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it worked, with fathers, 50 that is, arming their right hands against their sons, and brothers against those born from the same womb, and the end of a friend against his dearest friend. Thomas was the ringleader of these, about whom a twofold account is related. But since we are humans, and have grasped such things of history by hearing and not by sight due to the passage of so much time, it is necessary, in order that we might have the truth preserved everywhere, to record the accounts that are handed down in this way and not only in that way, with nothing of our present subject being damaged by such doubt and error; indeed it rather becomes safer for those who are always disputing that it is not so, but so. For it would have been best if, with the truth being naked, we humans also had universal knowledge without a curtain; but since much elapsed time, having been placed before us like some sort of veil, makes our knowledge weaker, it is necessary to bring matters somehow to light by obeying rumor and report, and not to surrender them completely to the river of forgetfulness. 10 The one and first account, which I also am persuaded by, having its certainty from some written documents, says that this Thomas was sprung from both obscure and poor parents, and otherwise also of Slavic origin, from those who often settled in the East. At any rate, living poorly and trafficking his fortune, he fled his own land, 51 and made his way into this great city. And having attached himself to serve and minister to one of the senators, he hastened through licentiousness to disgrace and outrage his master's bed and couch. Therefore, when he was caught and was not able to endure the great reproach and the blows for this, he becomes a fugitive to the sons of Hagar, and having given them sufficient proof both from his suitable actions over many years (for about the twenty-fifth year was being completed by him) and from having denied our Christ and God, he becomes the leader of a certain war-band and is armed against the Christians, promising to bring the empire of the Romans under their hand with a very mighty hand. And so that, being among the Romans, he might have no one in his way, but all joining with him and risking danger for him, he proclaimed and bruited it about that he was Constantine, the son of Irene, whom his folly and the savagery of his character long ago deprived of both the empire and his eyes, and at that time he had also departed this life. And since both the magnitude of the deeds and the hopes that fed him demanded some partner in his affairs (for he did not suppose that his interests on land and sea would otherwise be secured), he adopts a certain supposititious son, one who by the transformation of his body showed the desperation of his soul, to whom having given sufficient forces and having renamed him Constantius, he ordered him from one side, and himself from another, to ravage and overrun the land of the Romans. 52 Leo the Armenian then held the reins of the empire, at a later time; who, having assembled a force against him that was not noteworthy, caused it to be defeated (for at the same time as the face-to-face encounter it turned to flight), and [caused] him to be more arrogant and to think more of himself than he was. And so the first and common account says that the beginning of such a movement and sedition was thus. 11But another [account says] that this was the Thomas, differing in nothing concerning the name, who was formerly with Bardanios, but was honored by the emperor Leo; who at that time was administering the command of the foederati, dwelling in the Anatolikon, when he just heard that Michael had slain Leo, taking revenge, and at the same time also satisfying his own anger (for he happened from of old, from being of the same age, to be at odds with him), and at the same time fearing the prophecy about him by the monk in Philomelion, he moves a hostile hand, and a hand not small and weak, but a heavy one

