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they have held. 1.21 Having killed him, the murderers mercilessly carried him away and laid him in the pipe-shaped places to the right, so that he might remain there for a short time; for those who had helped Michael were occupied with more necessary concerns, so as to release him from prison and proclaim him emperor and king to all, who would administer the urgent matters of the moment, as security was needed and demanded, which he quickly established. And dragging the corpse by the Scylae, they disfigured it mournfully and stripped it in the hippodrome and hoisted it on a beast of burden and carried it through the whole main street, then throwing it into a boat, and his wife with their four children, Symbatios, who was also renamed Constantine at his coronation, Basil and Gregory along with Theodosios, they sent them around to the island of Prote; and there, as the children were surrounded by the punishment of castration, Theodosios was parted from life; and they deemed both worthy of a proper burial. 1.22 But this man, as some say, even before taking hold of the empire, held to the impious heresy. For this reason, also, when Nicephorus the patriarch, according to the custom of our pious faith, sent a tome to him through certain high priests to subscribe to the piety, he deferred doing this, until the magnificence of the empire should come upon him through the crown; and on the very second day of his reign, being presented with the orthodox tome to sign, he irrefutably refused, not wishing at all to agree to such a proposal. Hence he also restored the collaborators of the heresy in the palace, lavishing on them a special lifestyle for luxury. Among them, having also found a fellow-worker of his teaching in John the Grammarian, also called Iannes because of his opposition to the truth, he appointed him with them. To whom the childish-minded apostate commanded that a novel faith be composed. And after two years of his reign, having apostatized unrestrainedly, just like the son of Kish, he undertook the removal of the venerable icons, from there also writing to every bishop to come down to Byzantium, which was founded by the Megarians and Byzas, with Carystians, Mycenaeans, and Corinthians and many others gathering in his city in Europe, along with philosophers and orators. And indeed when the bishops approached the area of Pera, they were not permitted to meet with the patriarch according to custom, but were brought to him and, unwillingly, were forced to consent to his evil-minded opinion. Those of them who obeyed him, he deemed worthy of fitting courtesy, but those who did not