Chronicon of george the monk lives of the new emperors.

 He summons to the palace nikephoros the renowned patriarch and with him the leading bishops and priests in the presence of the senate, and says, know

 A man-slaying fruit of a seed bitterly kept and sprouted in our generation, i know not whence this terrible condemnation was allotted to the romans. w

 And the fool will speak foolish things. for being exceedingly ignorant and nonsensical, he did not know at all those cherubim wrought of gold, which t

 We have recorded as being preserved. 21 and sight is a witness, a truthful teacher. both the length of time and the building of the venerable churches

 This apostolic preaching they continue to uphold and never in another jurisdiction, where there are christians, is that wicked and lawless and god-ha

 {the reign of michael the stammerer.}

 Therefore, having plundered it moderately, but not as he had hoped, but as divine providence allowed on account of our sins, he accomplished nothing m

 {the reign of theophilos.}

 Of impiety and insolence, and of tyranny and madness, the deluded and vain-minded one. since therefore he was possessed by the same deceit and derange

 This? but the emperor, as if rebuked, forcefully dragged him from the sanctuary, and having inflicted no small number of blows upon him, exiled him,

 As was fitting, he received him, immediately making him magister and domestic of the scholae, and receiving his children from holy baptism. 14. elated

 Most lawless ones, or pharaoh the egyptian, or nebuchadnezzar the assyrian? or should we bring all these together and name you one and the same, since

 He wished to take, but he received two pounds for him, the general having also been ordered to test him, and if he was brave, to make him a guardsman.

 Then, having impiously committed many shameful, terrible, and absurd acts, they were driven from there as apostates. but having fled to the imperial c

 Having secretly brought out theophobos through boukoleon, they saved him near narsou, in what is now called 'of theophobias', and they placed this the

 And overturned every day. and so finally, through imperial commission and cooperation, the fathers in exile and bitter prisons were recalled and resto

 Theophilitzes said, my lord, 817 i have a young man, most experienced and most brave with horses, just as your majesty desires, by the name of basil.

 Church, having a warden named nicholas. and on that night a divine voice called the warden, saying arise, bring the emperor into the oratory. and ha

 To bardas, do not strike the logothete. but they slaughtered him and cut him limb from limb in the scythian manner, showing the rawness and savagery

 Having constructed it very beautifully with flowing water. and when this was completed, there was someone in the city named peter, a man of letters an

 Plotting against him. but he heard these things as nonsense. but basil, hurrying to convince the emperor, befriends symbatios, a patrician and logothe

 Standing on a high rock, cried out loudly to the emperor, a fine journey you have made, o emperor, having slain your own kinsman and your paternal bl

 Peganes to cense him with an earthenware censer with sulfur. and they blind symbatios in one eye, and they also cut off his right hand, and they set h

 The emperor. and john the chaldos immediately with his sword striking the emperor cut off his hands. and iakobitzes the apelates, the persian, woundin

 And having been eaten by worms, he died. 3. and the emperor, having come forth on the day of christ's nativity during the procession to the great chur

 Before the fleet arrived, with the emperor lamenting and mourning greatly. 12. and when niketas xylinites, the epi tes trapezes, was accused of being

 He made leo fashion and wear in his boot, saying to him that often when your father is looking for a small knife for some need, why do you not give i

 Of the drome and having gone up to the ambo of the church, having read the charges against the patriarch photius, they brought him down from the thro

 To make war against hagion. and when an engagement occurred, those with constantine were defeated and slaughtered, with him barely escaping. 9. and th

 He having died, symeon sought pretexts to break the peace for seeking other captives as well, he advanced against the romans. and the emperor leo app

 He having given his word to basileios, he confided everything to him. but samonas, entering in to the emperor, said to him that, my lord, i wish to te

 Of nicholas the patriarch, the monks were pardoned from death, karamalos to the pikridiou monastery, and eustathios to the stoudiou monastery. and the

 He was persuading, he fled to siricha to the precious cross, pretending that he had come on account of faith in the cross. so constantine, the son of

 Andronikos, learning this, despairing, along with his relatives and his children and his men, went away and seized the fortress of kabala, having come

 Samonas said, against whom is the affliction? the metropolitan said to him, against you and if you get past the 13th of june, from then on you wil

 He dressed it and made an illumination for the animals. for this reason the hand of god was lifted from him, as one who attached the honor of god to i

 Of the detachments fell, and so many that the place was flooded with blood pouring down like a river. and gregoras the son of the doux was also killed

 879 of domenikos the hetaeriarch. zoe deposes patriarch nicholas along with those with him in anger, telling him to look after and care for the affair

 Others in the engagement of the war, 882 both constantine lips and john grapson and a sufficient number of other commanders. 17. and at some point rom

