the cities to which they had fled, and being warned by them to give attention to guarding Hierapolis, Belisarius reproached them sharply by letter: [saying] that it is not right to be intent on guarding one city and to allow the enemies to range over the Roman domain with impunity and to ravage the cities of the empire. For he wrote that it is more honorable to perish with virtue ^D than to be saved basely without a fight; for this would not rightly be called salvation, but betrayal. Therefore, no delay having been interposed,

they should come as quickly as possible to the fortress of Europus, where, having collected the whole army, I have hope, God willing, to deal with the enemy. ^A And when this was done, Chosroes, having heard of the sudden arrival of Belisarius, was struck with fear, and thinking it unwise to advance further, he sent Abandazes, his scribe, a prudent man, to Belisarius, to spy upon the general and the camp, and with the excuse of his embassy to complain that King Justinian had not sent ambassadors to Persia to negotiate peace. Belisarius, having learned that the ambassadors were coming, himself selected six thousand men, tall and handsome in body, and went far from the camp as if to hunt. He ordered Diogenes the guardsman and the Armenian Adulius to cross the river with a thousand horsemen, pretending to reconnoiter its ford. ^B When Belisarius saw the ambassador approaching, he pitched his tent in the wilderness, signaling that he had come there with no equipment. He commanded the soldiers to be on both sides of the tent—Thracians and Illyrians, Goths and Heruli, Vandals and Moors—and not to descend into the plain as if for service, nor in a body, but to wander here and there as if idle, and to present the appearance of hunters to the ambassador. They walked about girt, with cheerful faces, carrying axes and reeds. When Abandazes came into the sight of Belisarius, he showed that Chosroes was indignant that Justinian, having neglected the pact, had not sent ambassadors for peace, and had thus forced Chosroes to wage war against the Romans. Belisarius, on the contrary, counted these words as nothing, placing the blame for the war on Chosroes, who, if he had desired peace, should have waited for the ambassadors at home ^C rather than by invading the Roman territory seeking them. And having said these things, he dismissed the ambassador. The latter, having returned to Chosroes, said that he had seen Belisarius, a general of singular prudence and bravery, and that he had seen soldiers such as he had never seen, whose discipline he admired. He advised Chosroes not to join battle with him, lest, being defeated in the Roman dominion, where there was no place for flight, he might overthrow the Persian kingdom, especially since a victory over a Roman leader would not be very glorious. Persuaded by his advice, Chosroes immediately thought of returning to his own lands. He feared, however, to cross the river, the ford of which the Romans held. ^D He therefore sent to Belisarius, asking him to recall those who had crossed the river and to provide him a safe departure, and that he would allow him passage without hindrance. Belisarius in turn sent envoys to him, praised his departure, and assured him that envoys from the emperor would arrive soon to negotiate peace. But because Chosroes asked that he provide for his safe return into his own land through the Roman dominion, Belisarius sent John the Edessene, a most illustrious man, as a hostage for that purpose. For these things, the Romans greatly praised the praises of Belisarius, for he had achieved greater glory by this act than when he had brought back in war the kings Gelimer and Vitiges to Constantinople. And it was truly a feat worthy of being recounted and praised, that while the Romans and all others were seized with fear and had hidden themselves in fortifications, and Chosroes was effectively in the midst

of the Roman dominion with a great army, a single man traveling with speed from Byzantium dared to encamp opposite the king of the Persians, and by his own wisdom caused Chosroes, deceived by the unexpected event, to depart for home with his business unfinished. ^B

In the same year, Timotheus, bishop of Alexandria, having passed away, the impious Severus, that usurper of Antioch, and Julian of Halicarnassus, who had fled to Alexandria, fell into disagreement while disputing about the corruptible and the incorruptible, both being foreign to the truth. Thus, one faction chose Gainas and the other Theodosius as bishop of Alexandria. Gainas held the episcopacy for one year, and Theodosius for two. Justinian summoned them to Byzantium and separated them from one another. He appointed a certain Paul, who appeared to be orthodox, to the episcopacy of Alexandria; but he, having made mention of the impious Severus, was cast out of the episcopacy due to the anger of the emperor, and went off to live in Jerusalem. In that same year, there was a great earthquake in Constantinople, and churches and houses collapsed, and the wall, especially that by the Golden Gate, and the spear of the statue in the forum, and the right hand of the statue on the Xerolophus. ^C

In the 15th year, Adad, king of the Axumites, intending to wage war against Damian, king of the Hebrews, because he had killed the Christian merchants, made a vow that he would become a Christian if he defeated the Homerite; and indeed, having engaged in battle, he defeated them with God’s assistance, and took Damian, their king, alive as a prisoner, and took possession of their kingdom and palaces. And having given thanks to God, he sent to Emperor Justinian, requesting that bishops and clergy be sent to them. Thus the whole region embraced the Christian faith, and they were baptized and became Christians. ^D

In the 16th year, on the 6th day of September, the first day of the week, in the seventh indiction, a great earthquake occurred throughout the whole world, and half of Cyzicus collapsed. The great column called the Augustio was completed, and the equestrian statue of Justinian was placed upon it, holding in its left hand a spherical orb, by which it is indicated that the empire of the world is in his hands, while he extended his right hand as if commanding the Persians to stop and not to enter Roman territory. And all the bronze around the column consisted of gilded tiles, covering the entrance to the palace of Constantine the Great, which even now is called the Bronze [gate]. The column itself is called the Augustio. [alt-version omitted]

^A In the 17th year, a certain bronze-smith named Andrew appeared, who had with him a tawny and blind dog that performed wonders. For when a crowd stood by him, he would secretly take from the dog the rings of those standing there—gold, silver, and iron—and he would place them on the ground, covering them with dirt, and give the signal to the dog; the dog would then take them and give to each his own. Similarly, he would distinguish the mixed coins of various emperors by name. And he would also point out, from among the men and women standing by, those who were pregnant, the fornicators, the adulterers, the merciful, and the stingy; he revealed everyone with truth. Whence they said the dog had the spirit of Python.

In the 18th year, the sea rose up over Thrace for four miles, and covered parts of Odessus and Dionysiopolis and Aphrodisium, and many were drowned in the waters. And again, by the command of God, the sea returned to its own places.

In the 19th year, there was a failure of grain and wine, and a severe winter in Byzantium, and a displacement of holy Easter; and the factions held the Apokreos [Meatfare] on the 4th of February. But the Emperor ordered meat to be set out for another week, and although it was offered in all the butcher shops, no one bought or ate it. And Easter was celebrated according to the imperial command, and it was found that the people had fasted one week more than they should have.

In the 20th year, Rome was taken by the Goths, and Pope Vigilius went up to Constantinople. In the same year, on the Saturday of Pentecost, a horse race took place, a battle occurred between the two factions, and the Emperor sent and killed many of them.

In the 21st year, there were fearful earthquakes and great rains. On the 11th of July, the Empress Theodora fell asleep piously.

In the 22nd year, there were thunder and lightning beyond nature, and many sleeping were harmed by the lightning. In the month of July, a conflict again happened between both factions of the people, and a conflagration occurred which obliterated the buildings from the Bronze Tetrapylon as far as the church, and a great slaughter took place. And when a ^C *prokenson* took place at the Hebdomon, the *vestiarioi* lost the Emperor's crown. And after three months it was found, where also one pearl and all its stone were [recovered].

In the 23rd year, when a horse race was being held, an ambassador of the Indians came to Constantinople bringing an elephant, which, having gone out at night from the stable, killed many and mangled others. In the month of April, a conflict of the factions again happened during the horse race, and many died, and houses and workshops were plundered. And on the 28th of June, the dedication of the temple took place. ^D

The dedication of the temple of the Holy Apostles and the deposition of the holy relics of Andrew, Luke, and Timothy the apostles. ^A In the 24th year, Narses the cubicularius was sent to Rome to make war upon the Goths; for after the city had been taken by Belisa- rius, the Goths rebelled again and occupied it. On the 9th day of the month of July, there was a terrible earthquake throughout all Palestine, and Arabia, and Mesopotamia, and Syria, and Phoenicia, which brought destruction to many cities and caused the death of multitudes of people. In the city which is called Botrys (which means "of the grape"), a large part of the mountain that lies by the sea, named Lithoprosopon, was torn away and fell into the sea, and created a large harbor suitable for receiving many great ships, whereas before that the city had lacked a harbor. The sea also retreated into the deep for a thousand paces, and by the command of God it flowed back again. In the month of August, news was brought from Rome concerning the victory of Narses, namely that the Romans had killed King Totila and had retaken Rome. ^B In the 25th year of the reign of Justinian, the holy and ecumenical fifth council of the 165 holy Fathers took place in Constantinople, under Vigilius the most holy Pope of Rome, who affirmed the true faith by a written statement. Presiding were Eutychius of Constantinople, Apollinarius of Alexandria, and Domnus of Antioch, with a vicar for the bishop of Jerusalem, against the impious and godless Severus the Acephalous. This council is 102 years removed from the fourth council. ^C It also addressed the case against the mad Origen and those who embraced his impious dogmas, of whom Didymus the Blind and Evagrius, who had flourished long ago and had published their chapters, were the leaders. In these, they seized an opportunity for Greek opinions, by which the transition of souls into other and yet other bodies is imagined; they babbled that souls were prior to bodies in time, that there would be an end to punishments, that we would not rise again in the same bodies, that demons would be restored to their original state, and they allegorized paradise, and claimed that neither was a sensible paradise created by God, nor was Adam formed of flesh. These opinions, having remained almost hidden for some time, finally erupted into the multitude and corrupted many churchmen. Therefore, they were then condemned and proscribed. They also anathematized Theodore of Mopsuestia, the teacher of Nestorius, who held views akin to Jewish errors, along with the so-called letter of Ibas and certain works of Theodoret, bishop of Cyrrhus, written against the twelve chapters of the blessed Cyril. ^D Moreover, the purport of the letter of Emperor Justinian to the holy council is as follows: Concerning Origen, therefore, and those of his way of thinking, we have made it our concern, deeming it just that we should keep the holy and apostolic Church of God secure from disturbances, and that those things which in any way whatsoever

^A are contrary to the true faith be condemned. Since, therefore, it has become known to us that there are certain monks in Jerusalem—those, to be sure, who follow and teach the impious errors of Pythagoras, Plato, and Origen Adamantius, along with their ungodliness and delusion—we have deemed it necessary to apply care and investigation to these matters, lest they, through their Hellenic and Manichaean impostures, lead many to ruin at the end. For they say—to mention but a few things out of many—that there were once countless minds, devoid of name and number, and that all things endowed with reason were one and the same in substance, efficacy, power, and union and knowledge with the Word of God. And [they say] that when these had become sated with divine love and contemplation, they were clothed, in proportion to the downward turning of each, with more refined or more coarse bodies, and obtained names; and that from this source the heavenly and ministering powers came into existence. Indeed, they further claim that the sun, the moon, and the stars—being themselves also of that same unity of rational beings—became what they are through this turning toward the worse. But those rational beings which had departed further from the divine were called souls and were cast into coarser bodies like our own; while those which had gone to the extreme of wickedness were bound into cold, dark bodies and were named demons. And [they claim] that the state changes from angelic to psychic, and from psychic to demonic and human. They assert that only one mind from the whole unity of rational beings remained unshaken and unmoved from the love and contemplation of God, and that this [mind] became Christ, King and man. And [they say] that there is a complete destruction of bodies, the Lord Himself being the first to put off His own body, and all other men doing the same; ^B and that all return again into the same unity and become minds, just as they were in their pre-existence, it being understood that the devil himself and the remaining demons are also restored, along with impious and godless men, into the same unity with the holy and divine men and with the heavenly powers, and that they possess the same union with God as does Christ, just as they did in the beginning. And thus [they claim] that Christ differs clearly in no way from the rest of the rational beings, neither in substance, nor knowledge, nor power, nor efficacy. For Pythagoras truly said that the monad is the principle of all things. And again, Pythagoras and Plato said that there is a certain race of bodiless souls, and that those which fall into any sin are sent down into bodies for the sake of punishment. Whence Plato called the body *soma* as if it were a *sema* (tomb), indicating that the soul is as if buried and shackled within it. Then, concerning the coming judgment and the recompense of souls, he says again: The soul of a philosopher [who] has defiled itself with the love of males and with flagrant acts suffers punishments for three thousand-year periods, and thus, having grown wings, it is cast out and departs in the thousandth year. The others, once they have finished this life, some are carried down to tribunals beneath the earth ^C to suffer punishments there after their case is pleaded, and others, lifted up to a certain heavenly place, enjoy beatitude from justice in accordance with the merits of their life. There is, moreover, in ^D

^A the absurdity of this opinion easy to perceive. For who taught him those millenary conversions of years, and that after a thousand years have elapsed, each soul goes off to its own place? For things in the middle of these, it did not befit even the most licentious to say, much less such a philosopher. For he has mingled those who have lived out their lives in the performance of the most perfect duties with the intemperate and the lovers of males, and said that the same fate awaits both. Pythagoras, therefore, and Plato, and Plotinus, and others of their tribe, while agreeing that souls are immortal, held that they pre-exist their bodies, and that there is a populace of souls, and that those which transgress fall into bodies, as I said; the sluggish into asses, the rapacious into wolves, the deceitful into foxes, and those mad with lust for women into horses. ^B But the Church, following the divine Scriptures, affirms that the soul is created together with the body, and that the one is not prior to the other, as it appeared to the foolish Origen. Because of these evil and pernicious opinions, or rather deliriums, we exhort you, O most holy Fathers, that being gathered in one, you examine the subjoined exposition and each of its chapters, and condemn, along with Origen, all who think or shall at any time think the same.

The Fathers, having received these letters and weighed everything, cried out: "We condemn all these things, and all who so think or shall think."

^C Similarly also regarding the bishop Theodore of Mopsuestia and the rest, the imperial letters hold as follows: "Our ancestors, the worshippers of the true faith, who piously administered the empire before us, took pains that at whatever time heresies arose, they should be cut out by means of councils of most holy priests, and that by the pure proclamation of the true faith, the holy Church of God might be kept in peace. Therefore, even Constantine the Great, when Arius impiously affirmed that the Son was not of the same substance with God the Father, but was a creature and created from nothing, called together the 318 Fathers at Nicaea; and being himself present at the council, when Arius was condemned and proscribed, he was intent on confirming the true faith, which those divine Fathers professed and which is sung to this day: that the Son is of the same essence as God the Father, not created from nothing. And then Theodosius the Elder, ^D when Macedonius was denying the divinity of the Holy Spirit, and Apollinaris, his disciple, was slandering the dispensation of the Word of God in human nature and affirming that the Word of God had not assumed a human mind, but was united to flesh possessed of an irrational soul, called together the 150 Fathers at Constantinople; and being himself present at the council—and when the said heretics, together with their impious opinions and followers, had been condemned and excluded from the communion of the Church—he took care that the doctrine of the true faith be preached. But also Theodosius the Younger, when the impious Nestorius said that the Word of God is one Being and Christ another, and that the Word

is by nature the Son of God and the Father, but introduced Christ as Son only by grace, and denied that the holy Mary is Theotokos, convened the first holy synod of two hundred Fathers at Ephesus. Having sent prefects who were to be present at the synod, he ordered Nestorius also to be present and for a judgment to be rendered against him. Indeed, when a precise examination took place, they condemned Nestorius and anathematized him along with those who thought as he did.

When these matters proceeded in this way, those of the detestable faction of Nestorius rose up against the most holy Cyril and strove, as much as in them lay, to overturn the judgment that had been passed against Nestorius. But Theodosius the Emperor, taking the part of those things which were truly judged rightly against Nestorius and his wicked dogmas, took care that the judgment passed upon him should prevail stoutly. For, in addition to these things, since they also uttered other certain trifles against the divine Cyril to the Emperor, Cyril wrote to the Emperor concerning them in this manner: “Since I have heard, most pious Emperor, that some babblers, like wasps, are accustomed to buzz with their wild whisperings against my ears, and to spew forth curses against me, prattling that I claim the divine body of Christ was brought down from heaven and was not assumed from the holy Virgin, and also that we confess two Sons according to the opinion of Nestorius, I thought it necessary to say a few things against them to this effect: O foolish men, skilled in nothing but calumny, how have you arrived at such an opinion, and how have you fallen into such madness? For you ought to have clearly understood that almost our entire struggle for the faith was based on the affirmation that holy Mary is Theotokos. But since we claim that the divine body of Christ was born from heaven and not from her, as they say, how could she be understood to be Theotokos? For whom, after all, has she brought forth, if it is not true that she has given birth to Emmanuel according to the flesh? Let those, therefore, who prattle these and such things against me be laughed at. For the blessed Isaiah does not lie when he prophesies thus: 'Behold, the Virgin shall conceive and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel,' which is, 'God with us.' And the archangel Gabriel, the prince of angels, undoubtedly spoke the truth, saying thus to the Virgin: 'Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bear a Son, and shalt call His name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins.' ^B But when we say that our Lord Jesus Christ came down from above from heaven, we do not say these things as if His holy flesh had been brought down from heaven from above, but as following the holy Paul, who says: 'The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second, the Lord from heaven.' We remember also the Lord Himself saying: 'No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man.' Although He has been born

^A according to the flesh, as it is said, of the holy Virgin. Since the God Word, who came down from heaven above, emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, and was called the Son of man while remaining what He was—that is, God, for He is immutable and unchangeable by nature—He is said to have come down from heaven as already being understood with His own flesh. He is called also a man from heaven, being perfect in divinity and the same perfect in humanity, and as being understood in one person. For there is one Lord Jesus Christ, even if the difference of the natures, from which we say that the ineffable union was performed, is not ignored.

Therefore, we confess the only-begotten Son of God, the Word, to be perfect God and perfect man, consisting of a rational soul and body; as regards His divinity, begotten of the Father before the ages, but in the last days the same, for us and for our salvation, born of Mary the Virgin as regards His humanity; the same being consubstantial with the Father as to divinity, and consubstantial with us as to humanity. For a union of two natures has taken place; whence we confess one Christ, one Son, one Lord. According to this concept of the unconfused union, we also confess the holy Virgin to be truly Theotokos, because the God Word was incarnate and made man, and from the very conception united to Himself the temple which He took from her. And if it pleases, let us take as an example our own composition, in so far as we are human. For we consist of soul and body, and we see two natures, one of the body and another of the soul, yet man is one, made from the union of both. Nor does the composition from two natures cause us to think of two men instead of one; but we understand one man, as I said, composed of soul and body. For if we should remove the fact that the one and only Christ exists from two different natures, being indivisible after the union, those of the opposing side will say: 'If the whole of Christ is one nature, how could He put on human nature, or what flesh did He make His own?' May your piety deign to stop the mouths of those who claim that a blending, or confusion, or mixture of the natures of the God Word with the flesh took place. After these things, when Cyril had died, there arose a certain monk and archimandrite named Eutyches, and he drew after him no small part of the people, approving the opinions of Nestorius and his evil dogma, asserting that the flesh of the Lord is not consubstantial with us. And again, ^D shortly after, a diabolical hand prevailing, another council—a 'robber' synod, and by no means a holy one—was held at Ephesus, to which Flavian of Constantinople was also sent, while all the authority of affairs there rested with Dioscorus of Alexandria. Flavian, defending the truth, was killed in that council, and the authority of the first synod of Ephesus was overturned, with some bishops subscribing to this later one by the force of the robbers, among whom was also Basil of Seleucia. And from then on, when the wicked dogmas of Nestorius, Dioscorus, and Eutyches were being publicly taught, and much disturbance was occurring, especially in the East, Proterius the great priest and others were killed

^A Eutychis' pernicious opinions, and great tumults existing especially in the East, Proterius the bishop and many others were slain. In this state of affairs, divine providence creates Marcian emperor. He was present at the Council of the Fathers convoked by him at Chalcedon, Dioscorus and Eutyches also being present. There, Dioscorus, Eutyches, and Nestorius were again condemned; Theodoritus, Ibas, and Basil, bishop of Seleucia, were received after they had subscribed. Thus, the acts of the robber-synod having been overturned and condemned, concord was reconciled among all by the holy Fathers. These four councils having been thus conducted and confirmed, and possessing authority in the Church of God, those who held the opinions of Nestorius sought again to confirm their heresy through the agency of Theodore, bishop of Mopsuestia, who surpassed his pupil Nestorius in speaking ^B impiously regarding sacred matters. Therefore, we also, following our fathers and desiring that the right faith be preserved uninjured, exhort you, having examined the blasphemies of this man, to issue a ruling concerning him and his sectaries. For besides countless other evil things which he impiously vomited forth against Christ our God, he also put forward this: that the God Word is one, and Christ another, one who was troubled by the passions of the soul and the desires of the flesh, and who, gradually desisting from the worse, attained to the better through the progress of his works, and lived an irreproachable life of the best conduct; who, as a mere man, was baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and through baptism obtained the grace of the Holy Spirit, and was deemed worthy of adoption; and that Christ was worshipped in the person of the God Word according to the likeness of a royal image, and after the resurrection became unwavering in his thoughts and without sin. Furthermore, he declared the union of the Word with Christ to have been such as the Apostle stated regarding a husband and a wife: "And the two shall be one flesh." Furthermore, I exhort you to examine also the items badly written by Theodoritus and Ibas against the first holy council at Ephesus, and likewise to pass judgment upon them in the same manner. ^C The Fathers, having again examined these things with care, responded: The holy council at Chalcedon, having bitterly inveighed against Theodoritus and Ibas in words, did not receive them into favor on any other condition than that they should first condemn their own evil writings, and Theodore and Nestorius. We, however, besides all the other heretics condemned and excluded from the Church by the said four holy councils, do also condemn and proscribe Theodore, who was bishop of Mopsuestia, and his impious books, as well as those things which Theodoritus wrote badly against the true faith and the twelve chapters of the holy Cyril and the first holy Ephesian synod, and whatever was written by him in defense of Theodore and Nestorius. Furthermore, we condemn also the impious epistle which Ibas is said to have written to Maris the Persian, which denies that the Word of God from the holy Virgin and Birth-giver of God Mary ^D...

^A became incarnate as man, and which slanders the inspired Cyril as a heretic, and reproaches the first holy synod at Ephesus as having condemned Nestorius without judgment or investigation, and which loathes the twelve chapters of the blessed Cyril, while defending Nestorius and Theodore and their god-hated writings and dogmas. Therefore, [P. 373] since we rightly count the unbridled tongues and most impious writings of these heretics, and the heretics themselves who persisted to the end in their own evil opinion and wickedness, along with the father of lies, the devil, we shall say: "Walk in the light of your fire and in the flame which you have kindled."

^B In those times, a certain rich man in Constantinople, having fallen ill and fearing death, gave thirty pounds of gold to the poor. But once restored to health beyond his expectations, he was led by the deception of the devil to repent of his action, and he disclosed this to a certain faithful and rich friend of his. The latter warned the man not to consent to this evil thought, nor to provoke God, who had pitied him and restored him to health because of that charity; otherwise, it would come to pass that he would perish by a sudden death, before having changed his action. When he was not moved, but complained all the more, his friend said to him: "Since you do not accept my wholesome counsel, I will suggest another plan to you." Upon his asking what this was, the truly merciful man replied: "Go to the church and say: 'It is not I, Lord, who performed that charity, but this man,' and I will immediately restore the thirty pounds to you." The wretched man, agreeing to this, went to the church, and having taken the gold in his hands and spoken the words, he fell down at the very gate of the church as he was leaving and died. While the clergy and all the others who happened to be present were astonished at the strangeness of the event, and urged the other man to take back his money, he did not comply, but distributed it all among the needy, saying: "God is not mocked." For a promise to God binds not only money, but also words and intention. And whatever a man has promised to God, he is bound to perform: the virgin, her virginity; the continent, their continence; those living in marriage, purity and mutual love and honor; and finally, all of them, faith in God, religion, justice, and fortitude.

A similar thing happened in Alexandria. A certain very religious bishop had as a neighbor a certain philosopher named Evagrius, ^C who had been his companion in the schools, but was a Greek in religion. The bishop, wishing to convert him from the mad worship of false gods to the faith of Christ, kept challenging him and discussing matters with him. But the philosopher would neither yield nor change, but became more and more hostile to the religion. It is said that one day he addressed the bishop in these words: "Truly, bishop, [P. 384] this among all other things is displeasing to me, which you Christians say, that the end of the

world is coming, and that there is a resurrection of bodies, and a retribution for the deeds done in life, and that he who shows mercy to the poor lends to God and shall receive a hundredfold with eternal life." And when the bishop assured him that there was neither falsehood nor mockery in the dogmas of the Christians, Evagrius departed, having much internal debate. After some time, God aiding the teaching of the bishop, the philosopher believed and was baptized. As he was extremely wealthy, he immediately brought three hundred pounds of gold to the bishop and said: "Accept this, O bishop, and distribute it to the poor, and write me a promissory note that I shall receive it back from God." The bishop accepted these ^B willingly and wrote the document, and everything was distributed by him to the needy. After the philosopher had lived for some years in piety and great virtues, when he was dying, he instructed his children to place that document in his hand and thus to bury him. When this was done, three days later, the philosopher appeared to the bishop in a dream, saying: "Come to my tomb, O bishop, and take your promissory note; for I have received the hundredfold of the debt, and I have no claim against you, but for your perfect assurance, I have added a signature to it in my own hand." When the bishop had summoned the children of the philosopher in the morning and learned from them that the promissory note had been buried with him, he went with the clergy of the city to the tomb; and having opened it, they found the philosopher sitting up, holding out his hand with the letter. When the clergy tried to take the paper, he would not give it to any of them; but when the bishop extended his hand, he immediately delivered the paper and lay back down again. The bishop, having opened the document in the sight of all, found it newly subscribed by the hand of the philosopher as follows: "I, Evagrius the philosopher, to my most holy bishop and lord, Synesius, greeting. Know, Father, that I have received a hundredfold of the debt, and I have no claim against you on this account." When all who heard this were struck with great amazement and cried out for a long time, "Lord, have mercy," the bishop ordered the philosopher's promissory note to be kept in the sacristy.

In the twenty-seventh year, on the fifteenth day of the month of August, a great earthquake occurred, so that many houses, churches, and baths collapsed, and especially the walls at the Golden Gate, and many people died. This earthquake was universal, so that almost the entire inhabited world was shaken, and the sea receded for two miles, and many ships were destroyed ^C in the surging of the waters. In Arabia, Palestine, Mesopotamia, and Antioch, many cities and villages were leveled, and multitudes of men and animals were seized, and a large part of Nicomedia also fell; and the earthquake lasted for forty days. The memorial of this earthquake is held every year, with the people praying in the Field (Campus). ^D

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES. (43) A voice that the Greeks do not use so much out of a desire for mercy, as for the wonder of the unusual event. Goar.

(45) [The phrase] "with mercy" is not at all faulty, as are most of the things that follow, [which are] most difficult to interpret, partly because they are not free of errors, and partly because they lack clarity due to the barbarous and semi-Latin terms mixed in, as was the case a little earlier. Xyl. (46) What the "Kletoria" are, I frankly do not know. It appears these were feast days, destined at the beginning of the empire or for some other matter, which were conducted at great expense. Nor do I remember having read anything about them elsewhere. Xyl. — Signs of joy and banquets to be celebrated for twelve days from the birth of Christ. Meursius judges it should be read—and I agree with him, led by the authority of Paul the Deacon—"he caused the dinners, which are usually held in nineteen dining couches, to cease." Theophanes had first called it *prox*; and Luitprand describes the same thing more fully: There is a house near the Hippodrome, facing the north, marvelous in both height and beauty, which is called *Deca-ennea-cubita*. This name was not assigned without reason, but from clear causes: for in Greek *deca*, in Latin *ten*, *ennea* [nine], and *cubita*—derived from reclining—we might call it "inclined or curved cubits." This is so because, in fact, nineteen *cubits* are set forth in it at the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh; on which days the emperor and his guests do not eat while sitting, as on other days, but while reclining; during which days the service is not in silver, but only in golden vessels, etc. See Leunclavius, V. *Conocluc.* in his *Onomasticon*. Goar.

^A In the twenty-eighth year, in the month of July, at the conjunction of the mountain, there was a great earthquake. And on the 19th, there were terrible thunder and lightning, and a great south-westerly wind, so that the cross which stood inside the Golden Gate fell down.

In the twenty-ninth year, the Jews and Samaritans started a sedition in Caesarea, a city of Palestine, and killed many Christians and plundered their property. The emperor punished them through the ministry of Adamantius, beheading them, exiling others, and utterly destroying them all.

In the thirtieth year, a fire appeared in the sky in the shape of a spear, from the north to the west.

In the thirty-first year, there were again various earthquakes, so that the two walls of Constantinople, the eastern and the western, were damaged, and many churches and houses fell to the ground; and indeed also the suburbs and the *Regium*, so that they could not be recognized. This earthquake occurred also in other cities, such as no man had remembered happening in those generations. And the earth was shaken with kindness ^B by night and by day for ten days. For this reason, the emperor, being saddened, went out for the Nativity and the Theophany without a diadem, and he did not hold the customary *kletoria* (banquets) ^C of the twelve days, but gave their expenses to the poor.

In the month of February, a pestilence of men occurred, especially of the young, in Constantinople, so that the dead lay unburied for three days because the biers of the churches and the holy houses were not sufficient to carry out the deceased. Whence the emperor caused a thousand other biers to be made, and when even these were not sufficient, he ordered very many wagons to be prepared, and provided ten thousand horses to carry out the dead. As the pestilence intensified, they threw most of them into the shore, and they remained unburied for six days because the living were not sufficient to bury the dead, nor were the ships sufficient for two months—July and August. And many were burned by them.

In the thirty-first year, a lethal plague befell [them] again, and especially the children, from a bubonic ailment, for four months. And it destroyed no less than the previous plague.

^A A disaster in the city and even in remote places.

Antioch was again shaken by an earthquake. Sometime later, there was a procession of stars from evening until dawn, so that everyone was terrified and said that the stars were falling. There were everywhere in the world popular insurrections, ^B slaughters, wars, diseases, and deaths which did not cease among men. In Antioch, after the earthquake had occurred, a most fearful gnashing occurred from the heavens, and many died from the fear of it.

In the thirty-second year of the reign of Justinian, the lover of beauty, the dome ^C of the Great Church (for it had been fractured by the successive earthquakes that followed) collapsed, and the eastern part of the vault of the holy altar fell, and it crushed the ciborium, the holy table, and the ambon. The emperor, therefore, perceiving this, raised up other piers and received the dome, and thus it was rebuilt, having been raised more than twenty feet higher than the first structure. He also made four spiral staircases ^D outside the temple, opposite the inner piers, which he planted from the ground and raised as far as the dome, making them a support for the arches. At that time he also made the holy table, a work beyond imitation; for he gathered from gold, silver, every kind of stone, wood, metal, and every other substance that the earth produces, and the sea, and the entire world; and of all the materials, he brought together the more precious in greater quantity and the baser in lesser quantity; and having melted down those things which are fluid, he added the dry materials to them and thus completed the form of the table. Therefore, that variegated work inspired wonder in those who looked upon it, and he inscribed around it these words: "Thine own of Thine own we offer to Thee, our servants, O Christ; Justinian and Theodora: do Thou receive these propitiously, O Son and Word of God, who for our sake took on flesh and wast fixed to the cross; and preserve us in Thy true faith; and the republic which Thou hast committed to us, guide it towards..."

Thy own glory and preserve it through the intercessions ^B of the holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary.

In the same year, the Huns, who are called Slavs, rose up in Thrace and took many captives and killed many; they also captured the prefect of that province. Finding certain parts of the Long Wall prostrate from earthquakes, they entered and brought all things under their power as far as Dripeas and Nymphae and the village of Chiti. Having learned of this, the emperor sent many of the citizens to the Long Wall. A battle was joined there, and many of the Romans fell. Justinian, therefore, sent Belisarius against the Huns. He, having taken the horses of the citizens and armed a multitude, came to the village of Chiti; and after a trench had been dug, he killed as many of the Barbarians as he captured. He also ordered trees to be cut down and dragged behind his army: in this way the wind raised up a great cloud of dust against the Huns, who, thinking that large armies were present, fled as far as the city of Arcadiopolis. The emperor therefore orders boats with two sterns to be prepared and to use them on the Danube against the Huns. When the Barbarians learned of this, they sent envoys and begged that a safe return through that river be granted to them. The emperor therefore sent Justin the curopalates, born of his sister, to convey them across.

In the 33rd year he builds the bridge of the river Sangarius ^C with five arches; it had previously been constructed of wood. He also builds a temple to the Theotokos at the Spring.

In the 34th year, it was rumored in the city that the emperor [was...]

^A had not appeared before the people, and a report of his death spread. Consequently, there was a tumult, and the shops and slave-quarters were plundered. Around the ninth hour, the prefect, by the emperor's order, lit lamps throughout the whole city, by which it was indicated that the emperor was safe. This action quelled the tumult. In the month of December, there was a great fire from the Sophias as far as the baths of Probus. There was also a great pestilence ^B in Cilicia, at Anazarbus, and in Great Antioch, as well as earthquakes. The Orthodox and the Severians also fought against one another, and many slayings occurred. The emperor sent his ministers and punished the rioters.

In the 35th year, there was a fire late in the evening in the Caesarium, which spread as far as the Omphacera; all the workshops and the vestibules of the Ox were burned. When the horse-races were held, a public riot occurred, and the Greens attacked the Venetians, and they committed many murders; having seized them, the emperor punished them with many tortures.

In the 37th year, there was again a public sedition in the Pittacia, and the emperor punished many of them. There was also a drought and a lack of water. Then, news of a victory arrived from Rome, stating that the patrician Narses had captured two fortified cities from the Goths, Viria and Brincas. ^C But a conspiracy having been devised, Belisarius was falsely accused by those who had been captured, and he was ordered to remain in his house, inactive. On the 19th of July, his innocence being revealed, he went out into public and recovered what had been taken from him.

In the 37th year, a fire occurred, and the hospital of Samson was burned down completely, as well as the buildings in front of the Rufus, and the middle area of the Great Church which is called the Garsonostasium, and the two monastic houses [asceteria] near Holy Peace, and part of its narthex.

[388] In the 38th year, the patrician Belisarius died in Byzantium. In this year, Eutychius, Patriarch of Constantinople, was deposed and exiled to Amaseia by Justinian, and John the Scholastic succeeded him. At the very end of his reign, Justinian put forward the doctrine concerning the corruptible and incorruptible, and having sent an edict everywhere, he departed this life, alienated from the true religion, having reigned for 38 years, 7 months, and 13 days. ^D He was succeeded by his nephew Justin the Curopalates. The Augusta Theodora had already died before him.

^A Justin, the orthodox, a Thracian, reigned for thirteen years. In appearance he was of medium height, broad-chested, fair-skinned, with a light complexion and thin beard; he was timid and quick-tempered. A little later he became more haughty, dull-witted, and did most things without counsel, though he was diligent in building and magnificent in his largesse. His wife was Sophia. He was crowned by John the Scholastic, the Patriarch. Being pious, he adorned the churches built by Justinian, such as the great [Church of the] Apostles and others, endowing them with treasures, furnishings, and ample revenues. He also sent the abbot Photius, the stepson of Belisarius, with full power to reconcile the peace in the churches of Egypt and Alexandria. ^B Since this Justin was constantly suffering from illness and dizziness and could not appear in public, certain powerful men—because complaints against them could not reach the emperor—spared no one and looted everyone’s property. But when the emperor had at times recovered and went to the church, those who had been ill-treated implored his mercy with a loud voice. Having therefore summoned all to the senate house, Justin said: "I thought that you all cultivated piety and, being content with your own, did no injury to any of the needy. But you commit deeds contrary to God and to our empire. I exhort you, therefore, to restore their own to the poor voluntarily, lest you lose your own goods." Hearing this, the powerful, driven by habit, added deeds even worse than the former; for habit is a harsh thing, which is even judged to be second nature. ^C And so, when the emperor again went forth in procession, more people cried out to him. Therefore, having again summoned the senate during his progress, he said: "If you believe that I was made emperor by God and that I reign by His help, then obey my just commands and cease from injuring the poor; for it is considered the way of fish alone that the stronger and larger devours the smaller. But if you do not obey my precepts, but give yourselves up to your own greed and commit extortion, choose for yourselves another emperor you wish; for I cannot reign over those who are disobedient, unjust, and full of greed." Then one of the nobles, having taken the liberty to speak, said to the emperor: "Appoint me prefect of the city before all, and command that I should have no consideration greater than justice, and let open access always be granted to me so that I may remind your majesty of necessary matters; let me ensure that ^D within a month [P. 389] there be no injury inflicted or received in the city. And if anyone should bring forward a fault that I have not punished once it has been made known to me, I command that I be punished by death." This was very pleasing to the emperor, and he appointed him prefect of the city. When he sat in the morning before the tribunal, and a certain widow complained that she had been stripped of all her property by a certain magistrate, he sent her with his seal to that magistrate and ordered him to

XYLANDRI ET GOARI NOTAE

^A to come to plead her case. When the magister had sent her away after she had been severely beaten, the prefect sent one of his couriers to him; but he mocked him with words and sent him away as well. Meanwhile, while the prefect sat in the Circus awaiting the magister, the latter was invited to a banquet by the emperor. The prefect also went to the same place and said to the emperor: "If, emperor, you persist in what you commanded me, that I should not spare those who oppress the poor, know that I shall fulfill my promises. But if, led by repentance, you prefer to treat them as friends and invite them to banquets, know that I too decline what I have undertaken." When the emperor replied that he should pull him from his throne himself if he knew him to be guilty of such a crime, the prefect immediately forcibly seized the magister and went with him to the court that is called the Chalkē. ^B There, having carefully considered the statements of both sides, and having learned that the woman had been subjected to no small injuries by him, he had the man beaten, had his head shaved, placed him naked upon an ass, and paraded him through the middle of the city as if in a triumph, granting all his wealth to the woman. As a result of this, all became sober-minded and were at peace with one another in many ways, such that for thirty days no one was found bringing or receiving a complaint. And the prefect said to the emperor: "Now, master, I have accomplished what I had promised." When the emperor came out into public and there was no one with a complaint, he returned and honored him with the patrician dignity, ordering him to be prefect of the city for the rest of his life.

In the reign of this man, Hormisdas, bishop of Rome, arriving in Constantinople with a great many bishops, condemned the adversaries of the Council of Chalcedon, ^C Severus of Antioch and Philoxenus; and they decreed that that council be ratified, and concerning the two natures in Christ, they added these words of Cyril of Alexandria: "The intelligible stater, the royal coinage, the mark simple in its unity, Christ, offered Himself for all as a ransom for the life of all. But when we say two natures, we signify the difference of the flesh and of the Word of God, because they are not confused. For a blending of the two natures would bring with it an abolition. But that ineffable union which we confess neither confuses the natures, and from the two, it perfectly constitutes one Christ, who manifested Himself; and the same is both God and man."

In the second year, Ætherius and Audius, and the physicians who were with them, plotted against the life of the emperor; and being discovered, they were put to death by the sword. ^D In the third year, Sophia Augusta, having summoned all those who were bound by debt, paid all their debts to their creditors and returned the pledges to their own masters. In the fourth year, he built the palace of the Sophianae in the name of his wife, Sophia. In the fifth year, he built the monastery of the Prince in the suburb. In the sixth year, Narses, the emperor's favorite, built the house of Narses and the monastery of the Cathari.

^A And Justin, hearing that his nephew Augustus, who was Duke of Alexandria, was plotting against the emperor, sent ministers and beheaded him.

In the seventh year, Justin began to build the church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in the place which, because it is used for the education of orphans, is called the Orphanotropheion. He also added the two arches to the church of the Blachernae, and made it cross-shaped. In the same year, a battle concerning Sargathon took place between the Persians and the Romans, and the Romans were victorious.

In the ninth year, the Avars came to the Danube and defeated the Romans. And the Persian Artaban made an incursion into Roman territory, and having taken many captives, returned to his own country, having also taken the fortress of Daras. Having learned of the magnitude of this disaster, Justin was overcome by a deranged state of mind and requested Hormisdas to make peace, which was settled for one year. ^B It was decreed under him that the hymn "Of thy mystical supper" should be chanted on the Great Thursday. At that time, also, the image not made by hands was brought from Camuliana, a village of Cappadocia, and the venerable wood from the city of Apamea in the second Syria. It was also decreed that the Cherubic hymn should be chanted.

In the tenth year, the Emperor Justin adopted Tiberius, the Count of the Excubitors, and proclaimed him Caesar, and made him his colleague in the empire. The emperor was suffering from an obstruction of the feet, and for the most part, he remained in bed.

In the eleventh year, the emperor built the great aqueduct of Valens and the other aqueduct called the Adranes, and provided the city with an abundance of water. ^C He therefore also built the palaces in the harbor of Julian, and he cleaned out that very harbor; and he placed two statues in the middle of it, one of himself and one of his wife Sophia, and renamed the harbor that of Sophia. He also built the church of the Prince of the Hosts, which was named from a certain Adda who lived there.

In the twelfth year, John, the bishop of Constantinople, died. In the thirteenth year, Eutyches received that episcopate.

^A The Emperor, however, having recovered somewhat from his affliction, summoned the patriarch, the senate, and all the people. Bringing Tiberius Caesar into the sight of all, he conferred the empire upon him, delivering an address of this kind: "God, who has made you good—not I—bestows upon you this imperial dignity. Honor it, so that you may be honored by it. Do not rejoice in the shedding of blood, nor be a participant in murders. Do not repay evil with evil, nor take grievous offense against anyone; for I, having done so, erred and received the reward for my sins, although God will for my sake avenge those who persuaded me to these things. Do not be puffed up by the majesty of your empire. Regard all men in the same station as yourself. Consider who you were and who you are now. Do not be haughty toward your own kin, lest you sin. ^B You know who I was and who I am now, keeping death before my eyes. All these who stand around are your servants and children. Take care of the army. Do not promote the effeminate and the foolish. And do not let them persuade you that those who were emperors before you were such as they say. These things I enjoin upon you, and admonished by my own misfortune, I urge you to hold to them. Let those who are wealthy make useful use of their riches. I have preferred you over those who have nothing. Honor and revere your mother, who was once your mistress; for you were a servant before, but now you have become her son." When the emperor had said these things, and Caesar had fallen at his feet ^C, the emperor added: "If you wish, I am [emperor]; if you do not wish it, I shall not live. May God, who created heaven and earth, put into your heart other things which I have forgotten to tell you." But as the emperor’s disease grew heavier, he concluded his life shortly thereafter. His body was deposited in the heroön of Justinian, in a sarcophagus of Proconnesian marble together with Sophia, his wife.

During the reign of this most pious Justin, a certain Jewish glassblower in the city had an only son, whom he was accustomed to send to a school near the Great Church for the purpose of learning letters. The steward of that church, having many remnants of the holy meal, used to give them to the children to be eaten. Among them, by chance, was the Jewish boy I mentioned. ^D When he was dismissed and had returned home, his father asked him the reason for his late return home, and he replied that he had eaten with the Christian children in the Great Church. That treacherous beast, the father, moved by great fury, took the boy after the midday meal, led him into his workshop, threw him into the furnace, and closing the door, departed. His wife, however, who knew her husband's fury against the boy, having gone to the workshop and peering through a chink, heard the voice of the child; and entering in, she found the boy sitting inside the furnace, unharmed.

^A Being brought out, she asked him how he remained unharmed; and he answered: "A woman clothed in purple came and quenched the flame, saying to me, 'Do not fear, child.'" Having heard these things and being struck with wonder, his mother went with her son to the patriarch Menas, and having recounted everything, she asked to become a Christian. He brought them before the emperor, and the emperor ordered the child's father to be brought forward, and after the examination, the emperor urged the Jew to become a Christian. But although he gave much exhortation, he did not persuade him. Wherefore he ordered him to be impaled for having become the murderer of his own child. The patriarch baptized the woman and the child, making her a nun and him a reader.

In the year of the world 6071, of the divine incarnation the year 571, the orthodox emperor Tiberius received the Roman empire, and he reigned for 4 years. He was of perfect stature for the body, with a handsome chest and eyes, and these were slightly light-blue; he had yellow hair on his head and beard, his skin was fair and his face blooming, and he was good and remarkably magnanimous. ^B When he ascended to the circus, the factions cried out, "Let us see, let us see the Augusta of the Romans." But he pointed to the church that is situated opposite to the public bath of Diegisteus, which has the same name as the Augusta. Therefore the factions offered acclamations for the many years of life for the Augusta Anastasia. But Sophia, the wife of Justin, was struck in her soul; for she did not know that he had a wife, and for this reason she had favored him, persuading Justin to place him in charge of the empire, hoping that she would marry him and remain Augusta. Tiberius brought her down to the palace of Sophia, having ordered a chamberlain and certain others to be at her service and to guard her. ^C He honored her no less than a mother, bestowing upon her every kind of service. When, however, the equestrian birthday games were being held, and the factions were wearing fluted ^D garments dyed with the juice of sea-purple and chlamydes similar to the imperial ones, he forbade their use so that money would not be squandered intemperately, and he decreed that they should only wear two-finger-wide trimmings for the sake of adornment.

He brought forward his wife Anastasia, by whom he had two daughters, Charito and Constantina, and adorned her with the imperial crown, and scattered much coin among the people. To this emperor, a divine utterance came by an angel in a dream, saying: "The Trisagion says this to you: 'Tyrants shall not encroach upon the empire during your reign.'"

In the second year of his reign, Tiberius sent envoys to the King of the Persians according to custom, announcing that he had been created emperor. But the Persian king rejected the peace. Tiberius, therefore, having distributed the imperial treasuries, formed many armies and appointed a certain Justinian as general of the East, who took the forces and arrived at Daras ^A. And when the battle between the Persians and the Romans took place, they entered into negotiations and a peace was struck between them for a four-year period.

In the third year, as the King of the Persians was intending to wage war himself, the Roman general advanced toward the Persians. And when the close combat occurred, the Roman phalanx being deep, the multitude of Persians and Babylonians was routed, and many multitudes were slain. The Romans also captured the *tuldus* ^B of the Persians, and the royal tent, and all the baggage which was of great value, and the elephants, and from these they sent the insignias to the emperor. The King of the Persians, therefore, not bearing the disgrace, made a law that no King of the Persians should ever again set out for war. The Roman army, insulting the Persian misfortunes, advanced into the innermost parts of Persis, and caused much captivity and conquest in Persis, reaching even to the middle of the Hyrcanian Sea. And winter having arrived, he spent the winter in Persis.

In the fourth year of his reign, Tiberius built the public bath at the Blachernae, and renovated many churches and hostels and infirmaries, and decorated the golden triclinium of the palace ^C. Then he ordered that he be written in official contracts as Tiberius Constantine. In the same year, the Patriarch Eutychius died, and after six days there was ordained in his place John, deacon of the Great Church, known as the Faster. ^D The emperor, having bought fifteen thousand barbarian slaves, established an army in his own name, equipping and arming them, and having given them as general Maurice the Count of the

^A foederati, and as his lieutenant-general Narses, he sent them against the Persians. Upon the battle being joined, the Romans conquered by force, and took back from the Persians the cities and territories which they had grasped during the reigns of Justinian and Justin. Maurice, having returned to Constantinople, was received with great honor by the emperor; and Tiberius celebrated the victories of Maurice, and took him as a son-in-law, to Constantine his daughter. Likewise, he joined his daughter Charito to the general Germanus, making both of them Caesars. On the fourteenth day of the month of August, Tiberius, having eaten spoiled late-season mulberries (88), fell into a flux. Being about to die, he called for the Patriarch John, the senate, and the armies, and entrusted the empire to Maurice his own son-in-law. When all had approved this with auspicious acclamations, he returned to his own bed ^B and exchanged life for death. He reigned three years, ten months, and eight days. He was buried in the heroön, in a coffin of green stone (Prasinus).

Maurice, an orthodox emperor, governed the Roman empire for twenty years, three months, and two days. In appearance he was middle-aged, robust, fair-skinned,round-faced, reddish-haired, balding, with a moderate nose and beard; he shaved his beard in the Roman fashion. He was a Cappadocian. He ordered that he be styled in documents "Maurice [and] Tiberius." He was crowned by the Patriarch John the Faster, and shortly thereafter he held his wedding. In the month of April, there were conflagrations and storms of wind in the forum, by which many houses were destroyed. And on the tenth of May there occurred a great earthquake, and horse races were held. The Avars, who not long before had seized Sirmium, ^C a noble city of Europe, send embassies to the emperor, demanding that there be added twenty thousand to the eighty thousand [pieces] of gold which they were receiving annually from the Romans; and the emperor, being desirous of peace, agreed to this. They also asked that an Indian elephant, a living creature, be sent to them for a spectacle, and a golden couch; and when these were sent, they returned them, having treated the couch with contempt. They even demanded another twenty thousand in addition to the hundred. When the emperor would not consent to this, the Chagan undertook an expedition, destroyed the city of Sigidon, and seized other cities, including Anchialus, and threatened to destroy even the Long Walls. The emperor, therefore, sent the patrician Elpidius with Commentiolus as ambassadors to the Chagan; and he promised that he would stand by the treaties and ^D maintain the peace.

In the second year the emperor is appointed consul, and bestows great riches upon the city. He also gives his sister Gordia in marriage to Philippicus, and to the East...

[alt-version omitted]

Xylander and Goar's Notes

^A to Gordias, his own sister. Philippicus, having suddenly fallen upon the Persians and taken much booty, crosses over into the land of the Medes, and having destroyed many regions, returned again into Romania. But the Chagan having violated the peace and plundering near the Long Wall, when the general of the Romans, Commentiolus, approached, he suddenly fell upon them, killed a great multitude, and drove them away. Coming then to Adrianople, he encountered Andragathus, the leader of the Slavs, who was carrying off booty; and having attacked him, he recovered the booty and gained a great victory. At that time, some Greeks, while dining in the house of a certain man, were led into abuses and anathemas against the all-holy Theotokos. And while the others were immediately seized by evil spirits and paid the penalty, the master of the house saw in a dream the Theotokos standing before him, who, not deigning to speak to him, marked his knees with a rod as if with signs. He, immediately waking from the pains, found his feet cut, and from that time on, being carried in public and exposed, he confessed to the righteous judgment of God and the indignation of the all-immaculate Theotokos against him.

In the third year, Philippicus, having gone against the Persian lands, captured Arxana ^B and took great booty, and struck fear into the Persian armies. Having fallen ill, he appointed his cousin to lead the people, and he himself returned sick to Constantinople. In the same year, a son was born to the emperor, and he named him Theodosius.

In the fourth year, Philippicus, having gone out from the city, armed himself against the Persians, and engaging with them, he won the war. The next day, Cardarichas, having again gathered his forces, prepares for battle, and a second engagement having been joined, the Romans win again, and many Persians are slain, and two thousand are taken alive and sent to Byzantium. Cardarichas fled to Daras, but the Persians of the fort drove him away with insults. Philippicus sent the wounded to the cities to be healed, and he sent Heraclius, the father of the emperor Heraclius, ^C who was a sub-general, to scout the Barbarians. He himself invaded Babylonia and besieged the fortress of Chlomaron. Cardarichas, however, gathered raw recruits and baggage animals, and on a moonless night, through steep locations, he got to the rear of the Romans, though he did not dare at all to engage them in hand-to-hand combat. But the Romans, scattered by an untimely panic due to the difficulty of the terrain, fell into great dangers. When morning came, they were delivered from the calamity, and having overtaken the general, they assailed him with the most disgraceful insults. The Persians, thinking the flight was feigned, did not dare pursue. But Heraclius, having crossed the Tigris, ^D whatever was more notable in Media

towns, set them on fire, and thus returned to Philippicus ^A with great booty. Again, after this, a battle having been joined between the Persians and the Romans at Martyropolis, the Romans were victorious. The Persian commander, Baruyas, fell in that battle, and three thousand [men] were captured, along with the leaders of the Persian army. Only one thousand of the Persian forces escaped the slaughter, and they returned to Persia not without dangers. The Romans sent the Persian spoils to the emperor, along with all the captives and the banners. Furthermore, Maurice built the Carian rostrum in the Blachernae, and depicted upon it his whole life story from childhood to his imperial dignity. He also completed the public bath there. And he ordained that the public supplication, or intercession as it is called, should be conducted on Friday from the Blachernae to the Chalcopratia.

In the sixth year, the Lombards brought war upon the Romans, and the nations of the Maurusii caused great disturbances in Africa. In Persia, there is a place of custody called Lethe, having its name from oblivion, in which the King of the Persians had locked up many [people] captured from various nations, together with those he had taken in the fortress of Daras. These men, despairing of their own safety, set upon their guards, and having slain them, they arrived at Byzantium, and were received by the emperor with great joy. And again, Commentiolus, having entered into Persia, victoriously sent much spoil to Byzantium.

In the seventh year, Chosroes, when Baramus rose up against him, was forced to flee to the Romans; and having obtained aid from the emperor, he killed Baramus and gained Persia. Fearing, however, for himself from treachery, he asked of Maurice that a thousand Romans be given to him as a guard. The emperor granted even this, and thus Chosroes acknowledged that the kingdom had been bestowed upon the Persians by the kindness of the Romans. ^C

In the eighth year, at the time of Pascha, Patriarch John of Constantinople crowned Theodosius, the son of Maurice, who was four and a half years old. In the same year, Maurice completed the church of the Holy Forty, which Tiberius had begun. And since there was profound peace in the East, he transferred the military forces to Thrace.

In the ninth year, when the emperor was leading his forces to the West, he was forbidden by all from engaging in the war. In Daonium, a woman gave birth to an infant lacking eyes, eyelids, hands, and feet, but from its hips there had sprouted a fish’s tail covered in a shell. On the same day, a dog also was born having six feet and a lion’s head, and it grew to be very large. ^D

^A On the same day, the emperor's horse, which was adorned with golden trappings, suddenly collapsed and died. The emperor, considering all these things as omens, was heavy at heart; and upon learning that ambassadors of the Persians and Franks had arrived in Byzantium, he returned to the palace.

Here follows from the Histories of Simocatta (97) the speech of Chosroes, King of the Persians, to John, the general of the Romans, who had mocked him when he was sent at a time when we were oppressed by tyranny: "If, general, the circumstances of the time were not exerting tyranny over us, you would certainly never dare to mock the greatest of kings among men. But now, because the present state of affairs makes you arrogant, hear what the gods have determined regarding the future. Know this: calamities will redound upon you Romans, and for three circular seven-year periods the Babylonian race will dominate the Roman state. Then, for five seven-year periods, the Romans shall hold the Persians in servitude. Once these have been completed, a day without evening shall dawn upon men, and the expected kingdom shall begin: then there will be no memory of destruction, and life will proceed under better institutions."

In the tenth year, when the Chagan had attacked Sirmium, the emperor appointed Priscus as general of Europe. He chose Salvanianus as his lieutenant and ordered him to lead the way. Having attacked the barbarians, they joined battle and the Romans were victorious. The Chagan, upon hearing this, gathered his forces and set out for war, and coming to Anchialus, he burned that city. [P. 398] Then he crossed over to Drizinem. But Priscus, not wishing to face the multitudes of barbarians, ^C entered Tzurulum and fortified himself. The barbarian began to besiege Priscus. Maurice, hearing of these things, was at a loss as to what to do; but through sagacity he outmaneuvered the infinite host and persuaded one of his own excubitors with great gifts and promises to fall voluntarily into the hands of the barbarians, and he gave him a letter to take to Priscus, containing the following: "To the most glorious general Priscus. Do not fear the wicked attempt of the barbarians, for this has happened for their own destruction. For know that the Chagan must return with great shame to the land granted to him by the Romans. Therefore, let your excellence remain in Tzurulum with a calm mind, holding them in check. For I am sending ships by sea, and I will take their families captive, so that he will be forced to return home with shame and loss." When the Chagan seized the letter and read it, he became seized with fear, and having made terms ^D with Priscus and secured peace with a few insignificant gifts, he retreated to his own land in a state of rapid flight.

XYLANDRI AND GOARI NOTES. (97) Simocatta at Suidas, twofold entry, and the surname of Theophylactus the Sophist. But this prediction of Chosroes is almost clearer in Zonaras and Nicephorus; xviii, 27. XYL.

^A In the eleventh year, Priscus performed valiantly against the Slavs and wrought a great slaughter of the barbarians. In the same year, Paul, the father of the emperor, died in Constantinople, and Anastasia Augusta, the mother-in-law of Maurice and wife of Tiberius, was buried beside her husband.

In the 12th year, Priscus again occupied the Danube and ravaged the lands of the Slavs, and sent much booty to the emperor, who ordered him to winter there. In the same year, Philippicus founded the monastery of the all-immaculate Theotokos in Chrysopolis, and a palace for the reception of the emperor and his children, making also a preserve for fish and gardens. He also built a house in Constantinople which is called the house of Philippicus.

In the 13th year, in the suburbs of Byzantium, monsters were born: an infant with four feet and another with two heads. It is said that these do not portend good for the cities in which they are born. The emperor relieved Priscus of his military command and made his own brother, Peter, commander of the Roman forces.

^B Here, in the 14th year, Peter the commander attacked the Slavs who were driving away captives from Roman territory. These men, having slaughtered the captives, gave themselves to flight; and the Romans, having captured a few of them, returned to their own lands. This year the emperor built the round solarium of Magnaura, placed his own statue in the middle of the hall, and established an armory there. He also built, in the place called Herium, a house where sick old men might be nurtured—which is called a luxurious vivarium—because the former one, which had been covered in wood, had been burned by the Slavs. He provided much funding to it for the support of the brethren afflicted by sickness.

In the 15th year, the emperor removed Peter from his post, because through his fault the army had been destroyed by the Slavs, and he again sent Priscus as commander to Thrace.

In the 16th year, Peter, the brother of the emperor, founded the church of the all-holy Theotokos of Areobindus. Likewise, Cyriacus the patriarch founded [the church] of the Deaconess, having become the successor of John the Faster.

In the 17th year, the Chagan, having gathered the forces around him, proceeded against Dalmatia; and having seized Balba and the forty cities around it, he ravaged them. Priscus, learning of this, sent Gunduus to scout what was being done; and he, having come upon the barbarians traveling through the mountain passes, captured two of them who were overcome by wine; and from them he learned the Chagan... ^D

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES. (98) Liutprand, vi, 2: It is the palace house in Constantinople, of wonderful size and beauty, which is called by the Greeks Magnaura, as if "great hall" (magna aura), for "hall" (aula). GOAR. (99) The place of the armaments. [P. 399] Justinian, Nov. 85. GOAR. (1) For "leprosy" we often use the word, as we have noted in Constantine. Therefore, you could translate it as "leprous old men and brethren." However, in all these cases, since they were obscure, he rendered word for word, so that there might be material for experts to conjecture. XYL. (2) That is, necessary provisions for life. GOAR. Repone "of the lepers." GOAR. (3) Areobindus and the Deaconess are churches mentioned in Nicephorus, xviii, 42. XYL.

^A pursuing those walking through the desert regions, he encounters two of them intoxicated with wine, who said that they had handed over the captive Khagan ^B to two thousand armed men and sent them to their own lands. Gundoes, having learned of this, hides in a small ravine, and at dawn, coming upon their backs, he suddenly slew them all and brought the captives to Priscus. The Khagan, having learned of the failure, returned to his own country, ^C and Priscus returned to his own quarters.

In the eighteenth year, Priscus led his forces to Sigidon. But the Khagan, having assembled his own force, suddenly descended upon Mysia. The solemnity of Easter intervening, both sides rested in peace; but when the feast was completed, the Barbarians separated from the Romans, and a varied pursuit breaking out from both sides, a multitude of Romans was in part slaughtered, and in part taken captive. Then, indeed, the Khagan, crying out against Maurice as the cause of the slaughter of the people, said he would give up the captives for one *nomisma* per head, and again two for one *nomisma*, and again for four *keratia* each (4). Maurice, however, did not wish to redeem them even at that rate. Whereupon the Khagan, angered, killed them all. They were twelve thousand in number, and their price was reckoned at two *miliarsia* each (5). Having done this, the Khagan returned to his own home, having imposed an indemnity of fifty thousand on the Romans. The army sent to Commentiolus men to accuse him of treachery in the war, among whom was Phocas, who, in addressing the emperor, spoke harshly to him in the *silentium* (6). One of the patricians slapped him and plucked out his beard, and the emperor dismissed him without accomplished business. From this, the plot against the emperor began.

At this time in Egypt, while the prefect Menas was traveling on the Nile river (7) with the people, at a place called the Delta, at sunrise, animals with the appearance of men, a male and a female, appeared in the river; and the male was well-proportioned, broad-chested, of terrible aspect, with tawny hair mixed with gray, and naked to the loins, while the water covered the remaining parts of the body. The prefect adjured him not to depart from sight before all had sated themselves with the sight of this marvelous spectacle. The woman had both breasts, a smooth face, and flowing hair. And until the ninth hour, all the people looked upon these animals with wonder, and at the ninth hour they submerged ^D into the river. And behold, a multitude of crocodiles appeared. The crocodile is a creature that is both terrestrial and aquatic, with a vast body. Its back resembles a black-colored rock.

while its belly is white; it has four feet, and a tail that is large and rough, for it is the continuation of the spine as if a single bone. It is notched at the top like the teeth ^A of a saw, and it strikes and wounds at the same time. The head is set close to the shoulders and is level with them; as long as it does not gape, it has the look of a beast's head, but when it opens its mouth, the whole thing becomes a maw reaching as far as the shoulders, creating a gap. There is a small animal called the hydris, which is also called the hylus, having the form of a dog. Wrapping itself in mud, and watching for the crocodile to sleep—for the crocodile sleeps with its mouth open—it leaps into its mouth, and having gnawed through its belly, the beast is killed, and it exits through the anus.

In the 19th year, on the day of Holy Pascha, Sophia Augusta, the wife of Justin, together with Constantina, wife of Maurice, fashioned a very precious crown and offered it to the Emperor. ^B When the Emperor had looked upon it, he carried it into the Great Church and dedicated it to God, hanging it above the holy table. But when the peace with the Barbarians was broken, the Chagan again invaded Roman territory and assigned armies to his four sons, to guard the crossings of the Ister. The Romans, having constructed rafts, crossed the river; and Priscus, having joined battle with the sons of the Chagan, a battle which lasted from dawn until evening, slew four thousand Barbarians, with losses to his own men. On the following day he again slew thousands of Barbarians. On the third day, the Romans rushed down upon the Barbarians from higher ground, and having routed them, drove them into the waters of the lake, drowning many of them—among whom the sons of the Chagan ^C were also drowned—and the Romans bore away a glorious victory. The Chagan, having once again gathered a great army, marched against them. Priscus engaged him and routed him in battle, and he reported a victory more illustrious than the former. The same Priscus drew up four thousand men and ordered them to cross the river Tissus to spy out the tents of the Barbarians. The Barbarians, being ignorant of what had taken place, were celebrating festive days and drinking. The Romans, falling upon them unexpectedly, inflicted a great slaughter; for they slew thirty thousand of the Gepids and other Barbarians, and having taken much booty, they returned to Priscus. The Chagan, having once again repaired his forces, approached the Ister, but was defeated in battle, and the Barbarians were drowned in the river, and with them a great multitude of Slavs. Living, there came into the power of the Romans 2000 ^D Avars and Barbarians. When the Chagan had sent envoys to demand the captives back, Maurice, not yet having received the news of such an illustrious victory, ordered them to be returned.

In the same year, a certain monk, whose life was one of illustrious asceticism, while holding a drawn sword, from the Forum as far as

the Aeneas gate, ran about, proclaiming to all that the emperor would be killed by the sword. ^A Likewise, Herodianus also openly announced to Maurice those things which were to happen to him. Then also the people, having taken a certain Moor, a man similar to Maurice, and having dressed him in a military cloak and crowned him with a wreath made of garlic, and having placed it upon his head, and having set him upon an ass, were mocking him, saying: "He has found a tender heifer, and like a new rooster he has leapt upon her, and has begotten children like wooden clappers." "My saint, my saint, strike upon his head, that he may not be puffed up with pride; and I will offer to thee a great ox for a prayer." Such were the things performed by the populace. And it was not recorded in vain, but that we might know that whenever someone provokes the Master, he becomes a plaything for his fellow servants. ^B

In the twentieth year, Maurice betrothed his son Theodosius to the daughter of Germanus the patrician. In the same year, Maurice, turning into himself and reflecting that nothing is hidden from God, and that He renders to each according to his works, and pondering the error he committed regarding the captives, in that he did not redeem them, judged it better for himself to receive his punishment in this life than in the one to come. And having composed written requests, he sent them to every patriarch and monk in all the monasteries, and even to Jerusalem, that they might ask God to impose upon him his punishment not in the other world, but in this one. He was also scandalized against Philippicus, his brother-in-law, suspecting that he was plotting his murder from a certain oracle which warned that the murderer’s name began with the letter PH, although Philippicus was swearing in every way that he felt no such fear from him.

While everyone was praying about this, Maurice saw in a dream one night that he was standing before the image of the Savior in the bronze gate of the palace, and a great multitude of captives with him were accusing him. ^C And a voice went forth from the holy image saying, "Give up Maurice." And those who were seemingly the attendants, having seized him, brought him to the porphyry column pedestal that was there. And the divine voice says to him, "Where do you wish that I render to you? Here, or in the life to come?" And he said, "O humane Master, righteous Judge, here rather, and not in the life to come." And immediately he commanded that he himself, and his wife, and his children, and his entire family be handed over to Phocas the soldier. Having wakened, he immediately sent his chamberlain to bring Philippicus; and he, at that very hour seeing the chamberlain, and having despaired of his own life, asked to partake of the communion, ^D and thus went to the emperor, leaving behind his wife, who, clothed in sackcloth and covered with ashes, was lamenting.