obey, he subjected to all kinds of tortures, holding the ordinances of the Christians as nothing, so that he allegedly also mixed these things in the peace treaties with the Huns, assigning to them to practice our customs, and for himself and those under him their religions. Because of which, perhaps, most dreadful earthquakes and plagues and droughts and fiery explosions in the air, and in addition to these, civil strifes throughout every city and country, lasted from the beginning of his God-hated reign for many years, with the very elements being indignant, as it were, at his evil deeds. Such were his thoughts and contrivances in accordance with his impiety, and with these the grievousness enduring. 1.23 But also, if anything was determined to be of some use, he did not cease from industry; through which, throughout Thrace and all of Macedonia and as far as the borders of the land of the Scythians, he restored cities, himself going forth with phalanxes of soldiers, so that he might both turn aside enemy raids and provide for their easy repair. 1.24 He was by race, by a pairing, sprung from Assyrians and Armenians, his own parents having risen up against them and bloodily murdered them and having pitched their tents as fugitives in the lands of the Armenians, and there to have borne the savage beast; from whom a certain monstrous hybrid has been produced. But they say the Armenians were named after Armenus from the city of Armenium in Thessaly, who campaigned with Jason. But it had prevailed

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διειλήφασιν. 1.21 Κτείναντες δὲ τοῦτον οἱ φονευταὶ ἀνηλεῶς ἐν αὐλοειδέσι χώροις τοῖς πρὸς τὸ δέξιμον ἀπαγαγόντες κατέθεσαν, ὅπως ἐπὶ βραχὺ ἐκεῖσε προσμείνειεν· εἴχοντο γὰρ χρειωδεστέρων φροντίδων οἱ τῷ Μιχαὴλ συναράμενοι, ὥστε τοῦτον μὲν τῆς εἱρκτῆς ἐξελέσθαι καὶ ἀναρρῆσαι πᾶσιν αὐτοκράτορα βασιλέα, ὃς διαιτήσοι τὰ πρὸς τὸν καιρὸν κατεπείγοντα, ἀσφαλείας δεούσης ἀπαιτουμένης, ἣν ταχέως εἰργάσατο. καὶ διὰ τῶν Σκύλων ἑλκυσμῷ τὸ πτῶμα λυγρῶς καταικίσαντες καὶ τῷ ἱπποδρόμῳ παραγυμνώσαντες καὶ ὑποζυγίῳ μετεωρίσαντες ἐπὶ πάσης τῆς λεωφόρου προήνεγκαν, εἶτα ἐμβαλόντες αὐτὸ ἑνὶ πλοίῳ καὶ τὴν σύμβιον σὺν τοῖς τέσσαρσι τούτων παισί, Συμβατίῳ τῷ καὶ μετονομασθέντι Κωνσταντίνῳ κατὰ τὸ στέψιμον, Βασιλείῳ καὶ Γρηγορίῳ ἅμα Θεοδοσίῳ, περὶ τὴν Πρώτην νῆσον παρέπεμψαν· κἀκεῖσε τῶν παίδων καταθλαδίαν ποινὴν περιστοιχουμένων, ὁ Θεοδόσιος τῆς ζωῆς ἀπεζεύξατο· καὶ ἀμφοτέρους τῆς προσηκούσης κηδείας ἠξίωσαν. 