History

 And what i have accurately ascertained from those who saw it, these things i will also commit to writing. 2. just now in the month of november, of the

 He commanded that the triremes and the other transport ships should all be brought to anchor in a good harbor, and that they should control the sea, a

 War. therefore, having gone around and seen that it was by nature difficult to enter and hard to approach for on the one side it had the sea as a saf

 They would be frustrated. and having gone out of the camp, and having overrun a part of the country, when he learned from those who had been taken ali

 It was easy to attack by assault, being raised to the greatest possible height, and girded with two trenches dug to a corresponding depth), and the de

 Having divided his phalanx into three parts by night, he went against the scythians, and falling upon them suddenly, in a brief moment of time he wrou

 Meet them, when i give the signal with the trumpets. such was the exhortation that the general delivered and the army shouted 22 and applauded, and w

 6. but nikephoros phokas, the colleague of the aforementioned leo (for it is necessary, having summarized the account, to proceed with the history in

 The general, having seen this, spurred his horse, quickened his pace, rode in and restrained the soldiers' onslaught, persuading them not to kill the

 Having drawn up an irresistible battle-line, went through the land of the hagarenes. to them, having heard of the attack of nikephoros, it did not see

 Was dignified by his rank), was hostilely disposed towards nicephorus. 11. he decided, therefore, to attempt a revolution at once but not having at h

 , to proclaim him supreme commander, and to entrust the forces of asia to him, so that he might defend and check the assault of the foreigners. for th

 He said, if you are persuaded to take up the rule of the east, i shall quickly declare you emperor, and restore you to the imperial thrones. speak wel

 For he was gently nursing his little body), then, recovering again, he said, “speak, most brave one, what need is there to consider this?” but he said

 I have assumed the imperial office, but compelled by the necessity of you, the army, and you yourselves bear witness for me that i was both shunning s

 Before the report of his proclamation could fly abroad, to seize in advance the straits and passages of the sea. for thus he thought that matters woul

 Numbering over three thousand, attacked the house of joseph and his collaborators along with the people. and having subjected these to plunder and pil

 Especially the monks), they did not allow the man to persist in what he had decided, but urged him both to embrace marriage and not to shun meat-eatin

 Makes it flood in a single hour) emboldened by these things, the barbarians mocked the emperor and insolently hurled insults at him, and making sorti

 Having fallen upon it, accomplishing nothing noble or vigorous. and he considered the matter an outright disgrace and insult, and an indelible reproac

 Having come to the region around tarsus, there he encamped and having pitched a palisade round about, he ordered the crops and the meadows, luxuriant

 Having recovered the standards, which, crafted from gold and stones, the tarsians had captured in various battles while routing the roman force, and h

 Of the spectacle, turned to flight and ran back to their own houses. and from the pushing and disorderly rush, no little slaughter occurred, with very

 To blow favorably upon them, but blowing against them strongly and fiercely, it has sunk their affairs. but the account will now clearly reveal these

 To those acting against the divine ordinance, if somehow at least in this way people, being afraid, would abstain from evil deeds, and would cling to

 He had taken a fortress, and having crossed mount lebanon transversely, he turned his attention to tripoli, which he saw was fortified and exceptional

 Being obliged to drive them away, and to guard the flocks from harm, they, in addition to not driving them away, themselves cut them down and tear the

 Having come, and having been befriended by the ruler of the tauroi, and having corrupted him with gifts and bewitched him with persuasive words (for t

 Reconciliation and friendship might be secured. the mysians gladly received the embassy, and putting daughters of the royal blood 80 on wagons (for it

 They might do. but as they were already considering rushing to their defense, and to stoutly resist the enemy in close combat, as dawn was brightly br

 Boasting to all about his brave deeds in wars. 6. having approached the emperor with these words and, 85 as was likely, having bewitched him (for he s

 Having lowered from above, one by one they first pulled up all the conspirators, and then john himself. having come up, therefore, beyond all human su

 The vengeance for these things, and to those who were slipping he seemed relentless and burdensome, and oppressive to those wishing to lead an indiffe

 At the end of the month of december, during the thirteenth indiction of the six thousand four hundred and seventy-eighth year, a throng of select men,

 Having captured him, confines him to amaseia. having therefore from this secured sufficient safety for himself and for his affairs, and having purged

 To make amends for what nikephoros had improperly introduced. for nikephoros, whether wishing to correct divine matters that were being disturbed by s

 And having found him not very accurately versed in secular education, but most diligently trained in divine and our own, he anoints him patriarch of a

 The bosporus, but to pass by moesia, which belongs to the romans, and has from of old been a part of macedonia. for it is said that the moesians, bein

 To make replies. for we trust in christ, the immortal god, that if you do not depart from this land, you will be driven from it by us even against you

