JOEL CHRONOGRAPHUS.
NOTITIA. (Oudin. de Script. eccles. tom. II, p. 1712).
Joel, a Greek chronographer, flourished in the same times in which Baldwin, Count of Flanders and Hainaut, and Geoffrey of Villehardouin lived, though he lived among the Greeks. He wrote a brief or compendious Chronology, which, according to the custom of the Greeks, he begins from the foundation of the world, brought down to his own times, namely to the capture of Constantinople by the Latins in the year of Christ 1204: an expedition in which Baldwin and Geoffrey, mentioned above, were present. He was too studious of brevity, and where he ought to have expanded himself more fully, namely concerning the emperors of the East of the latest times, he falls silent there, and presents only a succession of names. He ceases at Alexius Ducas, who is also called Murzuphlus, who died in the year 1204, ending his Chronology with these words: "When his cousin Alexius Ducas, who is called Murzuphlus, had killed this man, he ruled the empire for two months. Woe to us miserable ones! And especially since we are Christians, we plot such things against Christians. And by what reason would the Divine judgment tolerate so many crimes and not deliver us to captivity and slaughter?" Which also came to pass, and that most illustrious city of Constantine, because of similar crimes and impieties, was handed over to the Italians. Thus, revealing the age in which he wrote, of which I have read no one who remembers it until now, except Cave. That little work was brought forth from a manuscript codex of the Royal Library of France, edited in Greek and Latin in the year 1651, at Paris in folio from the Royal press, among other writers of Byzantine History, after the compendious Chronicle of George Acropolita, p. 149 and following, from the version of Leo Allatius.
JOEL CHRONOGRAPHIA COMPENDIARIA
JOELIS CHRONOGRAPHIA COMPENDIARIA
1-3 Sciendum est Adamum filiis et omnibus animantibus A cum terrestribus tum marinis nomina imposuisse, nomen vero illius et uxoris ab angelo Domini fuisse manifestata. Cainus majorem sororem Azuram, Sethus minorem Asuamam uxorem duxit. Abelus virgo justitiam colebat. Cainus propriæ domus ruina emoritur. Sethus primus Hebraicas litteras, scientias, signa cœli et tempestatum vices, menses, necnon hebdomadas excogitavit; sideribus quoque et quinque planetis, ut ab hominibus tantum dignosci possent, nomina imposuit, et primum Saturnum, secundum Jovem, tertium Martem, quartum Venerem, quintum Mercurium nuncupavit. Post diluvium Cainanus Arphaxadi filius cum Sethi
ΙΩΗΛΟΥ ΧΡΟΝΟΓΡΑΦΙΑ ΕΝ ΣΥΝΟΨΕΙ Ιστέον ὅτι ὁ μὲν Ἀδὰμ ἐπέθηκεν ὀνόματα τοῖς παισὶν αὐτοῦ καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς ζώοις χερσαίοις τε καὶ θαλαττίοις, τὸ δὲ αὐτοῦ ὄνομα καὶ τῆς γυναικὸς αὐτοῦ ἄγγελος Κυρίου εἶπεν αὐτοῖς. Καὶ ὁ μὲν Κάϊν ἔλαβε γυναῖκα τὴν πρώτην αὐτοῦ ἀδελφὴν Ἀζούραν, ὁ δὲ Σὴθ τὴν δευτέραν Ἀσουάμ, ὁ δὲ Ἀβελ παρθένος καὶ δίκαιος ὑπῆρχεν. Ὁ δὲ Κάϊν, τῆς οἰκίας αὐτῷ πεσούσης, ἀπέθανεν. Ὁ δὲ Σὴθ πρῶτος ἐξεῦρε γράμματα Ἑβραϊκὰ καὶ σοφίαν καὶ τὰ σημεῖα τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ τὰς τροπὰς τῶν ἐνιαυτῶν καὶ τοὺς μῆνας καὶ τὰς ἑβδομάδας, καὶ τοῖς ἄστροις ἐπέθηκεν ὀνόματα καὶ τοῖς πέντε πλανήταις εἰς τὸ γνωρίζεσθαι ὑπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων καὶ μόνων. Καὶ τὸν μὲν πρῶτον πλανήτην ἐκάλεσε Κρόνον, τὸν δὲ
the second Zeus, the third Ares, the fourth Aphrodite, and the fifth Hermes. After the flood, Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, wrote down the astronomy, having found the names of Seth and his children and of the stars engraved on a stone tablet. For the descendants of Seth, having been forewarned from above of the coming ruin of mankind, made two pillars, one of stone and another of brick A, thinking that if the flood came by water, the stone pillar would remain and whatever was engraved upon it; if it came by fire, the brick one would be saved. From the Magusaeans, namely the Persians, and Nimrod, the builder of Babylon, astrology and magic took their beginning.
After Ninus, Thyrra by name reigned over the Assyrians for thirty years; to him was given the name of the planet Mars, and the first statue was erected B. The Assyrians, worshipping him as a god down to this time, call him in the Persian tongue Baalem, which means Mars, the god of wars, of whom Daniel also makes mention.
In the times of the reign of Phoenix, there flourished Heracles the philosopher, the Tyrian, and the inventor of the purple. For as he was walking along the coastal part of Tyre, he saw a shepherd’s dog eating a so-called murex C. The shepherd, seeing the dog stained with blood, took a tuft of wool from the sheep and wiped away what was flowing from the dog’s mouth. But when Heracles observed that the wool was not being dyed by blood, but by a certain new tincture, he marveled, and as a great gift presented it to King Phoenix, who, himself also astonished, ordered wool to be dyed with the murex and a garment to be woven out of purple. Thus he himself first wore a purple mantle D.
After Nabuchodonosor and Baltasar his son, Cyrus the Persian held the kingdom for thirty-two years. When he was about to join in battle against Croesus, the king of the Lydians, being struck by fear, he summoned the prophet Daniel from the region of India. When questioned, Daniel said to Cyrus: "Be of good courage, you shall conquer your enemy; for concerning you the prophet Isaiah has prophesied: 'Thus says the Lord to Cyrus, whose right hand I have taken hold of, to subdue nations before his face, and I will break down the strength of kings. He shall build my city, and he shall turn back the captivity of my people,' says the Lord Sabaoth." Hearing these things, Cyrus fell at the feet of Daniel and said, "The Lord your God lives. I will release Israel from my servitude, that they may offer worship to their God in Jerusalem." Having therefore drawn up his army against Croesus, and having conquered him with might and having destroyed four hundred thousand, he took the rest captive, and having utterly destroyed the kingdom of the Lydians, without delay he released all the Israelites with Zorobabel, that they might return to Jerusalem.
After Cyrus, Darius his son, who is also called Cambyses, reigned for eight years. After Cambyses, Artaxerxes Memnon for twenty years.
It should be known that Romus, who reigned over Rome, devised the so-called Brumalia for such a reason. For they say that he and his brother, born of adultery,...
were cast out in a wooded place and found and nursed by a countrywoman. It was a disgrace among the Romans to be nourished on the food of others and to be called a parasite. Romus, A therefore, wishing to wipe away his own disgrace, devised the Brumalia, stating that it was necessary for the king to nourish his own senate in the winter season as honorable men, when they are at rest from war, and for the senate in turn to nourish the army. He gave the feast the name "Brumalium," which in the Roman language signifies to be "nourished on the food of others."
After Romus, when Rome was governed by consuls and dictators, among whom was Manlius, a certain senator named Februarius, who was hateful and had seduced the other senators through the fraud of February, was cast out of the city. Meanwhile, the Gauls, having made an assault on the twentieth day of the month of Sextilis, occupied the city and filled everything with slaughter. The senators who had taken to flight called Manlius back. Manlius, having gathered a force, overcame the Gauls with arms, slaughtered them all, and having recovered Rome, he cut short the days of the month in which these things happened, as it had been unlucky for Rome because her capture occurred in it. Stripping Februarius of his possessions and having cast him out of the city in disgrace, he renamed the month of Sextilis "February" as worthy of that name. B
After the aforementioned Artaxerxes, his son Chous held the principate. He subdued Egypt, which had been defeated, and brought it under his own power; Nectenabone was ruling there at that time, who consulted his own safety by flight and, through certain phantasms and Egyptian magical trifles, foretelling the future, acquired the familiarity of Philip and his wife Olympias, from whom she brought forth Alexander. Philip held the reins of Macedonia for twenty years, and having subdued Thessaly, he built the city of Thessalonica.
After Philip, Alexander succeeded to the Macedonian kingdom, at the time when Darius, the son of Arsamus, having occupied everything after Chous, had become the master of all. Alexander, having routed Darius, brought under his own dominion his entire empire—the regions of the Persians, Medes, Parthians, and Babylonians, and all the Indian territories. C Having founded the great Alexandria and named it for himself, he returned to Babylon, where he met the end of his life, at the age of thirty-two, in the twelfth year of his reign.
It should be noted that the Scripture mentions two Lamechs for us: one from the line of Cain, who killed both a man and a youth (for he slew the two brothers of the just Enoch and took their two wives), and the other a later one, the father of Noah, who was descended from Seth.
Tharra begat Abraham, Machoë, and Aram, father of Lot, who also died before his father Tharra. For when Abraham had kindled a fire in order to consume his father’s idols, Aram, while he struggled to save them from the fire, died in the house he had entered, consumed by the flames in his father's sight. D
A From the lineage of Sidus the son of Egypt, B king of the Egyptians, descended Melchi the father of Sedec, who, having become a priest of God and king of the Canaanites, was called Melchisedec by patronymic, and having built a city on Mount Sion he named it Salem, which is "city of peace," in which, having reigned for thirteen years, he died righteous and a virgin, as Josephus says. The great Cyril also says regarding him: Melchisedec is said to be "without genealogy" because he was not from the seed of Abraham at all, nor was his genealogy recorded by Moses, but he was Canaanite by race and sprang from the accursed seed. Whence he was not even deemed worthy of a genealogy; for indeed it was most inappropriate that one who had attained to the height of justice should be linked to the race of the height of wickedness. And Jerusalem was named by the addition of the "Hieru" syllable, that is "holy," together with "Salem," by conjunction, and is eponymously Jerusalem, partly on account of the priesthood of Melchisedec, and partly on account of the construction of the holy temple; for it was formerly called Jebus.
