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12.1There was a certain man in Byzantium, Zeno by name, the grandson of that Anthemius who had formerly held the imperial power in the west. Him they purposely appointed ruler of 12.2 Egypt and sent him out. But he, having filled his ship with the most valuable treasures, made arrangements for his departure; for he had an immeasurable weight of silver and golden objects adorned with pearls and emeralds and other such precious stones. But they, having persuaded some of those who seemed to be most faithful to him, after carrying off the treasures from there as quickly as possible, and having thrown fire into the hull of the ship, ordered them to report to Zeno that the flame had broken out in the ship by chance 12.3 and the treasures had been destroyed. And some time later it happened that Zeno died suddenly, and they immediately became masters of his property as his heirs. 12.4 For they produced a certain will, which is rumored not to have been composed by him. 12.5 And of Tatianus and Demosthenes and of Hilara, in a similar manner, they made themselves heirs, who were first in the Roman senate both in other respects and in rank. And of some, not wills, but 12.6 by forging letters, they got possession of their property. For thus they became heirs both of Dionysius, who lived in Lebanon, and of John, the son of Basil, who had been the most distinguished of all the Edessenes, but had been forcibly given over by Belisarius to the Persians as a hostage, as was told by me in the previous books. 12.7 For this John, Chosroes would no longer release, charging that the Romans had disregarded all the agreements on the basis of which he had happened to be given to him by Belisarius, but 12.8 he demanded that he be handed over as having become a prisoner of war. But the man's grandmother (for she happened to be still living), by providing a ransom of no less than two thousand pounds of 12.9 silver, was expected to buy her grandson back. But when this ransom came to Daras, the Emperor, learning of it, did not allow the transaction to take place, so that, he said, the wealth of the Romans should not be carried off to the barbarians. 12.10 Not long afterwards it happened that John fell sick and departed from this life, and the governor of the city, forging a certain letter, said that John had written to him a short time before as to a friend, that it was his wish for his property to go to the Emperor. 12.11 And I should not be able to list the names of all the others of whom they have become heirs automatically. 