 These things came to pass. 23 but the emperor took nicholas the patriarch and stephen the magister to be with him in the palace, drawing the authority

 The basileopator, having made signed golden bulls as if from the person of the emperor constantine, containing the overthrow of such a plot, and that

 They came forth in a procession. 2. in the month of june, of the 8th indiction, on a sunday, the union of the church took place under romanos, with al

 And many others. therefore, having barely been saved, he entered into the dromon. and alexios mouseles the droungarios also came fleeing, armed, with

 Is deprived. they tonsured bardas boilas as a monk, since the emperor pitied him as he was a friend. 15. when the patrician nicknamed moroleon, who wa

 Of silver-shielded and silver-speared men, and of those adorned with every color of arms, all of them fenced in with 900 iron, who, having taken symeo

 Stephen the metropolitan of amaseia being a eunuch. 903 26. in the month of october, the mystikos john, the paradynasteuon, was accused of aspiring to

 And with maria the daughter of christopher and with the whole senate to the church of the most holy theotokos of the spring, and they blessed both pet

 Son of the emperor romanos, whom they were about to ordain patriarch of constantinople. 38. on the twenty-fifth of the same month an unbearable winter

 He having already reached old age and his sons being still infants. and his remains were placed in the aforementioned monastery of his father. 43. and

 Consequently, the rest of the dromons and the triremes, having sallied forth, worked a complete rout, and they sank many ships with their crews, and w

 A military force being besieged and coming into the greatest necessity, its inhabitants sent an embassy to the emperor romanos to have the siege lifte

 A monk. 1 constantine, his son-in-law, was therefore left as sole emperor who, having immediately honored bardas, the son of phokas, with the dignity

most lawless ones, or Pharaoh the Egyptian, or Nebuchadnezzar the Assyrian? Or should we bring all these together and name you one and the same, since you seem to have gathered into yourself the wickednesses of them all, the apostasy of Jeroboam, the blood-guiltiness of Ahab, the hardness of Pharaoh, the sacrilege of Nebuchadnezzar, the impiety of them all together. 18 Where are the sacrifices and initiations and the mysteries? Where the victims, both public and secret? Where are the portents of foreknowledge and signs of ventriloquists? Where are the oracles and 802 threats against the Christians? All are gone, have been proven false, have flowed away. The boasts of the impious have appeared a dream. Bel has fallen, Dagon has been shattered. No longer will they say to the fool, 'rule.' And now these things are perhaps small to the wretched. But the time will come when I will see my insolent ones and their great leader lamenting their own wickedness, when all evil and villainy is judged and tormented." 19. While these things were being done thus by both the emperor and his fellow-initiate patriarch, the Arabs went out with a great force against Romanía, and the emperor, along with the Persian refugees and the tagmata and Manuel the domestic, proceeded against them. And when an engagement occurred, the emperor was defeated, and he entered into the midst of the Persians, supposing he would be saved by them. But when Manuel, looking around, realized that the emperor was in the midst of the Persians, and that they wished to betray him to the Arabs and through him to be reconciled with them, cutting through their midst and seizing the bridle of the emperor's horse, he drove him forth unwillingly, leading him out, considering it an unbearable shame for the Romans if the Arabs should take the emperor of the Romans captive. But the emperor, being beside himself with fear of the situation, wished to flow back to the Persians again. But Manuel raised his sword as if to strike him. And he, becoming afraid and unwilling, followed along, having been saved with difficulty. And from there 803 he returns to Dorylaion with great shame and defeat. And Manuel, having been wounded in the war and fallen ill, died, having performed many brave deeds against the Hagarenes. And his body, having been brought back, was placed in the monastery of Manuel founded by him, near the cistern of Aspar. 20. And immediately there were slanders against the Persians to the emperor, and threats against Theophobos as a rebel and traitor and an enemy. Learning these things, Theophobos took the Persians and went down to Sinope, and taking it, he held it tyrannically. Which the emperor learned, and being in great grief—for he feared lest they should flow over to the Arabs—he himself went as far as Paphlagonia; and having given them his word that they would suffer no harm, and having taken up Theophobos, he returned with him to the city, while the other Persians came to the place where they had been encamped from the beginning. And Theophobos was loved by the citizens no less than by the Persians as being orthodox. 21. Then, indeed, when the emperor was near Blachernae, as was customary, a certain man met him, approaching and saying that "the horse on which your majesty rides is mine." And as the horse was bucking because of the sudden approach, and the emperor restrained it, the emperor asked the count of the stable, "Whose is the horse?" And he said, "The count of the Opsikion sent it to your 804 majesty." And when this man was found in the city, the next day the emperor brought him and the one who had approached him and said, "Tell the truth, whose is the horse?" And he, answering, said that "It was mine, and the general, sending, took it by force from me, giving me neither payment nor rank." And the emperor said to the count, "Tell me if this is so, and why you did not, having settled the matter concerning the horse, send it to me." And he said that "He was seeking to become a scholarius; and I, not knowing that he is brave, offered him one hundred nomismata; but he did not take them." And the emperor said, "And why did you not, having made a full settlement with him, send the horse to me?" And when the emperor had investigated, and been fully informed that he had taken it by force, he chastised the general with the appropriate floggings, and to the one who had approached him he returned the horse. But he did not this