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εἰργάσατο, πατέρων δη- 50 λονότι τὰς δεξιὰς κατὰ τῶν υἱῶν ὁπλισάντων, καὶ ἀδελφῶν κατὰ τῶν ἐκ τῆς αὐτῆς φύντων γαστρός, καὶ φίλου τὸ τέλος κατὰ τοῦ φιλοῦντος τὰ μάλιστα. Θωμᾶς τούτων ην εξαρχος, περὶ ου  διτ- τὸς λόγος φέρεται. ἀνάγκῃ δὲ ἀνθρώποις ουσιν ἡμῖν, καὶ ἀκοῇ ἀλλ' οὐκ οψει ἐκ τῆς τοσούτου χρόνου παρολκῆς τὰ τοιαῦτα κατ- ειληφόσι τῆς ἱστορίας, ινα δὴ πανταχοῦ τὴν ἀλήθειαν σωζομένην εχοιμεν, καὶ τοὺς τοιῶσδε ἀλλὰ μὴ τοιῶσδε μόνον παραδιδομένους λόγους ἀναγράφειν, οὐδὲν ἐκ τῆς τοιαύτης ἀμφιβολίας καὶ πλά- νης λυμαινομένης τῆς προκειμένης ἡμῖν ὑποθέσεως, μᾶλλον μὲν ουν καὶ ἀσφαλεστέρας τυγχανούσης τοῖς γε μὴ ουτως εχειν ἀλλ' ουτως διαπληκτιζομένοις ἀεί. αριστον μὲν γὰρ ην, εἰ γυμνῆς ὑπαρχούσης τῆς ἀληθείας καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐκτὸς παραπετάσματος τὴν πανείδησιν οἱ ανθρωποι ειχομεν· ἐπεὶ δὲ ὁ πολὺς ῥεύσας χρόνος οιόν τι κάλυμμα ἡμῖν προστεθὲν ἀσθενεστέραν τὴν γνῶσιν ἐργά- ζεται, δεῖ τῇ γε φήμῃ καὶ κληδόνι πειθομένους εἰς φῶς αγειν πο- σῶς τὰ πράγματα, ἀλλ' οὐχὶ τῷ ποταμῷ τῆς λήθης παραδοῦναι ὁλοσχερῶς. 10 ̔Ο μὲν ουν εις καὶ πρῶτος λόγος, ῳ  καὶ ἐγὼ πείθο- μαι ἐξ ἐγγράφων τινῶν εχων τὸ βέβαιον, τοῦτον ὁρμᾶσθαί φησι τὸν Θωμᾶν ἐξ ἀσήμων τε γονέων καὶ πενιχρῶν, αλλως δὲ καὶ Σκλαβογενῶν, τῶν πολλάκις ἐγκισσευθέντων κατὰ τὴν ̓Ανατολήν. πενίᾳ γοῦν ἀποζῶν καὶ τὴν τύχην ἐμπορευόμενος τὴν ἑαυτοῦ μὲν 51 ἀπέδρα, πρὸς δὲ τὴν μεγαλόπολιν ταύτην εἰσέφρησεν. καὶ δή τινι τῶν συγκλητικῶν ἐξυπηρετεῖν τε καὶ λειτουργεῖν κολληθεὶς αἰ- σχῦναι δι' ἀκολασίαν καὶ καθυβρίσαι τὴν δεσποτικὴν εὐνὴν καὶ τὰ λέκτρα τούτου ἠπείγετο. ἐπεὶ ουν φωραθεὶς οὐχ οιός τε ην τὸν πολὺν ονειδον καὶ τὰς διὰ τοῦτο ὑπομεῖναι πληγάς, φυγὰς πρὸς τοὺς ἐξΑγαρ γίνεται, καὶ τούτοις πίστιν ἱκανὴν εκ τε τῶν καταλ- λήλων αὐτοῦ δοὺς πράξεων διὰ πολλῶν ηδη χρόνων (ετος γάρ που διηνύετο τούτῳ πεμπτὸν καὶ εἰκοστὸν) καὶ ἐκ τοῦ τὸν Χρι- στὸν καὶ θεὸν ἠρνῆσθαι ἡμῶν, πολεμικῆς τινὸς φάλαγγος γίνεται ἀρχηγὸς καὶ κατὰ Χριστιανῶν ὁπλίζεται, κραταιοτάτῃ χειρὶ τὴν τῶν ̔Ρωμαίων βασιλείαν ὑπὸ τὴν αὐτῶν χεῖρα ποιῆσαι καθυπο- σχόμενος. καὶ ινα μή τινα ἐμποδὼν παρὰ ̔Ρωμαίοις γινόμενος σχῇ, πάντας δὲ συνεφαπτομένους καὶ τούτου προκινδυνεύοντας, Κωνσταντῖνον ειναι αὑτὸν τῆς Εἰρήνης διετράνου καὶ ἐπεφήμιζεν, ον ἡ ανοια καὶ τὸ τοῦ ηθους ὠμὸν πάλαι μὲν μετὰ τῆς βασιλείας ἀφείλετο καὶ τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς, τηνικαῦτα δὲ καὶ τὸν βίον μετηλ- λαχὼς ην. ἐπεὶ δὲ καὶ τὸ τῶν πράξεων μέγεθος καὶ αἱ βόσκουσαι τοῦτον ἐλπίδες κοινωνόν τινα τῶν πραγμάτων ἀπῄτουν (οὐ γὰρ αν αλλως αὐτῷ τὰ κατὰ γῆν καὶ θάλατταν ὑπελάμβανε κραταιοῦ- σθαι), καὶ υἱόν τινα ἐπείσακτον εἰσποιεῖται, τῇ τοῦ σώματος μεταμορφώσει τὴν τῆς ψυχῆς δηλοῦντα ἀπόνοιαν, ῳ  καὶ δυνά- μεις ἀρκούσας παρασχὼν καὶ Κωνστάντιον μετονομάσας αλλοθεν, ἑαυτὸν δὲ ἑτέρωθεν τὴν τῶν ̔Ρωμαίων κείρειν καὶ κατατρέχειν ἐπέ- 52 ταττε γῆν. Λέων τότε καιροῦ ὁ ἐξ ̓Αρμενίων τὰς τῆς βασιλείας ἐκεκρατήκει ἡνίας, ἐν ὑστέρῳ καιρῷ· ος δύναμίν τινα κατ' αὐτοῦ συστήσας οὐκ ἀξιόλογον αὐτὴν μὲν σφαλῆναι ἐποίησεν (αμα γὰρ τῇ πρὸς πρόσωπον ἀπαντήσει ἐτρέπετο πρὸς φυγήν), τοῦτον δὲ θρασύτερον καὶ πλέον η  ην τὰ καθ' ἑαυτὸν φρονεῖν. καὶ ὁ μὲν πρῶτος καὶ πολὺς ουτως εχειν λόγος περὶ τῆς τοιαύτης κινήσεως καὶ στάσεώς φησι τὴν ἀρχήν. 11Ατερος δὲ τοῦτον ειναι τὸν Θωμᾶν, μηδὲν περὶ τῆς κλήσεως διενηνεγμένος, τὸν τῷ Βαρδανίῳ μὲν πάλαι συνόντα, παρὰ τοῦ ἡγησαμένου δὲ Λέοντος τιμηθέντα· ος τὴν τῶν φοιδε- ράτων τηνικαῦτα διοικῶν ἀρχήν, κατὰ τὸν ̓Ανατολικὸν ἐνδιατρί- βων, ἐπεὶ τὸν Μιχαὴλ αρτι διήκουεν ἀνῃρηκότα τὸν Λέοντα, ἐκ- δικῶν, ὁμοῦ δὲ καὶ θυμὸν ιδιον ἀποπιμπλῶν (ἐτύγχανε γάρ που πόρρωθεν ἐξ ἡλικιωτῶν διαφερόμενος πρὸς αὐτόν), καὶ αμα τὴν περὶ αὐτοῦ τοῦ ἐν τῷ Φιλομηλίῳ μοναχοῦ πρόρρησιν φοβούμενος, χεῖρα ἐναντίαν κινεῖ, καὶ χεῖρα οὐ μικράν τινα καὶ ἀσθενῆ, βα- ρεῖαν