Lot, the nephew of Abraham, from his two daughters begat two sons, Moab and Amman, from whom come the Moabites and Ammonites. And Abraham from his Egyptian bondmaid Agar begat Ishmael, and from Sarah, Isaac. And Isaac begat Esau and Jacob from Rebecca. And from Esau was born Edom, possessing the same name as his father, and Amalec, from whom are the Idumeans and Amalekites, and from Jacob, who is also Israel, Judah, from whom all the Jews—even those who emerged from others—are named, for they are Israelites indeed from their father Jacob, but Jews by the name of their more noble brother, Judah. And from Ishmael C are his princes and their six nations, who are now called Saracens and Agarenes. Moreover, the divine Abraham begat from his last wife, Chettura, five sons, among whom is Madiam, from whom are the Midianites, and Afer, from whom is Africa. And Isaac died having lived in all one hundred and eighty years. Jacob, having lived one hundred and fifty-four years, died in Egypt, having spent seventeen years there. He, when he was seventy-five years old, fleeing from his brother Esau, arrived at Charran of Mesopotamia to Laban the brother of his mother, Rebecca, whose sheep he tended for twenty years, and having taken Laban's two daughters, Leah and Rachel, as wives, he had sons and daughters, one from the free women and from the handmaids Balla and Zelpha. And after the twentieth year, returning from Mesopotamia to the land of Canaan, he saw a vision in Bethel, and having tithed all that he possessed, he lastly offered up his sons, having numbered them beginning from Benjamin and proceeding in inverse order to Levi, and having found him to be the tenth, he consecrated him to God. Therefore, Isaac and Rebecca, after the return of Jacob, having called both Jacob and Esau, and having exhorted them and engaged them in a reciprocal oath to keep peace with one another and to cherish brotherly affection, passed away—first Rebecca, and then Isaac, having granted D the rights of the firstborn to Jacob. After this, Esau, incited by the exhortations of his son Amalec against his brother Jacob, with a band of soldiers
A as Josephus recounts, attacked him. Jacob, having shut the gates of the town into which he had fled, from the wall exhorted Esau to remember the admonitions of their parents. But Esau, bearing the advice ill, not only assailed him with insults and curses, but also threatened his destruction. Jacob, having released a projectile, struck Esau in the right breast and laid him low. And thus was fulfilled the prophecy of Isaac, speaking to Esau: If you cast off the yoke of your brother from your neck, you shall commit the sin of death.
Levi further begat Caath, Caath begat Abram, and Abram begat Aaron and Moses. And in the eightieth year of Moses, the sons of Israel went out of Egypt, taking with them [the remains of] the bones of Joseph, and they dwelled in the desert for forty years.
After Moses, Jesus Nave received the leadership, and having remained in the promised land for thirty-two years, he died at the age of 110.
11 After Jesus, God helped the people through the judges. B And first of all Judas judged the people for seven years. He subdued Adonibezec, the king of the foreigners, and cut off the extremities of his hands and feet. Then Adonibezec said: Kings with the ends of their hands and feet cut off were gathering [scraps] under my table. As therefore I have done, so has the Lord repaid me.
To Judas succeeded the judge Gothoniel for fifty years; Gothoniel was succeeded by Avodus for eighty years. After Avodus, Samagarus became judge for seven years. After the judge Samagarus, Baracus governed, and with him Deborra the prophetess, who killed Sisara by Jael, a woman of the Kenite Chamer. In these times, Prometheus and Orpheus the Thracian, who were held to be the wisest among the Greeks, and Aesculapius the physician, C and Lycurgus the Spartan and lawgiver of the Greeks, were known.
After Baracus, Gedeon [judged] for 40 years. He, with the three hundred who were held to be the most excellent when they drank, destroyed Madiam and Orebum and Zebum and Zebeam and Salmanan, their princes.
To Gedeon succeeded his son Abimelech for three years. He delivered his seventy brothers to death upon one stone, and therefore he perished at the last, when a woman from a tower crushed his skull with a blow of a stone. And he shouted to the boy who carried his weapons: Draw your sword and kill me, lest they say that a woman killed him; and thus the boy pierced him through. D
After Abimelech, Thola presided for twenty-three years; after Thola, Jephtae for six years; after Jephtae, Abesa for seven years; after Abesa, Elomus for ten years. To Elomus succeeded Sampso, and he judged for 20 years. In these times, Hercules was flourishing, famous in the histories of the Greeks.
After Sampson, there was an interregnum for forty years.
A After the judges, the high priest Heli judged the people for twenty years, and because of the wantonness and disorder of his sons Ophni and Phinees regarding the sacrifices, the divine judgment befell them; for they were cruelly killed in battle, and he, falling backward from his seat and having broken his back, died at ninety years of age.
After Heli, Samuel the prophet and priest judged the people for thirty years. And the people gathered to him at Armathaim, requesting a king. And since he was greatly grieved, God said to him: "Hear the voice of the people, because they have not rejected thee, but me, so that I should not reign over them." And He gave them Saul of the tribe of Benjamin, having anointed him as king.
After Samuel, then, Saul reigned for forty years, who, having first presumed to offer incense to God, then having transgressed the commandment of God concerning the Amalekites, by keeping Agag their king alive, heard from the prophet: "It is foolishly done by thee, because thou didst not keep my commandment which the Lord commanded thee," and so forth. B
After Saul, David of the tribe of Judah reigned for forty years, who also performed the will of the Lord in all things. And having struck down Melchom, the king of the Syrians, and having taken the great golden crown from off his head, having precious stones, he wore it, and it was a most comely ornament upon his head, which, signifying this, he said: "O Lord, in thy strength the king shall be glad," and the rest of that psalm. Furthermore, being old and full of days, when he had made his son Solomon king, he said to him: "And now, Solomon, know the God of thy fathers, and serve Him with a perfect heart and with a willing soul; for the Lord searcheth all hearts and knoweth every thought. And if thou seekest Him, He will be found by thee; and if thou forsakest Him, He will forsake thee for ever." And he gave him the pattern of the whole temple in writing, saying: "Be strong and of good courage, for the Lord my God is with thee." And after this he died in a good old age, rich and glorious and C blest, at the age of seventy. Now David was thirty years of age when he began to reign, and he reigned for forty years. But he was deemed worthy of the royal anointing by Samuel at the beginning; for history has called the people's acclamations different anointings.
Having died, therefore, he is buried in the city of Jerusalem in the greatest monument, which his wisest son Solomon had constructed, in which he also buried with his father many myriads of talents of gold, as Josephus says. And this is clear from what happened later; for the high priest Hyrcanus, the city being besieged by Antiochus the son of Demetrius, having opened the monument, carried out three thousand talents from it. Now the talent is one hundred and twenty-five coins. D After whom Herod, knowing that Hyrcanus had done this, opened the tomb himself; and he did not find money, but he took from it many golden ornaments and treasures. But when he attempted to proceed further, to where the bodies of David and Solomon had been laid, fire bursting forth consumed two of his bodyguards.
A After David, his son Solomon reigned for forty years, a man who, having received wisdom that was marvelous, God-given, and beyond human capacity, built the city and the temple of the Lord in seven years, sixty cubits in length, twenty in width, and one hundred and twenty in height; for it had two stories, as Josephus says. Solomon’s daily provision consisted of thirty *cori* of fine flour, sixty *cori* of sifted meal, ten choice calves, twenty oxen pastured in the fields, and one hundred sheep, besides stags, roes, and choice poultry and fatted fowl. A *corus* is a measure of thirty *modii*, so that all the *modii* together amount to two thousand and seventy. Solomon departed this life at the age of seventy-three and was buried with his father David. Homer and Hesiod flourished in his time. B After Solomon, his son Rehoboam reigned for seventeen years; he did evil before the Lord, like his father, and died in his sins. In his time, Shishak, king of Egypt, having captured Jerusalem, carried off the money that was in the temple and the palace, and the golden spears and shields, in place of which bronze ones were made. After Rehoboam, his son Abijah reigned, and he also behaved wickedly toward the Lord, and died in the sixth year of his reign. After Abijah, his son Asa reigned; he did not act rightly before the Lord, and died in the seventeenth year of his reign. After Asa, his son Jehoshaphat reigned; he did what was upright before the Lord and died in the twenty-fifth year of his reign. C After Jehoshaphat, his son Jehoram reigned over the kingdom; he was impious toward God and died of a bowel disease in the eighth year of his reign. After Jehoram, his son Ahaziah received the kingdom for one year; because of his wickedness he was hateful to God and was killed by Jehu. After Ahaziah, his mother Athaliah reigned for six years; she killed all the children of Ahaziah except for one infant, who was saved against all human expectation by the wife of Joda the priest. He was suddenly proclaimed king by Joda the priest at the age of seven. Athaliah was killed in the house of the king. D After Athaliah, Joash, the son of Ahaziah, who had reigned for seven years, reigned for forty years. He initially showed himself pleasing to God for his piety, but later went astray and was killed in his own house. Joash handed over the prophet Zechariah, the son of his teacher, to death. The Sibyl was known during these times. After Joash, his son Amaziah ruled the empire for twenty-nine years, a man of proven piety toward God. He was slaughtered in battle. After Amaziah, his son Uzziah, who is also Azariah, succeeded to the kingdom for fifty-two years. He obtained the benevolence of the Divinity, and when he saw that all things were flowing prosperously for him, swelling with pride, he wished to offer incense to God himself, and since...
he had burned incense, he was immediately struck with leprosy, and thus he departed this life.
After Uzziah, Jotham his son reigned sixteen years, and he did what was right before the Lord, and he died.
After Jotham, Ahaz his son reigned seventeen years, and having done what was evil before the Lord, he died.
After Ahaz, Hezekiah his son reigned twenty-nine years, and he did what was right before the Lord, and he died. In his day the Mosaic bronze serpent still remained in veneration among the Jews, which Hezekiah destroyed, just as he did the books of Solomon. During these times Romus and Remus were reigning in Rome, and the Erythraean Sibyl was known. In his time also Sennacherib, having come up against Jerusalem, after losing one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in one night by a divine angel, returned in disgrace.
After Hezekiah, Manasseh his son reigned fifty-five years; he also sawed the great Isaiah in two, filled Jerusalem with the blood of innocents, and did what was evil before the Lord. Later, after his ruin and captivity, having rectified himself through repentance, he died.