 A disgrace by the raids of the scythians to send out bilingual men dressed in scythian attire into the homesteads and customs of the enemy, so that t

 The romans on the one hand shouted for joy, and were strengthened for valor but the scythians, growing cowardly at the new and strange nature of the

 2. the emperor, when he learned of such a revolt, was disturbed, as was likely, and having brought up bishop stephen from abydos with wingless speed,

 He saw that murders along with the ensuing conspirators were proceeding harshly and inhumanely, he decided to no longer delay or be slothful, so that

 Considering into what fortunes the unholy and blood-guilty john has enclosed my family, having mercilessly slain the emperor and my uncle, who was his

 Eye, and to learn that these things were red, just as they had been from of old. phocas, considering this prodigy a second evil omen, and seeing also

 Immediately, lest it be some ill-omened thing, and destruction befall the pursuing mysians but learning they were fleeing at full speed, he both purs

 The russian minds were lifted up in audacity and boldness. therefore, the emperor, not enduring their overweening arrogance and their blatant insolenc

 Being given out, and going under the earth by the inscrutable wisdom of the creator and again from the 130 celtic mountains gushing up, and winding t

 Should set a phalanx against us, things will not end well for us, but in dreadful perplexity and helplessness. therefore, having strengthened your spi

 Is called drista) lingering with his whole force. but in this way kalokyres escaped, and night coming on stopped the romans from battle. and just on t

 And they killed up to one hundred and fifty vigorous men. but the emperor, learning of such an event, quickly mounted his horse and urged his follower

 But the rest of the multitude he bound in fetters and shut up in prisons. he himself, having gathered the entire host of the tauro-scythians, numberin

 1. and just as day was dawning, the emperor fortified the camp with a strong palisade in this manner. a certain low hill of dorystolon rises at a dist

 He was courting them with gifts and toasts, encouraging them to proceed vigorously to the wars. 3. while these matters were in suspense, and the battl

 He flees to a divine and great sanctuary, seen as a pitiful supplicant instead of a haughty and boastful tyrant. whom the men of the drungarius dragge

 Having drowned. for it is said that, being possessed by greek 150 orgies, they perform sacrifices and libations for the dead in the greek manner, havi

 On the next day (it was the sixth day of the week, and the twenty-fourth day of the month of july), when the sun was setting, the tauro-scythians, hav

 Was being concluded. 10. but the romans, following the divine man who went before, 155 engage with the enemy, and a fierce battle having commenced, th

 With purity. at any rate, having conferred a few things about a truce with the emperor, seated beside the rowing-bench of the skiff, he departed. but

 Was crossed over. this is the greatest of the rivers cutting through asia, 161 and one of those that flow from eden, as we have learned from the divin

 The emperor, as one who abused the power of his leadership for certain powerful men, and did not direct the affairs of the church as was established b

 Having assembled forces, and having meticulously armed them, departing from the reigning city, he advanced through palestine, a prosperous land, flowi

 The mainland is enclosed by strongholds, stretching upon a certain steep hill on the other side it is surrounded by the sea, putting forth a well-hav

 Before until fire-bearing ships were secretly sent out from byzantium by those in power. which bardas parsakoutenos the magistros was leading, and ha

 I would have been destroyed, if some divine providence had not led me out of that very danger, which caused me to ride out with speed, before the ravi

 Furthermore, the star rising in the west at the setting of the morning star, which, making its risings in the evening, kept no fixed position at one c

 Of the city, but already becoming feeble, and suffering from a deep and intractable panting. and having just come to the royal hearth, he was shown to