^A Having arrived before the emperor, he fell at his feet. The emperor ordered the chamberlain to withdraw, and he himself fell at the feet of Philippicus, saying: "Forgive me, brother, for the many wrongs I have done you. I suspected you of plotting against my life; but now I know that you are innocent. I entreat you, therefore, to tell me if you know a certain soldier named Phocas in the army." Philippicus replied: "I know one, who was sent from the army some time ago and spoke against your majesty." And the emperor asked: "What is he like in character?" He replied: "He is a coward and a rogue." And the emperor said: "If he is a coward, he is also a murderer." Then the emperor recounted his dream. And he said: "See, master, how nothing escapes God." That night there appeared in the sky a comet, which is called the Sword-star. The next day, the *magistrianus* arrived whom Maurice had sent for this purpose, bringing this response from the saints: "God, having accepted your repentance, saves your soul and ranks you among the saints along with your entire household, but you shall fall from the empire with disgrace and danger." Hearing this, Maurice greatly glorified God. ^B Maurice sent letters to Peter, who was leading the army, ordering him to cross the Ister and keep the soldiers in winter quarters in hostile territory. When the multitude heard of this, they revolted, and they set up Phocas, the centurion, as their leader, and raising him on a shield, they acclaimed him commander. When Peter heard of this, he fled to Byzantium and reported everything to the emperor. Maurice, in the middle of the night, clothed himself in a private citizen's garment and, boarding a light galley with his wife and children, fled the city; and because a storm arose, he arrived with difficulty and with his life at [the church of] Saint Autonomus. On that same night, arthritis and gout seized him. Meanwhile, the Greens, having gone out to Regium, honored the tyrant Phocas with great acclamations and persuaded him to come to the Hebdomon. Patriarch Cyriacus and the senate went out to him there. The patriarch demanded from him a pledge by which he would establish the confession of the true faith and affirm that he would keep the Church free from disturbances. Thus, therefore, Phocas is proclaimed emperor in the church of John the Baptist, and to an evil man and ^C Xylander's and Goar's Notes: ... nothing beyond conjecture, nor did anything else then come to mind. If I do not satisfy someone, let him devise something more suitable. Indeed, later, Theodosius, the son of Maurice, when he was being dragged to punishment by the order of Phocas, [demanded the communion]. Xylander fears to admit the piety of a man who had despaired of life and was requesting the Eucharist in his notes. Goar. (12) He is called *magistrianus* elsewhere, and in the glosses of the Basilics, in an anonymous lexicon of the Royal Library, it is noted: *Protokoursōr*, *mandatōr*, *hēmerodromos*. The *hēmerodromos* are called the sun and foot-runners, and those who serve the imperial commands most quickly because of the north wind. *Mandatōres* are those who quickly deliver orders from the commanders to the soldiers. (13) The multitudes set up Phocas, the centurion, as commander. (14) *Dromōn*, as is used below, is this word, it is a ship [designed] for speed, that is, suitable for the fastest navigation: for *dromos* means a course—such as those the Latins call *celoces*—it appears from Nonius Marcellus and from the passages of writers that he cites, the quantity of the first syllable also supporting this. See what Nicephorus has to say about this history in book 16, 40. Xyl. (15) Regium, a city of Thrace on the Propontis, lower toward the south, in which Leo the Philosopher built a bridge, concerning which see Constantine, *De admin. imp.*, c. 51. Goar.

^A to guard the Church, and the tyrant is appointed ^B lord of the scepters, and he holds the prosperous state—this was the calamity—and the great misfortunes of the Romans have their beginning. He is proclaimed in the church of the Forerunner, and after two days, sitting in the imperial chariot, he enters the palace. On the fifth day, he crowned his wife, Leonto, Augusta. When the tyrant had ascended to the Hippodrome, and a riot had broken out concerning the preference of the *merē* [factions] for their place, the people shouted: "Maurice is not dead, but lives; let him be questioned." The bloodthirsty man, moved to the slaughter of Maurice, sent servants and had him brought to the port of Eutropius. First, his five male children were killed before his eyes. Maurice, philosophizing in the face of this calamity, kept repeating the words: "Righteous art thou, O Lord, and just are thy judgments" (Ps. CXVIII, 20). Thus, therefore, Maurice had the slaughter of his children as his epitaph. In such great calamity, however, he exhibited his virtue: for when a nurse had stolen one of the royal children and offered her own to be slaughtered in his place, Maurice did not allow this, but ordered his own to be brought forward. And some say that when he was slaughtered, milk mixed with blood flowed from the wound, a thing which brought heavy mourning to all who saw it. Thus, then, the emperor, having become superior to the laws of nature, also changed his life. They threw their heads into the field of the Tribunal ^C (16). After they had decayed, Phocas permitted those who wished to take them; which the Christ-loving people joined to their bodies, burying them in the church of Saint Mamas, near the Xylocerkos gate (17). They inscribed the following elegy on their tomb:

Alas, I, the most wretched, and of two emperors, daughter of Tiberius and consort of Maurice, the mother of many children, the empress, who showed that childbirth is a boon and many-headed rule, lie with my offspring and my husband, [due to] the folly of the people and the madness of the soldiery. I suffered things much worse than Hecuba, than Jocasta; Alas, alas, I am a living image of Niobe. And even if the father was guilty, why strike the newborns in vain— hearts knowing nothing of human treachery? No longer, Rome, seek shade under my branches; For an Odrysian storm has cleft the root.

Philippicus cut his hair, received the priesthood, and, continuing to live quietly in Chrysopolis, he died. From that time on, then, the Roman state did not cease from varied and extraordinary calamities. For Chosroes, the king of the Persians, broke the peace, and the Avars destroyed Thrace, and both armies of the Romans perished, so that [in the time] when Heraclius became emperor and made an exact accounting of the military, out of the entire multitude ^D

of soldiers whom Phocas had received after they were enrolled by Maurice, only two remained. ^A

Phocas received the empire in the year of the world 6095, from the birth of Christ 595, and held it for eight years, having been made emperor from a centurion. He was of medium stature, deformed, of terrible aspect, with reddish hair, eyebrows growing together, a shaved chin, and marked with a scar on his cheek, which would grow black whenever he became angry; he was addicted to wine, womanizer, bloodthirsty, rigid, ferocious in speech, an enemy to pity, of wild manners, and a heretic. His wife, Leonto, was endowed with the same manners. In his time, evils of every kind seemed to inundate the human race. For an immense multitude of both men and beasts died; and the earth refusing its fruits, a famine resulted, then most grievous plagues arose, and winters were so severe that the sea froze and the fish died. ^B When Phocas had staged the circus games, and toward evening had gorged himself with wine and was returning somewhat slowly, the people cried out: "Arise, Phocas." And when he did not immediately proceed to the spectacle, they vociferated: "Have you drunk wine again? Have you lost your mind again?" Enraged by this insult, he mutilated the limbs of many and murdered many. The people, however, throwing fire into the praetorium, all the prisoners escaped. The same Phocas built a structure near the Magnaura, and placed a statue on top of it.

Rumor maintains that Theodosius, the son of Maurice, having been sent as an ambassador to Chosroes, was captured in Nicaea by ministers sent by Phocas and ordered to be killed, when he had arrived at the place which is called Leucacte. ^C Theodosius, moreover, requested that before he was killed, he might be allowed to partake of the divine mysteries. After he obtained this, having given thanks to God, he took a stone from the ground, and with it struck his breast three times, praying thus: "Lord Jesus Christ, You know that I have done no harm to any man on earth. Now, therefore, let it happen to me as Your power commands." Having said these things, he was beheaded. Others say that this Theodosius, having been sent by his father Maurice to Chosroes, the king of the Persians, with letters, disappeared. ^D

In Alexandria, a certain pious calligrapher, when he was returning home from the night watch, while midnight was passing... [original-script column: see facsimile]

^C heard the images ^A from the altars saying that Maurice and his children were being slaughtered, and all the other calamities which had occurred in Byzantium. When morning came, he returned and recounted this to the Augustalis. The latter ordered him to keep silent, and having noted the day, he awaited the outcome, and on the ninth day after that day he was confirmed therein.

In the second year, Phocas arrived for the festivals and distributed a great deal of money to the populace. Chosroes, the king of the Persians, sent a great force against the Romans, and after Germanus was wounded in the battle, the Romans were defeated; Germanus died on the eleventh day. Phocas, for his part, increased the tribute he was paying to the Chagan, hoping thus to keep the Barbarian quiet, and he sent his forces from Europe against the Persians under the command of Narses. But he joined battle with the Persians, was defeated, and lost a great multitude of his men. Upon hearing the report of this event, Phocas created his brother Domentziolus curopalates and appointed him army commander.

In the third year, the Persians destroyed many cities of the Romans. Now Domentziolus, having given his word to Narses, and having persuaded him with many oaths that he would suffer no injury from Phocas, sent him off to Phocas. But Phocas, not keeping the oaths, burned him alive. The Romans were therefore in great grief, for Narses had been so terrifying to the Persians that they would frighten their own children by naming Narses.

In the fourth year, the Augusta Constantina, together with her three daughters, took refuge in the church. Phocas therefore sent men to summon the women out. But the patriarch Cyriacus did not allow it; however, having accepted oaths from Phocas, he enclosed them in a monastery. In the same year, the Persians took Daras and ravaged all Mesopotamia and Syria, taking a host of captives that was past numbering. After the patriarch Cyriacus had departed this life, Thomas, the deacon and sacellarius of the Great Church, was elected by public vote.

In the fifth year, the tyrant ^D killed and consigned to the fire many friends of Maurice, and he had Constantina, together with her three daughters, beheaded with the sword at the port of Eutropius, where Maurice had also been killed; he also killed many others, of the noblemen of the palace and numberless ones of lower rank. At the same time, the Persians crossed the Euphrates and took captive all of Syria, Palestine, and Phoenicia.

In the sixth year, Crispus the patrician, not bearing the unjust slaughters...

^A and the terrible acts being committed by Phocas, writes to Heraclius the patrician and governor of Africa, that he should send his son Heraclius and Nicetas the son of Gregoras the patrician, his own lieutenant, so that they might come against the tyrant; for he heard that a rebellion was being plotted by them against him.

In the seventh year, the Persians set out with Cardarichas and took Armenia and Cappadocia, and they routed the Romans. They also took Galatia and Paphlagonia, and they reached Chalcedon, ravaging every age without mercy. And while the Persians were acting as tyrants outside the city, Phocas was committing even worse crimes within.

In the eighth year, the Jews who dwelt in Antioch caused a sedition against the Christians and slaughtered Anastasium, the great patriarch of ^B Antioch, casting his genitals into his mouth. With him, they slaughtered many of the Antiochenes. Phocas, having made Bonosus count of the East and Copanas army commander, sent them against them; those, having arrived, killed many, mutilated others, and banished them from the city.

Heraclius, having equipped many ships from Africa and an army, seized Constantinople, carrying with him the image of our Savior not made by human hands. ^C A naval battle having been joined in the harbor of Sophia between Phocas and Heraclius, the wicked man was defeated and fled into the palace. A certain Photinus, who had been wronged by Phocas regarding his wife, entered the palace with soldiers, and having unceremoniously lifted him from the throne, stripped him of his imperial robe, and having clothed him in black and placed shackles upon him, led him, unhonored, to Heraclius. When he saw him, he said: "Is this, wretch, how you have governed the state?" But the condemned man ^D answered: "You will govern it better." Heraclius immediately ordered that first his hands and feet be cut off, then his shoulders and his loins, and afterwards his head. The soldiers took his remaining torso and burned it in the Forum of the Bous. Crispus, the son-in-law of Phocas, also assisted these efforts—he whom Heraclius, after attaining the empire, made governor of Cappadocia; but having plotted a rebellion there, he was brought before the senate, and Heraclius, holding in his hand the document [/cont] containing the evidence of the treachery of Crispus against Heraclius, struck Crispus upon the head, saying:

"Miserable man, since you did not keep faith with your father-in-law, how will you act as a true friend?" He therefore made him a cleric and confined him to a monastery in the provinces, where he died. Furthermore, a certain holy monk, during the days of Phocas, calling God to judgment, asked why He had imposed such an impious emperor upon the Christians; and he heard a voice, though he saw no one, saying to him that no one worse than this man could be found, and that this was what the scandals of the people of Constantinople deserved.

^A In the year of the world 6103, of the divine incarnation 609, Heraclius became emperor of the Romans and reigned for 31 years. He was crowned by Sergius the patriarch in the oratory of Saint Stephen ^B in the palace; and together with him was also crowned his betrothed Fabia, who was renamed Eudocia Augusta. This Heraclius was of middle age, robust, with a strong chest, and elegant, somewhat light blue eyes, golden hair, and a fair complexion; he had a broad beard hanging down to a length. As soon as he arrived at the dignity of the empire, he immediately cut his hair and shaved his chin, which is the custom of emperors. In this same year, the Persians took Apamea of Syria and Edessa, and reached as far as Antioch; the Romans fought against them but were defeated, and the entire Roman force, except for a few, was slaughtered.

In the second year of Heraclius, the Persians took Caesarea of Cappadocia and led away many thousands of people captive from there. Indeed, having gained the Roman empire, Heraclius found the state of the Romans, as we have said, in a weakened condition; for the Avars had laid waste to Europe, and the Persians had ruined all of Asia and reduced its cities to slavery. Observing these things, he was in perplexity, wondering what he should do. In this year, a son was born to the emperor by Eudocia: Heraclius the younger, who is also called Constantine the younger, on the third day of May. In the same year, Eudocia Augusta died.

In the third year, Epiphanias ^C the daughter of Heraclius and Heraclius his son, the younger Constantine, were crowned by Sergius the patriarch. In the same year, the Saracens campaigned against Syria, and after inflicting great damage upon the region, they returned home.

In the fourth year, the Persians took Damascus and reduced its inhabitants to slavery. Heraclius, however, sent an embassy to Chosroes, exhorting him to put an end to the cruel shedding of human blood and to establish a pact with him. But Chosroes considered this to be of no account. ^D In that same year, Heraclius married Martina and proclaimed her Augusta, with Sergius the patriarch crowning her.

^A In the fifth year the Persians occupied the Jordan and Palestine and the Holy City by force of arms, and in it they killed—as some say—nine myriads, for they bought the Christians from everyone, and each man who had resources killed them. They took Zacharias, the patriarch of Jerusalem, and the holy wood of the Cross, and along with much plunder and a crowd of captives, led them away into Persia. In the same year, another Constantine was born to the emperor by Martina, and he was baptized in the Blachernae by Sergius the patriarch.

In the sixth year the Persians occupied the whole of Egypt, and Alexandria, and Libya, and up to Ethiopia, and having taken much plunder and booty and money, they returned home. As for Carthage, being unable to take it, they left besiegers behind and withdrew.

In the seventh year, Constantine Heraclius became consul, and he proclaimed his younger brother, Constantine—also born of Heraclius and Martina—Caesar.

In the eighth year, Heraclius again sent envoys into Persia to Chosroes, requesting peace. But Chosroes again sent them away, saying: "I will not spare you until you renounce the Crucified, whom you call God, and worship the sun."

In the ninth year, the Avars campaigned against Thrace. Heraclius sent and asked for peace; and when the Chagan promised to make it, the emperor went out beyond the Long Wall with a great imperial retinue and many large gifts to welcome the Chagan and receive pledges from him. But the barbarian, ^B having trampled upon the pacts and the oaths, suddenly launched a hostile attack against the emperor. Struck by the unexpected event, the emperor fled and returned to the city. The barbarian seized the emperor’s baggage and as many men as he could capture, and after plundering many villages of Thrace, which were expecting nothing of the sort because of the hope of peace offered by him, he returned home.

In the tenth year, Heraclius sent envoys to the Chagan again, through whom he rebuked him for his lawless deeds done against the pact and again exhorted him to peace. For he was intending to campaign against Persia and wished to be at peace with the Chagan. The latter, respecting the affection of the emperor, promised to repent and show love; and having concluded the pacts, the envoys returned with peace. In that year, ^C the Persians also captured Ancyra, a city of Galatia, in war.

In the eleventh year, Heraclius, stirred by divine zeal for the sake of the Christians, having made peace—as he thought—with the Avars, moved his armies from Europe into Asia, and was planning, with God’s help, to march against Persia.

In the twelfth year, which was from the creation of the world 6134, on the 3rd of September, the fifth day of the week, the divination of the Saracens from the stars was accomplished by Stephen the Alexandrian for these… ^D

^A in a manner of calculating that their power and strong dominion would last for 209 years, and that for the other 156 years they would be vexed by disturbances, tumults, and calamities. ^B Thus, their possession of things, as a whole, through both fortunes, would be 365 years. In the 60th year (36), as the prophet Isaiah also says: *Thus saith the Lord: The years of a hireling, and the glory of Cedar shall fail, and the residue of the number of the bows of the mighty children of Cedar shall be few* (Isa. XXII 16). There is, therefore, a gap until... if indeed the astronomer Stephen established the theme correctly. But I believe that he missed the mark by a very great margin. However, you should know that Cedar was the second son of Ishmael. In this year, after Emperor Heraclius had finished the celebration of Easter, on the very next evening he set out against Persia, having taken money on loan from the venerable houses and churches, for the treasury was suffering from scarcity, and from this he minted coin and miliarisia, leaving his own son behind in Constantinople with Patriarch Sergius to manage affairs, joined by Bonos (38) the patrician, a man of sound mind and one instructed in various practical matters and experience. He also wrote to the Chagan with entreaties to assist the Roman cause, as he had established a friendship with him, and he named him the guardian of his own son. ^C But Chosroes, having sent a commander named Saes with a great army against the Romans, devastated the entire East; and when he had arrived at Chalcedon, he besieged it for some time. He invited Heraclius to a parley about terms under the pretense of peace; and the emperor, deceived by his deceitful words, sent with him some of the nobles as envoys to Chosroes, whom Saes took and led away in dishonor and in bonds into Persia. But Chosroes ordered that Saes be flayed because he had seen Heraclius and not captured him, and he sentenced the envoys to prisons and tribulations, on account of which great despondency and grief took hold of the emperor. Then again, Chosroes sent another commander against the Romans by the name of Sarbaros, who came with a very great force toward Asia, plundering the Roman territory. ^D The emperor, wishing to set out for Persia, spoke these words to the patriarch: "Into the hands of God, and the Mother of God, and into your own, I leave this city and my son." And having entered the Great Church, he put on black footwear and, falling prostrate, he prayed thus: "Master God, and Lord Jesus Christ, do not hand us over to the scorn of your enemies on account of our sins, but looking upon us, have mercy, and grant us victory over your enemies, so that the wicked may not boast against your inheritance." Seeing him with such humility, George the Pisidian addressed him thus: "O Emperor, you who have now put on a black-colored shoe, you shall dye it red with Persian blood." And Heraclius, having taken into his hands

^A the God-man image of our Lord and God, not made by human hands, ^B campaigned against the Persians, sailing across the Euxine Sea and taking into his alliance throngs of Turks and other nations. Having set out from the Queen of Cities, he proceeds toward Persia, and passing through the Roman themes, he gathered camps, adding to them also a new army; and by training them, he instructed them in the tasks of war. For he divided the ranks and commanded them to make a clamor, war-cries, paeans, and shouts against one another without bloodshed. And he taught them to maintain such arousal so that, even if they should find themselves in war, they might not be disconcerted, but take heart and advance against the Persians as if they were playing a game. The Emperor, holding the venerable icon of the God-man image of our Lord Jesus Christ in his hands, began the struggles, giving assurance to the people that he would stand by them in the agony of the fight even unto death and would cherish them like his own children; for he wished his authority to be established by devotion rather than by fear. Finding the army full of fear, dissension, confusion, and scattered into many parts, he quickly gathered them all into one, and by counseling them much, he revived their morale and armed them against the Barbarians, charging them to refrain from injustice and to adhere to piety. Having arrived in the regions of Armenia, he heard that a multitude of Persian horsemen was preparing to fall suddenly upon the Roman Emperor. But the Romans, who were in the vanguard, went ahead, encountered them, brought their commander as a prisoner to Heraclius, and slew many of them. When winter set in, the Emperor turned toward the climate of Pontus; the Barbarians, thinking he would winter there, were deceived, and he turned back and invaded Persia. Upon learning of this, the Barbarians fell into despondency. Their commander enters into Cilicia, so that by marching out toward Roman territory, he might turn them back. But, fearing again, he was compelled to follow behind the Roman army, anxious to steal a victory by night in the darkness. But the moon appeared, which, because he feared that the Emperor would attack, [obliged him to?] occupy the mountains. Descending from there, he engaged in secret, minor skirmishes, and in every instance the Romans came out on top; indeed, the army took heart seeing the Emperor leaping forward boldly and fighting in the front rank. And so, a fierce battle having taken place, the Romans were victorious, and they seized all their baggage and slaughtered the entire Persian multitude, with only a few escaping by flight. Hence, the Romans gave thanks to God and to the Emperor. But the Emperor, having left the army with the commander to winter in Armenia, returned to Byzantium. ^D

In the thirteenth year, he set out from the Queen of Cities and arrived in Armenia with all speed. Chosroes dispatched Sarbarazas with his army against the Roman territories. Heraclius sent word to Chosroes to make peace, but he paid no heed to this request. Thus, the Emperor invaded Persis. Upon learning this, Chosroes ordered Sarbarazas to turn back. Having gathered all the Persian forces, he handed them over to Sain, who, having quickly joined with Sarbarazas, marched against the Emperor. The latter, having roused the people with hortatory speeches, advanced into the interior of Persis, consuming cities and villages with fire. Hearing that Chosroes was at Gazacus ^A, he rushed against him. Having sent forward some of the Saracens who were under his command to scout ahead, they encountered the guard ^A of Chosroes; they killed some of them and, having captured others along with their commander, led them to the Emperor. Upon learning this, Chosroes took to flight. The Emperor pursued and killed the fighting men, and scattered the fugitives. He captured the city of Gazacus, where the temple of Fire was located, along with the treasury of Croesus, the king of the Lydians, and the deception of the impostors. Having entered it, he found the abominable idol of Chosroes, and his representation in the spherical ceiling of the palace, as if he were sitting in heaven, with the sun, moon, and stars around him, which the superstitious man worshipped as gods, and he had placed scepter-bearing angels around him. The godless man had contrived machines from that place so that they might release drops like rain and emit sounds mimicking thunder. Heraclius consumed all these things, as well as the temple of Fire and the entire city, with fire; and he quickly pursued Chosroes through the narrow passes of Media, where he ravaged many cities and regions. When he deliberated about wintering, he purified the army for three days, and, having opened the immaculate Gospels of God ^B, he found that it was enjoined upon him to winter in Albania. While on the way, having with him a large number of Persian captives—about fifty thousand—since he was a man of merciful heart, he was led by compassion to release them from their bonds ^C.

In the fourteenth year, Chosroes, King of the Persians, equipped Sarbarazas with another army and sent him to Sarbarangas, so that, by uniting together, they might wage war against the Romans. Upon learning this, the Emperor hastened to do battle with Sarbarangas before he could join with Sarbarazas, and, having made many incursions against him, he threw him into a state of panic. Leaving both of them behind, he pursued Chosroes with haste. Two Romans defected to the Persians... ^D

persuading the Romans that their flight was caused by fear. ^A At the same time, a rumor was brought that Sain, the general of the Persians, was approaching with a fresh army to aid his own men. Upon learning this, Sarbarancas and Sarbarazas strove to engage Heraclius in battle before Sain could arrive and carry off the glory of victory for himself. Giving credence to the words of the deserters, they advanced against Heraclius. Having drawn near, they pitched their camp, intending to join battle at first light. But Heraclius broke camp in the evening and marched throughout the night, and getting far away from them, he found a green field and encamped [(46)]. The Barbarians, thinking that he had fled in fear and disorder, pursued him. But he turned to meet them, joined battle, and with God’s assistance routed the Barbarians, and having pursued them through the ravines, he inflicted a great slaughter upon the enemy. While this struggle was still going on, Sain also arrived with his own army; but Heraclius routed him as well. After a great slaughter of the enemy had been accomplished, he scattered the rest in flight, and also captured their baggage train. ^B Sabarazas then joined himself with Sain, and when they had collected the remaining Barbarians, they decided to attack Heraclius again. But he, making his way through rugged and difficult terrain, hurried toward the land of the Huns, with the Barbarians following at his heels. Indeed, the Lazi and Abasgi, seized by fear, deserted the Romans and returned home. Pleased by this, Sain boldly advanced against Heraclius with his men. The emperor, however, stirred up the courage of his own men with this speech: "Do not be terrified, brothers, by the multitude of the enemy; for one of us, God so willing, shall put a thousand to flight. Let us offer ourselves to God for the salvation of our brothers, and let us gain the crowns of martyrs, so that a later generation may praise us." Having encouraged his men with these and many other words, he readied them for battle with a joyful countenance. The opposing battle lines stood at a short distance from one another and refrained from conflict until evening. When evening approached, the emperor set out on his journey, with the Barbarians again following behind him. And when they attempted to cut ahead by changing their line of march, they fell into marshy ground and were forced to withdraw from it. The emperor, meanwhile, was skirting the land of Persarmenia; and since that region was under the sway of the Persians, many from it flocked to Sarbarazas, and his forces increased. But when winter came on, each departed to his own home. Upon learning this, the emperor conceived the plan of stealing victory at night. He selected the strongest horsemen and the bravest of his soldiers and ordered them to go ahead, while he himself followed with the rest. Thus, the Romans hastened and occupied the fortress of the Albanians at the ninth hour of the night. When the Persians, having learned of their arrival, engaged them, they slaughtered—

^A all of them, except for one—to use the expression—fire-bearer, who signaled to the Barbarian. The Barbarian, naked and barefoot, mounted his horse and sought his safety in flight. Having captured his wives and the entire Persian elite, the leaders, the satraps, and the picked soldiers, who had taken refuge upon the roofs of the houses and were waging war, {the Emperor} brought them down with fire; he killed some, consumed others by fire, and took others as captives; very few escaped by flight. He also took the arms of the Barbarian, his golden shield, sword, spear, his golden and gem-encrusted belt, and his footwear. After taking these, he moved against those who were dispersed in the villages, and, having pursued them, he killed many and took them bound. Then, having gathered together his own army, he spent the winter in those regions with joy.

In the 15th year, the Emperor Heraclius, having traversed with his army the road of the Syrians which leads over the Taurus, ^B arrived at the Tigris river in seven days with great toil; then, through the cities of Martyropolis and Amida, he refreshed both the army and the captives with rest. From there, the Emperor sent letters to Byzantium, and made known everything concerning himself, and brought joy to the city. But Sarbarazas advanced against him. The Emperor, having selected a squadron of soldiers, sent them to guard the mountain passes leading to him, and he himself, having rushed out toward the exits facing the East, went directly to face the Barbarians. Having crossed the Nymphios river, he arrived at the Euphrates, where there was a bridge of ropes and wool, which Sarbarazas, having unfastened, had moved entirely to the other side. ^C But the Emperor, having hurried along the river, found a ford and crossed it unexpectedly and without danger in the month of March. Having reached Samosata, he crossed the Taurus again and arrived at Germaniceia, and having crossed the Adana, he came to the Taurus river. Sarbarazas, having stretched the bridge again, crossed the Euphrates and followed behind him. The Emperor, having crossed the Saros, gave rest to his army. The Barbarian also arrived at the opposite bank. Finding the river, the bridge, and the bulwarks on it held by the Romans, he stood his ground. The Romans, running out in disorder across the bridge, were making a great slaughter of the Persians; the Emperor urged them not to run out in disorder, lest they become a path for the enemy. But they would not listen, and not long after paid the penalty for their disobedience, as the Barbarian had set an ambush ^D against them. The Emperor, seeing them being slaughtered, rushed to their aid. A certain man of gigantic stature, meeting the Emperor in the middle of the bridge, attacked him, but the Emperor struck him and threw him into the current. Upon his fall, the Barbarians took to flight, and were thrown into the river by the narrowness of the bridge. Others were killed by swords, while the Emperor, with a few men, fought bravely—beyond human nature—to such an extent that even Sarbarazas...

^A was struck with admiration and said to a certain Magarita: "Do you see, Cosmas, how boldly the Caesar stands against the battle? Does he alone fight against such a multitude?" For he was recognized by the imperial insignia. As evening approached, they drew apart from one another, and the Barbarian, fearing for himself, turned back during the night; the Emperor, with his people, hastened toward Sebastea, and having crossed the Halys river, wintered there. But Chosroes, driven by madness, took the treasures of all the churches that were under Persian rule, and to spite the Emperor, he forced all Christians into communion with the Nestorian religion ^B.

In the sixteenth year, Chosroes conscripted a new army from foreigners, citizens, slaves, and every sort of man. From these, he selected men and entrusted them to the general Sain, adding 50,000 from the phalanx of Sarbaras, whom he named "Chrysolochas"—as if a golden host—and sent them against Heraclius. He ordered Sarbaras to set out for Constantinople with the rest of his troops, so that, having made a pact with the western Huns (who are also called Avars), along with the Slavs and Gepids, he might besiege and attack the city. Having learned of this, the Emperor divided his own army into three parts; he sent one to guard the city, and having entrusted the second to his brother Theodore, he ordered him to conduct the war against Sain. The third part he took himself and headed for the territory of the Lazi, and he sought the alliance of the eastern Turks, whom they also call Chazars. ^C Sain, with his newly recruited army, encountered Theodore, the brother of Heraclius, and made preparations for battle. As it joined, the aid of God was obtained through the intercession of the Theotokos, so that an unexpected hail fell upon the Barbarians, striking many of them, while in the meantime the Roman army remained entirely free of the storm. The Persians were routed by the Romans in that battle and suffered a great slaughter. Upon learning of this, Chosroes became enraged at Sain, who, from great despondency, fell into a sickness and died. Chosroes vented his rage upon his corpse with various indignities. Furthermore, the Chazars, having broken through the Caspian Gates, made an incursion into Persia, into the region of Androegas, under the leadership of their general Zebeel, who was second in rank to the Chagan. In whatever lands they passed through, they took the Persians captive and delivered the villages and cities to fire. The Emperor, having departed from Lazica, met them. Zebeel greeted the Emperor ^D and those with him with great love and joy. He also offered his son to the Emperor as a companion in war and returned home. The Emperor, reinforced by these auxiliaries, marched against Chosroes. Meanwhile, Sarbaras attacked Chalcedon.

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES

^A His son to the emperor for an alliance, and he himself returned to his own country. Having taken these, the emperor proceeded against Chosroes. Sarbarus attacked Chalcedon, and the Avars also, having approached the city from Thrace, desired to take it, having constructed siege engines against it [P. 416]. Having brought an infinite multitude, greater than can be numbered, of dugout boats (49) from the Ister, they filled the Gulf of the Horn (50). But for ten days they drew up against the city by land and sea, and by the power and cooperation of God and the intercession of the immaculate Theotokos and Ever-Virgin, they were defeated, and having lost great multitudes both on sea and land, they returned ^B with great shame. For such a thing happened to them: the Barbarians saw, at first light when the sun was rising, a majestic woman coming out of the gate of the Blachernae, accompanied by some eunuchs. Thinking her to be the empress, the wife of Heraclius, and that she was going out to their leader for the sake of peace because the emperor was not in the city, they granted her passage, intending to attack the crowd of people following her out of the city. But when they saw that she had moved beyond the circuit of the trenches and was not going to their leader, they pursued her as far as the place called the Old Stone (51); and there, when they had almost reached her, she and those with her vanished from their eyes and sight. But they, stirred to a tumult, clashed with one another and slaughtered each other until evening. When morning came, their leader investigated the cause, and because he saw that the greater part of his army had perished in civil strife, he returned home in shame. Those of the fleet also, seeing that these had withdrawn, immediately retreated; and a storm having caught them on the Euxine Sea, it allowed only a few to depart to their own homes. Sarbarus, though troubled by these events, did not however abandon the siege of Chalcedon, but wintered there, pillaging the regions across the sea and destroying their cities.

In the seventeenth year, Heraclius, having invaded Persia with the Turks, took Chosroes by surprise ^C because of the winter. But the Turks, seeing the winter and the constant raids of the Persians, and not being able to endure the hardships in helping the emperor, began to slip away by degrees, and finally, all of them abandoned him and returned home. The emperor spoke to his people, saying: "Know, brothers, that no one wishes to form an alliance with us, except God alone and the Theotokos who gave birth to Him without seed. But this is happening so that He may show His own power in us and to all these, having sent us His help from heaven." Chosroes, having gathered all his armies, advances against them a general, Razastes, a man most bellicose and brave, and sends him against Heraclius. The emperor, having devastated the villages and cities of Persia with fire, and the Persians, whom ^D [he desired]...

^A he had overcome, he killed with the sword. In the month of October, he arrived in the region of Chamaitha and rested his army for one week. Razastes, having come, followed behind, and as the Romans were consuming all the provisions, he himself followed behind, famished, so that many of his beasts perished. On the first day of December, Heraclius, having crossed the river Zab, encamped not far from the city of Nineveh. Razastes also came up. The emperor then sent Boanes, the commander of the army, with a few select soldiers. He fell in with a band of Persians, and having killed the rest, brought the captives to Heraclius, bringing also the head of their count and his dagger of solid gold, and the armor-bearer of Razastes. This man informed Heraclius that Razastes had decided to join battle, and that three thousand armed men had been sent to him by Chosroes, but they had not yet arrived. Having learned these things, the emperor sent the baggage train ^B ahead and followed himself; having found a suitable place, he determined to join battle before those three thousand men could reach Razastes. Thus, leaping out before all others, he met a leader of the Persians, a vast man, and by the help of God and the Theotokos he cast him down; then a second, and furthermore a third, who wounded him on the lip with a spear. Thus, a fierce battle being joined, Razastes and the leaders who were with him were almost all slain, and the greater part of their army. Of the Romans, fifty fell, of whom ten died. The battle lasted from the first light until evening, and neither side gave ground. That night was quiet. But around the eighth hour of the night, the Persians, distrusting their own situation, uprooted their camp and moved it to the foot of a rugged mountain, full of fear. The Romans, having found ^C the corpse of Razastes, took his shield—entirely of gold—and his belt and his arm-guards and his saddle, all of solid gold, and his scaramangion. Many Persians also came alive into the power of the enemy. The emperor, after he had confirmed the spirits of his soldiers with a speech, marched against Chosroes, so that by casting this terror before him he might compel him to recall Sarbarus from the siege of Byzantium. Having therefore crossed the bridges of the lesser Zab, the emperor turned aside to the houses of Jesdemon, and there celebrated the birth of Christ. From there ^D [he went] to another palace of Chosroes, which was called Rusa, and he overturned it. Thence he occupied another palace, by the name of Beclamum. In it was a circus and three tall ostriches, five hundred goats, a hundred boars...

^A and sheep and oxen without number. And all these he gave to the people. Certain Armenians who were living with the Persians approached the emperor, reporting that Chosroes, with his elephants and his own army, was encamped near his palace of Dystagerda, waiting to gather all his forces to make war upon you. And the emperor, having immediately set fire to everything, came near his palace of Dystagerda, in which he also found bands of Romans, whom the Persians had captured at various times; and various kinds of goods, such as much aloe and large logs of aloe, silk, and pepper, and linen shirts without number, sugar, and ginger, and silver, and holoserican garments, and a fur coverlet, and needle-worked carpets, in great quantity. All these, because they would be a nuisance on account of their weight, they burned with fire. There fled also to the emperor many captives, Edessenes and Alexandrians, and a great multitude of other nations.

The emperor celebrated there the feast of the Holy Theophany, ^B destroying to the ground the most precious and wonderful palaces of Chosroes, full of astonishing things, so that he might teach, as he said, Chosroes what pain the Romans had felt when their cities were being burned by him. But Chosroes, before the emperor arrived at Dystagerda, having made a hole in the wall of the city, had gone out, at the ignorance of all, with his wives and children. And he who could not travel five miles on the road in a day, then fled twenty-five miles; and having passed Ctesiphon and crossed beyond the river Tigris, he hid himself in a certain fortress with his wife and his three daughters. Certain of the Persians slandered Sarbarus to Chosroes, as if he favored the Romans. And he sent his guard to Cardarichas, the commander of Sarbarus, who was then at Chalcedon, ^C ordering him to kill Sarbarus and, having taken over the army, to hasten into Persia. But the messenger carrying the letters was captured in the region of Galatia by the Romans, who brought him to Byzantium to the emperor’s son. He immediately summoned Sarbarus and showed him the letter written ^D to Cardarichas. Sarbarus, having learned the truth of the matter, together with...

^A all the others and Cardarichas, and having read the letter, said to Cardarichas, "Did Synoras do this?" The lords, filled with anger, declared Chosroes deposed, and made terms of peace with the emperor, so that they might depart to their own lands without being harmed. Heraclius wrote to Chosroes regarding peace, but he did not accept it, and for this reason the people hated Chosroes. He again marshaled the men of his lords and sent them to unite with the army of Razastes and to take their stand at the Narbas river, and, as soon as the emperor had crossed, to destroy the bridges. The emperor, having learned of this, returned to Siazur, and burned the whole region and the cities. There joined him Gondufundus, who had been a military tribune under Sarbarus, along with many others. They declared to the emperor that Chosroes intended to crown his youngest son, Merdasas, for the kingdom, and that upon learning this, his eldest son, Siroes, would not consent to it, but instead had taken himself, along with twenty-two other counts and a multitude of the people, ^B saying: "If we can kill Chosroes, it is well; but if not, we all shall defect to your empire." Having approved of these things and having treated the man with kindness, the emperor sent him back to Siroes, notifying him to open the prisons, bring out the Romans, give them arms, and thus move against Chosroes. Siroes, having done as he was advised, set upon his parricidal father Chosroes ^C and, having captured him and placed him in chains, confined him in a dark dungeon, where he killed him with hunger, giving him only a little bread and water. All the satraps were also summoned by Siroes and spat in Chosroes’ face. Siroes slaughtered all his sons and his other children while he looked on, and on the fifteenth day, he killed him as well with arrows. Then Siroes wrote to Heraclius of the destruction of the wretched Chosroes and, having established an everlasting peace with him, returned to him all the captives who were in Persia, along with Patriarch Zacharias and the precious woods which had been taken from Jerusalem by Sarbarazas. In the eighteenth year, peace having been established between the Romans and the Persians, the emperor sent his brother Theodore with letters ^D to Siroes, the king of the Persians, and his people, so that the Persians who were in Edessa and Palestine and the other cities might return in peace to Persia and pass unharmed through the land of the Romans. A certain mystical fact is considered here: for God created all creation in six days and rested on the seventh, and the emperor, having warred against Persia for six years, found peace in the seventh, and with joy he arrived at Constantinople. The people of the city, along with the emperor Constantine, the son of Heraclius, and the patriarch, with a cl...

Sergius, ^A carrying olive branches and torches, having received him and given thanks to God, brought him into the royal palace.

In the nineteenth year, at the very beginning of spring, the emperor set out from the Queen of Cities for Jerusalem, retrieved the venerable and life-giving wood of the Cross, and having returned thanks to God, restored the patriarch Zacharias. He drove all the Hebrews from the holy city, issuing an edict that they should not have the authority to approach within three miles. Having taken Edessa, he restored the church to the orthodox, which had been held by Nestorians since the time of Chosroes. Upon arriving in Hierapolis, he heard that Siroes, the king of the Persians, had died, and that his son Adeser had held the throne for seven months, ^B whom Barrazas then killed after he had reigned for eight months. The Persians, having killed him, handed the kingdom over to Chosroes’ daughter, Barame, who reigned for seven months, and she was succeeded by Hormisdas. When he was driven out by the Saracens, the kingdom of the Persians fell under the power of the Arabs, and it remains so to this day.

In the twentieth year, while Heraclius was in Hierapolis, Athanasius, the patriarch of the Jacobites, came to him—a cunning man and, like all the Syrians, naturally instructed in the art of deceit—and he opened a discussion with the emperor regarding the faith. Heraclius promised him that if he accepted the council of Chalcedon, he would make him bishop of Antioch. He, feigning agreement, accepted the council and confessed the two natures united in Christ; he then asked the emperor ^C regarding the energy and the wills, whether they ought to be spoken of as double or single in Christ. The emperor wrote to Sergius of Constantinople and summoned Cyrus of Phasis, both being Monothelites, and he found them to be of the same mind as Athanasius. He therefore wrote to John, the pope of Rome, concerning the opinion of both of them, but he did not accept it. When George of Alexandria died, Cyrus became bishop of Alexandria, and having joined with Theodore, the bishop of Pharan, they composed that "water-dipped" union, themselves writing that there was a single natural energy in Christ. While these matters were in this state, Sophronius was ordained bishop of Jerusalem; he gathered the bishops under him, condemned the Monothelite dogma, and sent the acts of his council to Sergius of Constantinople and John of Rome. Hearing these things, Heraclius was filled with shame, for although he did not wish to undo his own actions, yet again the reproach...

and the censures were unbearable, and he issued an edict ^A sanctioning that no man should confess either one or two operations in Christ. After the death of Sergius, Pyrrhus was appointed to the see of Constantinople. Pope John of Rome, having assembled a synod, condemned the heresy of the Monothelites. The same was done in Africa, Byzacena, Numidia, and Mauretania. Upon the death of Pope John of Rome, Theodorus was appointed Pope in his stead. In Constantinople, Paul was appointed, who was also a heretic. Under this Pope Theodorus, the actions concerning Pyrrhus were carried out in Rome, as were the proceedings against Saint Maximus 69 and his disciples, and Martin 70, the most holy Pope of Rome, who succeeded John and was exiled to Cherson. Agatho, succeeding him, anathematized the Monothelite heresy.

In this way, then, the Church being troubled both by emperors and by impious priests, there arose the desert-dwelling Amalek 71, smiting us, who are the people of Christ. The first disaster of the Roman army occurred at Gabitha and Jermucham 72, with an unjust shedding of blood. Thereafter, the Palestinians, the Caesareans, and the Jerusalemites were captured. Following the destruction of Egypt, there followed in succession the capture of the inland territories, the islands, and the entire Roman dominion, which fell into the power of the enemy. To these were added the destruction of the Roman army and fleet in Phoenicia, and the desolation of all Christian peoples and lands, which did not cease until the persecutor of the Church was brought to a miserable death, being killed in Sicily in the bath of Daphne. ^B

In the twenty-second year, Moamed, the leader of the Saracens and a false prophet, departed this life, having appointed his kinsman Abubacharus to the chief authority. However, the Jews, having been led into error at the beginning of his appearance, thought him to be the Messiah whom they were expecting, to such an extent that ten of their leading men went to him, abandoned the religion of Moses—to whom God had revealed himself—and embraced his superstitious impiety, clinging to him until his slaughter. But seeing him eating camel meat, they realized that he was not whom they had supposed. It is necessary to speak concerning his lineage. This Moamed, who also carries the name Mushumeli, was by tribe and lineage an Ishmaelite, tracing his descent from Ishmael, the son of Abraham. ^C For he is proclaimed by all of them as Nizarus, the descendant of Ishmael. This man, therefore, begets two sons, Mouda^D

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES

^A and Rabia. Now Mudar begat Cusarus, Caitus, Themines, Asiadonus, and others unnamed. [p. 422] These, having been allotted the land of Madian and the desert, lived as cattle-herders in tents. There are also those further inland from the tribe of Jectan, who are called Amanitae—that is to say, Homerites—who are also merchants. When Moamed was in poverty, he entered the service of a certain wealthy woman of his own kin, named Chadija, being hired to herd camels and to trade. By degrees, having become bold, he insinuated himself with the woman, who was a widow, and took her as his wife. Coming into Palestine, he associated with Jews and Christians, and hunted out some things from the Holy Scriptures. ^B Since he was possessed by a demon and also suffered from epilepsy, he soothed his wife—who was grieving deeply, because she was of noble birth and had married such a needy man, one who was subject to the vexations of a demon—by saying: "I faint at the sight of the angel called Gabriel who appears to me." Now this woman had a monk who lived there, having been exiled for false belief, and he was her friend; she reported everything to him, including the name of the angel. He, wishing to convince her, said: "He speaks the truth; for this angel is sent to every prophet." She, having put faith in the words of this impostor, preached it to other women of her own tribe, and thus it spread from women to men. The first successor he left behind was Abubachar. His heresy prevailed in the parts of Athrib beyond the final war: first secretly for ten years, then similarly for ten years by war, and openly for nine. ^C This God-hated and thunderstruck man, having chanced upon Hebrews, Arians, and Nestorians, and gathering bits from every side—a monarchy from the Jews, the Word and the Spirit as created things from the Arians, and the deification of a man from the Nestorians—contrived for himself a religion; and under the pretext of divine knowledge, having captivated the souls of the people, he taught them to circumcise both men and women, and to worship one God only; to honor Christ, not as the Son of God, but as one born of the Holy Spirit; to think of the Word and spirit as an uttered sound poured into the air, not as things existing in their own right nor consubstantial with the Begetter; not to call the holy Virgin Mary the Theotokos, but the sister of Aaron and Moses; not to be baptized, nor to observe the Sabbath, nor to follow the ordinances of the Law or of the Gospels, but to loathe the cross and to confess that it was a shadow of Christ that was crucified. He also permitted them to partake of [p. 425] things generally forbidden by the Law, except for swine’s flesh, but he ordered them to abstain entirely from wine. Framing some myth to this effect, he says he was made the key-bearer of paradise; and that on the day of judgment, after Moses stands with the Israelites and is condemned to the torment of fire as a transgressor of the law, Jesus shall in turn stand there and, having denied before God that he ever said he was the Son of God, shall denounce the Christians as those who had the audacity to apply such a name to Christ, and to call Him God and Son of God and the Word made flesh and cru^D

^Acified, and shall command them to be handed over to the hell of fire. Subsequently, he claims that he himself was called by God, and—being most pious—that he is praised as the one who was the author of piety for the entire nation, and that for this reason the keys of Paradise were entrusted to him. And he adds that, after he had opened Paradise, seventy thousand who were able to rush toward it entered therein with him. He declares that the rest will be judged; the just, he says, will undoubtedly enjoy delights, but those found to be sinners will enter Paradise with labels tied around their necks, and these shall be called the freedmen of God and of Muhamet. Furthermore, he nonsensically prattles that there are three Paradises in Paradise: one of honey, another of milk, and a third of wine, so that they may be filled with them at will. He says that women are with them, and that they adorn their hair and minister to their pleasure-seeking bodies. He says that the Jews and Christians become wood for the stoking of the fire, while the Samaritans are left behind to carry the dung out of Paradise, lest an odor should exist therein. He says that each man, just as he lived—whether in wealth, poverty, or infamy—will lead the same sort of life there as well. Thus, this God-hated and utterly filthy man spewed the monster-tale that God is the author of every good and every evil; and the godless man prattles that robbers, sorcerers, and those caught in other forbidden acts were written down by God Himself and predestined to die in such a state.

Indeed, one might marvel at the great and such-like—or rather, the extreme—folly and beastly stupidity of those who, to this very day, have been enslaved by the delusion of that man who opposes God and is vain, and who foolishly consider it to be powerful and divine. For the blinded and senseless men pass over the true, holy, and divinely-handed-down faith with darkening of the eyes of their soul, while ^B the miserable and heavy-hearted embrace the falsely-named religion and the fabrications of that charlatan. For they reject and condemn the truly existent God, who was clearly preached and believed in through the Law and the prophets; yet the impious and the rabid joyfully embrace the one who opposes God—the madman, clearly driven and speaking by the instigation of the Furies. ^C For what God-inspired Scripture gave any command concerning the impious and demented Muhamet? Or what divinely inspired prophet foretold that he would be a teacher of piety? Let those who are destitute of all divine inspiration and initiation answer me: why, while they willingly acknowledge all the prophets from Adam down to the coming of Christ, do they meanwhile deny Christ as God, of whom those prophets clearly prophesied, yet accept that most wicked and base man—of whom no mention whatever has been made by them—as the initiator of a holy religion and as the most excellent teacher of the truest faith, and offer him divine honors as a benefactor, the impious and unspeakable ones that they are? Let them examine... ^D

^A the frenzied ones and the mad and impious ravings uttered by him, and let them say what agreement they possess with the divinely delivered Oracles. For the divine word openly teaches that God is the cause of no evil, and that man is self-determined regarding his own salvation and perdition. But that most wretched and thrice-cursed one, the implacable enemy of both God and man, inspired and energized by a most wicked, soul-seducing demon, audaciously proclaims God to be the author of all good and evil; and he asserts—in a most flagitious manner—that everything which befalls a man, whether from the malice of the evil one or from his own sloth and lack of discernment, comes to pass by the decree of divine providence. And ^B while the one [God] urges us to despise wealth, to be humble, to cast off a life of pleasure, and not to return evil for evil, the other [Muhammad] commands us to seek after riches, to be haughty, to embrace every pleasure in abundance, and to strive with all one's might to take vengeance on one's adversaries, teaching that these things are salutary to the soul and provide a path to paradise. O the madness and the derangement and the mockery of this most wicked impostor! O the folly and the destruction of those whom he has driven into miserable servitude and whom he leads away from the truth and deceives to this very day! For these most perverse and brutish and most dull-witted men do not understand into what a grave chaos and into what a Satanic Charybdis they have been plunged and completely swallowed, and into what inexplicable and dead-end labyrinths and difficult paths leading to the destruction of the soul they have been led by fraud, and are miserably wallowing, and are being held fast unto final ruin. Wherefore it occurs to me to wonder greatly at their such great irrationality and senselessness—even though they fancy themselves to be most shrewd and most learned—how it is that they do not perceive the slipperiness of their empty deception. For they ought, truly they ought, as those who are truly foolish and like beasts, to recognize the manifest and abominable snare regarding their own resurrection, [P. 425] given that they imagine they will remain eternally and immutably immortal through [the indulgence of] eating and drinking. But when and where, then, will these mortal men, both in soul and body, obtain the eternal and uncorrupted life that is awaited by the faithful in certain hope according to the divine Scriptures? And in addition to this, let these irrational and wretched ones know that even now, until this very day, they have not been liberated from their ancient and impious error, but under the pretext of religion they covertly worship idols, and these most mindless and distracted men do not at all recognize the snare of the arch-evil demon hidden within their creed. For ^C as of old, having been superstitiously seduced, they worshipped the Venus of the Greeks—that is, pleasure—with divine honors, and they fabled her star to be Lucifer—which even in their own inept language they named *Kubar*, which signifies "great"—so even to this day they attribute the name of God to Venus. And so that we may not seem to anyone to be inventing this, let us explain their great mystery. The words of their obscene and most profane prayer are as follows: "Alla, Alla [Ua] Kubar Alla." "Alla, Alla," if you interpret it, is "God, God." "Ua," "greater." "Kubar," "great," or the moon and

^A Venus. And this is how it is: "God, God is greater, and the great one, or rather, Venus, is God." And the addition of the final "Alla" clarifies this. All these things they speak cryptically in the idiom of their own language. But let the narrative, leaving aside those swinish and brutish men who know nothing beyond pleasure and sloth and who labor without sense, proceed to the next parts of the history.

After that dire Mohammed died, at midday there was seen a comet, which the Greeks call "Docites" from its beam-like shape, portending the dominion of the Arabs. ^B It remained for thirty days, stretching from south to north, and it had the shape of a sword.

In the twenty-fourth year Abubachar dies, having been "ameras" (this is the name of their rule) for two and a half years, and Umarus takes power in his place, who captured the city of Bostra and many others, and came as far as Gabitha. When Theodore, the brother of Heraclius, engaged in battle with him and was defeated, he went to the emperor, who was then staying in Edessa. The emperor appoints another general, Boanes, and sends Theodore the sacellarius with a Roman force against the Arabs. When he arrived at Emesa, he met a multitude of Saracens and their "ameras," and he encamped at the Bardanisius river. ^C Heraclius, having lost hope, abandons Syria, and taking the venerable woods from Jerusalem, he departed for Constantinople. He ordered Boanes to turn from Damascus to Emesa, and he ordered Theodore the sacellarius to take an army of forty thousand. They pursue the Arabs from Emesa as far as Damascus.

In the twenty-fifth year, the Saracens, massing a multitude of Arabs, wage war, and when the battle took place, the Romans were defeated. The soldiers around Baanes, having stirred up a sedition, depose Heraclius and proclaim Baanes emperor. Meanwhile, as the sacellarius was withdrawing with his men, the Saracens, having obtained the opportunity, wage war against Baanes and defeat him. For because a fierce south wind blew against the Romans, and they were unable to see their enemies because of the great dust, they were grievously routed and, casting themselves into the narrow passes of the river Jermochtha, the forty thousand perished. The Saracens also seized Damascus and the lands of Phoenicia, and they began to dwell there. Then they launched an expedition against Egypt, and having taken it, they resided in it.

In the twenty-sixth year, Umarus invaded Palestine with a hostile army, and he received the holy city on certain conditions, with Sophronius then serving as patriarch. When Umarus arrived in the holy city, dressed and soiled in a garment woven from camel's hair, and showing a satanic simulation, ^D he sought the temple of the Jews which Solomon had built, in order to establish in it the dwelling-place of his sacrilegious superstition. Seeing this, Sophronius said: "Truly, this is the abomination of desolation, standing in the holy place!" And with many tears he lamented the Christian estate. He therefore urged him to take a linen cloth and put it on; but he did not

^A incline. Vix tandem assensus, having washed his garments, he returned those of the patriarch. At that time Sophronius died, having for a long time struggled greatly against Heraclius and those who held the same opinions as he, Sergius and Pyrrhus the Monothelites. In that same year he [the Caliph] sent Umar Jadum into Syria, and he subjected the whole land to the power of the Saracens.

^B But concerning the Holy Land, the divine Moses spoke thus to the Israelites: "Behold, the Lord your God is bringing you into a good and spacious land, out of whose plains and mountains go forth the springs of the abyss; a land abundant in wheat and barley, in vines, fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil and honey; a land in which you shall eat your bread without scarcity," and from whose mountains you shall mine copper; "a land flowing with milk and honey," a land which the Lord your God watches over, which is blessed and more fruitful than every other land, and is likened to the paradise of God. The most wise Aristotle also supports these things with these words: "For the land of promise abounds in the copiousness of both men and all kinds of fruits. There is an immense multitude of vines, acorns, and palm trees; also livestock of every kind, and at every time of the year pastures for them are abundantly provided, on account of the excellent temperance and richness of the soil; there is also a great multitude of aromatics there, and precious stones and gold imported from Arabia." In this same manner Josephus also says: "For since that region is most fertile, on account of ^C the well-tempered air and much richness, in winter it produces nuts, in the heat of summer dates, and very much oil is cultivated there. Those who live there eat grapes and figs for ten whole months; the rest of the fruits are gathered throughout the whole year." Now, regarding the magnitude of the clusters of that vine, Scripture indicates, describing the spies whom Moses sent, that they came as far as the valley of Eshcol, and having cut a shoot and a single cluster of grapes from there, they carried it on carrying-poles; for that cluster, having been suspended from a wooden frame shaped ^D obliquely, and carried on the shoulders of two men, showed to all the fruitfulness of that holy land. Alexander, traveling through this land and seeing fruitful trees, and among other things the rue, which in height and breadth rivaled a fig tree, greatly admired the fertility and richness of that soil. Furthermore, there is a very great produce of opobalsam there from cultivation, along with many other things which, though difficult to prepare, are very precious to men. This land, therefore, as it was excellent and such that no other could deserve to be compared to it, God fittingly gave to His beloved and first-born Son to be possessed and enjoyed in the place of an inheritance. For, Scripture says, "He brought them into the mountain which His own right hand had founded" (Ps. LXXVII, 54). Thus, therefore, in this holy and blessed and good land of promise, in many ways and by various

^A modes, God the Word formerly showed Himself to the prophets, and according to the nature of His essence, He wrought manifestations of God, saying: "I have multiplied visions, and I was made known through the hands of the prophets." In the end, however, He appeared bearing flesh and walked among men, fulfilling also that which was said: "Mother Sion, shall a man say, and a man was born in her, and the Most High Himself founded her." In this same region He underwent a saving passion and wrought salvation for the whole world. For the Lord Himself called Jerusalem ^B the heart of the earth: for as Jonas was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so shall the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for the same amount of time.

Thence also the divine Chrysostom, explaining these words, "Out of Sion the comeliness of His beauty," writes thus: For under the old covenant also, the comeliness of God was manifested from thence, as the altar, the inner sanctuary, and all the ceremonies and the administration of the ancient Law, and the multitude of priests, and the sacrifice, and the whole burnt-offering, and the holy hymns, and the singing of psalms. Moreover, whatever things were to come were written down beforehand there by the oracles. But after the truth of the promises began to be manifested, the beginnings of that matter also were there. Thence the cross shone forth, thence those countless most beautiful deeds. Therefore, concerning the later giving of the law of Christ, the great Isaiah says: "Out of Sion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, and He shall judge between the nations." For here, by the name of Sion, he understands the whole region and the chief city of the Jews adjacent to it. ^C Thence, therefore, just as swift and well-trained horses from a starting gate, the apostles were sent out into the whole world; thence they began to perform miracles; there the saving passion took place, and the resurrection and the ascension; there were the preambles and the beginning of our salvation. There the secret dogmas began to be preached. There the Father was first revealed, and the only-begotten Son was made known, and such grace of the Holy Spirit was given. And there they practiced the discourse concerning incorporeal beings, and the promises concerning the gifts, the faculties, and the future goods; all of which he calls the "comelinesses of God." For the beauty and comeliness of God is His goodness, and philanthropy, and benevolence toward all. There, therefore, having also healed the fall and transgression of Adam, and ^D prefiguring the swiftest, and as it were winged, gathering and meeting of the saints at His second coming, He said: "Where the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together."

Likewise also the great Athanasius, concerning the passion of Christ, says: Wherefore Christ does not suffer elsewhere, nor is He crucified in any other place than in the place of the Skull, where the teachers of the Hebrews say the sepulchre of Adam is; for they affirm that he was buried there after he was cursed by God. Therefore, I marvel at the propriety of the place. For it was necessary that the Lord, when He wished to renew the first man, should suffer in that very place. And since Adam heard: "Earth thou art, and unto earth thou shalt return," in this same place he was again laid, so that in that place where 429

^A he received the sentence of condemnation, he might also obtain absolution. 19

While the emperor Heraclius was staying in the East, a son, David, was born to him. On the same day, a son, Heraclius, was born to Constantine the son of Heraclius, and he was baptized by the patriarch Sergius. In the same year, the Persians, having stirred up sedition among themselves, inflicted great slaughter upon one another. At that time, the king of the Indians sent gifts of congratulation to the emperor, consisting of pearls and many precious stones. Muhammad had already died, having appointed four emirates to wage war against those who had become Christians from among the Arabs. And they came against Theodore the cubicularius; joining battle with him, the three emirs and a great multitude with them were slain. There also went forth another emir, named Chaleb, who was called the sword of God. There were certain neighboring Arabs who were accustomed to receive from the Roman emperor a salary ^B for guarding the entrances of the desert. When at that time they came to ask for this salary, they were repulsed and driven away. Taking this ill, they joined themselves to their fellow tribesmen and acted as guides to them against the region of Gaza, which holds the approach to the desert near Mount Sinai, and is very wealthy. By this means, the Era and the entire territory of Gaza were captured. But Sergius, coming from Caesarea of Palestine with a small band of soldiers, is the first to be killed along with his army. The barbarians, having gained much plunder, departed.

In the 27th year, came John surnamed Catzas, the prefect of Osrhoene, to Jad ^C at Chalcedon, and he agreed to give him one hundred thousand coins on the condition that he should not cross the Euphrates, neither for the sake of war nor for peace. When Heraclius learned that he had done this without his knowledge, he banished the man and appointed Ptolemy over the army in his place.

In the 28th year, the Arabs captured Antioch, and Mavias was sent by Omar as leader and emir of the entire region which was under the Saracens from Egypt to the Euphrates.

In the 29th year, Jad captured Edessa by negotiation, but captured Constantia and Daras by war, in which he destroyed many. And thus Jad ^D subdued all of Mesopotamia.

In the 30th year, the Saracens made war against Persia, and having conquered all the Persians, they subjected them to themselves. Hormisdas, the king of the Persians, having taken to flight, escaped to the inner Persians. The Saracens [took] Chosroes' daughters captive with all...

to the royal regalia to Omar. At that same time, Omar took a census of his entire dominion, for all people, livestock, and crops.

In the 31st year, Emperor Heraclius died of dropsy, on the 11th of March, having reigned 30 years and 10 months. ^A Seduced by Athanasius, patriarch of the Jacobites, and Sergius the Syrian of Constantinople, he had lapsed into the heresy of the Monothelites. Thereafter, he fell into the dropsical malady from which he died, and he endured terrible sufferings; for the affliction grew to such a degree that when he was about to pass urine, he was forced to place a board against his loins, because his member was distorted and ejected the urine upward toward his face. This was a proof of his own lawlessness, on account of his most unlawful marriage to his own niece, Martina. His body was placed in a sarcophagus and remained uncovered for 4 days. A golden crown was also buried with him, and thus he was covered.

After him, his son Constantine held the empire for 4 months. He was ^B of feeble body, suffering illness almost daily. He was warned by some that the crown with which he had been crowned was buried with his father. He commanded Callinicus the chamberlain to bring it to him. He went, and upon opening the tomb, found the body of Heraclius dissolved like water, but the crown stuck fast to the head. He pulled it away with the hair, mourning and lamenting, and brought it to Constantine. He ordered it to be undone and valued, and it was valued at seventy pounds. This Constantine was poisoned by his stepmother Martina and the patriarch Pyrrhus; and his body was placed in the shrine of the Holy Apostles. His wife was Anastasia, who after death was buried beside her husband.

Afterward, Heraclonas held the empire with his mother Martina for 6 months. ^C He brought to the church of Holy Sophia the crown which Constantine had removed from his father’s tomb, and he distributed to every soldier, as a gift for his brother Constantine, three nomismata. In this year, Muawiyah took Caesarea of Palestine after a seven-year siege, and slaughtered in it seven thousand Romans. In this same year, the Senate cast out Heraclonas, together with his mother Martina and Valentinus, and having cut out the tongue of Martina and mutilated the nose of Heraclonas, they drove both into exile. They raised to the throne Constans, the son of Constantine and grandson of Heraclius, who ruled for 27 years. ^D Heraclonas was not buried with imperial honors, but cast out from the kingdom, and living a private life, he was buried in a monastery with his mother Martina. Pyrrhus having also been driven out, Paul, a presbyter and steward, was created patriarch of Constantinople, and he held the bishopric for 12 years.

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORIES

^A In the year of the world 6134, of the divine incarnation the year 640, Constans the son of Constantine, son of Heraclius, took up the Roman empire and held it for 27 years. He was a heretic. He addressed the senate with mild words, praising them for their persecution of Heraclonas and Martina, by whom he said his father was killed, and having gifted them with bounties, he dismissed them.

In the second year, Umarus began to build the temple in Jerusalem, but the structure would not stand. Being asked the reason, the Jews explained it, and they took down the cross that was situated above the church on the Mount of Olives, and thus their building stood firm. On account of this cause, those who hate Christ took down many crosses.

In the third year, there was an eclipse of the sun.

In the sixth year, a violent wind occurred, and many very large trees fell, and it threw down columns.

In the seventh year, Mabias mounted an expedition against Cyprus, having 1700 vessels, and he took Constantia and the whole island.

In the eighth year, Mabias, having attacked Aradus fiercely, took it by agreement, and tore down the walls and burned it, and made the island uninhabitable until the present day. In that same year, in Rome, Martin held a council against the Monothelites.

In the eleventh year, dust was brought down from the sky.

In the twelfth year, Mabias, having reached Rhodes, took down the Colossus 1365 years after its erection; a merchant having bought it, loaded nine hundred camels with the bronze. For the Rhodians, holding dominion of the seas, had set up a bronze statue to the Sun, eighty cubits high, as the inscription upon it says: The Colossus in Rhodes, eight times ten Cubits high, Laches the Lindian made. Because of its size, they called it a Colossus, from which they themselves were also named Colossians ^C (76).

In the thirteenth year, Mabias made an armament of large ships in Tripoli to go up against Constantinople. Two brothers, lovers of Christ, sons of a trumpeter, seeing this, were pierced with divine zeal; they came to the prison and, breaking down the doors and freeing the captives, killed the Emir of Tripoli and those with him. Having burned all the equipment, they sailed away to Romania. And Mabias campaigned against Caesarea in Cappadocia, but he appointed Abulavaris as leader of the ships; he, having arrived at Phoenix in Lycia, where the emperor was with the Roman fleet, engages in a naval battle with him. Now, on the evening before the battle, the emperor saw in ^D a dream that he was in Thessalonica. Having awakened, he related it to an interpreter of dreams. The latter said: "O Emperor, would that you had not slept this night, nor seen a dream! For that you appeared to be in Thessalonica, ...

^A surrender the victory to another," is the interpretation. Hence, the victory inclines toward the enemy. And so it turned out; for the Romans were defeated in the battle, and the sea was mingled with the blood of the Romans. But the Emperor donned other clothing, and the aforementioned son of the trumpeter [(77)] leaped into the ship, snatched the Emperor away, transferred him to another vessel, and saved him beyond human expectation. He himself remained on the imperial ship, fighting most bravely; after striking down many, he himself also fell. The Emperor, having with great difficulty secured his safety, returned to Constantinople in disgrace.

Around this time arose a certain Constantine, who also assumed the name Silvanus, the prince of the sect of the Paulicians. The history of his heresy is as follows: The Manichaeans took for themselves the name of Paulicians from a certain Paul of Samosata, son of a certain Manichaean woman named Callinice. Since she had two sons, namely Paul and another named John, she instructed them in the Manichaean heresy and sent them from Samosata into Armenia, so that they might promulgate that heresy there. This they did in a certain village called Phanarroa. Henceforth, the village was renamed Episparis, and its disciples were called Paulicians. Long after this Paul, they had another teacher, that Constantine who bore the surname Silvanus. Him they acknowledge as the prince of their doctrines, not Paul. For he exhibited to them the opinions which they follow, not in writing but through traditions—the Gospel indeed by tradition, but the Apostle in writing. He handed them down in such a way that they did not differ in words from the Scripture accepted by us, but he twisted every chapter toward his own heresy. For he also laid down this law to them: that they should read no other book whatsoever besides the Gospel and the Apostle. After Constantine and Silvanus, they had a second teacher named Simeon [(78)], who renamed himself Timothy. The fourth was Joseph, who imposed on himself the title of Epaphroditus, and after him Zacharias. But some of them reject this man as a hireling and not a true shepherd. The sixth was Baanes, by surname the Filthy, and the seventh was Sergius, who renamed himself Tychicus. Now, as for Manes, Paul, John, and others whoever may be proposed to them, they willingly anathematize them; but Constantine, who was also called Silvanus, and Simeon who was called Titus, and Genesius who was called Timothy, and Joseph who was called Epaphroditus, and Baanes the Filthy, and Sergius who honored himself with the title of Tychicus, they by no means anathematize, since they acknowledge them as their own masters, but rather hold them in the place of the apostles of Christ. They name six churches in their confession: Macedonia, which is the fortress of Colonia; Cibosa, which...

