Compendium chronicum

 Gold-bearing, glistening with robes studded with pearls. the fragrant violet shone, the rose shone back. every kind of violet's color smiled from ever

 The fine-spun ones. the large-winged, large-hooked-beaked, hooked-clawed, boasting their claws like javelins, having a beak sharper than daggers, for

 Having made him a composite of soul and body, and having bestowed the grace of a will moved by itself, and having formed him according to his likeness

 Of yours, and you will be called gods, and you will know all things. the woman heard these things, she heeded the flattery, she was conquered by the

 Land-born, winged, walking but god, opening the floodgates of heaven, brought down from there whole seas of rain, covered the peaks of the deep-cliff

 They stole, they committed adultery, and finally they looked toward idolatry. seruch was the first to begin to use carved images and pillars, being th

 Javelin-bowmen, armor-bearers, spearmen, men furious in battle, and having taken an allied force from the nation of the huns, and having made allies o

 Chaldeans, and the plaything of fortune and the dice of affairs, having sufficiently mocked others, passed over to others. and when these things were

 Mandane, and that the liquid poured forth was so great as to be able to cover the face of the land of asia. this was the first dream, and a second one

 Not even among the most famous, like that of the medes and persians, or that of the assyrians. candaules was king of lydia and phrygia, tracing his li

 To be contrived by such devices. he, having learned and discerned which mare the horse of darius loved more than all the others, after the two of them

 Having heard that joseph, the one born of rachel, was governing the land of egypt for pharaoh, and also contriving to find a release from his sufferin

 Was sung. and a light of gladness rose for the hebrews, but the darkness of calamities overshadowed the egyptians. the israelites who fled egypt then

 He exposes him in a place called parion after paris himself. he was therefore cast aside carelessly. shepherds found him, pitied him, took him up. the

 Because helen had been seized by someone, all fought on her behalf with their own bodies. so after much entreating and importuning, they persuade the

 While strong-handed achilles was present, the counsels of the son of laertes were ineffective, and every plot devised and scheme stitched together aga

 The swarm of trojans mingled with each other, daring to do nothing. and there was a temple before the walls of beautifully-towered troy, where achille

 To proteus, he also finds his consort there in memphis, and having been hosted and honored he receives helen, and after considerable toils he reaches

 Flapping its wings, a great-winged bird, fanned the fire into flame with its wings. but a certain cunning fox, vying with these and contending against

 To be called, remaining faithful, keepers of the house and guardians of what is within. then taking a clod of earth in his hand from outside, he throw

 The most unjust slaughter of his father, and perceiving as a man of sense that he would share the danger with his father and brother and would die wit

 Caesar wished to take into the fellowship of marriage a woman who was in the sixth month of her pregnancy, and he urged nero to betroth his wife to hi

 And his whole character was lecherous, and worse than others, lusting after women joined to men, and commanding their spouses to serve his abomination

 You will cause me pain for those who are sated on my rotten limbs will vex me for a short time, but if others fall upon me, they will cling more viol

 Bringing with them a chariot-driver mime, they came upon him to kill him. and nero, knowing this, killed himself, saying this at the end: what an art

 Extinguishes it, and dogs, running up and eating the bonds, release the stargazer who was invoking the gods many times. and these things indeed were a

 Ravaging and plundering, being in want of money, pressed by need and having no army from anywhere to arm against them, set forth in the marketplace th

 Of great things, what terror was not present, what was not dared! slaughters and toils everywhere, and pools of blood. and the gloom of the prison hel

 Their names were constans and constantine) manages the western parts and rome and the gauls. but these were extinguished rather quickly and before the

 But when that woman again added that her husband was plotting against gratian himself, he replied again, what is that to you, woman? and they say th

 Orestes, and after orestes the son of romulus was the last to take hold of the rule. and the great-named city, the city of the romans, having had romu

 They set aside the young woman. athenais the maiden, exceedingly distressed at these things and wounded in her soul, goes to her maternal aunt, she sh

 Learning of the emperor, she arrives in the city of jerusalem as quickly as possible, and there, having completed the remainder of her life, she pays

 When a fierce battle had broken out and he was leading the romans against the arrogant persians, marcian, seized by a death-threatening illness, remai

 A man, a treasure of wisdom, was slandered as a hellene, isocasius by name, a quaestor by rank and from there, stripped of both honor and money, he i

