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So he hands him over to a certain Turk, who killed him. and they routed the apostate's men; then they arrived at Prilep, and having remained for a few days, they returned. And since he had a truce, he surrounded the city and constructed siege engines and brought ladders, so that by means of these they might climb up around the city. But then, being routed, very many became victims of slaughter. And again there was a greater assault around the city, and the repulse was similar; likewise also the third. Then they quietly sat in siege, and thus they took Prilep.

72 The emperor Theodore, therefore, having heard these things, was distressed. 73 But the ruler of the Bulgarians, Michael, his brother-in-law, held enmity against the Romans, but having been struck a fatal blow by his first cousin Kaliman, he had died. And Kaliman, having taken his wife, usurped the rule of the Bulgarians. But the Russian Uros, attacking Trnovo with troops, captured his daughter, the wife of Michael; for Kaliman had already been killed. Since the rule of the Bulgarians was left bereft of an heir, the leading men accepted Constantine, son of Ticho, to rule them. And so that his rule might be reputable and seem to be held by inheritance, they sent an embassy to the emperor Theodore, that he might join his first daughter Irene to Ticho, she being a granddaughter of Asan. They therefore put away the wife he had and sent her to the emperor. Thus, at any rate, the affairs of the Bulgarians were settled.

74 After these things the emperor fell into a terrible illness. The hands of physicians, therefore, grew weary with it. At any rate, after no little time, having been worn down by the illness and his whole body having been reduced to a skeleton, he took on the monastic habit, and he had made the confession of a noble and magnanimous soul, imitating the harlot of the Gospel, having summoned the presiding prelate of Mitylene for the confession of his errors and falls to the ground before his feet and washed the earth on which he lay with streams of tears, so that mud was made from them, and he frequently cried out, "I have forsaken you, Christ," weaving this into the words of his confession. He, therefore, having lived thus and having been emperor for not yet four full years—for having begun to rule in November, he reached the end of his life in the month of August. His body, therefore, was carried away to the monastery of Sosandra, and was buried there, where also was the emperor his father. And having died he had left behind three children, one male named John, and two female, Theodora and Eudokia. For his other two daughters he had joined to husbands, Irene to the son of Ticho, and Maria to Nicephorus, son of the apostate Michael, who also at the time of her father-in-law's apostasy paid the common debt.

75 And his son was not yet a full eight years old. And his father had made a will, perhaps ostensibly for the child, but in truth for his protovestiarios George Mouzalon; for he arranged for this man to hold power, until the emperor's son should reach full maturity; and oaths were advanced on these terms by order of the emperor from those who were present at that time. But the emperor's body was not yet three days in the tomb, when as if by a common signal, all those there ran together—and it was a considerable army—and the noble men who had been wronged by the emperor, Alexios Strategopoulos, whose son he had blinded, Constantine Tornikes, whom he held as a prisoner, Theodore Philes, whom he had blinded, George Zagarommatus, whom he was holding, the four sons of the protovestiarios Raoul, themselves also imprisoned, Nicephorus Alyates, whose tongue he had cut out, with a shout against the regent protovestiarios and his brothers towards the monastery of Sosandra

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παραδίδωσιν οὖν τοῦτον Τούρκῳ τινί, καὶ ὃς πεφόνευκε τοῦτον. καὶ ἐτρέψαντο τοὺς τοῦ ἀποστάτου· εἶτα ἀφίκοντο πρὸς Πρίλαπον, καὶ ὀλίγας ἡμέρας προσμείναντες ὑπέστρεψαν. καὶ ἐπεὶ ἐκεχειρίαν εἶχε, περιεστοίχισε τὸ ἄστυ καὶ ἑλεπόλεις συνίστα καὶ κλίμακας ἔφερεν, ὡς ἂν διὰ τούτων περὶ τὸ ἄστυ ἀναρριχήσαιντο. ἀλλὰ τότε μὲν τραπέντες πλεῖστοι ἔργον φόνου γεγόνεισαν. αὖθις δὲ προσβολὴ περισσοτέρα περὶ τὸ ἄστυ, καὶ ἡ ἀπόκρουσις ὁμοία· ὡσαύτως καὶ ἡ τρίτη. εἶτα ἠρέμα παρεκάθηντο, καὶ οὕτως εἷλον τὸν Πρίλαπον.

72 Ὁ οὖν βασιλεὺς Θεόδωρος τὰ περὶ τούτων ἀκηκοὼς ἠδημόνει. 73 Ὁ δὲ τῶν Βουλγάρων ἄρχων, γυναικάδελφος αὐ τοῦ Μιχαήλ, ἔχθραν μὲν

εἶχε κατὰ Ῥωμαίων, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τοῦ πρωτεξαδέλφου αὐτοῦ Καλλιμάνου καιρίαν πληγεὶς ἐτεθνήκει. ὁ δὲ Καλλιμάνος τὴν ἐκείνου λαβὼν γαμετὴν τὴν Βουλγάρων ἀρχὴν ἐσφετερίζετο. ἀλλ' ὁ Ῥῶσος Οὖρος μετὰ στρατευμάτων ἐπελθὼν τῷ Τρινόβῳ τὴν θυγατέρα τού του, τὴν τοῦ Μιχαὴλ σύζυγον, εἴληφεν· ὁ γὰρ Καλλιμάνος προπεφόνευτο. ἐπεὶ δ' ἔρημος ἐναπελείφθη κληρονόμου ἡ τῶν Βουλγάρων ἀρχή, οἱ προύχοντες τὸν Τοίχου υἱὸν Κων σταντῖνον εἰς τὸ ἄρχειν αὐτῶν ἀνεδέξαντο. ἵνα δὲ καὶ εὐ πρόσωπος αὐτῷ ἡ ἀρχὴ γένοιτο καὶ δόξειεν ὑπὸ κληρονομίας κρατεῖν, πρὸς τὸν βασιλέα Θεόδωρον πρεσβείαν πεπόμφασιν, ἵνα τὴν πρώτην αὐτοῦ θυγατέρα Εἰρήνην συζεύξῃ τῷ Τοίχῳ, ἐγγόνην οὖσαν τοῦ Ἀσάν. ἐχώρισαν οὖν τὴν ἣν εἶχε γυναῖκα καὶ πρὸς τὸν βασιλέα ἀπέστειλαν. οὕτω γοῦν ἠρέμησαν τὰ τὼν Βουλγάρων.