Constantinus, also called Silvanus, and Simeon, also called Titus, taught; Achaia, which is a village of Samosata; Manalis, which Genesius, also called Timotheus, founded; the Philippensian, in which they say are the disciples of Joseph-Epaphroditus and Zacharias, whom they call their hired shepherd; and the Laodicean, which they call Cynochorite, as if from a region of dogs. However, the Ephesian—the one which is at Mopsuestia—and the Colossian they say were condemned by Sergius, also called Tychicus. These seven teachers of theirs, then, and these six churches they hold in honor and reverence; all others, whosoever you might name to them, they condemn and reject. They maintain the primary heresy of the Manichaeans, affirming with them two principles. They say that there is only one thing that separates us from the Romans: that we say the Father is one, the heavenly God, who has no authority in this world, but has it in the future, and that the creator of the world is another God, who has authority over the present one; while the Romans, they say, confess one and the same God to be both the heavenly Father and the maker of the whole world. They call themselves Christians, and us Romans. To those who do not know them, they readily say, "We believe in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the heavenly Father"; and "anathema," they say, "to him who does not believe thus," artfully devising their own wickedness. For they do not add, when they name the heavenly Father, "the only true God, who made heaven and earth and all that is in them." An orthodox person who is entering into a debate with a Manichaean must demand that he recite the symbol of faith: "I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible," and so forth. ^B Thereafter, they blaspheme immeasurably against the all-holy Theotokos; and if they are forced by us to confess her, they speak allegorically: "I believe in the holy Theotokos, into whom the Lord entered and from whom he went forth." By these words they secretly denote the heavenly Jerusalem, into which Christ entered as a forerunner on our behalf, as the Apostle says, and they do not truly mean the holy Mary as Theotokos, nor that the Lord took flesh from her. ^C They blaspheme also against the divine mysteries of the holy communion of the precious body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, saying that when the Lord gave his words to the apostles, he said: "Take, eat, and drink," and not bread and wine; and he says that one ought not to offer bread and wine. They blaspheme also against the precious cross, saying that Christ is the cross, and that wood should not be worshipped as an accursed instrument. They reject the prophets and the other saints. Furthermore, they blaspheme against the holy Peter, the great chief of the apostles, more than all others, and they turn away from him, denying that he is among the saved at all ^D

They call their own assemblies the Catholic Church in their allegories to us; for they call prayers themselves "proseuchae." For baptism, they possess the words of the Gospel, because the Lord said that He is the living water. All these things, and more than these, when they are caught, they involve in terms that signify something else—for this is what I call allegory. ^B It is necessary, however, to dispute against each point with them attentively and distinctly. For it is easy for them to lie, as their own laws dictate; and not only at other times, but especially when they are pressed, they slip away by inserting a lie, affirming whatever is demanded of them. Nor are they held guilty among their own people for such a lie, because, undoubtedly, Manes taught this. For he said that he was not inhuman like Christ, who said that He would in turn deny those by whom He had been denied: rather, he said that he would joyfully receive as those who had not denied him those who had denied him before men and had thus sought salvation for themselves through that lie, and he would no more blame their recantation and lie than if they had confessed him himself. ^C Nevertheless, they similarly despise our elders and the rest of the priests. They call their own companions of their pilgrimage and scribes "fellow-travelers," and these men differ from others in absolutely nothing: not in dress, not in manner of diet, not in the rest of their way of life. They hold all the sayings of the Gospel and the Apostle in a perverted sense and contrary to our own meanings, adjusted by them in such a way that they might accommodate their own errors. For although the texts are written and sound as they do, and are held by them in the same way, with nothing at all deflected from our own, they pervert the meanings, as has been said by me elsewhere in greater detail regarding this whole matter. They worship our Gospel when occasion arises, saying that the words of Christ are not in the cross, but in the book, and therefore this is what is worshipped by them. Certain of them, when they are pressed by diseases and pains, lay a cross upon themselves; and when they have obtained health, they break it again and throw it into the fire and burn it, or even trample upon it. There are some among them who ensure their infants are baptized by our priests. Others, when they come into our orthodox Church, communicate secretly, so that they may more easily impose upon the simpler folk. Using such arts and simulations, they meanwhile give themselves up to every kind of lust and obscenity without any discrimination and fear, polluting both sexes indiscriminately with their lasciviousness, when some of them claim they must abstain only from their parents, and their own at that. ^D In the 16th year, the emperor made an expedition against the Slavs, and having captured many, he returned.

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES

^A This Constans, being unable to bring Saint Maximus over to his own heterodoxy, cut off his tongue and his hand. And he exiled Saint Martin, Pope of Rome, because he was rebuked by them concerning his Monothelite doctrine.

In the 17th year, Mabias, the leader of the Arabs, after these events, sent an embassy to Constans concerning peace, because of the rebellion which had arisen against him among the Arabs, and that the Arabs might pay to the Romans for such a peace daily one thousand coins, and a horse, and a slave. But he was not persuaded.

In the 18th year, the Emperor Constans killed his own brother, Theodosius. Since he was offended at him, he had previously had him tonsured as a deacon by the Patriarch Paul, who also communicated the Emperor in the holy cup of the immaculate mysteries. After his death, he appeared to him frequently in his sleep, wearing the deacon’s vestment, and offering him a cup of blood, saying: "Drink, brother." Being vexed by this, and dejected, he thought of departing to Sicily. Leaving, therefore, his wife and three sons in the city, and boarding one of the dromons and departing, he turned back towards the imperial city, spat upon it, and thus sailed away.

But not even while lingering in Sicily did the dream leave him. Having reached the city of Syracuse in Sicily, he dwelt there, wishing to transfer the empire to Rome because he was hated by the Byzantines as a Monothelite and a heretic. He sent, therefore, to fetch his wife and children; but the Byzantines did not release them.

^B In the 26th year, Mabias sent his son Ized with many barbarians against the Romans; and coming to Chalcedon they took many prisoners. They also occupied Amorium in Phrygia, and, leaving five thousand armed men there as a garrison, they returned to Syria. Winter having come, the Emperor sent the cubicularius Andreas. And there being much snow, he arrived at night and climbed onto the wall by means of timber, and entering into Amorium, he killed the five thousand Arabs so that not one of them remained.

In the 27th year, the Emperor Constans was assassinated in Syracuse in Sicily, in the bath which is called Daphne. For a certain Andreas entered the bath with him, and as the Emperor began to wash himself, he struck him on the head with the bucket and killed him. News of his death was known in the city that very day, a voice being carried through the air. And the Syracusans proclaimed the Armenian Mizizius as emperor, having compelled him, although he was a man of very noble and beautiful appearance. Having heard of his father’s demise, Constantine arrived in Sicily with a great fleet, and killed Mizizius along with the murderer of his own father. And having settled the affairs of the West, he returned to Constantinople, bringing with him the corpse of his own father. And he laid him to rest in the Church of the Holy Apostles, beside his own father Constantine, ^C and he himself held the Roman empire, with his brothers Tiberius and Heraclius as colleagues. Justinian.

^A He also decapitated the patrician Justinian, the father of the holy patriarch Germanus. And Germanus, because he behaved more fiercely, he castrated; and Georgius succeeded to the throne of the patriarchate.

Constantine, the son of Constans, surnamed Pogonatus (82) — a name derived from his beard — a professor of the true religion, ruled for seventeen years. In the first year of his reign, the Saracens made war, having invaded Africa, and they carried off eighty thousand captives. Now, those who were the leaders of the eastern peoples came to Chrysopolis saying, "Because we believe in the Trinity, we want to have three emperors," and they joined two brothers to Pogonatus. This matter troubled Constantine, since he alone had been crowned, and his brothers Tiberius and Heraclius had no rank. Having sent his officers, he seized their leaders and executed them ^B in Sycae (you might call it Ficus, for it is a suburb of Byzantium); this frightened the rest, and they took flight. The emperor then had his brothers’ noses slit.

In the second year, great severity of winter killed many people and brute animals.

In the fourth year, a rainbow appeared in the sky such that everyone said the end of the world was at hand. The Saracens, having equipped a great fleet and sailed along into Cilicia, wintered in Smyrna.

In the fifth year, a fleet of the God-fighting people arrived and anchored in the Thracian regions, from the Hebdomon as far as the Cyclobius (84). Every day, battle was waged from dawn until evening, from the "brachiolion" of the Golden Gate (85) as far as the Cyclobius, from the month of April to September. Then, the barbarians returned, occupied Cyzicus, and wintered there; and in the spring, they again made war against the Christians. In this manner, they conducted themselves for seven years. At last, with the help of God and the Theotokos assisting our side, having lost a great multitude of their own men, they retreated home with great dishonor. And that fleet, when it was crossing over to Sylaion, was afflicted by a wintry swell and storm and perished utterly. Furthermore, Souphanius, the son of Aphis, joined battle with Florus, Petrona, and Cyprianus (who were leading the Roman forces), and thirty thousand Arabs were killed. At that time, Callinicus, an architect from the city of Heliopolis in Egypt, having deserted to the Romans, prepared sea fire, and with it he burned the ships of the barbarians at Cyzicus, sinking them along with the men on board. ^D He is, therefore, the inventor of sea fire.

^A From him descends the line of Lamprus, who even today constructs this fire with technical skill. At that time also lived that most prudent man, John Pitzicauda.

In the eighth and ninth years, the Mardaïtes entered Lebanon and captured everything from the Black Mountain as far as the Holy City (Jerusalem), and they seized the mountain passes of Lebanon. Many slaves, captives, and natives went over to them, so that in a short time they grew to many thousands. When Mavias and those with him learned of this, they were afraid, and reflecting that the Roman Empire is guarded by divine protection, they sent envoys to Emperor Constantine to sue for peace. He sent Pitzicauda, who made peace with the Saracens in writing, under the condition that for thirty years the Saracens would pay the Romans 10,000 gold pieces, 100 slaves, and 50 thoroughbred horses every year. When those who inhabited the Occident learned of this, they sent gifts to the Emperor and requested peace. Granting their petition, he confirmed it, and there was great quiet in both the East and the West.

In the tenth year, the Bulgarians invaded Thrace; and when the Emperor led an army against them, the Romans were defeated and many perished. Desiring to have peace with everyone, the Emperor struck a pact, wanting everything to be peaceful; and by this stupidity of his, the Christian cause suffered disgrace.

The sixth holy and ecumenical council took place in Constantinople, with 289 holy Fathers gathered together, in the thirteenth year of the reign of Constantine, the father of Justinian. It was presided over by the legates of Pope Agatho of Rome—Theodorus and Georgius, priests, and Joannes, a deacon—as well as Georgius, Archbishop of Constantinople, and Theophanes of Antioch—the latter being chosen by the votes of the council itself after Macarius had been removed from his position because he opposed the decrees that were in accordance with the Church's orthodox faith. At that time, Peter the monk governed the Church of Alexandria, while there was no one for Jerusalem, as the patriarchal sees were then vacant, having been occupied by the Saracens. This council was assembled against Theodorus, Bishop of Pharan, Honorius of Rome, and Cyrus of Alexandria, and against Sergius, Pyrrhus, Paulus, and Petrus, who had been bishops of the Church of Constantinople. It was also against those who renovated their heresy, among whom were Macarius, called the president of Antioch, Stephanus his disciple, and Polychronius, an old man with the folly of a child, who asserted one will and

^A a single energy in our Lord Jesus Christ. The synod, having condemned them, declared that two natural wills, or volition, and two natural energies are to be demonstrated in the one Christ, our God. Likewise, regarding the symbols of the holy economy of Christ our God in the flesh, it established the following: "In some depictions of the venerable images, a lamb is represented, pointed out by the finger of the Forerunner, which was accepted as a type of grace, prefiguring for us through the Law the true Lamb, Christ our God. Therefore, while we embrace the ancient types and shadows as symbols and prefigurations of the truth delivered to the Church, we prioritize grace and truth as the fulfillment of the Law, which we have received. Consequently, so that the perfection may be depicted in colors before the eyes of all, we decree that henceforth, in place of the ancient lamb, the human image of Christ, who as the Lamb took away the sins of the world, should be set up in images, that through this humility we may understand the height of the Word of God, and be led as if by the hand to the memory of His life in the flesh, His passion, His saving death, and the redemption of the world resulting from it."

It should be noted that there have been other synods in certain places, whose decrees we possess, even though they do not exist in the number of these six councils. Such was that which was held at Ancyra, as well as those at Neocaesarea, Gangra, Antioch, Laodicea, Sardica, and Carthage. For these were convened due to questions that arose in specific localities, ^B and were held neither by the order of emperors nor in their presence; indeed, some of them took place before there were Christian emperors. But the ecumenical ones have been so called because, by the orders of the emperors, the chief bishops from all over the Roman administration were summoned, and because in each of them, and especially in these six councils, a inquiry and vote, that is, a dogmatic definition, was issued concerning the faith. For the first, having defined the Son as coessential with the Father, also ordered that one should believe in the Holy Spirit. The second, clearly deciding that the Spirit is of the same nature as the Father and the Son, decreed that He be worshipped alongside them. The third, defining our Lord Jesus Christ as perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity, dogmatized that He is one and not two Sons. The fourth, ordering the aforementioned sentiments to be ratified, expressly commanded that two natures in the Son be believed in without confusion and without division. The fifth, confirming these same things, commanded that He be acknowledged as endowed with will and efficacy according to both natures. ^C The sixth, reviewing and approving the decrees of all the councils, likewise professed Christ to be perfect God and perfect man. Furthermore, from the first council to the second, 56 years elapsed; from the second council to the third, 50; from the third to the fourth, 30; from the fourth to the fifth, 102; from the fifth to the sixth, 129; ^D and from the sixth to the seventh, 122. In those times, as a certain man was traveling— only a dog followed. And a highwayman, having killed the man, escaped, while the d

dog remained in that place, guarding the body of its master. ^A Another man, traveling by chance along that road, seeing the corpse lying there and being moved by pity, dug up the earth and buried it. Seeing this, the dog, feeling grateful, followed him who had buried [the man], fulfilling a loyal service. The man’s trade, however, was that of an innkeeper, and the dog fawned upon all who entered and exited the inn. [P. 440] After some time had passed, it happened that the murderer also entered the inn to drink; the dog, recognizing him, barked and leapt upon his face. This happening repeatedly, by a divine inspiration it brought suspicion upon him in the minds of many; and, being apprehended, the murderer was handed over for trial, and having confessed to the deed in all truth, he was executed, divine justice having wreaked vengeance upon him.

In the 11th year, the nation of the Bulgarians, having crossed the Danube and separated from their fellow tribesmen, encamped in Varna in certain fastnesses and mountains. When the emperor had gone forth with ships and an army, and had marched against them, as soon as the Bulgarians saw this all at once, despairing of their own safety, they fled to a certain fortification and secured themselves. ^B Because the Romans were unable to join battle due to the rough terrain and the difficulty of the place, the small nation became emboldened. And it happened... and having spread the rumor that the emperor had fled, they took to flight, although no one was pursuing them. When the Bulgarians saw this, they pursued them and killed many. From that time on, having crossed [the river] in their entirety, and having become bold and widespread, they were plundering the Roman territory. Whence the emperor, being compelled, made peace with them, as has been told. Having established peace in all things, he brought about concord in the Churches, and by convening the previously mentioned holy sixth council in Constantinople, he anathematized the heresy of the Monothelites.

In the 13th year, he thrust his brothers from the empire, and reigned alone with his son, Justinian. ^C In the 17th year, the pious Constantine died, having ruled for 17 years, and his son Justinian reigned. Justinian, son of Pogonatus, the Slit-Nose, reigned for 10 years. He was a man with an ungovernable impulse and lacking in counsel in every matter.

In this year, Abimelech sent messengers to him to confirm peace; and it was agreed that the emperor should check the company of the Mardaites in Lebanon and restrain their incursions, and for this reason the Arabs should pay the Romans—each day—one thousand gold coins.

And the emperor sent Paul the Magistrian ^A to Abimelech to confirm the agreement, and this was confirmed by writing and witnesses. The emperor, therefore, by sending the messenger, recalled the twelve thousand Mardaites, thereby crippling the Roman power; for all the regions now held by the Arabs, from Mopsuestia to the fourth Armenia, were until then weak and uninhabited because of the incursions of the Mardaites, by whose removal the Roman state has suffered terrible things at the hands of the Arabs to this day. For Justinian, being young, about sixteen years old, was conducting affairs without judgment.

In the second year, the emperor went to Armenia and received the Mardaites living in Lebanon, destroying a wall of bronze ^B. He also threw the peace with the Bulgarians into confusion, disturbing the arrangements made by his father, and moved the cavalry themes 96 into Thrace.

In the third year, Justinian launched an expedition against the Slavs and Bulgarians. He pushed back the Bulgarians who had come to meet him, and making an excursion as far as Thessalonica, he subdued many multitudes of Slavs—some by defection to him, others by victory in war—and settled them in the regions of the Opsikion 96. However, upon his return, he was intercepted by the Bulgarians in the narrows of the mountain pass 97, and he barely managed to get through, having lost many of his own men.

In the fifth year, the Arab realm was freed from all war, as Abimelech had subjected everyone.

In the seventh year, Justinian foolishly broke the peace with Abimelech; for he was eager to transplant ^C the island of the Cypriots 98 without any reason, and he rejected the gold coins sent by Abimelech because the stamp upon them was unusual.

In the seventh year, Justinian selected thirty thousand of the Slavs who had been transplanted ^D by him and campaigned, naming them the "chosen people." Relying on them, he broke the treaty with the Arabs; for he took this "chosen people" and the cavalry themes and marched to Sebastopolis 99 by the sea. The Arabs, not wishing to break the peace but being forced to do so by the emperor's arrogance and recklessness, armed themselves, and they too came again to the emperor, bearing witness and calling upon God as the avenger of this outrage. But the emperor would not even endure to hear these words, but rather pressed toward battle, having the treaty of peace suspended on a pole...

^A and causing it to be carried before them, they rushed against the Romans, having Moamed as their general. At first the Arabs were defeated; but Moamed, having sent a quiver full of coins to the general of the Slavs, and having deceived him with many promises, persuaded him to desert to him with twenty thousand Slavs, and thus he secured the rout for the Romans. Hence Justinian destroyed what was left of these, along with their wives and children, at Leucacta in Nicomedia.

In the 8th year, Sabbatius the Armenian, having learned of the Roman defeat, surrendered Armenia to the Arabs. And inner Persia, which is called Chorosan, was also subjected to them.

^B In the 9th year there occurred an eclipse of the sun, such that the stars were visible. In the same year Moamed campaigned against Roman territory, having with him the Slav fugitives, as they were experienced in the region, and he took many captives. Justinian, being intent on construction, built the triclinium named after himself and the walls of the palace. He placed in charge of these works Stephen the Persian, who was the sacellarius and chief eunuch, a man who was excessively bloodthirsty and cruel, who without any mercy used to beat the workers and pelt them with stones. And while the emperor was abroad, he even scourged his mother, the Augusta Anastasia, with lashes. Likewise, Theodotus the monk, who had formerly lived the life of a recluse and had then been appointed general logothete, punished many of the prominent nobles without any fault of their own, subjected their property to confiscation, ^C and hanging them by ropes, he tormented them over heaps of smoking straw. Indeed, the city prefect also, by the emperor's command, imprisoned a great many. All these things increased the people's hatred toward the emperor. Being desirous of building stands for the Veneti and a *phiale* near the palace, so that there ^D the *saximodema* might be celebrated... [index: entries preserved]

he requested of Patriarch Callinicus that he pray for the destruction of the church that stood there. The patriarch replied that he possessed prayers for the founding of a church, but none had he received for its destruction. Being compelled, however, the patriarch said with tears: "Glory to God who endures all things, now and forever, and unto the ages of ages." Having heard this, they destroyed the church and constructed the phiale. He also built a church in the Petrin ^A quarter, which he called the Metropolitan.

In the tenth year, Muhammad marched his army into the fourth Armenia, and having taken many prisoners, he returned. In that same year, Justinian was cast out of the empire in this manner: he ordered Stephen the patrician and the leader of the Rusi to kill the people of Constantinople by night, beginning with the patriarchs. Now Leontius, who had been a patrician and commander of the Anatolians ^B, having distinguished himself in war but having been slandered, had been shut up in prison for a period of three years. Suddenly summoned from there, he was promoted to commander of Greece, and was ordered to board dromons and depart the city that very day. That night in the harbor of the Sophia, awaiting the time to sail, he was arranging his affairs with his friends. Among those who genuinely loved him, they were prophesying the empire to him, especially the monk and astronomer ^C Paul of the Callistratus monastery, and Gregory the Cappadocian, the monk and abbot of the Florus monastery. Leontius therefore said to them, "You were assuring me in prison about the empire, and now my life is ending in woes, for I wait for my death at every hour." But they said, "Do not hesitate, for behold, this is being fulfilled." Having taken his men with weapons, Leontius went up to the praetorium in silence, and having knocked on the gates, they pretended that the emperor had arrived to pass judgment on some of those who were confined there. When this was announced to the prefect, he came out immediately, and as soon as he had opened the gates, he was bound by Leontius. Leontius then opened the prisons, brought out the soldiers who had been held therein for a long time and armed them, and went out with them into the forum, crying out: "Whoever are Christians, let them be present at the church of the Holy Sophia." He also sent men to proclaim the same through all the districts. The troubled multitude immediately

^A gathered with haste at the baptistery of the Great Church, and the patriarch, being with them, cried out: "This is the day which the Lord has made." (Ps. CXVII, 24). The multitude raised a cry: "Let the bones of Justinian be dug up." And so all the people rushed into the Hippodrome. When day came, they brought Justinian into the Hippodrome through the Funda, and having slit his nose, they banished him to Cherson. The monk Theodotus and the sacellarius Stephen, having had ropes tied to their feet, were dragged through the public square to the Bovis and burned. And thus they hailed Leontius as emperor with auspicious acclamations, while Callinicus occupied the patriarchal throne.

In the year of the world 6188, from the advent of Christ 694, Leontius was made emperor of the Romans and reigned for 3 years. In his first year, everything was peaceful everywhere.

In the second year, Alidis made an incursion into the Roman domain, and after carrying off many captives, he departed. Sergius, the patrician of Lazica, also defected and handed Lazica over to the Arabs.

In the third year, the Arabs made an expedition and captured Africa. Leontius sent the patrician John, a man of great energy, with the entire Roman fleet; he routed and pursued the enemies, liberated all the fortresses of Africa, and having left a lieutenant of his own there, he informed the emperor of what had been done and wintered there in Africa. But the prince of the Arabs (who is called *protosymbulus*, as if a consul or prince of the council, by them), having learned of this, ^C sent a fleet much larger and more powerful than the first, drove out John, and encamped there in a fortified position. The army, having been stirred to sedition, declared Apsimar, who was the drungary of the Cibyrrhaeots, emperor, and immediately named him Tiberius. ^D

^A

But in the city, the plague of buboes broke out, and in four months a great multitude perished. ^A Apsimar reaches it together with the fleet that was with him, and he put in at Sycae (22), and, through treachery being committed, he entered the city. And having slit the nose of Leontius, he commanded that he be kept in the monastery of Dalmatus, and he confiscated the goods of his friends and banished them. And his own blood brother, Heraclius, as being most capable, he made sole commander of all the land forces (23) and of the mountain passes (24), and sent him to traverse the parts of Cappadocia and to keep watch as to what the enemy was planning to do.

Apsimar, who is also Tiberius, reigned for 7 years. In his first year, Abderachman stirred up a sedition in Persia, and gained control of it, and drove the Chagan out from it. ^B

In the second year, there was a great pestilence. And Mohammed, with a multitude of Arabs, campaigned against Abderachman. And having entered Persia, he joined forces with the Chagan. And having fought against Abderachman, they killed him, and they handed back the Persian rule to the Chagan. But the Romans campaigned through Syria as far as Samosata, and having pillaged the surrounding region, they killed, as they say, two hundred thousand Arabs, and having taken very many spoils and much captivity, they returned, having struck great fear into them.

In the third year, Abdelas (25) campaigned against the Romans, and having besieged Antaradus and accomplished nothing, he returned, and he built Mopsuestia, and set a garrison in it. ^C

In the fourth year, Baanes, surnamed Heptadaemon for the seven demons, handed over the fourth Armenia to the Arabs. And Apsimar banished Philippicus, the patrician, the son of Nicephorus, because he was dreaming of being emperor; for he said that he had seen in a dream that his head was being overshadowed by an eagle.

In the fifth year, the princes of Armenia stirred up a sedition against the Saracens, and killed the Saracens who were in Armenia. And again they sent to Apsimar and brought the Romans into their country. But Mohammed, having campaigned against them, killed many, and subordinated Armenia to the Saracens, and he burned the notables of the Armenians alive in one place. In this same year, Azar, leading ten thousand men, invaded Cilicia. ^D Against whom the emperor’s brother, Heraclius, set out...

and having engaged them, he slew the greater part and sent the rest in chains to the emperor. ^B

In the sixth year, Azidas, son of Chunas, invaded Cilicia and, having besieged the fortress of Sisium, he destroyed it. Heraclius, the emperor's brother, overtook him, engaged him in battle, and slew twelve thousand Arabs. Meanwhile, Justinian, residing in Cherson and declaring that he would recover the empire, the inhabitants there, fearing danger from the emperor on this account, resolved either to kill him or to hand him over to the emperor. Justinian, having learned of this, sought to escape; and, having reached Daras, he requested an audience with the Chagan of the Chazars. The Chagan received him with honor and gave him his sister, Theodora, in marriage. A short time later, at the Chagan's urging, he went down to Phanagoria and resided there with Theodora. When Apsimarus heard this, he sent to the Chagan, promising him many gifts if he would send Justinian to him alive, or at least his head if he were slain. The Chagan consented and sent guards to Justinian, as he pretended, to keep him safe from his own countrymen; but he had given orders to them to kill Justinian at whatever time he should command. When these things were revealed to Theodora by a servant of the Chagan, and she made them known to Justinian, he called the guards sent by the Chagan to him and killed them, and immediately sent Theodora back to Chazaria. He himself fled from Phanagoria to the straits and, having boarded a ship, reached Symbolum, near Cherson; and, having sent men there in secret, he summoned to him Basbacurius, his brother, ^C Stephen, and Metropaulus. Sailing away with them, he passed by the lighthouse of Cherson, the Necropyla, and the mouths of the Danapris and the Danastrus. A storm having arisen, they all despaired of their salvation. Myaces, his household attendant, said to him, "Behold, master, we are dying. Make a vow to God for your salvation, so that if God restores your kingdom to you, you will not avenge yourself on your enemy." Justinian, answering him, said in a rage, "May God drown me here if I spare any of my enemies." Having proceeded into the Danube river, he sent Stephen to Terbelis, the prince of Bulgaria, begging him for assistance to recover his ancestral empire, promising him many gifts and his own daughter in marriage. Terbelis swore that he would do everything, and armed all the multitude of the Bulgarians and Slavs. With these, Justinian came to Constantinople and pitched his camp from the Charsius gate to the Blachernae. After holding discussions with those in the city for three days, and being insulted more and more, he, surrounded by only a few Romans, escaped into the city through the aqueduct; ^D and, having broken through it, he soon pitched his tent in the Blachernae palace. Upon learning this, Apsimarus, with a great...

more insulted. Justinian, however, having entered the city with a few Romans through the aqueduct and having caused a disturbance by digging up the ground, encamped for a short time in the Blachernae Palace. Apsimar, learning of this, fled to Apolloniada 28, taking with him a great deal of wealth. Then Justinian recovered the empire. Callinicus occupied the throne of the high priesthood.

Justinian, having recovered the empire, reigned for six years. Upon receiving the kingdom, he gave many gifts to Tervel, including royal vessels and a portion of Roman territory—that land which is now called Zagoria—and dismissed him in peace. Apsimar, having fled to Apolloniada, was captured and brought to Justinian, and Heraclius, too, was brought from Thrace along with certain other leaders; and he had them all hanged on the wall 29. ^B Having also sent men into all the inland regions, he found more of their associates—up to three hundred—and put them all to death. He led Apsimar and Leontius, bound in chains, through the city in a procession, and when the horse-races were taking place, they were brought bound and thrown at the emperor’s feet. And as he trampled upon their necks until the release of the first *baion* 30, the people shouted: "You shall walk upon the asp and the basilisk," and the rest. Then he sent them to the Cynegion and had them beheaded. He blinded the patriarch Callinicus and exiled him to Rome. In Constantinople, he appointed as patriarch Cyrus, who had been a recluse on the island of Amastris, because he had foretold to him the restoration of his second reign. He destroyed an innumerable multitude of both the civil and military registers. From this, a great fear gripped everyone. He sent a fleet to bring his wife back from Khazaria, but many ships and their crews were lost. Hearing of this, the Chagan said to him: "Fool, could you not have sent two or three ships to retrieve your wife, and not destroyed such a multitude? Do you think you can take this by war, too? Behold, a son has also been born to you; send to bring them." So Justinian sent and brought Theodora and his son Tiberius, and he crowned them.

In the third year, Justinian broke the peace that existed between the Romans and the Bulgarians; having crossed his cavalry forces into Thrace and equipped a fleet, he advanced against Tervel, having seized Anchialus. But when the Bulgarians saw that the Romans had encamped carelessly and were wandering about in disorder, they made an attack, inflicted a great slaughter, and captured many ^{C D}

captives. ^A Justinian, having fled into the fortress with a few men, kept the doors barred for three days. But seeing the persistence of the Bulgarians in the siege, he cut the tendons of his horses, boarded ships by night, escaped secretly, and returned home in disgrace.

Justinian, remembering the conspiracy plotted against him by the Chersonites, the Bosporans, and the others, sent every ship, from the smallest to the largest, ordering that all who dwelt in those places be slaughtered by the sword, and that no one be spared. Those who were sent arrived, and, with no one resisting them, put everyone to the sword, sparing only the small infants, as they were to be kept for slavery. ^B They sent the leading men of Cherson, forty-two in number, to the emperor under guard; seven others they hung aloft on wooden stakes and roasted them with fire, and others they cast into the sea. Having learned of this, Justinian was enraged at the sparing of the infants. When the fleet was returning and already approaching Byzantium, it was endangered. The number of the dead was counted, and it was found to be seventy-three thousand. This increased Justinian's joy. He sent another fleet, with orders to level everything to the ground, to plow it up, and to slaughter everyone, "even to him who urinates against the wall." When those who held those fortresses heard this, they fortified themselves and sent envoys to the Khagan in Khazaria to ask for a garrison to be provided to them by him. When Justinian's fleet arrived, they captured their leaders within the fortresses and slaughtered them, and handed over the rest of the population to the Khazars. ^C Accordingly, those who held Cherson and the remaining fortresses renounced their allegiance to Justinian and hailed as emperor ^D Bardanes, also called Philippicus, through auspicious acclamations. Having learned of this, Justinian sent another fleet with siege engines and rams. And when they had brought down the stronger towers of Cherson, the Khazars arrived and prevented them from their undertaking, and Bardanes escaped and fled to the Khagan. As the fleet had accomplished nothing, and the men did not dare to return to Justinian because of his inhumanity and cruelty, they renounced their allegiance to Justinian, hailed Bardanes as emperor, and asked the Khagan that he be given to them. When the Khagan required from them a pledge that he would not be betrayed by them and that one gold coin be paid for each man, they immediately paid this money and received Bardanes, also called Philippicus, as emperor. When the fleet was delayed and no report was arriving, Justinian suspected the cause, and taking with him the men of the Opsikion and a portion of the Thracians, he marched as far as Sinope. And perceiving that the fleet was steering its course toward Constantinople, he raised a lion-like roar and himself also made for the city; and since Philippicus had already anticipated him and occupied it, he retreated to Damatrya.

^A Philippicus immediately sent Elias with a force against Justinian, and the patrician Maurus against Tiberius. The latter happened upon Tiberius near the Blachernae, embracing the venerable wood of the Cross and the holy altar; Anastasia, the mother of Justinian, stood outside the steps, pleading with him in many words not to kill Tiberius. However, Joannes arrived and violently snatched Tiberius, the son of the Khazar woman, from the altar, and dragging him out to the ^B postern of Callinicus, he slaughtered him like a sheep by cutting his throat. Elias, having come to parley with the soldiers of Justinian, led them over to himself by promising them safety, and having seized Justinian—who had been abandoned by everyone—violently by the neck, he cut off his head with the sword he wore strapped to his thigh, and sent it to Philippicus, who afterwards dispatched it as far as Rome.

The aforementioned monk, the heretic and astronomer of the Callistrati, who had prophesied the empire to Philippicus, had also stipulated this from him: that once he had obtained power, he should abolish the Sixth Synod, as having been wrongly conducted, and so his empire would be long-lasting and strong. Philippicus swore to do this, and once he held the empire, acting as he had been instructed by the impostor monk, he convened a false council of bishops and declared the holy and ecumenical Sixth Synod void. ^C At that same time, the vain man was also blinded. He also expelled Cyrus the patriarch from the Church, and appointed in his seat Joannes, his companion in impiety and a fellow heretic.

This Philippicus, also known as Bardanes, was considered eloquent and prudent in conversation, yet in his actions he was devoid of gravity and industry, and living basely, he earned for himself ultimate infamy. Inflamed by a certain madness against the holy Sixth Synod, he set himself to abolish all its holy decrees, having found for this purpose those like-minded with himself, both this Joannes whom he made patriarch and certain others, who even condemned that synod in writing. At the same time, the Bulgarians, led by Phileas, secretly entered through the straits and made a raid as far as the Golden Gate of the city. The number of those killed and taken prisoner by them is too great to be told. They themselves returned home unharmed. ^D In the second year, it pleased Bardanes to dine with some of the citizens. Now on the Saturday of Pentecost, while Philippicus was resting at midday, Ruffus, the commander of the Opsician troops, suddenly entered through the Golden Gate with the Thracians whom he was leading,

^A seized Philippicus, and brought him to the armamentarium of the Greens, and blinded him without anyone knowing. The following day, namely the Sunday of Pentecost, the people having gathered in the Great Church, Artemius, the chief of the secretaries ^B (37), was inaugurated into the kingdom, having been renamed Anastasius by John the heretical patriarch (38), for 2 years.

Artemius, also called Anastasius, reigned 2 years. Being a man of great learning, ^C he appointed as general in command of the cavalry Leo the Isaurian, a most excellent man, and he placed another very learned man in charge of civil affairs; thus he lived securely. This same man put out the eyes of the patricians Theodorus and Georgius and deported them to Thessalonica. As the Arabs were mobilizing against the Romans by both land and sea, it was reported to the emperor that they were coming against the city. He began to build dromons and biremes, and set about renovating the maritime and land walls, and he filled the granaries with grain. Under him, Germanus was transferred from the metropolis of Cyzicus to Constantinople, and a decree of transfer was proclaimed: “By the vote and approval of the most God-beloved bishops, divine grace, which always heals the weak and restores what is lacking, transfers the most holy Germanus, prelate of the Cyzicene metropolis, to the archbishopric of this God-guarded and royal city, under the emperor Artemius.” ^D When the emperor learned that a Saracen fleet had set out to cut wood in Phoenicia (41), he equipped a fleet and sent it out to burn that timber. But when the fleet arrived at Rhodes, it mutinied, deposed the emperor, and put to the sword their general, John; then they sailed directly toward the royal city. Arriving at Adramyttium, they found there a certain Theodosius, a pious man who was a fiscal official and alien to public affairs, and they proclaimed him emperor. When Artemius learned of this, he fortified the city and fled to the city of Nicaea. For six months there was a struggle between the Constantinopolitan fleet and that of Theodosius. Finally, Theodosius crossed into the parts of Thrace, attacked the city with a large force, and, having corrupted the guards at the wall of the Blachernae, entered it. The naval forces sacked the city and, sparing no one, carried off immense plunder. Then they seized the patrician Germanus and the prefects of Artemius and brought them to Nicaea. Seeing this, Artemius, upon being promised safety, [assumed] the monastic habit.

and he was exiled to Thessalonica. ^A Leo the Isaurian, who was the strategos of the Anatolics, did not submit to Theodosius out of support for Artemius, having as his confederate Artabasdus, an Armenian and strategos of the Armeniacs, to whom he had also pledged to give his own daughter in marriage.

Theodosius held the Roman empire for 2 years. In his reign, Masalmas, the leader of the Saracens, campaigned against the Romans. And having reached the regions of Amorium, he wrote to Leo, the strategos of the Anatolics: "The Roman empire is fitting for you. Come, therefore, and let us discuss matters of peace." Leo then sent envoys to him, concluded peace, and, having been hailed as emperor, came to Nicomedia with a great army. ^B There he encountered the son of Theodosius in battle, and having overcome him together with the [entire] imperial retinue and the officials of the palace, he seized Chrysopolis. Theodosius, having obtained from him promises of safety, ceded the empire to him and became a cleric together with his son. This man was also a scribe of gold. He died at Ephesus and was buried under the earth in the church of Saint Philip; he inscribed upon his tomb: "Health." Some of the local inhabitants say that he works miracles.

When Masalmas came to Pergamum, he captured it. For at the instigation of a certain magician, the townspeople had cut open a pregnant woman, and, having boiled the fetus in a kettle, all who wished to go to war dipped the sleeves of their right arms into this abominable sacrifice. ^C For this reason, by the just judgment of God, they were surrendered to the enemy.

In the year of the world 6209, of the divine incarnation 703, Leo the Isaurian, who was also called Conon and, on account of the abandoned images, the Iconoclast, began his rule and reigned for 24 years. A few years before Leo began to rule, certain Hebrews from Laodicea in Phoenicia came to Izeth, the leader of the Arabs, promising him that the Arab rule would last for 40 years if he would destroy the venerable images honored in the churches of the Christians throughout his dominion. The foolish Izeth, persuaded by these men, enacted a universal decree against the holy and venerable images. But by the favor of Christ and the intercessions of the all-pure Theotokos and all the saints, he died quickly and was unable to send it out over his dominion; for not yet a year had passed when divine justice overtook him. ^D His son, having received the rule, wished to kill them as false prophets. Learning of this, they fled back into the Isaurian regions. As they were cooling themselves at a certain spring, behold, this Leo, being still a young man, beautiful in appearance and tall in stature, [and] coarse in

^A his craft, and earning his livelihood from it, also removed the load from his pack animal and sat down by the spring himself to have a meal. Then those initiates of the ventriloquists foretell to him that he would seize the scepter of the Roman empire. When Leo hesitated, he is assured by them. They even demand an oath ^B from him that if this should come to pass, he would do whatever they might ask. As there was a temple of the holy Theodore near that place, he swears to them. When both then departed, Leo is recruited into the army by the patrician Sisinnios. And in a short time, having been made a spatharios ^C by Justinian Rhinotmetos, he is sent to the West, and having been victorious, he is made commander of the East by Theodosius, and he seizes the empire in the way mentioned above.

In the second year, Solyman with an army and commanders crossed from Abydos into Thrace. Upon his death, Umarus succeeded to the command. Since a most severe winter occurred in Thrace, such that for a hundred days the land could not be seen due to snow hardened into ice, a great multitude ^D of the enemies' horses and camels and other animals perished. Then in the spring, Suphiam arrived with the fleet built in Egypt and anchored at the harbor which is called the Good Field. Not long after, Izeth, with another fleet built in Africa, also anchored at Satyros, Bryas, and as far as the harbor of Cartos. However, the Egyptians of these two fleets, having consulted among themselves, entered the city by night, cheering the emperor, to such a degree that from Hieria to the city the sea appeared to be entirely wooden . Each of these fleets had an innumerable army and ships and arms not to be numbered. And all these things, through the help of the merciful God and the intercessions of the Theotokos, were in that same place partly sunk by the winds and partly burned, and they all perished instantly with their ships, having besieged the city for two years. Again, Merdasane, with his army making incursions from the gates as far as Nicaea and Nicomedia, the Romans who were in Libos and Sophon, hiding after the manner of the Mardaites, suddenly attacking them and inflicting great slaughter daily, put them to flight. Besides these great things, a famine also fell upon the Arabs, so that they devoured all living animals. They say that they even ate dead men and their own excrement, boiled with the roots of plants. A plague also seized them, and destroyed an innumerable multitude of them. The Bulgarians also joined battle against them and slaughtered twenty-two thousand. Many other calamities befell them, so that by experience itself they were sufficiently...

^A convinced that God and the Lady Theotokos are the guardians of this city; and there is no complete abandonment by God of those who call upon Him in truth, even though we are chastised for a short while for our sins.

In this year, Sergius, the prince of the spatharioi and prefect of Sicily, having heard that the Saracens were besieging the city, crowned as his own emperor a certain citizen from among his followers, Basil, the son of Onomagulus, having changed his name to Tiberius. He also made appointments and named his own officials in accordance with the counsels of Sergius. When the Emperor heard this, he sent his domesticus, Paul, with forces. When he had reached Sicily and had read the imperial mandates to the people, the result was that they immediately confirmed the empire of Leo with favorable acclamations. Basil Onomagulus and his companions were delivered in chains to Paul, who cut off their heads and sent them to the Emperor. Sergius, having been promised safety, came forward to Paul, and thus the West was pacified. ^B But the remaining ships of the Arabs and of Umar, having wished to return home with great dishonor on the day of August, were, by a divinely sent whirlwind, submerged, some at Proconnesus, others at the Apostrophoi and the remaining shores. To those who were still left in the Aegean Sea, a fiery hail fell, causing the sea to boil. And as the pitch melted, all but five ships were lost with their crews, the only ones to reach Syria, bearing witness to the power of our God.

In the first year of Leo, there was a great earthquake in Syria. Umar forced the Christians to adopt the Mahometan impiety, and he favored those who obeyed him with immunity from tribute, while those who did not obey he slaughtered, and thus made many martyrs. He also enacted a law forbidding a Christian to give testimony against Saracens. He also wrote to the Emperor Leo, urging him to embrace ^C Mahometan superstition.

In the third year, there was born to the Emperor Leo a most impious son and forerunner of the Antichrist, Constantine Caballinus. On the twenty-sixth day of the month of October, Maria, the wife of Leo, was crowned in the Augustal triclinium, and having made vows at the entrance of the holy sanctuary, she crossed over to the great baptistery. There, when Constantine had been baptized by the Patriarch Germanus, he ^D took up his father’s reign and malice.

^A He had given a dire and foul omen of his future life in his very infancy, by defiling the holy font with excrement. Thus, the patriarch prophesied that he would bring great evils upon the Christians and the Church. He was received by the leaders of the themes and the senate. ^B In the same year, Nicetas Xylinites wrote to Artemius, who was residing in Thessalonica, urging him to betake himself to Terbelis and, furnished with Bulgarian aid, to march against Leo. When he arrived, Terbelis gave him an army and fifty centenaries of gold. Artemius then set out for Constantinople. But since the city did not receive him, the Bulgarians handed him over to Leo and, having been kindly treated by him, returned home. Leo executed Artemius and Xylinites, and confiscated the goods of Xylinites, who, as a magister, had been extremely wealthy. Along with them, he beheaded the Archbishop of Thessalonica and many others, while he had still more mutilated by nose-cutting and sent into exile.

In the fourth year, on the day of Easter, Constantine Caballinus was crowned by his father, Leo, at the tribunal, ^C by the Holy Germanus. In the same year, Umar died, having ruled as amir of the Arabs for two years and four months; Yazid succeeded him. In Persia, moreover, another man, one Ized Mualabis, played the tyrant, and many from Persia rallied to him. But Yazid killed him and subjected Persia.

In the fifth year, a certain Syrian appeared, a false Christ, and deceived the Hebrews by claiming that he himself was Christ, the Son of God. ^D

In the sixth year, the emperor compelled the Hebrews and the Montanists to be baptized. The Hebrews, though baptized against their will, washed off the baptism, and having eaten food beforehand, partook of the holy mysteries. The Montanists, however, having prophesied to one another, entered on a fixed day the houses destined for their error and burned themselves alive.

In the seventh year came those seers, as has been said before, who had foretold the reign to Leo, and they demanded from him the promise—that is, the destruction of the holy icons—promising the impious man that if he did so, he would live for one hundred years. Believing these men, that bane of mankind became the cause of many evils to us Christians. For, having found certain men who thought the same as he did, including the bishop of Nacolia, he polluted our religion not a little.

It is recorded that it was the custom for the king of France to rule by lineage, and to exercise no authority other than to eat and drink senselessly, and in the month of May to proceed

^A into the sight of the whole nation, to adore the nation, and in turn to be adored by them, to receive gifts according to custom and to give them in return, and for the prefect of the house or palace to manage the affairs of the king and all the matters of the nation. Those who were descended from that stock were called "crested," which in Greek is called *trichorachali*, because they had hairs growing from the spine of their backs like swine.

In the ninth year, the impious Leo began to make mention of the destruction of the holy images. Upon learning this, Pope Gregory of Rome forbade him the tribute of Italy and Rome, having also sent a decretal epistle to Leo, warning him that it is not for an emperor to decree concerning the faith or to overturn the ancient dogmas of the Church which were established by the holy Fathers. In the same year also, a torrent ^B overflowing into the city of Edessa destroyed many.

In the tenth year, Masalmas stormed Caesarea of Cappadocia and took it. There was also a plague in Syria. In the same year, in the summer, a furnace-like steam of fire welled up from the depths of the sea between the islands of Thera and Therasia for several days, and as it gradually thickened and solidified into stone by the fiery heat, the whole place and the air took on a fiery appearance. Because of the density of the earthy matter, great pumice stones were cast across the whole of Asia Minor, Lesbos, Abydos, and the maritime Macedonia, so that the entire face of that sea was covered with pumice floating on the surface. In the midst of this fire, an island was compacted onto the land and added to the so-called Sacred Island; it had never existed before, but just as Thera and Therasia once erupted, so too was this one thrust up in the age of the God-opposing Leo. ^C But Leo, considering how great a wrath of God he had brought upon himself, waged war against the venerable images even more impudently. For this reason, the people of the royal city, moved by vehement grief, decided to attack Leo himself, and they slaughtered many of his household servants, as well as those who had removed the image of the Lord placed at the great bronze gate. The result of this was that many, fighting for piety, were subjected to punishments, others were mutilated in their limbs, and others were punished with flagellation, exile, and many other things; and the pious education of the schools ceased. For near the so-called royal cistern there was a venerable palace, in which, according to the ancient custom, an ecumenical ^D master sat, having twelve disciples who were distinguished in learning and life. These, having grasped all the art of rhetoric with quickness and breadth of mind, studied the ecclesiastical wisdom of divine things with keen devotion

^A, since it was deemed unlawful for anything to be done without their counsel, even by the emperors themselves. Conon, calling these men to him repeatedly, endeavored to persuade them to his heresy. But because they would not consent, but rather opposed him, he ordered them to be ignominiously shut up in their school, and at night, having set fire to it all around, the wretch burned them up, along with the house, many precious books, and sacred furnishings. From this, the Greeks and those who held the Cyclades islands, having agreed, made war against him in a great naval battle; but as they approached Byzantium, their ships were burned by his artificial fire and perished, along with them. Moreover, the impious Leo continued to persecute piety with increased intensity. ^B In the same year, Amer, making an excursion with fifteen thousand light-armed soldiers, suddenly besieged Nicaea in Bithynia. Mabias joined him, having followed with eight thousand five hundred more. But they, having besieged the city for a long time and demolished parts of the walls, were deterred by an apparition of the holy Fathers who are honored there, and they departed in shame, their work undone. A certain Constantine, a strator of Artavasdus, seeing an image of the Theotokos standing there, took a stone and threw it at her, and having cast her down, he trampled upon her. The Lady therefore appeared to him in a vision, standing by and saying to him: "Do you know what a noble deed you have committed against me? Truly, you have done this against your own head." The next day, when the Saracens were assaulting the wall and the battle had begun, the wretch, running to the wall, was struck by a stone from a siege engine and, having had his head and face crushed, he received the reward worthy of his impiety. ^C The emperor Leo, however, was not only in error concerning the due adoration of the venerable images, but he also thought impiously concerning the intercessions of the all-pure Theotokos and of all the saints; and the all-polluted one, like his teachers the Arabs, detested the relics of the saints. From that time forth, therefore, he was impudently hostile to the blessed Germanus. He also summoned him to himself, and introducing the subject with guile, began to condemn all the emperors and pontiffs who had preceded him, on the grounds that they had impiously transferred to the worship of holy images the cult due to God alone. To this, the great Germanus said: "Hearken, O Emperor. Since our Lord Jesus Christ has appeared in the flesh, all idolatry has been removed, and every idolatrous image has vanished and been cast out, as the prophet Zechariah says, for the Lord of Hosts says: 'I will cut off the names of the idols from the earth, and there shall be no more remembrance of them' (Zach. XIII, 2). Furthermore, we have heard that the sacred images are about to be abolished, but not under your reign." And when he forced him to say under whom, the saint said: "Under Conon." And he, answering, said: "Truly, it is I: for this is the ^D [imperial name]... who crushed his head and face.

given to me at my baptism." When Germanus received this address, he said: "Far be it, my lord, that this act hateful to God should be committed during your reign." But the tyrant, who was an enemy of God, hearing these words, was gravely indignant, roared with a lion’s voice, called him an idolater, and, striking him with his own hand, drove him out of the palace. Having then issued an edict against the holy icons, he summoned the holy Germanus again, hoping to persuade him to subscribe to it. But Germanus did not yield in the slightest either to the flattery or to the threats of the tyrant. Rather, the blessed man reminded him of the promises made before his accession to the empire, how he had given God as surety that he would never subvert any of the doctrines of the truth. But the wretch was not the least bit ashamed; on the contrary, he strove to entrap him in his speech, so that he might depose him from the throne as a factionary ^B and not as a confessor. To this end, he found an ally in Anastasius, the syncellus of the saint, having promised him that he would be his successor on the throne. The blessed man, knowing him to be another Iscariot, wisely warned him regarding his betrayal. And once, as Germanus was entering the palace, Anastasius stepped on the hem of the saint’s garment. To this the holy man said: "Do not be in a hurry; the Diippion awaits you." Fifteen years later, Constantine the persecutor, having beaten this same Anastasius in the hippodrome along with his son-in-law Artabasdus and other enemies of his, ordered him to be led through the Diippion, stripped naked and seated backwards on a donkey, for exhibition, because he had detracted from the imperial power by having placed the diadem on Artabasdus. And thus the prophecy ^C of the most holy Germanus was fulfilled. Hence, this divine Germanus was the defender of the true religion in Byzantium, daily fighting like a wild beast against Leo, who shared a name with a beast, and his henchmen; while in Senior Rome, there was Gregory, an apostolic man and colleague of Peter the Chief of the Apostles, who for his divine lucubrations was called "Dialogus." ^D This holy man, because of the impious deeds of Leo, revolted; and having made a peace treaty with the Franks, he refused to pay tribute to Leo, and excommunicated Anastasius and his associates. The emperor, through his many letters to many, made his plan known.

Xylander and Goar’s Notes

and he struck his opponent with an anathema; he also openly refuted the emperor in many letters and through many read publications. In Damascus of Syria there was John, a monk and presbyter, surnamed Chrysorrhoas, the son of Mansur, which in Greek means *Lentrabum*, whom the impious one, in a Jewish frame of mind, ^A called *Manzer* (a bastard). This Saint John, together with Cosmas, bishop of Majuma, and Theophanes, brother of Theodore the bishop of the Graptoi, were styled *melodoi* or singers, because they had grasped the hymns that are chanted in the churches of the Christians in the very manner in which they had been composed and structured. For this Saint John was an excellent master both in his life and in his discourse, filled with all divine and human knowledge. But Leo cast Germanus from his throne as if he were subject to his authority; and he, having laid his *omophorion* upon the holy table of the Great Church, resigned his office and departed. And the impious Leo appointed in his place Anastasius the syncellus, who consented to his impious counsel and heresy. ^B Now the holy Germanus, as he was departing, said among other things intended for instruction: "If I am Jonas, cast me into the sea; for without an ecumenical council, O emperor, I cannot innovate regarding the faith." And having retired to his ancestral house of Platanius, he lived in quiet, having held the supreme pontificate for 14 years, 5 months, and 7 days.

In the 14th year, Masalmas waged war upon the Roman empire, and having come into Cappadocia, he took the fort of Charsianum by deceit.

In the 16th year, the emperor Leo gave the daughter of the Chagan, the prince of the Scythians, to his son Constantine in marriage, having made her a Christian and naming her Irene. ^C Having diligently studied the Holy Scriptures, she was illustrious in piety and refuted the impiety of those who were estranged from God. But the emperor, raging against the Pope and the defection of Rome and Italy, armed and sent out a great fleet against them. However, the vain man was put to shame when his fleet suffered shipwreck in the Adriatic Sea. Then, the man who fought against God, incited by even greater fury at this, imposed a poll-tax ^D upon a third part of the people of Sicily and Calabria. He also ordered that the patrimonies of the churches in Rome, consecrated to the chief apostles, from which an annual sum of three and a half talents had been paid from ancient times, be paid into the public treasury.

^A And he ordered that infants who were born be inspected and registered, so that this census (which they call *Kephaletion*) could be exacted from individual persons.

In the 18th, 19th, and 21st years, Suleiman, the son of Isam, having made incursions into Asia, carried off many captives. Among these was a certain Pergamene who said he was Tiberius, the son of Justinian. Isam held him in royal honor, in honor of his own son, and so that he might cast terror upon the emperors; he placed him in command of an army, and sent him to Jerusalem and throughout all Syria for everyone to see.

In the 23rd year, Suleiman campaigned against the Romans, having 60,000 men. And having achieved much capture and taken many captives, and having laid waste to the Iron Castle (for that is what Siderocastrum is), he returned unharmed.

In the 24th year, the markets were burned by the Hieracites, and many of them were punished. On the 26th of the month of October, which is sacred to St. Demetrius, on a Wednesday, at the 8th hour, a great and terrifying earthquake occurred in Constantinople; churches, monasteries, and many houses were cast down, and many people died. The column of Arcadius in Xerolophos also fell, ^B as did many others, and the landward walls of the city, and cities and villages in Thrace, including Nicaea, Nicomedia, and Praenetus. The sea also withdrew from its own boundaries in certain places. This earthquake lasted for 11 months. The emperor, having seen the walls of the city cast down, proclaimed ^C saying: "Since you of the city are unable to rebuild the walls, we have ordered the administrators of the themes to exact for the canon, upon each *nomisma*, one *miliarision*, and the empire shall receive it and build them." Thenceforth, the custom prevailed of providing *dikerata* (two-ceratia coins) to the administrators. *Ceratia* were called the 12 *folles*, or *nummoi*, after Numa, the king of Rome, who was the first to stamp his own likeness upon obols, and therefore called the coins by his own name. He also established a certain office, which one of his men holding the office took from each of those who received stipends from the palace: 12 *folles*, or one *ceration*. For this reason, it was also called *ceration*. This was as a form of tally for those who were paid from the palace; for at that time, a census was not yet being conducted in Rome. This Numa lived at the time when Israel was first led off into captivity, in the 4780th year of the creation of the world. ^D Leo the Isaurian, who was also Conon, ruled for 24 years, 2 months, and 25 days. He died of a bowel disease, his soul perishing with his body.

^A His corpse was interred in the church of the Holy Apostles.

The mind shrinks from recounting what and how great were the adversities that befell the Christians during the reign of this most impious and inhuman Leo, how much he harmed the true faith, and how, through the devising of foul greed and avarice against the whole world and the Christians, he wore down the administration of the commonwealth; nor can I tell of the earthquakes, famines, pestilences, rebellions, and slaughters that occurred, for they exceed all mind, word, and understanding. It is fitting, therefore, henceforth to go through the lawless deeds of his most impious and wretched son, which were even more sacrilegious and hateful to God.

^B The year of the world 6236, of the divine incarnation the year 739, Constantine Caballinus the Iconoclast attained the empire and ruled for 35 years. Sprung from a most savage lion, he appeared as a most cunning leopard, and from the seed of a serpent, an asp and a flying viper. Having succeeded to his father’s kingdom and impiety, he removed himself even further from God, from the Mother of God, and from all the saints; and henceforth, given over to sorceries, debaucheries, the invocation of demons, the dissection of entrails, and other evil practices, as well as to hunting and chariot races, he became a suitable instrument of the Antichrist. To such an extent did he do this, that by a universal edict he forbade anyone at all ^C to be honored with the title of a servant of the Lord; nay, he even ordered that the relics found of them be spat upon, and prohibited anyone from requesting their intercession, saying, "For they possess no power at all," the most defiled wretch adding, "Nor let anyone call upon the intercession of Mary; for she can accomplish nothing." Nor did he even want her to be called Theotokos. For having taken into his hand a purse full of gold and having shown it to everyone, he asked what it was worth. When they replied, "A great deal," he emptied out the gold and again asked what the purse was worth, and they answered, "Nothing." "Thus," he said, "also Mary, while she held Christ in her womb, was honored, but after she gave birth to Him, she is in no way superior to other women." Spare us, O Lord. These things cast the Christians into grave despondency, so that he was hated by all, and they joined themselves to Artabasdus the curopalates (who had the sister of Copronymus in marriage).

^D Meanwhile, Constantine, having gone out into the regions of the Opsician Theme against the Arabs, kept a watchful eye for opportunities to harm Artabasdus, who at that time was staying at Dorylaeum. When Artabasdus learned of this, he moved against him and slew with the sword the patrician Biserus, a companion of Constantine’s mysteries. Copronymus, fearing for his safety, mounted a post-horse...

^A and fled to Amorium. He won over Longinus, the commander of the Easterners, with great promises, and remained safe under his protection. From this arose most calamitous wars for the subjects, as both were proclaimed emperors. Artabasdus entered the city and immediately restored the holy images throughout it, and he was proclaimed emperor by the themes. But Anastasius, the man who falsely held the title of patriarch, holding the precious and life-giving wood of the Cross, swore to the people that “Constantine the emperor said these words to me: ‘Do not consider the Christ who was born of Mary to be the Son of God, nor anything more than a man; for Mary gave birth to him just as my mother Mary gave birth to me.’” Hearing this, the people tore him asunder.

In the second year of his reign, Isamus, the leader of the Arabs, died. Since the most holy Church of Antioch had been destitute of a patriarch for forty years, the Arabs forbidding one to be established therein, he had a certain Syrian monk dear to him named Stephen—a pious man, but rustic—and he signaled to the Antiochenes that if they wished to have a patriarch granted to them, they should commit that office to this Stephen. Thinking this to be divinely ordained, they chose Stephen as patriarch of the throne of Theopolis. In this year, both Constantine and Artabasdus sent envoys to Isamus, both of them requesting an alliance. There was a great drought, and earthquakes occurred in various places, to such an extent that mountains in the desert of Saba came together, and a village was swallowed by the earth. In the same year, Cosmas, the patriarch of Alexandria, along with his city, converted from the error of the Monothelites to the true faith. In this year, a sign appeared in the heavens. But Validus cut out the tongue of the most holy Peter, the metropolitan of Damascus, because he was refuting the errors of the Arabs and Manichaeans, and he exiled him to Arabia Felix; there, having borne witness to Christ and having clearly recited the divine liturgy, he was put to death and died. In this year there were civil wars such as had not occurred since the foundation of the world.

^B In the third year, a sign appeared toward the North, and dust fell from heaven onto certain places. There was also an earthquake at the Caspian Gates; and Validus was killed by the Arabs after ruling for one year, and Izidus the Leipsus obtained the rule. In this year, Constantine crossed through Abydos and pitched camp at the landward wall of the city; he even rode up to the Golden Gate, displaying himself to the multitudes. Artabasdus went out from the city, joined battle, and was defeated with great slaughter. When Copronymus had gained control of the ships, a huge famine arose in the city, such that a modius of barley was sold for...

twelve nomismata, and other things in like manner. As the people were dying and perishing, Artabasdus was compelled to dismiss her and depart from the city. ^A His son Nicetas, having gathered a sufficient force, came as far as Chrysopolis. Copronymus crossed over, put him to flight, and having captured him, shackled him and brought him to the wall to show him to his father. Suddenly launching an assault by the land wall, he took the city. Having thus brought Artabasdus under his power, he blinded him and those who accompanied him, along with his two sons. He cut off the hands of Bactagmus and beheaded him in the Cynegion, and he also destroyed many other of the nobles and confiscated their estates. He gave equestrian games, and ordered Artabasdus to be brought in with his sons and friends in chains, together with Anastasius, the pseudo-patriarch, who was publicly scourged ^B and sat positioned backwards upon an ass. He commanded the strangers whom he had brought with him to enter the houses of the citizens and plunder their possessions. Yet he terrorized and subjugated that pseudo-patriarch, a partisan of his own error, and restored him again to the throne of the priesthood.

In the 4th year a great comet appeared in Syria, and Maruamus assumed rule over the Arabs. Persuaded by the exhortations of the Christians who were in the East, he granted that Theophylactus, an Edessan priest, be appointed patriarch of Antioch, as Stephen had died. He ordered him to be honored generally by the Arabs by public edict.

In the 5th year, finding an opportunity to act in the East as the Arabs were fighting among themselves, Copronymus took Germanicia and campaigned against Dulichia ^C and Assyria. He also took his maternal relatives and transferred them to Byzantium, and with them many Syrian Monophysites, who attribute a single nature to Christ. From the 10th to the 15th of August, there was a murky darkness.

In the 6th year, a great earthquake occurred in Palestine, and at the Jordan, and throughout all Syria, on the 18th day of the month of January, at the 4th hour; and countless myriads of men perished, and churches and monasteries collapsed, especially throughout the wilderness of the Holy City. In the same year, a pestilential death, having taken its beginning from Sicily and Calabria, spread like fire, seizing Monembasia and Greece and the surrounding islands ^D throughout the entire 14th indiction. And in the 15th, there suddenly began to appear in the Queen of Cities, unseen, upon the garments of men and upon the church furnishings, many oily crosses. By this sign, as to what it portended, as men did not

fell into great grief and anxiety. But various evils sent by the wrath of God also consumed the people together, not only in the city, but in the entire surrounding region. ^A Visions also appeared to men, so that many people, becoming ecstatic, thought they were traveling with certain strangers of terrible appearance, who would greet those they met as if they were friends and converse with them. And when they noted what was said by them, they narrated it only after the outcomes had proven them true. They also saw them entering houses, some hanging those inside, others striking them with a sword. The event showed that most of what was said by them came to pass. In the spring time of the first indiction, the evil intensified further, and it blazed up entirely in the summer, so that entire houses were shut up completely, and there were none left to bury the dead, nor were there even enough biers to carry them out, but beasts of burden and wagons were used for this, and they were buried in the fortifications, suburbs, dried-up cisterns, and ponds; when these were filled, even vineyards and gardens were dug up and barely sufficed to cover the corpses. ^B Meanwhile, Copronymus, all families having been devastated on account of his impiety, gathered all the possessions of the townsfolk and deposited them in the palace. At that time, a fleet of the Hagarenes also landed at Cyprus, where the Roman fleet was. The Roman commander, having occupied the mouth of the harbor, suddenly attacked the enemy and destroyed them utterly, letting only three escape to bring the report.

In the ninth year of Constantine, Maruam is attacked by the Black-robed ones, who are called Chrysaronites, and is killed in a most severe battle. ^C On the twenty-fifth day of the month of January, a son is born to the impious Constantine by the Khazar Irene, whom they named Leo. In the same time, a severe earthquake occurred in Syria, causing terrible ruins, by which some of the cities were utterly destroyed, others partially, and some were moved from the mountains to the plains below, along with their walls and buildings, intact for up to six miles. Furthermore, in Mesopotamia the earth was split for a length of two miles, and from its depths very white, sandy earth was cast up, from the middle of which a mule-like animal emerged, speaking with a human voice, predicting an incursion of a certain people from the wilderness against the Arabs; and so it happened. ^D In the following year, of the fourth indiction, on the feast day of Pentecost, the impious Caballinus crowned his son Leo as emperor, the crown being placed upon him by Anastasius, the pseudo-patriarch and companion of his impiety. In the tenth year, Theophylactus, the most holy patriarch of Antioch, died.

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES. (85) He calls the Chrysaronitæ deacons, the eastern people of the Persians. Xyl.

^A In the eleventh year, Constantine took Theodosiopolis together with Melitene, having taken captive all who were there. And on the pretext of the plague, he took his kinsmen, the Armenian and Syrian heretics, and brought them over to Byzantium and Thrace; who even to this day persist in the heresy of the tyrant. By them also the heresy of the Paulicians was propagated.

In the twelfth year, the impious and profane pontiff Anastasius died, soul and body perishing in a most miserable affliction called the chordapsus, vomiting excrement through his mouth, paying the penalty worthy of his outrages against God and his teacher (86).

In the thirteenth year, Constantine the impious gathered a lawless council of bishops against the holy and venerable icons in the palace of Hieria (87), over whom presided Theodosius, the son of Apsimar, the bishop of Ephesus, and Pastelas of Perga. They, having decreed ^B their own opinions by their own authority, with none present from the Catholic sees (I mean Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem), and beginning from the tenth day of February, they continued the synod until the eighth of August of the same indiction. On that day, when those adversaries of the Theotokos had assembled in the shrine at Blachernæ, Constantine Caballinus also went up onto the ambo, holding the monk Constantine, who had been bishop of Sylæum; and praying, he said in a loud voice: "Many be the years of the life of Constantine, the ecumenical patriarch." After these things were done, the emperor went forth with the new patriarch into the forum, and in the presence of all the people, they proclaimed their perverse heresy, smiting with anathema the most holy Germanus, Georgius of Cyprus, and John the Damascene, holy men and venerable doctors. ^C In this same year the Bulgarians demanded new pacts because of certain forts that had been built, and when the emperor had treated their envoy with dishonor (88), they made an incursion as far as the Long Walls, and having taken great spoils, they returned home unharmed.