meet them, when I give the signal with the trumpets. Such was the exhortation that the general delivered; and the army shouted 22 and applauded, and was eager to follow wherever he might lead, as one who had proposed the best course. He had therefore taken possession of the road with ambushes, a road presenting steep ridges, for the most part precipitous and cavernous, while its foothills were chasm-like and thick with stumps and all kinds of plants. Here the general lay in ambush, awaiting the arrival of the barbarians. But Hamdan, strutting and exulting in both the multitude of his followers and his phalanxes, and puffed up and swaggering with the abundance of spoils and the leading away of captives, made many sallies on either side, riding on a mare of extraordinary size and speed, and at one time being at the rear of the army, at another proceeding at its head, and brandishing his spear, and releasing it to the breezes, then again drawing it quivering towards himself. But when, having passed through the road suitable for cavalry, he entered the difficult terrain, and the barbarians, being confined in the narrowest and most uneven of places, broke their phalanx, and went through the precipitous places as each one was able, then the general, signaling the war-cry with the trumpets and rousing his own troops from the ambush, went to meet the barbarians. 5. And all had their right hands on their swords, and drawing them, they turned and killed the adversary, who was exhausted by the journey, while they themselves approached him fresh. And Hamdan himself was almost taken captive in war by the Romans; if 23 he, being otherwise shrewd and quick to perceive what was necessary in difficult situations, had not ordered the silver and gold he was carrying to be scattered broadcast upon the path; by which he distracted the attack of the Romans, who were occupied with collecting the gold, and with a few shield-bearers he barely escaped such a danger. And it is said that so great a slaughter of the barbarian multitude was wrought by the Romans in this war, that in many places of those regions heaps of human bones are to be seen even to this day. And when the general had contended with and destroyed the populous multitude of the barbarians with such trophies and stratagems, and had brought down and confined the pride and arrogance of Hamdan to ignoble and unmanly cowardice and flight, he gathered his men and collected the booty, both all that was barbarian, and all that was Roman which had been gathered by the barbarians from the plundering; he distributed the greater part of this to the army; and having provided for the captives, he sent them away to return to their own homes; and having secured in fetters those of the Hagarenes who were taken in the war, he sang songs of victory, and offered up prayers of thanksgiving to Providence, and hastened to the imperial power, to celebrate a triumph in Byzantium. The army held the general in applause, admiring him as was fitting, and proclaiming him a man such as the generation of that time produced no other, and they deified him for his good fortune, seeing that the affairs of war progressed for him as smoothly as possible. But he, 24 having reached Byzantium, since he was entering with the greatest possible amount of booty and myriad Hagarene captives, was received honorably by the emperor Romanos, and having celebrated a triumph in the theater, he astounded the spectators with the multitude of slaves and spoils; and he received rewards and honors from the state, proportionate to his labors. But in this way the general Leo saved Asia, by defeating Hamdan, making him both a fugitive and a wanderer.