 Having reigned over the romans for eighteen years. but this one, having tasted power for a short time, departed from the earth rather quickly, leaving

 The poison with the trisagion hymn, and when he saw the whole crowd immediately run wild and drive the eparch from the temple with stones and burn dow

 Justin, but being inflamed with zeal for the pious religion, kindled an implacable war against the manichaeans and a persecution more severe than thos

 Manly minds for with this man he joined mighty battles, and so terrified chosroes that he wished to exchange peace for man-slaying wars. and rome the

 With graces and bear torches for creation, and appear as bright stars to those on earth but the sun leaped up from a most beautiful lake, and the tor

 Such power, and being filled with greater zeal, he held to what must be done. and it happened that not long after something like this occurred, worthy

 Into the judgments of the judge shook the hearts of all. from there a calm of justice-doing was spread everywhere, instead of a winter and a gloomy te

 And by the things that will be said and the khagan, having attacked the garrisons of the romans (the khagan was king of the northern scythians) and h

 Of dregs. therefore, he is caught fleeing together with the empress and the purple-born branches sprung from him. but the most god-hated, man-slaying

 With golden helmets, delicate, all quiver-bearing, on snorting, gold-phalerad horses. so when the emperor saw it was impossible to engage with the arm

 Having embarked in boats, they came on, covering the back of the sea with their dense light boats, with their single-log vessels. thus there were many

 But nevertheless he did not long enjoy his fortune, but it quickly grew cold, but appearing he was hidden, just as a rose might spring up and immediat

 Him, only one thing troubled, lest the scepter reach justinian again, and he who was formerly deprived of it, and of his nose along with it, might aga

 Infancy was subjected to murderous hands for slaughter but here, boys of fifteen, girls in their early bloom, young men, soft-skinned women, little g

 You will see a dreadful thing, and he bespattered the ground, flowing away like water. thus it was said well and wisely by the ancients, nothing beyo

 But the emperor theodosios, shrinking from the audacity and the beast-like heart of leo, yielded the throne and the crown to his enemy, willingly or u

 From the kandys and the torc i will know, and the croaking raven from its blackness. near the precinct of the wisdom of god a splendid house had been

 He plundered beauty, he cut out the sacred images from the churches, and in their place with the same colors and mosaics he engraved his beloved hunti

 From there he is rolled towards lawless deeds, and he shaves the head of his most temperate consort, and introduces the union with another woman into

 They drive him from the throne and the city as a fugitive. and he, having indicated these things in writing to the empress and having besought to rece

 They were supplicating, even employing force. but he, not knowing the turn of the balancing scale of fortune, and fearing its wavering will, approache

 And again the tail of the dragon was moved. the abomination, i mean, of iconoclasm, like a great dragon, crept, dreadful and gaping, it rushed to devo

 And from there what was being built was overturned from its roots, and having stained his own war-loving hands with murders and having made every spea

 The king, on account of the bruises and the numerous wounds, or rather cases of paralysis, was shaken in his soul at what had happened, and wishing to

 Finding their catch, they write to the just man while he is fishing with nets a short writing in iambic meter, which, since i have deemed it not right

 Having been persuaded and having received complete assurance that theophilos was delivered from the torments there, she became a fellow-diner with the

 Of the ancient kings, both the golden trees, and the chattering sparrows, and lions made of hammered gold, and simply every royal thing gleaming in th

 By his hand, but the contriver of evils paid the penalty, and the preparer of terrible things drank a cup of wrath. bardas, therefore, while digging a

 Scarcely the temple-keeper he immediately makes basil a member of his household, and deems him worthy of fitting care. and basil was handsome, noble,

 To earth-born men, and certain innate dooms accompany men. for this one, great in understanding among emperors, having been persuaded by certain serpe

 By the transgression of tetragamy. but leo, the most philosophical among emperors, having fallen into the natural necessities of the body and being af

 He arms himself on behalf of the one who had been out-generaled with an army drawn from many places, from the lycaonians, from the thracians, from the

 Raising him from a lowly state to the summit, he makes him father and guardian of the empire. and drawing romanos further into his affection, he gives

 Of unstained rule, and being about to be released from the bonds of nature, he appointed his son romanos as sole ruler. but he, entrusting all strengt

 He conveys everything, and says, alas, o general, for the fortune of the romans! until when will woman-souled eunuchs steer the ship of state, resour

 Medimni of grain to be sold for a nomisma. thus phocas managed the matter meanly, and this though he was rich in thousand-bushel granaries, laden with