In the nineteenth year, the emperor campaigned against the Bulgarians, and having come to the mountain pass called Beregaba, he lost many of his own men and returned home with shame.

In the twentieth year, a comet appeared in the east, most brilliant, for ten days, and again towards the west for twenty-one days.

In the twenty-first year, Copronymus killed by scourging the famous monk Andrew, called the Calybiten, in Blachernæ, because he had rebuked his ^D impiety.

In the twenty-third year, there was a great and most bitter cold in the queen of cities and in the east, and the north, and the west, so that the northern coast of the Pontus was turned to stone for a hundred miles across the sea, and the disaster froze to a depth of thirty cubits; and upon this, having been covered with snow,

^A the sea became equal to the land, and the ice provided a place for the journey on foot of men and of domestic and wild animals, for the entire expanse of the sea from Zichia as far as the Danube and the river Cuphas, and the Danastris and the Danapris, and the Necropyla, and the remaining coast as far as Mesembria and Medea. In the month of February, this ice, by the command of God, broke into many fragments resembling mountains; and by the force of the winds, it was carried to the Hieron ^B and thence reached the city through the strait, and filled the entire coastline as far as the Propontis, the islands, and Abydos; among these were also the carcasses of wild and tame animals. Anyone who wished could walk without hindrance as if on dry land from the Sophianae as far as the city, and from Chrysopolis to Saint Mamas and the Galatae. 90 One of these fragments struck the landing-stage of the acropolis and shattered it. 91 Another was brought against the wall and shook it violently, so that even those dwelling within felt the tremor. It then broke into three parts and encircled the city from the Manganes as far as the Bosphorus, its height exceeding that of the city walls. ^C In the month of March, stars fell in multitudes from the heaven, so that all said the end of the world had arrived. There was also a great drought, so that wells and rivers dried up. The impious man, seeing and hearing these things, did not perceive that these plagues were sent by God for the conversion of his profane and most disgraceful actions; but rather, having summoned the patriarch, he said to him: "What harm will it do us if we speak of the Theotokos as Christotokos?" The patriarch, embracing him, said: "Have mercy, master, and do not let this thought come into your mind. Do you not see with what condemnations and anathemas Nestorius has been rendered infamous by the whole Church?" ^D Then Constantine said that he had only asked for the sake of learning, and commanded him not to disclose this conversation to any man. And not long after, he repaid the patriarch he himself had appointed with a reward worthy of him, as we shall show a little further down.

In the 24th year, having supposedly made peace with Paganus, the prince of the Bulgarians, he suddenly set out from the city with his army; and finding the mountain passes unguarded because of that truly fraudulent peace, he advanced into Bulgaria as far as Tumtza, 92 and having cast fire into the courts

which he came upon, he returned in fear, having accomplished no noble deed.

In the 25th year, the impious emperor, having become maddened against everyone who feared God, inflicted various tortures upon Stephen the Younger, who was revered by all because he shone forth in various virtues (for he had spent sixty years shut up in the monastery which is on the hill of Saint Auxentius), and slew him. He destroyed many of the nobles and soldiers who were accused of venerating the icons with diverse punishments. He demanded a universal oath from all who were under his rule, that they would venerate no icon. Among these, he caused Constantine, the falsely-named patriarch, to go up onto the ambo and, having lifted up the precious woods, to swear that he was not among those who venerate the icons; and he persuaded him on the spot to become a layman ^B instead of a monk, to eat meat, and to endure the presence of lyre-players at the imperial table. But it was not long before justice delivered him into the hands of that bloodthirsty murderer. For the evil one, having learned that the patriarch had assured many people that the emperor had said to him that Christ is not God, and that for this reason I do not hold His Mother to be the Theotokos, was incensed against him, as one who had betrayed his secret. And having inflicted many blows upon him, he paraded him in triumph through the Hippodrome, spat upon and dragged about. Then, having secured ^C him, he sent patricians to him, and said: "What do you say now concerning our faith and the synod which we have held?" But he, being foolish in his mind, thinking that he might appease him again, answered and said: "You did well in holding the synod, and you believe rightly." Those who had been sent, mocking the man, and saying that this was the only thing they had wished to hear from his impure mouth, immediately led him out and beheaded him, and cast his body into the sea, where there was formerly the church of Saint Pelagia, ^D which the hater-of-God had flooded and made into a burial place for those condemned to death, calling it the Pelagion. He then appointed as patriarch Nicetas the eunuch, who was a Slav by race. He also defiled Peter, a holy and divine man, and the holy and God-bearing [others].

Xylander and Goar's Notes

(93) What this is, I do not know. XYL. — This is, that he persuaded a monk, having abandoned the monastic life, to marry a wife. Theophanes, Paulus Diaconus, the author, and others abhorred publicly publishing such a foul crime, and decided to indicate it only by metaphor and more honorable designations of marriage. For since the Greeks do not celebrate weddings without crowns, it is the same among them to be crowned and to contract a marriage; indeed, they are called weddings; and the rite of them and of the crowning of those being wed can be clearly seen in the recent Euchologion. Therefore, when the patriarch proceeded as “crowned” instead of a monk, he showed that he had submitted to the yoke of marriage, and the rigor of the fasts was at the same time relaxed for him, nor was there any longer any pleasure from which he considered he should abstain. He confirms the interpretation brought forth concerning the base act of the emperor, of which the author makes mention: for he also disgracefully brought the monastic habit or study into ridicule, and exposed it to public mockery in the circus, ordering each of them to come forward into the middle leading a woman by the hand. ^D Lachanodraco, a rival in impiety, at his nod, proclaimed in the province entrusted to him, as is set down below, that whoever wishes to obey me and the emperor, let him put on secular attire and this very hour take a wife. GOAR.

(94) As regards the lyre-players, others have it that the emperor had allowed the patriarch to have them at his table. But the words seem to demand the way I have translated it; and the sense is better. For I would not believe that the use of music was forbidden to emperors: but to a monk, lyre-players, as inciting luxury, were, of course, not to be heard. XYL.

(95) Being defrocked on account of Cyril, who had recently been patriarch, there was one cause of the crime, that he had corrupted the patriarchate by the willing eating of meats. GOAR.

(96) He did not hide that act of Luke Acts XVI: he secured their feet in the wood. XYL.

(97) Zonaras calls him this. XYL.

^A He ordered Stephen, the monk of Auxentius, to be dragged after many shameful tortures and thrown into the sea; and he cruelly put to death many other notable men and monks for the sake of the holy icons. He also disgraced and humiliated the monastic habit, ordering that in the hippodrome each `abba` should lead a woman by the hand into the midst of the people, so that they might be spat upon and insulted by everyone. He also campaigned against the Bulgarians by land and sea, and sent two thousand `chelandia` (this is the name of the vessel) to Anchialus. These, with the exception of a few, were all submerged by the blowing of the north wind; and he returned to the city in disgrace. Furthermore, he threw the sacred and most praiseworthy relics of Saint Euphemia into the sea together with their chest; by the grace of God, these drifted safely to the island of Lemnos, and later, under the pious emperors Constantine and Irene, were returned with due honor to her shrine, which the enemy of the churches—or rather, the enemy of his own soul—had turned into an armory and a place for depositing dung, but which they cleared out and consecrated again. ^B This impious man appointed generals of like mind to himself and agents worthy of his malice: Michael Melissenus, the general of the Orientals, and Michael Lachanodraco for Thrace, and Manetes, whose name indicates his perversity, for the Bucellarian theme. [(11)] Having thus imitated his master, Lachanodraco gathered all the monks and nuns who were in the Thracian theme and led them to Ephesus, and spoke to them thus: "Whoever wishes to obey the emperor and me, let him put on a civilian garment and take a wife at this hour. Those who do not do this will be blinded and exiled to Cyprus." And the deed followed the word, and many became martyrs on that day. He sold all the monasteries, and all the sacred vessels, books, animals, and absolutely all their property, and handed over the proceeds to the emperor. Moreover, he burned the books of the Fathers and the relics of the saints, as many as he found, and punished those who possessed them as though they were impious, killing them in various ways: he burned the heads of some after smearing them with pitch and oil. If anyone was ever found invoking the name of the Mother of God, or living piously, or keeping the religious duty of an oath, he was punished as an enemy of the emperor. ^C Thus it happened that, after a short time, there was absolutely no monk left in the entire theme under his command. Upon learning of this, the misanthropic emperor wrote...

to him, ^A thanking him and saying, "I have found in you a man after my own heart, who does all my will." The others, imitating him, did the same. Copronymus gave the monasteries, which had been founded for the honor of God and as a refuge for those seeking salvation, to the soldiers who shared his opinions, and he exerted himself to destroy the monastic order. In the same year, ^B Nicetas, the titular patriarch, scraped off the images that were in the small secret room of the patriarchate, which were made of mosaic tiles, as well as all the other icons throughout the patriarchate.

In the 28th year, Constantine crowned his wife Eudocia, his third, as Augusta, and made his two sons, Christophorum and Nicephorum, Caesars, with the patriarch performing the prayer.

In the 29th year, a migration of people to Syria occurred, one person given for another. In this year, Irene came from Athens and was crowned in the church of Saint Stephen, and was joined in marriage to the emperor Leo, the firstborn son of Copronymus.

In the 32nd year, Phadalus made an incursion into the territory of the Romans and carried off five hundred captives. The Mopsuestians went out to meet him, killed a thousand Arabs, and recovered the captives.

In the 33rd year, Constantine set out with a fleet against the Bulgarians and, having made peace, returned. When the Bulgarians sent twelve thousand men to Berzetia, the emperor, learning of this, came out to the place called Lithosorea, fell upon them, and after killing them all, returned to the city. He called this war "noble," because no Christian had been killed in it. ^C But Elerichus, the lord of Bulgaria, knowing that he was being betrayed by his own people, wrote to the emperor, "I have decided to flee and come over to you. Therefore, confirm to me by letter that all will be safe for me; and indicate whom you have here as friends, so that, trusting in their loyalty, I may come to you together with them." The vain and foolish emperor was circumvented by this ruse of the Bulgarian, and wrote to him, and he, having learned their names, destroyed them all. When Copronymus heard this, he tore out his own beard.

In the 35th year, Constantine set out on an expedition against the Bulgarians, and at the wrath of God, carbuncles invaded his feet, ^D and furthermore a violent and burning fever seized him.

^A Wherefore, having been carried in a litter from Arcadiopolis to Selybria, and thence having traveled by boat to the fortress of Strogylus, he there met his end in both soul and body, crying out and saying that he was being delivered to unquenchable fire on account of Mary the Theotokos, and commanding that from then on she be honored and celebrated as being truly the Mother of God. And as he was dying, he gave this final testimony, saying: "May the great temple, the divine Sophia, be safe; may the temple of the all-holy Theotokos of the Blachernae be safe; may the temple of the Theotokos in the Chalcoprateia be safe; may the temple of the Holy Apostles be safe; may the city and the senate be safe; may you be safe, my son and emperor; and may you too be safe, O Theophanes, to whom I have entrusted my great secret." After the mourning had concluded, the emperor asked Theophanes what that great secret of his father was, which only he knew. The other replied: "Perhaps your father repented of the thing which we did in secret, and for this reason he spoke to me, so that I might reveal what we had done secretly; for we had buried 500 centenaria in a certain place for the use of your brothers, the Caesars and nobilissimi." Leo sent servants and took it all away, leaving nothing for his brothers. The body of Copronymus, having been buried in the church of the Holy Apostles, was, during the reign of Michael, the son of Theophilus, removed by the command and exhortation of the Caesar and burned in the forum of the Amastrianum. The throne of the archbishopric was held by Anastasius, and after him Constantine—who eventually had his head cut off—and thirdly Nicetas; all were heretics.

^B Leo, the son of Copronymus by the Khazar (woman), reigned for 5 years. In the first year of his reign, Tellerigus, the king of the Lombards, fled to him in the city; having received him, he bound him to himself with gifts. For a time, the emperor appeared to cultivate piety and to be a friend to the Theotokos and to the monks; hence, in the first years, he even entrusted metropolitan churches to monks. At the request of the army, he crowned his son Constantine.

In the 2nd year, Pellerigus, the prince of the Bulgarians, fled to the emperor. Having made him a patrician, he joined him to the sister of his wife Irene, and having received him from the sacred font, he held him in great affection and honor.

^C In the 3rd year, the Roman army, having set out to Germanicia, took captive a great multitude of Jacobite Syrians, whom the emperor settled in Thrace.

In the 5th year, Nicetas, the patriarch of Constantinople, the eunuch who was a Slav, died. Paulus, the venerable reader from Cyprus, was appointed in his place. ^D

^A On the middle week of the Fast, the emperor found in the pillow of his wife Irene two icons; and having observed and inquired into them, he discovered that the papas of the palace and some others of the primicerii had brought them in; whom he subjected to most severe tortures and punishments. He also rebuked his wife Irene fiercely, treating her with contempt, saying, “Did you thus swear to my father the emperor upon the terrible and immaculate mysteries of the faith?” But she insisted that she had never seen them. He therefore repelled her, no longer acknowledging her. Being exceedingly possessed by an obsession for stones, he coveted the crown from the Great Church, which had belonged to Heraclius, and taking it, he wore it and went out. Upon his return, his head was dreadfully scorched, and being seized by a most violent fever, he wretchedly breathed out his evil soul, having received the just reward for his sacrilege. ^B

In the year of the world 6273, of the divine incarnation 779, Constantine with his mother Irene, being orthodox, began their reign and managed it for ten years, being placed in charge of the supreme power by God and beyond the expectation of men. After some days, certain of the senate wished to promote Nicephorus, one of the Caesars, to the throne; the empress, having seized them, beat and exiled them. She also had her husband's brothers, who were Caesars and nobilissimi, tonsured to enter the priesthood, and she caused them to administer to the people at the feast of Christ’s Nativity. On that day she herself, along with her son who was ten years old, went forward and presented to the church the crown which had been removed by her husband, having adorned it with pearls. At the same time, the Arabs, engaging in battle with the Romans, are defeated. ^C Piety and the word of God began to spread, and every salutary good was made manifest. Then also the God-beloved Irene brought back from Lemnos the relics of the all-praised martyr Euphemia, which continuously exuded perennial myrrh, and having cleansed the temple near the hippodrome, she deposited them there. These things happened so that God might be glorified, not by the power of men or by a surplus of wisdom, but through the weakness of a woman who, together with an orphan child, suppressed the immoderate impiety against Him and His servants. In this year, in the long walls of Thrace, a certain man digging found a sarcophagus; having cleaned and uncovered it, he found a large man lying inside, and letters engraved on the sarcophagus, which contained this sentiment: “Christ is about to be born of a Virgin, and I believe in Him. Under Constantine and Irene again, O sun, you shall see me.” ^D

Xylander and Goar's Notes

^A In the 2nd year, Irene, having sent envoys to Charles, King of the Franks, requested his daughter, named Erythro, in marriage for her son Constantine; and the agreements and oaths having been confirmed, Elisæus the eunuch and notary remained with Charles to instruct the girl in the Greek letters, language, and the customs of the Roman Empire.

In the 3rd year, peace having been made with the Arabs, Irene sent the patrician and logothete Stauracius against the Slavs; and he, having descended, subdued them all and made them tributary to the empress. Having come into the Peloponnese, he brought back much plunder and many spoils to the empress.

^B In the 4th year, Paul, the most holy and blessed patriarch, being afflicted by disease, left the throne and withdrew to the monastery of Florus. The empress, filled with sorrow, came to him to inquire the cause of his action. Paul said to her, "Would that I had never sat upon the pontifical throne, while the Church of God is oppressed by tyranny and torn away from the other catholic sees and branded with anathema. Unless an ecumenical synod is instituted and the errors hitherto committed are corrected, you have no salvation." When Irene asked him further why, then, having been designated patriarch, he had signed that he would not worship icons, he replied, "This is the very thing I lament, and for which I take refuge in repentance, praying to God that He not punish me as a pontiff who has been silent until now and who, for fear of your fury, has refrained from proclaiming the truth." Having done these things, he happily exchanged life for death. From that time on, speech regarding the holy icons began to be used freely by everyone.

^C In the 5th year, the Empress Irene, having gathered the entire senate and the people, asked for their opinion concerning the creation of a new patriarch. When the office was offered to him by all, Tarasius the secretary refused it, pleading the discord of the peoples and the churches and requesting that a council be held. When the empress and the people agreed to this, then at last our holy Father Tarasius was declared Patriarch of Constantinople, on the 25th day of December, in the 8th indiction. Having sent to Rome the synodal letters and a confession of his faith, he was approved by Pope Hadrian.

^D In the 6th year, when a council was proclaimed in the church of the Holy Apostles, the ministers of Satan also gathered there, and entered armed with swords. Terrified by this, the others departed from there with their mission unaccomplished.

In the 7th year, the holy ecumenical council was opened in Nicaea. On the 9th of September, which was the first day of the week, at the fifth hour, there was a great solar eclipse.

In the 8th year, after the [time of the 7th] synod had passed...

^A one hundred and twenty-two years having elapsed, the seventh ecumenical council was held in Nicaea, and the Catholic Church, through the most holy patriarch Tarasius, recovered its ancient splendor; three hundred and fifty Fathers assembled in Nicaea for the second time, who ordained that the icons, together with the cross, should be venerated, decreeing nothing new, but ordering that the dogmas of the holy and blessed Fathers should be preserved unshaken. Having anathematized the new heresy, they also condemned the three false patriarchs—namely, Anastasius, Constantine, and Nicetas the eunuch. The Emperor and his mother also subscribed to the tome, and the Church of God enjoyed peace, even though the enemy does not cease to sow his tares through his own workers. But the Church of God, by His grace, always wins the battle in which it is contested.

^B In the 9th year, the Empress Irene, having broken off the alliance with the Franks, brought a maiden from the Armeniac theme, from Amnia, by the name of Marina, and joined her to her son Constantine, though he was unwilling, and celebrated the marriage.

In the 10th year, there was an exceedingly terrible earthquake. And certain of Irene’s friends, being moved by envy—and wishing to govern affairs themselves—set the mother against the son, persuading her that: "It is not ordained by God that your son should rule; for the empire belongs to you." She, being a woman and being deceived, and also harboring a love for power, became convinced in her mind that this was the case. Now the Emperor was twenty years old, very robust, and capable in war, and he was grieved that he had no authority over anything, and he plotted against his mother. When Irene learned of this from Stauracius, she had all his household servants beaten and exiled, and she banished the magister, Theodore the patrician (the Camulian), and others among the dignitaries to Castoria. She also heaped many insults upon her son and kept him from appearing in public for many days. She also made the army and the senate bind themselves by oath that, while she lived, they would not allow her son to rule. Only the Armeniacs did not accept this, but acclaimed Constantine and Irene as they had from the beginning, the devil having suggested such perjury and denial to men. Having gathered at Atroa, all the thematic troops in one common mind demanded Constantine as Emperor. Irene, fearing the impulse of the people, set him free. And they for their part repudiated his mother and acclaimed Constantine as Emperor. Entering the city, the Emperor had all his father’s household servants, and Stauracius himself, beaten and tonsured, ^C and exiled them; he placed his mother, with her dispassion, in the palace of Eleutherius, which she herself had built, in which she had hidden a great quantity of money. There occurred a fire, and the banqueting hall of the patriarchate, which was called the Thomaïtes, was burned, as were the chambers beneath it, where lay the drafts of all the Scripture, which were interpreted [by the holy John Chrysostom. And the flame spread as far as the milestone and... ^D

the quaestorium, consuming everything in between. The emperor, however, having completed an expedition against the Bulgarians, returned victorious. Having set out also for Tarsus with a great army against the Arabs, he returned after taking many captives. Being moved by his mother's despair and the intercession of many high-ranking men, he restored the imperial dignity to her, and commanded that she be greeted as empress just as she had been from the beginning; to which command only the Armeniacs demurred, and they demanded Alexios Moseles. For this reason, and because some were saying that he would eventually reign, Constantine had him beaten, his head shaved, and cast into prison.

In the second year, he led an army against the Bulgarians, and having encountered Cardam, the lord of the Bulgarians, and having lost a great number of soldiers and many commanders, as well as his own cohort ^B and all the baggage and horses, he barely escaped by flight into the city. In the same month, led by the slanders of certain men, the emperor went out to the church of Saint Mamas, and there he blinded his uncles, Nicephorus and Christopher. He mutilated another Christopher,, along with Nicetas, Anthimus, and Eudocimus, by cutting out their tongues; and he also put out the eyes of Alexios Moseles. But the justice of God did not long delay vengeance for these things; for after five years, in the same month and on the same day, Constantine himself was deprived of his eyesight. Having subdued the Armeniacs in battle, he took vengeance upon their leaders, having branded upon the face of each with black marks the words: "Armeniac conspirator"; and he exiled them to Sicily and the other islands. Then, when the emperor had conceived a hatred for his own wife, Marina, at the instigation of his mother, who was greedy for power and wished to make her son detested by his subjects (for the emperor had developed evil suspicions against Marina), he persuaded her to become a nun. He crowned Theodote, his mother's chambermaid, with whom he was illegally betrothed. ^C When the patriarch Tarasius opposed this, Constantine threatened him, saying, "If this does not come to pass, I shall open the temples of the profane idols." Whereupon the patriarch, being afraid, yielded to him, saying to many that he [the emperor] would not end his life in peace. And the emperor celebrated his wedding in the palace of Saint Mamas for four days. The head of the Studite monastery and others abstained from the communion of the patriarch on account of the emperor’s illegal marriage, and the emperor harassed them in various ways, though Irene defended them. ^D

In the sixth year, Cardames, the prince of the Bulgarians, wrote to the emperor: "Either pay me what was agreed, or I shall come as far as the Golden Gate." The emperor sent...

[alt-version omitted]

^A a reply, writing: "What was fitting, I sent to you according to our pact. You are an old man; therefore I do not wish you to be fatigued by marching all this way, but I myself shall come to you. God will judge." Having assembled his army, the emperor marched against him and pursued him back to his own borders.

In the seventh year, the emperor went with his mother to Prusa ^B to take the baths, and after a few days a son was born to the emperor, whom he named Leo. Upon learning this, the emperor left his mother with the entire imperial retinue and the officials and hastened back to the city. His mother, finding an opening, subverted all the commanders of the regiments to depose her son and rule alone. And thus, when he arrived at the palace, his mother not being present, the dignitaries, on the advice of his mother, shut him in the Porphyra ^C where he had been born, and blinded him cruelly and incurably, so that he was at the point of death, according to the will of his mother. The sun was darkened then for seventeen days and did not give forth its rays, so that everyone said this happened because of the blinding of the emperor; for such darkness occurred that even ships wandered from their course. But behold also the unsearchable judgments of God: for after five years, on the same month and the same day on which he blinded his uncles, he himself was also deprived of his eyes. Irene, his mother, held the empire alone for five years. Her husband's brothers fomented a rebellion, and she banished them to Athens, where, as they were plotting to seize the kingdom, they were killed by the locals. Thus the entire race of the wretched Copronymus was extinguished. On the second day of holy Easter, the empress went to the procession which is held at the Church of the Holy Apostles according to ecclesiastical custom; and in the evening, she went out in a golden carriage, drawn by four horses, held by the patricians, and she scattered much money among the people.

In the third year, Stauracius meditated a tyranny; when the empress learned of this, she forbade everyone to associate with Stauracius. Oppressed by grief, he coughed up blood from his lungs and died.

In the fourth year, the pious Irene remitted the civil taxes for the Byzantines, and she lightened the customs duties of Abydos and the Hieron.

In the fifth year, the Orientals ^D plotted a sedition against the empire. Ambassadors also arrived from Charles, who had been crowned emperor of Rome by Pope Leo, to the most pious Irene, asking her to be joined to Charles in marriage.

so that the East and West might thus be united. And she would certainly have consented, had not Aetius stood in the way, who was thinking of preparing the empire for his own brother. The empress managed all other affairs prudently and wisely, and in a way that was entirely to be desired. She bore this one charge, that she deprived her most miserable son of his empire and his eyes, though she was otherwise endowed with a divine zeal for sacred matters and with the true faith. For it was she who convened the holy seventh council and established the veneration of the holy images, and she performed many other most excellent deeds. She also rebuilt Berrhoea near Thessalonica and named it Irenopolis after herself; and she restored Anchialus. ^A But a crowd of eunuchs, and among them most notably Stauracius and Leo nicknamed Clocas, being at variance with one another, abrogated the empire from her and placed Nicephorus upon the imperial throne in her stead. Thus do the counsels of the most wicked eunuchs destroy their own masters and benefactors, so that Chrysaorius, a man of the greatest reputation among the ancients, rightly said to a certain great man: "If you have a eunuch, kill him; if you do not have one, buy him and kill him."

Nicephorus therefore casts Irene from the empire through the agency of Leo Clocas, the patrician Nicetas, and Sisinius, who were brothers, and also the perjured and deceitful Triphyllii, and Leo the patrician, surnamed "Forty-cubits" (a name derived from his stature), and the patrician Gregory, who was also called Muselaces, and certain others of those in high office. At the fourth hour of the night, these men came to the Chalcê (which is the bronze gate) and craftily persuaded the guards that they had been sent by the Augusta to proclaim Nicephorus emperor. The guards, giving credence to this lie, themselves declared Nicephorus emperor. Many wondered why God had allowed her, who had struggled in the manner of a martyr for the true faith, to be so tyrannically deposed by an impious man. Some imputed this to her crime against her son, while others slandered her in other ways. ^B But Nicephorus surrounded the Eleutherian palace (for Irene happened to be staying there at that time) with guards, and in the morning, having led her to the palace, he shut her up; he then proceeded to the church to be crowned, while Tarasius was still patriarch. The populace, however, cursed both the one crowning and the one being crowned, calling them tyrants and the latter a scoundrel.

Nicephorus, patrician and general logothete, reigned for 8 years and 9 days. On the day after he assumed the empire, attended by certain patricians, he went to Irene, who was held in custody by the guards, and pretending goodness, bade her to be of good heart, saying, "Be at peace with yourself—^{C D}

Xylander and Goar's Notes

^A and she promised, if she should inform him of her treasures, that he would provide for her needs in peace. But she, with a prudent mind, addressed him who had been a perjured servant yesterday but today exercised tyranny: "Listen, man; I acknowledge that it was God who raised me to this empire, and that by my own sins I have deserved to lose it. In all these things let the name of the Lord be blessed. Nor are you ignorant that evidence was brought to me of your plots, to which if I had given credence, I could have put you to death with no one to stop me; but partly trusting your oaths, and partly sparing you, I disregarded all these things, leaving you to God, by whom kings reign and princes hold power. Now, even to you, as to a pious emperor raised to power by God, I supplicate, asking that, having regard for my weakness, you permit me to inhabit the house of Eleutherius constructed by me, so that I may console my incomparable calamity." To this Nicephorus replied that, since she so desired, he would gratify her most liberally in all things, provided only that she swore that she was concealing no treasure. Irene swore to him, and pointed out to him great wealth. ^B But Nicephorus, having obtained what he desired, immediately banished her to the monastery on the island called Principis, which she herself had founded. Seeing then that his insatiable avarice was troublesome to all the nobles, he became afraid that the people, moved by the memory of the benefits received from her, might someday recall Irene to the empire; therefore, without any pity, he banished her to Mitylene, just as a most severe storm was threatening. And there, on the island of Lesbos, she passed away from grief and despondency on the 9th of August. The emperor brought her body back to the monastery of Principis, which we have shown was built by her. For, on account of her notable piety and virtue, she had constructed many hospices and old-age homes and monasteries, and had achieved the lightening of taxes and many other excellent deeds.

As for Constantine, her son, Nicephorus, led more by avarice than by mercy, received him into his own household in the hope of obtaining clues to the treasures from him; and Constantine, being treated kindly by him, as he was of a frivolous disposition, showed him the treasure hidden in the Semicircle (which they now call the Sigma), constructed with a wall beneath raised marbles. Once he had obtained this, Nicephorus disregarded him just as he had his mother. But as for Nicetas Triphyllius, whose energetic assistance he had used in acquiring the empire, he rewarded him—in a truly noble fashion—by killing him with poison. ^C

At that time a certain Bardanius, a commander of the East, considering how he might claim the empire for himself, while he was staying at Philomelium, disclosed his plan to a certain monk who had been deemed worthy by God of the foreknowledge of future events, having Leo the Armenian as a witness to the matter. This monk predicted to Bardanius that, if he should aspire to the empire, and with wealth...

^A be deprived of his eyes, should he dare to attempt this, he would depart in sorrow. But as those who served him brought his horses, the monk fixed his eyes on them and called Bardanius back. Thinking that the monk was about to say something that pleased him, he heard from him: "Let there be no anxiety in you concerning the empire. For whether you strive for it willingly or not, do not dare this. If you attempt it, you shall suffer the loss of your eyes, as I have said, and of your wealth. And as for those who brought you your horses, the first and the second of them shall wear the diadem, and the third, once proclaimed, shall speedily perish, not having obtained that which he desires." Bardanius therefore revealed these thoughts to Leo, Michael, and Thomas, saying: "You, Leo, shall reign, and Thomas shall be proclaimed, but you shall be slain by Michael (for thus the monk foretold to me), while Michael alone shall be preserved in the empire." Not long after, some of the armies, ^B compelled by the frequent exactions of Nicephorus, revolted from the emperor and created Bardanius, surnamed Turcus, emperor. Although he refused, out of fear of the danger foretold to him, he was nevertheless compelled, and, being left with no means of escape, he came to Chrysopolis, and was there hailed as emperor. With these things done, Leo and Michael betook themselves to Nicephorus; one was made commander of the foederati, and the other of the Count's cohort. Thomas, however, fearing no danger in his desire to keep faith with his master, remained; but Bardanius, as he was God-fearing and fearing lest he become the cause of civil war, sent secret messengers to Nicephorus to demand immunity, and having obtained it, he fled by night in a boat and, being taken to the monastery of Heraclius, which is in Catabolium, he became a monk. The people who were under him departed for their homes. But the emperor, having sent a swift ship, pretended that he was calling Bardanius to Constantinople; but when he had come to the island of Prote, ^C to the monastery which he had built there in the suburb, by the mind and will of the emperor his eyes were plucked out by certain Lycaonians. And Nicephorus, pretending that this action grieved him, confirmed to all by oath that he was not at fault in his misfortune, although he had never at any other time told the truth under oath. In the second year, he crowned his son Stauracius, a man noble neither in appearance, nor in mind, nor in strength. In the same year, he led an army against the Arabs; and defeated and having been almost captured by the enemy (for some of the bravest of his commanders with difficulty rescued him), he returned home in disgrace. ^D [NOTE: The section below contains the scholarly apparatus and notes].

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES. (30) *Exercitus*, where it mentions other provinces. But Zonaras writes that the armies of the East made him emperor. XYL. (31) *Foederatorum*, which (I think) signifies nothing, although it is read again as *foederatorum* in Leo the Armenian. But there Zonaras has *them*, whom he calls counts. GOAR. (32) Who *comes* is called. GOAR. (33) If it is a proper name, it seems to denote a station for ships. XYL. It is a city in Cilicia. Anton. GOAR. (34) Near the city, an island of the Propontis. GOAR. (35) *Ineptum*, of no value, *ungeschaffen* as we say. Zonaras explained the matter more clearly. XYL. *Fatuum* and inert, one who can do or devise nothing. GOAR.

^A In the third year, having found a brief respite, he built Ancyra of Galatia and Theba and Andrasus. ^B In the fourth year, Tarasius, the most holy patriarch of Constantinople, closed his life honorably and was buried in the monastery which he had built himself in the Angustiae. On the fourth day of the first week of the Fast, and on the great Sunday, Nicephorus the secretary was created the most holy patriarch by the suffrage of all the people, the emperor, and the priests. But Plato and Theodore, the abbot of the Studion, did not agree to the ordination of Nicephorus; indeed, they even made a schism, alleging a seemingly plausible reason, that one ought not suddenly to pass from being a layman to being a bishop; whom the emperor would have expelled from the city had not some people turned his counsel aside. Yet the matter was neither strange nor recently devised, but many others from among the laity had been made bishops, and had performed their priestly office in a manner pleasing to God. ^C In this year Aaron, the leader of the Arabs, campaigned against Romania with three hundred thousand men, and having arrived at Tyana, he established there a house for his own impiety, and captured countless fortresses. He sent out a raiding party (36) of sixty thousand, who roamed as far as Ancyra, and having laid everything waste, they returned. Nicephorus also went out in despair, displaying the nobility of his hardship; and having deliberated, he sent to him to make peace, declaring as follows: "Why do you rejoice in injustices and bloodshed, not being content with your own, but crossing ancient and ancestral borders? For what divine prophet has told you to do these things? Does not Muchumetus, your prophet, charge you to have and recognize every Christian as a brother? Or does God, the Creator and Provider of all, rejoice in the blood of men unjustly shed? Far be it! Or was it because you were lacking in silver and gold and the rest that you went forth to commit injustice against those who have done you no wrong? And yet, you possess in abundance the things most precious and difficult for us to acquire and greatly desired. If you are in need of any of our possessions, we shall immediately grant them to you in a spirit of affection. Do not, therefore, let us wage war against each other as if we were immortal and godless, and let us not imitate the wars of evil demons against men, knowing that shortly we shall die and depart to an incorruptible judge who will render to each according to his works." ^D When Emperor Nicephorus had sent these words along with some gifts, the Arab became well-disposed, and having sent back many and marvelous gifts in return, he went away in peace, marveling at the wisdom of Nicephorus. And it was agreed that the Romans would pay them thirty thousand nomismata each year, and the emperor himself and his son three nomismata each, in the place of a poll tax, and that the Romans would not rebuild the fortresses captured by him. But when these had turned back, the emperor immediately rebuilt them and fortified them. Learning of this, the Laron sent again and took Theba, and having sent a fleet to Cyprus, he destroyed both the churches and

the Cypriots, and after seizing much booty, disturbed the peace. ^A

In the sixth year, the Arabs with a fleet took Rhodes, and having taken many prisoners, they were unable to capture the fortress. On their return, when they had come to Myra, desiring to shatter the holy sarcophagus of Saint Nicholas, they shattered another one placed near it. Immediately, a great storm of winds and a surge of sea waves, and a confusion of thunder and lightning, overtook the fleet, so that many ships were shattered, and the multitude realized the power of the saint, and contrary to expectation, escaped destruction.

In the seventh year, Theodore, the abbot of the Studium [monastery], and his own brother Joseph, Archbishop of Thessalonica, together with Plato the recluse and the rest of the monks, separated themselves from the communion of the most holy Patriarch Nicephorus ^B on account of Joseph the oikonomos, because he had illegally crowned Constantine and Theodota. The emperor, seizing the opportunity, summoned many bishops and abbots and ordered a council to be held against them, by which they were cast out of the monastery and the city, and sent into exile. In the same year, while stipends were being paid to the multitude in the Strymon, the Bulgarians suddenly attacked and intercepted them, [taking] 1100 pounds of gold, and they slaughtered the general together with the people, and after taking the booty, they departed. At the same time, Krum, the leader of the Bulgarians, took Sardica and slaughtered six thousand soldiers. Nicephorus, having made an expedition against him, did nothing great or worthy of mention. ^C Those who had escaped by flight, begging for pardon, he did not deign to grant it, and thus forced them to flee to the enemy. Among them was Euthymius, the spatharios and mechanic. A sedition having arisen against him, he mollified the greater part with gifts, [but] later took vengeance with the confiscation of property and exiles. Also, seeking to crush the [very] armies, what evil did he not devise against the Christians? For first, he ordered the Christians from every theme to migrate to [the] Sclavinias, and their properties to be sold; and this matter was no less than a hostile captivity, casting everyone into the greatest straits. The second evil deed: he ordered that the needy serve in the military, and that arms and stipends of 18 nomismata be given to them individually by their neighbors, and [he imposed] a census ^D

to be paid to the public treasury on the basis of mutual liability. ^A The third evil device: he ordered that all property be inspected and that public taxes be raised, providing also two carats for "chartiaticum." The fourth plague: he ordered that all tax reliefs be revoked. The fifth calamity: he exacted the "fumarium" tax from the very beginning of his reign from all sacred houses, parishes, homes designated for the education of orphans, hospitals, and buildings made for the care of the elderly. He ordered the better part of their property to be transferred into the imperial "curatoria," yet he nonetheless imposed the payment of taxes on those houses for what they had retained in the selfsame sacred buildings, so that for many the taxes were doubled, as their dwellings were constricted, and they were compelled to leave [those] villages and emigrate. The sixth tyrannical institution: he ordered that the affairs of those who had suddenly risen from poverty to riches be inspected by the praetors, and that money be demanded from them, as if they were people who had discovered treasures. The seventh evil: he fleeced even those people who, in the twenty years back to the present, had at any time found a jar or any vessel whatsoever, and he converted them into money. The eighth injustice: he ordered that those who had inherited from grandfathers or great-grandfathers, [and] who had been divided [from the holdings] for the same twenty years, were to pay a tax to the public treasury, and that those who bought household slaves outside of Abydos were to pay two nomismata for each, especially those living in the Dodecanese islands. The ninth insanity: he compelled sea-faring merchants, especially those inhabiting Asia Minor, who had never experienced farming, ^B to buy against their will the properties that he himself had snatched from others, and to pay tax on them. The tenth godlessness: he gathered the prominent shipowners in Constantinople and gave them twelve pounds of gold each, to be held at an interest rate of four carats per nomismata, while they also continued to pay the customary "commercia" ^C on their ships. I have noted these few things in summary from among the many, ^D from which [one can see] his [bent] toward every kind of greed.

^A For we have passed over the severe things displayed by him against those in the capital—those of high, middle, and low condition—as they are beyond what can be written down, how he subjected the wicked among the servants to bring false accusations against their own masters. For as many as happened to be in easy circumstances, he would honor the accusers, while he would extract money from the accused. So much so that, having summoned a certain retailer of honey and wax in the forum, who through his own labor had provided himself sufficient means—this glutton said, "Place your hand upon my head and swear how much gold you have." He declared he possessed one hundred pounds. He ordered him to bring them that very hour. When they were brought, the darkened man said, "What need have you for such anxiety? Dine with me, and taking one hundred coins [back] home with you, be content." ^B In his ninth year, he redoubled his inventions against the Christians, practicing godless inspections, unjust pre-emptions of all kinds of brute animals and crops, unrighteous confiscations and fines on those of high rank, and usury on ships, while in the meantime he had forbidden everyone else to lend at interest; and he devised ten thousand other evils, which a history of the details would prove burdensome to those seeking to learn of affairs in summary. He was a fervent friend of the Manichaeans—those now called Paulicians and Athinganoi—who were living in Phrygia and Lycaonia and were his close neighbors (for he had originated ^C from there), rejoicing in their oracles and rites. These, under his reign, obtained the liberty to conduct themselves according to their own customs, and many of the lighter-witted were corrupted by their lawless opinions.

In the [d]Exokionion (45) there was a false hermit named Nicholas, who, with those who were with him, blasphemed against the right word and the venerable icons. The emperor, favoring them, tormented the patriarch and all who lived according to God. For often when the patriarch indignantly lashed out against him, he would rejoice intensely at those who held enmity toward one another, and would mock every Christian who loved his neighbor as a subverter of the divine commandments. He ordered the military commanders to use the bishops and clerics as slaves, to lodge authoritatively in episcopal houses and monasteries, and to misuse their goods at will. He disparaged those who from all time had consecrated gold or silver vessels to God, and decreed that holy things of the temples ought to be converted to profane uses. He blamed all the emperors before him as ignorant of how to govern, ^D denying Providence altogether and saying that no one is more powerful than the ruler, if the ruler wishes to govern vigorously. [P. 481] And the foolish and God-hated man was made vain in his reasonings. For on the first Saturday of the Fast of the fourth indiction...

XYLANDRI AND GOAR’S NOTES

^A Saracens meeting ^B them at Euchaita 46 took from Leo, the commander of the Armeniacs, the budget of the theme, 47 carrying away a great multitude of people and 13 centenaria. On these accounts, however, this new Ahab—uninstructed, and more greedy than Phalaris or Midas—prepared for war against the Bulgarians along with his son Stauracius. Upon leaving the Queen of Cities, he ordered Nicetas the patrician and general logothete to increase the public taxes upon the churches and monasteries, and that the houses of the nobles should be dunned for eight years' worth of tax arrears. And there was a great lamentation in the city. When he was reproached for this by the patrician Theodosius Salibara, his loyal servant, who warned him that the cries of all were heard complaining against him, and that it would happen that they would one day derive joy from his sad affairs, he said to him: ^B "If God has hardened my heart just as he did Pharaoh's, what good will come to those under my hand? Do not expect, Theodosius, anything from Nicephorus other than what you see." Having gathered the armies of the East and West, and having driven many poor people to serve at their own expense, armed with slings and clubs—who were cursing him along with the armies—he marched against Bulgaria. Crumus, fearing the masses, being at Marcellae, sued for peace. But he was hindered by his own evil counsels and those of his like-minded advisors. He enters Bulgaria on the 20th of the month of July. It was the rising of the Dog Star, which was ruinous. And prophesying his own utter ruin, he often spoke out: "Who will go and deceive Ahab? For whether God or the adversary pulls me, I am pulled unwillingly." After the first engagements, thinking he was prospering, he attributed the victory not to God, but to the good fortune of Stauracius. And he threatened the nobles who opposed the incursion. He ordered that people of every age, even infants, be put to death mercilessly. And leaving the dead bodies of his own people 48 unburied, he concerned himself only with the collecting of spoils. He put locks and seals upon the storehouses 49 of Crumus, securing them as if they were already his own. For the dogs even tore off other limbs of Christians; and he set fire to the so-called palace of Crumus, while he, greatly humbled, was declaring: "Behold, you have conquered; take what is pleasing to you, and depart in peace." But that enemy of peace did not accept this. Whereupon, enraged, Crumus blocked the entrances and exits of the country with wooden fortifications. Upon learning this, Nicephorus—

And Nicephorus, presaging the slaughter, said to his own men: “None of us shall escape destruction, not even if we were to become winged birds.” ^A Two days later, having gathered his people, the Barbarian attacked Nicephorus’ tent. There Nicephorus was wretchedly cut down, along with all the commanders with him and infinite multitudes of soldiers, and the Bulgarians seized all their baggage. Crumus cut off Nicephorus’ head, fixed it upon a pole, and showed it to everyone. Then, having stripped the bone bare and encased it in silver round about, he ordered the princes of the Bulgarians to drink from it, mocking Nicephorus as insatiable and one who would not consent to peace. ^B There was no time more disastrous for Christians than the reign of this Nicephorus; for he surpassed even the most savage of his predecessors in inhumanity, and if anyone wished to describe his crimes one by one, neither would time suffice, nor would the hand have strength. But from the hem, the garment is manifest.

Stauracius, his son, also received a most grievous wound in the vertebra, and with difficulty escaped the battle alive. Upon reaching Adrianople, he was even proclaimed emperor. And because he could not ride a horse, he was brought into the city in a litter; and on account of his wound, being unable to appear in public, he lay in the palace. He had resolved to deprive the curopalates Michael, his sister’s husband, of his eyes, and to leave the empire to his own wife, Theophano. But Michael, having learned of the plan, managed to be declared emperor immediately in the Circus by the senate and the armies, as all hope for Stauracius had now been abandoned. When Stauracius learned of this, he left the palace, immediately put on the monastic habit with his wife Theophano, died in the monastery of Braca, and was buried in the monastery of the Satyrus. The highly holy Nicephorus was patriarch at that time. ^C

Michael the curopalates, surnamed Rangabes, son-in-law of the Emperor Nicephorus, at first refused the empire offered to him by the senate and the people, declaring himself unequal to the task of managing such great affairs, and granting it to the patrician Leo, an Armenian by birth, the commander of the Eastern forces, who was considered a courageous and vigorous man. But Leo refused, saying that he was unworthy of the imperial throne and that it pertained to Michael. He urged him to undertake the government of affairs, promising—and confirming his promises with most grave oaths—that he would be his most faithful and diligent servant and administrator for all his life. ^D Thus Michael, contrary to his own inclination, took up the reins of empire to handle. Crumus, the prince of the Bulgarians, elated by his successes, and seeing the spirits of his own men also boosted by the recent victory, was ravaging the West with fire and plunder. Michael, judging that this war must be encountered and his incursions checked as much as could be done, quickly sent out edicts in all directions and collected an army. But Crumus, also being informed of the emperor's expedition, [P. 483] his own

people from their foraging, gathered them into one place, fortified a very strong encampment, and awaited the advancing emperor. When the latter arrived and pitched his camp near to Crumus, who was stationed not far from Adrianople, skirmishes took place continuously, and there was combat as far as the range of projectiles reached. In all these, the Roman side appeared superior, so that the soldiers, puffed up by this, began to burn with desire for a regular engagement and demanded it. And when the emperor—whether out of cowardice, as was said, or whether he was seeking a favorable opportunity—held back and caused delay, they descended to shamelessness, and rebuked the emperor to his face with incessant clamor, threatening that if he did not lead them out, they would break the gates of the camp themselves and rush against the enemy. ^B Broken by these words, the emperor opened the gates of the camp and stood for battle. Crumus did the exact same thing; he drew up his own people and stood in opposition to the emperor. And when each of them had encouraged his own people, and had spoken persuasive words and exhortations capable of stirring them to valor, finally, having signaled to one another with trumpets, they clashed in battle. While the Romans were vigorously withstanding the enemy and fighting heroically and bravely, the strength of the Bulgarians was being spent, and it would have arrived at complete defeat (for even Crumus himself had grown weary, riding about everywhere and supporting those parts of the army that were struggling), had not Leo, the general of the Anatolics, desiring the empire and having corrupted the divisions under his command, left the formation with them and fled without cause. Seeing this, the rest of the army ^C was struck with terror and the vigor of their courage was slackened. The Bulgarians, who had been on the point of fleeing, took heart, charged the Romans with a great shout, and turned the victory into a total rout. For the Romans, having become demoralized by what had happened, did not withstand the Bulgarians' charge, but immediately turned to flight. Many soldiers perished there, and not a few generals fell, among whom was Michael the Magister, the Lacanodracius. ^D The emperor, with difficulty, reached Arcadiopolis with a portion of his army that remained unbroken; thence he made his way to the capital, leaving the aforementioned Leo with his men in Thrace, so that he might guard the region and check the incursions and raids of the Bulgarians.

But Leo, once he was by himself, brought to light the treason he had been laboring with in secret. Having consulted with his own partisans, and saying that the time was ripe to fulfill what was being striven for, he spread rumors through them to the whole army, claiming that by the simplicity of the emperor and his lack of experience in military matters, the Roman forces had been destroyed, and the ancient glory and fame of the Romans had perished. By this means, having corrupted the minds of the soldiers—who were returning as foot-soldiers, scattered from the rout, and unarmed, mixing them with the troops that were with him—he persuaded them to look toward rebellion. For from a single [tentorium Leonis]

casting unbecoming and shameless words at the emperor, calling him a coward and unmanly, and saying that due to his foolishness he had destroyed the Roman armies and tarnished the glory and renown of the empire; simultaneously, they openly cheered him and proclaimed him Emperor of the Romans. As he hesitated and declined the rule, Michael of Amorium, the Stammerer, who was himself leading a certain Roman regiment, drew his sword and, ordering the others who were involved in the business to do the same, threatened to kill him if he did not willingly accept the rule. And thus, he was crowned with the diadem ^B and proclaimed Emperor of the Romans.

Before these things happened, John Exabulius met the Emperor Michael, who was returning from the rout and was already near Constantinople, and exhorted him to bear the disaster with a stout heart. At the same time, he inquired whom he had left in charge of the troops. When the Emperor said that he had entrusted that care to Leo, the strategos of the Anatolics—a man most prudent and friendly in spirit toward him—Exabulius said, “It seems to me, O Emperor, that you are greatly mistaken in your judgment of that man’s intentions.” Michael had barely said these words, and had not yet even entered the palace, when news was announced to him that Leo had been proclaimed emperor. ^C Disturbed by this news and considering what must be done, some advised him by all means to hold onto the rule and to oppose the tyrant with all his might. But Michael, being a man with a studious penchant for peace and unwilling to cast himself into the peril of such a struggle, sharply rebuked those who were inciting him to commit civil slaughter. He sent one of his closest associates to Leo, bringing with him the symbols of the empire: the diadem, the purple robe, and the scarlet buskins (these are the insignia of the empire), indicating that he was yielding the rule to him, for he deemed it better to lose his own life than to see even one drop of Christian blood shed; he ordered him to come without any fear or hesitation and to occupy the palace. ^D Procopia, the empress, however, struggled against what was happening, asserting that one should die for the empire; and because she could not dissuade her husband from his purpose, she declared it a matter more shameful than any indignity if the tyrant’s wife were to clothe herself in the imperial *modiolus*, mocking the name and calling her "Barka." She thus deliberated on what they should decide regarding their affairs. Meanwhile, Leo the tyrant entered through the Golden Gate, followed by the acclamations of the army, the people, and the senate, and arrived at the church of John the Baptist of Stoudios; from there, attended by his retinue, he invaded the palace. When, however, in the golden dining hall, he was rendering his vow to God for a successful entry —

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES

^A and the tyrant, receiving acclamations from the army, the people, and the senate through the Golden Gate, came to the church of the Forerunner in Studius, and from there, surrounded by his guards, he seized the palace. As he was about to offer a prayer of accession [(52)] in the Golden Triclinium to God, he took off the garment he happened to be wearing and gave it to Michael, who was serving in the stables. When he put it on just as it was, those who saw this considered the event to be an omen that he would succeed Leo in the empire. And when the emperor had changed into another garment and was going to the church in the palace, Michael [(53)] followed behind him, and walking carelessly and rashly, he stepped on the hem of the imperial robe. Leo considered this to be an evil omen and began to suspect that a revolution would come from him.

When the tyrant had nonetheless entered the palace and, after the empire had been peacefully given to him, occupied it amidst no small amount of trouble and turmoil, the emperor Michael and his consort Procopia, together with their children, fled for refuge as suppliants to the church of the Theotokos, which is called the Pharos. ^B The tyrant dragged them from there and separated them from one another; he sent Michael into exile in the monastery upon the island of Prote, where he cut his hair, renounced this world, and spent the remainder of his life; he also had Theophylact, the elder of his sons, castrated and relegated him along with his mother and brothers. It perhaps would not be superfluous to relate how the loss of the empire was predicted to the emperor Michael.

There was a certain bondmaid of Michael's household who was afflicted by sudden fits of madness during the conjunctions of the moon. Whenever she was seized by her affliction, she would go to the place where a stone ox and lion are set up (from which the place gets its name, being called the Bucoleon), and crying out in a loud voice to the emperor, she would shout: "Descend, descend, yield to others." This happening many times struck fear into the emperor and cast him into no ordinary anxieties. Therefore, he conferred about the matter with one of his familiar and intimate friends, Theodotus, the son of the patrician Michael Melissenus, who was also surnamed Cassiteras, and he hastened to put the things being said to the test. He gave this advice: that when the girl became possessed by the madness, she should be seized and asked to whom the palace house belongs and what markings might identify the man. This was done, with Theodotus performing the task. ^C When the woman possessed by the madness was seized and questioned, she named Leo by name and described his features and his appearance. And, furthermore, she ordered Theodotus to go down to the acropolis, where he would encounter two men, ^D of whom the one riding upon the mule would absolutely attain the empire. Theodotus went to the place indicated to him for the sake of investigating the matter, and the man... [alt-version omitted] [GOARI NOTÆ.] (52) Xylander writes that the patriarch Nicephorus made a prayer for his happy entry into the city, rather than for the empire being assumed and the royal throne ascended. In the bad sense concerning him who occupies another's things, it can also be taken in a good sense. Thus, those who were about to board ships offered sacrifices, it is said. Leo, however, so Paul the Deacon, wrote to Nicephorus concerning his loyalty, asking also that he should assume the empire with his (Nicephorus') prayer and consent. GOAR. (53) He is Michael Balbus. XYL.

^A confirmed him by means of the signs, and he perceived that the person was in no way deceiving him. He did not, however, report anything of what he had learned to the emperor, but called the woman’s words babble and foolish talk, possessing no trace of truth. But taking Leo by the hand, and entering the church of the Apostle Paul near the orphanage (for so the house destined for the rearing of orphans is called), and having given and received pledges, he concealed the history of the girl and said that, by a certain divine revelation, he had known for certain that Leo would undoubtedly become the master of the Roman empire. As the prophecy had been fulfilled, he sought that the good news should not be unrewarded for him. And Leo promised that if the word should come to pass in deed, he would not fail him in whatever he might need. And so, these things were agreed upon between them in this way.

^B It came to pass, indeed, that the previously mentioned war between the Romans and the Bulgarians was stirred up for other reasons, but not least because of the one about to be related. Certain Bulgarians, having left their ancestral abodes, had immigrated into the Roman dominion, and with the emperor Rhangabe granting it, they had settled in various regions. And also certain Romans, who had been taken prisoner in the preceding wars by the Bulgarians, having broken their chains, had returned to their own homelands. The prince of the Bulgarians, Krum, demanded that all of these be surrendered to him. Now, to some of the Romans, the surrender seemed commendable, and both the emperor and certain notable monks agreed to this opinion; for they thought that by the surrender of these refugees, they would be delivered from the barbarian pillaging. But others disapproved of this opinion, among whom the chief were Nicephorus the patriarch and the magister Theoctistus, ^C who was at that time foremost in virtue and prudence, and not a few others. For these judged that their salvation should be committed to God, and that they should not seek to appease the pride of the Barbarian by the surrender of refugees, while neglecting the all-powerful aid of God. But since Krum’s demand could by no means be fulfilled, the aforementioned war was stirred up, and the rout and great slaughter of the Romans followed, God, as it seems, pre-ordaining something else.

Meanwhile, Leo, having girded himself with the imperial power, promoted Thomas—one of the three whom the account related as having been present with Bardanius when he consulted the monk in Philomelium—a young man of keen spirit, to be commander of the federate ^D regiment. Michael the Stammerer, also one of those three, whose son he had received from the holy baptismal font, he created patrician and count of the school of the excubitors, and he ordered the other affairs of the empire according to his own will. But the Bulgarians, being still inflated by their recent victory over the Romans, were making incursions into Thrace and were plundering and devastating everything in their path. It seemed good, therefore, to the emperor to send an embassy for the purpose of establishing peace to the Bulgarian.

But because the Bulgarian raged and rejected the peace, the emperor was forced by necessity to engage in battle. A great battle was joined, and again the Roman armies were defeated. As the Bulgarians were intent on the pursuit, the emperor, standing in a vantage point with his retinue, observed what was happening. Having noticed that the Bulgarians were in disorder and, abandoning all formation, were pursuing the fugitives, he exhorted those around him, ^A beseeching them to show themselves as good men and not to allow the glory of the Romans to come to nothing; he then attacked them fiercely. By the surprise of the assault, he routed those he encountered and struck the rest of the Bulgarian army with sudden terror and filled them with confusion and fear, and no one remembered their strength. Many fell in the onslaught, and the commander of them all himself, even though he was quickly taken up by his own men on a light horse and managed his safety by flight; many more were captured than were killed. This deed humbled the pride of the Bulgarians, and the Roman spirits, which had been bowed and looking toward the ground, it caused to take heart again. The emperor, with splendid trophies and much booty, having reached the imperial capital, turned his attention to the business at hand.

^B At that time, also, calling to mind the monk at Philomelion, he decided to compensate him with gifts and offerings for the prophecy concerning him. He sent one of his most faithful servants to carry to him the gifts, furnishings, silver and gold vessels, and aromatic spices of the kind brought to us from India. But that monk had already traded life for death, and a successor to his cell had been appointed, a certain monk named Sabbatius, who was steeped in the godless heresy of the iconoclasts. When the emperor’s envoy arrived, he urged him to accept the gifts sent to his master and to recompense the emperor with letters and prayers. But Sabbatius refused the gifts and ordered him to go back, calling the emperor unworthy of such condescension, as one devoted to the worship of images and obedient to the decrees of Empress Irene and Patriarch Tarasius. The most foul man named Irene a leopardess and a bacchante, and Tarasius, a noble in the number of patriarchs, he denounced as Taraxius, a disturber. ^C He also threatened Leo with the swift loss of his empire and his life, unless, obeying him, he were to cast down the holy images as soon as possible. Having received the letters, and having understood from the envoy what he had heard from the monk, the emperor was troubled in mind beyond measure; he summoned Theodotus Melissenus to him and deliberated with him on what ought to be done. But Theodotus, having long since been infected with that same heresy and awaiting an opportunity to profess his impiety openly, gave this advice to the emperor: that in the Dagistus monastery lived a certain monk who performed miraculous deeds, and that the matter should be communicated to him, for his [counsel...]

was to be followed in this, and whatever he suggested, that should be done. Having said this to the emperor, he went out from there and quickly persuaded the monk, saying to him: “On the coming night, the emperor will come to you in a humble garb, to ask about the faith and other most necessary matters. But do you remember to threaten him with a swift end to his life and the loss of his empire, unless he willingly chooses to adhere to the decree of the emperor Leo the Isaurian and to banish the idols (for this is what he called the holy icons) from the divine temples; but if he does this, assure him that his reign and life will be long and happy.” Having thus instructed the monk, and schooled him in what he was to say to the emperor, he returned. After a little while, he takes up the emperor in the night, veiled in humble attire, and brings him to the monk. Now that the discussion had begun, the monk, standing very close to the emperor, just as one who, by divine instinct, perceived that the imperial majesty was present, said: “You do not act rightly, O emperor, by deceiving us with a private habit, concealing your person within it. But although you do this, yet the grace of the divine Spirit has not allowed us any longer to be deceived by you.” When the emperor heard this, and how he had not escaped detection while hiding his imperial dignity in humble garb, he was struck with terror, as was natural for one unaware of this machination; he confessed the monk to be a divine man, promised to do what was commanded of him obediently and without delay, and thus approved with his own vote the dejection of the venerable ^B icons commanded by him. Then, at first, he considered how he might secretly fulfill his promises, so that the matter would not stir up sedition in the Church. But afterwards, he published a decree concerning it publicly, to which the nobles and the ecclesiastics obeyed, some willingly and others against their own judgment. He also wished to compel Nicephorus, the great and celebrated among patriarchs, to subscribe to the edict; and because he in no way obeyed, he banished him to Proconnesus. Long before, Nicephorus had foreseen Leo’s perversity, and that through him the affairs of the Church would be agitated and unsettled. For at the time he placed the diadem upon his head, he had seemed to himself to be pricked in his hand by thorns and thistles, and he had interpreted this as an omen of the evils that would later occur. But as they were taking him away to Proconnesus, the confessor Theophanes, head of the monastery of the Great Agros, sensed his passage by divine instinct while he himself was in a part of his estate; and he followed him with incense and tapers as he went by on the ship. But Nicephorus also, with hands outstretched, greeted Theophanes in return, and with bended knees, having venerated him highly, he blessed him. Although neither could see the other, by the eye of the spirit they perceived one another and showed each other ^C worthy honor. And when one of those sailing with him asked whom he was thus greeting with hands raised on high, he replied: “The most holy confessor Theophanes and head of Agros, who greeted us with torches and incense.” Nor long after, the outcome proved the truth of Nicephorus’s prediction. For shortly thereafter, Theophanes also, with many others, was cast out of the Church and tormented in infinite ways for his confession of ^D

the faith, and was deemed worthy to wear the crown of confession, no longer being permitted to see the patriarch, so that in this regard too the patriarch’s prediction might not fail. ^A When the patriarch had been sent into exile, as we have said, Theodotus Melissenus, who, as our account has previously shown, was also called Cassiteras, unworthily ascended the archiepiscopal throne on the very day of the Lord’s Resurrection. And having mounted the throne, and having the imperial power to support him, he proclaimed the heresy of the Iconoclasts, no longer in darkness and corners, but openly and with full voice.

Emperor Leo, puffed up by the preceding victory against the Bulgarians and his recent success against the Arabs, became uncontrollable in his spirit, and inclined toward harshness and cruelty. For he became implacable in his anger and most severe in punishing offenses; he was unapproachable and intractable to those wishing to meet with him, imposing heavy penalties for small transgressions. He ordered the hands, or the feet, or other vital limbs of some to be amputated, and to be hung on the public road to strike terror and fear into those who saw them. Because of these things he became hated by everyone under his rule. ^B Furthermore, he increased this hatred by what followed: for he was not only carried away and raged against men of the same nature and status as himself, but he also raged against piety itself and against God. He found a suitable instrument for this in a certain man notorious for his craftiness, who held the position of leader of those chanting in the palace—a man who outwardly appeared holy and pious, but within, like a wolf, hid himself under thick wool. This impure man, having found an opportune time when the prophecy of the most eloquent Isaiah was accustomed to be read in the Church in the hearing of all, which says: «To whom will you liken the Lord? And to what likeness will you liken him? Did the smith make an image, or did the goldsmith, having melted gold, cover it, or fashion it in a likeness?» and the rest of the prophecy, then stood by the emperor and said [in his ear]: ^C «Pay attention to these words, O King, so that the truth may not escape you: embrace this religion which the prophet dictates to you.» By saying these things, he instilled the poison of the heresy more deeply into the emperor’s mind, so that whereas he had previously been eager to proclaim the cult with restraint and hesitation, he now forced everyone, with threats and dangers, to embrace it openly and brazenly. Those who, overcome by weakness, betrayed the truth were secure; but those who did not obey his most impious command were delivered to the gravest tortures and calamities. ^D But Leo, although [he was filled] with impiety of this kind...

was nevertheless most vigilant in the administration of public affairs, such that he left nothing necessary or useful unattended. ^A Indeed, it is said that after his death, the Patriarch Nicephorus remarked that the Roman state, however impious its ruler may have been, had nonetheless lost a great protector. In addition to managing public affairs with diligence and wakefulness, he was also extremely severe toward evildoers. [P. 491] For instance, as the Emperor was once leaving the palace, a certain man approached him, complaining that his wife had been abducted by one of the senators. “And to me,” he said, “even after I complained to the urban prefect about this, no redress followed.” The Emperor, having listened to the man’s account, immediately ordered that the accused senator be brought before him upon his return. ^B And when the Emperor returned, both the injured party seeking justice and the one who had committed the detestable act, as well as the prefect himself, were brought before him. When the Emperor commanded the man to relate what he had suffered, he explained the matter from beginning to end. The guilty party, being unable to escape the proofs, as he was hemmed in on all sides by evidence, confessed to the impious deed. When the Emperor asked the prefect why he had not inflicted a punishment worthy of the crime, the prefect, unable to offer an excuse, fell silent. The Emperor immediately stripped him of his office and handed the adulterer over to be punished according to the laws. He generally gave his responses while seated in the Lausiac triclinium. He chose the best of the commanders of the armies, the soldiers, and the magistrates—those most opposed to the taking of bribes—being himself a great despiser of money. He also strove for elegance of voice, although by nature he was inept for this and alien to musical harmony. ^C He was accustomed to begin the chanting when the psalms were sung in the praises of God, especially during the canons sung at the feast of Christ’s Nativity; for then he would intone the chant with a louder and more uncouth voice. He would incite laughter among his hearers when he began the seventh ode—in the course of which occurs the line, “They despised all things for the love of the Sovereign”—since he himself cast away the fear of God and sided with the faction of the demons by the repudiation of the most holy icons. And such was the state of the Emperor’s affairs.

Michael of Amorium, always pressing on toward further and greater things, was accused of majesty, and although he purged himself with great difficulty, he was sent by the Emperor to instruct the troops under his command in the discipline of the ranks. ^D Michael was a man corrupted not only by other vices, but he also had an unbridled tongue, repeatedly blurting out the secrets of his heart and whatever came into his mouth.

^A He would let slip whatever came to mind, and he even flung unseemly words against the emperor himself, threatening him with the loss of his throne and menacing his wife with an illicit marriage. When the emperor learned of these things, he first tried, with clever stratagems, to feign ignorance, wishing to turn the man away from his loose-tongued habits and evil intentions. For he had to endure him, as the man was a slave to the most shameful disease of an unrestrained tongue. But when the emperor, after using both counsel and threats as occasion allowed, found that Michael would immediately deny the claims, yet, having once been given leniency, would not desist from his original course, he secretly sent listeners to observe the man. When they noted that he often, while at feasts and in his cups, with his mind deranged by wine, pursued his intention with great effort, they reported the matter to the emperor. ^B Exabulius, a prudent man and an intimate of the king, who was also not unknown to Michael, further increased the emperor's belief in the accusations of those who were informing against him. Although he had often tried to restrain Michael from his unbridled speech, urging him to be silent and not to cast himself into immediate danger with such untimely boldness of mouth, when he could not persuade him, he declared all of his machinations to the emperor.