After Manasseh, Amon his son reigned two years, and he did what was evil before the Lord, and was slain in his own house.
After Amon, Josiah his son reigned, being eight years old, for thirty-one years, and he did what was right before the Lord, and he died after being shot by an arrow in battle. During these times also, Byzantium in Thrace was built by King Byzas.
After Josiah, Jehoahaz his son reigned for three months, and he did what was evil before the Lord; having been taken by Necho, king of Egypt, he was led away into Egypt, where he also died.
After Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim—who was also [called] Eliakim—his brother, reigned for eleven years, and he did what was evil before the Lord. And Nebuchadnezzar came and made all of Judea tributary. Because Jehoiakim failed to pay the tribute, Nebuchadnezzar came again to Jerusalem, and having captured him and killed him, he ordered him to be cast from the wall, and he left him unburied for a long time.
After Jehoiakim, Jeconiah his son—who was also [called] Jehoiachin—reigned by the command of Nebuchadnezzar for three months, and he did what was evil before the Lord. And because he was ungrateful regarding the taxes, Nebuchadnezzar came again to Jerusalem, and having installed Zedekiah in his place, he deported Jeconiah, his mother, and his princes to Babylon. He also carried off the treasures of the Lord and of the king and all the gold vessels which Solomon had made in the temple of the Lord.
After Jeconiah, Zedekiah his uncle reigned for three years, and he did what was evil before the Lord; and regarding the tribute, he likewise broke...
A his oath. Nebuchadnezzar then came again, and having taken the whole city, he burned it with fire. He captured Zedekiah, slew his wife and his children before his eyes, and having blinded him and bound him with chains, led him away captive to Babylon.
After the division of the ten scepters, Jeroboam, son of Nebat, of the tribe of Ephraim—the servant of Solomon and a rebel—reigned for forty-two years. He did what was evil before the Lord; wherefore God struck him down, and he died in his sins. After Jeroboam, his son Nadab reigned for two years; he did what was evil before the Lord and was slain by Baasha. After Nadab, Baasha reigned for twenty-four years; he did what was evil and was slain in battle. After Baasha, his son Elah reigned for two years; he did what was evil and was slain by Zimri. After Elah, Zimri reigned for twelve years; he did what was evil and was burned by the enemy in the house to which he had fled for refuge. After Zimri, his son Ahab reigned for twenty-two years; he did what was evil, and he died in his sins. After Ahab, his son Ahaziah reigned for two years; he did what was evil, and having fallen from the upper chamber of his house, he died.
B After Ahaziah, his brother Joram reigned for two years; he did what was evil and was slain by Jehu. In his time, the great Elijah was taken up; and Elisha healed the waters of Jericho, which were by nature bitter and undrinkable. After Joram, Jehu, son of Nimshi, held the kingdom for twenty-eight years. As he was entering Samaria, he saw Jezebel, who had appeared at the window in very elegant attire, and he commanded her eunuchs to throw her down; she was trampled by horses and devoured by dogs. He also struck down the sons of Ahab, and with craftiness having gathered together all the priests and prophets of Baal, he ordered them all to be put to death, and he burned Baal and all his belongings. However, he did not keep to the end the command to walk in the law of the Lord, and he was slain in battle.
After Jehu, his son Jehoahaz reigned for twenty-seven years; he was a law-breaker and impious, and he died. After Jehoahaz, his son Joash reigned for fourteen years; he did what was evil and he died. In his D time, Elisha died, after having prophesied to him, through signs, the earlier victory over the Syrians. But when the prophet was being buried in the monument, a certain dead man who approached the blessed bones of the prophet in the same tomb was restored to life.
A After Joas, Jeroboam his son held the kingdom for thirty-four years; his life was stained with wickedness, and he died.
After Jeroboam, Azarias his son reigned for six months; he committed evil and was slain by Sellum.
After Azarias, Sellum reigned for one month; he committed evil and was slain by Manaem.
After Sellum, Manaem reigned for three years; he committed evil and was slain by Phacesias.
After Manaem, Phacesias his son reigned for two years; he committed evil and was slain by Phacee.
After Phacesias, Phacee reigned for twenty years; he committed evil and was slain by Osee.
After Phacee, Osee reigned for nine years, and while doing evil, he died.
After the aforementioned kings of the Assyrians, as has been said, the kingdom devolved upon Nabuchodonosor for twenty-seven years. B And because he became arrogant, he was cast out from the company of men by divine wrath and dwelt with beasts and ate grass; later, having acknowledged the God of the universe, he returned again to his own kingdom and became more brilliant.
After Nabuchodonosor, Ulemarodach his son reigned for five years.
After Ulemarodach, Baltasar his brother reigned for three years; he, having defiled the sacred vessels of God at his banquet, which his father Nabuchodonosor had brought from Jerusalem, was slain by divine wrath, and Darius received the kingdom.
After Baltasar, Darius the Mede, who was also called Astyages and Artaxerxes, reigned for seventeen years. In his time the visions were seen by Daniel through the angel, and the time of Christ's coming was revealed; he, because he was envied by the grandees for being greatly honored by the king, was thrown into the den of lions. C
After Darius, Cyrus the Persian reigned for thirty years, who, having killed Darius, secured all of the land of the Chaldeans and Assyrians and Persians and Palestine and all of Asia, with which he subjected the kingdom of the Lydians, having killed Croesus, as previously stated. In his time, Daniel, being still quite prominent and having shattered Bel and slain the dragon (the objects of Persian veneration), was thrown into the den of lions, and he was there for six days.
After Cyrus, Cambyses his son, also called Nabuchodonosor, reigned for eighteen years. D In his time, Judith, by the help of God and by her own wisdom, having deceived and beheaded Holofernes, who was threatening the destruction of the city of Bethulia, brought about a great victory for the sons of Israel, and she died a widow at the age of one hundred and five.
After Cambyses, Smerdis the Magus reigned for seven months.
A After Smerdis, Darius the son of Hystaspes reigned for twenty years. Under him, Zerubbabel and Joshua, having been empowered, finished the building of the temple; when Zerubbabel had conquered in the competition and was permitted to ask for whatever he wished, he requested that the captivity be released and Jerusalem rebuilt. This came to pass, and then the seventy years of captivity and wrath were fulfilled to the end. The high priest and scribe Ezra was meanwhile teaching the law of God and interpreting it with the greatest natural ability; he also restored the holy books which had been corrupted by the enemies—for the Chaldeans, after the capture of Jerusalem, had burned them all. Therefore, God breathed into him so that he might publish and make them public. After Darius, Artabanus reigned for seven months. After Artabanus, Artaxerxes Longimanus reigned for forty-one years. In his time, Sophocles, Heraclitus, Anaxagoras, Pythagoras, Thucydides, Euripides, Herodotus, Empedocles, Diogenes, Zeno, Pherecydes, Aristarchus, Hippocrates, Parmenides, Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes, and Socrates were well-known.
After Artaxerxes, another Artaxerxes reigned, and those who followed him down to Darius, whom Alexander killed. After he had laid waste to the Persian kingdom and secured all the earth, having died in Babylon, his ministers—as has been stated before—divided the empire. His children divided it thus: Ptolemy, son of Lagus, held the kingdom of B Egypt, and the thirteen Ptolemies who followed him down to Cleopatra, daughter of Dionysius. Antigonus held all of Asia. Seleucus Nicanor held Syria, Babylonia, and Palestine; he built two cities in the regions of Cilicia and a third in Syria, naming the one Seleucia, the second Antioch, and the third Laodicea, after his own name and that of his son and daughter, Laodice. At that time, the Rhodians, having obtained dominion of the sea, erected in the city—or rather on the island there—a bronze statue of the sun, which they called a Colossus because of its size, and they themselves were called Colossians.
After Seleucus, his son Antiochus reigned, along with five others. Then reigned Antiochus Epiphanes, son of Seleucus Philopator, under whom the second capture C of Jerusalem occurred, the events concerning the Maccabees took place, and the temple was profaned according to the prophecy of Daniel. D He, the architect of nefarious crimes, exchanged his life in a foreign land with a most disgraceful death. After Antiochus, his son Eupator reigned.
After these things, Julius Caesar reigned, who was not born; for his mother having died in the ninth month, they cut open the uterus and brought him out. Whence he is called Caesar, and from him all the Roman emperors have been called Caesars, which signifies an ana-
- Atomical cutting in the Roman tongue. He was the first of all, and the only one, to hold the Roman scepter with great arrogance; whence he was also called dictator, which is monarch. Having held everything in rashness and tyranny for eighteen years, he was slain by the senate. He gave laws to the Romans, invented the bissextile [year], and renamed the month July, previously called Quintilis. Under him lived Judas the Galilean, who is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, and Antipater, the father of Herod, was made king of Judæa.
After Julius Caesar, Augustus Caesar, son of Octavius, reigned for fifty-six years, and he was also called Sebastos. From him the Roman emperors were called Sebastoi and Augusti, and the month of August [was so named], which was previously called Sextilis. In the forty-second year of his reign, our Lord Jesus Christ was born. And in the forty-first year of his reign, in the five thousand five hundredth year from the creation of the world, Herod from the nations was already proclaimed king of Judæa. B And when our Lord Jesus Christ was born in the flesh, and Herod had miserably ended his life, that saying was fulfilled: *The prince shall not fail from Judah, until he comes for whom it is reserved, who is the Christ.* Herod had three sons for himself with double names: Herod Antipas, who beheaded the Forerunner, and under whom the Lord was crucified; Herod Philip, to whom Herodias was first married and bore the dancing-girl Salome; and Herod Antipater, the killer of James [son] of Zebedee, who, when the people shouted during his oration, "The voice of God and not of man," C immediately suffered punishment; for the angel of the Lord straightway struck him down, and he leaped from his throne, his belly suffering terrible writhing pains. When his accuser saw the divine James being led to death, he was led to repentance and fell at the feet of the apostle, saying, "Forgive me, man of God, for I repent of what I spoke against you." The blessed one embraced him and said to him, "Peace be to you, my child; peace be to you and forgiveness of your transgression." And he, with a loud voice, immediately proclaimed himself a Christian before all, and thus, being numbered with him whom he himself had accused, he obtained the crown of martyrdom along with him. But that wretched Herod, wasted away for many days D and spewing forth worms, miserably ended his life, just as his more impious father had.