74 Μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα νόσῳ δεινῇ ὁ βασιλεὺς περιπέπτωκεν. ἀπέκαμον οὖν ἐν ταύτῃ καὶ ἰατρῶν χεῖρες. ἐν οὐκ ὀλίγῳ γοῦν χρόνῳ τῇ νόσῳ κατεξετασθεὶς καὶ τὸ σῶμα ὅλον κατα σκελετευθεὶς τὸ μοναδικὸν ὑπεισῄει σχῆμα, καὶ ἐξομολόγησιν ἐπεποιήκει ψυχῆς γενναίας καὶ μεγαλόφρονος, τὴν εὐαγγελικὴν μιμησάμενος πόρνην, τὸν τῆς Μιτυλήνης ἀρχιερατι κῶς προϊστάμενον εἰς τὴν τῶν αὐτοῦ σφαλμάτων ἐξαγορίαν μετακαλεσάμενος καὶ ἔμπροσθεν τῶν αὐτοῦ ποδῶν πίπτει πρὸς τοὔδαφος καὶ δακρύων ῥεύμασι τὴν γῆν ἔπλυνεν, ἐν ᾗ κατέκειτο, ὡς καὶ πηλὸν γενέσθαι ἐκ τούτων, καὶ τὸ «ἐγκατέλιπόν σε, Χριστέ» συχνῶς ἐπεφώνει, τοῖς τῆς ἐξαγο ρίας λόγοις τοῦτο συμπαραπλέκων. ἐκεῖνος μὲν οὖν οὕτω βιώσας καὶ μήπω ὅλους τέσσαρας ἐνιαυτοὺς αὐτοκρατορήσας· κατὰ τὸν Νοέμβριον γὰρ ἄρξας ἐν Αὐγούστῳ μηνὶ τὸ τέλος ἔσχηκε τῆς ζωῆς. ὁ μὲν οὖν νεκρὸς αὐτοῦ ἐν τῇ τῶν Σωσάνδρων ἀπεκομίσθη μονῇ, καὶ ἐτάφη ἐκεῖσε, ὅπου καὶ ὁ βασιλεὺς καὶ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ. τετελευτηκὼς δὲ τρία κατα λελοίπει παιδία, ἓν μὲν ἄρρεν τοὔνομα Ἰωάννην, θήλεα δὲ δύο, τήν τε Θεοδώραν καὶ Εὐδοκίαν. τὰς ἑτέρας γὰρ δύο αὐτοῦ θυγατέρας ἀνδράσι συνέζευξε, τὴν Εἰρήνην τῷ τοῦ Τοίχου υἱῷ, τὴν δὲ Μαρίαν τῷ τοῦ ἀποστάτου Μιχαὴλ υἱῷ Νικηφόρῳ, ἥτις καὶ ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τῆς τοῦ πενθεροῦ ἀποστάσεως τὸ κοινὸν ἀπέδοτο χρέος.

75 Ἦν δὲ ὁ υἱὸς αὐτοῦ οὔπω τελείων ἐτῶν ὀκτώ. ὁ δὲ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ διαθήκην πεποίηκε τάχα μὲν ὡς ἐπὶ τῷ παιδί, τῇ δ' ἀληθείᾳ ἐπὶ τῷ πρωτοβεστιαρίῳ αὐτοῦ τῷ Μουζάλωνι Γεωργίῳ· τοῦτον γὰρ διετίθετο τὸ κράτος ἔχειν, μέχρις ἂν ὁ τοῦ βασιλέως υἱὸς εἰς ἥβην τελείαν ἀφίκοιτο· καὶ πρού βησαν ἐπὶ τούτοις προστάξει τοῦ βασιλέως ὅρκοι παρὰ τῶν ἐντυχόντων τῷ τότε. ἀλλ' οὔπω τριταῖος ἦν ἐν τάφῳ ὁ τοῦ βασιλέως νεκρός, καὶ ὡς ἀπὸ κοινοῦ συνθήματος συν δραμόντες πάντες οἱ ἐκεῖσε-στράτευμα δὲ ἦν ἱκανόν- καὶ οἱ πρὸς βασιλέως κεκακωμένοι ἄνδρες εὐγενεῖς, ὁ Στρατη γόπουλος Ἀλέξιος, οὗ τὸν υἱὸν τετύφλωκεν, ὁ Τορνίκης Κων σταντῖνον, ὃν εἶχε δέσμιον, ὁ Φιλῆς Θεόδωρος, ὃν τετύφλωκεν, ὁ Ζαγαρομμάτης Γεώργιος, ὃν ἐκράτει, οἱ τέτταρες υἱοὶ τοῦ πρωτοβεστιαρίου τοῦ Ῥαοὺλ καὶ αὐτοὶ καθειργμένοι, Νικη φόρος ὁ Ἀλυάτης, οὗ τὴν γλῶτταν ἐξέτεμεν, αὐτοβοεὶ πρὸς τὴν Σωσάνδρων μονὴν κατὰ τοῦ ἐπιτρόπου πρωτοβεστιαρίου καὶ τῶν αὐταδέλφων