And so, the day before the birth of Christ our God in the flesh, the emperor, having received the reports, sat upon his throne in the office of the *asekretai* (58), and became a precise investigator of what had been reported. Michael was thus caught for tyranny, being compelled by the clarity of the evidence to admit it; and a sentence was pronounced against him that he should end his life by fire, being thrown into the furnace of the palace bath, with the emperor himself to be a spectator of the drama. He was led in chains to his death, and the emperor followed, desiring to be a witness of the proceeding. ^C But while they were traversing the space that led to the place of punishment, the Empress Theodosia, that daughter of Arsaber, learning what was to be done, rushed quickly from the chamber, acting like a mad Bacchante in her furious movements. Having seized the emperor, she called him a bloodthirsty man and a fighter against God, for not even sparing the holy day, on the point as he was of receiving the Lord’s Body, and she restrained his impulse. The emperor, fearing lest he offend God, immediately granted him a reprieve from death, merely placing iron shackles on Michael’s feet. Keeping the key to these for himself, he entrusted the man’s custody to the *papias*. Turning then to his wife, he said, "I have done, woman, what you commanded, persuaded by your Bacchic frenzies; but you shall soon see—and so shall our offspring—what will come of it, even if you have kept me from sin today." And this indeed he prophesied truly, though he was quite alien to prophetic inspiration. It is said that he had previously received an oracle, by which he was warned that it was fated that he would lose his life and his empire on the feast of Christ’s nativity. This was a Sibylline oracle, inscribed in a certain book in the imperial library, which contained not only oracles but also figures of the emperors in color. ^D

^A In that book, a lion was depicted as a wild beast, and upon its back, from the upper part down to the belly, the letter chi was inscribed; and from behind, a certain man running up was piercing the lion with a spear through that very letter. Since this oracle seemed obscure, it was interpreted by the quaestor at that time alone, who said that a lion would one day be emperor, and that he would perish by an evil death on the very day of the Nativity of Christ. Nor did a vision revealed to his mother terrify Leo any the less. For while asleep, she seemed to herself, as she often visited the sacred church of the Mother of God at Blachernae, to meet a certain virgin attended by men in white robes; furthermore, she saw the church filled with blood, and that virgin ordered one of the men in white to fill a pot with blood and offer it to the mother of Leo to drink; but she, pleading her many years of widowhood, for the sake of which she had tasted neither meat nor anything endowed with blood, and therefore abstained also from the pot, the virgin, angered, said, “Why then does your son not cease to fill himself with much blood, and by doing so provoke me and my Son and God?” And from that time on, the mother, reporting that vision with great anguish, had not ceased to urge Leo to resist the heresy of the image-breakers. Another vision also perturbed him not a little. For in his sleep he had seemed to hear Tarasius, that noble patriarch who had long since exchanged life for death, calling by name for a certain Michael, and urging and impelling him to make an attack upon Leo and strike him down with a lethal blow. ^B The prediction of the monk at Philomelium also troubled him, as well as the memory of his own garment which Michael had donned, a matter which we have previously set forth. Driven by all these terrors, the emperor was shaken with fear and wavered in his mind, and passing that night sleepless, he formed a plan that was more clever than it was convenient for him. For having broken through the small door that led to the *papia*, he entered his house to observe what might be happening there. Upon entering the house, he was presented with a spectacle that terrified him in no ordinary way. For he saw the condemned man lying upon a very high and sumptuously built couch, while the *papias* was reclining on the bare floor. Stepping forward more curiously to discover whether Michael, as those who are anxious and placed in danger of their lives are wont to do, was experiencing a fitful and care-filled sleep, or on the contrary a secure and sweet one, he perceived him given over to a deep slumber, ^C insomuch that he could not even arouse him by touching him. Having his anger more sharply inflamed by this so unexpected spectacle, he departed, intending to contrive the ruin, at his leisure, not only of Michael but of the *papias* himself as well. Nor did this matter escape the *papias*, because one of Michael’s guards had recognized the emperor by his purple buskins, and had clearly indicated to him what had been done. Therefore, the *papias* and his men, most gravely perturbed in spirit, and almost beside themselves, deliberated on how they might escape the danger. And dawn was already approaching, when Michael adopted this plan. He pretended that, through the agency of Theoctistus, whom he later raised to the dignity of *canicleus*, ^D

^A (59), he wished to confess certain stains upon his soul to some of his godly friends. This was certainly permitted by the emperor. Michael, having gained security, said to Theoctistus: "It is time, O Theoctistus, to threaten the conspirators, that if they do not hasten quickly to rescue us from danger, I shall reveal all the facts of the plot to the emperor." When Theoctistus had done as he was ordered, the confederates fell into no small state of anxiety, and they pondered how they might save themselves and also rescue him who was now in imminent danger of death. They therefore wove a plan which saved them and also brought to Michael, along with his life, the empire. The custom prevailing at that time was not, as it is now—a practice adopted since that time—for the ^B clerics who chant in the palace church to reside in the palace itself; rather, each lived in his own home, and about the third watch of the night (60) they would rise and come to the Elephantine [gate], and from there proceed to the church to offer morning prayers to God. The conspirators, mingling with them at that time and having daggers hidden under their cloaks, entered along with them and, lurking in a dark place in the church, awaited the signal. As the hymn was finishing, the emperor arrived and, as was his custom, intoned the chant in a rather loud voice: "They have despised all things for the love of the Sovereign Supreme." ^C Then the conspirators suddenly rushed forward. They missed in their first assault, being misled toward the leader of the clergy, whether because he resembled the emperor in physical appearance or because of the similar head covering he wore—for the hour was freezing and wintry, and for this reason everyone was bundled up in heavier garments, covering their heads with very thick caps. But the leader of the clergy averted the danger, removing the cap from his head and by his baldness obtaining safety from the [attempted] slaughter. ^D The emperor, sensing an ambush, withdrew into the inner sanctuary of the altar and, having snatched up the chain of a censer, or, as others say, a divine cross, met the blows of the assailants. But they, advancing not singly but in a wedge formation, aimed blows at his head, his belly, and other parts of his body. Leo defended himself for some time with the cross, warding off the strokes of the swords, until, attacked from all sides like a wild beast, he succumbed. Finally, seeing a man of immense size, similar to a giant, about to deliver a blow, he besought him by the grace dwelling in that shrine to spare him. That person was of noble birth, hailing from the line of the Crambonitae; yet, saying that this was no time for oaths but for slaughter, with a heavy blow he severed the hand of Leo at the collarbone, and at the same time the horn of the cross. Finally, overcome by his wounds.

and as he was sinking to the ground, someone cut off his head. ^A Such was the end of life that Leo met, in the month of December, near the tenth hour of the night, when he had ruled for seven years and five months, having used greater cruelty and impiety than any of his predecessors, through which he had obscured his diligence in governing the state and his prowess in military affairs. They also say that a voice was immediately released from heaven, which made known to many the joyful news of his death, and that certain sailors who heard it, having noted the time and the night, discovered by reasoning that it was true.

The slayers of the murdered Leo cruelly dragged his corpse through the Spolia into the Hippodrome, free of all fear, because they had surrounded the palace on all sides with their own armed men. They also cast out the Augusta from the palace, along with her four sons, Sabbatios—who, upon being designated emperor, had taken the name Constantine—Basil, Gregory, and Theodosios; all of these were placed in a boat and carried off to the island of Prote. There, all were castrated, and Theodosios, having departed this life, was buried together with his father.

^B Michael, meanwhile, having been released from the custody of the papias, while still having his feet enclosed in iron fetters (for the keys to these irons were kept in Leo’s bosom), advanced in that state to the imperial throne, and was hailed as emperor and worshipped by all who were at that time in the palace. But by midday, when the rumor had now spread everywhere, his fetters were forcibly broken with a hammer. Without having washed his hands, without having brought the fear of God into his mind, and without having done anything else whatsoever that was fitting, he went to the great temple of Holy Sophia, desiring to be crowned by the hand of the patriarch and to be hailed as emperor by the whole populace, trusting only in those who were accomplices in the conspiracy and in the slayers of Leo. ^C Here one might marvel at the perversity of both: of Leo, that he had no defender at all among so many and such great sycophants, who at that time had all hidden themselves away in holes after the manner of crawling reptiles; and of Michael, for his impudence, in that he would enter the church not as an assassin or an executioner with blood-stained hands, but as if he were a victor. ^D [P. 496] Here also one might marvel at the perversity of both: of the one, in that he had no one to help him from among so many and so great flatterers, all of whom had crept like reptiles into crannies; of the other, for such impudence and shamelessness after him, when he entered the...

^A church, he did not enter as a murderer and executioner with bloodstained hands, but like some triumphant winner in the games, exulting over what had been done, having shed kindred blood not just anywhere, but at the divine altar, where the Lord’s blood is poured out daily for the expiation of our sins.

This Michael was brought forth by the city in upper Phrygia called Amorium, in which a multitude of Jews, Athingani, and other impious men had dwelt from ancient times. And a certain heresy, having a new manner and strange dogmas, grew up from their long-standing and continuous intercourse with one another, of which he himself was a participant, fulfilling a religion handed down by his fathers. ^B This sect indeed permits those being initiated to partake of the divine and saving bath of baptism, but in all other matters, save for circumcision, it observes the Mosaic Law. Michael had a teacher, and a kind of director, by whom he was initiated into those rites—a certain Hebrew (or perhaps rather a Hebrew woman) whom he fostered at home, and by whom he was instructed not only in spiritual matters, but also in domestic affairs. Being captivated by this person, he kept nothing pure, but was like a cesspool of corrupt religion, as he adulterated the decrees of the Christian faith and polluted the Jewish religion with spurious opinions. And there was in him, concerning the profession of piety, such variety and confusion as is said to be the nature of the beasts in Libya, which are produced when various animals meet due to the scarcity of water.

When he ascended to the imperial throne, he took pride and adorned himself ^C with the diadem and the purple, but rejected and dishonored all learning and discipline as things that overturned his own position and as if he feared he might be taught something better. He considered his own matters to be of the greatest importance; these were: to predict which newborn pigs would grow up exceptionally well and which would be the opposite; to know how to stand near horses that kick, and how to skillfully avoid kicking donkeys as far away as possible; to be an excellent judge of mules, discerning which were fit for carrying burdens and which for riders, so that they would not be startled by any fright and throw them off. Moreover, he judged horses merely by ^D glancing at them, [497] discerning which were strong and fast for racing and which preserved the endurance necessary for war; and to know the fertility of sheep and cattle, and which had been blessed by nature with an abundance of milk; and to distinguish which of the newborn offspring belonged to which mother. These were his interests in his youth, and he boasted of them even in his final days.

When he had grown up, bearing a life of poverty, he strove with all his might to free himself from it; and once, he approached his own tribune, addressing him with the stuttering voice he possessed. A certain Athinganus, who was known to the tribune, affirmed to the tribune that shortly this Michael and a certain other person would be illustrious and would seize the Roman empire itself. At this prediction, the tribune was so emboldened that he who

^A saw the future as if in a mirror before his eyes, and judging that an opportunity not easily to be had again should by no means be rejected, immediately cast aside all others who were flourishing in splendor of birth and status, and invited these men to a banquet. When the drinking was at its height, the tribune brought forth his daughters and betrothed them to these strangers, while they, at first stunned by so new and unexpected a thing, nevertheless consented and agreed to the marriages, regarding it as the work of God rather than of man.

Enimvero Michaelus, having heard the voice of this Athingani in such a way that he regarded it as a divine prediction, and being confirmed by a second omen, namely the prophecy of the monk at Philomylium which we mentioned above, the more boldly and fiercely plotted the murder of Leo. He had behaved badly toward his first benefactor, Bardanes; he behaved even worse toward the second, I mean Leo, who had even received the son of Michael from the sacred font. Although he removed Leo by a most atrocious murder, he nevertheless assigned a portion for the sustenance of life to his children and his wife from his confiscated goods and possessions, and gifted some of his own boys to them, whose service they might utilize. He enclosed the wife of Leo in the monastery called that of the Lords, and the male children ^C on the island of Prote. When they were castrated there, Theodosius passed away, but Constantine, who is also called Basil, deprived of the use of his voice by the excision of his male parts, prayed to God for its restoration, and also to Gregory, illustrious for his theology, a certain statue of whom happened to be there. The saint heard him, and to him in a vision appeared the sacred image, bidding him read the wax [tablet] which it offered. Basil, having faith in the words, entered the shrine and recited in a clear and most pure voice: "Again, Jesus is my own." Having thus received his voice, he loathed the impiety handed down to him by his father and showed himself grateful toward the sacred images.

Verum hæc aliquanto post evenerunt. But when Michael had thus obtained the empire and was settling affairs according to his own will, the noble Patriarch Nicephorus sent him a letter, requesting the restoration of the sacred images and the revocation of piety. Michael replied that he had decided neither to overturn any of the decrees concerning the faith, nor to condemn any of those things which were already traditionally held and confessed. ^D

^A “Let everyone, therefore,” he said, “do what seems good and desirable to him, remaining free from labors and unacquainted with grief.” Yet he did not maintain this resolve to the end, for he was not a true Christian even at the beginning. But as his imperial power was strengthened, he stirred up a war against the Christians and those of his own race ^B—a war of such an evil and cruel nature—that he would now despise the monks, afflicting them in various ways and devising all sorts of punishments for them, and now he would cast other pious men into prison or drive them into exile. From this, he drove from the city Methodius, who not long after was deemed worthy of the patriarchal throne, and Euthymius, who at that time presided as bishop over Sardis, because they would not submit to his will, nor would they deny the honor due to the holy images. He consigned the divine Methodius to custody on the island of Acritas, but he delivered the blessed Euthymius to be put to death by his own son, Theophilus, by being beaten mercilessly with ox-sinews. And to the same extent that he oppressed the inheritance of Christ, he relieved the Jews of taxes and granted them freedom, as they were loved and cherished by him more than other men. He set before himself, as a goal and archetype for his own life to imitate, the life of Copronymus, and he strove to his utmost to emulate him, reaching the height of impiety. Thus, he would now enjoin fasting on the Sabbath, now sharpen his tongue against the divine prophets, now deny the future resurrection and mock the goods promised to us from it, and now assert that there is no devil at all, since nothing about him had been handed down by Moses. He also embraced fornication, and he enacted a law that one should swear by the God who is above all, and with unbridled tongue he numbered Judas among the blessed. ^C Furthermore, he said that the feast of the saving Pascha was celebrated by us wrongly and at the wrong time, and he detested our institutions of sacred things as if they were Hellenic education, and he was so averse to our divine education that he would not even allow the youth to be trained in it, so that no one might ever have the means to oppose his own insanity and refute it, nor, by the help of training, use the swiftness of eye and tongue in reading to seize the palm from him in that regard. For he was so slow in composing letters and putting syllables together that another person could more easily read a book than he could recite the letters of his own name. ^D But let these things be passed over, as they have been sufficiently exposed by others to his shame, and let the history follow with what comes next. For at this time, the civil war which had its beginning in the East filled the world with evils of every kind, and brought about great destruction of men, and as a result, a scarcity of people. The leader of this was Thomas.

^A Concerning him, two different accounts are current. One says that he stemmed from obscure and poor parents and was of barbarian lineage, and that he lived for a long time in poverty, procuring his livelihood by the labor of his hands and sometimes even as a servant. Then, after leaving his homeland, he came to this great city and was taken into service by one of the senators, proceeding to such a pitch of debauchery and filth that he even dared to defile his master’s own bed. When this was discovered, unable to bear the ignominy and fearing the penalties established for those who attempt such crimes, he fled to the Hagarenes. Having sufficiently proven himself to them and confirmed his loyalty over a long period through consistent actions—for he spent twenty-five years among them—and having abjured the holy religion of the Christians and embraced the detestable impiety of the damned Muhammad, he was appointed leader of a certain military phalanx and was sent against the Christians, promising to bring the Roman Empire under their power. And so that the Romans, ^B regarding him as a foreigner and an adherent of a different religion, would not distrust the fraud he was practicing, he gave himself the name of Constantine, the son of Irene, whom his mother, because of his perverse disposition and his treacherous and malicious character, had long ago deprived of his sight and his throne, and who had already passed away while still alive. This is the first account, which is credited by many.

Others affirm that this Thomas is the same man who formerly was of Bardanes’ household, concerning whom the monk in Philomelium uttered the prophecy, ^C and whom the Emperor Leo had appointed commander of the foederati. Thus, when this Thomas learned that Leo had been killed by Michael, partly to avenge his benefactor, and partly to satisfy his own spirit—for since his youth he had harbored enmities with Michael—and at the same time fearing the outcome of the monk’s prediction regarding him, he took up arms against Michael. He first incited the Eastern forces, among whom he was residing, and collected an army—not one that was unwarlike or small, but large and brave—by summoning to military service all who were in any way able to bear arms. Some of these joined Thomas’s camp forced by necessity, others were led by affection for him, some by the hope of booty, and some by hatred toward Michael. For he was detested by all because of his perverse character, because he showed himself a partisan of the Athingane sect, and also because of his stuttering and effeminacy. For although Thomas ^D had one foot crippled and was barbarian by race, he was nevertheless venerable because of his gray hair, and was easy and approachable in manner, which are qualities very pleasing to the military multitude, nor was he considered inferior to anyone in bodily strength. Having thus occupied the East,

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES. I have added from my own mind, for the sake of connecting the history. For it seems, if nothing has been lost and the narrative is complete, that Thomas did this, so that as the supreme leader of their army he might betray the cities and provinces of the Romans to the Hagarenes. XYL. — Xylander is mistaken, and... [that he would bring] the Roman Empire under them, that is, the Hagarenes. For over whom would he rule thereafter as a Roman, or by what advantage led would he subject himself to the Saracens? It is more true to say that he promised, after the borders of the Romans had been betrayed to the Saracens, that he, as a tyrant, would leave the Saracens with their own principality subject only to them, so that they would suffer no hardship from the Romans in the future. GOAR.

^A For Thomas, even if he had one foot crippled and was a barbarian by race, was nevertheless venerable for his grey hair, and possessed an affable and pleasing manner, which the rank and file of the army loves; nor was he inferior to anyone in bodily nobility. This Thomas, therefore, having taken over the whole of the East, and having brought the public tax collectors under his own control, and having employed great loftiness of spirit and advancement, became great from small beginnings, and powerful from being weak. For he led some by persuasion and friendship—those in whom there was a love for public affairs and for greed—while others he brought under his control by force and necessity, those who hated the evils of civil strife. From this point, civil wars broke out and, like the thundering torrents of a river, they flooded the earth not with water, but with blood. All of Asia was being devastated and plundered and was suffering miserably, with some of its cities joining Thomas out of fear, while others, because they kept their faith to the emperor, were plundered and enslaved. And all things in Asia had become subject to the rebel, with the exception of the theme of Opsikion (for Katakelas, being the general of this theme, kept his loyalty to the emperor until the end), and also the theme of the Armeniacs; for the general of this theme, Olbianus, also kept his loyalty to the emperor. To these men, the emperor, as a reward, granted/gifted the public tax that is brought into the imperial treasury, which they are accustomed to call the *kapnikon*.

The Agarenes, upon learning of the civil strife, were rejoicing and leaping for joy; for, seizing the opportunity, they were raiding every island and region with impunity. ^B Thomas, fearing that his soldiers, terrified by the incursion of the Agarenes—who, as has been said, were making booty of everything in their path and taking prisoner whomsoever they encountered—would abandon him and depart, decided that it was necessary to check their impetus for the time being by his own appearance, and to strike them with terror by the multitude of the forces following him, and to summon them to peace. And this, indeed, happened: for suddenly appearing to the Saracens while they were plundering the East, he struck them with panic, and having come to converse, he made a truce, promising to hand over to them the borders of the Romans and to place their own government under their control. ^C Having been freed from the fear of these people, he proclaimed himself emperor and placed a diadem upon his head, and he is declared emperor in Antioch by Job, the shepherd of the Church there at that time. He himself gathered a great force of soldiers, and also received one from the Agarenes, not only collected from our neighbors, but also from the more remote ones, Egyptians, Indians, Persians, Assyrians, Armenians, Chaldeans, Iberians, Zichs, and Kabirs. ^D Being fortified and surrounded by all these, he deemed it the best course of action to adopt him as a son and to associate him as a partner and helper in the empire, and to change his name. Having set out from there, he brought the whole of the East under his influence. The emperor, upon learning these things, also prepared himself to resist the war and sent out forces that were by no means equal to the struggle; these Thomas totally dispersed in the ensuing battle, killing a part and putting the rest to flight. Having thus obtained liberty, he strengthened his own forces more effectively, constructing ships for battle and others suitable for the transport of grain and horses. Moreover, he brought the imperial fleet under his own power and gathered all the ships at Lesbos. Then, with eighty men...

thousand men ^A of his army, he made for Abydos, intending to cross from there into Persia, devastating everything in his path and reducing to ash not only the lowly and easily captured places, but also the most famous and difficult to conquer. There was a certain fortress, naturally fortified, which remained loyal to the Emperor. Thomas sent his adopted son to capture it; but he, riding boldly and without order—supposing that the place was bare of enemies—fell into an ambush set by Olbianus and, having his head cut off, learned not to be so reckless. Olbianus sent the head of that wretch to the Emperor, and the Emperor in turn sent it to Thomas, the boy's father, who was advancing with a roar and boasting arrogantly. Receiving this, yet yielding nothing of his confidence, he crossed into Thrace from the place they call Horcosium, having waited for a night of the new moon. But the Emperor Michael concerned himself ^B with this, and in order to forestall his arrival, he had restored cities, strengthened the soldiers, and fortified the weaker places. Although he reaped no fruit from these efforts. For as soon as he had returned to the city and Thomas had landed in Thrace, everyone deserted the Emperor for Thomas, prepared to set out with him to besiege Constantinople. The Emperor gathered an army and forces, as considerable as possible under the circumstances, and sent them against the tyrant under the command of Catacela and Olbianus. He also attended to maritime matters with the utmost effort. But the tyrant Thomas, rushing like a torrent flowing down from a high mountain, routed the Emperor's land and sea forces and struck such terror into him that he stretched an iron chain ^C from the acropolis to the opposite town, in order to keep the enemy out of the inner sea. There lived at that time in Scyrus, which is one of the Cyclades islands, a certain commander, a cousin of the Emperor Leo, who had been relegated there by Michael because he had often boldly reproached him to his face for the murder of Leo. Thomas took this man into his alliance and placed him in command of twelve thousand land troops. He also equipped a fleet and placed another leader over it. He sent them both to attempt Constantinople as precursors, judging it would be advantageous if the city were besieged simultaneously by land and sea. When both the land and naval forces had reached the Blachernae harbor simultaneously, that iron chain was broken and the city began to be besieged from all sides. Shortly after, Thomas himself arrived. Although he strenuously ^D besieged the city from every side, nothing memorable was achieved, as those inside fought bravely and repelled the siege engines. For Thomas had hoped that, as soon as he arrived at the city, the gates would be opened to him by the citizens out of hatred for Michael; and for this reason he had sent ahead Gregory, as we have mentioned, and he himself had followed with all his forces and his adopted son Anastasius, who had recently abandoned the monastic life and turned to a secular one. [alt-version omitted]

^A But when nothing happened in accordance with his expectations, and he was even greeted with insults by the townspeople, he fortified his camp there in the place called that of Paulinus, where the temple of the wonder-working Anargyri is situated. He sent an army as far as the Euxine Sea and to Hierum, soliciting the small towns to defect so that he would not leave any enemy in his rear. Having determined these things, while he spent several days on preparations, he saw from a lookout point Michael fixing the war sign on the roof of the temple of the Theotokos at Blachernae, and from there seeking and expecting strength against the enemy; he saw his son Theophilus going around the entire circuit of the city walls with the patriarch and the holy order, and carrying with them the wood of the cross and the garment of the immaculate Theotokos. This greatly shook his hopes regarding the outcome of the situation, and, distracted by various thoughts and uncertain of his plan, he finally trusted in the multitude of his own men and decided to decide the matter by battle. Therefore, on the following day at first light, he ordered the trumpet to sound, led his men out of the camp, and entrusted the attack on the land wall to his son; he himself, with the greater part of his forces and the stronger machines and engines, attacked the Blachernae towers, applying ladders matching the height of the walls, using tortoises in one place and battering rams in another, and utilizing stone-throwing engines from every side. ^B Finally, with every art and effort, he endeavored to terrify the townspeople and capture the city. He also surrounded the remaining walls with naval forces, frightening them with fire and missiles. Yet he achieved nothing with such force and equipment. For a contrary wind immediately dissipated the fleet and scattered the ships in different directions, a violent storm having arisen, while on land the townspeople fought bravely and rendered his machines useless. Therefore, all his hope coming to naught, he sounded the retreat. And those who were in the city, the siege having been broken, recovered their spirits; and so much courage came to them that, some small gates even being opened, they sallied forth and engaged in battle with the soldiers of Thomas. From this, Thomas decided to depart from Thrace, because that region is colder during the winter, and to disperse his army for the winter into warmer regions. Having executed this plan, at the coming of spring he intended to attack Constantinople again by land and sea. Nor, indeed, did he find Michael as before, but now already instructed, having collected a land army, and with a new fleet. Therefore, he again attacked the same part of the city as before, near the Blachernae gulf, and the signal for attack having been given, he attempted with all his might to shake the walls with the machines he had brought up. While these things were being done, Michael, having obtained an opportunity to speak with some of Thomas’s soldiers, promised oblivion of injuries and many benefits if they would cross over to him and abstain from the pollution of civil bloodshed. ^{C D}

^B Yet he accomplished nothing; rather, he made those who heard him more courageous, because they saw they were being entreated, and he rendered those who had been loosened by fear more resolute towards the rebel. Having despaired of such an attempt, and having exhorted those with him to be valiant and not to abandon their liberty to an abominable tyrant, he suddenly emerged from many of the postern gates and unexpectedly attacked his opponents. Struck with amazement at this paradox, they were routed, having suffered a significant slaughter and bringing him a brilliant victory.

The rebel’s naval forces were also handled badly, for as the imperial triremes were raising anchor and were already about to engage, the enemy fleet, seized by certain terrors and confusion, backed water and steered towards the shore. Some of the men deserted to the emperor, while others fled to their own land-based camp. Thus, without effort, the fleet of Thomas was dispersed. ^C Hence Gregory, cousin to the emperor Leo, having observed that Thomas was contemptible (and further surmising that as time went on he would become even more so), having communicated with the emperor through a certain monk from the monastery of the Stoudios, and having taken a portion of the detachment under his command, conceived a rupture and came up behind the tyrant, both in order to terrify him ^D and to appease the emperor, and also in the hope of saving his wife and children (for they had been held captive by Michael from the time he had defected to Thomas). But the matter had not yet reached the emperor’s ears, and Thomas, fearing lest Gregory’s authority should suddenly become great, and at the same time wishing to strike fear into his own men, did not move his camp from the city, fearing that if he did, the enemy would pursue him. Therefore, taking as many soldiers as he judged would suffice to defeat Gregory, he led them against him, and having routed him in battle and caught him in flight, he slew him.

He then quickly returned to those left to besiege the city and dispatched letters in all directions, in which he falsely boasted that he had been victorious; he also summoned the fleet that was at Greece to him immediately, as if he were about to conduct operations by sea. And as for this fleet, because it held a straight course, it arrived without delay at the place called Berides. It consisted of three hundred and fifty ships suited for battle and for the carrying of grain. But the commanders of the imperial fleet, having learned of its arrival, attacked the hostile ships by night while they were in harbor; with a sudden assault, they terrified the crews, captured many of them along with the men on board, and burned certain of them with artificial fire. Very few escaped the danger; these, having fled swiftly to the port of Blachernae, joined themselves there with the land forces. In this way, the matter was settled by sea. On land, meanwhile, light skirmishes were fought continuously, sometimes with Michael, and sometimes with his son Theophilus, as each led his men out against the enemy, alongside Catacelas and Olbianus. These battles had varying fortunes on both sides. However, a pitched battle was never fought, because the emperor did not dare to join in line of battle with an enemy whose forces were far more numerous. While matters were in this state, Mortagon, king of the Bulgarians, having heard that the fame [of the siege] had spread throughout the whole world, and that the Roman emperor was besieged and enclosed within his walls, set out in secret to Michael—

^A—to reconcile himself to the emperor, while at the same time seeking the salvation of his wife and children (for they happened to be imprisoned after this man had defected to Thomas). But the emperor did not manage to hear him, and Thomas, fearing that he might suddenly not remain powerful for long, and desiring to strike fear into his own men, did not move the camp from the city, fearing to be pursued from behind; rather, he took as many soldiers as he knew were capable of fighting in the engagement against Gregory, went out toward him, and having routed them in battle, overtook those fleeing and slaughtered them. And again he quickly returned to the forces besieging the city, and by sending letters everywhere, he boasted as if he had been victorious, which was not the case; and he ordered the fleet he had in Greece to set sail quickly, as if he were once again going to maintain his position at sea. And the fleet, sailing straight, quickly set out and anchored ^B at the place called Bēridou, consisting of fifty warships and grain-transporters. But the commanders of the imperial fleet, having learned of their arrival, attacked them by night while they were anchored against their enemies, and being taken by surprise, they captured many of the ships with their crews, while others they burned with the prepared combustible fire; very few escaped the disaster, and these hurried to reach the bay of Blachernae, so that they might be united with the land army, which indeed happened. So much for the events at sea. On land, however, with constant skirmishing taking place—now Michael going out, now his son Theophilus, against the rebels alongside Olbianus and Kata Kēlas—sometimes the emperor’s position was stronger, and at other times the rebel’s; yet no brilliant or remarkable battles took place from a pitched battle, since the emperor’s force was greatly outnumbered and could not fully stand up against the tyrant’s power.

While they were in these circumstances, Mortagon, the king of the Bulgarians (for the rumor had already reached and filled the civilized world that the emperor of the Romans was besieged and enclosed behind his walls), having sent certain persons in secret to him, offered aid and alliance of his own accord. Michael, whether pitying in truth the multitude of his own people or sparing of money (for he happened to be the most miserly of all emperors who ever lived), accepted the Bulgarian’s offer in principle but declined the help. But Mortagon, who delighted in wars anyway and loved to reap the spoils ^C from them, and also wishing to confirm and make stronger the thirty-year peace treaty made by the late emperor Leo, prepared an army against the tyrant, and having arrived within the Roman borders, pitched his camp at a place called Cedoctus. He was making his stand there, and it was not possible for the rebel to capture these [positions]. He was troubled, as was to be expected, and his mind was struck with dismay, but in himself he sought to confirm his strategy.

[alt-version omitted]

^D Mortagon, as one who otherwise delighted in wars and the spoils of war gained by them, and who desired to confirm the thirty-year truce pact agreed upon with Leo the Armenian, nonetheless undertook an expedition against Thomas; and having arrived at the borders of the Romans, he pitched his camp at a place called Cedoctus. There Thomas—whom the arrival of the Bulgarians had not in the least escaped—was gravely troubled in his mind, as was to be expected; but as soon as he recovered from the agitation, he ordered his men to take up arms. And seeing that he would be weak and easily overcome in his way of life if he were to divide his forces into two parts (for a very numerous army of great courage was required to take Constantinople, all the more because the emperor had already prepared an army that was not to be despised and was able to resist the enemy in a direct combat, and it was not possible to fight against the Bulgarian forces except with a great and powerful army), he preferred to lead [his forces] from the city against the Bulgarians, whom he thought he would be equal to. And so he joined battle with them in formation near Cedoctus. But in that battle he was defeated with great slaughter of his own men, and those who had provided for their own safety by flight gathered in a certain place that had difficult access, scouting what was to come. The Bulgar returned home carrying off captives and most ample spoils, elated and proud of the victory. But the fleet, which Thomas had left for the siege, hearing of the slaughter of its men, defected entirely to the emperor. But Thomas—the demons, I believe, whose ally he had been in this war, and his own greed for possessing the kingdom he still dreamed of, drove him to such a state of madness that, although worn down on all sides and forced into straits, despite his most ample resources, he still did not desist from the siege. At length, feeling that he was laboring in vain, he led all his forces into a certain plain called Diabasis, situated many stadia from the city, but suitable for excursions and appropriate because of the abundance of water, and there he pitched his camp; and from there he ruined all the beauty of the suburbs, not leading out his men into the view of those who were in the city as he did before. When the emperor learned of this, he prepared an excellent army and placed as its commanders Catecelas and Olbianus; and he himself, taking the schools that perform watches at the palace, and the sodalities, led the march against Thomas, intending to resolve the matter in a pitched battle. Thomas resisted him bravely. And since, as it appears, he was trying to conquer his enemies by trickery, he ordered his men to turn their backs in the first encounter, and then, as the enemies pursued, to face them and turn them to flight by an unexpected reversal. He indeed gave this command: but it was not to be that this plan would succeed for him. For his soldiers, who for his sake had long been deprived of their wives and children, and had contaminated their hands with the blood of the gentiles—

at the same time also pressed by the length of time (for the third year was being completed, and they thought they were laboring at unending tasks, serving the madness and desire of one man)—having become ^A again his own army, he armed them. But since by dividing them into two forces he seemed altogether weak and easy to capture (for the Queen of Cities, being besieged, required a not-easily-numbered but rather a very great and notable army, and since the emperor had also gathered forces not ignoble and able to stand face-to-face, the power of the Bulgarians also required no small, but a great and not ordinary counter-array), in order not to be made easy to capture by being divided into two, he departed from the city, and judging himself a match for the Bulgarian, drew up his battle line at the aforementioned place. [P. 506] And indeed, when they clashed, the tyrant was defeated ^B by force, and great slaughter of those around him occurred; those who were saved sought safety in flight, and having gathered in a difficult-to-traverse place, they considered the future. The leader of the Bulgarians took possession of the bodies, as well as much loot, and returned to his own country, being both emboldened and exultant from the victory. And the navy which had been left during the siege of the city, having learned of the defeat of the rebel, all went over to the emperor. But the rebel, driven to such madness by the demons, as it seems, who were allied with him, still dreamed of holding the empire, for although shattered on all sides and becoming small after having been great, he still persisted in the siege. When he realized that he was laboring in vain, he gathered all his army to a plain named Diabasis, ^C several stades distant from the city, which was well-suited for pasture and had outflows of water, and he pitched his camp; and from there he made raids, cutting down the splendors of the city's suburbs. He no longer appeared to those in the city as he had before. Michael, having understood this, organized a notable army and appointed Cotacelas and Olbianus as commanders over it, and having himself taken the guards that were stationed in the palace and the regiments (76), he went out against the tyrant, wishing to decide the whole matter by a field battle. There the tyrant, having set up his camp, stoutly awaited the emperor, and when a clash occurred, Thomas, wishing to outmaneuver ^D his opponents, ordered his men at the very onset of the battle to turn their backs, and then, after the enemy had turned to pursuit, to face them around from the retreat and to rout them by the unexpectedness of their turnaround. Such was his instruction, but the things he had planned were not to be put into action. [alt-version omitted]

Instead, they scattered disorderly and without arrangement, having broken their lines. Thus, now a few, and later more, joined the Emperor. ^A Thomas, however, escaped with a few men to Adrianople. His subordinate and illegitimate son, Anastasius, fled and seized the fortress of Bizye. The Emperor, following close upon their heels, first decided to besiege Thomas. Hence, he invested him with a siege, not striving to take him by mechanical engines and siege-towers—both to avoid civil war and because he did not wish for the Scythians residing near Adrianople to get a taste of siege weaponry—but rather compelling his opponent to submit through hunger and the necessity of provisions. Indeed, having besieged Adrianople and surrounded it with a palisade and stakes, he laid an effective siege. Thomas first expelled from the city all useless ages and every animal not suitable, and then, as famine soon flourished and there was no hope of safety anywhere, some of those who were with him secretly stole away through certain small gates, others lowered themselves down the walls at night, and they surrendered themselves to the Emperor, while others escaped to the pretender’s illegitimate son, Anastasius, at the town of Bizye. Since necessary supplies had already been consumed by those under siege, they resorted to certain unaccustomed foods; and the necessity proceeded even to the mentioned hides and leather, which they were forced to eat. Secretly sent to Michael to discuss terms, and having requested and received pardon for their transgressions, they brought Thomas, fettered, to the enemy. ^B Embracing the custom formerly pleasing to emperors, which had already become rule, after he had first finished, and having thrown him to the ground and trampled his neck with his feet, he amputated his feet and hands, and setting him upon an ass, he paraded him through the camp, while he cried out nothing other than, "Have mercy on me, O true Emperor!" When the Emperor asked if there were any others among his followers who shared his sentiments, he would perhaps have denounced many, had not the patrikios John Hexabulios pleaded: "It is not fitting, O Emperor, indeed it is most irrational, to believe enemies against friends." With this speech, he dissolved the punishments that were about to be inflicted upon the miserable citizens and his friends. The pretender, moreover, ended his life, yielding up his spirit through gradual tortures, in the middle of the month of October; having seemed at the beginning to be ambitious, bold, and capable of executing his chosen goal, but appearing in the outcome much more inferior to himself and to the expectation of those abroad. The men in the fortress of Bizye also quickly changed their minds, fearing the impending danger; for as soon as they learned of the misfortunes of Thomas, having done similar things and seized Anastasius, they brought him bound hand and foot to the Emperor. He also suffered things similar to those of ^C his father and met a violent end. Now that these tyrants had been removed, the maritime cities of Thrace, Parium and Heraclea, still holding to the tyrant’s cause, resisted the Emperor, out of hatred for Michael and because he did not wish to restore the holy icons. Parium was taken after the wall was cast down by a localized earthquake, and Heraclea was conquered from the side facing the sea. Thus did the matters concerning Thomas have their end, and the Emperor, triumphant, returned from the cities of Thrace, having decided nothing else toward those who had defected with Thomas and were captured in the war, other than that they should be led around on asses during the equestrian games and delivered into exile. There remained, however, kindling of the rebellion in the fortresses of Kabala and Saniana, of which the one was held by Choireas and the other by the Gazarenos, from which they were sallying forth to conduct robberies and raids. But even these, since they did not accept the royal letters offering them immunity and the bestowed dignities (for the Emperor had made both of them *magistri*), were betrayed from within by the garrisons; as they went out for their customary plunderings, the gates of the fortresses were shut against them,

^A and they were captured by the generals who were in charge of the outposts and impaled.

And so the insurrection was completely extinguished and came to an end; yet the tide of evils was not to stop at this point. Instead, the two continents—Asia, as we say, and Europe—were being chastised by the wrath of the Lord, as if it were a head and a tail, though they did not understand it; they were being chastised by murders, fires, earthquakes, looting, civil raids, unexpected migrations of cities, and signs in the sky and the air. Finally, the disasters spread to the wretched islands, which were like the center of the body, so that the wound might be total. But they could not be corrected, those who refused to worship the form of the God-man. ^B For just as soon as the innovation started by Thomas began, since these things were heard everywhere, the Hagarenes who inhabit the western gulf of Iberia, bordering on the Ocean (they call these people Spaniards), having multiplied in number and realizing that their land was barren and only moderately fertile, and therefore unable to support them, approached their ruler, Apochapsus (the local language knows how to call him *Amermumnes* [78]), and asked for a colony and an emigration to be made for them, as they were crowded by their numbers and were destitute of necessities. ^C He, having received the proposal gladly, immediately prepared long ships, and after embarking a force upon them, sent them out to plunder the islands of the East—which were under our rule—to some extent having his intention still concealed; he sent them out both to do something pleasing to his subjects—by sating their greed with the wealth of others—and to explore whether there was any fertile island to which he could conveniently move a colony of his people. Having begun the voyage in the spring, he put into many islands and found no one resisting him; for they were all devoid of help, as the entire fleet assigned to guard them was at that time supporting Thomas. Thus he brought back huge plunder from all the islands he touched. In this way he also came to Crete; and after he had plundered and devastated it according to his strength, and having perceived the quality and beauty of the island, he said this one thing to his subjects: “Behold a land flowing with milk and honey.” And then he said nothing more, but having filled his fleet with goods of every kind, he remembered the return home. ^D When winter had finished and the spring was shining, he filled forty ships with warriors and, having waited for a favorable wind, he sailed past the other islands almost without doing any harm and put into Crete, setting up camp on the promontory which he named Charax. And as he found no enemy either during the landing or while he was leading his men ashore, after he had fortified his camp he sent out those who were fit for an excursion; he himself with the rest—when they had already gone ten or eleven stadia and the wind had intensified—[found that] the ships, one and all, having cast...

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES

^A nor did he appear hostile regarding his origin; having pitched a fortified camp, he sent those who were capable off for foraging, while he himself, having the rest with him—the wind having just picked up—and when they were at a distance of ten or even fifteen stades, set fire to the ships and burned them all, sparing none at all. The army (for they were returning immediately, terrified and struck with amazement at the unexpected sight) inquired into the cause and fell into seditious talk. Now when they heard what they had long been in the throes of, he said: "Indeed, you yourselves are the cause of these things, seeking a colony and good land. To me, neither is considered better than this: I have come along this route, doing what is agreeable to you and ridding myself of your pestering." And when they mentioned wives and children, "Wives," said Apochapsus, "are here, our captives, and children in a little while from them." Calmed by these words and judging what was said to be worthy of acceptance, they first dug a deep trench and planted stakes in it—a place where even now it retains the name, being called Chandax 79—and there they spent the night. No long time elapsed before rumor informed the king of these events. And he entrusted all the affairs of Crete to Photinus 80, the Protospatharios who was commanding the Eastern armies.

This man, having arrived there and learned everything, informed the king of what was happening and requested he send a force to drive the enemies away from there. The king therefore sent a certain Damian, who was Count of the Imperial Stable 81 and Protospatharios, with a great force and equipment to aid the general Photinus; these, having united their forces, armed themselves against the Agarenes. But the outcome resulted in nothing useful for them; for Damian himself, having been struck a mortal blow in the first engagement and dying, became the cause of rout for the rest, and Photinus with difficulty escaped on a fast boat to the king and became the direct messenger of what had transpired. But he, ^C since he was held by the king in high honor at any rate, was exchanged from Crete to the generalship of Sicily. Regarding the Saracens, while they were still lingering in cares and troubles, a certain monk who had come down from the mountains of the island said they were mistaken if they thought they were residing safely in that place, and at the same time, showing them Chandax, pointed it out as a convenient spot for every advantage. Having founded a city in this place, as it were a citadel of the whole island, they sallied forth from it and ravaged the whole island and the remaining parts. They enslaved the natives and the cities in Crete, except for one. At that time also, Cyril, the prelate of Gortyna, was perfected by the martyr's crown, not having wished to deny Christ. And thus Crete was captured in this manner.

NOTES OF XYLANDER AND GOAR

^A Liberated from civil wars, Emperor Michael did not attribute his victory to God, but to his own prudence and strategy; and therefore, puffed up by pride, he was unrestrained in his impulses. Accordingly, when his wife died, pretending that he preferred to embrace a widowed life, he secretly conspired with the leaders of the senate, so that they might appear as the instigators of his taking another wife; and if he should prove unwilling to be persuaded, they were to threaten him with force, using this honorable pretext: that it was not fitting that while they were subject to the emperor, their own wives should lack a mistress and an empress. Thus, he finally gave way to their feigned arguments. And first, he ordered his subjects to bind themselves to him by their own handwritten oaths, that they would hold the future wife of the emperor and the children she would bear him in the highest honor, so that after his own death they would acknowledge her as empress and one of his sons as emperor. To such a degree did he imagine that he would rule, not only in this age but even after his own death. Then, persuaded by these fictitious entreaties of the senate, he married a woman who had long ago been betrothed to Christ, and had embraced the monastic life, practicing it from childhood in the monastery of the island of Princes: Euphrosyne was her name, and she was said to be the daughter of the Emperor Constantine, whom his mother Irene had justly deprived of his eyes because of his own debaucheries. And these things were done in this manner.

^B Michael sent another fleet against the Saracens occupying Crete, placing Crateros, the prefect of the Cibyrrhaeots, as commander over them. He, with seventy of his own ships and all the biremes of the other islands, landed quite boldly in Crete, and encountered the Agarenes, who were not at all avoiding the battle, but resisting it very bravely. From first light until midday the fight was carried out most fiercely on both sides; neither party gave way, but both held out with spirit. With the day already leaning toward evening, the Cretans were finally overcome and took to flight. Many of them were killed in the battle, and more were captured after throwing down their arms. And on the same day the city itself appeared as though it might have been taken, had not the encroaching night prevented it. And that night indeed proved fatal to the Romans. For, as if they were victors, and hoping that they would easily bring the few survivors into their power the next day, just as if they were not in hostile territory but in their own homes, they gave themselves over to drinking and luxury, taking no care for sentries or any other matter of security, and thinking only of sleep, rest, and the ease that easily overturns all things. Therefore, the Cretans, who, because of their own lack of sentries, were performing the duties of watchmen themselves, finding the Roman camp captured by wine and sleep, rushed in at midnight with a great din, and falling upon the drunken men, slaughtered them all, so that, as the proverb says, not even a messenger remained. Only the commander, Crateros, used a merchant vessel to provide for his own safety. When the leader of the Saracens, having searched long and hard for him among the corpses and the captives, could not find him, and realized that he had escaped by flight, he sent men to pursue him. ^D [P. 511]

^A And they, having overtaken him on the island of Kos, hanged him upon a timber and slew him. After this, a certain man of war, not lacking in prudence and keenness of mind, surnamed Oryphas, by imperial command gathered an army, then called "the forty-man unit" because forty gold coins were paid to each of them. He went around other islands too, slaying the Agarenes who were raiding, sometimes laying ambushes for them, sometimes fighting them openly, and he restrained the excessive and unbridled ferocity of the Cretans and suppressed them. And these things happened in this way.

At the same time, a certain man named Euphemius, who was a leader of a company (turma) in Sicily, ^B became enamored of a virgin who had lived veiled in monastic habit from her youth. Having nothing more at heart than to satiate his own lust, and caring nothing for the laws—but looking rather to the example of the Emperor alone, who himself had committed a similar crime—he snatched the virgin from the monastery and brought her to himself against her will. Her brothers went to the Emperor and related the drama. The Emperor commanded the strategos that, if he discovered that they had indeed reported the truth, he should cut off the nose of the audacious Euphemius. Euphemius, learning of this, took into his conspiracy those who were under his own hand as well as some of the other tourmarchs, ^C repelled the strategos who was coming to him to inflict that punishment, and fled to the governor of Africa. He promised that he would subject all of Sicily to him and pay him large tributes, if only he were proclaimed Emperor of the Romans. The amir accepted the proposal, proclaimed him Emperor of the Romans, gave him much aid, and took possession of Sicily, having acquired it through this very man. Yet Euphemius enjoyed the imperial dignity for no long time, but was beheaded, receiving this wage for his own apostasy and lawlessness. It is worth telling the manner of his slaying. For as he went about Sicily in imperial attire, being acclaimed, he arrived at Syracuse. When he had traveled some distance from his own rank and bodyguards, and had approached the city by as much as the span of an arrow shot, he was speaking with the townspeople and winning their goodwill by his speech. Two Syracusan brothers, seeing him isolated and removed from his men, ^D conspired to kill him. Therefore, with feigned zeal and adulatory gestures, they approached the man and paid him the honor due to an emperor. Euphemius, not perceiving their trickery, and regarding their proclamation of the imperial title and their greeting as welcome, invited them in with friendliness, intending to return to them his own greeting. And indeed, having inclined his head and pressed his mouth to the mouth of one of the brothers, he was seized by the hair by that one and strongly...

is held fastly by him, and by the other of the brothers his head is cut off. And thus he paid this penalty for his own rashness. ^A Furthermore, the Agarenes from that time occupied not only Sicily, but also Calabria and most parts of Italy, infesting everything with raids and ravages. Michael, having held the empire for 9 years and 8 months, died of dysentery, having brought upon the Roman empire so many and such great evils, as we have recounted, along with his impiety toward God and his perversity in the conduct of affairs. Under him, all of Dalmatia also revolted. And an ancient oracle was circulated concerning him, which runs thus: This beginning of evils shall befall the earth, When the Babylonian dragon shall rule the world, A man of indistinct speech and most greedy for gold. His corpse was deposited in the great mausoleum of Justinian at the church of the Apostles, in a green Thessalian sarcophagus. ^B

After the death of Michael, his son Theophilus, being already of man’s estate, succeeded to the rule in the month of October, of the 8th indiction. He made a display of a most fervent zeal for justice and an accurate observance of the civil laws, though in reality he was feigning this in order to keep himself safe from ambushes, and to give no man a handle to plot anything against him. At the beginning of his reign, resolving to destroy all those by whom his father had been aided in the killing of Leo and the seizing of the empire, he published an edict ordering all who held honors or benefits of any kind from the emperor to gather at the Magnaura, which is also called the Pentapyrgium (84) because of its five towers. When they had flocked in great numbers to the said place, hiding the cruelty of his heart, he said with a mild and gentle voice: ^C “My father of blessed memory wished and had a desire, O my people and clergy, to reward those who had brought him aid and fought for the empire with great honors and many benefits; but, being forestalled by death, lest he should appear ungrateful toward those who had served him well, he left me, his successor, as the payer of that debt. Therefore, let the friends of my father, separating themselves from the multitude, show themselves to us, so that we may repay them a fitting reward.” Deceived by this speech, the wretches, as many as had abetted the murder of Leo, betrayed themselves. But when the prey was enclosed within the nets, Theophilus ordered the prefect of the city to execute the civil laws, saying, “Now, O prefect, with the power of judging committed to you by God and by my own serenity, pay these men a reward worthy of their deeds, who did not only defile their hands with human blood, but also killed the Lord’s anointed within the sanctuary.” ^D And having said these things, he dismissed this first wondrous assembly. But those wretches, seized by the prefect, were put to death in the manner of murderers. Theophilus also drove his stepmother from the palace into a monastery.

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES.

(84) A round tower at four corners, and one square tower in the middle, built up. GOAR.

^A and indeed that they had killed the Christ of the Lord within the sanctuary.” Having said these things, he dissolved that remarkable and primary assembly, and those wretched men, having been arrested by the prefect, were subjected to the punishments of murderers. Theophilus also forced his own stepmother to be driven from the palace into the monastery, in which she had first laid aside her worldly hair, the oaths which the senate had taken to Michael having profited nothing.

These things, then, were in the prologue for Theophilus; ^B but the things that followed are not undeserving of praise. For, claiming to be devoted to justice, he was fearful to all the wicked, and an object of admiration to the good; to the former because he seemed to be an enemy of wickedness and just, and to the latter because he seemed grave and austere. Yet it was not entirely the case that he himself was free from all vices. For although he held to the faith in God, he held even more to the impure and ancestral heresy of the Iconoclasts, and he afflicted the pious and most holy people throughout his entire reign, not allowing them any rest. Whence he was never fortunate in wars, but was always defeated, and did not return as a king should.

Being, therefore, devoted to justice and to the faith and zeal toward Christ and His Mother, as he supposed, he would depart every week on horseback along the public way to the divine temple of the Theotokos at Blachernae, accompanied by his guards. He departed giving himself to all, but primarily to those who were victims of injustice, so that they might have the opportunity to lament their own injuries and not be hindered by certain wicked men who feared his punishment, and also so that, passing through the marketplace, he might become a spectator of the goods sold. Therefore, being in the marketplace, he would first inquire about each of the things sold and at what price it was sold. And he did this not perfunctorily, nor regarding a single type, but regarding things to eat and drink, and clothing suitable for the warming of the body, and simply all the goods lying out in the marketplace.

^C He displayed great zeal and diligence in all matters regarding public affairs, not only in these weekly processions but also in the courts. And once, for the sake of relaxation, looking out from the wall of the palace which is toward the sea, he saw a certain enormous cargo ship sailing in with a favorable wind, with sails unfurled, having nothing equal to it in mass and size. Having gazed upon it with admiration, he asked whose it was and what kind of goods it was bringing. When he learned that it belonged to the Augusta, he was satisfied for the time being, and he awaited the day on which he was accustomed to go to the divine temple at Blachernae. And when that day arrived, he ordered himself to be led to the loading station of her ship; once he stood by the stern, he asked those who were present several times if any of them lacked any of the essential goods, such as grain or wine or some other kind. And as they, having been asked repeatedly, finally answered with difficulty that, thanks to the providence of his lordship and kingship, they were in need of nothing, “Do you not know, then,” said the emperor, “that the Augusta, my wife and consort, has made me, who was made emperor by God, a shipowner?”

^D He added also with bitterness: “Was there ever any Augusta who saw her husband as a merchant?” Having said these things, he immediately ordered the men to disembark from the ship, with nothing being unloaded, and the ship to be burned with its sails and all the merchandise. He also sharply rebuked the Augusta, threatening her with destruction if she should ever do anything of the kind again.

^A The name of the Augusta was Theodora, her country Paphlagonia, and her parents were Marinus, a man of no small reputation, and Theoctista, surnamed Florina. Both were piously raised and did not reject the veneration of divine images, but cultivated it with the most ardent zeal. When Theodora was crowned, her mother Theoctista was also honored with the dignity of *zoste* and *patricia*. She had a house very close to the Gastria and often invited the daughters of Theodora to her—who were five in number: Thecla, Anna, Anastasia, Pulcheria, and Maria. She would welcome them with various gifts, by which that sex is usually delighted, and would urge them privately to rise above their own sex, to assume masculine courage and minds worthy of their maternal fortune, and, detesting the heresy of their father, to embrace the holy images. At the same time, taking these out of a certain chest, she would place them into the hands of the girls and press them to their faces and lips, so as to excite a love for them.

As she did this repeatedly, so that a desire for the cult of the venerable images might grow in her granddaughters, it did not escape the notice of Theophilus. For once, when he was asking his daughters what gifts they had received from their grandmother or what they had done, while the others persistently evaded his question as if it were a pretext, Pulcheria, led by the simplicity of her tender age, explained how gently they had been treated and with what various fruits they had been gifted, and she also revealed the adoration of the images, saying that there were many "puppets" in her grandmother's chest, which she would apply to their heads and faces after kissing them. ^B Stung by fury at this, the emperor nevertheless dared nothing harsher against his mother-in-law, hindered by reverence for his wife and even more by the boldness of Theoctista herself—for she openly attacked her son-in-law and reproached him for the daily vexations of the confessors and for his heresy, and she alone manifested the hatred of all the people toward him. He only forbade his daughters any access to their grandmother thereafter.

A similar incident happened to the Augusta Theodora. A foolish little man, very like the Homeric Thersites, was being raised in the palace ^C…

NOTES OF XYLANDER AND GOAR

^D (85) In addition to the *zoste* or "girded" rank, the title of *patricia* carries prestige. For women also sought the titles of dignities that were more sublime and reserved only for men; why not also the insignia, which conferred no jurisdiction upon men, but merely signified eminence and honor? The dignity of the *patriciate*, however, is devoid of jurisdiction; it is practically the supreme grade of glory, to which emperors could therefore elevate women closer to them, adorning them with the virile insignia of the *patriciate*, namely, the girdle. Cassiodorus shows himself to be the authority for this conjecture (Var. 6.2). His words are: "Hence it is that the patrician honor is the girdle itself; when it is vacant, it has no jurisdiction, yet it does not lay aside the girdle of a judge; for this honor is not extinguished by death." He adds, therefore: "An individual adornment, a faithful girdle, which knows not how to depart before passing from the world; it yields only to the royal crown, which we sometimes assume ourselves." Thus the formula is delivered in the person of the prince. From these things, it is not difficult to infer how close the honor conferred upon Theoctista as mother-in-law was to the imperial rank. The laws mention the second *zoste* on page 850, and the third on page 501, just as the book of Leo and Constantine A.A. mentions it regarding a crime (tit. vii, vol. II, *Juris Gr.* GOAR).

^A A man named Denderis, with a speech impediment, ^B a source of laughter and kept in the palace for amusement, once burst into the Empress's chamber and found her embracing sacred icons. Seeing these, this fool asked what they were, and drawing closer, he examined them. The Empress replied rustically, "They are my beautiful dolls," for she was very fond of them. The Emperor was at a banquet at the time, and when this base Denderis came to him, he asked where he had been. He replied that he had been with the "manna" (so he called the Empress), and that he had seen her taking beautiful dolls from a cushion. Upon hearing this, the Emperor, full of rage, rose from the table and went straight to his wife, covering her with many insults and calling her an icon-worshipper with unbridled tongue, at the same time recounting the words of the vile wretch. The Empress, attempting to calm the Emperor's anger, said: "You have understood wrongly, O Emperor; the truth is not as you suspected. I was looking at myself in a mirror with my maids, and Denderis, seeing the reflections, came and foolishly reported what he had seen." By these words she calmed the Emperor's anger, and she punished Denderis in a fitting manner, teaching him never again to speak to anyone about the dolls. Therefore, when the Emperor Theophilus later asked Denderis teasingly if the "manna" was again embracing her beautiful dolls, Denderis placed his right hand ^C on his lips and replied, "Hush, hush about the dolls, O Emperor." And these things happened in this way.

Furthermore, a certain soldier who was skilled with his hands had an excellent horse, which had often saved him in battle. The general under whom he served, gripped by a desire for the horse, tried to obtain it, promising him many things. When the man refused, he applied force. Even then, when he could not persuade him to give up the horse, he accused him of cowardice and had him dismissed from the service by the Emperor. However, as Theophilus desired a horse of such outstanding quality, and had sent orders everywhere for such a horse ^D to be sought and brought to him, that general, seizing the opportunity, took the horse from the man against his will and sent it to the Emperor as his own property. But when a need for more soldiers arose in war, and the Emperor ordered everyone able to bear arms to serve, that former soldier also took up arms; and in a battle, his side having been routed, he fell, since he did not have the horse that used to save him, leaving behind his wife and children. The widow, inflamed with longing for her lost husband and because the necessities of life...

[index: entries preserved]

she could not provide for her children, ^A came to Constantinople, moved by the fame of the Emperor’s love of justice. Seeing Theophilus riding as was his custom to the divine temple at Blachernae, she saw him mounted on her husband’s horse, and with a rush, she seized the bridle of the horse, shouting that this was her own and no other, and that the Emperor himself was the cause of her husband’s slaughter. The Emperor, struck with terror, ordered her to wait until he returned to the palace. Upon his return, he immediately summoned her to him and inquired more accurately about the whole affair. When she recounted everything from beginning to end, immediately that commander was arrested. Having hidden the woman by the Emperor’s order, he interrogated him sharply about the horse. When he asserted that it was his own and had not been obtained by robbery, the woman was brought out from behind the curtain to accuse the criminal of the violent act. Upon seeing her, he stiffened and stood silent for some time. Finally, having come to himself, he threw himself as a suppliant at the Emperor’s feet, weeping and confessing his sin. Therefore, the Emperor assigned his wealth to the widow and her children as if by hereditary right in an equal share, and having stripped him of his rank, condemned him to perpetual exile. So incensed was he against those who intended to acquire wealth unjustly.

He also devoted himself to buildings, and with the greatest zeal repaired the walls ^B of the city, tearing down the lower ones and building them higher, so that they could not be scaled by enemies; these still stand today, bearing his name in inscriptions. Moreover, having driven harlots out of certain cells, and having cleansed that whole place, he made it a xenon (that is, an establishment for receiving strangers), named after himself, of remarkable size and beauty. It is now a women’s monastery. From this it is evident how hostile he was to fornication. It is said, however, that on one occasion, living more loosely, he was ensnared by the beauty of a maidservant who was a handmaiden to the Empress and had relations with her. But as soon as he recognized his error, and seeing that Theodora was in the depths of sorrow because of it, he confessed his fault, and lifting his hands to God, he swore that he had slipped only this once, and begged for forgiveness from his wife. He also built palaces ^C for his own daughters in the region known as the Karianos, the remains of which, though ruined by time, survive even in our day. The Emperor also built the palaces of Bryas, having constructed them after the likeness of Saracen dwellings.

In these matters, indeed, Theophilus earned the name and admiration of being a magnificent ruler. But toward those who engaged in the veneration of divine icons, he showed himself far too harsh and inhuman, contending to surpass in cruelty all the tyrants who had been before him. For his predecessors, Leo and Constantine Copronymus and his own father, Michael, ^D had issued edicts that no painted image—wherever one might be—should...

^A receive the inscription "Holy," believing that such a term was appropriate to nothing other than the Divine alone—though in this he was wide of the mark. For if God, who imparts the term "God" to men—a title much more exalted than "Holy"—yet considers the latter as far more humble than the former, he would not have denied them the one. Nevertheless, this is what he decreed, whereas the rulers before him, Leo and his son Constantine, had forbidden the veneration of images altogether. Theophilus, for his part, did not even permit them to be depicted with pigments, stating that a mind which felt wonder at such things was base, and that the truth alone should be contemplated. And so, the divine forms were cast down in all the ^B temples, and in their place figures of beasts and birds were set up, exposing the beastly and servile madness of Theophilus. From then on, sacred offerings were tossed about in the marketplace by impure hands and treated with indignity. The prisons intended for criminals were filled with those who venerated the divine icons—monks, bishops, subjects, and painters of them alike. Moreover, the mountains and caves were filled with those who were perishing of hunger and thirst as if they were criminals. For Theophilus had commanded that cities be kept inaccessible to monks, and he decreed that they be driven away by every means; nay, he even forbade that they be seen anywhere in the countryside. He turned monasteries and houses of prayer, which had been founded for the sake of holy repose, into places frequented by profane men. In the meantime, pious men, unwilling to betray their virtue and their sacred habit, chose rather to die of hunger and suffering; some perished having neglected their garb, while many others, having less zeal for virtue, laid aside their hymns, sacred chants, and even the habit itself, and turned to a life of license and ease. For the emperor ^C dispersed these gatherings too, which were the only things capable of restraining the carnal impulses of men as they slipped irrationally toward their passions. Yet, not even then did the liberty of speech and freedom entirely depart from among men. Rather, certain of those who were more fervent—some as individuals and some in groups, such as the monks of the monastery of the Abramites—appeared before him with boldness. They reasonably demonstrated, from the sayings of our holy Fathers—the great Dionysius, Hierotheus, and Irenaeus—that the monastic way of life and its constitution was not something newly discovered, but something ancient and primordial. Furthermore, they proved that the depictions of divine icons were also contemporaneous and shared the same table with the apostles, if it be true that the divine apostle Luke portrayed the form of the Theotokos, and that Christ, our Master and God, leaving His own image impressed upon a linen cloth, ^D left it to us as a work made without hands. Thus did these most divine men convict the tyrant’s folly and cruelty. Having exhibited such great freedom of speech, they suffered many tortures and torments and were even banished from the city into exile. When they had reached the shrine of John the Baptist—which is called "Terrible" and is situated on the Euxine Sea—they were utterly consumed by the lashes of the whip and departed to the assembly of the saints. Their corpses, cast upon the ground unburied, remained for a very long time incorrupt, until certain pious individuals buried them.

and honored them fittingly with the testimonies of martyrdom for Christ our God. ^A Likewise, another monk, having just ascended to the beginning of the priesthood, also showed himself to be in emulation of these men and a brother to them. Filled with divine zeal, he stood before the tyrant's face and, among many other things, brought forward that utterance of the apostle Paul which says: “If anyone brings to you a gospel other than that which you received, let him be anathema” (Gal. 1). But the emperor, having also inflicted many blows upon this man, since he appeared the more steadfast in his argumentation, sent him to Jannēs, who had become the tyrant's mentor and teacher, commanding him that he should lead the monk away from his purpose with dialectical demonstrations. This renowned combatant rendered even this Jannēs—not by dialectical or sophistic ratiocinations, but by apostolic and evangelical words—more mute than a fish. And then, having received many blows again,1 he was exiled; later, however, having joined the great Ignatius and remained with him for some time, and having instructed him concerning the future emperors (for he had been deemed worthy of the charisma of foreknowledge), he migrated to the Lord.

^B Now, Theophilus, being most hostile in his spirit toward images, decided to remove all painters from the midst of mankind, intending that they should save their lives only if they would spit upon them and trample them upon the ground as if they were profane things. Among others caught for this cause was also the monk Lazarus, who was at that time renowned for the art of painting. And at first the emperor sought to subdue him with bland words; ^C but when he sensed that he could not capture the man through flattery, he turned to the violence familiar to him, and after tormenting him so severely that it was thought he was about to depart this life, he cast him into prison. And when he heard that, having recovered from his sickness, he was again painting sacred forms, he ordered iron plates to be made red-hot and applied to his palms; these consumed his flesh to such a degree that, overcome by the evil, he lay half-dead. Then, because the divine clemency wished to preserve him for posterity, the tyrant, hearing that he was now breathing his last, released him from prison at the entreaties of his wife and certain of her innermost associates. Thus he, thereafter concealing himself in the shrine of the Forerunner, which is called "the Terrible," painted the image of the Forerunner, however injured his body was; and this remained for a long time and performed healings. And after the death of Theophilus, with the true religion shining forth again, he painted with his own hands the image of Jesus ^D Christ, God and man, which is at the end. Being entreated by Theodora, the most illustrious empress, to forgive her husband and to obtain pardon from God for him, he said, “O Augusta, God is not so unjust that, for the sake of our love and his own, He would tolerate...

disregard our labors, yet prefer his hatred and excessive madness.”

But this was later. The impure tyrant, perceiving that the confessor Theophanes and his brother Theodore excelled others in wisdom, ordered them to present themselves at the Lausiac triclinium, so that they might dispute publicly about the faith. And there he said, “Come now, you cursed ones, persuaded by what sentences ^B of Scripture do you worship idols” (thus, with unbridled mind and tongue, he called the holy icons)—“and persuade the multitude of the unlearned to do the same?” He also added other blasphemous and discordant remarks against the holy icon of Christ our God, with a most shameless voice. The blessed ones replied, “May the mouth that speaks iniquity against God be shut.” ^C He, meanwhile, hides the lion’s skin and puts on the fox’s, and demanded prophetic passages and testimonies that permit the worship of icons. When one of the brothers, the blessed Theophanes, brought forward a passage from the prophecy of Isaiah, Theophilus claimed the passage did not read that way, and at the same time, unfolding his own book, showed it to him (as he thought) to prove the words reliable. The saint, however, cried out that not only this book, but all of them that happened to fall into his hands had been corrupted by him; he demanded that a codex be brought from the patriarchal library in the Thomaites—at the same time pointing out the location where it was stored—for the sake of investigating the truth of the statements. A man was sent with all haste, and brought the book faster than words can tell. The emperor, turning the pages intentionally, missed the passage in question, and, being embarrassed, skipped over the passage sought and made his search in other places instead. But when he was corrected by the blessed Theophanes, who pointed with his finger, saying, “If you turn three pages, you will find what is sought,” the emperor, unable to bear the frankness of the rebuke and conscious of the truth, cast off the patience he had kept until then and revealed the beast. Saying that it was unworthy for an emperor to be mocked by such men, he ordered them to be led away into the inner garden of the Lausiacus, and to be struck with rods, ^D with the most severe blows, up to two hundred. He even ordered that these silly iambics, which he himself had composed, be branded in the barbarian manner upon their foreheads:

For all who desire to run to the city Where the all-pure feet of the Word of God Were planted for the restoration of the world, There appeared in that venerable place These two, worst vessels of superstitious error. And thence they, having from unbelief often...