παρανομωτάτους, ἢ Φαραὼ τὸν Αἰγύπτιον, ἢ Ναβουχοδονόσορ τὸν Ἀσσύριον; ἢ πάντα ταῦτα συνελόντες ἕνα καὶ τὸν αὐτὸν ὀνομάσωμεν, ἐπεὶ καὶ τὰς πάντων κακίας φαίνεσαι εἰς σεαυτὸν συλλεξάμενος, Ἰεροβοὰμ τὴν ἀποστασίαν, Ἀχαὰβ τὴν μιαιφονίαν, Φαραὼ τὴν σκληρό τητα, Ναβουχοδονόσορ τὴν ἱεροσυλίαν, πάντων ὁμοῦ τὴν ἀσέ βειαν. 18 ποῦ εἰσὶν αἱ θυσίαι καὶ τελευταὶ καὶ τὰ μυστήρια; ποῦ σφάγια φανερά τε καὶ ἀφανῆ; ποῦ τεράστια προγνώσεως καὶ σημεῖα ἐγγαστριμύθων; ποῦ αἱ κατὰ Χριστιανῶν μαντεῖαι καὶ 802 ἀπειλαί; οἴχεται πάντα, διέψευσται, διερρύη. ὄναρ ἐφάνη τῶν ἀσεβῶν τὰ κομπάσματα. ἔπεσε Βάλ, συνετρίβη ∆αγών. οὐκέτι οὐ μὴ εἴπωσι τῷ μωρῷ ἄρχειν. καὶ νῦν ταῦτα μικρὰ τοῖς ἀθλίοις ἴσως. ἔσται δὲ καιρὸς ἡνίκα ὄψομαι τοὺς ἐμοὺς ὑβριστὰς καὶ τὸν μέγαν τούτων καθηγητὴν ἀποκλαιομένους τὴν ἑαυτῶν κακίαν, ὅτε πᾶσα κρίνεται καὶ βασανίζεται κακία καὶ πονηρία." 19. Τούτων δὲ οὕτως πραττομένων παρά τε τοῦ βασι λέως καὶ τοῦ συμμύστου αὐτοῦ πατριάρχου, Ἄραβες μετὰ δυνά μεως πολλῆς κατὰ Ῥωμανίας ἐξῄεσαν, ὁ δὲ βασιλεὺς ἅμα τοῖς πρόσφυξι Πέρσαις καὶ τοῖς τάγμασι καὶ Μανουὴλ δομεστίκῳ κατ' αὐτῶν ἐχώρει. καὶ συμβολῆς γενομένης ἡττήθη ὁ βασιλεύς, καὶ μέσον εἰσῆλθε τῶν Περσῶν, ὑπ' αὐτῶν περισωθῆναι ὑπολαβών. Μανουὴλ δὲ ὡς ἔγνω περισκοπῶν μέσον τῶν Περσῶν τὸν βασιλέα ὄντα, αὐτοὺς δὲ βουλομένους τοῖς Ἄραψι τοῦτον προδοῦναι καὶ δι' αὐτὸν καταλλαγῆναι αὐτοῖς, διασχίσας μέσον αὐτῶν καὶ τοῦ χαλινοῦ τοῦ ἵππου τοῦ βασιλέως λαβόμενος ἐξήλασεν ἄκοντα τοῦ τον ἐξάγων, αἰσχύνην ἡγούμενος οὐ καθεκτὴν Ῥωμαίοις, εἰ τὸν βασιλέα Ῥωμαίων Ἄραβες αἰχμάλωτον λάβωσιν. ὁ δὲ βασιλεὺς τῷ δέει τοῦ καθεστηκότος ἐκστὰς προσρυῆναι πάλιν τοῖς Πέρσαις ἠβούλετο. ὁ δὲ Μανουὴλ τὸ ξίφος ἀνέτεινεν ὡς πατάξων αὐτόν. ὁ δὲ φοβηθεὶς καὶ ἄκων συνείπετο, μόλις διασωθείς. κἀκεῖθεν 803 ὑποστρέφει ἐν τῷ ∆ορυλαίῳ μετ' αἰσχύνης καὶ ἥττης πολλῆς. ὁ δὲ Μανουὴλ ἐν τῷ πολέμῳ τρωθεὶς καὶ νοσήσας ἐτελεύτησε, πολ λὰς ἀνδραγαθίας κατὰ τῶν Ἀγαρηνῶν ἐνστησάμενος. τὸ δὲ σῶμα αὐτοῦ ἀποκομισθὲν ἐτέθη ἐν τῇ ὑπ' αὐτοῦ κτισθείσῃ μονῇ τοῦ Μανουήλ, σύνεγγυς τῆς κινστέρνης Ἄσπαρος. 