became like a sea. And the Bulgars, unable to cross over, remained for fifteen days holding the captives. And having sent a message to Leo to help, he did not pay attention, nor did he come out of the city, nor did he send any others to help. And finally, when the weather became fair and the 347 river subsided, they made the captives themselves cut wood and build a bridge, and thus they crossed over with the captives, there being together fifty thousand men, women, and children. Taking also all their possessions, Armenian fleecy cloaks and superior woolen rugs and much clothing and bronze vessels, they loaded everything onto wagons, and taking all their herds of cattle and sheep, they entered Bulgaria. And he who reigned unjustly by the concession of God neither came out of the city himself to help the captives nor sent others. So then after these things it was reported by those saying that Krum had marched out, having gathered a great army, both the Avars and all the Sklavinias. And in addition to these things he prepared instruments and machines of various city-takers, and very great mangonels, and three-pronged and four-pronged caltrops, and tortoises and high ladders, and hammers and levers and picks, and rams and ballistae, and flame-throwers and stone-throwers and scorpions for shooting arrows, and slings, all machines against the battlements for taking the city on the western part of the city against the wall of Blachernae. He wished to bring all these machines to the place where he was shot, stabling thousands of oxen for the purpose of 348 carrying all the aforementioned instruments placed upon wagons, which he commanded to be five thousand iron-bound ones. Leo, hearing these things, and having sent out spies and learned the truth, gathered a large force and artisans and began to build another wall outside the wall of Blachernae, having also cut a wide ditch. And having begun to build, not yet having finished, so that God who scatters the counsels of nations, and thwarts the plans of peoples and thwarts the counsels of rulers, might show that men are not able to do anything by their machinery and strength, spring not yet having arrived, as some who were saved from the captivity from Bulgaria say, around the great Thursday of Easter, the Protobulgarian, the famous Krum, he who was planning to take the city, met the end of his life, having been slain unseen, who also brought forth streams of blood through his mouth and his nostrils and his ears. And thus he gave up his soul in evils. Therefore Leo, puffed up in his pride, as though he himself had ended the war and not God, sent sacred letters to all the cities and countries, announcing that "I found the Bulgars being near the city, and through my wisdom and courage and command, having shot their leader, I drove them all away, who also, for this reason, is dying," he said, "our enemy."