XYLANDRI AND GOARI NOTES

^A Having committed shameful and wicked deeds in a godless manner, Thence they were driven away as rebels. But having fled to the city of the empire, They did not abandon their lawless follies. Wherefore, being branded as evildoers in appearance, They were condemned and driven away again. When this had happened without delay, they indeed bound on the crown of confession and endurance, while he, the arrogant man, more miserable than all miserable people, was revealed to all as a blasphemous persecutor and more impious than all the heretics of all time. After the faces had been branded, the confessors were sent into exile. Before this, also holy Methodius had been confined alive in a tomb on a certain island, together with two murderers, in which tomb he was fed by a certain fisherman. When the holy Theophanes and Theodore happened upon this fisherman, and had learned from him of the state of affairs regarding Methodius, they wrote through this same fisherman to the great Methodius as follows: To the dead who is living, and the life-bearing dead, Residing on earth and treading the pole, The branded write to the bound. To these he also wrote back through the same fisherman: Those who have the names of heaven inscribed in their books, And who are wisely branded on their foreheads, The entombed one greeted as fellow-prisoners. Besides these, he also cast into prison the blessed Michael, the syncellus of the Church in the holy city, along with many other monks, hoping to subdue them through long-lasting misery. By these actions against the pious, he heaped insult upon Him who, because of us, put on human nature and is the true God; not for a short or limited time did he restrict His true servants, but throughout his whole life he harassed them and subjected them to incurable misfortunes. He was also ambitious to be a melody-maker; wherefore he used to compose certain hymns and stichera and urged that they be sung. Among these is the "Benedicite" of the fourth mode, which, having been adapted and arranged by him from the "Hear, O daughter" of the eighth mode, he commanded to be sung in a clear voice in the Church of God. And they say that, lured by the love of the melody, in the solemn assemblies at the Great Church, he did not even refrain from the artful gesticulation of his hands during the singing, and that he gave the clergy a hundred pounds of gold for the sake of practicing music. ^C And also the stichiron for the day of the Palms, that which begins, "Go forth, O nations, go forth, O peoples," they say is the fruit of his soul.

^D XYL AND GOAR'S NOTES. (93) For the name also encompasses sacred poets; for among the Greeks those who are not occupied with singing but with sacred poetry are melody-makers, such as Cosmas, Maioumes, Damascenus, Timocles, Theophanes, and others. GOAR. (94) Verse, properly a type of poem to be sung in church. GOAR. (95) I understand "hand gesticulation" to mean that he had prescribed the measure, as they call it, so that the beats of the song being sung would correspond to the movement of the hands. Thus Horace wishes the virgins to celebrate Apollo and Diana with a Sapphic poem, while he himself leads, Ode [2]: "Observe the Lesbian foot and the beat of my thumb." (96) The stichiron is of the Palm festival (as they call it). A librarian added that he did not think he was the author. XYL. GOAR.

^A Furthermore, because by nature he had few hairs on his head and was bald, he issued an edict everywhere that all should shear their hair close, and that no Roman should be permitted to let it grow beyond the neck; and he sanctioned the edict with the heavy penalty of the lash, being ambitious to revive the virtue of the ancient Romans.

He had five daughters, as the narrative previously set forth, and being bereft of male offspring, he deemed it necessary to give in marriage to a husband the youngest of them, Mary, whom he loved more than the others. The bridegroom was of the family of the Krenitai (97) of the Armenian lands, Alexios by name, and Mosele by surname, handsome in appearance and in the prime of his youth. ^B First he bestowed upon him the dignity of the patricians and proconsuls, then that of magister, and finally he made him Caesar; and, as circumstances demanded, he gave him sufficient armies and sent him to Longobardia. Alexios went and managed affairs there famously and according to the father-in-law's wishes. Wherefore it came to pass that as his favor grew, envy from men also grew, and they slandered him as being covetous of the empire, adding that he would eventually seize the throne. When the Caesar heard these things and listened as it were to the envy, he begged the Emperor many times with prayers to permit him to cross over to the monastic life. But the Emperor, not enduring to widow his daughter, denied this request. Consequently, Alexios kept his position and conducted the public affairs safely and securely.

But after a son, Michael, was born to the Emperor, and the Caesar's wife Mary departed this life, ^C Theophilus showed such honor to his deceased daughter that he placed her corpse in a silver-covered sarcophagus and established her tomb as a sanctuary for men caught in any crimes whatsoever. As for Alexios, he had secretly embraced the monastic life and habit, and when he could not be persuaded to cast it off, he was finally and reluctantly released; and the Emperor gave him as a dwelling the royal monastery at Chrysopolis, as well as that of Brysas and the one at Elaia, in which he might pass his life. He lived in the one at Chrysopolis; and when once he had gone out for the sake of a walk and came to the place called that of Anthemius, he chose to purchase it by imperial order; in it he built a lavish monastery, and when he departed this life he was buried there, and along with him his brother Theodosius, ^D who had attained the dignity of patrician and had left behind many tokens of his own excellent life in the monastery.

When the leader of the Arabs, Imprael, had campaigned against the Romans, Theophilus also went forth in rivalry, casting away all fear. For even if any fear were present, the experience in wars and the bravery of the men accompanying him—I mean Theophobos and Manuel—banished it as far as possible.

^A Manuel, indeed, was manifest in his bravery even to the enemies, for he had been in command of the Eastern armies under Leo, and under Michael before him, he had been the first of the equerries—they call this official the *protostrator*. The account will also explain regarding Theophobos, whence and how, being of Persian descent, he became known to the emperor and took his sister as his wife. For once, a certain man of the Persian royal line came to Constantinople on an embassy, and having sired him not from a legal union but from a clandestine and secret association, he departed. Since, however, there is an inviolable law among the Persians that no one should hold power over them unless he is born of the royal line, and since the royal line had failed, having been driven out by the continuous wars with the Agarenes, the Persians, desiring often to take this Theophobos from Constantinople to reign over them, sent various embassies to Theophilos and offered pacts of peace. But they did not persuade the emperor to surrender Theophobos to them; rather, he honored him with the rank of patrician ^B and married him to his own sister, and even enacted a law granting the Persians the right of intermarriage with the Romans. Having won over many Persians by this means and honored them with dignities, he enrolled their names in the military registers, formed a unit called the "Persian tagma," and ordered them to be counted among the Romans going out against the Agarenes. Trusting, therefore, in these two, Manuel and Theophobos, Theophilos went out against the Agarenes. When the armies had come near to each other, there was need of deliberation. Manuel said it was not fitting for the Roman emperor to engage in battle with the amermumnes [caliph], but that someone should take a portion of the generals and go out to face the enemies. Theophobos, however, wanted the emperor himself to be present at the battle and advised that he should attack the enemies by night with the infantry, with the cavalry to provide aid when the need arose. But he did not persuade the emperor, as many said that Theophobos wanted to deprive the Romans of their glory and for that reason wished to fight at night. ^C It seemed best, therefore, to join battle in the open by day. The amermumnes [caliph] Imprael, whether out of arrogance or because he feared the emperor, departed with a portion of his army, leaving behind a certain Abuzachar, one of his generals, with eighty thousand men for the battle. When the battle was joined, and many had fallen on both sides, finally the *scholai* along with the *domestikos* ^D gave way and began a retreat before the Agarenes. The emperor, with the praetorian cohort, two thousand Persians, and Theophobos, escaped to a certain hill, which the Agarenes surrounded, and it was fought bitterly until evening.

Xylander and Goar's Notes

^A While the Saracens were attempting to capture the Emperor of the Romans, the Romans fought bravely for the Emperor. When night fell, Theophilus deceived the Saracens with a trick, commanding his soldiers to make a din and shout, and to play sounds of lutes, strings, and trumpets, as if reinforcements were arriving for them from elsewhere. The Saracens, suspecting that this was indeed occurring and fearing they might be surrounded by the enemy, retreated six miles. The Emperor and his men, relieved somewhat from danger, sought safety in flight and reached the army that had fled from the battle. The Emperor rebuked that army only for their betrayal, but took no harsher measures against anyone; to Theophilus, however, he rendered the highest favor and honor. ^B This increased the desire for the man in the minds of the Persians, and they besought the Emperor to entrust them with a war against the Agarenes under Theophobos as their separate leader, promising certain victory. Deluded by their words, the Emperor decided that no one but Theophobos should be in command of them.

In the following year, Theophilus led his forces out again against the Saracens. Having met them at Charsianum, he routed them and took up to twenty-five thousand captives, and returned home having attained a brilliant victory. ^C Among the Saracen captives there was a certain man, ready of hand and famous for the agility of his hands, known to the Domestic of the Schools and recommended by his testimony; it was said that he was an excellent horseman, and that while riding he would expertly unhorse his opponents using two spears. When, therefore, the Domestic was ordered to conduct the triumph of his victory in the hippodrome, and was leading this man before the others, the Emperor, swayed by praises of him, ordered him to mount a horse and, taking two spears, to display a specimen of his art and excellence before all. As this was being done, and even the more inexperienced were delighted by the spectacle, Theodorus, surnamed Craterus—the same who not long after became the commander of the company of the forty-two holy martyrs—standing near the king, mocked that Agarene and affirmed that nothing strong or terrible was being done by him. ^D The Emperor [index: entries preserved]

having grown angry, asked, “But you, who are effeminate and unmanly, can you do such a thing?” Craterus replied, “I, O King, have not learned to handle two spears, nor was there any need for such trifles in war; but relying upon the help of God, I am confident that I shall cast this man down and tumble him from his horse with but one spear.” The Emperor, angered at this speech, swore by his own head that if Craterus did not turn his words into deeds, he would hand him over to death. Thereupon, Theodore immediately mounted his horse, took a spear, engaged the Saracen, and in a short time cast him from his horse. ^B The Emperor was indeed shamed to see the Saracen thrown by a eunuch, yet he respected the man’s virtue, addressed Craterus in a friendly manner, and presented him with garments out of respect for his status.

When Spring returned, Theophilus again collected his forces and marched against the Saracens, having recalled the holy Methodius from exile to accompany him. He was accustomed to do this in times of war, whether it was to utilize his wisdom in untangling many obscure and intricate matters, or to take care that he might not incite any rebellion in his absence on account of the suppression of the holy and sacred icons; for the principal citizens who were pious toward God held Methodius in great honor. Thus, it did not seem prudent to the Emperor to leave him behind. ^C But when the battle was joined, the Ishmaelite forces proved superior, and the Emperor, surrounded, almost fell into the hands of the enemy. Manuel, the commander of the army, perceiving this—and judging it a most shameful thing for the Roman Emperor to be captured by the enemy—rallied the spirits of his men with a speech and boldly entered the fray. When he had broken through to the Emperor, who was already exhausted and despairing of his safety, yet refused to flee on the pretense that he would be betraying his men, he urged him to follow him as he led the way and opened a path. After the Emperor did not immediately follow him as he broke out, Manuel returned a second time and persuaded him; when he once again faltered, he returned a third time, threatened him with death if he did not accompany him, and thus with difficulty and reluctance rescued him from the immediate danger. For this reason, the Emperor rewarded him with honors and gifts befitting his worth, acknowledging him as his benefactor and savior. ^D Yet, so great was the power of envy that Manuel was accused of treason, which placed him in the gravest danger. Perceiving this, and having been informed by a most faithful man who had once served him but was then the Emperor’s cupbearer that he was to be blinded, he attempted to defect and crossed over to the Agarenes. He was held in great esteem by them as well and was treated with the highest honors. For the Agarenes sent him, equipped with a great army, against their neighboring enemies, who are called the Cermats. Manuel

^A refused to take any others but the Romans who were held captive in prisons to serve with him, and he brought back the greatest and most splendid victories, so that he even took by storm the place called Chorosan. For he did not only astonish the enemy by his surpassing fortitude, but the change in his language, the alteration of his dress, and the unexpected transformation of his manner of warfare drove the enemy into no small fear. And he appeared brave not only against the enemy in this way, but he also showed his manhood against the wild beasts that were ravaging the region. Having become the cause of great benefits to them, he was, in turn, exceptionally loved by the leader of the Saracens and by their senate. ^B Learning of these things, Theophilus was, as was to be expected, distressed, and he moved every stone to see if he might call the man back. Therefore, he sent a cross and a golden bull through a certain wandering monk [(3)] to Manuel, inviting him to return and granting him complete amnesty for his crimes through them. When the recipient brought these and secretly placed them into the hands of Manuel, and he received them and was, as it were, set on fire in his soul—already having been trusted on account of his previous deeds—he signified to the leader of the Saracens that he harbored a desire to campaign against the Romans and to avenge himself upon the enemies who had accused him to the Emperor and were inhabiting Cappadocia. He asked that the leader’s son also be sent with him, so that he might more effectively conceal his design. Ismael [(4)] assented to his requests and gave him leave to set out on the expedition. When he drew near to the borders of the Romans, he explained his situation to the strategos of Cappadocia and his plan to return to Romania, and at the same time, he taught him that it was necessary to lay an ambush at a certain place, so that when he arrived there, he said, he would cause the Saracen advance guard to be driven off to another place, while he himself returned to the ways of the Romans. And this is what happened. For as they approached the place agreed upon, he embraced the son of Ismael many times and said, "Go in safety, child, to your father; I, for my part, shall go to my Emperor and Lord." Having escaped from there to the reigning city, he met the Emperor at the temple of the Theotokos in Blachernae, and was honored by him with the title of Magistros and from then on remained his Compater [(5)]. And thus were the affairs of Manuel managed. Meanwhile, Theodotus Melissenus, whom we pointed out above as being surnamed Cassiteras, having departed this life—he who for some time had been Patriarch of Constantinople—Jannes, the tutor of Theophilus, succeeded to that priesthood, having received it as a reward for his impiety and perfidy.

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES. [(3)] *He sends a cross*, says Xylander. With what purpose? He is silent. I explain the mystery. It was customary in former times, as a testimony of an oath, to prefix a cross to letters revealing secret matters and confirming promises or pacts with an added oath. Pontanus, from the Greek text of Phranzes: "He is called into the presence of the Emperor of Constantinople, who had arrived with me as an envoy from Iberia; and the Emperor in his presence, with his own hand, marks three crosses in vermilion on the front of the bull for confirmation according to custom, and hands the golden bull into the envoy's hands." Leo Grammaticus: "Theophilus used the services of a similar wandering and mendicant monk, lest..." that greater faith might be added. Hence the modern Greeks call those who trample the cross "violators of a sacrament," that is, those who do not fear to keep inviolate an oath confirmed first by a cross drawn or carved on a charter or tablet. Things akin to this were noted by the most erudite de Marca in his national Annals. GOAR. [(4)] He does not signify if this is a proper name, or truly the name Ismael, as if a tribal name. Soon it is used again in the same way. XYL. [(5)] *Compater*. According to the opinion of Zonaras, who writes that Michael, son of Theophilus, was received from baptism by Manuel upon his return. (Gevatter.)

^A Thus matters concerning Manuel went. But Theodotus Melissenus—whom our account has previously signaled as being also called Cassiteras—having held the throne of Constantinople for a considerable time, and having recently ended his life, Iannes, the tutor of Theophilus, succeeded to his throne, having received the priesthood as a reward for his unbelief and impiety.

As Emperor Theophilus inquisitively sought to know who would rule after him, a certain woman, captured from the Hagarenes during one of the preceding wars and having a natural aptitude for such divinations, was brought before the Emperor. The Emperor asked what he wished to know, and ordered her to declare who would be the successors to the imperial throne after a long interval. This woman, moved either by enthusiasm or by demonic agency, said, "O Emperor, your son will be your successor, together with his own mother, but after him the race of the Martinakii will hold the empire for a long time." Having heard this, Theophilus, although he loved Martinakes, immediately had his head shaved and made him a monk, and turned his house into a monastery.

^B Nor did the woman prophesy only this, but she also foretold many other future events; for she predicted that Patriarch Iannes would be cast out of the patriarchal throne, and that the holy icons would receive their due honor and veneration. Being struck with great grief at these words, Theophilus often entreated the Augusta and the Logothete of the Dromos, Theoctistus, and bound them with the most solemn oaths that, after his own death, they would neither remove Iannes from the patriarchate nor endure to see the veneration of the idols. And it was not only the woman who prophesied these things, but Iannes himself, through lecanomancy, clearly showed him who would succeed to the rule. Nor did the woman resolve these inquiries for the emperor alone, but she also laid bare the future to Constantine, who at that time possessed great power among the Triphyllii, telling him that he and his sons would be deprived of their possessions and would don the habit of the clergy—which, in fact, happened under the reign of Basil. And she showed George, the prefect of the military, that he would perish in the theater of the Circus; and it was in that very place that he, under Basil, met his end.

^C

NOTES OF XYLANDER AND GOAR

XYL. As Zonaras writes: Hence they share the name of compater with his father Theophilus. GOAR.

(6) The author saw fit to call him a leader of the lost and of rebels. Xylander, having become a patron of the Iconomachi, reads and piously respects [it]. GOAR.

(7) Master of the libelli, that is, prefect of the archives. If I might change it, I would have it read "domestic and intimate secretary to the emperor," if permitted, so that you might understand. I did not wish to change it by conjecture, especially since it is read again in the beginning as "Michael, son of Theophilus," and frequently elsewhere, and Wolfius cites from the *Book of Offices* of the Palace that this office was unknown at the time when that book was written. Meanwhile, I will not conceal that Himerius, who under Leo son of Basil (whom they also call the Philosopher) performed famously against the Hagarenes, is called by our author "protoasecretis," and by Zonaras "Logothete of the Dromos." Whether the writers disagree, or whether these two names signify the same office, is not for me to pronounce. Certainly Zonaras calls this Theoctistus "caniclei praefectus" at the end of this Theophilus; and our author, when he records the death of Theoctistus the Logothete, says that upon his removal, Bardas transferred the dignity of the canicleion to himself.

XYL. Certain modern Greeks, taught by Turkish customs—which they suppose to have been received from their ancestors—understand it as the prefect of the military treasury, or as one who, when the emperor is making a journey, estimates the expenses and counts out the money needed for provisions. But because in the time of Codinus, when neither wars nor journeys had ceased to be undertaken by the emperors, the ministry of such a logothete had become antiquated, he is to be understood rather as the one who held the accounts of the Hippodrome—or "Dromos," as they spoke contractedly—spectacles, and who, according to Turnebus, is read in ancient inscriptions as "Procurator of the Dromos," or who provided for the expenses of the public post, whose office, therefore, with the empire in every way diminished, was considered of no utility, rather than of any other. GOAR.

(8) A hypocoristic form for Iannes. Thus the Greeks play even today with names, so that the name of Mary is uttered in nine ways: Maria, Marou, Maroula, Maroulou, Marietou, Marietoula. Maternetta, Loulou, Loula. GOAR.

^A form, and it happened after these things, while Basil was directing the empire. He also foretold to George the soldier the death that would overtake him in the ^B *funda* (9) of the hippodrome; for, when Basil was later reigning, he fell under a charge of rebellion and was beheaded there.

Now, when spring was shining, the Agarenes and Theophilus set out against one another, but, being struck with fear of one another, they returned away without result. After he had returned, Theophilus received an embassy from the Chagan of Chazaria, requesting that the fortress named Markel be built; for this seemed to be a strong bulwark against the incursion of the Patzinaks, keeping them away toward the parts of the river Tanais. Yielding to this request, the Emperor sent out a certain Petronas, and brought their petition to an end. This man, upon returning, gave the opinion to the Emperor that he would not otherwise rule Cherson with certainty unless he appointed his own governor; for, until that time, no one of our people had been sent to rule those places, but some local dignitary, holding the title of *primarius*, was administering the affairs of the city. Having accepted his counsel, the Emperor sent no one else but that same man as governor of the region, sending commands to the then *primarius* and the other native notables that they should obey him without hesitation. From that time on, it prevailed that governors be sent to Cherson.

In the following year, when the spring season approached, Theophilus set out against the Agarenes with a force and a great host. He advanced far into Syria, ravaging the land at the same time, plundering and looting everything he encountered. For he took two cities by the law of war and enslaved their inhabitants, and he even besieged Sozopetra itself [P. 529], which happened to be the native city of the Amer-mumnis; he had pleaded much through letters, begging that his native city be spared, even if the Emperor did not heed what was written. Having managed these things, Theophilus returned to the Queen City, ^C leaving Theophobos behind so that he might settle the affairs of the army and return to him with speed. But the Persians, being deeply grieved because of the delay in the payment of their rations, captured Theophobos in Sinope and proclaimed him king, even though he was unwilling, though he begged them much and lamented, praying them to refrain from such an impulsive act, and threatening that they would suffer serious evils before long on account of such a bold deed. But as they did not heed him, but clung to the undertaking with their whole mind and intent, he secretly made known what had taken place to the Emperor, and confirmed under oath that he himself was not the cause of the bold deeds, but the Persians. And then the Emperor accepted his disposition and called him to the palace, restoring his former good fortune, and granted pardon and amnesty for their evils to all the Persians. ^D And as they did not believe the promises...

1015 GREGORII CEDRENI 1016

and made the Persians objects of suspicion, and not long after brought death to Theophobus. Another cause, however, supervened, which will be set forth in its proper place.

^A But the Amermumn ^B was so wounded in his soul by the destruction of his ravaged homeland that he gave orders everywhere for all ages to be gathered from Babylonia, and Phoenicia, and Palestine, and Coele-Syria, and furthermore from further Libya. He ordered every soldier serving with him to write "Amorium" upon his own shield, hinting at his intent to attack it. His forces were gathered together at Tarsus. Theophilus also made an expedition and reached Dorylaeum, which is a three-day journey distant from Amorium. There were many, therefore, who counseled the Emperor to avoid the assault of the Saracens, which was surging with a force greater than could be held back, and to transfer the inhabitants of Amorium elsewhere. But Theophilus, thinking this shameful and unmanly, and considering it a noble and brave thing to fortify the city and to rely upon the counsel of a sturdy commander, sent Aetius the Patrician and Strategos of the Anatolics, giving him a force sufficient for the repelling of the enemies. He also gave him as leaders of the people those who were shortly after to be martyred: Theodore Craterus, Theophilus, and Babutzicus, and the others, ^C who were leaders not only of the army sent then, but also of the cohort of the forty-two martyrs.

When the leader of the Saracens arrived at Tarsus with his whole army, he deliberated with those who were with him and practiced divination ^D, deciding that it was not right to march immediately towards Amorium, but rather first to test the Emperor’s power by means of his son, having taken a portion of the army. He reasoned that if his son should defeat the Emperor, the father would also undoubtedly obtain the victory; but if things fell out otherwise, it would be better to keep quiet. Having thus deliberated and determined, he sent out his son, who took with him the Ameram who at that time governed Melitene, and about ten thousand Turks, and the entire army of the Armenians, and the "Prince of Princes"; he, having come to the place called Dazymon, pitched his camp. Theophilus too marched against him, leading a camp not ignoble, composed of Persians, Westerners, and Easterners, and at the point of reaching the place known as Anzin, he decided to reconnoiter the number of his adversaries before the conflict. And so, being led up to a very high watchtower by Manuel the Scholarius Domesticus, and surveying the enemy forces from there, he...

^A suspected that the number of the adversaries was greater. But Manuel said, "Do not look at the multitude, O Emperor, but observe the reed-bed [(15)] of spears of both sides." And since the enemy's army seemed more powerful, he deliberated how he might attack them by guile. Manuel and Theophobus advised attacking them at night, but the other generals urged that the engagement take place by day, to which the Emperor agreed. This opinion having prevailed, as day broke a fearful battle was joined. ^B And while the imperial regiments were fighting spiritedly, the Ishmaelites turned to flight. But as the Turks persistently used their archery and repelled the pursuing Romans, the fortune of the battle was reversed; for the Roman legions, unable to endure the force of the Turkish arrows because they were being struck hard, turned their backs and abandoned the Emperor. Yet the leaders of the regiments and the Persians did not consent to do this, but surrounding the Emperor, they endeavored to save him courageously. And the men around the Emperor would have perished together ^C had not night come on and a light rain been sent down from heaven, which slackened the strings of the bows and provided the Romans with a respite from the arrows and afforded an opportunity for safety. In the deep of night, as Manuel was attending to the watches, he perceived by their tongue how the Persians were colluding with the Saracens to betray the Roman army and return to their native land. He immediately made these things known to the Emperor, and urged him to save himself with his chosen men, and not to await his capture. When the Emperor asked, "And how does this follow, ^D while those who remained for my sake are destroyed [(16)]?" Manuel replied, "Do but say that safety comes from God, O Emperor, and these men will quickly manage their own affairs." At the late dawn, therefore, after the Emperor had utilized flight and safely reached the so-called Chiliokomon [(17)], the deserters met him, and saying that they were unworthy of life for having betrayed the Emperor in battle, were already drawing their swords against themselves, when the Emperor, struck to the heart by that spectacle, said that he had been saved by God, and that they too would be saved. This communication of the Persians with those from Agar became for the enemies of Theophilus, who were plotting his death, a second cause and a convenient opportunity for calumny.

NOTES OF XYLANDER AND GOAR

^A The Amermumnes, having learned of the victory, decided not to delay any longer, but to head for Amorium. Having therefore gathered his own army, and having sent word to his son to do the same, he began his march. When they had joined their forces, he fortified the camp with a rampart and surrounded Amorium with a deep trench, and began to attack it with all his might; the Turks were persistently shooting arrows, the Saracens were bringing siege engines up to the walls, while the Romans inside the walls were fighting back spiritedly and heroically and easily repelling the engines of the siege. The siege of the city was thus pursued by turns, and was continuous and unremitting, while Theophilus, having escaped with difficulty from the rout and arrived at Dorylaeum, remained there awaiting the outcome. He thought he should test the mind of the Amermumnes, to see if he could somehow persuade him to abandon the siege. Envoys were therefore sent with precious gifts and many promises to move him, and when they reached the camp of the Saracens and came into the presence of the commander, they set forth the messages from the emperor. But he, burning with implacable wrath on account of the destruction of his homeland, upbraided the emperor for his cowardice, mocked and derided the embassy, and detained the envoys in chains, waiting to see the outcome of the action. He pressed the siege even more intensely, dividing his army into many parts and making assaults by turns, so that the inhabitants inside, exhausted by the toils and worn out by the labor, would surrender to the multitude and the freshness of the troops relieving each other. But the townsmen were defending themselves bravely, and nothing was accomplished by the attacks. ^B And the city would not have been captured at all, had not the treachery of a certain Amorian taken place. This man, Baditzes by name, corrupted by gifts and having abjured the Christian religion on account of some dispute, fell into such a degree of recklessness that he betrayed his homeland, and having spoken secretly with the Saracens, he advised them to attack the city from that part where he knew it would be easier to climb the walls. When the city was stormed, it is impossible to express in words how great a slaughter was committed and how many captives were taken. For the Saracens, angry that they had lost many of their illustrious men during the siege, moved by no pity for those they encountered, were cutting down the men, carrying off women with infants and children, and setting fire to the most beautiful buildings. Finally, the most beautiful city of the Easterners perished in a short space of time, so that nothing remained but ruins. ^C The captives who were led away were the commanders of the cohorts, Callistus, Constantine, and Theodore Craterus, the patricians, along with many others illustrious for their military commands and other highest honors.

The city of Amorium having been captured in this way, the prince of the Saracens, as if exulting in what had been done and proudly feasting upon these events, sent back to the emperor as messengers of the disaster the envoys who had been ordered to inspect everything that had happened. He in turn sent them back again to the Amermumnes, asking ^D that those captured in the storming of the city be returned to him.

^A The barbarian sent them back with insults, declaring that he would be a fool if he were to return as many captives as twenty centenaria would buy, when he himself had spent one thousand centenaria in gathering his forces. When the legates returned without having achieved their goal, Theophilus, crushed by the weight of his calamity, grew averse to almost all food and drink, admitting only water squeezed from snow, and fell into a dysentery. Yet, though he was so sorely afflicted, the destruction of Amorion did not allow him to rest; for, bearing it very bitterly, he was looking for an occasion and a means of avenging himself upon the enemy. ^B For this reason, he sent the patrician Theodosius, who was of the Bubutzikos lineage, to the king of the Franks, requesting that auxiliary forces be sent by him, and urging him to harass the regions of Libya that belonged to the Amermumnes. But this legation, too, remained without effect, as Theodosius died on the way. Theophilus, having lost this hope as well, and with his disease worsening, ordered himself to be carried on a litter to the Magnaura, where he assembled the senate and the more prominent portion of the city and tearfully recounted his own miserable condition. He urged those gathered there to be mindful of the goodwill they had shown him, to keep faith with his wife and son, and to keep the Empire safe for them from plots. With hearts broken by the emperor’s miserable speech, the entire assembly let out a wail and all prayed to God for the health and life of the emperor, promising at the same time that if anything human were to befall him—an event they prayed would not happen—they would dedicate their own lives for the sake of his wife, their mistress, and for his children, and would preserve the Empire intact for them.

Having promised these things, the crowd departed, and the emperor Theophilus, completely wasted by the disease and surviving only a little longer, paid the debt of nature, having directed the Empire for twelve years and three months. ^C Since, as the account has already shown, those who were slandering Theophobos had found an opening due to the aforementioned causes, as soon as Theophilus knew that the end of his life was near, he placed Theophobos in a very dark prison near the Bucoleon. And as the end was already approaching, he ordered his head to be cut off and brought to him. Having received it, and reaching out to touch the hair with his hands, he uttered this final word: "From now on, neither am I Theophilus, nor are you Theophobos." Some, however, say that the drungarios Oryphas, on his own authority and without orders from anyone, took the life of Theophobos. ^D

Notes of Xylander and Goar

(18) The Greeks always abhorred calling the kings of the Franks "emperor," except for the neighboring and hostile prince of the Bulgarians, being content to address them as "king," which is why this embassy was not sent to Emperor Louis the Pious. And perhaps this is the one about which the anonymous author of the life and deeds of that Louis writes in the year 833: an embassy of the emperor of Constantinople, consisting of Marcus, archbishop of Ephesus and protospatharios of the emperor, arrived having been sent to the father (Louis); Lothair offered the gifts meant for himself, but withheld those sent to his father. Which he, although they were sent to his father, nevertheless received when they came to him, listened to, and sent back the tragedy, which was almost unheard of. Goar.

(19) The leaders of the people, the demarchs, the patriarch, and the principal members of the clergy, whom Simocatta describes Maurice as having summoned in a similar case at the very beginning of his history. Goar.

now neither I, Theophilus, nor you, Theophobus. Some, however, attribute the slaughter of Theophobus to the *droungarios* ^A of the *vigla* (20), who was present and carried it out of his own accord, without anyone having ordered it. But after Theophilus’ life had ended, his son Michael assumed the scepter of the empire along with his mother Theodora, having as guardians and regents those whom his father had appointed for him in his will: the *magistros* Manuel, who had served as *domestikos* of the *scholai*, and the *patrikios* Theoktistos, the *logothetes* of the *dromos*. Immediately upon the death of Theophilus, they went out to the Hippodrome, and having convened the people there, they delivered speeches recalling the departed emperor’s benevolence toward them, and by saying many persuasive and attractive things, they won the goodwill of those listening, who promised to shed their own blood for the safety of the emperor Michael, and immediately confirmed their words with oaths.

Theodora, then, having attained supreme power with her son and having secured the empire, held nothing of higher priority from the very beginning than to deliberate—as pious men were urging—on the heresy of the Iconoclasts, which had spread throughout the Roman domain from the reign of Leo the Armenian down to the death of Theophilus. Theoktistos also lent himself as a partner in its eradication, while Manuel hesitated for some time. No one dared to openly set about the matter, since the greater part of the Senate and the synod (21), and even the patriarch himself, were attached to the heresy. ^B Manuel alone dared to do this, moved by divine inspiration. For previously, as has been said, he had been uncertain about the veneration of the holy icons; later, however, he embraced it for the following reason: He was seized by a very severe illness, and his life was despaired of, every medical art having been exhausted. Some pious monks from the Stoudios monastery, therefore, having heard that he was dead, came to him; but when they approached his bed and realized that he was still alive and breathing, they brought him the joyful news of his preservation and the recovery of his former health. Although at first he doubted, yet because those divine men insisted and forbade him to doubt the gift of God and the glory revealed to them, he gathered himself a little from the illness and said to them in a faint and weak breath: "How shall this be for me, O divine Fathers? The powers of my soul have failed, and my body is completely wasted and withered, ^C so that I lie here as nothing but bones, and differ from a corpse only in that I draw breath. By what hope, therefore, am I to be persuaded that I shall recover my strength?" ^D

To this, the most holy monks responded: "All things are possible, and nothing is impossible for God. If, therefore, you will endeavor, once restored, to extinguish the conflagration kindled by the Iconoclasts and to restore the holy icons according to the ancient and patristic traditions, we bring you the good news of your life." They spoke, and departed. Immediately the disease ceased, ^A and the natural faculties were unimpeded, and in a short space of time he had obtained a complete release from his infirmity. Becoming easier after the sickness, he rode out immediately to the palace and entered to the empress, and by every means urged her to restore the divine icons; for she herself had long desired to seize upon such an opportunity, being continually incited to this by her own mother and by her uncles the patricians. ^B Nevertheless, Theodora opposed the words of Manuel, whether from fear of the oaths she had sworn to her husband, or, as we have said, fearing the multitude who were caught up in that heresy. Manuel, however, urged her, and Theodora said: "My husband, O master, was a king who loved precision, and he never did anything without careful deliberation; and he would not have expelled this dogma concerning the veneration of icons from the Church, had he not known it to be condemned by the holy laws and scriptures." Having said this, Manuel threatened her with a speedy end to her life and the loss of her empire, ^C and not only to her, but also to her son, unless she restored the divine adornment of the holy icons to the Churches. Whether terrified by these words, or otherwise delighted as we have stated, the empress became entirely committed to the work. She immediately ordered all those in the tents of Theoctistus [P. 535] who were adorned with wisdom and learning, from both the synod and the senate, to assemble and to commence discussions regarding the orthodox faith. When all were gathered—as one might say—and many words had flowed and not a few testimonies from Holy Scripture had been brought forward, the pious party prevailed, and a decree was immediately made ^D that the holy icons should be restored. In that assembly, the leaders of the priests, the monks, and the men of the senate who had previously been corrupted by the heresy, after hearing the greater part, condemned their error and embraced the truth. The office of the patriarch Jannes was also revoked, and outstanding men to whom the guard of the palace was entrusted were sent to remove him from his throne. Jannes at first refused to step down or to withdraw entirely from the Church, with the greatest contention. When those we have mentioned as having been sent to him reported his contumacy to the Empress, Bardas the patrician was immediately sent to demand of him whether he refused to yield the patriarch's place because of the profession of the true religion. But Jannes, a man both crafty and as skilled as any other in weaving fraud and calumny, pricked his own belly, back, and buttocks with lead, so that he appeared to have been lashed with whips; and shouting out that he had been treated in this manner by those who had been sent, he begged that as much time be granted to him as was needed until his welts were washed away.

XYLANDRI ET GOARI NOTAE

^A Bardas, the drungarios of the watch—from whom, as Jannes himself said, he had received such a beating—when the imposture was detected, was stirred to anger and ejected him, even though he resisted, from the patriarchal house. In his place the empress introduced the holy and divine Methodius, who still bore upon his flesh the marks of his confession and the punishment endured for it. All the pious priests, laymen, and monks—and even those who practiced asceticism in the mountains—approved of his appointment with the greatest joy, coming together into the city and with one voice condemning the heresy of the Image-destroyers with an eternal anathema. This noble deed the illustrious Theodora and her son performed at the beginning of their reign.

The impious Jannes, however, being enclosed in a certain monastery, when he observed in a part of it an image affixed of Christ, our God, of the Theotokos, and of the archangels, ordered his deacon to ascend and gouge out the eyes of the venerable images, saying that they did not possess the faculty of sight. When the pious Augusta learned of this, inflamed with divine zeal, she ordered his own eyes to be gouged out. But through the intercession of certain persons, this was not carried out. Nevertheless, Theodora sent guards and punished him with two hundred lashes. ^B Such were the accomplishments achieved in the beginning by the celebrated Theodora and her son; the unholy Jannes, meanwhile, confined in a monastery, and there having gazed at an image of Christ, of God, and of the Mother of God and the archangels set up in a certain part of it, commanded his deacon, once he had climbed up, to gouge out the eyes of the venerable images, saying that they did not have the power of sight. As soon as the pious empress learned of this, inflamed by divine zeal, she ordered his eyes to be gouged out. But this did not happen, as some interceded, though she sent guards who tormented him with two hundred lashes of the scourge (23).

This Jannes, whom the great city—the leader of all cities (24)—brought forth, was descended from the stock of the Morocharzani (25). When he had already reached old age, he was the head of the monastery of the most excellent martyrs Sergius and Bacchus (26), where he lay hidden in the church like some serpent in a den. ^C Progressing little by little to higher things, he was throughout his whole life intensely devoted to the heresy of the Image-destroyers, a student of sorcery and of divinations by the basin. He was very dear to Michael Balbos, whether on account of their partnership in heresy or because of their shared opinion in doctrine; he was also given as a tutor to his son Theophilus. When Theophilus received the empire, he first conferred upon him the dignity of syncellus, and then created him patriarch of Constantinople. He was accustomed to predict the future for him through the basin and sorcery. For at one time, when a certain treacherous and savage race, led by three commanders, was harassing Roman territory, and this matter was keeping Theophilus in the anxiety that was to be expected, Jannes had told him to cast aside his sadness and have excellent hope for the situation, provided that he would follow his counsel. The counsel was this: among the bronze statues that were in the euripus of the hippodrome,

there was one said to stand there fashioned with three heads. ^A Jannes therefore ordered bronze hammers of equal weight to the heads to be forged, and to be handed over to men of brawny arms, and at a set hour of the night to be with him at the aforementioned statue; and when he should give the order, they were to strike the heads strongly with the hammers, until they fell to the ground as if from a single blow and impact. The emperor, therefore, persuaded by these words, commanded it to be done. And when the men had arrived there with Jannes late at night (Jannes was in civilian dress, so that he might not be discovered), after he had recited the magical spells (28) and had removed the power residing in such a statue, he ordered the men to strike with youthful vigor and strength. And two of them, putting forth their mightiest efforts, ^B struck off two heads of the statue; the third, however, striking more weakly, merely caused it to tilt, but did not sever the head completely from the body. In like manner also were the things that followed regarding the leaders of the nation; for a certain powerful sedition having fallen upon the people, and civil war having followed from this, two of the leaders fell, and the third was struck, though not fatally; nevertheless, because of this, the action was rendered useless, and that nation, stripped of its strength, returned home. And such were the things concerning the sorcery.

Now, this sorcerer Jannes had a brother in the flesh, named Arsaver, a patrician in rank. He had a suburban estate on the left side of the Stenos, very near the monastery of Saint Phocas, fitted out with luxurious buildings, colonnades, baths, ^C and other delightful amenities. There the sorcerer was accustomed to stay, having constructed a certain underground dwelling, similar to that of Trophonius, behind which he had created small doors to introduce those whom he wished to bring in. He would receive those who desired to enter into that wicked workshop; and at one time he would store away nuns and other women distinguished by their beauty—with whom he would corrupt himself—and at other times he would engage in liver-divination, bowl-divination, sorcery, and necromancy, through which, with the cooperation of demons, he would often foretell some future events. But this property, having later come into the possession of the chamberlain, was leveled to the ground, and a monastery was built there in the name of Phocas the great martyr.

^D Furthermore, Jannes and his associates, having been deposed in the manner we have described, did not even then remain quiet, but still continued to behave insolently against the holy icons and to plot evil against the pious. By concocting a slander against the great Methodius, they attempted to calumniate the irreproachable one, and thus the orthodox.

^A For many, having corrupted a certain woman with gold and promises—if only she would agree to these things (the woman was the mother of Metrophanes, who later became prelate of Smyrna)—persuaded her to accuse the saint before the Augustas and the guardians of the emperor, claiming that he had had relations with her. Immediately, therefore, a terrible council was convened, consisting of civil and sacred men. The pious were present, filled with sadness and grief; the impious were not absent, hoping that great disgrace would be brought upon the assembly of the pious by this action. The calumniators were present, puffed up in spirit, because they trusted that they had the proofs of this crime ready to hand. The woman was brought into the midst, and she triumphed before the judges regarding the things she had been taught. The judges held their faces in gloom, and Manuel the magistros more than the rest, at the prospect that, because of one man, the whole body of the orthodox might become a laughingstock to their adversaries. The holy Methodius, perceiving all these things, and wishing both to remove the hopes of the impious and to release the pious from the gloom that held them so that he might not become a stone of stumbling for the Church, fearing the crowd not at all—a man worthy of all reverence and honor—laid bare his private parts before the sight of all those who were watching. And they appeared to everyone to be withered by some disease and completely devoid of all natural function. ^B This deed filled the malicious and the calumniators with shame, but filled the pious with great joy and gladness. They surrounded Methodius with immense joy, greeting and embracing him, and had no way to satisfy their sense of pleasure. And one of those more familiar with him approached and quietly asked the patriarch how he wished to learn the manner of the withering of his private parts. He took up the tale and recounted from the very beginning that, when he was sent to Rome to the Pope on account of the accusations raised against the most holy patriarch Nicephorus, and was staying there, he was troubled by a carnal, evil spirit, which did not cease, night and day, from tickling him and inciting desires for carnal union within him. And burning with that passion, and already on the point of yielding, he resolved to surrender himself to Peter, the chief of the apostles, and entreated him with many prayers to deliver him from that carnal desire. He appeared to him by night, and touching his private parts with his right hand, he cauterized them, and at the same time said that there was nothing thereafter that he need fear from that lustful desire for pleasure. ^C Upon waking from the intense pain, he found himself as they had seen. When the patriarch had said these things, Manuel, judging this fraud to be intolerable, decided to subject the woman to interrogation, so that he might understand the method of the conspiracy. Immediately, therefore, a sword was brandished at her, and red-hot coals were brought in, and the executioners stood ready. Terrified by these things, the unhappy woman openly confessed the truth, and how the treachery was structured, and how she had been corrupted and deceived by gold and promises, and finally reported the whole fabrication of the authors of the scheme, adding that the gold would be found in her house in a purse inside a chest full of grain. And an officer was sent there ^D to fetch it.

^A A certain man immediately brought the gold, and the whole matter was exposed. The calumniators would have paid the fitting penalty for their crime, had not the patriarch, in the patience he possessed, sought this one vengeance: that every year, in the solemn assembly of the Orthodox, he should be permitted to go from the most holy temple of the Theotokos at Blachernae to the temple of Holy Sophia with torches shining before him, and to proclaim their detestation into their own ears. And this was done throughout their entire lives. In this way the heresy of the Iconoclasts was overturned, and the Church of the Orthodox recovered its own ornaments, namely the restoration of the holy images.

Regarding this festival of Orthodoxy, the blessed Empress Theodora once entertained the fullness of the ^B Church in the palace that is in the region of Cariani. Among those at the banquet were also Theophanes and his brother Theodorus, whom they call the "Grapti" [the Inscribed] because of the characters impressed upon their faces. As the feast was drawing to a close and the desserts—namely, cakes and pastries—were being served, the Empress kept looking continuously at the faces of these Fathers and, reading the letters inscribed upon them, began to sigh and weep. One of the Fathers, perceiving this, asked her the reason for her frequent gazing upon them. When she replied that she was marveling at their endurance in having suffered so many letters to be inscribed upon their faces, and was feeling pity for their powerless hatred from those who had made them suffer these things, Theophanes said: "As for this writing, Lady, we shall dispute the cause before God, the incorrupt judge, against your husband, the emperor." This saying wounded the heart of the Empress not a little, and with tears she said to the holy man: "And is this your promise and the written obligation, that you not only do not forgive, but even want to call to judgment?" The patriarch and the assembly of the pontiffs, in order that she might be comforted and ^C freed from her heavy grief...

Xylander and Goar’s Notes

(31) The first Sunday of Lent is celebrated every year as the solemnity of Orthodoxy, with the images restored, first instituted under Michael, son of Theophilus, and Theodora by the most religious patriarch Methodius; in which all heretics are cursed with dire anathemas, especially those hostile to the holy images, their names being subjoined and immediately pronounced with anathema, and righteous thanks being rendered to God the Best and Greatest for the eradication of every heresy. The anonymous author in the Royal Library narrates the event in a slightly different manner.

[Theodosia] made known to the most holy patriarch Methodius that he should notify and assemble every Orthodox person, from metropolitans, archbishops, and hegumens, to clergy and laypeople, so that they might arrive at the Great Church of God with the precious crosses and holy images on the first Sunday of the Holy Fast. And when all these things had been done, and an uncountable multitude had gathered in the Great Church of God, the emperor Michael himself also arrived with his holy and Orthodox mother and the whole of the senate, each of them carrying a royal candle. And having united with the most holy patriarch, and together departing from the holy sanctuary with a procession along with the holy images and the precious cross and the holy Gospel, they walked in procession as far as the royal gates called the Ktenaria. And there, once an earnest prayer had been made, and after much compunction and tears and sighs, they said "Lord, have mercy," and returned to the holy church with much joy and splendor, to perform the divine and mystical liturgy. And in this way the holy and venerable images were restored in the church of God, to be honored and venerated and worshiped by all the faithful. The pious sovereigns then, with the venerable and most holy patriarch Methodius and the metropolitans and holy ascetics with him, decreed that this holy and venerable festival should be celebrated annually with splendor in the Great Church of God on the first Sunday of the Holy Fast, which is celebrated even to this day.

(32) All the pontiffs, clergy, and monastic orders. (33) Where the daughter of Theodorus lived, and Maurice had built the palace.

^A Rising immediately, she said: "Our promises and pacts remain firm and immovable, but it is expedient to bid farewell to this contempt." And thus the grief of the Augusta was mitigated. At this time, a certain heresy arose by the name of the Ziliciani, together with its leader, Zilic, who held the rank of a secretarius. It was extinguished and dissipated, for he and his followers were converted to the true religion, and were anointed and perfected with the holy chrism. Such was the state of urban affairs.

^B Bogoris, moreover, the leader of the Bulgarians, hearing that a woman was holding the Roman empire with a tender child, took on ferocity; and having sent messengers to Theodora, he threatened that he would break the treaty and wage war against the Romans. But the Empress, thinking nothing base or womanish, sent word: "You will find me also preparing for battle, and by the nod of God, prevailing. But if—which is not possible—you should overcome, then also the victory will be mine; for you will be considered to have overcome a woman, not a man." Disturbed by this response, the barbarian preferred peace to war and renewed the ancient treaties. ^C Then, delegates were sent between them again, the Empress demanding Theodosius, surnamed Cupharas—a man outstanding and useful to the state, who was then living as a captive in Bulgaria—and Bogoris demanding his own sister, who had been captured long ago in a certain raid and was being kept in the imperial palace. She, having been imbued there with the doctrine and literature of the Christian religion, after being sent home, never ceased preaching the Christian faith to her brother and sowing the seeds of piety in his heart; he had already been initiated into the divine mysteries by Cupharas even before this.

But when the exchange was made, and the Augusta had returned Cupharas and received back her sister, ^D although Bogoris had been instructed and initiated into sacred things, he did not abandon his false religion. But after a severe plague infested Bulgaria, and no remedy for the evil was effective, then Bogoris called upon the God of the Christians—into whose religion he had been initiated by Cupharas and his sister—for help, and commanded the whole nation to do the same. Being delivered from the pestilence, they embraced the true faith and were placed in the laver of regeneration. The name Michael was given to the prince, taken from the name of the emperor, by the patriarch who had been sent to baptize him.

^A Another event also occurred, which led him to piety and confirmed him in it. He delighted in hunting beyond measure, and desiring to enjoy this not only when he went out to hunt, but also when he was at leisure, he built a new dwelling and commanded the monk Methodius, who was Roman by birth and a painter by profession, to decorate the whole house with historical themes. By a divine instinct it came about that he did not specify by name which animals he wished to be depicted, but commanded him to paint according to his own judgment, provided that the painting should be—he commanded—terrible. The monk painted the second coming of Christ, as he knew nothing more terrible than that. The prince, seeing on one side the choir of the just crowned, and on the other the punishments of those suffering for their sins, and being taught by the painter what these things meant, immediately abjured his own superstition; and having been instructed, as we have said, by the holy bishop in the divine mysteries, he was baptized in the dead of the night.

The nobles of the Bulgarians and the common people rose up against him and attempted to kill him. He, with a small band of his own men, the sign of the cross being borne before them, routed them, and led those terrified by the unexpected event to the faith of Christ. The entire Bulgarian nation having embraced the Christian religion, he besought the Augusta by letters to bestow some land upon him, as his people were pressed by the narrowness of their territory, promising that he would unite the peoples and bring about an eternal and unchangeable peace. The Empress very joyfully received the petition, and gave the Bulgarians whatever soil there was from the so-called Iron—which was the name of the place, then the border of the Roman and Bulgarian dominions—as far as Debeltos, which at that time was deserted. The Bulgarians named this land Zagora. In this way the entire Bulgaria gave itself to piety, and in the West there was most tranquil peace and true religion. And matters in the West were in a state of calm, and stable piety was the polity.

^B The Empress, rejoicing at what had happened and taking pleasure in it, and as if desiring to augment such a great good, determined to lead the Manichaeans in the East—whom common parlance, from the leaders of the heresy, knows to call Paulicians—to piety, or, if they did not do this, to eradicate them completely and remove them from among men. This indeed filled the world with many calamities. For those who were sent ^D to carry out the command (these were Leo, the son of Argyros, and Andronicus, the son of Doukas, and Sudalis), not moderately but cruelly treating the task, hanged some on crosses, put others to the sword, and destroyed others by sending them to their deaths by various and all manner of other kinds of tortures, and killed about one hundred thousand men and confiscated their property. As a result, the remaining multitude, driven by the necessity of such an urgent situation, looked to defection. The beginning of the defection happened in this way. Carbeas, a certain man, was in the service of Theodotus Melissenus, the prefect of the Easterners, filling the office of *protomandator*

NOTES OF XYLANDER AND GOAR.

^A Theodotus the Melissenus, who filled the office of *protomandator* (36) for him, was a man named Carbeas, addicted to the faith of the Manichaeans. Upon learning that his own father had been impaled, and considering the act to be beyond bearing, he fled with five thousand others of the same faith to Amer (37), the emir of Melitene, and from there to the *amermumnes*. By him they were received with great honor, and having given and received pledges of safety, not long after they set out against the land of the Romans, and began to build cities, one called Argaun and the other Amara. And since they were always increasing in population as those Manichaeans who had been in hiding for fear joined them, they added a third to these two cities, which they named Tephrice. Issuing from these places and joining with the emir of Melitene, Amer, and Alim, the governor of Tarsus, they ceased not to raid and ravage the land of the Romans without restraint. But Alim, having departed into a certain region of the Armenians with his own army, perished there. And Amer, being involved in a civil war because his colleague, who was called Scleri, that is to say the Hard, had rebelled against him, was so occupied with his own affairs for some time that he could not attend to foreign war. But after he had overcome his adversary and obtained leisure, being a man otherwise impatient of quiet, he joined himself with Carbeas and led all his forces against the Romans. Petronas, the brother of the Augusta, led an expedition against him, holding the office of Domestic of the Schools, which belonged to his elder brother Bardas, but was administered by Petronas, as Bardas was intent upon the guardianship of the emperor and could not preside over it. This Petronas, therefore, who was the *strategos* of the Thracesians (38), stood in battle array against Amer and Carbeas. How it came to an engagement, and what he did, the history will show in its own place.

The emperor Michael, having already passed from his youth and approaching adulthood, desired to manage affairs by himself, being incited to this by his guardian and uncle Bardas, the brother of the empress. For he, burning with the love of ruling, employed himself in nothing else but in things that contributed to the end he desired. But that we may make the narrative clearer to those who read it, let us trace it further back. A certain disagreement had arisen between Manuel and the logothete Theoctistus, who were both guardians of the emperor and lived in the palace. Manuel having incurred from this the crime of *majestas*, fearing the unpopularity, decided to live his life outside the palace and to abstain from continuous meetings and the administration of affairs. He therefore betook himself to his house, which was situated by the cistern of Aspar; which he later transformed into a religious house, and there deposited his remains. Then, as often as the situation required, for the purpose of discussing

of affairs. But Bardas, having shaken off Manuel—not by his own hand, but through Theoctistus—hastened, having seized the opportunity, to accomplish his desired end. Believing, quite reasonably, that Theoctistus stood in his way, he was anxious to do away with him as well, especially since he cast reproaches upon him for his illicit association with his own daughter-in-law.

The plan for this undertaking had its beginning as follows: There was a tutor to the emperor Michael who was both corrupt and wicked. The emperor deemed it right to elevate this man above the imperial dignities; but his mother and Theoctistus, when he petitioned them to grant him greater honor, would not be persuaded, saying, "The affairs of the empire should be managed by those worthy, not by those unworthy." Therefore, Bardas, having taken this tutor as a tool of his wickedness, did not cease sowing certain weeds against Theoctistus in the soul of the emperor, saying now that "public affairs are not being managed well," and now that "he wishes to marry off your mother or one of your sisters, and to pluck out your eyes, and to thrust you from the throne." ^B By echoing these things repeatedly, he would add that there was need for most wise and most swift counsel. And since they met and deliberated on the same matter many times, they at last decided to make away with Theoctistus. This was agreed upon, and the final plan was arranged thus: that when Theoctistus was about to leave for the Lausiacus after the administration of the reports, the emperor should follow him a little way and shout only this: "Take him!" ^C So when Theoctistus emerged and left, and learned of the given signal, he attempted to secure his safety through flight. His flight took him toward the Hippodrome, by the area of the Aschareteia; for there at that time was the lodging of the secretaries. But the one man was captured by many and compelled to remain, while Bardas drew his sword and threatened that he would strike anyone who attempted to obstruct him or help the man. He was led off, therefore, toward the Scyla, to be held in custody for the time being until his case was decided. Finally, judging that it was not to their advantage that he should live, for fear of the Augusta, they sent one of the members of the company to brandish a sword at him outright. As Theoctistus saw the man advancing upon him with a drawn sword, he climbed onto a certain stool for the sake of avoiding the blow, but he perished with his belly so wounded that his intestines were spilled out. When his death became known, Manuel immediately came into the palace; and he is said to have spoken to Bardas, as if driven by a divine fury:

Once the sword is drawn for Theoctistus’s slaughter,* *Prepare thyself for slaughters day by day.*

After the slaughter of Theoctistus, Bardas took the office of the *kanikleion* upon himself. ^B When the Empress Theodora perceived what had been done, with hair unbound she ran through the palace and filled it with wailing; she assailed both her son and her brother with reproachful words and curses, and prayed that they might meet a similar end. When they could not endure her reproaches—and because Bardas, meanwhile, was pressing forward with his intended plan—they decided to remove her also from their path, so that they might thereafter act as they pleased, freely and without hindrance. When Theodora discovered this—for she was a shrewd woman—realizing that resistance was not feasible, as she feared slaughter and the shedding of blood, she resolved to expose to the senate the sum of the wealth stored in the palace, both to hinder her son’s profligacy and to vindicate her own administration. Having therefore convened the senate and stood before it, she spoke with a clear voice: “There lie stored in the imperial treasury, O Fathers, one thousand and ninety *centenaria* of gold, and of silver about three thousand, part of which my husband provided, and part I gathered after his death, along with much other varied wealth. I declare this before you now, so that if, after my departure from the palace, my son, your emperor, should say that I have left the palace destitute of wealth, my words might not be easily believed.” And as she spoke, she presented the treasurers of the imperial funds, and they signified their agreement with what was said. The Empress, having embraced the senate and renounced all function and administration, departed from the palace. ^C

The imperial wealth, so great and vast, was squandered by the foolish Michael on matters of no consequence. For, because he took the greatest delight in chariot racing, and did not himself refuse to drive horses in the Circus, he would exhaust the treasury by acting as godfather to the children of those who were accustomed to play and compete with him in this spectacle, bestowing one hundred and eighty, or at the very least fifty, pounds [of gold] upon each. And once, to a certain man whom he had honored with the dignity of patrician—he was called Himerios, receiving this name by antiphrasis [as a contrast] to the ferocity of his countenance—who surpassed the Himerios of Tiberius’s time in sycophancy, and who at banquets would jest with scurrilous gestures and filthy words, and would shamelessly break wind in the hearing of the emperor and the guests, such that he would even extinguish a wax candle with the sound, he gave one hundred pounds of gold. And to Cheila, one of his associates in chariot racing, his godson from baptism— ^D

^A he gave one hundred pounds of gold. Thus, that man squandered and dissipated public funds on nothing necessary. And since within a short time he had squandered such great wealth on such unhallowed acts, and the time for distributing imperial largesse arrived, and there was no supply of money, he ordered that celebrated and much-famed golden plane tree, and the two golden lions and two vultures, also made of hammered gold, and the all-gold instruments and other works on account of which the Roman Empire was admired, to be melted down and the money coined from them to be brought into his treasury. They weighed no less than two hundred centenaria. In the same way he acted regarding the imperial robes, of which some were of solid gold and others woven with gold; he gave these too to the *eidikon* to be melted down. ^B But they were not yet melted down before he crossed from the land of the living, and Basil succeeded to the rule and recovered them, finding of such great wealth nothing left but three centenaria of gold and nine sacks of miliaresia; bringing these before the senate, he bewailed the lack and ordered it to be deliberated how the public needs might be fulfilled.

Since it was the custom of the Empress Theodora to go to the holy church of the Theotokos at Blachernae, partly for the sake of prayer, and partly that she might bathe with her daughters, when the emperor and her brother Bardas noticed at one time that she had gone there, they sent Petronas—whom the account has already shown to be ^C her brother—who caused her and her daughters to have their hair shorn to become nuns, and confined them for the time being in the palace at the Kariani, stripping them of all the wealth they possessed, and ordering them to live the life of private citizens and not as royals. Not long after, Theodora departed the living. The Emperor Basil later had her corpse and her daughters transferred to the monastery of her grandmother, which is called Gastria. The Empress Theodora had two brothers, this deceitful Bardas and Petronas, and three sisters: Sophia, Maria, and Irene. Of these, Sophia married Constantine Babutzikos, who attained the rank of magister; Irene was the wife of the patrician Sergius, who was the brother of the Photius who later became patriarch; and Maria married the magister Arsaber, a noble man and distinguished at that time. All were of elegant ^D form and endowed with the highest virtue. And at her death, Theodora left behind such an offspring.

The entire administration of common affairs devolved upon Bardas alone, and he was favored exceedingly by the emperor. Hence he also received the dignity of Curopalates, perhaps as a reward for the removal of his sister. He decided, therefore, together with the emperor, to march on an expedition against the Ishmaelites and the emir of Melitene, Amer, who had just...

set foot upon Roman soil and had arrived at Samosata—a city of the Euphrates region, wealthy and strong. They began to besiege it. The Saracens, however, feigning fear, kept themselves inside, and because no one was leaping out from the wall, perhaps due to fear of the imperial forces, the Romans lived on carelessly and without guard. On the third day of the siege—which was a Sunday, the first day of the week—the unbloody sacrifice was being performed, and as the Romans were about to partake of the divine mysteries, the Saracens threw open the gates and, fully armed, leaped out and attacked the Romans from every side. The Romans, ^A terrified by the unexpected attack, immediately took to flight. Even the Emperor Michael himself barely managed to mount his horse and with difficulty escaped, while all the baggage of the emperor and the soldiers was captured by the enemy. The valor of Karbeas, leader of the Manichaeans, was preeminent in that conflict, for he not only struck down many of the obscure soldiers of the army but also captured alive no fewer than one hundred of the illustrious commanders and prefects of the turmae; many of these were later released upon payment of ransom, but Seon, the commander of the forces, died while in custody.

Two years having passed, Amer again gathered an army of no less than thirty thousand and marched into the Roman domains. Michael, wishing to compensate for his previous defeat with a victory, also gathered a force from Thrace and Macedonia, totaling about forty-five thousand, and marched out against him. Amer, having learned of this, made his march through certain difficult and shortcut terrains and, falling upon him suddenly, routed the emperor with great force and compelled him to turn and flee. Indeed, Michael would have been taken prisoner had not Manuel, the Domestic of the Schools, broken through the phalanx and rescued him, all the others being scattered in flight as each was able.

Two years after this battle, Amer once again led out an army of forty thousand and, having made an incursion into the Roman provinces, began to ravage and plunder both the Armenian region and those near the sea. At this time, they say he suffered a fate similar to Xerxes, who had ordered the sea to be beaten with lashes because it had not allowed him to proceed further as he pleased. Michael, deeply distressed by these events and not daring to march against him in person, ordered Petronas, his maternal uncle, who was then governing the Thrakesians, to take the Roman forces and march against him with all strength. Petronas was at that time staying in Ephesus. Upon receiving the letters, he fell into great anxiety. He immediately mounted his horse and went to Mount Latros to the monk John, who was living as an ascetic there and was celebrated at that time for his virtue, and he consulted him about the matter. Without any delay in the face of his inquiry, the monk answered: "Go, my son, against the Saracens, for you shall have God as your leader." Armed with his prayers, he marched toward the

interrogated a certain Roman captive about the name of the region, the place where he was encamped, and the name of the river flowing by. When he heard that the region was called Lalacaon, the place Ptosontis, and the river Gyris, he immediately drew an ill omen for himself and predicted the slaughter of his own forces, declaring that they were destined to be surrounded by the Romans. Nevertheless, he urged his men not to despair, but to prepare themselves courageously for the battle to take place on the following day. When day dawned, realizing that he was surrounded on all sides and that there was no way out, he judged it advantageous to move toward the part where he saw Petronas holding his position, and he attacked the enemy with great clamor and shouting. Finding his attempt vain, however, he withdrew a little, and then launched another attack from there, seeking an opportunity to escape. Having attempted this a third time in vain and finding himself in the most extreme danger, seeing that the Romans had broken out from ambush on all sides, from the south and from the north, and realizing that his situation was completely desperate, he rushed with a violent charge against the opposing enemy; there he himself was struck down, and his army perished in the slaughter. His son, who had been sent out with a portion of the troops to raid, having received word of the disaster, immediately fled to Melitene. But the commander of the Charsian pass pursued him and his army, brought them into captivity, and delivered them to Petronas. ^B Having won such a glorious victory over Amer, Petronas returned to Constantinople, bringing with him the monk who had predicted the victory to him, proclaiming his divine power and commending him highly to the emperor and to Bardas. Manuel had already died of illness by this time. Consequently, Petronas was created Domestic of the Schools as an honor; he died shortly thereafter.

^C Bardas, being left alone, henceforth led and carried all things, transferring imperial honors from time to time to others, and even assumed for himself the dignity of Caesar. Michael, meanwhile, took no care for public affairs, occupying himself only with theaters and chariot races; and what was worst of all, he was not content to be a spectator, but even wished to drive the horses himself, exposing himself to be mocked and laughed at by all. While he was thus occupied, Bardas administered public affairs and secretly intended the empire for himself, that he might obtain it at the opportune time. He also revived secular learning, which had long since faded away and vanished due to the boorishness and ignorance of the emperors; he assigned specific locations for schools for each of the sciences, and for the supreme ^D of all, philosophy, he established...

philosophiæ ^A in the Magnaura palace, so that from this time forward the sciences began to flourish again. This most excellent and renowned work, however, was not enough to wash away the other stains that clung to Bardas. The one who taught this philosophy was that great philosopher Leo, a cousin of the patriarch John, who had also obtained the see [p. 548] of Thessalonica; but when the Iconoclasts were recently deposed, he too was deposed, and while living in retirement, he was promoted to this school. He had previously become known to the emperor Theophilus in this way. For as he had mastered all the sciences in a manner no one else had, he was living in a humble dwelling and instructing any who wished in whatever subject they desired. As some time passed and many made significant progress in the sciences, it happened that a certain young man who had attained the peak of geometric skill became the scribe for a certain general. ^B When that general went out to war, his forces were routed, and he himself fell alive into the hands of the enemy and was given into slavery to an illustrious Saracen. At that time, Mamum, the ruler of the Ishmaelites, was devoted to other Greek disciplines, and especially to geometry. It happened one day that the master of the young man of whom we spoke mentioned the Amermumn to him, noting his interest in mathematics and geometry. Hearing this, the youth said that he desired to hear him and his teachers, and to examine the diligence they applied to geometric matters. Mamum, hearing this, summoned the youth to him with great joy and asked if he possessed knowledge of that discipline; when the youth affirmed it, he doubted him, asserting that at that time no one but his own teachers was skilled in geometry. When the young man stated that he wished to test the knowledge of those teachers, they were immediately present, and they drew ^C figures of three and four angles and brought into the midst the rules of the principles of geometry, explaining the names of the figures, but without rendering any reason or offering any demonstration. When the youth saw them puffed up and boasting of themselves because of the description of the figures, he said, "In every argument and matter, O sirs, the *reason why* holds the place of prince; but you, by speaking only of the existence and passing over the *reasons why*, seem to me to err not slightly, ignoring the most essential part." When they were puzzled and begged him to clarify and teach them the causes, and he found that by interpreting and explaining these—showing how this is so because of that, and that so because of that—he was rendering the aforementioned names and drawings, and at the same time their minds were opened and they understood what was being said, they were seized with amazement and asked if Byzantium possessed others like him. When he replied that it possessed very many, and that he was the least of the students—not of the teachers—it was inquired again concerning his teacher, ^D who he was and whether he was still alive. He replied that Leo was still alive, destitute, and devoted to nothing else but the sciences. Therefore, Mamum immediately wrote letters to him to this effect: "By the fruit we have recognized the tree, and by the student the master. Therefore, you who are instructed in such great knowledge of things, yet unknown to your fellow citizens, [to the wisdom of]

^A having reaped no fruit, do not disdain to come to us and share your wisdom. For as you come, the entire Saracen race will bow its neck to you, and you shall be enriched with such wealth and gifts as no man has ever been deemed worthy of." Giving these letters to the young man and having treated him kindly with gifts, he sent him off to the master. Safely reaching the imperial city and finding the philosopher alive, he delivered these letters to him. ^B Leo, considering it not without danger to receive a letter from enemies without the Emperor’s knowledge, went to the Logothete of the Drome (this was Theoctistus, who was later killed by Bardas) and explained how his captive student had arrived and how he had brought him a letter from the Amermumnes, and at the same time he brought out the letter and placed it in his hands. This was the cause of the philosopher Leo becoming known and familiar to the Emperor, and the aforementioned student brought Leo’s wisdom, which had hitherto been hidden, to light. For the Emperor immediately summoned him, enriched him, and directed him to teach publicly, assigning him as a dwelling place the divine church of the Forty ^C glorious Martyrs.