ὑπαντιάζετε, ὅτε σημήνω ταῖς σάλπιγξι. τοιαύτην μὲν ὁ στρατηγὸς τὴν παραίνεσιν ἐξηγήσατο· ὁ δὲ στρατὸς ἠλάλαξέ τε 22 καὶ ἐπεκρότησε, καὶ ὡς τὰ κράτιστα ὑποθεμένῳ ᾗ ἂν ἡγοῖτο ἕπεσθαι προθύμως ἦν. ἐνέδραις οὖν διειλήφει τὴν ὁδὸν, ἀποτόμους τὰς ἀκρωρείας προβαλλομένην, κρημνώδεις τε καὶ σηραγγώδεις ὡς τὰ πολλὰ, τὰς ὑπωρείας δὲ βαραθρώδεις τε καὶ ἀμφιλαφεῖς πρέμνων τε καὶ παντοδαπῶν ἰδέαις φυτῶν. ταύτῃ προλοχίσας ὁ στρατηγὸς καθῆστο, τὴν τῶν βαρβάρων προσμένων ἐπήλυσιν. ὁ δὲ Χαμβδᾶν, τῷ τε πλήθει τῶν ἐφεπομένων καὶ ταῖς φάλαγξι σοβαρευόμενος καὶ γαυρούμενος, τῇ τε τῶν λαφύρων πλησμονῇ καὶ τῇ τῶν αἰχμαλώτων ἀπαγωγῇ ἐπαιρόμενός τε καὶ βρενθυόμενος, πολλὰς κατὰ θάτερα τὰς ἐπεξελάσεις ἐποιεῖτο, ἐφ' ἵππου θηλείας καὶ μέγεθος καὶ δρόμον ὑπερφυοῦς ἐποχούμενος, καὶ τῆς στρατιᾶς πη μὲν οὐραγῶν, πὴ δὲ προοδεύων, καὶ τὸ δόρυ σείων, καὶ ταῖς αὔραις μεθιεὶς, εἶτ' αὖθις μεθέλκων πρὸς ἑαυτὸν κραδαινόμενον. ἐπεὶ δὲ τὴν ἱππήλατον ὁδὸν διελθὼν ταῖς δυσχωρίαις προσέβαλλε, καὶ τοῖς στενωτάτοις καὶ ἀνωμάλοις συνειληθέντες τῶν τόπων οἱ βάρβαροι τὴν φάλαγγα διελύσαντο, καὶ ὥς πη ἐνὸν ἦν ἑκάστῳ, κατὰ κρημνώδη διῄεσαν, τηνικαῦτα ταῖς σάλπιγξι τὸ ἐνυάλιον ὑποσημήνας ὁ στρατηγὸς καὶ τῶν λόχων διαναστήσας τοὺς ἀμφ' αὑτὸν, ὑπηντίαζε τοῖς βαρβάροις. εʹ. Καὶ πάντες ἐπὶ τῶν ξιφῶν εἶχον τὰς δεξιὰς, καὶ ταῦτα σπασάμενοι ἐπιστροφάδην ἔκτεινον τὸ ἀντίπαλον κεκμηκὸς τῇ ὁδοιπορίᾳ, ἀκμῆτες αὐτοὶ τούτῳ πελάζοντες. καὶ κἂν καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ Χαμβδᾶν ἥλω μικροῦ πρὸς τῶν Ῥωμαίων δορυάλωτος· εἰ 23 μὴ, τὴν ἄλλως ἀγχίνους ὢν κἀν τοῖς ἀπόροις ὀξὺς ἐννοῆσαι τὰ δέοντα, τὸν ὃν ἐπεφέρετο ἄργυρον καὶ χρυσὸν χύδην ἐπὶ τῆς ἀταρπιτοῦ διασπείρειν προσέταξεν· ᾧ καὶ περισπάσας τὴν τῶν Ῥωμαίων ὁρμὴν, ἀσχοληθέντων τῇ τοῦ χρυσοῦ συλλογῇ, μετ' ὀλίγων ὑπασπιστῶν μόγις τὸν τοιοῦτον διαπέφευγε κίνδυνον. λέγεται δὲ τοσοῦτον αὐτουργηθῆναι φόνον τοῦ βαρβαρικοῦ πλήθους πρὸς τῶν Ῥωμαίων κατὰ τουτονὶ τὸν πόλεμον, ὡς πολλαχοῦ τῶν χώρων ἐκείνων σωρείας ἀνθρωπείων ὀστῶν ὁρᾶσθαι μέχρι καὶ νῦν. ἐπεὶ δὲ τοιούτοις τροπαίοις καὶ στρατηγήμασι τὴν πολυάνθρωπον πληθὺν τῶν βαρβάρων ὁ στρατηγὸς ἠγωνίσατο καὶ διέφθειρε, καὶ τὸ ὑψαύχενον τοῦ Χαμβδᾶν καὶ τετυφωμένον εἰς ἀγεννῆ καὶ ἄνανδρον δειλίαν καὶ φυγαδείαν κατέσπασε καὶ συνέκλεισε, τοὺς ἀμφ' αὑτὸν συναγηοχὼς καὶ τὴν λείαν ἐπισυνάξας, ὅση τε ἦν βαρβαρικὴ, καὶ ὁπόση Ῥωμαϊκὴ ἐκ τῆς προνομῆς τοῖς βαρβάροις συνήθροιστο, ταύτης τὸ πλεῖστον τῇ στρατιᾷ διένειμε· καὶ τοὺς αἰχμαλώτους ἐφοδιάσας ἐπὶ τὰ σφῶν ἤθη ἀποτρέχειν ἐξέπεμπε· τοὺς δὲ τῷ πολέμῳ ληφθέντας πέδαις ἀσφαλισάμενος τῶν Ἀγαρηνῶν, ἐπαιώνιζεν ἐπινίκια, καὶ τῇ προνοίᾳ τὰς εὐχαριστηρίους ἐσπένδετο προσευχὰς, καὶ πρὸς τὴν αὐτοκράτορα δυναστείαν ἠπείγετο, θριαμβεύσων εἰς τὸ Βυζάντιον. ὁ δὲ στρατὸς ἐν κρότοις εἶχε τὸν στρατηγὸν, ἀγάμενοι τοῦτον ὡς τὸ εἰκὸς, καὶ ἄνδρα ἐπιφημίζοντες, οἷον μὴ φέρειν ἄλλον τὴν τότε γενεὰν, καὶ τῆς εὐτυχίας αὐτὸν ἐξεθείαζον, κατὰ ῥοῦν αὐτῷ προχωροῦντα τὰ τῶν πολέμων ὁρῶντες ὡς μάλιστα. ὁ δὲ 24 κατειληφὼς τὸ Βυζάντιον, ἐπεὶ μετὰ πλείστης ὅτι λείας καὶ μυρίων δορυαλώτων Ἀγαρηνῶν εἰσῄει , ὑπεδέχθη τε ὑπὸ τοῦ αὐτοκράτορος Ῥωμανοῦ φιλοτίμως, κἀπὶ τοῦ θεάτρου θριαμβεύσας, τῷ πλήθει τῶν ἀνδραπόδων καὶ τῶν λαφύρων τοὺς θεωμένους ἐξέπληξεν· ἀμοιβάς τε καὶ τιμὰς, ἀναλογούσας τοῖς πόνοις, παρὰ τοῦ κράτους ἀπείληφεν. ἀλλ' οὕτω μὲν ὁ στρατηγὸς Λέων τὴν Ἀσίαν ἔσωσε, καταγωνισάμενος τὸν Χαμβδᾶν, φυγάδα τε καὶ ἀλήτην ἀπεργασάμενος.