1.22 Οὗτος δέ, ὡς φασί τινες, καὶ πρὸ τοῦ τῆς βασιλείας ἐπιλαβέσθαι τῆς δυσσεβοῦς αἱρέσεως εἴχετο. διὸ καὶ κατὰ τὸ ἔθιμον τῆς καθ' ἡμᾶς εὐσεβοῦς πίστεως στείλαντος πρὸς αὐτὸν Νικηφόρου τοῦ πατριάρχου τόμον διά τινων ἀρχιερέων ἐγγράψασθαι τὴν εὐσέβειαν, καταπράξασθαι τοῦτο διανεβάλλετο, ἕως ἂν αὐτῷ ἡ τῆς βασιλείας ἐπέλθοι διὰ στέφους μεγαλοπρέπεια· καὶ καθ' ἡμέραν γε τὴν δευτέραν τῆς αὐτοῦ βασιλείας ἐνσυνεχόμενος τῷ ὀρθοδόξῳ τόμῳ διασημήνασθαι ἀναντιρρήτως ἀπείπατο μηδ' ὅλως τῷ τοιούτῳ συνθέσθαι βουλήματι. ὅθεν καὶ τοὺς τῆς αἱρέσεως αὐτῷ συνεργοὺς ἐν τῷ παλατίῳ ἀποκατέστησεν, δίαιταν πρὸς τρυφὴν ἰδιαζόντως τούτοις δαψιλευσάμενος. μεθ' ὧν καὶ συνέριθον τῆς αὐτοῦ διδασκαλίας εὑρὼν τὸν Γραμματικὸν Ἰωάννην, τὸν καὶ Ἰαννῆν διὰ τὸ τῆς ἀληθείας ἀντίρροπον, τούτοις συνέταξεν. οἷς νεαροπρεπῆ πίστιν νηπιόφρων ὁ ἀποστάτης προστάττει συγγράφεσθαι. καὶ μετὰ δύο χρόνους τῆς βασιλείας ἀνέδην ἀποστατήσας, καθάπερ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ Κίς, τῆς τῶν σεβαστῶν εἰκόνων μετεποιήσατο καθαιρέσεως, ἐντεῦθεν καὶ γράψας παντὶ ἐπισκόπῳ καταίρειν ἐν Βυζαντίῳ τῷ ὑπὸ Μεγαρέων κτισθέντι καὶ Βύζαντος, κατ' Εὐρώπην συνελθόντων ἐν τῇ τούτου πολίσει Καρυστίων, Μυκηναίων καὶ Κορινθίων ἄλλων τε πολλῶν, φιλοσόφοις ἅμα καὶ ῥήτορσι. καὶ δὴ ὅτε οἱ ἐπίσκοποι τοῖς κατὰ Πέραν προσήγγιζον, οὐ κατὰ τὸ εἰθισμένον προσεντυγχάνειν τῷ πατριάρχῃ ἠφίεντο, ἀλλὰ πρὸς αὐτὸν ἤγοντο καὶ ἄκοντες συνευδοκεῖν τῷ κακοδόξῳ φρονήματι ἐβιάζοντο. ὧν τοὺς πειθαρχοῦντας αὐτῷ προσηκούσης ἠξίου φιλοφρονήσεως, τοὺς δὲ μὴ πειθομένους αἰκίσεσι παντοδαπαῖς διημείβετο, τὰ Χριστιανῶν παρ' οὐδὲν θεσπίσματα λογιζόμενος, ὡς δῆθεν καὶ ταῖς πρὸς τοὺς Οὔννους εἰρηναίαις συμβάσεσι ταῦτα συνέχεεν, ἐκείνοις μὲν ἀναθεὶς ἐργάσασθαι τὰ ἡμέτερα εἰωθότα, ἑαυτῷ δὲ καὶ τοῖς ὑπ' αὐτὸν τὰ ἐκείνων θρησκεύματα. δι' ὧν τάχα σεισμοὶ φρικωδέστατοι λοιμοί τε καὶ αὐχμηρίαι καὶ ἐκφλογώσεις ἀέρος, πρὸς τούτοις καὶ ἐμφύλιοι στάσεις κατὰ πόλιν καὶ χώραν πᾶσαν, ἀρχῆθεν τῆς θεομισοῦς βασιλείας αὐτοῦ μέχρι πολλῶν χρόνων διήρκεσαν, καὶ αὐτῶν τῶν στοιχείων δυσανασχετούντων οἷον τούτου τοῖς κακουργήμασι. τοιαῦτα τὰ κατὰ δυσσέβειαν αὐτοῦ ἐννοήματα καὶ τεχνάσματα, καὶ τούτοις τὸ ἐπαχθὲς ἐγχρονίζον. 1.23 Ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν πρός τι λυσιτελούντων εἴ τι διέγνωστο, φιλοπονίας οὐκ ἔληγεν· δι' ἧς κατά γε Θρᾴκην Μακεδονίαν τε πᾶσαν καὶ ἕως τῶν ὁρίων τῆς Σκυθῶν γῆς πόλεις ἀνενεώσατο, αὐτὸς ἐπελθὼν σὺν στρατιώτισι φάλαγξι, ὅπως τάς τε πολεμίων ἐφόδους ἐκτρέποιτο καὶ ταῖς τούτων ἐπισκευαῖς παρέχοι τὸ εὐπεράτωτον. 1.24 Ἦν δὲ τῷ γένει κατὰ συζυγίαν ἐξ Ἀσσυρίων καὶ Ἀρμενίωνἀναφυείς, τῶν ἰδίων γεννητόρων ἐπεξαναστάντων αὐτούς τε μιαιφονησαμένων καὶ πρὸς τοῖς τῶν Ἀρμενίων χωρίοις κατὰ φυγαδείαν ἐνσκηνωσάντων, κἀκεῖσε τὸν ἀνήμερον θῆρα τεκεῖν· ἐξ ὧν ἑτερογενές τι τεράστιον κεχρημάτικεν. Ἀρμενίους δέ φασιν ἐξ Ἀρμένου κληθῆναι τοῦ ἀπὸ Ἀρμενίου πόλεως Θετταλίας, ὃς Ἰάσονι συνεστράτευσεν. ἐκεκρατήκει δὲ