20. Καὶ εὐθὺς διαβολαὶ κατὰ Περσῶν πρὸς τὸν βασιλέα, καὶ ἀπειλαὶ κατὰ Θεοφόβου ὡς ἀντάρτου καὶ προδότου καὶ δυσμε νοῦς. ἃ μαθὼν Θεόφοβος τοὺς Πέρσας ἀναλαβὼν κατῆλθεν ἕως Σινώπης, καὶ ταύτην παραλαβὼν κατεῖχε τυραννικῶς. ὅπερ γνοὺς ὁ βασιλεὺς καὶ ἐν μεγάλῃ λύπῃ γενόμενος ἐδεδίει γὰρ μή πως παραρρυῶσι τοῖς Ἄραψι καὶ μέχρι Παφλαγονίας αὐτὸς ἀπῄει· καὶ λόγον αὐτοῖς ὡς οὐδὲν δεινὸν πείσονται δεδωκώς, καὶ τὸν Θεό φοβον ἀναλαβόμενος, ὑπέστρεψε μεθ' ἑαυτοῦ ἐν τῇ πόλει, τῶν ἄλλων Περσῶν παραγενομένων οὗπερ κατεσκηνώθησαν ἐξ ἀρχῆς. ἠγαπᾶτο δὲ Θεόφοβος παρὰ τῶν πολιτῶν οὐχ ἧττον ἢ τῶν Περ σῶν ὡς ὀρθόδοξος. 21. Τότε δὴ γινομένῳ τῷ βασιλεῖ πρὸς Βλαχέρναις, καθὰ εἴθιστο, ὑπάντησεν αὐτῷ τις προσελθὼν καὶ λέγων ὅτι ὁ ἵππος ᾧ ἐποχεῖται ἡ βασιλεία σου ἐμός ἐστιν. τοῦ δὲ ἵππου σκιρτῶντος διὰ τὸ αἰφνιδίως προσιέναι, καὶ τοῦ βασιλέως τοῦτον κατασχόν τος, τὸν κόμητα τοῦ στάβλου ἐπηρώτησεν ὁ βασιλεὺς "τίνος ἐστὶν ὁ ἵππος;" ὁ δὲ ἔφη "ὁ κόμης τοῦ Ὀψικίου ἀπέστειλεν αὐτὸν τῇ 804 βασιλείᾳ σου." τούτου δὲ ἐν τῇ πόλει εὑρεθέντος, τῇ ἐπαύριον ἀγαγὼν αὐτὸν ὁ βασιλεὺς καὶ τὸν προσελθόντα αὐτῷ ἔφη "εἰπὲ τὸ ἀληθές, τίνος ἐστὶν ὁ ἵππος;" ὁ δ' ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν ὅτι "ἐμὸς ἦν, καὶ ἀποστείλας ὁ στρατηγὸς ἀνελάβετο αὐτὸν βιαίως ἀπ' ἐμοῦ, μήτε τίμημά μοι δοὺς μήτε ἀξίωμα." εἶπε δὲ πρὸς τὸν κόμητα ὁ βασιλεὺς "εἰπὲ εἰ οὕτως ἔχει, καὶ διὰ τί μὴ ἀποκόψας περὶ τοῦ ἵππου ἀπέστειλάς μοι αὐτόν." ὁ δὲ ἔφη ὅτι "ἐπεζήτει γενέσθαι σχολάριος· ἐγὼ δὲ μὴ εἰδὼς ὅτι ἀνδρεῖός ἐστιν, παρεῖχον αὐτὸν νομίσματα ἑκατόν· ὁ δὲ οὐκ ἔλαβεν αὐτά." ὁ δὲ βασιλεὺς ἔφη "καὶ διὰ τί μὴ ἀποκοπὴν τελείαν μετ' αὐτοῦ ποιησάμενος ἀπέστει λάς μοι τὸν ἵππον;" καὶ ἐρευνήσαντος τοῦ βασιλέως, καὶ πληρο φορηθέντος ὡς βιαίως αὐτὸν ἀφείλατο, τὸν μὲν στρατηλάτην τοῖς προσήκουσι μαγγλαβίοις ἐσωφρόνισε, τῷ δὲ προσελθόντι αὐτῷ ἀπέστρεψε τὸν ἵππον. ὁ δὲ τοῦτον οὐκ