349 And finally after this, taking the opportunity, he began to ravage the church, in the second year of his reign, meddling with the judgments of God, and saying to certain of his like-minded associates that "For what reason," he says, "do the Christians suffer these things, being dominated by the nations? It seems to me it is because the icons are venerated, and nothing else; and I want to destroy them. For look," he says, "how many emperors accepted and venerated them, and they died, some being driven out, others falling in war. But only those who did not venerate them, each one ended his reign by his own death, and being carried out with glory to the imperial cemeteries, was buried in the church of the Holy Apostles. Therefore I also want to imitate them and destroy the icons, so that both I and my son may live a long time, and our reign will last until the fourth and fifth generation." In which the wretch was deceived, having committed lawlessness in vain, and having forgotten the signed document which he had made, and the cross which he had set up with those with him. And after these things he began to seek if he could find anyone

ἐγένετο ὡς θάλασσα. καὶ μὴ δυνάμενοι ἀντιπερᾶσαι οἱ Βούλγαροι ἔμειναν ἡμέρας δεκαπέντε κατέχοντες τὴν αἰχμαλωσίαν. καὶ μηνύσαντες τὸν Λέοντα τοῦ βοηθῆσαι, οὐ προσέσχεν, οὐδὲ τῆς πόλεως ἐξῆλθεν, οὐδὲ ἄλλους τινὰς ἀπέστειλεν πρὸς βοήθειαν. καὶ λοιπὸν γενομένης εὐδίας καὶ τοῦ 347 ποταμοῦ ἐλαττωθέντος, αὐτοὺς τοὺς αἰχμαλώτους παρεσκεύασαν κόψαι ξυληνὸν καὶ ποιῆσαι γέφυραν, καὶ οὕτως ἐπέρασαν μετὰ τῆς αἰχμαλωσίας, ὄντων ὁμοῦ ἀνδρῶν καὶ γυναικῶν καὶ παιδίων χιλιάδες πεντήκοντα. λαβόντες καὶ πάντα τὰ ὑπάρχοντα αὐτῶν Ἀρμενιάτικα στραγλομαλωτάρια καὶ νακοτάπητα ἀνώτερα καὶ ἱματισμὸν πολὺν καὶ χαλκώματα ἐφόρτωσαν πάντα εἰς τὰς ἁμάξας, καὶ λαβόντες πάσας τὰς ἀγέλας αὐτῶν βόας καὶ πρόβατα εἰσῆλθον εἰς Βουλγαρίαν. καὶ ὁ ἀδίκως βασιλεύσας κατὰ παραχώρησιν θεοῦ οὔτε αὐτὸς ἐξῆλθεν τῆς πόλεως πρὸς βοήθειαν τῆς αἰχμαλωσίας οὔτε ἄλλους ἀπέστειλεν. λοιπὸν οὖν μετὰ ταῦτα ἀνηγγέλη αὐτὸν λεγόντων ὅτι ὁ Κροῦμος ἐστράτευσεν λαὸν πολὺν συναθροίσας, καὶ τοὺς Ἀβάρεις καὶ πάσας τὰς Σκλαβινίας. πρὸς δὲ τούτοις παρασκευάζει διαφόρων ἑλεπόλεων ὄργανά τε καὶ μηχανήματα, καὶ μαγγανικὰ παμμεγέστατα, τριβόλους τε καὶ τετραβόλους, καὶ χελώνας καὶ ὑψηλοὺς κλίμακας, σφαίρας τε καὶ μοχλοὺς καὶ ὀρυάς, κριούς τε καὶ βελοστάσεις, πυρόβολά τε καὶ λιθόβολα καὶ σκορπίδια εἰς τὸ βαλέσθαι βέλη, καὶ σφενδόνας, πάντα μηχανήματα κατὰ τῶν ἐπάλξεων τοῦ ἑλεῖν τὴν πόλιν ἐπὶ τὸ δυτικὸν μέρος τῆς πόλεως κατὰ τοῦ τείχους τῶν Βλαχερνῶν. ταῦτα πάντα βούλεται προσαγαγεῖν τὰ μηχανήματα ἔνθα καὶ ἐτοξεύθη, σταυλίζων βόας χιλιάδας πρὸς τὸ 348 βαστάξαι πάντα τὰ προλεχθέντα ὄργανα τεθέντα ἐπὶ ἁμαξῶν, ἃς προσέταξεν σιδηρενδέτας χιλιάδας πέντε. ταῦτα ἀκούσας Λέων, πέμψας τε κατασκόπους καὶ μαθὼν τὴν ἀλήθειαν, συναθροίσας λαὸν πολὺν καὶ τεχνίτας ἤρξατο κτίζειν ἕτερον τεῖχος ἔξωθεν τείχους τῶν Βλαχερνῶν, κόψας καὶ τὴν σοῦδαν πλατεῖαν. καὶ ἀρξάμενος κτίζειν, μήπω τελέσας, ἵνα δείξῃ ὁ θεὸς ὁ συσκεδάζων βουλὰς ἐθνῶν, ἀθετῶν καὶ λογισμοὺς λαῶν καὶ ἀθετῶν βουλὰς ἀρχόντων, ὅτι οὐκ ἐν τῇ μηχανίᾳ καὶ τῇ ἰσχύϊ αὐτῶν δύνανται οἱ ἄνθρωποί τι ποιῆσαι, οὔπω ἔαρος καταλαβόντος, ὥς φασίν τινες διασωθέντες τῆς αἰχμαλωσίας ἀπὸ Βουλγαρίας, περὶ τῇ μεγάλῃ πέμπτῃ τοῦ πάσχα, ὁ Πρωτοβουλγαρίας, ὁ Κροῦμος ὁ περίφημος, ὁ τὴν πόλιν ἑλεῖν βουλευόμενος, τέλει τοῦ βίου ἐχρήσατο ἀοράτως σφαγιασθείς, ὃς καὶ ἐξήγαγεν αἱμάτων ὀχετοὺς διά τε τοῦ στόματος καὶ τῶν ῥινῶν καὶ τῶν ὤτων αὐτοῦ. καὶ οὕτως ἀνέρρηξεν τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἐν κακοῖς. ἐπαρθεὶς τοίνυν τῶν φρονημάτων ὁ Λέων, ὡς ὅτι αὐτὸς κατέβαλεν τὸν πόλεμον καὶ οὐχ ὁ θεός, ἔπεμψεν εἰς πάσας τὰς πόλεις καὶ χώρας σάκρας, ἀναγγέλλων ὅτι εὗρον τοὺς Βουλγάρους ἐγγὺς ὄντας τῆς πόλεως, καὶ διὰ τῆς φρονήσεως καὶ ἀνδρείας καὶ διαταγῆς μου τοξεύσας τὸν πρῶτον αὐτῶν πάντας ἀπήλασα, ὅς τις καὶ διὰ τὴν πρόφασιν ταύτην ἀποθνήσκει, ἔφη, ὁ ἐχθρὸς ἡμῶν.

349 Καὶ λοιπὸν μετὰ τοῦτο λαβὼν εὐκαιρίαν ἤρξατο πορθεῖν τὴν ἐκκλησίαν, δευτέρῳ ἔτει τῆς βασιλείας αὐτοῦ, περιεργαζόμενος κατὰ τῶν θεοῦ κριμάτων, καὶ λέγων πρός τινας ὁμόφρονας αὐτοῦ ὅτι τίνος ἕνεκεν, φησί, ταῦτα πάσχουσιν οἱ Χριστιανοὶ κατακυριευόμενοι ὑπὸ τῶν ἐθνῶν; ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ διὰ τὸ προσκυνεῖσθαι τὰς εἰκόνας, καὶ ἄλλο οὐδέν· καὶ βούλομαι αὐτὰς καταστρέψαι. βλέπετε γάρ, φησίν, ὅσοι βασιλεῖς ἐδέξαντο καὶ προσεκύνησαν αὐτάς, ἀπέθανον οἱ μὲν ἐκδιωχθέντες οἱ δὲ ἐν πολέμῳ πεσόντες. μόνοι δὲ οἱ μὴ προσκυνήσαντες αὐτὰς ἰδίῳ θανάτῳ ἕκαστος εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν αὐτοῦ ἐτελεύτησεν, καὶ μετὰ δόξης προκομισθεὶς εἰς τὰ τῶν βασιλέων κοιμητήρια ἐτάφη ἐν τοῖς ἀποστόλοις. λοιπὸν ἐκείνους κἀγὼ βούλομαι μιμήσασθαι καὶ καταστρέψαι τὰς εἰκόνας, ἵνα πολὺν ζῆσας χρόνον κἀγὼ καὶ ὁ υἱός μου, καὶ κρατήσει ἡ βασιλεία ἡμῶν ἕως τετάρτης καὶ πέμπτης γενεᾶς. ὅπερ διεψεύσθη δείλαιος, ἀνομήσας διακενῆς, καὶ ἐπιλαθόμενος τὸ ἰδιόχειρον ὃ ἐποίησεν, καὶ τὸν σταυρὸν ὃν ἔπηξεν μετὰ τῶν σὺν αὐτῷ. καὶ ἤρξατο μετὰ ταῦτα ζητεῖν εἴ τινα εὕροι