12.12 But up until the time when the so-called Nika sedition took place, they saw fit to pick off the properties of the wealthy one by one; but when this happened to occur, as was told by me in the previous books, then indeed, confiscating at once, one might almost say, the properties of all the members of the senatorial council, they handled all the furniture and as many of the finest lands as they wished, but selecting those which were subject to a bitter and most heavy tax, under a pretense of humanity 12.13 they gave them back to their former owners. For this reason, being choked by the tax-collectors and worn down by the ever-flowing interest on their debts, they lived on unwillingly in a state of living death. 12.14 For this reason, to me and to many of us they never seemed to be human beings, but certain avenging demons and, as the poets say, "twin plagues of men," who, having plotted in common how they might be able most easily and quickly to destroy all human races and works, put on human form, and having become man-demons, in this way they convulsed the entire world. 12.15 And one might prove this by many other things and by the power of what was done. For it happens that demonic things are distinguished from human things by a great difference. 12.16 For although many men have arisen in all time who were by chance or by nature most terrible, some have overthrown cities, others countries, or something else of that sort by themselves, but the destruction of all mankind and the calamities of the entire inhabited earth no one except these persons has had sufficient power to accomplish. Of whom indeed

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12.1Ἦν τις ἐν Βυζαντίῳ Ζήνων ὄνομα, ἐκείνουἈνθεμίου υἱωνὸς, ὅσπερ ἐν τῇ ἑσπερίᾳ τὴν βασιλείαν τὰ πρότερα ἔσχε. τοῦτον δὴ ἐξεπίτηδες ἄρχοντα ἐπ' 12.2 Αἰγύπτου καταστησάμενοι ἔστελλον. ἀλλ' ὁ μὲν χρημάτων τὸ πλοῖον τῶν τιμιωτάτων ἐμπλησάμενος τὰ ἐς τὴν ἀναγωγὴν διέθετο· ἦσαν γὰρ αὐτῷ σταθμός τε ἀργύρου ἀναρίθμητος καὶ χρυσώματα μαργάροις τε καὶ σμαράγδοις καλλωπισθέντα καὶ λίθοις ἄλλοις τοιούτοις ἐντίμοις· οἱ δέ τινας ἀναπείσαντες τῶν οἱ πιστοτάτων εἶναι δοκούντων τὰ μὲν χρήματα ἐνθένδε ὅτι τάχιστα ἐκφορήσαντες, πῦρ δὲ ἐν κοίλῃ νηὶ ἐμβεβλημένοι τῷ Ζήνωνι ἀπαγγέλλειν ἐκέλευον ἀπὸ ταὐτομάτου τήν τε φλόγα ἐν τῷ πλοίῳ ξυνενηνέχθαι 12.3 καὶ διολωλέναι τὰ χρήματα. χρόνῳ δὲ ὕστερον Ζήνωνι μὲν ἐξαπιναίως ἀπογενέσθαι ξυνέπεσεν, αὐτοὶ δὲ κύριοι τῆς οὐσίας εὐθὺς ἅτε κληρονόμοι γεγόνασι. 12.4 διαθήκην γάρ τινα προὔφερον, ἥνπερ οὐ παρ' ἐκείνου ξυγκεῖσθαι διατεθρύλληται. 12.5 Καὶ Τατιανοῦ τε καὶ ∆ημοσθένους καὶ τῆςἹλαρᾶς τρόπῳ τῷ ὁμοίῳ σφᾶς αὐτοὺς κληρονόμους πεποίηνται, οἵπερ τά τε ἄλλα καὶ τὸ ἀξίωμα πρῶτοι ἔν γεῬωμαίων τῇ βουλῇ ἦσαν. τινῶν δὲ οὐ διαθήκας, ἀλλ' 12.6 ἐπιστολὰς διεσκευασμένοι τὴν οὐσίαν ἔσχον. οὕτω γὰρ ∆ιονυσίου τε κληρονόμοι γεγόνασιν, ὃς ἐν Λιβάνῳ ᾤκει, καὶἸωάννου τοῦ Βασιλείου παιδὸς, ὃς δὴ ἐπιφανέστατος μὲνἘδεσσηνῶν ἐγεγόνει πάντων, βίᾳ δὲ πρὸς Βελισαρίου ἐν ὁμήρων λόγῳ ἐκδέδοται τοῖς Πέρσαις, ὥσπερ μοι ἐν τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν λόγοις ἐρρήθη. 12.7 τοῦτον γὰρ τὸνἸωάννην ὁ μὲν Χοσρόης οὐκέτι ἠφίει, ἐπικαλῶνῬωμαίοις ἠλογηκέναι τὰ ξυγκείμενα πάντα, ἐφ' οἷς αὐτῷ πρὸς Βελισαρίου δοθεὶς ἐτύγχανεν, ἀπο12.8 δίδοσθαι μέντοι ἅτε δορυάλωτον γεγονότα ἠξίου. ἡ δὲ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς μάμμη (περιοῦσα γὰρ ἔτι ἐτύγχανε) τὰ λύτρα παρεχομένη οὐχ ἧσσον ἢ δισχιλίας λίτρας ἀρ12.9 γύρου τὸν υἱωνὸν ὠνήσεσθαι ἐπίδοξος ἦν. ἀλλ' ἐπεὶ τὰ λύτρα ταῦτα ἐς ∆άρας ἦλθε, μαθὼν ὁ βασιλεὺς τὸ συμβόλαιον γενέσθαι οὐκ εἴα, ὡς μὴ ἐς τοὺς βαρ12.10 βάρους, εἰπὼν, ὁῬωμαίων κομίζηται πλοῦτος. οὐ πολλῷ δὲ ὕστερον τῷ μὲνἸωάννῃ νοσήσαντι ξυνέβη ἐξ ἀνθρώπων ἀφανισθῆναι, ὁ δὲ τὴν πόλιν ἐπιτροπεύων ἐπιστολὴν ἀναπλάσας τινὰ ἔφη πρὸς αὐτὸν ἅτε φίλον οὐ πολλῷ ἔμπροσθεν τὸνἸωάννην γράψαι ὥς οἱ αὐτῷ βουλομένῳ εἴη εἰς τὸν βασιλέα τὴν οὐσίαν 12.11 ἐλθεῖν. πάντων δὲ τῶν ἄλλων τὰ ὀνόματα καταλέγειν οὐκ ἂν δυναίμην ὧνπερ αὐτόματοι κληρονόμοι γεγένηνται. 12.12Ἀλλὰ μέχρι μὲν οὖν ἡ τοῦ Νίκα καλουμένη στάσις ἐγένετο, κατὰ μίαν διαλέγεσθαι τὰς τῶν εὐδαιμόνων οὐσίας ἠξίουν· ἐπεὶ δὲ ταύτην, ὥσπερ μοι ἐν τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν λόγοις ἐρρήθη, γενέσθαι ξυνέβη, τότε δὴ ἀθρόας σχεδόν τι εἰπεῖν ἁπάντων τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς συγκλήτου βουλῆς τὰς οὐσίας δημοσιώσαντες, τὰ μὲν ἔπιπλα πάντα καὶ τῶν χωρίων ὅσα κάλλιστα ἦν ᾗπερ ἐβούλοντο διεχείρισαν, ἀπολέξαντες δὲ τὰ φόρου πικροῦ τε καὶ βαρυτάτου ὑποτελῆ ὄντα, φιλανθρωπίας προσχή12.13 ματι τοῖς πάλαι κεκτημένοις ἀπέδοντο. διὸ δὴ πρός τε τῶν φορολόγων ἀγχόμενοι καὶ ἀποκναιόμενοι τόκοις ὀφλημάτων ἀειρρύτοις τισὶ δυσθανατοῦντες ἀκού12.14 σιοι διεβίωσαν. διὸ δὴ ἐμοί τε καὶ τοῖς πολλοῖς ἡμῶν οὐδεπώποτε ἔδοξαν οὗτοι ἄνθρωποι εἶναι, ἀλλὰ δαίμονες παλαμναῖοί τινες καὶ ὥσπερ οἱ ποιηταὶ λέγουσι βροτολοιγὼ ἤστην, οἳ δὴ ἐπὶ κοινῆς βουλευσάμενοι ὅπως ἅπαντα ἀνθρώπεια γένη τε καὶ ἔργα ὡς ῥᾷστα καὶ τάχιστα διαφθείρειν ἱκανοὶ εἶεν, ἀνθρώπειόν τε ἠμπίσχοντο σχῆμα καὶ ἀνθρωποδαίμονες γεγενημένοι τῷ τρόπῳ τούτῳ ξύμπασαν τὴν οἰκουμένην κατέσεισαν. 12.15 τεκμηριώσαι δ' ἄν τις τὸ τοιοῦτο πολλοῖς τε καὶ ἄλλοις καὶ τῇ τῶν πεπραγμένων δυνάμει. τὰ γὰρ δαιμόνια τῶν ἀνθρωπείων ξυμβαίνει πολλῷ τῷ διαλ12.16 λάσσοντι διακεκρίσθαι. πολλῶν ἀμέλει γεγονότων ἐκ τοῦ παντὸς αἰῶνος ἀνθρώπων τύχῃ ἢ φύσει φοβερῶν ἐς τὰ μάλιστα, οἱ μὲν πόλεις, οἱ δὲ χώρας, ἢ ἄλλο τι τοιοῦτο καθ' αὑτοὺς ἔσφηλαν, ὄλεθρον δὲ ξυμπάντων ἀνθρώπων ξυμφοράς τε γῆς τῆς οἰκουμένης ἁπάσης οὐδεὶς ὅτι μὴ οὗτοι ἄνθρωποι ἐργάζεσθαι ἱκανῶς ἔσχον. ὧν δὴ