But Mamum, despairing of the philosopher’s arrival, sent him some geometric and astronomical problems and questions on other sciences, asking for their solutions. When Leo had properly resolved them all, and for the sake of exciting admiration had added some prognostic signs of future events, Mamum, upon receiving those letters, was wounded in his soul by the desire for him, and is said to have exclaimed with a great voice, in admiration of the wisdom of such a man. Immediately, therefore, he sent envoys to Theophilus with letters signifying the following: "I had determined, which is the duty of a genuine friend, to come to you myself; but since the empire committed to me by God and the vast public under my authority do not grant this, I ask that you send to me the man whom you hold to be famous in philosophy and other sciences, so that by spending a little time with me ^D he may share his wisdom, for which I burn with desire. Do not delay this on account of diversity of religion and race, but perform it as quickly as possible, as is due to good friends. For this service we shall pay you one hundred centenaria of gold, and we shall establish peace and a treaty in perpetuity."

When Theophilus received these letters, he thought it absurd to reveal to the barbarians the sciences for which the Roman race was held in admiration, and he did not consent to this petition. Instead, he treated Leo with even greater honor and appointed him Bishop of Thessalonica, through the agency of the Patriarch John, whose kinsman we have already stated he was.

Xylander and Goar’s Notes

^A The Thessalonians honored Leo exceedingly after his ordination, because of the wisdom that was in him and his precision in all mathematical subjects; and they particularly admired him for this reason: The land was barren and unfruitful at that time, and famine was pressing hard upon those who inhabited Thessalonica and the places around it, and everyone was hoping either to become a displaced person from their homeland or to perish from hunger and the lack of necessities. Leo, comforting them in their state of want for a time—which the rising and appearance of certain stars indicated to him—ordered them to sow the land. By this act, he became the cause of so great a fertility that the fruits of the harvest were sufficient for the inhabitants for many years.

^B Leo, as he himself claimed, was introduced to literature and the poets in Byzantium. He learned rhetoric, philosophy, arithmetic, and the paths of the other sciences while on the island of Andros. For when he was there, having encountered a diligent man, Michael Psellos, he received only the rudiments, some points of discussion, and the starting-points of learning from him; but because he could not find as much as he desired, he went around to the monasteries, searching for the books stored in them, exploring them, and studying them diligently, and thus ascended to the pinnacle of such great learning. Having attained an abundance of erudition, he returned to Constantinople; and he instructed those who wished to utilize his work in the liberal arts. But these things happened much earlier.

^C However, after the heresy of the Iconoclasts had been suppressed and its adherents deposed, and after the Patriarch John had also been deposed, this man [Leo] was also removed from his bishopric, and Bardas, as we have already stated, later appointed him head of the school of philosophy. The same Bardas appointed Sergius, a student of Leo—the father of the youth of whom we have spoken—to the school of geometry, and Theodegius, likewise a friend of his, to the school of arithmetic and astronomy. He provided them with ample funds; and as he was a lover of the fine arts, he often visited the school himself, strengthening the enthusiasm of the students by his own example. In this way, he brought the fine arts, which had been utterly extinguished before, so that not even a trace or a spark of them remained, to a great magnitude in a short period of time.

^D The same Bardas, after having been made Caesar, frequently visited the courts that were held in the Hippodrome, and caused the laws to revive, since through the vice of those times even their precise study had grown obsolete. Yet such and so many fine qualities in Bardas were defiled and obscured by an excessive desire for power, like a kind of birthmark and innate stain, and furthermore by the disturbances he caused the Church; through which it came about that, instead of glory, he brought upon himself infamy. For against the most blessed Methodius, with four...

^A years only having held the see of Constantinople, having departed this life, Ignatius, born of the daughter of the Emperor Nicephorus and son of Michael who had fallen from the empire, having become a monk after the loss of his throne and the removal of his procreative organs, and having served as head of the Monastery of Satyros, was raised to the patriarchal throne. This man barred Bardas from the Church for his groundless abandonment of his own wife and for his illicit relations with his daughter-in-law, for he did not neglect the divine canons. Since Bardas, despite many pleas and entreaties, could not obtain forgiveness, he despaired of other remedies and turned to vengeance; he cast Ignatius out of the Church, and after many afflictions and intolerable hardships, he finally locked him in the tomb of Copronymus, having stationed over him guards both fierce and most cruel. This most holy man would indeed have perished from this most painful torment, had not some God-fearing person, when the guards had departed for some needs of their own, led him out of the tomb and afforded him the care he required. After much suffering, Bardas sent him into exile in Mitylene. Many other bishops were treated in the same way or even worse, because they did not approve of what was being done and were adamant that they would not accept any other patriarch, whatever the outcome might be. However, yielding to threats and promises, some complied with the will of Bardas, bartering the love of virtue and glory for money and desertion. Bardas therefore appointed Photius, a man known for his wisdom and at that time the chief of the secretaries, as patriarch. When the legates of the Pope of Rome, who had been sent against the Iconoclasts, were present, they also drew them into their own opinion, and having gathered a council in the Church of the Holy Apostles, summoned Ignatius from exile and condemned him with a public sentence. These are the deeds which Bardas performed, driven by the desire to obtain the empire.

Meanwhile, a fleet of the Rhos was ravaging and overrunning everything within the Euxine Sea and its entire coastline (the Rhos are a Scythian race, dwelling around the northern Taurus, fierce and savage), and they cast the Queen of Cities herself into terrible danger. Not long after, having experienced the divine wrath, they returned home, and sent an embassy to the imperial city entreating to partake of divine baptism, which indeed came to pass. Another fleet from Crete was ravaging now the Cyclades, now the entire coastline as far as Proconnesus. There were also most terrifying earthquakes. One of these, the greatest, occurred on the day the Ascension of the Lord is celebrated; it shook the earth, leveled the wall at the Exokionion to the ground, and overturned beautiful temples, splendid houses, and the statue of Victory placed at the Golden ^D Gate of the city, and those things which at the Deuteron

^A near the holy Anastasia, it shook down. Leo the philosopher openly declared that by its fall was signified the death of him who was second in power to the emperor. Moreover, rivers and springs dried up during that time, and many other portents occurred everywhere. Having heard of all these things, the emperor remained wholly intent on the chariot races at the church of the holy martyr Mamas, which had been built at the Stenos. It is worth noting here, too, a decision of his which one should not pass over in silence, as it demonstrates his own stupidity and the diligence of the emperors who preceded him.

The ancient emperors, wishing the incursions of the Saracens into the Roman territories not to be unknown, so that, by attacking abruptly, they might not devastate the lands and capture those dwelling in the villages and fields, had built a certain fortress, very near Tarsus, on a very high and naturally fortified hill, named Loulon. In this fortress, watchmen were stationed who, when they perceived the Saracens preparing an incursion, lit a fire and gave a signal. Seeing this fire, those who were keeping watch on Mount Argaeus did the same. Those who were on the mountain of Isamos would receive this, and in turn those at Aegialos would light another, and then those at the place called Mamas. After this, the Kirkos followed, then the Mokillos, and then, in turn, the mountain of Saint Auxentius, which displayed the incursion by means of a signal to those appointed for this duty ^B at the great palace. And thus, by means of sequential fire-signaling, they provided awareness to the emperor in an instant, and the inhabitants of the regions, having learned of it, took to their walled cities and avoided the incursions of the enemy.

While this custom prevailed, it happened once that, as Michael was preparing to drive horses at the church of the martyr Mamas, a signal fire was let off from the beacon. When the emperor saw this, fearing lest his chariot driving be not observed diligently if the minds of the spectators were struck by the contrary news, he fell into such great fear as one might have if placed in danger of his life: so far was he from feeling shame at showing himself off in the theater. And to such an extent, lest the minds of the people should become less languid for spectating through any indication of adverse events, he forbade the signal fires near the city to be lit thereafter.

Again—for one must further illustrate his senselessness—when at another time he had sat in his chariot and the horses were already about to be released from the starting gates ^C (he himself being dressed in the Blue habit, while the logothete of the drome, Constantine, was in the Green, Cheilas in the White, and Crasas in the Red), a messenger arrived with the news that Amer, the emir of Melitene, was severely ravaging Asia, and was already at Malagina. ^D

^A Receiving this news, the protonotary dejectedly went and reported it to the Emperor, simultaneously presenting the letters from the Domestic of the Schools. The Emperor, looking upon him with a grim and titanic expression, said: "And how did you dare, you wicked head, to interrupt me in such a necessary struggle about such matters, when I was concentrating on this one thing: how to turn him who holds the center toward the left, which is what this whole struggle of mine is about?" Such was his distraction and mental derangement.

He was not seized solely by this desire or passion, while abstaining from other disgraceful things; rather, by pursuing an immoderate modesty, he lapsed from what was appropriate and worthy of the imperial dignity. ^B Once, encountering a poor little woman returning from the bath and carrying a pail in her hands (he happened to have adopted her child from the holy font), he dismounted from his horse and ordered the men of senatorial rank who were accompanying him to go away to the palace. He himself, together with the impure and lustful degenerates whom he had gathered to himself, followed the little woman, took the pail from her hands, and said, "Come now, woman, be of good cheer and receive me into your house, for I crave bran-bread and *asbestotyros*." As the woman stood stunned by these words, having nothing ready for a meal, Michael, quicker than speech, took a linen cloth she was carrying from the bath, still wet, and spread it on the ground as a tablecloth. Having taken the key from the woman, the Emperor himself performed the role of host, cook, table-setter, and fellow-diner. After the meal was finished, he returned to the palace on foot with a slow gait, ^C condemning as great folly and vanity the decorum of the emperors before him who had studied elegance. Thus, all these things rightly provoked anger against him.

And the worst thing was the faction of effeminates who accompanied him, ready for every sordid act; he held them in honor and respect, and while mocking and ^D dancing around the sacred rites, he dressed them in gold-woven priestly stoles and omophoria, and forced them to perform the sacred and all-holy mysteries basely and impurely. He called the head of these men (Gryllus was his name) "Patriarch," and the rest of them "twelve Metropolitans." He himself also took the title of one of the high priests, and was called the "President of Colonia." And when it was necessary for them to chant and perform the mysteries, they fulfilled the songs with a cithara, sometimes sounding them quietly and melodiously, and sometimes loudly, just as the priests chant with full voice in the holy liturgies.

They also possessed vessels adorned with gold and precious stones, which they filled with vinegar and mustard, and distributed to communicants, thus mocking the immaculate mysteries. This company once happened upon the blessed patriarch as he was proceeding with a procession of clergy for the sake of supplication. When Grillus caught sight of him, with extreme boldness and impudence, without any hesitation, he began—with his own example followed by the rest—to pull at his garments, strike the cithara with greater intensity, and heap insults and shameless words upon those holy men.

Michael later called his mother Theodora, who was still living in the palace, to come to him, pretending that Ignatius the patriarch, whom he falsely claimed was present, would pray for her welfare. ^B When the most holy woman came and devoutly prostrated herself on the floor, asking that prayers be offered up for her, suspecting nothing evil—since the impure Grillus had until then kept his beard hidden—Grillus stood up, emitted a flatulence, and bluttered out certain words worthy of his own mouth. Theodora, bearing this wicked act with great bitterness, cursed her son and prophesied that he would soon experience divine indignation. But it was not possible for one who had once turned away from the straight path to be corrected. Consequently, he perished very quickly, and before him Bardas, and before him Theoctistus, who was adorned with the dignity of *canicle*—men who indulged him and, being his guardians, were unwilling to draw him away from his wicked pursuits. How Theoctistus perished has been explained above.

The destruction of Bardas was preceded by signs: the appearance of comets and strange dreams. ^C For he imagined in his sleep that he was going with Michael to the Great Church, as if for some solemn festival. When they had approached it, it seemed to him that certain men clothed in white garments were going before them, and that he was being led by them to the cancelli of the sanctuary; once there, he saw nothing else but an old man sitting upon the patriarch’s throne (whom he took to be Peter, the leader of the apostles), at whose feet lay the blessed Ignatius, rolling about and demanding vengeance for the terrible wrongs he had suffered. Then, he saw someone among those standing by hand a sword to Peter, and command him to place Theorgistus (for so he called the Caesar, as one subject to divine wrath) among those standing on the left, and to cut him limb from limb with that sword; but as for Asebotecnum (by which title he designated the emperor as an impious son), he ordered him to be placed among those on the right, yet threatened him with a similar punishment. ^D Whether the outcome confirmed this dream, the following events will show.

Bardas was preparing an expedition against the Cretans along with Michael.

XYLANDER'S AND GOAR'S NOTES

(60) By "orations," which we call collections, are meant the conclusions read in a loud voice, which are pronounced by the priest in a sonorous and modulated tone. GOAR.

(61) To me, this is obscure. XYL. — It implies folding up the priestly garment and wrapping the man completely within its folds. GOAR.

(62) The *septum cancellatum*, or the wooden screen separating the sanctuary, are the *kinklides* (choir screen) of the sanctuary. (Allatius.) GOAR.

^A ...with all his troops against the Cretans. Therefore, he repaired to the shrine of the Theotokos, which was called the Hodegon—for they were accustomed to seek her favor as their guide on the journey—and entered with torches, in order to commend himself and his affairs to the Mother of God. Now, when he had reached the inner sanctuary of the temple, his cloak suddenly slipped from his shoulders, providing him with a presage of the greatest evils. The same Bardas, on the day before he was to depart from the city, whether of his own accord or because the fate of the future event was weighing upon him, gathered his friends together and, having feasted them, gave them gifts and exhorted them to remember his friendship, acting as one who was already departing from this life.

When, therefore, they set out against Crete and arrived at the theme of the Thrakesians, at a certain place called Choro ^B, the attendants of Bardas, who had gone ahead, were eagerly and busily driving in the tent stakes; and there, whether by providence or whether by some other form of ignorance, they pitched the tent for the Emperor in a flat area, but erected that of the Caesar on a hill that stood higher. Those who were accustomed to incite Michael against Bardas seized upon this as a windfall, finding fault with the event and inflaming the Emperor’s counsels against him.

Yet the power of the Caesar, which was vast, troubled his enemies and made them sluggish toward daring the crime. For his son Antigonus, holding the office of domestic of the schools, had the rest of the army commanders obedient to himself, and Symbatius the logothete of the dromos, who happened to be his son-in-law, was believed to be unequivocally of his father-in-law's faction. But Symbatius had been ^C secretly stolen away by the Emperor and was himself perpetrating the murder of his father-in-law, and no one else had been prepared as the signal for the murder. For he had just come out to carry the requests, and gave the sign for the murder by marking a cross upon his own face.

The conspirators, however, were hesitating, seeing the Caesar’s company standing by. Michael, fearing that they might falter and the deed be detected, necessitating that they draw their swords against him, sent one of his faithful men and confirmed them with promises. Nevertheless, the Caesar would have escaped, for fear had so deterred the conspirators from the crime, had not Basil—the one who would later be Emperor—who was *parakoimomenos* ^D, risen to the undertaking; for it was he who persuaded the conspirators to cast off their fear and fortified them for the deed. Seeing the men approaching suddenly with drawn swords, Bardas, discerning the death that loomed over him, threw himself at the feet of the Emperor. From there he was dragged away, and the men dismembered him, and they displayed his genitals fixed upon a pole in mockery. A great tumult arose from this, which...

threatened the Emperor, but Constantine, the drungarios of the Watch (Vigla), appearing suddenly in the midst with a great force, dispersed it, hailing the Emperor with favorable acclamations and affirming that Bardas had been justly put an end to. Thus was Bardas removed from the world, and in this way the expedition against the Cretans was dissolved, the Emperor having returned to Byzantium.

^B This deed raised Basil to the height of imperial power. For Michael, being devoid of natural offspring and unable to administer the commonwealth alone, adopted him, honoring him with the dignity of master, and shortly thereafter placed the diadem upon him in the Great Church. Having attained such great power, Basil attempted to lead the Emperor as far as possible away from those hateful and infamous pursuits, but unwittingly he inflamed him with grave hatred against himself. For Michael, not enduring these rebukes, formed designs to have him killed, as an impediment to his own will. And having brought forward a certain Basilicinus, a rower of the imperial cutter, he clothed him in the purple and placed the diadem upon him, and leading him forth by the hand to the Senate, he delivered this speech: "Long ago, friends, I had decided to raise this man to the highest honor of the empire rather than Basil. For there are in him:

First, a crown and form worthy of kingship, Then, the kin diadem belongs to this man; And all things are fitting to the dignity."

^C This act and this speech became the beginning of his own ruin. Another thing also happened. For Michael, being much given to unmixed wine, would often, in the time of his drunkenness, command many bizarre things to be done—that some should have their ears cut off, others their noses, and others their heads; but Basil would prevent these things from happening, being solicitous not so much for the others as for himself. When, therefore, Michael perceived that he stood in his way, he concocted a great conspiracy against him. It was this: he instructed someone to launch a spear, seemingly at a beast, but in reality at Basil. And this became known when the man who had been suborned, being on the point of death, revealed the matter. The spear was indeed launched, but it missed Basil. Therefore, Basil, having been saved from the ambush, decided to act rather than to suffer. And Michael was slain in the palace of Saint Mamas, in the year from the creation of the world 6376, at the third hour of the night. He reigned with his mother for fourteen years, and alone for eleven. Although he led a dissolute life, he did not, however, do absolutely nothing praiseworthy. For he offered to the Great Church a cup, which...

^D XYLANDRI ET GOARI NOTÆ. (66) Ad Basilium hunc usque dromonibus vix utebantur imperatores, sed Agrariis. De utrisque Constantinus de Admin. Imp. toto c. fusissime; Cassiodorus quoque Var. I. v, 16. GOAR. (67) Senarius primus Euripidis est, medius integer, si legas καὶ δεύτερονδε. Videtur autem allucere ad nomen Basilicini. Alioqui non video qui ex imperatoria credamus fuisse remigem familia. XYL.

is called a *discopoterion*, and candelabra of a much more excellent sort. ^B

After the death of Michael, as we said, Basil assumed the authority of the empire. ^C Whence he took his beginning and by what occasion he rose from a humble and obscure station to the heights of empire, the account must explain by tracing it from higher up. Basil was a Macedonian by country, an Armenian by nation, from the illustrious stock of the Arsacids, from which alone the laws permitted the kings of the Parthians, Medes, and Armenians to be chosen, on account of the glory of the first Arsaces, who had recovered for the Parthians the kingdom usurped by the Persians. For a very long time, the progeny of this Arsaces ruled over the aforementioned nations. The last to be cast out from the ancestral kingdom, Artabanus, and his brother Clienes, arrived as exiles in Byzantium, while Leo the Great was then governing the Roman empire. He received these men and, treating them with worthy honors, assigned them a convenient dwelling in the imperial city. The King of the Persians, having learned of this, recalled them by letter, promising that he would restore them to their paternal kingdom. While they were deliberating on what was fit to be done upon receiving these letters, a certain servant of theirs exposed the whole affair, showing that these wanderers and strangers were among the most illustrious of men. Therefore, Leo transferred them with their wives and children to Nicaea (this is a town in Macedonia).

Later, after the Persian kingdom had been overturned by the Saracens, the *amermumnes* of that time also recalled the Arsacids dwelling in Macedonia by letter. When the emperor Heraclius discovered this, and understood that he was not summoning them out of good will, but because he hoped that by their efforts he might be able to subject the Armenians and Parthians to himself, he transported them to Philippi (this also is a city in Macedonia), and from there to Adrianople. Since that place seemed suitable to them, they increased there, keeping their lineage distinct from others. Some time later, when Constantine was reigning with his mother Irene, a certain man named Maictes, tracing his lineage to the Arsacids, came to the imperial city for some necessity. He happened upon a clansman of his named Leo, and contracted a very close friendship with him. ^D When he understood that he resided in Adrianople, but that his lineage was drawn from the Arsacids, he preferred the soil of a foreign land to his own country on account of the man's excellence, and took one of his daughters as his wife. From this union was born the father of Basil, a man excelling in strength and bodily stature; to him a certain noble matron, who was believed to derive her birth from Constantine the Great, gave her daughter in marriage, a woman of great beauty. Born to these parents, Basil, even before he was born, had many [signs] of obtaining the empire...

Xylander and Goar's Notes

^A prefers a foreign person over his own due to the man's virtue, and having embraced an affinity with him, he took one of his daughters, from whom came the father of the one being described, a man distinguished in brilliance and in the rest of his bodily bearing. A certain noble woman, descending, as they say, from the lineage of the Great Constantine, took him as a son-in-law for her own very comely daughter; from her was born Basil, who while still before his birth bore the symbols of imperial power. Born of such parents, Basil was reared in freedom. But when Crumus, the ruler of the Bulgarians, puffed up by the victories he had won against the Romans, gathered a great army and besieged Adrianople, and as no one dared to raise a hand against him—for he was insuperable due to his preceding successes—after he had sat outside the city for a sufficient time, he confessed that it would surrender due to the lack of daily necessities. He then transferred all those who were in the city, among whom was reckoned Manuel, the bishop of the city, to Bulgaria. ^B It happened that, along with the others, the parents of Basil—carrying him while he was still an infant at the breast—were also led away to the land of the Bulgarians. There, the illustrious bishop himself, along with the parents of Basil and the multitude with the bishop, preserving their faith in Christ pure and undefiled, led many of the Bulgarians to the orthodox faith, even though the nation had not yet been converted to godliness, and seeds of Christian teaching were sown in many places throughout the Bulgarian land. But Crumus had already passed from this life, and Chrytagon, his successor, who was much swifter in ferocity than his predecessor, realizing that the Bulgarian nation was gradually falling away to Christianity, became inflamed in his spirit because of this. He summoned to himself the divine bishop Manuel and the most prominent of those around him, and at first he tried with gentle speech to persuade them to abandon the Christian faith; but when he realized that they could be bent neither by promises nor by threats, he put them to a cruel death after many tortures. In this way, Manuel and many of the illustrious men under him, as well as those joined to him by blood, bore witness to the true religion with their own deaths. Finally, God prepared an opportunity for the remaining captives to return to their homeland. For the prince of the Bulgarians, having suffered defeat many times and being no longer able to resist the forces of the Romans, preferred peace to war and released the captives. ^C When he was looking at them as they were gathered and already about to set out on the journey to their homeland, he saw Basil, who was then passing from childhood into adolescence, endowed with an elegant countenance, smiling sweetly, and leaping about. He called the boy to him, grasped him with his hands and kissed him, and gave him an apple of rare size, which the adolescent, with very simple audacity while leaning on the knees of the prince, received, displaying the nobility of his character in his unfeigned and simple manner. ^D Thus both the prince was astonished by the miracle, and his subjects were secretly indignant that permission to return home was granted to such an adolescent. But nevertheless, with God being propitious, all the Roman captives went away, having been dismissed home unharmed, and among them were the parents of Basil, leading their most beloved son with them. Many signs are reported to have accompanied this future emperor Basil,

^A which must be omitted, lest we be led too far from our subject. Yet one thing it is by no means appropriate to pass over. At the time of the harvest, his parents had gone out into the field to urge on the work of the harvesters, and, that the child might not be scorched by the heat of the sun, they fashioned a shelter from a bundle of stalks, and placed him in it to sleep, intending both to protect him from the heat of the sun’s rays so he would suffer no harm, and that he might sleep in peace, untroubled by any distraction from outside. They then, having fashioned the bed as the season allowed and laid the child down, departed to their work. But as the sun’s rays beat down upon the child and caused him no small annoyance, an eagle flew down and spread its wings to shade him. When the others saw this and let out a shout, fearing lest the bird do the child some harm, the mother immediately ran toward the child. When she found him sleeping sweetly and saw the eagle providing shade for the child with its wings—and that the bird was not even frightened by her approach, but acted as though it were asking a favor of her—she did not, in the simple-mindedness of the moment, attribute this to a divine omen, but, picking up a stone from the ground, she drove the eagle away. The bird flew off a little way, but as soon as the mother had departed, it returned at once and shaded the child as before. ^B Again a great cry was raised by the onlookers, and again the mother ran to the child, and again the eagle was driven away by a stone, only to return once she had departed. After this had happened several times, the mother finally realized that this was a divine sign, and from these past events she inferred what was to come.

Basil was raised with complete care by his parents alone; but when he had already passed beyond the age of youth, his father departed this life, and widowhood for his mother and orphanage for this young man, and the griefs and afflictions resulting from this, followed. ^C A swarm of anxieties also showered down upon him, concerning the care of the household, his mother’s welfare, and his brothers, who were just beginning to depend upon him. Since he thought that farming would provide too little help or support for his livelihood, he deliberated about entering the imperial city, that he might there earn what was necessary for himself and his loved ones in a manner worthy of them. He was driven by this desire for the imperial city, but his mother pulled him back and held him fast, not allowing him to do what he had planned, but exhorting him to remain and provide for her old age, and to bury her with his own hands when she died, and only then to set out where he pleased. Yet this desire of hers to keep him was overcome by the necessity of obtaining the means to live. Dismissed, Basil came from Macedonia to Byzantium; and as he entered through the Golden Gate, when the day was already inclining toward evening, being exhausted from his journey and without having had any food, he threw himself down in the vestibule of the holy martyr Diomedes, ^D below the steps near the gate, and gave himself to rest. There, around the first watch of the night, Saint Diomedes appeared in a dream to the head of the monastery, ordering him to go out to the gate, call Basil by name, and bring him into the monastery to care for him; for he had been divinely designated as emperor and would be the restorer and expander of his monastery. The monk took this vision to be empty, and delaying not at all, he gave [himself] back to sleep. But when the same dream was presented to him a second time, he, as it was...

^A sluggish and sleepy, did not report it; but seeing the martyr for a third time, [he saw him] no longer counseling him pleasantly and gently, but rather threatening him most severely and appearing to bring lashes upon him if he did not promptly attend to what was said. Then, terrified, he awoke, shook off his lethargy, and took his stand at the gate, calling out according to the divine command: "Basil!" And he immediately [replied]: "Here I am, sir; what do you command your servant?" Leading him inside the monastery, the monk deemed him worthy of proper care and attention, and bestowed upon him every kindness. Then, having secured his promise of silence and to keep the mystery to himself and not disclose it to anyone, he revealed the martyr’s prophecy to him, and urged him to remember himself and the monastery after the outcome of events.

But Basil, as though rejecting the matter as beyond him, and requesting rather that the hegumen procure for him some lord among the illustrious men, the hegumen very gladly performed this service for him, and commended Basil to Theophilus (he was a kinsman of the Emperor Michael and of Bardas the Caesar, and because of his shortness of stature was called by the diminutive name Theophilitzes), who used this monastery familiarly. This Theophilitzes was accustomed to seek out for himself always those servants who were noble, of elegant form, and excellent in strength, and to adorn them with silken garments and other attire. Having ^C inserted Basil among them, when he saw that he excelled the rest considerably in strength of mind and body, he created him protostrator. And Basil, always reaching for higher things, each day increased the love for himself in his master's mind, and stirred up admiration for himself by his virtues: for he was prompt and spirited in action, and swift and capable of executing whatever was commanded.

Meanwhile, his mother, desiring to know how her son's journey had succeeded and what end to his labors he had met with, while she was anguished in mind, imagined in her sleep that she saw in her courtyard a great plant, like a cypress-tree, standing, gleaming with golden leaves, and having golden branches and a golden trunk, upon which her son Basil was sitting. When she awoke, she proposed this dream to a certain religious woman. The woman told her to be of good heart on her son's account, and interpreting the power of the dream, announced that he would become Emperor of the Romans. Because of this, his mother, having added this to the previous arguments for her son's future happiness, ceased to be anxious for him, and, joyful in spirit, cherished supreme hopes for her son.

It happened at that time that Theophilus, Basil's master, was sent into the Peloponnese for the sake of public business; Basil also went along with him, offering his ^D services—

^A performing the duty assigned to him. When they arrived in Achaia, Theophilus entered the church of the Apostle Andrew, the first-called, to pray. Basil did not go in with him at that time, as he was, it seems, occupied with his own duties. Later, however, he too, fulfilling his duties to the Apostle and finding an opportunity, entered the church alone. A certain monk, who had devoted his entire life to the pursuit of virtue, was presiding over the holy sanctuary of the Apostle. When Theophilus entered with such a large retinue, this monk neither received him nor rose to greet him, nor did he deign to address him with even the slightest greeting. But when Basil entered afterward, alone, as has been said, he alone rose to meet him as if for someone of superior rank, ^B and offered him the acclamation customarily paid to emperors. When some of those present saw this, they reported it to the woman who held the highest rank in those parts due to her character and nobility, who was called Danielis after her husband. She, being no stranger to the monk's discernment—nor, indeed, to the fact that he was gifted with prophecy—did not treat the report lightly; but as soon as she heard it, she called the monk and addressed him with reproachful words: "For such a long time, Father," she said, "you have been known to me as a spiritual friend, and you know that I am distinguished among many in this region, yet you have never even risen to greet me when you saw me, nor have you prayed for me. Furthermore, you have never accorded such kindness to my son or my grandson. How is it, then, that now, upon seeing a man of low estate, a stranger and a pauper making his way through life, you stood up and honored him as an emperor?" "I did not see the man as one of the common crowd," the monk replied, "but as one destined by God to govern the Roman empire, chosen by Christ for this purpose—it was for this reason that I stood up and offered him an acclamation; for to those whom God has honored, the honor of men is indeed rightfully due."

Theophilus, having completed his tasks, was again making his way toward the Queen of Cities, but Basil, having been seized by physical illness, was left behind there. After receiving the appropriate care and recovering his health, he prepared for his journey home. The aforementioned woman, Danielis, summoned him and bestowed upon him gifts and great favors, seeking nothing from him in return except to be bound by the bond ^C of spiritual brotherhood [(70)] to her son, John. Basil, looking to his own low estate and considering the illustrious position of the woman, declined the request as being too much for him; but, yieldng to her repeated entreaties, he finally accepted her intent. Having attained her desire, the woman decided not to conceal the will of God, but to make it public and—^D

[index: entries preserved]

Xylandrus and Goar's Note

to reveal the great works of God, in whatever ways they are foretold and made manifest. Taking Basil aside, therefore, she said, “Know, my child, that God intends to set you upon a high watchtower of empire and to appoint you lord of all the earth. When this prophecy of mine is fulfilled, I ask nothing else of you but that you be benevolent and kind to me and to my children.” Basil promised that, should the outcome confirm this prophecy, he would endeavor to make her mistress of all that region. And having consulted with Danielis, he returned to Constantinople to his master. Furthermore, in Macedonia, he bought many estates with the money he had acquired there, and he ensured that he provided his own people with an abundance of all things. He, however, remained with his master and served him.

^B On a certain day, Antigonus, the leader of the schools, the son of Caesar Bardas, having prepared a sumptuous banquet, invited his father, the Caesar, to the place of honor, and he brought with him many others of his kin, friends, and acquaintances; there were also present among them Bulgarian friends who happened at that time to be living in Byzantium. Theophilus, Basil’s master, was not absent from the feast, as he too was a relative of the Caesar. During the drinking, they boasted of a certain athlete of theirs whom they had with them, a man proud of his bodily strength; and they arrogantly bragged that there was no one who would dare to grapple with him. In the middle of the banquet, Theophilus said to the Caesar, “If it pleases your Majesty, I have a servant who can contend with that glorious Bulgarian of yours. For it would be a great disgrace to the Romans if he were to return to Bulgaria undefeated.” ^C When the Caesar approved of the proposal and ordered the young man (this was Basil) to be brought forth, the patrician Constantine, father of Thomas the logothete, who took great interest in Basil—being himself of Armenian stock—seeing that the place where they were to wrestle was damp, and fearing that Basil might fall because of its slipperiness, covered the ground with dust and sawdust made from sawn wood. When this had been done, Basil grappled with the Bulgarian and, having pressed and constrained him like a small child, he raised him up as easily as a bundle of hay or a tuft of wool, and threw him onto the table. This event filled the Romans with joy and the Bulgarians with shame. From that day on, Basil’s fame spread throughout the city, and he began to be in everyone’s mouth and admiration, having already become a man of note.

^D But yet another thing occurred which further increased the man’s glory. Emperor Michael had a horse, unbridled and stubborn, which, in its stature, speed, and beauty, surpassed all that had ever previously been admired. If it were ever set free from its bonds or released in any other way, it could be caught and reined in only with the greatest difficulty and the utmost labor of the grooms. The emperor would ride this horse when going out to hunt; and when he had struck a hare with his calamus, he would leap down from the horse so that he might

^A slaughter the hare. The horse, being let loose and caught, began to prance and leap; and although many grooms and nobles and others of the emperor’s retinue ran together, there was no one who could hold the horse, so that the emperor, becoming enraged, ordered that if it were caught, its hind legs should be cut off. But the Caesar entreated and begged the emperor not to destroy in vain such a virtuous horse for one single offense. While they were thus deliberating, Basilius, running to his lord, said, "If I should ride up to the imperial horse on my own, and leaping from my own become mounted upon it, would the emperor be angry with me on account of the royal cloak ^B or the purple bridle?" Theophilus whispered this into the ear of the emperor, and he ordered it to be done. Basilius skillfully caught up to the emperor's horse with his own, and having brought his horse into a line parallel with that of the emperor, he jumped at once and leaped onto the imperial horse, evoking great wonder in those who were present and watching. The emperor, admiring his courage and wisdom, at once took him away from Theophilitzes and numbered him among his own ^C grooms. He loved him exceedingly, and by small advancements promoted him to the rank of protostrator. Once, when the emperor was hunting at the Philopatium, the protostrator was riding in front of him, carrying the imperial barducium on his belt. When a disturbance and cry were raised by the crowd, a huge wolf sprang out from the woods. Basilius, pursuing it, threw the imperial barducium at it, and striking the beast in the middle of its head, he cleft it in two. The Caesar was riding behind the emperor according to custom, and having seen what happened, he is said to have whispered to one of his familiars: "My friend, I think we may consider this man to be the total destruction of our family." They say that Leo the philosopher ^D also prophesied this to him, having marked out the man by certain signs, naming him, and pointing him out with his finger, saying that he would be the destruction of the emperor's whole house. From that time on, the Caesar always laid snares for Basilius, but attempted such things in vain; for it is very difficult to rescind what has once been decreed by divine Providence.

^A Once, when the emperor had gone to the Armamentum for the sake of hunting, and after the hunt was dining with his mother Theodora and certain of his relatives and intimate acquaintances, the protostrator was also summoned by the emperor’s command. The queen looked upon him with increasing frequency, scrutinizing and observing the circumstances of the man. Having recognized in him a certain mark and sign, she was suddenly seized by vertigo and, fainting, fell to the ground. The emperor was troubled at this, as were those around him; water and fragrant perfumes were immediately brought, with which they began to sprinkle the queen and recall her from her state of collapse. Having with difficulty recovered and dispelled the darkness, she was asked by her son and emperor what was the cause that had brought this affliction upon her. Barely coming to herself, she answered her son thus: "The one, my child, whom you call Basilius is the ruin of our race; for I saw in him a sign once foretold to me by your father, upon seeing which I grew dizzy and fell to the ground." The emperor, on the one hand by dissuasive words and on the other by sworn assurances, led his mother away from her fear, restoring her to her former composure and consoling her, saying, "Know, my mother and queen, that this man is a noble person, of insurmountable strength and incomparable nobility of soul, faithful to our interests and kindly disposed, and in no way harmful to us." And so, for that time, Basilius escaped this injury of fortune.

^B There was at that time a cubicularius to the emperor, a Scythian by birth, a eunuch named Damianus, who had been honored with the dignity of patrician. He would criticize the emperor’s actions as being not entirely appropriate, especially those of Bardas the Caesar. It came to pass that the emperor, who was a man who was otherwise too dull and sluggish to take charge of affairs, was at length annoyed and began to rescind and correct certain of the acts of Bardas. The Caesar, unable to bear this, secretly attacked Damianus and, by means of many slanders and feigned charges, so alienated the emperor’s mind from him that he abrogated the office of cubicularius from him. With Damianus removed, the office of cubicularius was vacant for some time. But although the Caesar and his associates attempted to set one man after another over it, the providence of God, which secretly governs affairs by its own will, rendered every cunning and craftiness void. For some time later, the emperor appointed Basilius as cubicularius, honoring him also with the rank of patrician; and he united him in marriage to a woman who surpassed all her peers in beauty of form and modesty, a daughter most renowned for her prudence and nobility, of the house of the Martinakioi. ^C This having been done, and the emperor’s love for Basilius subsequently increasing, Bardas, seeing these things and being goaded by envy and anxious about the future, often said to those by whose urgings he had been moved to remove Damianus: "Having obeyed your wicked counsels, I have driven out a fox and brought in a lion in his place, who will devour us all at once."

^A After the emperor Michael had set out against the Cretans with Bardas Caesar, his uncle, and Bardas began to handle affairs with greater arrogance, little by little offending the emperor and giving cause for suspicion to those around him, when they reached the Gardens (the Gardens is the name of a place on the coast, where the Meander River empties into the sea), the emperor and his confidants held consultations there, so that they might not be preempted and suffer rather than act. Having hastened, they killed Bardas, as our account has explicitly stated above, while he was embracing the emperor's feet. This took place on the first day of April, in the fourteenth indiction. Upon the murder of Bardas, the emperor immediately broke off the expedition and prepared to return to the capital. Having returned to Byzantium, since he lacked offspring of his own, he adopted Basil and raised him to the rank of magistros. Symbatius, the logothete of the drome, who was the son-in-law of Bardas Caesar, could not bear this out of envy; he feigned that he could not live in the imperial city and requested and obtained the government of the Thrakesion Theme. ^B A short time passed, and the empire was governed perilously, for Michael was intent on matters other than the administration of the state, and his futility and folly became openly apparent after the death of Bardas. For Bardas, as one who was a colleague of the emperor, had watched over the republic and, being intent on its administration, had hidden Michael's sloth through his own industry and diligence. With Bardas removed and the entire administration of the empire resting upon Michael alone, it became clearly evident what an inept and sluggish man he was for handling affairs of state. Therefore, there were frequent complaints from the subjects against the emperor, and neither the senate nor the citizens approved of his actions, and the army itself was growing restless and agitated. When Michael was informed of all this by his closest associates, realizing how unfit he was to govern such a great empire and fearing sedition, he decided to take on a colleague in the affairs and rule. And since, as we said above, he had adopted Basil a short time before, and knew that he was superior to most in both bravery and prudence and capable of filling the void in the steering of the cosmic ship—and, moreover, being urged by supreme power to do this very thing—he adorned Basil with imperial glory and honor and anointing, on the holy and sacred day of Pentecost, in the famous church of the Holy Wisdom, having made a public procession, and he placed the imperial crown upon Basil on the twenty-sixth day of May in the fourteenth indiction. ^C When Symbatius learned of this, he took it very poorly, and having found as his partner in crime Peganes the patrician (this man was strategos of the Opsikion), they plotted a rebellion. They praised Michael the emperor with favorable voices, so that they might win over the crowds and not appear to be raising their hands against their sovereign, but they slandered Basil and attacked him with countless ^D

^A insults. These things were done in the summer. But when winter set in, it dissolved their confederacy, the leaders of this recklessness having sought their own safety in flight. Symbatius entered the "Broad Rock" (which is an exalted and most strongly fortified castle in Asia), and Peganes seized Cotyaeium. But after a short time, they were overcome in battle and brought in chains to the emperor; they were blinded, and Symbatius had his right hand amputated, while Peganes had his nose cut off, and they were sent into exile.

The nomination of Basil was pleasing to all subjects of the Roman Empire, as they longed to see a man sitting at the helm of the state who, having experienced a private fortune, would not be ignorant of how the humble are treated by the powerful. Furthermore, the government of Michael was irksome, being altogether too dissolute and given to nothing but banquets, gluttony, chariot racing, buffoons, and those other trifles mentioned in passing above, ^B by which he emptied the imperial treasuries upon catamites, harpists, female dancers, and a whole crowd of impure men, to the great exhaustion of their numbers. From which the affairs of the Romans were constrained, and he himself, being pinched by scarcity and not knowing what to do, devised unjust schemes to procure money to remedy his needs, and laid impious hands upon things that in no way pertained to him. Moreover, with a company of nefarious and obscene catamites, he mocked sacred things, and there was no vice so unspeakable that he and his cohorts did not perpetrate it in word and deed. When Basil tried to turn him away from such unlawful acts and attempted this on many occasions, he not only achieved nothing, but instead provoked Michael against himself; thus he was assailed by plots from him, as we have explained above. Therefore, being terrified by the emperor's constant machinations against him, he finally decided to preempt the evil, and having worked out the matter with some of his own intimates, kinsmen, and soldiers of the palace guard, he killed him in the palace of the holy great martyr Mamas.

This was the end that Michael’s soft and dissolute life had. Upon his removal, Basil was immediately declared emperor, ^C first by the partners of the conspiracy, then by the senate, the imperial cohorts, the entire army, and the urban multitude. As soon as he took up the empire, he summoned the senate and the magistrates, opened the imperial treasury, and found therein nothing left of so great a quantity of money except the three centenaria mentioned before. Seeking out the ledgers of expenditures and finding them in the possession of an old eunuch, when he learned where that money had been distributed, he proposed the matter to the nobility for deliberation. Although they had decreed with one voice that those who had received the money through evil means ought to restore it to the treasury, he himself mitigated the sentence and ordered half to be returned. In this way, three hundred centenaria of gold were recovered ^D for the treasury. Among those receiving

the king’s public procession to the great church of the Sophia of the Word of God, he distributed much money to the multitude upon his return, not from the public funds, but from what belonged to him privately; for a vast and unexpected quantity of money had come to him, having appeared from treasures hidden in the earth. There was also found in the [Eidikon] ^A a not inconsiderable amount of gold, which the preceding emperor Michael had collected, having melted down that fabled plane tree, and the two solid gold griffins, and the two hammered lions, and the solid gold organ ^B and other various gold works from the table, as well as the imperial and Augustal robes, which he intended to use for his own personal indulgences; but death overtook him, and these things passed to Basil. But these things happened later.

However, having just embarked upon his reign, Basil first appointed to offices those who were said to be entirely removed from accepting gifts and who were testified to keep their own hands pure from every form of profit; and then he concerned himself with justice, and strove that equality under the law be exercised for those governed, and that the poorer ^C people not be oppressed by the rich. Everywhere he issued decrees ordering that injustice be completely eradicated. He also appointed judges, honoring them with food allowances and all kinds of distinctions, and ordering them to spend the day in court and judge the causes of litigants; he designated suitable places for them, the Magnaura, and the so-called Hippodrome, and the so-called Chalke, which, laboring under the fault of time and threatening to fall at any moment, he repaired and renovated. He also ordered ^D food for the poorer ones who had lawsuits, so that they would not be forced by need to abandon their cases. He even devoted himself to this task whenever he was free from war and from hearing ambassadors; and, descending to the [Genikon], where taxes and tributes are collected in the name of the state, he took care that nothing should be unjustly exacted by anyone, and he gave aid to those who had suffered injustice. They say that he, when

he had descended into the aforementioned Diatribe (a place where judicial proceedings were conducted) and found no one complaining, suspected that those who wished to appeal to him were being kept away by certain men; and he sent satellites throughout the city to inquire if any were in need of the emperor's aid. When they returned and said that they had found no one at all, he shed a tear of joy and gave thanks to God. ^B Observing further that occasion for wrongdoing was given to wicked men by the fact that the numbers—by which, for example, the *semissis*, *sextans*, *uncia*, and similar ones are designated—were written according to a custom received from antiquity, he ordered that, instead of such symbols, letters should be used which even the uneducated could read; and he himself provided the expenses for the paper, the letters, and the scribes from his own purse.

He also corrected ecclesiastical affairs, driving from the patriarchate, by the authority of a council gathered for this purpose, Photius, who had thrust himself into it; and he commanded the throne to remain vacant until God should restore him who had been legitimately created patriarch. And he led back into the place of Photius, Ignatius, who had been unjustly expelled by Bardas; and thus he restored tranquility to the Churches of God. ^C But, seeing that the civil laws also possessed much confusion and obscurity, he took pains to work a suitable remedy for them. He therefore intended to abrogate the useless laws, and, by excising these, to purify the multitude of good ones. But his death interrupted this project; the matter was subsequently completed by his son.

In the first year of the reign of Basil, a stratagem and conspiracy was formed against him, with the patricians George and Symbatius as the authors. When the crime was discovered and they were convicted of the deed, they were deprived of their eyes; the remaining multitude of the conspirators was led about in a procession of mockery and driven into exile. Basil, in order to ward off plots, crowned with the diadem his sons, Constantine and Leo, and in the third year of his reign, Alexander as well; ^D the youngest of all, Stephen, he inscribed into the college of ecclesiastics. And his four daughters he consecrated to the monastery of the holy martyr Euphemia.

Having thus, as it seemed, settled domestic affairs conveniently enough, he also decided to undertake an expedition against the enemies of the Roman Empire. And since he discovered that the number of soldiers had been diminished by the former emperor Michael, because he had cut off their stipends and rations, he filled the cohorts by enlisting recruits, and led them against the Barbarians.

^A The first expedition was against the city of Tephrice, which Crysochir commanded, a man of praised bravery and cunning, who harassed the Roman state with frequent raids. When he did not stand against the approaching Romans, but kept himself shut within the walls, Basil ravaged his entire territory and besieged Tephrice, thinking he would gain possession of it through a long siege. But when he perceived it to be fortified on every side, and the hope of taking it by siege vanished, since all the provisions that had been in that region had already been consumed, he broke off the siege, took by force the neighboring castles of Tephrice, Abaram, Coptum, Spatham, and many others; and led his army away from there with ample spoils and trophies.

^B When the entire region around Tephrice had been ravaged and laid waste, the neighboring city of the Ishmaelites, known by the name of Tauras, allied with Tephrice, fearing danger, sent envoys to seek peace from Basil and to be inscribed in the alliance with the Romans. The emperor received them kindly and granted their request. Curterius, an Armenian by birth, also joined the emperor; he held the city of Locana and had constantly plagued the borders of the Romans with his incursions. He surrendered himself, the city, and the people subject to him to the emperor.

In the meantime, Basil sent a band of selected soldiers against Samosata and what is called Zapetra with clearly prosperous effort; for, penetrating through the narrow passes at the first entry, they seized the city by surprise, and having carried out a great slaughter, they carried off immense loot; and many Romans, in whose bonds they had long been held captive, were then released. Having ravaged the surrounding places with fire and laid Samosata to waste, the army crossed the Euphrates with the same impulse; and having ravaged the more distant region, with many captives abducted and a great amount of booty prepared, it returned unharmed to the emperor, who at that time had his camp at the river Atzarnuc.

^C Thence the emperor moved with his entire army, marching towards Melitene, which was unaware. Having approached the Euphrates, and finding it in the summer season overflowing and quite impassable, he crossed it by bridging the river. And having harmed and ravaged much of the country, and having captured the fortress called Rapsacium, he sent a part of the army to ravage the country situated between Arsinis and the Euphrates; these, traversing it with incredible speed, took and laid waste what is called Carcinium and Glaschon and Aman and Mures and Abdela. ^D But he himself, attacking Melitene, which at that time flourished with a store of valiant Barbarians, as he approached the walls, met hostile Barbarian cohorts, advancing ferociously and with raised clamor. Having engaged with them audaciously, he himself standing in the first line, he repelled the enemies; and likewise from the rest

^A of the phalanx, they turned to flight those standing against them; and pursuing them, killing them even up to the city, so that the ground in between was covered and filled with corpses, and not a few were captured alive, while the rest ignominiously shut themselves inside the walls. The emperor therefore decided to attempt the siege of the place with siege engines; but seeing that it was well-fortified with towers and abounded in defenders, and learning from deserters that it was supplied with a great abundance of provisions and did not fear a long siege, he moved his camp from there and led it against the territory of the Manichaeans. On that journey, he reduced to ashes everything that he passed, and among these he burned and razed the fortresses called Argauthum, Cutacium, Stephanicum, and Arachacum. Having accomplished these things, he brought his troops back to Constantinople and dismissed with honors those soldiers whose virtue in that war had been outstanding. ^B Having returned to the city himself, when he had crossed into Thrace, he made a public procession from the Hebdomon through the Golden Gate, and led a most magnificent triumph, the entire populace following with voices of thanksgiving for the victory and auspicious acclamations, as far as the temple of the Wisdom of God, which is of the same essence with God. Having given thanks to God there, and been crowned by Ignatius the patriarch (81), he returned to the palace; and when he had rejoiced a little with his wife and children, he set himself once again to governing the state.

The year that followed this, when the leader of the Manichaeans, Chrysochir, had made an incursion into the territory of the Romans with a great army and was plundering it, the emperor sent against him, as was his custom, the commander of the Scholae. The latter, having taken the entire Roman army with him, because he feared to decide the final outcome of the matter in a pitched battle, followed the enemy for a time at a distance, and prevented them from launching raids hither and thither, and did not allow them to scatter freely through the countryside. ^C When, therefore, the Barbarian, seeing some things and achieving others, was already mindful of his return home and had begun that journey with abundant plunder, the Domestic of the Scholae assigned two of the generals, the one in charge of the Charsianon (82) and the one in charge of the Armeniacs, with the force under them, to follow each one after Chrysochir as far as the place called Bathyrrhax, and from there, if he should launch his soldiers against the Roman borders, to inform him of this; but if he should proceed straight home from that place, to let him go and return to him. Evening then having arrived, and the Barbarian army having reached Bathyrrhax and having encamped at the foothills of the mountain, while the aforementioned generals had occupied the higher positions of the same and were observing the future, a dispute arose among them concerning precedence, and a rivalry among the soldiers of the two themes. ^D As the contention grew, and each army [ascribed] to itself the claim of superiority in courage...

^A a certain man of the Armeniac system is said to have spoken as follows: "To what purpose, fellow soldiers, do we behave with unseemly insolence, when it is possible to demonstrate an indisputable virtue through deeds? The enemy is not far off, and it is possible to reveal the bravest by our actions." The generals, having heard these words and recognizing the oath of the men regarding their valor, and having also observed the advantage of the ground—that they were about to attack the enemies who were situated in a hollow place from a higher position—divided the forces into two parts. It was decided that the picked men, to the number of six hundred, along with the generals themselves, should attack the barbarian army, while the rest, though not many in number, should remain on the high ground, simulating a large host. They arranged the matter so that when the former attacked the enemy, the latter should immediately raise a terrible shout with great applause and sounding trumpets, the mountains echoing in response. ^B Having arranged these things, they arrived at the enemy's camp secretly during the night, before the sun could light up the mountain peaks. Singing a paean with a loud voice and shouting "The Cross has conquered," they attacked the enemy, while the others simultaneously emitted a military shout from the mountain. The Barbarians, suddenly terrified by the unexpected event, having neither the opportunity to gather together nor to see how great the approaching multitude was, nor the ability to consult at once on any measure for their own safety, took to flight. As the Romans pursued them, calling upon the generals, the regiments, and the commander of the Schools who were not with them—just as had been commanded to them—and as for those fleeing, a greater fear and confusion was driven into them; it resulted in the pursuit extending to thirty miles, and the intervening space being covered with an infinite number of enemy corpses.

Then indeed did the shameless Chrysochir, fleeing with a few of his followers, when he perceived that a certain Roman named Pulades, whom he had once taken captive at Tephrica and whom he had held as an acquaintance and friend because of his wit and charm, was pursuing him, look back and say, "What evil have I done to you, O wretched Pulades, that you pursue me thus madly, desiring to kill me?" But he, ^C quickly taking him up, said, "I trust in God, patron, to return to you this day, as is fitting, the reward for your kindnesses." He went on then, like one thunderstruck and deranged in his mind, while the other followed with youthful boldness. But the fugitive, having encountered a deep ditch, and his horse not allowing him to jump over it, was struck in the side from behind by Pulades, who had caught up with a pike, ^D and, impatient of the pain, he fell from his horse. A certain man named Diaconitzes was present. He immediately leaped down from his own horse and undertook to care for Chrysochir, s[index: entries preserved]

setting his head upon his own knees and lamenting what had occurred. Meanwhile others came up to Pulades and, leaping from their horses, cut off the head of Chrysochir, who was already dying and expiring. They also bound Diaconitzes and numbered him among the other captives. Immediately, then, ^A tidings of victory were sent to the Emperor, with which the head of Chrysochir was also brought. With the fall of Chrysochir, the whole flourishing prowess of Tephrice withered away. And thus the affairs of Tephrice reached such an end, and in one hour the multitude of the Manichaeans, which had been raised to a height of great glory, vanished like smoke.

After the patriarch Ignatius had departed this life, the Emperor restored the episcopate to Photius. ^B At that time a conspiracy against the Emperor was reported by one of the conspirators, the leader of the crime being the patrician Romanus, surnamed Curcuas. He was one of those who had conspired. The conspirators were seized, the eyes of Curcuas were put out, and the rest were beaten, shorn, and sent into exile. The same Emperor also recovered the fortress of Lulos, which was occupied by the Saracens. The fortress of Melous also surrendered to him and acknowledged him as its master. Furthermore, he himself destroyed Cameia, the metropolis of the Manichaeans.

At the beginning of spring, Basil, taking with him his eldest son Constantine, undertook an expedition into Syria; and having occupied Caesarea, which is the first city of Cappadocia near Argaios, ^C he made his camp there and trained the cohorts in the discipline of the ranks. He then sent out a portion of the army to scout, following them himself. Those who had been sent to scout traversed the deserts with great speed and sacked the fortress called Xylocastron and the other called Phyrocastron, and took their inhabitants captive. Terrified by this, those who held the fortress of Phalacron willingly surrendered themselves to the Romans. But Ababdeles, son of Ambron, the emir of Anazarbos, as long as Basil was far off, raged in a barbaric manner; but when the Emperor drew near, he joined himself to the company of the Melitenians and consulted his own safety by fleeing with them. ^D The Emperor destroyed Casaman, Carban, Ardala, and Eremosycaea. At that time, that famous Simas, son of Tael, who had been accustomed to waylay the borders of the Romans while dwelling in the narrow passes of Mount Taurus, fled to the Emperor. After these things, the Emperor crossed the river called Onopnicken and the Sardos with his army, and arrived at Cucusus, and having cleared the thickets there, he made the impassable places accessible for travel and brought under his own power the places there that were suited for ambushes. Thence he set out for Callipolis and Padasea, and when he encountered certain difficult precipices on his passage, he comforted his men and with a slow step

^A he marched at the head of the army. Having crossed the passes of the Taurus, he attacked Germanicia. Since all the defenders had shut themselves within the walls and no one dared to come to hand-to-hand combat, he plundered and burned the suburbs and came to the city of Adapa. And because the townspeople here also were defending themselves by means of the walls, he pillaged and burned all that was outside the city; he captured the small town which they called Geron and gave it over to the soldiers for plunder. Finally, he attacked their walls with siege engines and brought a wide variety of devices against them, keeping the siege active, for he had no small hope of taking the city due to the great weight of the forces he had with him. Finding those inside stout-hearted and bearing the assaults fearlessly, he granted a truce to the war and inquired of those inside upon what they relied, that they were so untroubled in spirit while their homeland was on the verge of destruction. A certain one of the elders answered that they were certain the city would not be captured by him at present, but by another man, related to him by lineage, named Constantine, and that therefore they were not terrified by this siege. When the Emperor showed them his son and said that he was called Constantine, that interlocutor replied that this was not the Constantine who would be the destroyer of this city, but someone else, who would come long after his time, from the posterity of Basil. ^B Irritated by these words, and wishing to prove by his deeds that this prophecy was false, the Emperor threw himself into the siege with greater force than before; but when he saw that all were growing weary without achieving anything, and at the same time a great frost arose which was afflicting those who were living out in the open, he broke off the siege and led his men home. While returning, he ordered the great multitude of captives, which had become a burden, to be slaughtered by the sword. Accordingly, having raised his camp, he pursued the journey he had begun toward the city, having struck great terror into the Agarenes. Since he had foreseen that they would set ambushes for him in the narrow passes, he sent his own soldiers to appropriate locations and captured many of the ambuscaders alive. Because of these events, the spirit of Abdelomeler, who was in charge of those regions, was so broken that he sent envoys and begged for mercy and peace. The Emperor consented, and thereafter had him as a voluntary ally against his own kinsmen. Then, traveling across Mount Argæus, he came to Cæsarea, and there received news of success from Colonia and Mesopotamia, along with spoils and many captives of the Curti and Saracens, all of whom he ordered to be put to the sword; for the army was already laden with Syrian and Tephrican spoils, and the Emperor did not wish to drag along with him a useless crowd of captives. When he reached Medæum, he distributed prizes to those whose bravery in the war had been ^C exceptional, and having dismissed the soldiers to winter quarters, he himself with an unencumbered retinue ^D proceeded to Constantinople.

^C And there, according to custom, he received the crown of victory from the patriarch, and the people congratulated him with festive songs.

Tephrica having been abolished in this way, the strength of the Tarsians began to flourish and grow, and the fringes of the Roman borders were again gravely oppressed by them. Against them, that Andreas the Scythian, the general, often acted valiantly, and killed or captured many of those who were raiding for plunder; and so the emperor honored him with the rank of patrician and promoted him to the leadership of the schools. ^D Then indeed, Andreas, having greater authority and power, often met the forces from Melitene and Tarsus in pitched battles and was victorious. And at one time the amir of Tarsus, having sent a letter to Andreas full of haughty arrogance and impious blasphemies, declared among other things: "I shall test whether the Son of Mary and his Mother are going to be of any help to you when I lead my forces out against you." Andreas, having received this abusive letter, hung it upon the icon of the Mother of God, saying: "See, O Mother of the Word and of God, and you too, her Son and God, how that barbarian and braggart has insulted and raged against you and your chosen people." Having said this, he took up the Roman forces and marched against Tarsus. And when he arrived at the place called Podandis, he encountered the opposing enemy, and a battle having been joined, he produced a great slaughter of the barbarian multitude, the amir himself being the first to be killed, and only a few barely escaped by flight to Tarsus. ^A Having buried his own men and gathered the bodies of the enemy into one place, and having raised a great mound as a trophy and memorial of the victory for those who would come after, he returned to his own territory with many captives and abundant spoils. He also wrote to the emperor informing him of the victory. But as envy is accustomed to act, wicked men slandered the officer to the emperor, saying it would have been easy for him to take Tarsus had he not wasted the opportunity through cowardice and delay. By these calumnies, repeatedly inculcated, the emperor was persuaded to strip Andreas of his command. In his place he appointed one called Stypeiotes, who boasted ferociously that he would immediately occupy Tarsus and promised many other things. He, therefore, immediately led an army against Tarsus, using no imperial craftiness and no counsel whatsoever. ^B And when he approached Tarsus, he encamped at a place called Chrysobolon, fortifying it neither with a proper trench nor with sufficient sentries. The Tarsians, having observed his negligence, attacked him by night, using the following stratagem: being few in number—as they were after the defeat by Andreas—and not being strong enough for a pitched battle, they gathered many horses and tied dry hides to their tails, and at the same time they drove them towards various parts of the Roman camp; they themselves followed behind, sounding trumpets and beating drums, and with drawn swords they leaped into the middle of the camp. ^C Great panic consequently arose in the Roman army, and through the tumult, men and horses...

were confounded and fell over one another, and it so happened that the Barbarians prevailed and inflicted countless slaughter upon the Romans, most of whom were ignominiously trampled and suffocated by their own side. In this paradoxical way, the men of Tarsus, having prevailed and cut down the Roman strength, celebrated with barbarian clamor and noise.

This was the state of affairs in the East. Now we shall set forth how matters stood in the West. Since the Emperor Michael had neglected these as well, just as he had everything else, almost all of Italy that pertained to the Roman Empire and most parts of Sicily had been conquered by the forces of the Carthaginians and rendered tributary to the Barbarians. ^B Furthermore, the Scythians who lived in Pannonia, Dalmatia, and the regions beyond, namely the Chrobati, the Serbs, the Zachlumi, the Terbouniotes, the Canalites, the Diocletians, and the Reutani, had shaken off the yoke of the Roman Empire, to which they had long been subject, and had established themselves as autonomous. Taking advantage of the occasion, the Saracens from Carthage attacked them, and having appointed as commanders Soldanus, Sabas, and Calphus—who were acknowledged to be pre-eminent in military experience among their own tribes—they sent a fleet of thirty-six warships against Dalmatia. By these, various cities of the Dalmatians were taken, such as Butama, Rusa, and lower Decatera. ^C As matters were proceeding successfully for the Saracens, they also came to the metropolis of the whole nation, which is called Ragusium, and besieged it for a long time, while those inside defended the city valiantly. When, after long suffering, the Ragusians were driven to the ultimate extremity, they sent envoys to the Emperor, pressed by necessity, beseeching him to aid them lest they fall into the power of the enemies of Christ. Before these envoys could arrive, the Emperor Michael had died, and the envoys encountered Basil. Having listened to them attentively and filled with compassion for their plight, he equipped a fleet of one hundred ships and placed in command of them the patrician Niketas, a man outstanding in experience and wisdom beyond most, the drungarios ^D of the fleet surnamed Oryphas, and sent him against the enemies. The Saracens, whom we mentioned had persisted in the siege of Ragusium, learned through some deserters of the embassy of the Ragusians to the Emperor. Despairing of capturing the city quickly and fearing the assistance they expected to come from the Emperor, they lifted the siege. Sailing toward Italy—which is now called Lombardy—they occupied the fortress of Bari and settled there. Then, gradually attacking and seizing all the surrounding territories, they obtained the whole of Lombardy, and at one time, every region belonging to it as far as Rome itself, formerly most glorious.

^A

The Chrobati, the Serbs, and the other Scythian tribes mentioned above, having observed what had occurred in Dalmatia through Roman intervention, sent envoys to the Emperor requesting to come under the yoke of Roman authority. The Emperor, deeming their request reasonable, received them humanely, and they all returned to Roman rule, having been permitted to have rulers of their own race and kin. But as the Hagarenes who had been besieging Ragusa were still scouring Italy and continuously ravaging it, the Emperor, pondering how to rid himself of them, and knowing that the fleet under Ooryphas did not have sufficient strength for this task, sent an embassy to ^B Dolicho [Louis], the King of Francia, and to the Pope of Rome, requesting them to provide support for his forces and to join them in battle against the godless. He also ordered the aforementioned tribes of the Slavs, as well as the inhabitants of Ragusa, to assist in the endeavor. When all these had gathered, and a great force had been assembled—since the Roman admiral was also endowed with military expertise—Bari was quickly taken. The King of Francia took the Soldan and the Hagarenes who served under him as captives and led them away to his home territory. Such was the outcome that the first Western expedition of Basil received.

The Soldan, however, having been taken prisoner by the king and brought to Capua, was never seen to laugh by anyone for two full years. Therefore, the king promised a gold reward to whomever could make the Soldan break into laughter. Someone then reported to the king that he had seen the Soldan laughing, and produced a witness to the event. Summoning the Soldan, the king asked him the reason for the change. He replied, "I was gazing at a wagon and observing its wheels, how some parts are brought low while others are raised on high, and, perceiving this as an image of the unstable and uncertain happiness of men, I laughed. At the same time, when it came into my mind how we grow proud over such an uncertain matter, and simultaneously judging that it is not impossible for me, just as I have been brought low from a high position, ^C

^A to be raised again to greatness. Upon hearing this, the king, reflecting on his own situation and regarding the man as prudent both because of his former rule, his old age, and his having experienced both good and bad fortune, gave him freedom of speech and dining. But he, being treacherous and crafty, set a trap for the king which would expel him from Capua and procure for himself a return to his own people. For knowing that these two Italian cities, Capua and Beneventum, having been recently acquired by the king, did not maintain firm loyalty toward him but always dreamed of liberty, and not being ignorant that the king was anxious about holding them securely and firmly, he approached the king and said: "I see you always, O king, ^B worrying and considering how you might safely hold these Italian cities, and I come to offer counsel. Know, therefore, O most noble one, that your hold on these cities will never be secure unless you remove their leaders to the lands of the Franks; for by nature those who are enslaved against their will cling to freedom, and when they find an opportunity, they let out what they have been bottling up." The king was pleased by these words and, thinking it to be to his advantage, decided to do so. Chains and shackles were then secretly forged, as if for some other pressing need. Having thus skillfully deceived the king, the Soldanus approached the leaders of the citizens (for he had prepared a familiarity and frequent intercourse with them as well ^C) and said to them: "I wish to disclose something confidential to you, but I fear that if it becomes known, it will cause my destruction and bring you into danger." When they swore to maintain silence and keep what was said unrevealed, he told them that the king intended to send all of you in iron chains to his own country of Frangia, as he judged that he could not otherwise hold your cities securely. As they doubted this and refused to credit the words, seeking a clearer proof of what was said, the Soldanus took one of the leaders and went to the smiths, and ordered him to inquire what was being forged with such great exertion. When he learned that chains and shackles were being prepared, the man went back to his own people and confirmed to them that the words of the Soldanus ^D had proceeded from benevolence toward them and were true and salutary for their cities. Persuaded that the situation was thus, the leaders and councilors of the aforementioned cities sought a way they might defend themselves against the king. And indeed, when he went out hunting one day, they shut the gates against him and no longer allowed him entry. Being unable to accomplish anything immediately, he retreated to his own country. The Soldanus then approached the leaders and demanded the reward for his intelligence; this was that he be allowed to return freely to his own homeland. Having been released, therefore, as if having done them a service, and having reached Carthage and regained his own rule, he campaigned against Capua and Beneventum. Pressing them with a siege, the townspeople sent envoys to the king, seeking forgiveness for their offense and imploring aid. He dismissed them contemptuously, responding that their destruction would be a joy to him. The envoys having returned without success, the besieged, having nowhere to turn,

their resources exhausted by fighting, they sent an envoy to the Roman emperor Basil, imploring him to come to their aid. The emperor agreed, and at once sent the envoy back to encourage his people and announce that sufficiently powerful reinforcements would soon arrive to save them from their peril. On his return, this envoy was captured by the enemy. The Sultan brought him before him and said, "A choice of two paths is offered to you; choose the better one. If you wish to be safe and be rewarded with great gifts, tell those who sent you, within the hearing of all, that the Roman emperor has refused them aid; but if you report the truth, you shall perish instantly." The envoy promised to do as the emir commanded; and when they had approached the walls to within the distance of a bowshot, he requested that the foremost men of the city come out. When they were present, he addressed them as follows: "Although, fathers, certain death hangs over me and the sword is at my throat, yet I will not hide the truth, and I ask that you show grace to my wife and children. For I, masters, although I am now in the hands of the enemy, have fulfilled my embassy, and help sent by the Roman emperor will soon be here. Therefore, stand bravely; for he is coming who will save you, if not me." Having said these things, he was immediately cut into small pieces by the swords of the Sultan’s guards. But the Sultan, fearing the help he knew the emperor would send, dissolved the siege and returned home. From then on, the aforementioned cities remained allies and confederates of the Romans.