After Augustus, his son Tiberius reigned for twenty-three years, who built a city in Judæa and called it Tiberias after his own name. In the fifteenth year of his reign, our Lord was baptized and began the preaching of the Gospel. And in the eighteenth year, being crucified, He rose again on the twenty-fifth of the month of Phamenoth, which is March, which is called Nisan among the Hebrews, the first-created month, as the Lord’s day dawned. But why is the Lord’s resurrection called the eighth? Because we find in the divine Scripture seven resurrections of the dead, and after the seven, the eighth was the Lord’s rising from the dead. For before Christ’s resurrection, in the Old [Testament]
the raising of the widow’s son is commemorated, whom Elijah raised up at Zarephath; the second, of the Shunammite’s son, whom Elisha raised; the third, of the soldier buried near the body of Elisha, who, as soon as he touched the prophet’s relics, sprang up as if from fire; the fourth, in the New, the daughter of the synagogue leader; the fifth, the widow’s son; the sixth, Lazarus; the seventh, when many bodies of the sleeping saints arose; the eighth, however, is the Lord’s resurrection after the saving passion. A This man, because he was very tenacious of justice, used to inculcate in writing to the cities under him, saying: "If I ever write or command anything to be done contrary to the laws, pay no attention to it; for it has slipped out unknowingly." But later, alas! suddenly having changed to a worse frame of mind, he turned to every kind of impiety, slaughter, and unbridled lust, and thus ended his life.
After Tiberius, Gaius his son held the empire for four years. At first, he managed the affairs of the empire very munificently and treated his subjects moderately and as was fitting; but afterwards, after two years, having departed from human sanity by the imitation of his father, he deified himself and erected statues of himself in the temples in every city. Him the soldiers slaughtered while he was bathing in the bath, having gone to bathe, since they could not look with indifferent eyes upon his atrocious and most profligate deeds. Under him, Theudas, who is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, claiming that he would divide the Jordan, and failing, was killed; and the tower of Siloam fell upon the eighteen men; and Stephen C the first martyr was martyred; and Paul believed; and Philo and Josephus, the Hebrews, were renowned for their knowledge.
After Gaius, Claudius held the empire for thirteen years, under whom also Mark the Evangelist first established a church among the Egyptians and founded many monasteries, which were then called venerable places, and he wrote down the holy Gospel, and in Alexandria itself he first laid the foundations of the Church.
After Claudius, the empire devolved upon Nero his son. He ruled for 14 years. At that time, Simon Magus, by many prodigies and portents through the power of magic, as well as by illusions and deceits, had claimed the name of God for himself. Once at midday, having gone into the theater, he promised to fly through the air. Seeing his flight, Peter, with poured-out prayers and eyes fixed upon him, said to Simon: "If I am an apostle of Jesus Christ and not a deceiver, as you, Simon, are, I command the wicked spirits to let you go from their hold and not hold you any longer." Hardly had Peter said these things when he was cast down with a great noise and was shattered. Nero, hearing that Simon had been killed by Peter, and being indignant, ordered him to be crucified. D Peter, having besought the prefect not to be crucified upright, according to his own request was crucified, as he had desired out of great humility. After Peter, Paul also received the crown of martyrdom by the sword. But Nero
A when the empire was prolonged for him, slipped into wicked and detestable crimes and infamous slaughters; so that, driven by a monstrous fury and become savage, in the suburbs he laid hands upon himself. In like manner also Pilate, having fallen into various calamities, did away with himself.
After Nero, Galba administered the empire for seven months; after Galba, Lucibius for three months; after Lucibius, Vitellius for two months, and he was slaughtered in the midst of Rome by the multitude. After Vitellius, Vespasian, the son of Nero, for nine years.
After Vespasian, Titus his son for three years. He, having continued a journey through a very hot summer day, being scorched by the rays of the sun and suffering an eruption of blood from his nostrils, experienced a fainting of the soul; B and while yet drawing breath, he was cast into the tomb by his brother Domitian at the persuasion of Titus’s wife, and thus breathed his last—having entered upon an excellent manner of life, celebrated for temperance and justice, and desirable to all. At his death such great grief seized the city of Rome that everyone, both publicly and privately, was afflicted and groaned.
Domitian, his brother, having killed him, possessed the empire for fifteen years; at length, in the temple of Rome, he was murdered by the snares of his wife. This successor to the brother's throne, having imitated neither the excellent manner of life of his father nor of his brother, C but having emulated the Tiberian and Neronian outrages—being most contaminated in every kind of wickedness, slaughter, and lusts for both males and females—arrogated divine honors to himself; and therefore, being detestable and hateful to all, he cast away his abominable and nefarious life by a most disgraceful kind of death. At that time, Timothy the Apostle and Onesimus were extinguished for the Christian religion, and John, surnamed the Theologian and Evangelist, was relegated to the island of Patmos. Apollonius of Tyana also flourished.
Nerva, after Domitian, reigned for one year. He, having recalled John from exile from the island, permitted him to dwell in Ephesus, he being then the only one of the twelve disciples of Christ who remained in this life; and he, having written his Gospel, finished his final day in peace. Philip also, one of the seven deacons, was perfected at Hierapolis, and is buried with his daughters.
Trajan, after Nerva, administered the empire for nine years, D and died of dropsy. He was so good, a hater of evil, and a lover of justice, that he once, in the presence of his nobles, gave a naked sword to the Prefect of the Praetorium, using these words: "Take this sword; if I administer the state rightly, use it for me; but if otherwise, use it against me." Since there was no supply of a successor, at the instigation of some he was about to dismiss his wife and take another to himself so that he might beget children. His wife, who was prudent and chaste, persuaded him that if he wished his memory to be preserved forever among all, he should carve in marble the entrances and exits of all great cities; which thing he in fact performed. In whose time also Simeon, the son of Cleopas,
and Ignatius, surnamed Theophorus, suffered martyrdom, and Basilides, Cerinthus, Nicolaus, and Ebion, the heresiarchs and enemies of the truth, were known. A
After Trajan, Hadrian, who was also called Aelius, reigned for twenty-four years, and died of dropsy. He built a temple in Cyzicus, and a city in Thrace which he named Adrianople. In his time, Cerdo, Valentinus, Marcion, Montanus, Satorninus, and Carpocrates, the heresiarchs, as well as Aquila, were known.
After Hadrian, Antoninus reigned for twenty-two years. In his time, Polycarp, the disciple of John the Evangelist, and Justin the Philosopher, and Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, suffered martyrdom; and Tatian and Bardesanes, the heresiarchs, and Priscilla and Maximilla, the false prophetesses of the Cataphrygians, were known.
After Antoninus, Marcus his son reigned for eleven years. In his time, a fire was seen in the sky moving from west to east.
After Marcus, Severus his son reigned for eight years, and was slaughtered in Proconnesus. B
After Severus, his brother Commodus reigned for twelve years, and he died suddenly from an excretion of blood and bile. At that time, Theodotus, who was the first to sow the seeds of the error of Paul of Samosata and Nestorius, and Theodotion were known.
After Commodus, Pertinax reigned for two months, and was put to death by the soldiers.
After Pertinax, Didius (who is also called Julian) took over the empire for four months; he was killed by a chamberlain while he was refreshing himself by watching the fish in the palace fountain.
After Didius, Severus obtained the empire for eighteen years. At that time, Leonides, the bishop and father of Origen, laid down his life in martyrdom; and Clement the Stromatist, Symmachus, and Origen also flourished.
After Severus, Antoninus and Geta C his brother held the empire for two months. Furthermore, Antoninus, having slaughtered his brother and reigned alone for six years, was killed by his own men.
After Antoninus, Antoninus Caracallus held the empire for twenty-six years; he was killed in battle. In his time, Galen the physician was famous.
After Antoninus, Macrinus reigned for four years, and was killed by Antoninus.
After Macrinus, Antoninus Galba reigned, and was killed by Alexander.
After Antoninus, Alexander, son of Mamaea, reigned for thirteen years, and was killed together with his mother Mamaea by the treachery of the general Maximinus. In his time, Narcissus, Bishop of Jerusalem, while baptizing, when the oil of unction ran out, ordered water to be poured into the vessel, and after praying, he changed it into oil. D
A After Alexander, Maximinus reigned for three years and was slaughtered by his own army. In his time, Laurentius and Cyprian were martyred for Christ. After Maximinus, Publianus reigned for two months and was slaughtered in battle. After Publianus, Junor reigned for six months. After Junor, Gordianus, his son, reigned for four years; he fell from a horse in battle and departed this life. After Gordianus, Philippus, the father of Saint Eugenia, reigned for five years; he founded Philippopolis and was killed together with his son by Decius, because he protected the Christian cause.
B After Philippus, Junor, the son of Gordianus, reigned for two years; he died from dropsy. In his time, Sabellius the heresiarch was known. After Junor, Marcus reigned for three years. After Marcus, Justinianus reigned for two years; having been bled, because his blood flowed out while he was sleeping, he fainted and died. After Justinianus, Philippus reigned for twenty-six years and was slaughtered in the palace. After Philippus, Valerianus reigned for one year and was slaughtered by his own people. After Valerianus, Gallus reigned for one month and was slaughtered while sleeping at the hands of his own wife. After Gallus, Decius reigned for one year and was killed in battle. In his time, Babylas of Antioch, Flavianus of Rome, Alexander of Jerusalem, and Dionysius of Alexandria were martyred for the sake of Christ; Novatus separated from the Church, and Celsæus the heresiarch was known.