 Near the ister cutting down the phalanxes, breaking the scytharchs, killing, pursuing, routing the champions, as if some lion falling upon broad-flank

 Slumber to his eyelids, nor sleep to his eyes, until he drove out the wolves, the devourers of sheep. the mighty ones of the bulgars recognized his st

 And having been taught by certain people that after him the rule would pass to romanos, one of the senate, surnamed argyropoulos, he compels the man t

 Having the care of those in the home for the aged, he managed all other matters of state up and down and was seen openly as the keeper of the ruler. t

 Rushing into the inner sanctuary, from there they seize the wretched man, crying out with groans from the heart, with hot tears, and they gouge out hi

 Bloody streams, but murderous outpourings. he seized the fortresses, he seized the cities. he went on, roaring in his anger, breathing fire more than

 Of the power to comnenus. but those who were allotted to steer the ship of state, wishing not to save it but to sink it and swamp the most wretched th

 But suddenly the tempests of the flesh, having grown wild, stirred up a hard-to-calm, wave-tossed wind, they brought on nausea, vomiting, dizziness, t

 To sheep-guarded folds. but a winged dove, flying up from somewhere, alighted on his knees with a silent flutter, not like the one before that flew to

 Promising down on his temples, using caesar his uncle as a rival and the most powerful men and those in high military command, he at once seats himsel

 Shining with purple dye and gold, and using in turn overlapping garments, he sat upon high, silver-studded thrones, adorning with dignities all who ca

javelin-bowmen, armor-bearers, spearmen, men furious in battle, and having taken an allied force from the nation of the Huns, and having made allies of every race with gifts, he overran all the earth, and especially Asia, and compelled all to bring him tribute. And having overthrown the rulers everywhere and the satraps and the strong commanders and mighty generals, he brought them under the yoke of his authority. He filled his allies with spoils and plunder, and to the Huns he granted the land of the Assyrians, and he renamed the Huns, or Scythians, Parthians. And as a victor he departed in nine years, having subdued the entire ethnarchy of Asia. During his time the royal power of the Assyrians for a short time lost the dominion which it held. But when death snatched Sesostris also from life, the kingdom flourished again for the Assyrians like a tree frozen by the bitter winter and withered and deadened, and coming to life again when the terrible season of winter had passed. Therefore, for the Assyrians the scepter-rule again reached its former good fortune, until Sardanapalus ruled the Assyrians, a man gluttonous and luxurious, lustful and effeminate, who, having unmanned himself and shut himself up with women, painted his face, dyed his eyebrows, and shaved his beard down to the skin, and showed his cheeks whitened with powder, and in short had his whole face transformed, and he was wanton and soft, dissolute and womanish. He cared only for luxury, only for a delicate table; he ate and drank with eunuchs and lewd women, and his whole life was full of licentiousness. He himself, then, was shut up with shameless women, unseen and invisible to rulers and private citizens, indulging himself with warm baths and soft clothing; but the generals of the cities, ethnarchs and provincial governors, administered the affairs of his kingdom. Thus he lived softly, thus he was dissolute, until he led himself into a pit of destruction and destroyed with himself the affairs of his kingdom. For Arbaces the general, often begging to see Sardanapalus and to stand before his face (for he had never seen him, not even in dreams), and for the most part failing in his desire, but having with difficulty found it as a godsend to behold him, when he saw, when he beheld him powdered, hairless, smooth-bearded, with the face of a woman, carding purple wool with the girls, and playing with and behaving indecently with eunuchs, and soft and completely unworthy of power, being indignant, he struck him with a dagger, and pushed the sword up to its very hilt into his entrails, and made him drink death and a cup of destruction who until then had lived luxuriously and rejoiced in mixing bowls until the early dawn. Thus the general Arbaces killed him, suffering terribly if he were to be called the slave of such a man. But others do not write thus about Sardanapalus, but say that when the neighboring Chaldeans heard that the ruler of the Assyrians, the son of Anacyndaraxes, was in fact swinish and brutish, a lover of dancing and games, living like a woman, scorning him as faint-hearted, they came upon him, campaigning with a mighty force, and having clashed with the army of Sardanapalus (for he too, having learned of the Chaldeans' audacity, did not endure it, but sent men worthy of battle) they routed the general, defeated him utterly, and the defeated general fled at full speed. When the wretched man learned this, being at a loss for everything, he lit a rich pyre, feeding it with abundant wood, and having gathered the golden and stone-inlaid couches and the various adornments and talents of gold and simply every royal thing, as much as was in garments, as much as in golden vessels, in stones, in pearls, he hurled everything onto the pyre of much wood, and lastly himself. And from then on the Chaldeans, with much security, ruled the Assyrians, and transferred the rule and the power to themselves. After the Assyrians, however, for a time ruled the