[c] About this time, Esman, the emir of Tarsus, elated by his previous victory, fitted out thirty massive ships (the Saracens are accustomed to call these *cumparia*) and set out against the city of Euripus. But because the emperor had foreseen this, the prefect of Greece (this was Eneiates), by the order of the emperor, had led in sufficient forces from all of Greece for the defense of the city and had fortified the walls appropriately, outfitting them with stone-throwing engines and torsion artillery, and in a word, omitting nothing of those things that serve to repulse a siege. When the Tarsian fleet arrived and, approaching the walls, attempted with frequent volleys of darts to drive off those who manned the defenses, the garrison of Euripus, filled with courage, fought for the city with such spirit using stone-throwing machines, artillery, bows, and stones thrown by hand from the walls, that they kept striking down many of the Barbarians day by day. Watching for a favorable wind, they launched their own triremes against the enemy and burned many of the enemy's ships with Greek fire. Disturbed in mind by these events, and knowing meanwhile that many, through greed for money, ^D were reconciled to death...

despise death, the barbarian placed a large shield before the rampart, filled with gold, and promised that he would give this as a prize, along with one hundred select captive virgins, to whoever was the first to scale the wall and grant victory to his kin. When the townspeople saw this, and immediately understood the purpose of the action, they encouraged one another to bravery; once the signal was given, all threw open the city gates and courageously launched an attack against the barbarians. ^A At the first clash, the emir received a lethal wound and fell, and many others were slain along with him, so that the rest turned to flight. As the pursuers pressed hard upon them until they reached their remaining ships, they were slaughtered, and a great slaughter of the barbarians took place; those who were left, filling a few of the ships, fled back to their own lands in disgrace. Such was the end that the Tarsus fleet met with.

Another fleet was raised again from Crete. ^B For Saelus, son of Apochapsus, the lord of Crete, sent Photius, a man of war and a fellow of great energy, against the Romans with twenty-seven *cumparia*, which they are wont to call galleys. Having set out from Crete, he plundered the islands in the Aegean and the coastal regions; he reached as far as Proconnesus in the Hellespont, ravaging everything he encountered and taking captives of whatever he came upon. The patrician Nicetas Oryphas, *drungarius* of the fleet and prefect of the Roman navy, met him with the Roman fleet; having taken charge of the Roman fleet, he engaged in a fierce battle near the mouth of the Aegean at Cardia, and immediately burned twenty of the Cretan vessels with Greek fire. The sword, fire, and water dealt with the men on board; as for those who escaped the danger of the sea battle and the sea itself, they sought safety in flight. But ^C although the Cretans had been so severely crushed, they could not bear to remain quiet, but once more held fast to their maritime affairs; having equipped ships for piracy, they troubled the Peloponnesus and the islands below it, having the aforementioned Photius as their admiral.

Nicetas Oryphas, the patrician leading the Roman fleet, set out against these men as well; having taken advantage of a fair and following wind, he reached the Peloponnesus in a few days and docked at the port of Cenchreae. Learning that the enemy’s ships were plundering the western parts of the Peloponnesus—Methone, Pylos, Patras, and the regions bordering on Corinth—he formed a wise and clever plan. Since he abhorred the idea of circumnavigating the Peloponnesus via Tainaron and Malea, and traversing a thousand miles to no purpose, and thus losing the opportunity to act, he did not wait; that very night, through the isthmus at Corinth, employing a multitude of workers, he transported the ships overland to the sea on the other side. ^D Having put his men aboard, he set to work. And so, while the enemy knew nothing of his movements, he suddenly attacked them…

and having thrown their reasoning into total confusion, he did not allow them to consolidate or to recall their prowess, but immediately forced them to look toward flight. Having set fire to some of the enemy ships and sunk others [p. 582] and having dispatched some of the Barbarians with the sword and sent others to the depths submerged, and having killed the commander of their fleet, he forced the rest to scatter throughout the island. Later, he rounded them up and took them prisoner, subjecting them to various punishments; he flayed the skin from some, especially those who denied the baptism of Christ—saying that he was merely taking from them what they claimed as their own and nothing truly personal—while from others he tore straps of skin from the nape of the neck down to the ankles, to their great pain; others he suspended by ropes and then lowered into cauldrons of boiling pitch, and others he subjected to all manner of different torments. By doing this, he struck fear into them and made them more hesitant to launch expeditions against the Roman Empire.

^B Furthermore, another Barbarian fleet, like a sudden storm, crashed against the Roman Empire from the West. For the governor of Africa, having prepared sixty ships of unusual size, set out against the Roman Empire, and plundering everything in between and taking many captives, he reached the islands of Cephalonia and Zacynthus. Therefore, the man who had succeeded Nicetas in command of the naval forces (this was Nasar) was immediately sent out with a strong fleet of triremes and other fast-sailing vessels. Having made the voyage quickly, and aided by a favorable wind, he reached Methone in a short time. He was, however, prevented from attacking the enemy immediately for the following reason: many of his own sailors, fearing the danger, had gradually begun to slip away secretly. Because of this desertion, the commander was deprived of the speed he required, for he did not judge it prudent to attack the enemy with his ships emptied of their crews. He reported the turn of events to the emperor by fast courier. The emperor, faster than a word can be spoken, captured the deserters and, to strike fear into the rest, decided to inflict a punishment that would appear to be the execution of them; he ordered thirty of the Saracens kept in the praetorium to be taken, their faces to be blackened with soot, and for them to be led into the Hippodrome, beaten with whips, and sent away in disgrace to the Peloponnese as if they were the primary instigators of the flight, there to be killed at the very place from which they had fled. This was indeed done, and the thirty Saracens were impaled as if they were the deserters. Great fear came upon the entire Roman fleet, and they cast off all softness and luxury, and urged their commander to lead them swiftly against the enemy. [p. 583] ^C In the meantime, having made up the deficit in his forces with soldiers from the Peloponnese and having taken the governor of that region as an ally, he readied himself for the attack. The Saracens, already arrogant and judging the Roman fleet to be full of cowardice because of the previous events on the island ^D [alt-version omitted]

^A of those who were burned. As for the ships that had been separated and left, Nasar offered them as a kind of votive gift to God, dedicating them to the church at Methone. The Emperor commended him for his actions and ordered him to proceed further. Nasar, his army being eager because of these initial successes, crossed over to Sicily; he marched against the cities there that were tributary to the Carthaginians, devastating and plundering them, and he captured a great many merchant ships, the cargo of which consisted not only of many precious items but also of abundant oil. They say that oil became so cheap at that time that a pound was sold for an obol.

^B The same fleet was then transported to the regions of Italy and joined the Roman equestrian forces, which were led by Procopius, the Emperor’s protovestiarius, and by Leo the Patrician, the commander of the Thracians and Macedonians, who was called "from Stypeos." He accomplished deeds worthy of praise, for he encountered the fleet that had sailed out again from Africa at the island called Stela (that is, "column"), defeated it, and liberated from the hands of the barbarians all the fortresses which were held by the Agarenes in Calabria and Longibardia, except for a few, restoring them to Roman rule. Thus Nasar and the Roman fleet with him, having obtained so many victories by divine favor, returned to the imperial city with ample spoils and victorious crowns. But the land forces in Longibardia did not entirely escape the envy of fortune, which is accustomed to gnaw at all prosperous things. For even though they had achieved illustrious deeds, because of a contention and rivalry that broke out between the commanders at the very time of the battle itself, the greater general lost his life. For because Leo had some disagreement with Procopius, and before a reconciliation could be reached an opportunity arose to join battle with the enemy, it happened that the man from Stypeos, fighting on the right wing with the Thracians and Macedonians, prevailed over the enemies and caused a great slaughter of the Saracens, while on the other side Procopius, fighting with the Slavs and the Westerners, was pressed by the opponents. Since help was not sent to him by the general who was struggling, due to the aforementioned rivalry, the section under Procopius began to give way to flight, and that commander himself was killed, fighting heroically and falling in the very midst of the battle. Leo, wishing to accomplish another brilliant feat and to shade the misfortune that had happened because of their strife, took his own army, and also received to himself those who had been scattered from the flight of the troops under Procopius, besieged the fortress of Tarentum, which was still held by the Agarenes, and enslaved all the people within it; by this he both sufficiently rewarded the soldiery and brought spoils to the Emperor. Yet he did not pacify the Emperor with this; rather, when the latter learned the cause of the death of Procopius, he stripped Leo of his dignity and exiled him to Cotymium, where he was accustomed to reside. Thereafter, Baianus, who was the chief of Leo’s grooms, and several others, formerly dependents of Leo, brought a charge of high treason against him. For which, when

^A Bardas and Davidus, his sons, learned of this, they slew Baianus; and fearing the Emperor’s wrath for this rash act, they took their father with them and hastened to flee into Syria. When the Emperor learned of this, he sent the chief of the Company with several soldiers, ordering them to pursue quickly and capture them. They caught up with them without delay in Cappadocia as they were speeding toward Syria. When they tried to stop them from proceeding further, they found them resisting; a struggle ensued, in which both of his sons were killed in the fighting. Leo was captured and brought to the Emperor. He was judged according to the laws, and being condemned, he had one of his eyes gouged out and one hand amputated; he was then relegated to Mesembria, where he grew old in exile.

While the Emperor’s generals were conducting the affairs in the West that we have described, the Arabs dwelling to the south, thinking the Emperor was given to idleness, took heart and decided to resume naval operations. Therefore, having constructed ships in the maritime cities of Egypt, Phoenicia, and Syria, they prepared an expedition against the Romans, having first sent out scouts to learn the state of the Emperor’s affairs. Nor did this plan of theirs escape Basilius, for he discovered all that was being done in Syria. ^B Having himself built a great fleet, he kept it at the royal city, intent upon what was to come. In the meantime, so that the sailors might not deteriorate by doing nothing—since, as the poet says, idle leisure produces nothing good—he used their labor in the construction of the temple then being built behind the imperial palace in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, and for the completion of the shrines of the prince of the heavenly host and of Elias the Tishbite. They were prepared, upon the first moment that the Syrian fleet should emerge from the mountains, to board their ships and be carried forth to engage them. But when the Saracen scout arrived at Constantinople and found everything prepared, he returned to his own people and reported what he had seen; and they, deterred from their plan, remained quiet.

^C [P. 585] As for the Carthaginians, having received defeats, they had become more timid. Having learned of the Emperor’s peaceful state, and fearing lest a Roman fleet be suddenly sent against their own territory, they constructed many ships. At the beginning of spring, sensing that no such thing was being done by the Emperor and concluding that he was occupied by other enemies, they set out for Sicily with their fleet, and having besieged Syracuse, they ravaged the surrounding regions. For these ^D reasons,

^A when the governor of Sicily made these things known to the Emperor, the naval force which had previously been prepared, and which was waiting during the construction of the church, was immediately sent to Sicily, under the command of the patrician Adrian as admiral. Having departed from the Queen of Cities, but not proceeding on a direct course, he with difficulty put into the Peloponnese at the port called Hierax, near Monemvasia, and there awaited a favorable wind. While he wasted much time at the aforementioned port, not wishing to sail when the wind was not blowing or to entrust himself to contrary waves, the Hagarenes, pressing the siege more vigorously, succeeded in taking the city. A great slaughter occurred within it, the survivors were carried off as captives, the city was leveled, and its divine temples were burned—a city hitherto celebrated for its fame, which had warded off many wars of the barbarians, yet in a brief moment of time lost all its glory.

Adrian learned of the event in this manner: ^B There is a place in the Peloponnese called Helos, having obtained this name from the density of the woods situated there. The Roman fleet was anchored at this place. One night, the shepherds heard the demons dwelling there talking to one another, saying that Syracuse had been captured the previous day and had been leveled. As this account spread from one person to another, it finally reached Adrian as well. Having summoned the shepherds and questioned them thoroughly, he found that the reports brought to him were confirmed by their words. Wishing to hear it with his own ears, he was led to that place by the shepherds, and through their intercession he questioned the demons and heard that Syracuse had already been taken. ^C He assuaged the sorrow he felt at this news and consoled himself by reasoning that he ought not to put faith in the deceitful words of demons. However, he noted the day they had indicated. Ten days later, messengers arrived who had fled from the destruction of Syracuse, relating the disaster that had occurred. Fully convinced by them, Adrian immediately weighed anchor, quickly reached the Queen of Cities with his fleet, and took refuge as a suppliant in the Great Church. Yet this supplication did not save him at all; having been dragged from the temple, he was forced to depart into exile.

Stephen, nicknamed Maxentius, a Cappadocian, was subsequently sent to govern Longobardia, with a picked force of Thracians, Macedonians, and Cappadocians. ^D Having arrived in the province, because of his cowardice and luxury he achieved nothing of note, and was stripped of his command. In his place was sent Nicephorus, nicknamed Phocas, a man noble and energetic. He brought with him a sufficient force and a regiment of Manichaeans, who had as their leader Chrysochiris Diaconitzes. Having taken charge of the place and joined his forces with those of Stephen, he won many victories over the Saracens. At first

indeed, he arrayed his line of battle and put the enemies to flight; subsequently, he captured the city of Amantia, Tropas, and Saint Severina, and overcame the enemy in many other battles and set engagements. Such and so great were the military deeds that took place in the times of Basil. ^A

Basil also lavishly adorned the most celebrated among the martyrs, Diomedes, with most precious and splendid offerings, and enriched him by the gift of estates possessing large revenues. He also honored the son of Danielis, whom he had made his spiritual brother, with the dignity of protospatharios, and shared with him the greatest degree of intimacy. He also summoned the old woman Danielis to go to him; as she was unable to ride on horseback, she reclined in a litter, and commanded three hundred of her young and strong servants to carry it by turns. Having arrived in Constantinople in this fashion, when a banquet was being held in the Magnaura according to custom, she was honorably brought before the emperor and offered magnificent gifts—it would be tedious to recount each one of these. Having been received by the emperor as her zeal deserved, and having stayed in the imperial city as long as she wished, she returned home. ^B After the death of Basil and the accession of his son Leo to the empire, the old woman came to Constantinople again with similar gifts; and having congratulated the emperor and designated him as the heir of her property, she returned home and shortly after exchanged this life for death. But these things happened later.

King Basil also restored many of the divine temples that had been broken and shaken by the shocks of the preceding times, and some that had been utterly destroyed he rebuilt, while to others he added adornments and elegance. First, he used the skill of workmen to reinforce and stabilize the great and lofty western arch of the temple of the Wisdom of God, which had been broken in many places and was threatening to fall. In it he installed the image of the Theotokos holding the Infant in her arms, and on one side he set up Peter and on the other Paul, the leaders of the apostles. He also repaired the remaining cracks and damaged parts of the walls. He also assisted the depleted revenues; for there was a danger that the sacred lamps would be extinguished due to a shortage of oil. By the gift of a most expansive estate which is called Mantia, he provided for the lamps [to have] an inextinguishable light, and caused the stipends for the singers of the divine temple to be provided more generously from the income of the estate. ^C He also fortified the divine temple of the Apostles, which had fallen from its former beauty, with supports and with the repairs of the parts that had broken down, rendering it, as the poet says, flourishing. He also renovated the church of the Theotokos that was at the Spring, which had fallen from its ancient elegance. Another temple of the Theotokos, which bears the name Sigma, having been prostrated by an earthquake, he rebuilt from the foundations, and showed it to be more stable and beautiful than it was before. ^D [alt-version omitted]

He also raised from their foundations the church of Stephen the Protomartyr, which had fallen to the ground in the Aurelianae district. ^A He also rebuilt the two shrines of the Baptist, the one in Strobelos and the one in the Macedonianae district; the former he raised from the foundations, and the latter he rebuilt for the most part. He also rebuilt from the foundations the church of the apostle Philip, and the church of the evangelist Luke, which lay to the west of it, after they had suffered a terrible collapse. He also took care of the great sanctuary of the martyr Mocius, whose inner sanctum had fallen to the ground, breaking the holy altar, and he raised it from the ruins. And the church of Andrew the First-Called, which was near to it and had fallen, he rebuilt to its ancient beauty. ^B He also renovated the churches of Saint Romanus and of Saint Anne in the Deuteron, and of the great martyr Demetrius, and of the martyr Aemilianus in the Rabdos, restoring them as new from their ancient state. In addition to these, he restored the church of Saint Nazarius, which had collapsed. In the porticoes of Domninus, he repaired and brightened the church of the Resurrection of Christ and of the martyr Anastasia, fashioning a stone roof in place of the previous wooden one. He raised up the church of the renowned martyr Plato, which had fallen; and nearby he fashioned the church of the glorious martyrs Hesperus and Zoe. He also repaired the church of the martyr Acacius in the Heptascalon, which was threatening to fall, and rescued it from ruin. Similarly, he restored the church of the prophet Elijah at the Petrion in a splendid manner. He also built from the ground up within the imperial courts a church in the name of the Lord and Savior Christ, of the first of the angels, Michael, and of the prophet Elijah. Furthermore, ^C he also adorned the beautiful church of the Theotokos and of Nicholas—the most renowned among the hierarchs—which they call the New Church, with such elegance, beauty, and splendor that it left no room for any other to compare or surpass it, and he decreed sufficient revenues for its lighting and for the needs of those who sing the divine praises. And what need is there to speak at greater length? The work itself reveals to those who behold it its own beauty and opulence. He also built many other divine shrines within the palace, in the name of the prophet Elijah, and of the martyr Clement, and of the Savior Christ, and of the apostle Peter, and of the commander of the heavenly hosts, the beauty of which any poetical grandiloquence would be powerless to describe.

Many things he also raised in the palace, which one might call a palace of kings ^D; but these it is not necessary to count. The work of this emperor also includes the house called the Manganon and the other new...

^A buildings, for, not wishing to consume the public funds for his own private needs, he built such houses and assigned to them sufficient revenues from agriculture, from which the imperial banquet for himself and those invited by him throughout the whole year could always have an abundant and just supply. He also founded a palace at the Sources, and he adorned that which was in the Eria, having cleansed the cistern which the Emperor Heraclius had leveled by piling earth upon it, as he had turned it into a garden for planting trees and vegetables. This he also did to those situated within the palace, the one before the Magnaura and the one between the Justinian triclinium and the Lausiacus. For the aforementioned Emperor Heraclius, having learned from Stephen the philosopher, who had examined the positions of the stars at the time of his birth, that death was to come to him from water, had filled the cisterns with earth, as has been said. Basil, therefore, cleansed the cistern in the Eria and, instead of a garden, prepared it as a reservoir of abundant and clear water. He also built ^B in the forum a most beautiful temple sacred to the Theotokos, so that the traders might have a house of prayer there when they were delayed by their businesses. He also repaired and adorned the shrine of Saint Phocas at Stenos, and established it as a monastery for monks, having assigned sufficient revenues for the maintenance of those who practiced the religious life in it. He also renovated the great church of the Archangel at Sosthenion, which had already fallen down in time, and restored it to the beauty which is seen today.

He also enticed many of the Jews to holy baptism by promises, disbursements, and exchanges of gifts. And he confirmed in the faith the nation of the Bulgarians, which ^C had recently embraced the Christian piety, by sending holy monks and priests adorned with virtue. He also drew the Rhos into communion of the saving baptism by making covenants, for whom he also sent a chief priest. But it is worth recounting the miracle that the priest sent there performed. For the prince himself, his nobles, and the entire nation, still being held by superstition, and deliberating about whether to retain their former religion or to accede to the Christian faith, summoned the chief priest who had recently come among them; and the prince asked him what it was that he professed and what he was going to teach them. When the bishop brought forward the holy book of the divine Gospel and explained some of the miracles performed by God while He walked the earth in human nature, the Rhos prince said that neither he nor his people would in any way have faith in Him unless they saw something similar to these, especially the protection of the three children in the blazing furnace. To this, the priest, trusting in the truthful word of Him who had said to His own that whatever they asked for His sake they would obtain, and that he who had faith in Him would perform the works that He did and greater ones than these, said to them, “Although it is not permitted to tempt the Lord God, nevertheless if you have resolved from the soul to turn to God, ask what you wish, and He will fulfill it entirely because of your faith, even though we are the least ^D

and unworthy." ^A They immediately requested that the book of the holy Gospel be cast into the pyre they had lit, promising that if it remained unharmed, they would give their names to the God whom he was preaching. This condition was accepted; and the priest, lifting his hands and eyes to God, and beseeching Jesus that He might assert the glory of His holy name before the eyes of this nation, cast the book of the holy Gospel into the furnace. And after the furnace had burned for many hours, and had then completely died down, the holy volume was found to have remained unscathed and uninjured, having received no damage from the fire. Seeing this, the Barbarians, struck by the magnitude of the miracle, cast aside every doubt and fled to baptism.

^B At this same time, Constantine, the eldest of the emperor’s sons, departed this life from a fever, leaving unspeakable grief for his father. The emperor, however, bore this misfortune with composure, and comforted his wife and children. Meanwhile, the officials of the state persuaded the emperor to dispatch inspectors to the provinces, saying that this would contribute to an increase in the revenues of the public treasury. The emperor, feigning approval of this opinion, ordered men apt for this office to be chosen and brought to him. When the general-in-chief had selected those whom he thought would properly administer this matter and had brought their names to the emperor, he incurred great censure from him for having judged such men suitable for so great an undertaking. When he pleaded that he could not find better men in the whole city, the emperor said, "I deem this office so important that, if it were permissible, I would think that I myself ought to depart to carry it out. But because this is unseemly and impossible, I am constrained to entrust my hope to the two masters of the state ^C who, both by time and experience and by the many magistracies held during their long life, have proven the integrity and virtue of their faith. For I trust that the business will be rightly concluded by them. You, therefore, go," he said, "and explain to them the nature of this service and my will. If they are willing to go forth to carry it out, this is approved by me." ^D When the men heard this, they were struck with alarm, and they offered their old age as a petition, as well as the labors previously expended for the state, and that there be brought [from] among them [the demand to act as] magisters of the state.

^A I wish for such a regulation to be omitted: for it is better that some should acquire unearned gain from the public treasury than that they should fear some evil fine that might crush them." In this way it came to be that the subjects of the Roman Empire, for as long as Basil presided over it, were not in name indeed brought to the equalization of the census, but in deed remained free and exempt from exactions.

^B When the elder of the emperor’s sons, Constantine, had, as we have related, departed this life, and all love and hope had shifted to the second son, Leo, a terrible envy was arrayed against him; and how this was so, the following narrative will clearly show. There was a certain monk, who was also a priest, of the number of those whom Emperor Basil most favored and in whom he most confided; his name was Sandabarenus. Although he was dear to the emperor, he was held in poor esteem by others, and for this reason was often denounced by that same Leo as an impostor and a juggler, who diverted the emperor from sound counsels to useless thoughts. This stung the soul of the monk and drove him to think of revenge. Therefore, feigning benevolence toward Leo, he at one time addressed him to this effect: "Since you are now, O Caesar, fully grown and beloved by your father, how is it that when you go out hunting with him you carry neither sword nor knife, to offer to your father when he is in need of one against the beasts; or, if, as often happens, he should be attacked by clandestine plots, that you might have ready the means to avenge the enemies of your father?"

Leo, not sensing the deceit nor suspecting whither this artifice tended, accepted the advice; and he allowed himself to be persuaded to carry a knife with him inside his boot. Perceiving that his plot was proceeding to the deed, Sandabarenus approached the emperor and said, "Let it be known to you, O emperor, that your son is plotting against your life; and if you do not believe it, when you go out hunting, order the boots to be removed from his feet, and if a sword is found carried by him, then my counsel will certainly have been advantageous." These things were said, the imperial departure was announced, all the usual retinue went out, and Leo, the son of the emperor, went out as well. ^C And when they had arrived at a certain place, the emperor pretended that he had need of a knife and demanded it with an outburst of command. The son, therefore, having no foreknowledge of what was suspected by his father, guilelessly reached down and produced the knife that he was carrying and handed it to his father. Once this had happened, the warnings of Sandabarenus were immediately believed, while the excuses of Leo were judged vain and empty. The emperor therefore returned home and, with a hostile mind, stripped his son of his imperial ornaments, locked him in a certain chamber of the palace named Margarites, and detained him there; and had not the patriarch and the senate forbidden it, he would even have gouged out his eyes (for he was being instigated to this by Sandabarenus). ^D Much remains.

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES. An equalizer (aequator) and exactor; according to Blastares, he is the one who divides lands and fields equally among neighboring possessors, and who, having weighed the riches and possessions of each person, determines the measure of the tribute to be paid to the prince. Cassiodorus, in Var. lib. VI, form. 6, calls him the equalizer of taxes in the royal city; but he is not subject to any such exactor or equalizer. Goar.

^A And he rose against his son in wrath, and in one of the royal houses, [P. 591] which is named the Pearl, he made him a prisoner; he was also stripped of his imperial insignia. Furthermore, he was instigated by Sandabarenos even to put out the lights of his eyes. But this he was prevented from doing by the patriarch and the senate, yet he held that intent within him. As much time passed, and although the senate often wished to intercede concerning him, it was prevented in one way or another on various pretexts; until a reasonable opportunity was given, from which they were led to resolve the matters they were striving for.

There was a certain winged animal in a cage, hanging in the palace for the sight and enjoyment of those who saw and heard it (a parrot was the name of the animal), a mimetic and vocal creature, which, whether taught by someone or otherwise, would often spontaneously call out, "Alas, alas, Lord Leo." ^B Once, while a banquet was being held for the emperor and the leading men of the senate were dining with him, the bird frequently uttered the aforementioned phrase. The guests became saddened, ceased their feasting, and sat in deep thought. The emperor, noticing this, asked the reason for their abstinence from food. They, their eyes filled with tears, said, "How, O master, could we eat, being thus reproached by the voice of this irrational creature, we who are thought to be rational and devoted to our masters? For this animal, devoid of reason, calls for its own master, while we, living in luxury, have forgotten our master who did no wrong. If Leo is proven to be guilty of plotting against his father, we will all be his executioners with our own hands, and his blood will not be enough to satisfy us. But if the crimes charged against him cannot be proven, ^C how long will a slanderous tongue prevail against him?" Softened by such words, the emperor then ordered them to be at ease, and promised that he himself would look into the matter. Not long after, returning to his natural disposition, he brought Leo out of his prison and into his sight, removed his mourning garments, ordered his overgrown hair, which had grown long during his grief, to be cut, and restored to him his former imperial dignity.

Not long after, he was seized by a flux of the bowels, and little by little he withered away from such a wasting disease. Having disposed of imperial affairs as seemed best to him, and having made his heir and successor known, he departed this life, having reigned for one year as co-emperor with Michael before him, and for another nineteen years having distinguished himself in his sole sovereign rule. He was succeeded by Leo, the eldest of his surviving sons.

^D Leo, having become master of all things, took little or no care for the other matters pertaining to the state; but, seething with anger and keeping fresh in his mind the conspiracy plotted against him by Sandabarenos, he immediately decided to rise up for vengeance, having concocted plausible reasons so that what was being done might seem to be carried out with due cause, and removing obstacles from his path. For he knew that he could not do anything ill to Sandabarenos while Photius held the patriarchal throne (for he suspected that he would act more nobly and defend him more strongly, and that the Sandabarenos, while this pontificate was occupied, would feel he could do no wrong, he who was so fiercely defended by Photius)

and it was rumored that Photius himself, seeking to betroth the empire to one of his own kinsmen and having discussed it with the Sandabarenos—and since it seemed to neither of them that they could attain their desire unless Leo were out of the way—had together concocted the aforementioned slander against him. ^A He decided, therefore, to remove him first from the throne, and quickly sent off the magister Andreas the stratelates, together with the magister John the Hagiopolite (9), who had become logothete of the dromos. He ordered them to go up to the Great Church, mount the ambo of the church, and read aloud to the ears of the multitude the accusations against the patriarch Photius, and to bring him down from the throne and confine him to the monastery of the Harmonians. Immediately following this, the emperor proposed his own brother, Stephen the syncellus, as patriarch, since the bishop of Heraclea—who was appointed by Theophanes to rule over the aforementioned Church—was no longer numbered among the living. He further commanded that they swiftly send for Theodore the Sandabarenos to be brought to him.

While these things were being done, the emperor ordered the stratelates Andreas and many other senators to be sent to the monastery of Philippicus at Chrysopolis with a gathering of clergy, candles, torches, and aromatics, to bring the corpse of the murdered Emperor Michael out of his sepulcher, place it in a cypress coffin, and bring it to Constantinople veiled with imperial splendor. There it was received with song ^B and hymns, and thus escorted as far as the Church of the Holy Apostles, with the emperor's brothers, Alexander and the patriarch Stephen, also accompanying the procession; and it was placed in a marble coffin; which was indeed done.

He also appointed Stylianos Zautzes as magister and logothete of the dromos; for he had already begun to associate with his daughter, while his wife wed to him by law, the Augusta Theophano, was still living—who, although she saw and heard what was going on, never flared up with jealousy over the violation of the marriage bed.

At that very time, the Agarenes captured the high city which was located at the Charsianon, and led away all the inhabitants as captives. A fire also occurred in the southern part of the city, at the place called the Iron ^C (or "Sidera"), which consumed other things as well as the temple of the Apostle Thomas. ^D

XYLANDER AND GOAR'S NOTES.

(9) Just as "the royal city" is often used for Constantinople, so "the holy city" is often used for Jerusalem, which you may easily note. And it is probable that by "Hagiopolite" one should understand "the Jerusalemite." XYL.

(10) It has "Armenianorum" (of the Armenians), instead of "Harmonianorum." From this passage it appears that the right of designating and electing the patriarch of Constantinople belonged to the bishop of Heraclea. "Præses" (the president) is he who holds the chief place in an assembly, such as our deans (I think). XYL.

(11) Xylander, whether he be the interpreter or the scholiast, is hallucinating; he is corrected for erring in two ways, as the interpreter in this manner: "Immediately in his place Leo designates and promotes his brother Stephen as patriarch; and because at that time the bishop of Heraclea was not numbered among the living, Theophanes, the prelate of the ancient and most excellent see of Caesarea, and thus holding primacy among others, ordained and consecrated him." For the truth refutes the scholiast's error, which everywhere attributes to the emperor the right of designating a patriarch, while reserving to the bishop of Heraclea solely the authority of consecrating him, because the see of Constantinople had been subjected to him from the beginning, in whose place, upon his death, the diocese of Caesarea was substituted for this duty. For those who were primates in ancient times before the patriarchate was erected, these are now

^A reduced to ash and soot; the emperor later restored it at great expense.

Interim, Sandabarenus having been brought to Constantinople, Andreas, the commander of the armies, and Stephanus, the master, whom Sandabarenus had burdened with many slanders before Basil, persuaded Leo to institute an inquiry regarding the crime charged against them; they affirmed that it could be demonstrated by certain indications how patriarch Photius and Sandabarenus had concocted this plot to elevate a certain relative of Photius to the imperial throne. Men were therefore sent by the emperor to bring both Photius and Sandabarenus to the palace at the Fountains; each was held separately in custody. Inquisitors and examiners of the crimes being charged were selected: the same Andreas, Stephanus, and the Hagiopolite (masters), and Craterus and Guber (patricians). They brought forth the patriarch Photius, seated him honorably upon a throne, and sitting down beside him, they instituted an examination. There, Andreas said to Photius: “Do you know, master, the monk Theodore?” Photius replying that he knew many monks named Theodore and did not know whom he was asking about, Andreas added the name Sandabarenus; and Photius confessed that he knew him, as he was the bishop of Euchaita. Sandabarenus was also brought in. To him Andreas said: “The emperor asks you, where are the gold and the possessions of his empire?” He replied: “In the hands of those to whom the emperor, ruling today, has entrusted them; and he has the power, if he so wishes, to seek them out and receive them.” Andreas continued: “Tell us, who was this one whom you intended to make emperor, at the time you were the author of advice to Basil to gouge out the eyes of his son who is now ruling? Was he a blood relation to you or to the patriarch?” When Sandabarenus swore that he was aware of nothing of the things charged, Stephanus said: “How then, you wily veteran, did you deliver reports to the emperor about this matter and claim you would convict the patriarch?” As soon as Sandabarenus heard these words, he embraced the patriarch’s feet and said: “I beseech you, master, by God, that you first strip me of my priestly dignity, and then let them take me, once deposed, and punish me as a criminal. For I am aware of no such matter, nor did I report anything to the emperor.” The patriarch raised him from his feet and said: “By my salvation, master Theodore, you are an archbishop in this world and in the world to come.” ^B At these words, Andreas, stirred with anger, said: “Ho, you impostor and trickster, did you not signify to the emperor through me that you wished to convict the patriarch?” Theodore again began to deny it, and denied that any such thing was known to him. The emperor, when the inquisitors had returned to him and reported what had been answered, was burning with rage, ^C especially because he could find no probable cause to mistreat Photius; he ordered Sandabarenus to be atrociously scourged, and having done so, he relegated him to Athens. ^D

^A Having later sent for him, he blinded him and transferred him to the East. After many years had passed, he recalled him and assigned him provisions from the New Church. He died after the death of Leo, while his wife Zoe and his son Constantine were reigning.

In the second year of the reign of Leo, Ango, the Duke of Longobardia, a son-in-law of the King of the Franks, having learned of the death of the Emperor Basil, withdrew from the alliance with the Romans and claimed the entire territory for himself. Upon learning this, the Emperor sent the patrician Constantine, the prefect of the table, against him with the Western forces. A battle having been joined, those with Constantine were defeated and cut down, with he himself barely escaping, his army having been utterly destroyed.

Sub same time, the sun was eclipsed at the sixth hour of the day, to such an extent that stars became visible. There also arose fierce blasts of wind, lightning, and terrible thunderclaps, and scorching thunderbolts, by which seven men perished on the steps of the Church of St. Constantine in the Forum. ^B Samos was also besieged by the Saracens, the praetor stationed there, Constantine the patrician, surnamed Paspalas, being enclosed within it. The Emperor, driven by his love for Zoe, the daughter of Zaoutzes, honored her father with a new dignity, that of *basileopator*, having devised this rank himself; it had not existed before. For this Zoe, shining brilliantly at that time in beauty and grace, had been married to the patrician Theodorus Gouniazitzes; but her husband having been treacherously put to death by poison, the Emperor kept her as his concubine even while his own wife was still alive, as has already been stated.

Xylander and Goar's Notes

(12) Constructed and generously endowed by his father Basil in the palace in honor of St. Nicholas, of which see p. 588. GOAR.

(13) I consult Zonaras; but truly regarding who the kings of the Franks were at that time, I have been unable to find such a son-in-law, and I believe it requires further inquiry. These events certainly fall into the reign of Charles the Fat. A little before that, and before he died, Berengarius was created King of Italy in Ticinus, having been made Duke of Fori Julii against the Emperor Arnulph of the Romans. Perhaps this Hugo was called the Duke of Longobardia. But I have nothing certain, unless he is that Hugo, son of King Lothair of Lotharingia by his concubine Vualdrada, the son of the Emperor Lothair, who, ^C as is established from histories, at the same time when Leo was made Emperor of Constantinople not long before, was the instigator for Godefridus, King of Frisia, the husband of his sister, of a rebellion against the Emperor Charles the Fat. Moreover, it is known that the Romans, subjected here and elsewhere to the Constantinopolitan Empire, are referred to by our author, nor did they recognize the German emperors as Roman emperors. I have noted this above, and unless this is kept in mind, many things must be understood absurdly, as, for example, in the first year of Nicephorus Phocas, where he speaks of the Romans (as he calls the Constantinopolitans) being liberated from the Italians, etc. XYL.

Benevenut[us], Salerno, and Amalfi, and Gaita, and all of Longobardia (so he writes it), by the Romans, it is clear. ^D Therefore this Longobardia was not the region of the Insubri, but of the Campanians and Apulians, of which I have written elsewhere, whose duke was this Angeon, a private prince. For not until the following age were the Greeks entirely ejected from all of Italy by the Normans. *Hic* (the Latin source text) signifies not only "son-in-law" but any relative by marriage on the wife's side. GOAR.

(14) Codinus, c. 7, n. 21, clarifies this, of whom this is the third. First stands this Great Domestic near the Emperor (for the sake of honor), after him the Domestic of the Table, and after him the Prefect of the Table. Now, the blessed *panhagion*, the Prefect of the Table takes and places upon the table. GOAR.

(15) "If this should be done by God, I shall proclaim you fathers." Having sent for Tatianus and Julius, he proclaimed them fathers. Marcianus had imposed the name upon his brothers: "If this should be done by God, I shall proclaim you fathers." And a little further down: Truly, the appellation was one of benevolence and gratitude toward his brothers, not of office and dignity, as it was for Zautzes. GOAR.

^A In the year following, the emperor’s brother, the patriarch, departed this life, and Anthony, surnamed Cauleas, was appointed patriarch in his stead. This was the state of urban affairs. But Simeon, prince of the Bulgarians, desirous of confounding the Roman treaty, seized upon this pretext: There was a eunuch named Musicus, in the service of the emperor's father-in-law. Having formed a partnership with merchants and men intent on gain, and wishing to turn a profit, he used the license he possessed through [his ties to] Zautzes to suddenly transfer the trade which the Bulgarians were accustomed to have in Constantinople to Thessalonica, and he established these merchants there as publicans. These men harassed the Bulgarian traders and exacted unjust tolls from them. When the Bulgarians reported these things to Simeon, and he brought them to the emperor's notice, Leo—being led by his affection for Zautzes—deemed the whole thing a trifle and thought it unworthy of any attention. Simeon, frustrated, and otherwise seeking a fair pretext to break the peace, took up arms against the Romans. Upon learning of this, the emperor himself prepared for war; he sent Procopius Crenites, who at that time held the office of commander of the army, along with many troops and officers, and added to him Curticius the Armenian, to march against Simeon. ^B The armies clashed in Macedonia, and the Romans were defeated and slaughtered; among them were Crenites and Curticius. Simeon sent back to the city those whom he had captured from the Roman army, having cut off their noses for the sake of mockery, to the shame of the Romans. Deeply grieved by this disaster and insult, the emperor sent the patrician Nicetas, surnamed Sclerus (that is, "the hard"), to the Turks, who are called Ungri, by way of the Ister, requesting that they cross the river and harass Bulgaria with all their might. Nicetas met with the Turks and persuaded them to take up arms against the Bulgarians; having received hostages, he returned to the emperor. ^C The emperor also undertook a war against the Bulgarians by land and by sea. He set Eustathius, the patrician and drungarius, in charge of the fleet, and entrusted the land forces to the patrician Nicephorus Phocas, whom he had made Domestic of the Schools after the death of Andrew. While he was already approaching Bulgaria, Leo, still desiring peace, sent the quaestor Constantinacius to Simeon. The barbarian, deviously thinking that he had been sent as an envoy to him, detained him in custody. While Simeon was preparing to defeat the army of Phocas, in the meantime the Turks crossed the river and ravaged the whole of Bulgaria. ^D When this was reported to Simeon, he abandoned Phocas and hastened against the Turks; they too, eager to join battle with the Bulgarians, crossed the Ister, and engaging them in battle, defeated them. Simeon, with difficulty, escaped by flight to Dorostolon, which is also called Drista.

is secured. The Turks, having won the victory, ask the emperor to buy the Bulgarians whom they had captured. The emperor agrees and sends men to ransom his citizens. Simeon, having been broken by the drungarius Eustathius, asks the emperor for peace. The emperor, granting it, sends Leo, surnamed Choerosphactes (which means "pig-slayer"), to offer and accept the conditions of peace, and orders Phocas, the domestic of the schools, and the drungarius to return home. ^A Simeon, upon the arrival of Choerosphactes, did not even deign to speak to him but threw him into prison. Then, having launched an expedition with a great army against the Turks—since the emperor, because of the sudden and unexpected turn of events, could not send them aid—he put them to flight and plundered their entire region. Elated by his victory, he wrote to the emperor that he would not make peace unless the captive Bulgarians were returned. The emperor agreed to this as well, and there came with Choerosphactes a certain Theodore, a familiar of Simeon, and he led home all the captives who had been released.

^B About this time, Zautzas, the basileopator, sought to make Nicephorus Phocas, the domestic, who was very dear to the emperor, his son-in-law. But when Nicephorus refused, fearing that by this action he might incur the emperor’s indignation, Zautzas became angry and, having concocted a charge against him, removed him from his office and replaced him with the magister Catacalon Abidelas. Nicephorus, however, did not live for long in retirement, for he was soon appointed over the Thracians. In all the offices he held, he performed illustrious deeds and raised many ^C trophies against the Hagarenes and other nations. He died at a very advanced age, leaving behind two sons, Bardas and Leo.

The emperor, since Simeon refused to fulfill the treaty, deemed it necessary to make war upon him and deliver him to total destruction. Having ordered all the regiments and themes of the East to cross over, and having prepared also the Western forces and another not insignificant multitude, he sent them against Simeon, placing as their chief and leader the domestic of the schools, Catacalon, with the patrician and protovestiarius Theodosius accompanying him. ^D They confront Simeon as he was marching at Bulgarophygon; battle is joined, the Romans are defeated, and there is great slaughter. The protovestiarius himself perishes, and the domestic barely escapes with a few men to Bulgarophygon. As the emperor was staying at what are called the estates of Damianus with Zoe, the daughter of Zautzas, and was minded to remain there, Leo, the son of Zautzas, Christopher the Tzantzes, and certain others conspired against him. Zoe, having heard the murmurings of the conspirators, awakened the emperor; he at once went down to a boat,

and crossed the Pegae along the palace. He replaced John, the drungarios of the watch—a man, perhaps, too lax regarding his own guard—and for a time he was estranged from Zautzes, until Leo the magistros, whose surname was Theodotakes and who was a friend to both, reconciled them.

^A When the Augusta Theophano passed away, the emperor Leo placed the imperial crown upon Zoe, the daughter of Zautzes; she was blessed by a certain cleric of the palace. That cleric was immediately deposed, and Zoe, having lived for one year and eight months after her proclamation, passed away. When a sarcophagus was being prepared to receive her body, letters were found engraved upon it, reading thus: "The miserable daughter of Babylon." ^B

Basilius, the *epeiktes* of the emperor and a cousin of Zautzes, while plotting against the emperor, communicated this secret matter to Samonas, a chamberlain of Agarene origin, having first exacted an oath from him that he would keep the mystery unrevealed. Samonas, having given his oath, disclosed to him all that was being deliberated. He immediately mounted his horse and went to the emperor, and taking him aside, said: "I wish to tell you something, O emperor, which for me is safe to say, but which, if kept silent, would mean death for you." He then recounted the entire conspiracy of Basilius. Because the emperor was doubtful, Samonas, wishing to reassure him, asked that two of his most trusted men be sent to his house, requesting that they be hidden away so that when Basilius arrived to see him, and when they were together and talking, both sides of the conversation could be written down. The emperor gladly accepted this suggestion and sent Christopher, the protovestiarios, and Calocyrus, one of his own chamberlains; they arrived at Samonas’s dwelling, hid themselves, and awaited what was to come. Basilius, having been deceived, came to Samonas, and while the conversation was taking place and the secrets were being revealed by him, those whom the emperor had sent wrote down what was said. Finally, they left them at their meal, slipped away secretly, and went to the emperor, carrying what had been written. ^C

^D

^A Having read these things, he immediately sent Basil back to Macedonia to distribute what was left of the soul-offerings [(23)] of his divine Zoe. He also seized the droungarios of the watch (vigla) through Stupeiotis, and removed Nicholas, the eparch of the company (hetaireiarches), from the city. Then, bringing Basil from Macedonia and questioning him, he paraded him in triumph through the middle of the city and banished him to Athens. [P. 599] Convening the entire Senate regarding them, he read out the information provided by Samonas. They praised this act, proclaiming him worthy of the greatest honor. And the emperor immediately deemed him worthy of the rank of protospatharios, and made him his own confidant. ^B Patriarch Anthony having also died, Nicholas the mystikos [(23)], who was considered ahead of others in intelligence and wisdom, was appointed. But the emperor Leo, being unable to perform the customary summonses [(24)] since there was no Augusta, crowned Anna [(25)], the daughter of Zoe, who was the daughter of Zaoutzas. He also took a girl from Opsikion, fair and very beautiful, by the name of Eudokia, whom he also crowned. Having become pregnant and being about to give birth, she died, along with the fetus. Honoring his former wife Theophano, the emperor built a very beautiful church in her name near the Church of the Holy Apostles. He also raised another church in those places in the name of Saint Lazarus, in which he also transferred and laid to rest the body of the saint, and also that of his sister, Mary Magdalene, having had it brought from Ephesus. While the fleet was occupied with such building projects, in the meantime the fleet of the Agarenes besieged and captured Tauromenium in Sicily, and a great slaughter of the Romans took place. The island of Lemnos was also seized by the Agarenes, and many were reduced to slavery. ^C It was the custom that on the day of Pentecost a holy procession would be taken to the church of Saint Mocius. Emperor Leo also used to go there with the procession. As he was about to enter and was approaching the holy doors, a certain man leaped from the ambo and struck him on the head with a thick and strong staff. ^D And he killed...

him immediately, had not the end of the staff struck against the suspended lamp, by which the violence of the blow was somewhat diminished. ^A Much blood flowed from the emperor's wound, and a disturbance and flight of the officials ensued. Alexander, the emperor's brother, feigning illness, was not present at the procession, and this gave rise to the suspicion among many that he himself had concocted such a plot. But the assailant was seized, and after enduring many tortures, since he did not confess anyone as an accomplice, he had his hands and feet cut off and was burned in the Sphendone of the Hippodrome. From that time on, such processions ceased, even though the most wise monk Mark, who was the steward of that monastery and had completed the tetraodion of Great Saturday for lord Cosmas, ^B greatly beseeched the emperor [to continue them]. And as the emperor refused him, the monk said, "Do not be angry or exasperated, O emperor; for it was preordained that you should suffer this, according to the prophet David, who said, 'How the enemy has acted wickedly in your sanctuary, and they have boasted who hate you in the midst of your feast' (Ps. LXXIII, 1). You must therefore, my master, from now on hold the empire for another ten years." And this did indeed happen; for he died ten years later, on the very same day on which he had been struck.

Leo the emperor took a fourth wife ^C as well, Zoe Carbonopsina, who lived with him for a significant time without being crowned. But when the Bulgarians were wearing down the Roman state with their incursions, the Hagarenes, seizing this opportunity, equipped a fleet and sent it against the maritime dominion of the Romans, under the leadership of Leo the Attaleate, who had abjured the Christian faith and, because he lived in Tripoli, was called the Tripolite. The emperor received news of this expedition in advance near the emporium of Boetius, having come there to dedicate the monastery of his protovestiarios, Christophoros. And the messengers added that the Tripolite had the intention of attacking Constantinople itself. ^D Therefore, the emperor sent Eustathios, who was at that time the drungarios of the fleet, along with the fleet; but being unable to stand against the Tripolite, he returned without achieving anything. Following him, the Tripolite entered the straits of the Hellespont and reached as far as Parium. The report of this affair brought great sorrow and alarm to the emperor; he therefore committed the naval fleet to Himerios, the head of the secretariate, to lead against the Tripolite. He, having passed Abydos and sailed across the Aegean Sea, put in at Strobelos;

^A proceeding then to Imbros, he crossed Samothrace and found the enemy’s ships stationed at Thasos. Yet, seeing they were superior to his own in number and zeal, he did not dare even to approach them. The Tripolite then turned back, captured Thessalonica, and took prisoner its governor, a man surnamed Chatzilakos. Much blood was shed there, and many were led away captive.

By chance, a certain cubicularius named Rhodophyllus, who had been sent to Sicily for a necessary purpose with a hundred pounds of gold, had fallen ill while traveling and had withdrawn to Thessalonica to seek medical care. The Tripolite captured him there and, because of the gold, tortured him for a long time; when he insisted that he had nothing—for he happened to have left the gold along the road, where it was later picked up by the secretarius Symeon—the Tripolite slew him. However, when the Tripolite intended to destroy the city, Symeon urged him to refrain from the slaughter and to accept that gold in its place. He was persuaded. ^B This having occurred, and the Tripolite having received the gold, he departed. The Emperor, pleased with Symeon for this act, honored him with the rank of patrician and protoasecretis.

When the admiral Himerios learned that the Saracens had retreated from Thessalonica, he prepared to pursue them. But they landed at Crete, imparted a share of their plunder to the Cretans, and returned home safely, leaving Himerios idle at Lemnos.

Following these events, the Emperor sent two very brave generals to the East: Eustathios of the house of the Argyroi, and Andronikos of the house of Doukas, both of whom won many victories over the Hagarenes.

As for Samonas, whom we have noted as having uncovered ^C the plots against the Emperor, though he was held in the highest honor by him, he feigned that he was setting out for his monastery and fled with his money and horses, having hamstrung the public horses at each station. The Emperor, therefore, sent men to pursue him: Basilios, the commander of the Hetaireia, surnamed Camateros, and Georgios Crenitas.

Nicephoros the drungarios, surnamed Caminas, intercepted Samonas just as he was crossing the Halys river and detained him, despite his many supplications and promises of gifts if he were released. When Samonas could not obtain his release, he pretended that he was traveling to the cross at Siracha for the sake of a vow. Constantine, the son of Andronikos Doukas, then arrived, took custody of him, and brought him back to the city. Upon entering Constantinople, the Emperor ordered that he be held in the house of Caesar Bardas. ^D However, because Constantine Doukas had been informed that Samonas was in truth fleeing to Melitene, the Emperor instructed him not to mention this before the senate, but rather to claim that he had been going to Siracha for the sake of a vow; for the Emperor wished to grant him amnesty. On the following day, having convened the senate, he brought Constantine into their midst and interrogated him under oath by God and the life of the Emperor.

XYLADRI AND GOAR’S NOTES

^A and brought Constantine into the midst and questioned him under oath, saying thus: "By God and by my own head, did Samonas flee into Syria or not?" He, fearing the oaths (for he had been instructed to hide the truth first without an oath), confessed before all that he had set off for his own homeland, Melitene. The emperor sent Constantine away in anger, but ordered Samonas to be detained at the Caesar’s house, and after these things he was released from there and restored to his former dignity.

^B A male child was born to the emperor from Zoe, his fourth wife; at his birth a comet appeared, casting its rays towards the East and shining for forty days. Patriarch Nicholas baptized the child in Hagia Sophia, with the emperor’s brother Alexander, the patrician Samonas, and the notables of the senate receiving him from the holy baptism. Leo was blessed with Zoe by Thomas the presbyter, who was also deposed, and he proclaimed her Augusta. For this reason, therefore, ^C the patriarch forbade the emperor from entering the church, whence he used to pass through the right side into the Mitatorium. Moreover, the patrician Samonas was appointed *parakoimomenos*, having been a most dexterous accomplice of his in every transgression and evil. For he persuaded the emperor to force the patriarch and, even against his will, to accept him into the church. The emperor, having summoned him at the beginning of the month of February, persistently begged to be admitted. Since he would not concede to the request, they embarked him on a long ship from the so-called Bucoleon and ferried him to Hiera; from there he was led on foot to the monastery of the Galactenai, which had been founded by him. Not much time passed, and Euthymius, the *syncellus*, was ordained patriarch, a man pious and having reached the summit of virtue; they say that even as he refused the priesthood, he was persuaded to accept it by divine revelation. The emperor intended—with many learned men working with him toward this—to make a law for a man to have three or even four wives at once. But the patriarch blocked this with all his effort.

^A CYLANDRI AND GOARI NOTES. (30) Ab iis qui, ut praemilimus, quartas Leonis nuptias omnino illicitas censuerunt. GOAR. (31) Nempe quod quatuor uxores unam post alteram duxisset: nam prior illa Zautzaea Zoe concubina nihil ei obfuit. Quid autem sit *mitatorium*, nescio. De *mitatis* dictum aliquid supra. Et fortasse fuit fani pars quaedam, quasi profana, et iis etiam accessa qui sacrorum usu arcerentur. ^B Nam quid antiquitus in ecclesia fieret, hic nolim disputare, cum apud leviculos Graecos subinde appareat aliquid mutatum. Mitatum nomen fuisse synagogae Saracenae, in Isaacio Angelo memorat Choniates. Sed id huc non multum facit, nisi quod horum quoque synagogas apparere possit certis metis fuisse inclusas. Non multo post rursus mitatorii hujus fit mentio. XYL. ^{C D} (32) cubiculum ad latus altaris, in quo fessis a labore cantoribus mensa frugalis, panis scilicet et vinum, apponebatur. A mensa stiusmodi... (32') lactis fontes sonat. XYL. (33) *Kat' auton* est simul. Ego autem sane non puto hoc voluisse Leonem, ut simul tot uxores, sed ut, una mortua, altera duceretur: quod ipsum fecisse atque ideo ut impium a patriarcha fuisse excommunicatum apparet. Nihil tamen volui mutare. Zonaras habet *ipsius* [not *auton*], vel suo exemplo, id est ut quartae Leonis nuptiae non Leoni modo non vitio darentur, sed idem aliis imitari impune liceret. Post *kedestin* [khedestin] velim verti: quod generne an socer aut quid tandem famul [rest of note illegible]. XYL.

In the month of June, Constantine the African invited Emperor Leo to his monastery, which he had founded near the church of the Holy Apostles, to attend its dedication and the subsequent banquet. ^A Suddenly, a violent South-West wind arose, which shook many buildings and terrified the people, so that all fled from their houses into the open air. A rainstorm, however, ensuing, quieted the tempest. When the fleet of the Agarenes set out against the Romans, the Emperor placed Himerius the Logothete of the Course in command of the Roman fleet. Andronicus Doukas was commanded to join him and fight against the Agarenes. Now Samonas, who was an implacable enemy of the Doukas family because of his capture by Constantine, as we have already shown, suborned one of Andronicus’s own household and persuaded him to warn Andronicus secretly by letter not to board the ships; for he asserted that the Emperor, swayed by Samonas, had given Himerius an order to blind him. Upon receiving this letter, Andronicus refused to set out to war with Himerius. Himerius, therefore, was forced to engage the enemy alone on the sixth day of October, and he defeated and destroyed them. When Andronicus learned of this, despairing of his own affairs and having packed his belongings, he fled with his dependents and servants, and occupied a certain fortress situated above Iconium, called Cabala, and turned his thoughts toward rebellion. But Samonas, ^B seizing the opportunity, did not cease to urge and incite the Emperor, saying that he had long perceived what the man was hatching, and that he was pregnant with a plan of defection, and that his impulses ought to have been anticipated. "But because of your hesitation, O Emperor, the suitable opportunity has passed, and the enemy has escaped from our very hands; thus, if we must sail a second time, we should act lest he secretly do something rather than suffer it." Stung by these words as if by a goad, the Emperor sent Gregoras Iberitzes, the Domestic of the Schools and a kinsman by marriage to Andronicus, with a powerful army against him. When Andronicus learned of this, and also that Patriarch Nicholas, on whom he chiefly relied, had been expelled from the church, he abandoned Cabala and fled with his whole household to the Agarenes, by whom the Amermumnis was received with great honor and magnificence. ^C But the Emperor, reflecting upon what a general he had lost and what an enemy he was about to have, was tormented in spirit and pondered how he might lead him back to his own people. Finally, an imperial letter was written in which a total amnesty for all his offenses was granted to Andronicus, his return home was permitted, and his former prosperity, together with countless other gifts and benefits, was promised. This letter, enclosed in wax, was entrusted to a certain Saracen—a prisoner from the praetorium who had been elevated to high favor—to be carried to Andronicus in Syria. ^D As the Saracen was departing, Samonas accosted him privately, "Do you know what you are carrying?" he asked, pointing to the wax. When the man denied it, he said, "The wax you are carrying is the ruin of Syria; and if you have any concern for your own people and those who practice the same religion as you, deliver it into the hands of the vizier." Having received the promise that he would do so, he rewarded him magnificently with precious gifts. Therefore, the Saracen.

^A carried out the task and handed the wax over to the vizier. When the latter broke it and found the note, and having read its meaning, he reported it to the amermumnes. Immediately, Andronicus and those with him were led into prison. Since they were suffering greatly and could not endure the hardships of the prison, some were compelled to abjure their own faith. Andronicus, therefore, ended his life in that way.

Constantinus, his son, even while his father was still alive and aware, conspired with some other captives (for there were many others imprisoned with him who also refused to betray the true religion). Having broken their chains and descended from the prison by means of a rope, they procured horses and fled. When soldiers were sent to intercept them, they would evade their pursuers, now by turning and fighting, now by throwing gold for them to scramble after, and in this way, they managed to reach the borders of the Romans. The emperor ^B quickly summoned Constantinus and, having brought him to his presence, rewarded him and those with him with gifts of every kind. When the meeting was finished, and as Constantinus was about to leave the gold triclinium (for the emperor had received him there for a banquet), the emperor called him back. Fixing his eyes upon the icons of Christ and the Theotokos placed above the gate, he said to Constantinus: "Do not let the name, O Constantinus, lead you astray, nor think that for this reason you will rule over the Romans. For this empire has been reserved by God for my son, Constantinus, a matter which has been made clear to me through the prophecies of holy men who, through the purity of their lives, had obtained foreknowledge of future events. Keep, therefore, to the station allotted to you, and do not entertain pretensions above yourself. Know well that if you should attempt to play the tyrant, your head, severed from your body, will be brought through this gate." And this, in fact, came to pass later; for after the death of Leo, Constantinus, having attempted to seize power, was slain in the [office of the] General Logothete, and his head, dripping with blood and gore, was brought into the palace through the aforementioned gate. ^C

Furthermore, the emperor, because of a certain suspicion, removed Eustathius Magistros, the Argyros, from his office (for he was Drungary of the Watch). He departed for his home and died, having been dispatched by poison, leaving behind a great longing for him among the army and the navy, who remembered his brave deeds. He was buried at Charsianon in the monastery of Saint Elisabeth, which his grandfather, Leo, had rebuilt. This Leo was the first to bring to his family the surname of the Argyroi, that is, the "Silvery ones," ^D whether on account of the purity of his life, or the comeliness of his body, or some other quality of his nobility; for the man so far excelled his contemporaries (he was prominent during the reign of Michael) that he alone, with his own household servants, attacked the Manichaeans of Tephrike and the Hagarenes of Melitene and easily put them to flight.

And his name alone, when mentioned, was a terror to all his adversaries.

For the sake of an exchange, those who were sent from Tarsus and Melitene—namely, that Abelbaces and the father of Samonas—arrived in the imperial city. The emperor received them with a magnificent banquet in the Magnaura, which was sumptuously prepared. He also decorated the Great Church with great magnificence ^A and brought them within it, and showed them all the sacred vessels associated with divine worship. This, however, was unworthy of the Christian state, to display to foreign men, who were alien to the true religion, things that are not to be lightly seen even by those who are pious and of upright life. The father of Samonas, when he saw how much power and honor his son possessed with the emperor, and when he saw his glory, chose to remain with his son, renouncing Melitene, his fatherland. But Samonas would not allow it; he exhorted his father rather to return home and to persevere in his own religion, and to await him there, and that he himself would return whenever he might find an opportunity.

On the feast of Pentecost, the day on which the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles in tongues of fire, the emperor crowned his own son, Constantine, through the patriarch Euthymius. ^B Samonas, being eager to win for himself the favor of the Augusta, gave her his own servant, Constantine, who was a eunuch and hailed from the land of the Paphlagonians, to serve her. This Constantine came into such favor with the Augusta and the emperor Leo that Samonas himself was seized with envy and denounced him to the emperor, alleging that he was having an affair with the Augusta. Leo, believing this accusation, ordered Constantine to be tonsured in the manner of a monk and to be led by Samonas himself to the monastery of Saint Tarasius. But shortly after, changing his mind and wishing to receive him back, he had him transferred through the agency of the same Samonas to the monastery of the Spirai.

Thus, when the emperor went out to Damatry and lunched at the monastery of Samonas, ^C and caught sight of Constantine, he immediately gave orders to remove his monastic habit and to clothe him in lay attire. And while dining with him, he ordered that the cup from his own table be given to him, and as he entered the palace, he had him accompany him. When Samonas saw the emperor’s love for Constantine growing, he wove a plot against him, constructed in this way. Having consulted with Megistos the Koitonites and Michael Tzirithon, he composed a libellus filled with countless insults against the emperor, having it written by the hand of his own scribe, Constantine the Rhodian. After they had written and sealed it, they threw it into the Mitatorium. When the emperor proceeded publicly to the Great Church ^D and entered the Mitatorium, the place where he was praying, he found the libellus and read it. This affair cast those who were present into great anxiety, and brought upon Leo himself the concern of seeking out the author.

At the same time, there was a great eclipse of the moon. And Leo summoned the metropolitan of Synnada, by the name of Pantaleon, who was versed in the science of astronomy, so that he might learn from him what the effect of this eclipse would be. When he was entering to the king, Samonas questioned him as to whom these adversities were portended. He replied: "To thee, yet a day of June remains."

He further inquired of him regarding this, and he said that the adversity would fall upon the second person. The king therefore suspected the second person to be his own brother, Alexander. And what the outcome of the prophecy was, as the narrative proceeds, it will disclose. But when Michael Tzirithon approached the king in private and denounced Samonas as having authored the seditious document, he was immediately ordered to be taken to his house, and after the fashion of a monk to be tonsured; then he was led to the monastery of the Patriarch Euthymius, and thereafter, having been reproached, he was transferred to [the monastery of] Martinakios. These things were done before the time set by the metropolitan had elapsed. In his place, he appointed Constantine the parakoimomenos. He also built for him a monastery in the Nossiai, in the name of the Savior, which he dedicated together with the Patriarch Euthymius. ^B Afterward, the Hagarenes sent out three hundred ships, commanded by Damian, the emir of Tyre, and Leo of Tripoli. Himerius, the logothete who was then the nauarch of the Romans, encountered them in October at Samos, which Romanus Lekapenos then governed. Engaging those who were with him, he was defeated; and, his own ships having been scattered, he himself barely escaped to Mitylene by flight.

The emperor was seized with an abdominal disease, and having been exhausted by such an affliction for a time and reduced to the utmost weakness, he was barely able to deliver his customary oration at the time of the fast. For when the senate had been gathered, he began to speak to them in these words: ^C "My flesh, O friends, wasted by disease, has withered, and my strength has failed, and perhaps I shall no longer live among you, nor will I reach the day of the feast of the Resurrection of Christ our Master. I ask, therefore, this one last favor of you: remember how kind I have shown myself to be toward you, and for this reason keep my wife and son commended to your care." The senate, with weeping and wailing, manifested that they felt an incredible grief at the loss of such a lord and emperor; and they declared that they would be so faithful to the Augusta and the imperial son that they would be ready to die for them a thousand times over, if circumstances required; and having bid the emperor a final farewell, they departed. Leo, however, though miserably afflicted by the disease in the meantime, prolonged his life until the day of May. As he was dying, he left the empire to his brother Alexander. ^D Seeing him come to him, he is reported to have said: "Behold the evil juncture of the time after thirteen months." He exhorted him at length to bring up and educate Constantine.

^A And he exhorted him to leave him as his successor, and then he died.

Alexander, the brother of Leo, having now exceeded his twentieth year, took up the reins of empire upon the death of Leo, with Constantine, the son of Leo, as his colleague in the empire. ^B As soon as he ascended the throne, he sent for and brought back Nicolaus, the patriarch, from Galacrenae. Having deposed Euthymius from the pontifical throne, he reinstated Nicolaus. Sitting with him in the Magnaura, silence being made, he carried out the deposition of Euthymius; whom the clerics who favored Nicolaus, as soon as his dignity was abrogated, attacked like wild beasts, striking him with their fists, dealing him slaps, plucking out his venerable beard, casting him down headlong, and punishing him in other most grievous ways, calling him a rider ^C and an adulterer, and one who had jumped onto another man's wife. That holy man bore all things placidly and quietly. He was therefore sent into exile in the islands called Agathon, and having died shortly thereafter, his body was brought into the city and buried in his own monastery. But that cleric who had plucked out his gray hairs, returning home, found it consumed by fire at that very hour, and his daughter with her limbs dislocated, who begged for her livelihood for many years afterward.

Indeed Alexander, having long since been accustomed to a soft and dissolute life, devoted only to hunting and other intemperate and untimely activities, ignorant of any work befitting an emperor, and intent only on luxury and lusts, after he had acquired the empire, neither did nor instituted anything memorable. ^D He deigned to honor a certain cleric, a charlatan and a man of no value, by the name of Lazares, with the office of Master (rector), who shortly afterward perished miserably while playing at ball in the Hebdomon. Likewise, he enriched Gabriëlopoulos and Basilitzas—with whom, before he became emperor, he had associated as playmates and accomplices of his lusts—with lavish gifts of money and raised them to the dignity of patrician. It is said he had contemplated making Basilitzas his successor and castrating Constantine, the son of his brother Leo. And he would have carried this out, had not God specifically intervened, and had those not resisted who kept faith to Leo, now saying that he was but a child, now that he was feeble, and thus dragging out the time by stalling Alexander, until death intercepted his designs. During his reign, a comet—which because of its resemblance to a sword is called Xiphias—and a pλe...