C After Decius, Aemilianus reigned for one year and was slaughtered in the palace. After Aemilianus, Gallianus reigned for three years and was slaughtered in battle. In his time, Artemius and Synepo the heresiarchs were known, and Gregory the Wonderworker, also a disciple of Origen, flourished. After Gallianus, Claudius reigned for two years. After Claudius, Quintilianus reigned for 7 days. After Quintilianus, Aurelianus reigned for five years and was slaughtered by his chamberlain. D In his time, Saint Chariton attained the crown of martyrdom, and Manes, that impious and thrice-cursed man, sprang up, who, moved by demons, boasted himself to be Christ and the Holy Spirit. Paulus, who was a contemporary of this Manes, being from Samosata by race, the bishop of great Antioch, uttered blasphemy that the Lord was a mere man. Afterwards, a certain Apollinarius sprang up, the bishop of Laodicea in Syria, who declared that the Lord had assumed flesh animated by a vital soul, but one which was entirely devoid of reason. After him, a certain Theodorus appeared, having obtained the governorship of the city of Mopsuestia in Cilicia, who...
following his ancestors—for he was the son of a Cilician and a descendant of the Samosatene—confessed that Christ the Lord was a man like us and an ordinary one, and that He had received the grace of God by progress, and was for that reason called God, and that by the baptism in the river Jordan He was deemed worthy of the gifts of the Holy Spirit; but he maintained that the divine Word, on account of His immense virtue, dwelt in Him and finally, after the consummation, imparted to Him dignity, divinity, and veneration. After him Nestorius, having seized the throne of Constantinople from Germanicia in Syria, who, following his ancestors—for he was the son of a Cilician and a descendant of the Samosatene—refused to call our most holy Lady the Mother of God, arguing according to his ancestral and hereditary error as if Christ were one thing and the divine Word another. Furthermore, Eutyches, who denied that two natures were preserved in Christ after the union. Also a certain Severus, I do not know whom, who occupied the throne of Antioch, and others.
B After Aurelian, Tacitus administered the empire for six months. He was killed by the friends of Aurelian. After Tacitus, Florianus for two months. He was killed by Probus. After Florianus, Probus for six years. He was killed by Carus. After Probus, Carus for one year. He was strangled by Carinus. After Carus, Carinus his son for two years. He was deprived of life by Numerianus. After Carinus, his brother Numerianus for one year. Captured by the Persians, he was flayed alive.
After Numerianus, Diocletian together with Maximian his son-in-law shared the empire for twenty-two years. During their reign a great persecution was stirred up against the Christians, in which Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, and Anthimus of Nicomedia, and also Procopius and Theodorus, most celebrated men, and many others were put to death by the most cruel means for the Christian religion. At that time also Sabbatius became known, who attempted to establish the heresy of the Tessarescaidecatites. But divine judgment followed and punished these emperors with a just death: for Diocletian’s tongue and throat rotted away, and teeming with worms, he wretchedly and violently cast off his life; Maximian broke his throat with a noose.
D After Diocletian and Maximian were removed, at these same times Constantius and Severus, Maximinus and Maxentius held the empire. Constantius, with his son Constantine, reigned over the Celts and the Britons; Severus and Maxentius presided over Rome, and Maximinus over the East. This man, defiled by many shameful acts and crimes and of a fierce and cruel spirit, unleashed an inhuman persecution against the Christians and subjected many noble men to martyrdom for Christ. Yet he received the punishment which he deserved for his impiety; for he was tormented by such a dire disease that his flesh melted like wax and his bones became charred and
the character of his human form was wiped away and he had severely rotted, and he emitted such a stench that he differed in no way from corpses lying in tombs. And so, the miscreant, being in such a state, said these things: "Woe is me, wretched and worthy of lamentations! What sort of punishment am I undergoing for the things I dared to commit against the Christians!" And having said these words with great pain, he died.
A When Constantius, who was surnamed Chlorus because of the paleness of his face, had died, the empire devolved to his son Constantine, who had been born to him by Helena near a city of Dacia. Similarly, when Severus had died, Licinius, the son-in-law of Constantius, was introduced. Now, when Constantine had been baptized and had found that miraculous deliverance from the disease that had been holding him, immediately his mother Helena and his kinsmen and friends were also baptized. Then, having heard of the harsh and absurd things committed by Maxentius in Rome, and having received an embassy from the Romans, he marched against him, bearing before his army the sign of the cross shown to him in the heavens, through which he also routed Maxentius. And in this way he marched upon Rome, and all, together with their wives and infants and the entire Roman populace, received him with acclamations and insatiable joy.
B After Maxentius, Constantine the Great reigned, the first among emperors to be most Christian, for thirty-two years, he who strengthened piety and orthodoxy in every way. In the twenty-fifth year of his reign, the synod of the three hundred and eighteen god-bearing Fathers was convened at Nicaea against the foolish Arius. His mother died at the age of eighty and was buried by him in the Church of the Holy Apostles. But when he himself had died in Nicomedia at the age of sixty-five, his three sons held the empire: Constantius the East, and Constantine and Constans the West—the latter of whom, having murdered his brother Constantine and having reigned alone for seventeen years, was himself slaughtered by the people.
C After Constantine the Great, his son Constantius reigned for eleven years; he, after the death of his father, having been enticed into the Arian persuasion, sought to force the divine Alexander to receive Arius into communion. But when he refused, and instead besought God with tears, that most wretched man met his end by an evil death.
D After Constantius, Julian reigned for two years, having held the rank of Caesar for four years and six months. He, having displayed many evils against the Christians, was slain in Persia by divine justice, being thirty years of age.
After Julian, Jovian reigned for eight months; he, having been pressed by the army to accept the signs of the empire, is said to have...
replied that he could not rule over those who had been defiled by Julian. Whereupon all with one voice, as it is told, shouted out, "We are Christians," and thus he accepted the empire. But this pious and admirable man, after eight months of his reign, departed from earthly affairs while returning from Persia, leaving the Church and all the multitude in great mourning.
After Jovian, Valentinian reigned for twelve years. He, after thirty days had passed from his own proclamation, summoned his brother Valens from Paeonia and made him his colleague in the empire. Valens, being addicted to the heretics, did not cease to exile bishops, priests, deacons, and the whole populace, B committing many most impious and cruel acts against the Church of God. Eventually, struggling in arms against the Goths and being defeated by force, he fled with a few others into a hut, where he was consumed by the enemy with flames along with those who were with him and the hut itself, having ruled impiously for fourteen years. Valentinian the Great, returning from the regions of Gaul, reached his end, leaving as heirs of his empire his son Gratian, who had already taken the insignia of Augustus and was staying in Rome, and Valentinian, who was still a young boy. Valentinian, compelled by the force of those who held the place of empire, seized the seat and, in the absence of his brother, was invested with the purple.
Gratian created his son-in-law C, the Great Theodosius, whom he had summoned from Spain, emperor, and sent him to the government of the Orient to defeat the Scythians who were devastating Thrace. Afterwards, however, he was murdered by the treachery of a certain Maximus through Andragathius and was buried by Theodosius in the royal tombs.
After Gratian, Theodosius the Great reigned for seventeen years, who confirmed the episcopal seat of Constantinople to Gregory, surnamed the Theologian, and compelled him—though he was unwilling—as one who had undergone many labors for religion and had freed the city from the plague of heresies. But when the divine Gregory learned that some of the Egyptians were envious of him on this account, having written the oration which he named the *Syntacterion*, he resigned from the burden of the episcopate. In his place, both the emperor and the synod chose Nectarius; and D at that time the second synod of the 150 holy Fathers was held in Constantinople against Macedonius the *Pneumatomachus*, who had been bishop of Constantinople. Under him also the precious head of the Forerunner was brought to Constantinople. In the meantime, Valentinian, in the regions of the West, took his own life by hanging; for what reason, however, we do not know to this day. Furthermore, Theodosius committed the empire of the Orient, which had been handed to him, to Arcadius to administer, and having invested Honorius with the same dignity that he himself possessed, he sent him quickly to the empire of the West; and when he had come to him, he embraced him with open arms, took him with a sweet kiss, and granted him the administration of the Western empire. He himself
A departed into the better life, having happily governed the empire for seventeen years.
After Theodosius, his son Arcadius reigned for twenty-two years; he erected the column of Xerolophos and set his own statue upon it, and having built a city in Thrace, he named it Arcadiopolis. At that time also, Nectarius having died, by common suffrage Arcadius sent for John Chrysostom from the city of Antioch and caused him to be ordained bishop of Constantinople.
After Arcadius, his son Theodosius, who was also called Calligraphus, reigned for thirty-two years; he built the temple of the Theotokos in the Chalcoprateia, which had previously been a synagogue of the Jews. Under him, the seven youths who had fallen asleep in Ephesus in the time of Decius rose again after three hundred and two years. He also, having sent for them, brought in the relics of Chrysostom and deposited them in the sanctuary of the Holy Apostles, at which time also the third synod of the two hundred Fathers was held in Ephesus against Nestorius. Some time later, Emperor Theodosius went out to ride, and his horse having stumbled, he received a wound and was carried into the city in a litter; then, having called his sister Pulcheria, he spoke to her concerning Marcian, who reigned after him. "For John the Theologian revealed this to me," he said, "while I was in Ephesus." And after two days he gave up his soul.
After Theodosius, Marcian reigned for six years and five months, having been crowned by Anatolius the patriarch. For when Theodosius had died, and this was not yet known to anyone, Pulcheria summoned him—a man who was a soldier, old, and distinguished by temperance and gravity of life—and said to him, "Since the emperor has died, and I have chosen you out of the entire senate as a man adorned with every virtue to be emperor, I wish you to pledge your faith that you will never violate my virginity, which I have vowed as sacrosanct and dedicated to God. If you first promise this, I shall set you forth as emperor of the republic." B Upon his agreeing to this and confirming his words with an oath, the empress, having summoned the patriarch and called together the senate, proclaimed him emperor. Under him also the fourth synod of the six hundred and thirty Fathers was held in Chalcedon against Eutyches and Dioscurus. But the emperor Marcian, having been crowned... the feet, and having fallen ill, died after five months.
After Marcian, Leo the Great, surnamed Macel, held the reins of the empire for eighteen years; he was chosen by Aspar and Ardaburius on account of his virtue and his upright and incorrupt opinion concerning the faith, but he later did away with them as Arians and traitors to him and as men who wished to govern public affairs wickedly. Having written a letter to Anthemius, the emperor of Rome, he added this among other things: "I have had Aspar and Ardaburius put to death, so that no one may hereafter oppose me." For Macel signifies "slayer" in the Roman tongue. D At that time a great fire occurred from the Neorion as far as Saint Thomas. And the garment of the Theotokos, having been found in Jerusalem by a certain most pious woman
A and being guarded in a holy manner, was brought to Constantinople and deposited in Blachernae. There the Emperor built a temple to the Mother of God, and having had a chest made of gold and silver, he deposited it therein. This garment, woven of delicate wool and threads of similar form and color, has remained incorrupt and indestructible even until today, clearly proclaiming the miracle of the Ever-Virgin. But Emperor Leo, having been afflicted with a disease of the bowels, died.