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βελεμνοτοξοφόρους, θωρακοφόρους, αἰχμητάς, ἄνδρας ἀρειμανίους, καὶ προσλαβὼν συμμαχικὸν ἐκ τοῦ τῶν Οὔννων ἔθνους, καὶ προσεταιρισάμενος ἐν δώροις σύμπαν γένος, πάσης κατέδραμε τῆς γῆς, καὶ μᾶλλον τῆς Ἀσίας, καὶ πάντας κατηνάγκασε φόρους αὐτῷ προσφέρειν. καὶ καθελὼν τοὺς πανταχῇ δυνάστας καὶ σατράπας καὶ ταγματάρχας ἰσχυροὺς καὶ κραταιοὺς στρατάρχας ὑπὸ τὴν ζεύγλην ἤγαγεν αὐτοῦ τῆς ἐξουσίας. ἐνέπλησε λαφύρων δὲ καὶ σκύλων τοὺς συμμάχους, τοῖς Οὔννοις δ' ἐχαρίσατο τὴν γῆν τῶν Ἀσσυρίων, καὶ Πάρθους μετωνόμασε τοὺς Οὔννους ἤτοι Σκύθας. καὶ νικητὴς ἀνέζευξεν ἐν ἔτεσιν ἐννέα σύμπασαν χειρωσάμενος Ἀσίας ἐθναρχίαν. ἐφ' οὗ καὶ τὸ βασίλειον κράτος τῶν Ἀσσυρίων ἐπὶ μικρὸν ἀπώλεσεν ἣν εἶχε δυναστείαν. ὡς δ' ἥρπασε καὶ Σέσωστριν θάνατος ἐκ τοῦ βίου, τοῖς Ἀσσυρίοις ἤνθησε πάλιν ἡ βασιλεία ὡς δένδρον ὑπὸ τοῦ πικροῦ κρυσταλλωθὲν χειμῶνος καὶ μαρανθὲν καὶ νεκρωθέν, καὶ πάλιν ἀναζῆσαν παραδραμόντος τοῦ δεινοῦ τῆς χειμερίας ὥρας. τοῖς Ἀσσυρίοις τοιγαροῦν πάλιν ἡ σκηπτουχία πρὸς τὴν προτέραν ἔφθασε τῆς τύχης εὐκληρίαν, ἕως ὁ Σαρδανάπαλος ἦρξε τῶν Ἀσσυρίων, γάστρις ἀνὴρ καὶ τρυφηλός, λαγνὸς καὶ γυναικίας, ὃς ἐκθηλύνας ἑαυτὸν καὶ γυναιξὶ συγκλείσας ὑπέγραφε τὸ πρόσωπον, ἔβαπτε τὰς ὀφρύας, ἐξύρα καὶ τὸ γένειον μέχρις ἐπιδερμίδος, ἐδείκνυ καὶ τὰς παρειὰς ἐψιμμυθιωμένας, καὶ πᾶν τὸ πρόσωπον ἁπλῶς εἶχεν ἐξηλλαγμένον, καὶ μάχλος ἦν καὶ μαλακός, χαῦνος καὶ θηλυδρίας. μόνης τρυφῆς ἐφρόντιζε, μόνης ἁβρᾶς τραπέζης· συνήσθιε συνέπινεν εὐνούχοις καὶ μαχλάσι, καὶ πᾶς ὁ βίος ἦν αὐτῷ πλήρης ἀκολασίας. αὐτὸς μὲν οὖν συγκέκλειστο σὺν γυναιξὶν ἀσέμνοις, ἀθέατος ἀόρατος ἄρχουσιν ἰδιώταις, θερμοῖς λουτροῖς ἐνευπαθῶν καὶ μαλακοῖς ἀμφίοις· διῴκουν δὲ τὰ πράγματα τούτῳ τῆς βασιλείας οἱ στρατηγοὶ τῶν πόλεων, ἐθνάρχαι καὶ χωράρχαι. οὕτως ἐβίου μαλακῶς, οὕτως ἐκλύτως εἶχεν, ἕως εἰς βόθρον ἑαυτὸν ἤγαγεν ἀπωλείας καὶ συναπώλεσεν αὐτῷ καὶ τὰ τῆς βασιλείας. Ἀρβάκης γὰρ ὁ στρατηγὸς πολλάκις ἱκετεύων τὸν Σαρδανάπαλον ἰδεῖν καὶ στῆναι πρὸ προσώπου (οὔποτε γὰρ ἑώρακεν αὐτόν, οὐδ' ἐν ὀνείροις), καὶ τὰ πολλὰ μὲν ἀστοχῶν πρὸς τὸ πεποθημένον, μόλις δ' εὑρὼν ὡς ἕρμαιον τὸ τοῦτον ἱστορῆσαι, ὡς εἶδεν, ὡς ἑώρακεν ἐψιμμυθιωμένον ἄτριχα λειοπώγωνα γυναικοπροσωπίαν, πορφύραν διαξαίνοντα μετὰ τῶν κορασίων, εὐνούχοις τε συμπαίζοντα καὶ συνασχημονοῦντα, καὶ μαλακὸν καὶ παντελῶς ἀνάξιον τοῦ κράτους, ἀγανακτήσας ἔπαισεν αὐτὸν ἐγχειριδίῳ, καὶ τῶν ἐγκάτων ὤθησε μέχρις αὐτῶν τὸ ξίφος, καὶ θάνατον ἐπότισε καὶ κύπελλον ὀλέθρου τὸν μέχρι τότε τρυφηλῶς ἐκδεδιῃτημένον καὶ τοῖς κρατῆρσι χαίροντα μέχρι τοῦ περιόρθρου. οὕτως ἐκεῖνον ἔκτεινεν ὁ στρατηγὸς Ἀρβάκης, δεινοπαθῶν εἰ λέγοιτο δοῦλος ἀνδρὸς τοιούτου. Ἄλλοι δ' οὐχ οὕτω γράφουσι τὰ τοῦ Σαρδαναπάλου, λέγουσι δ' ὡς ἀκούσαντες οἱ πρόσοικοι Χαλδαῖοι χοιρόβιον αὐτόχρημα τυγχάνειν καὶ κτηνώδη τὸν Ἀσσυρίων κράτορα τὸν Ἀνακυνδαράξου, ὀρχηστοφιλοπαίγμονα, ζῶντα γυναικομίμως, αὐτοῦ καταφρονήσαντες ὡς μαλακοκαρδίου, ἐπῆλθον ἐκστρατεύσαντες ἐν βριαρᾷ δυνάμει, καὶ συμπλακέντες τῷ στρατῷ τῷ τοῦ Σαρδαναπάλου (κἀκεῖνος γὰρ ἀναμαθὼν τὴν τόλμαν τῶν Χαλδαίων οὐκ ἤνεγκεν, ἀλλ' ἔπεμψεν ἄνδρας ἀξιομάχους) ἐτρέψαντο τὸν στρατηγόν, ἥττησαν κατὰ κράτος, καὶ νικηθεὶς ὁ στρατηγὸς ἔφευγεν ἀνὰ κράτος. ὅπερ ὡς ἔγνω δείλαιος, ἀπορηθεὶς ἐκ πάντων, πυρὰν ὑφῆψε λιπαρὰν ὕλαις ἀφθόνοις θρέψας, καὶ τὰς χρυσᾶς συναγαγὼν καὶ λιθοστρώτους κλίνας καὶ τοὺς ποικίλους στολισμοὺς καὶ τάλαντα χρυσίου καὶ πᾶν ἁπλῶς βασίλειον ὅσον ἐν ἱματίοις, ὅσον ἐν σκεύεσι χρυσοῖς, ἐν λίθοις, ἐν μαργάροις, κατὰ πυρᾶς ἠκόντισε πάντα τῆς πολυξύλου, καὶ τελευταῖον ἑαυτόν. κἀντεῦθεν οἱ Χαλδαῖοι κατὰ πολλὴν τὴν ἄδειαν ἐκράτουν Ἀσσυρίων, καὶ τὴν ἀρχὴν εἰς ἑαυτοὺς μεθίστων καὶ τὸ κράτος. Μετ' Ἀσσυρίους τέως δ' οὖν κατῆρξαν οἱ

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