After Leo, Leo the Younger, his grandson from Zeno and Ariadna, reigned for one year. B After Leo the Younger, Zeno the Isaurian, his father, reigned for eleven years, and he died of a disease of the bowels. At the very beginning of his reign, being plotted against by Verina, his mother-in-law, the wife of Leo the Great, who feared that he had obtained the empire against her will, he fled to his own homeland. Verina then crowned her brother Basiliscus as emperor. After these things, Zeno, having returned to Constantinople and having overcome him, exiled Basiliscus—who had taken refuge in the church together with his wife and children—to a fortress in Cappadocia, where they were cast into a tower and, the door having been sealed, they perished. During his time, Martyrius, the bishop of Antioch, on account of Zeno’s perversion concerning the orthodox faith, resigned from his episcopate and withdrew. After he withdrew, Peter the Fuller tyrannically leaped upon the throne. C This Martyrius was the first to invent that the chrism should be sanctified in the church before all the people, and that the Theotokos should be named in every prayer, and that the Symbol of Faith should be recited in every assembly, whereas previously it was recited only once a year on Great Friday. Also, the body of the Apostle Barnabas was found under a cherry tree, having upon its breast the Gospel according to Matthew, written by Barnabas’s own hand. From this pretext, the Cypriots managed to separate themselves from Antioch, their metropolis. An Gospel deposited by Zeno in the palace in the church of Saint Stephen is read every year on Holy Great Thursday. D
After Zeno, Anastasius Dicorus, from the silentiaries, was installed into the empire; he himself was also an adherent of the Acephalous sect, and he reigned for thirteen years. In his sleep, he saw a certain terrible man holding in his hand a written codex and saying to him, "Behold, because of your perverse faith, I erase fourteen years from your life." And as thunders and lightnings occurred around the palace, and the Emperor was left all alone and was wandering from place to place, his wrath overtook him in one of the bedchambers (it was called the Vaton), so that he was suddenly found dead. Some relate that after the day of his burial had passed, a voice cried out: "Have mercy on me, and open." But when those who were in charge of the burial asked, "Another emperor now possesses the throne," he replied, "It is of no concern to me; lead me away to a monastery and make me a monk." But they neglected his request. Not much later, when the tomb was opened, he was found to have eaten his own arms and the boots he had been wearing.
A After Anastasius, Justin the Thracian, the Great, reigned as emperor for nine years, a man most warlike and a champion of the Orthodox faith, under whom the events concerning Saint Arethas and those in the city of Negra took place, as well as the events against the Homerites through Elesbaam, king of the Ethiopians. Having reached the end of his life, Emperor Justin left as emperor his nephew Justinian.
After Justin, Justinian, his nephew, reigned for thirty-nine years, who created the Novellae constitutions. He renovated the Great Church of God, making it more spectacular in beauty and size than it was before, and he ordained for a troparion to be chanted in it: "Only-begotten Son and Word of God." And the Hypapante began to be celebrated, which previously was not numbered among the Despotic feasts. The fifth synod of the 165 holy Fathers was also held against Origen and those who accepted his impious dogmas, Didymus and Evagrius, and the chapters set forth by them. Toward the end of his life, the emperor, having stirred up the dogma concerning the corruptible and the incorruptible, died an alien to piety, having declared his nephew Justin, who was at that time Curopalates, as emperor.
B After Justinian, his nephew Justin reigned for thirteen years, being most munificent and a lover of building. He built a palace outside the city and a harbor within the city. The former he called Sophianai, and the latter Sophia, after the name of his own wife. He also built the church of the holy apostles Peter and Paul in the Orphanotropheion. Then, having been seized by a disease and about to die, he called for the patriarch and the entire senate and appointed Tiberius as emperor.
After Justin, Tiberius the Thracian reigned for four years, who, after proclaiming his own wife Anastasia as Augusta, ordered Sophia, the wife of Justin, to be taken to the palace situated in the harbor of Julian, and gave her chamberlains and others to be in her service; and he honored her as a mother, rendering her every care. When he was about to die, he proclaimed as emperor Maurice, his son-in-law through his daughter.
After Tiberius, Maurice the Armenian and his son-in-law reigned for twenty years. This son-in-law had the name Philippicus, who built a monastery in Chrysopolis in his own name. But Maurice, having learned of the tyranny of Phocas and fleeing the uprising of the people, in the middle of the night took off his imperial robes and put on common clothing, and entered a dromon with his wife and children. C And having been saved with danger at the church of Saint Autonomus and hastening to flee to a certain fortified stronghold, he could not; for suddenly the most severe pains seized him, and agonies of gout and arthritis, so that he lay immobile. But Phocas, having been received by the people, entered the imperial palace.
After Maurice, Phocas the Cappadocian and tyrant reigned D
for three years. A His son-in-law, Priscus, unable to endure his unjust slaughters and the wicked things done by him, wrote to Heraclius, who was then in charge of the African armies, that he should come with a fleet against the tyrant. He arrived, a battle was engaged, and that plague of the commonwealth was defeated; being captured, his hands, feet, and the extremities of his shoulders were cut off, and his private parts were excised; then, his head having been severed and mounted on a pole, it was carried about, and the rest of his corpse was delivered to the fire in the forum known as that of the Ox.
After Phocas, Heraclius reigned for thirty years, and was crowned by Sergius in the church of St. Stephen in the palace. At the same time, Eudocia Augusta, his betrothed, was crowned with him with the crowns of marriage, both being declared sovereigns and bride and groom. In his time, Chosroes the Persian sacked Jerusalem and burned the venerable sites, and he led away a multitude of captives along with the patriarch Zacharias and the precious woods into Persia. After Chosroes was killed some years later, the captives were set at liberty and the life-giving Cross was restored to its own place. This man, therefore, later deceived by Athanasius, patriarch of the Jacobites, and Sergius of Constantinople the Syrian, slipped into the heresy of the Monothelites, and finally, having fallen victim to dropsy and suffering direly, he died.
After Heraclius, his son Constantine reigned for one year, who was taken off by poison by his stepmother Martina.
After Constantine, Heraclonas, together with his mother Martina, reigned for four months, whom the senate deposed, having mutilated him by slitting his nose and having cut out Martina's tongue, and expelled them both into exile. C After Heraclonas, the empire devolved upon Constans, the son of Constantine and grandson of Heraclius, who reigned for twenty-seven years. He brought the most holy Roman pope Martin to Constantinople ignominiously, because he refuted his dogma—in which he asserted one will in Christ—and ordered him banished to Cherson. He also cut out the tongue and right hand of Maximus the Confessor, and punished many others of the orthodox with scourges, proscription, and exile for the same reason. Afterwards, leaving Constantinople because he was greatly hated by the Byzantines, he moved to Syracuse in Sicily, where, while he was washing in a bath, he was killed by one Andrew, who struck his head heavily with a bucket. D
After Constans, his son Constantine reigned for seventeen years, who also castrated the patriarch Germanus, after first having done away with his father. He was called Pogonatus because he had gone to Sicily to avenge his father’s murder while beardless, and returned with a beard. He mutilated by slitting the noses of his two brothers, Heraclius and Tiberius, because they were proclaimed emperors by the people, though he himself did not wish it. He crowned his son Justinian to reign with him. In the thirteenth year of his
A reign, he gathered an ecumenical council of 170 holy Fathers in Constantinople against Theodore, bishop of Pharan, Honorius of Rome, and Cyrus of Alexandria, as well as Sergius, Pyrrhus, Paul, and Peter, who had been bishops of Constantinople, and others who affirmed one will and one operation in Christ. The council anathematized them and proclaimed that two natural wills, that is, volitions, and two natural operations are manifested in the one Christ, our God. The Emperor, having been seized by a bowel disease, expired.
After Constantine, his son Justinian ruled for one year; he built the so-called Justinian triclinium in the palace. Later, having been mutilated in the nose by Leontius, he was exiled to Cherson.
After Justinian, Leontius held the empire for three years. He sent the patrician John with a Roman fleet against the Hagarenes into Africa; he, having routed the enemies and liberated Africa, was returning home. But the army, turned to an evil plan by the counsel of its leaders, slaughtered the patrician John, anathematized the Emperor, and proclaimed as emperor Apsimar, the drungarius of the Cibyrraeots, whom he wished to be called by the changed name of Tiberius. Tiberius, having secured the help of traitors through the gate at Blachernae, entered the city, captured Leontius, mutilated his nose, and confined him in the monastery of the Dalmatians.
C After Leontius, Apsimar, also called Tiberius, occupied the empire for seven years. Now Justinian, whose nose had been cut off by Leontius, secretly gathered some men while in Cherson and sailed to the mouth of the Ister. Having landed, he sent to Terbel, the leader of the Bulgarians, asking him to provide auxiliaries to help him recover his ancestral and hereditary empire. Terbel not only provided auxiliaries but also offered his own service, advancing all the way to the queen of cities. Justinian, therefore, trusting in the counsel of a few friends, made his way into the city secretly through the aqueduct, by the treachery of some of the citizens, and he did not go far from Saint Anna—which received the name "the second" on his account—and established his headquarters in the Blachernae palace. Upon learning this, Apsimar fled to Apolloniada, taking with him a great quantity of money. Justinian then took Leontius and Apsimar—the former from the empire, the latter from his prison—and, having trampled them under his feet, D punished them with death amidst the circus games.
After Apsimar, Justinian again administered the empire for seven years, having given many gifts to Terbel and the Roman territory which they now call Zagoria. He hanged Heraclius, the brother of Apsimar, and all who had conspired with him. He blinded the patriarch Callinicus and drove him into exile in Rome; in his place, he appointed Cyriacus, who was on the island of Amastris, as he had predicted to him the restoration of the empire.
A Harboring a grudge against the Chersonites for their taunts and insults toward him when he lived in exile among them after being cast out of the empire, he ordered a fleet to be equipped and prepared, and placed the patrician Maurus in command of it. The Chersonites, having cast off the bridle of Justinian, quickly and hastily proclaimed Philippicus, the son of the patrician Nicephorus, who was in exile there by the order of Apsimar, as emperor. When the tyrant Justinian learned of this, he became exceedingly angry and alarmed, and he proceeded as far as Sinope to investigate the matter more accurately. But when Philippicus arrived at the city with his naval troops, Justinian, abandoned by all his own men, fled to Demetrius. Philippicus captured him, immediately and ignominiously put him to death, and sent his head to the Scythians. He also killed his son, Tiberius.
After Justinian, Philippicus, who was also called Bardanes, reigned for two years. Georgius the patrician, surnamed Boraphus, and Theodorus the patrician, known as Myxa, with a band of armed soldiers, suddenly arrived from Thrace, seized him, and immediately blinded him. The next day, the multitude having been assembled in the Great Church, they proclaimed the [protasecretis] Artemius as emperor.
After Philippicus, Artemius, who was also called Anastasius, held the empire for two years. Under him, Germanus was transferred from the metropolis of Cyzicus to the see of Constantinople as patriarch. The fleet which he himself had sent out against the Hagarenes revolted, deposed the emperor, killed their own commander, and thus directed their course toward the Queen of Cities. When they arrived at Adramyttium, they found there Theodosius, a collector of public taxes, an impious and inept man, and they proclaimed him emperor. He crossed over to the Thracian regions with a heavy crowd, reached the city, and entered through the gate of Blachernae. Artemius fled to Nicaea and, having received a promise of safety, donned the monastic habit; Theodosius ordered him to be exiled to Thessalonica. However, Leo the Isaurian, commander of the Eastern troops, defending Artemius’s cause, refused to obey Theodosius.
After Artemius, Theodosius of Adramyttium ruled the empire for two years. Under him, Leo the Isaurian, having been lured by Malsabas, the leader of the Saracens, and acclaimed as emperor by all, occupied Chrysopolis with a massive force of troops. Theodosius, having received a promise from him that he could live safely in the future, ceded the empire to Leo and enrolled himself and his son among the clergy. History records that he was also a chrysographer (goldsmith) and was appointed bishop of Ephesus by him.
After Theodosius, the empire was seized by Leo the Isaurian, who was also called Conon, for twenty-five years. He inflicted many damages and evils upon the Christians in order to abolish the veneration of the holy images, and he proclaimed his son Constantine as emperor. But this most flagitious and execrable plague upon the republic was seized by a disease of the bowels and ignominiously gave up his life.
A Leoni successit Constantinus filius in administratione imperii per annos triginta quatuor, ex horrendissimo leone versutissimus pardus, ex semine serpentis aspis dira et fulmineus serpens, ex Dano Antichristus. Hic paterni imperii atque impietatis hæres, magis ac magis cultum divinum, Dei Matris gloriam sanctorumque omnium aversabatur. Sed hic quoque turpi leto animam profudit, cum corpore exstincto anima quoque æterno supplicio condemnata. Ideo vivus miserabiliter ejulans mœrensque conquerebatur: Vivus igni traditus sum propter Deiparam Mariam. Sed ab hoc tempore in honore ac veneratione esto, cum vere Deipara sit.
Constantinum secutus est in imperio Leo ex Chazara filius per annos quinque. Is filium Constantinum B coronavit. Verum cum gemmarum ardore nimio insaniret, ad coronam Mauricii studio inflammato raptus est, ablataque ab ecclesia exornatus in publicum prodiit. Hinc caput illius carbunculorum vehementissimo morbo exarsit, ipse rabidissime hærenti febri jactatus vitæ finem posuit, sacrilegii pœnis persolutis.
Leoni Constantinus filius successit, tenuitque imperium annos septemdecim. Sub eo veræ pietatis dogmata radicibus actis propagari verbumque Dei laxius numerosiusque dilatari cœpit. Cum matre Irene imperium administravit. Ea coronam a marito sublatam unionibus exornatam rursus ecclesiæ restituit. Sub his Tarasius a secretis patriarcha eligitur, et septima trecentorum quinquaginta sanctorum Patrum apud Nicæam secundum congregatorum synodus, adversus primam contra jus fasque a Constantino in contumeliam abolitionemque sacrarum imaginum coactam celebrata, illius auctores anathemate feriit, et venerandarum imaginum antiquo avitoque honore in Ecclesia restituto, eas quemadmodum et crucem adorari decrevit. Constantinus porro cum in Arabas exercitum duxisset, regressus in palatium, a primatibus consilio matris Irenes oculis privatur; quæ post eum imperium tenuit annos quinque.
Post Irenem imperavit Nicephorus ex genicis annos octo: is Stauracium filium coronavit. Ejus imperio Tarasio vita functo sanctissimus Nicephorus eligitur. Imperator a Bulgaris, C adversus quos duxerat exercitum, obtruncatur.
Post Nicephorum Stauracius filius imperium rexit annum unum et menses duos.
Stauracio successit piissimus Michael Nicephori gener, cognomento Rangabe. Imperavit annum unum menses novem, a Nicephoro patriarcha coronatus.
Michaelem secutus est Leo Armenius, qui postea perduellis fuit; imperavit annos septem menses quinque. Coronatur a Nicephoro patriarcha, cum prius scripto rectam de fide sententiam confirmasset; quam postmodum violavit, et adversus D
A images, that man of utter contumacy, raging with fury, ordered the most holy Nicephorus to be exiled alone, and subjected very many other defenders of true piety to countless evils. But at length, by divine judgment, he paid the penalties he deserved; for on the very day of the Nativity of our Saviour, being torn limb from limb in the temple, he breathed out his impious and wretched soul.
After him, Michael the Amorian reigned for eight years and nine months. He crowned his son Theophilus. At length, he perished miserably from the pains of urinary difficulty and kidney disease. Theophilus, his son, succeeded him in the empire along with his mother, Euphrosyne.
After Michael, his son Theophilus, a new Balthazar, a man injurious and criminal toward holy things, and of the most profligate character, administered the empire for twelve years and three months. He died of dysentery. His mother, Euphrosyne, voluntarily withdrawing from the palace, retired to her own monastery, which was named Gastria, where she devoted herself to quietude. The emperor crowned his son Michael in the Great Church; but, as has been said, when the latter had miserably and wretchedly breathed out his soul by the dysenteric disease, his wretched body was carried to the church of the Holy Apostles.
After Theophilus, his son Michael, called Methystes (that is, the Drunkard), reigned with his mother Theodora for fourteen years—for ten years he reigned alone, and with Basil for one year and four months. Having succeeded to his father's throne and cast off the cursed heresy of his father, he from the very beginning proclaimed the holy and right faith and appointed the holy Methodius as patriarch. When he had fallen asleep in the Lord, Ignatius, the son of Michael the Curopalates, was substituted in his place. Bardas Caesar, because he was reproved by him for a sin into which he was falling, cast him out of the church by force, and in his place substituted Photius as patriarch. Michael was killed by the design of Basil. C
Basil the Macedonian, surnamed Cephalas, reigned with Michael for one year and four months, and alone for nineteen years. Having driven Photius from the throne because he was reproved by him for the murder of Michael, he appointed the holy Ignatius as patriarch for the second time. Upon his death, Photius was again appointed. When this emperor had gone out to hunt and was pursuing a huge stag that had appeared from somewhere, it turned and caught him with its antlers, pulling him from his horse. Meanwhile, someone running up and cutting the belt with a sword delivered the emperor from danger. D Yet, falling into sickness from that laceration by the stag, he ended his life, leaving behind Leo and his brother Alexander as emperors.
Leo reigned for twenty-five years and eight months. His brother, Stephen, who was inscribed in the register of clerics and syncelli, was trained under the patriarch Photius and educated in the sciences. But after Photius was ejected from the throne for certain reasons, the emperor created his brother Stephen patriarch. When he had died,
A in his place succeeds Antonius, surnamed Cauleas. The Augusta Theophano, having reigned for twelve years, expires from disease: in her place the emperor crowns Zoe, the daughter of Tzautzas, and joins her to himself in the sacred marriage rite of the Church. When Antonius had departed this life, Nicolaus the patrician, senator of the secret council, was chosen patriarch. Because he opposed the emperor’s frequent marriages, he was driven from the throne and Euthymius the syncellus was substituted. They say he undertook such an office by divine counsel, since the emperor had it in mind to establish a new law and raise up a heresy, so that marriages could be extended as far as a third husband and a fourth wife. Meanwhile, the emperor [Leo] bestows the imperial crown upon his son Constantine. Finally, the emperor, seized by a bowel disease, designates his brother Alexander B as emperor, having first begged him many times to keep his son Constantine safe, and thus he dies.
Alexander reigned for one year and twenty-nine days along with Constantine the son of Leo. Struck by a divine sword, with much blood flowing from his nostrils and his private parts, he died an evil death after two days, leaving the empire and his guardians to Constantine, son of Leo.
Constantine the First, the Porphyrogennetos, when his father Leo had died, being still a boy (for he was in his seventh year of age), was left in the empire by his uncle Alexander, subject to guardians. He reigned, therefore, with his mother Zoe Carbonopsina for seven years; with his father-in-law Romanus, to whose will he was subject, for twenty-five years; and alone for forty years, so that all the years of his reign altogether amounted to sixty-five. He discovered his mother plotting against the life of Romanus with poisoned C foods and drove her from the palace. Romanus Lecapenus, who was also named Abastactus, he honored with the dignity of Caesar, and subsequently crowned him with the diadem of the empire. Not long after, having been informed by some that Emperor Constantine was preparing machinations against him, he seized the opportunity to demote him and place him in the second rank after himself, arrogating the primacy to himself, and later promoted his son Theophylact to the patriarchal see. During his reign the holy image of Christ was brought from Edessa to Constantinople. Finally, Romanus, ejected from the palace by his own sons, was sent into exile to the island of Prote, where he departed from life. These men, in turn, their brother-in-law Constantine, lest they should dare to do the same against him, seized and drove from the palace, and having exiled them to the neighboring islands, he shaved their hair D and enrolled them in the white list of the clergy, after he had reigned with them for forty-three days. Constantine, therefore, son of Leo and the first Porphyrogennetos, having removed every suspicion from his path and being sole master of the empire for the second time, on the holy day of Pascha, with the patriarch Theophylact offering prayers, places the diadem upon Romanus, son of [Stephen], and he castrated Romanus, son of Stephen, as well as Basil, born to Romanus the elder from a Bulgarian slave, and Michael son of Christopher
A the emperor he caused to be tonsured as a cleric. Theophylact the patriarch, being thirteen years of age when he was ordained deacon, and sixteen when he was raised to the patriarchal throne, having conducted the patriarchate for twenty-three years and twenty-five days in a wicked and unworthy manner, gave up his soul, and the monk Polyeuctus was substituted in his place. During his reign, the venerable hand of the Forerunner was brought from Antioch, as well as the body of Saint Gregory the Theologian. This Emperor Constantine, therefore, after having reigned alone, as we have said, for fifteen years, fell into a sickness and died.
After Constantine, the empire devolved upon Romanus, his son, who was also called the "boy"; afflicted by disease, he departed from the life of men at the age of twenty-four, in the third year of his reign, in the fourth month, on the fifth day.
After Romanus, his sons, Basil and Constantine, together with their mother Theophano, received the empire; they reigned for five months along with Joseph Bringas, who at that time held the most power among them.
He was succeeded in the empire by Nicephorus Phocas, B who was crowned by the patriarch Polyeuctus; he also took Theophano as his lawful wife. He brought to the city a portion of the garment of John the Baptist, which he found at Beroea. He also brought the tile on which was the acheiropoietos image of the form of Christ our God, which he found at Hierapolis while he was plundering the city, and a lock of the hair of John the Baptist, still matted with blood. After he had reigned for six years, he was murdered in the palace by the counsel of the Empress Theophano at the hands of Tzimiskes and his fellow conspirators.
After him, John Tzimiskes occupied the empire, with whom Basil and Constantine, the sons of Romanus, reigned as co-emperors. C He took as his wife Theodora, sister of Romanus and daughter of Constantine the Porphyrogennetos. He was presented with the imperial regalia by the patriarch Polyeuctus after he had first obeyed him and had removed the murderers of Nicephorus, expelled Theophano from the palace and sent her into exile, and torn up the document which Nicephorus Phocas had drawn up for the subversion of ecclesiastical matters. After his election, Polyeuctus lived for only thirty-five days and then ended his life; in his place succeeded Basil the Scamandrenos, who, having been accused of certain crimes, was deposed by a convened synod. D In his stead was put forward Anthony the Studite. Tzimiskes, having reigned for six years and thirty days, was extinguished by poison through the treachery of Basil the parakoimomenos, leaving as successors Basil and Constantine, the sons of Romanus.
After Tzimiskes, Basil and Constantine the Porphyrogennetos held the empire for fifty years. Basil, being in the twentieth year of his age, Constan
Constantine was in his seventeenth. Wherefore they were emperors by name alone, while Basil the A chamberlain (parakoimomenos) managed all affairs according to his own pleasure; he also summoned their mother from exile back to the palace. B Nicholas Chrysoverges, having administered ecclesiastical affairs for twelve years and eight months, died, and Sisinnius the magister succeeded him, a man of renown, highly instructed in the medical and legal arts, and second to none. He also, after having shepherded the Church for only three years, departed from this life, and Sergius, the abbot of the monastery of Manuel, who traced his lineage to the patriarch Photius, was appointed in his place. He, having shepherded the Church of God for twenty full years, departed to the Lord, and Eustathius, who was the first of the priests of the church which was in the palace, was appointed patriarch. The emperor Basil restored the conduit of the emperor Valens, so that those in Byzantium might have an abundance of water. He, having been seized by a sudden illness, departed from this life. A few days before he died, the patriarch Eustathius also breathed his last; the emperor appointed as his successor the monk Alexius, who was an ecclesiarch in the monastery of Stoudios. Therefore, after the emperor Basil had died and was buried in the church of the Evangelist and Theologian which is at the Hebdomon, his brother Constantine assumed the imperial power alone. Having lived for the whole duration of his life for seventy years, and having been emperor for three years less one month, he was seized by a sudden illness and, given up by the doctors, he designated in his own place Romanus Argyrus as emperor, having previously joined him in marriage to his own daughter, Zoe. For the wife of Romanus had voluntarily cut off her hair, so that she might avert the danger of blindness, which was threatening her husband from the emperor, and thus she bestowed upon her husband both the light of her eyes and the empire. In this way, contrary to all hope and expectation, the emperor Romanus was rescued from the danger of blindness and was proclaimed ruler of all things together with Zoe, the daughter of Constantine, having accomplished many beneficial deeds at the very beginning of his reign. He also abolished the *allelengyon*, that is to say the tribute which the rich used to pay on behalf of the poor, which had been instituted by Basil; Constantine had indeed intended to abolish it, but was prevented by death. Under his reign, George Maniaces C took Edessa, and finding there the handwritten letter of our Lord Jesus Christ to Abgar, he sent it to the emperor Romanus in Byzantium. Meanwhile, the emperor was struck by a slow illness, with the hair of his head and beard falling out, having been circumvented by John the Orphanotrophos. For the empress Zoe, being insanely in love with Michael, the brother of Romanus, and surrendering herself to his lusts in secret, had harmed the emperor not with swift-acting poison, but with a slow and sluggish one. Therefore, while he was washing himself in the bath at the Great Palace on Great Thursday, he was miserably suffocated in the very basin of the bath by the associates of Michael, having reigned for five years and six months. He is buried in the monastery which he himself had built under the name of Peribleptos, which means "the Spectabilis," on the day of Great Friday. D
62 A Zoe, having placed Michael the Paphlagonian on the imperial throne, hoped that she would have him as a slave and servant instead of a husband and emperor. But the outcome did not respond in the least to her wishes. Furthermore, the emperor, being subject to an evil spirit and being severely afflicted by it, left nothing untried to free himself from this distress. But all his prayers were in vain. Nay, rather, he was tormented more and more by the onset of dropsy. Therefore, consumed by the disease that had taken hold of him and having despaired of his own salvation from every side, he was tonsured by the monk Cosmas Tzintzilucius, who was always present with him and directed what was to be done. He died in repentance and confession, lamenting the sin he had committed against the Emperor Romanus, having reigned seven years and eight months.
When Michael the Paphlagonian was dead, the entire care of the empire devolved upon Empress Zoe as heir. She took as her adopted son the emperor's nephew, who bore the same name as he, and whom she had created Caesar; he was daring and reckless, and accounted capable in the conduct of affairs. She had first bound him with the most dreadful oaths that he would treat her as his mistress, lady, and mother for his entire life, and she proclaimed him Emperor of the Romans. But he violated the agreements he had made with Zoe and, because of this, incurred the hatred of the entire multitude of the city. Fearing the incontinent onrush of the people, he fled into the Monastery of Stoudios and immediately B donned the monastic habit. But not even thus did he avoid their wrath, for the multitude of the people, stirred up, dragged him from the monastery, carried him to the place called Sigma, and immediately blinded him. Having been blinded, he was exiled to the monastery of the Elegmoi, having reigned four months and five days.
The rule, therefore, having devolved again upon Zoe, who had her sister Theodora as co-empress, Constantine Monomachus was summoned from exile. The empress was joined to him in the bond of marriage, the sacred ceremony being performed by the primate of the clergy of the Nea. On the following day he was crowned by the Patriarch Alexius, who died during his reign; and Michael Cerularius was raised to the throne on the day of the Annunciation. This emperor, having been seized by the customary disease of gout, with a new symptom supervening, died C in the Monastery of the Manganon, which he himself had rebuilt from the ground up, and he was buried there, having reigned thirteen years, with Zoe having already died some time before.
Upon his passing, Theodora Porphyrogenneta recovered her ancestral empire; and having reigned two years and six months, she died after being afflicted by an intestinal disease. D Her eunuchs and Leo the Syncellus, even while she was still breathing her last, placed on the imperial throne Michael the Patrician, the Stratiotic; he, being...
a man of one year’s reign, granted the empire, though reluctantly, to Comnenus. A Isaac Comnenus, having assumed the burden of empire, immediately ordered that he be depicted on the imperial coinage carrying a sword, as one who did not attribute everything to God, but to his own strength and his experience in the conduct of war. He brought his wife, Catherine, from the East and proclaimed her empress. When the patriarch Michael Cerularius had passed away, he appointed Constantine Leichoudes as patriarch in his stead. The emperor, having gone out to hunt, was struck by a flash of lightning; he was thrown from his horse and rolled upon the ground, frothing at the mouth. Wherefore, feeling remorse for his counsel, and as the illness did not remit but rather vexed him deeply and miserably, he laid down the scepter and the governance of affairs and betook himself to the monastery of Stoudios, embracing the monastic life, with the Augusta Catherine also contributing her aid toward the purpose he had set before him. He had reigned for two years and three months. He survived for less than this time in the monastic habit. He was so obedient to the superior of the monastery that, out of his great moderation, he even became a doorkeeper and served in other menial tasks. In his stead, he chose Constantine Ducas as emperor.
After Comnenus, Constantine Ducas occupied the scepter of the empire without bloodshed and without any turmoil or trouble. B Upon the death of the patriarch Constantine Leichoudes, the monk John, surnamed Xiphilinus, was appointed [in his stead]. A disease of the bowels began to rack the emperor most severely. When he realized that he was already utterly overcome by the malady, he declared as emperors his three sons whom he had begotten from the empress Eudocia—Michael, Andronicus, and Constantine—among whom Constantine was Porphyrogennetos; and he declared his brother John as Caesar. He also had three daughters: Anna, Theodora, and Zoe. Being near to death, he demanded a written document from all [the nobles] that they would never accept any other emperor after him except his sons; to which all subscribed. Moreover, the empress Eudocia herself also promised in writing that she would by no means enter into second nuptials. He handed the completed document to the patriarch for safekeeping. He died at the age of sixty years; he had reigned for C seven years and a half, and was buried at [the monastery of] Molibotos.
The scepter of the empire was therefore held by his wife, Eudocia, and his sons. Having reigned with them for six months and a little more, she summoned Romanos Diogenes to the palace, joined herself to him in matrimony, and immediately proclaimed him emperor. Diogenes thus took the empire, but was later ensnared by the deceits of his own [courtiers], was blinded, and thus died, and was buried on the island of Prote, having reigned for three years and eight months.
The son of Ducas, Michael, called Parapinaces, assumed the empire. D When the patriarch John Xiphilinus had fallen asleep, the emperor [appointed] a certain monk, Cosmas,