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

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 tell you something in private, which if I say, I will die, but if I do not say, you will die. And he recounted to the emperor the whole plot of Basileios. But the emperor disbelieving the things spoken by him, and having said "Did someone put you up to say these things to me, and did you do this out of bribery?" But he said "Send faithful men, whom you command, to my cell, my lord, and let them be hidden, and whatever they might hear from Basileios and from me, let them write these things down." Immediately the emperor sends Christophoros the protovestiarios along with Kalokyros the koitonites, and having gone up, they hid in his cell. Basileios therefore, having been enticed, and having received a sworn oath from Samonas in his oratory, told him all the things of the plot and the co-conspirators. And while they were lunching, Christophoros and Kalokyros came down and read everything in writing to the emperor. And immediately having summoned Basileios, 859 he gave twenty-four thousand miliaresia as if a soul-offering from his aunt Zoe, as having been so designated by her, and he sent him away to Macedonia. And so he led Basileios out of the city, and as for the others who had taken part and shared in the same plot, he sends Pardos, the droungarios of the watch, to Stypiotes ostensibly to bring him, the latter having been previously informed by an imperial note to arrest him. And the emperor, pretending to go away and dine at Saint Lazarus, at the lower level of the tzykanisterion, stationed Ioannes Garidas with the rest of the hetaireia in the bedchamber; and as the emperor was coming down, those with Ioannes, having seized Nikolaos the hetaeriarch, led him out of the city. And having brought Basileios from Macedonia and interrogated and beaten him, and having singed his hair, and having paraded him through the Mese, he exiled him to Athens; and there he died miserably. Likewise also Nikolaos the hetaeriarch and Stylianos and Ioannes and the entire family of Zaoutzes, some he tonsured and others he exiled, having confiscated all their property. And so the entire family of Zaoutzes was destroyed through Samonas. 21 And the emperor, having summoned all the magistroi and those in authority, read before them the things revealed by Samonas; and they said he was worthy of great honor. And he immediately honored him with the rank of protospatharios, and made him his intimate. 860 22. And Antony the patriarch died, and in his place was ordained Nikolaos, being the mystikos of the emperor. And the fortress Demetrias in the theme of Hellas was taken by Damian the Hagarene. 23. And the emperor Leo crowns Anna, daughter of Zoe from the Zaoutzes family, because he was not able to hold the customary banquets there not being an Augusta. 24. And the emperor took a maiden from the theme of Opsikion, very beautiful, by the name of Eudokia, having crowned and proclaimed and married her; from whom he had a male child, whereupon both she and the newborn died. 25. And the emperor Leo bought houses near the Holy Apostles, and there he built a magnificent church in the name of his former wife, Saint Theophano. 26 Likewise he built a church at the so-called Topoi, Saint Lazarus, establishing it as a monastery for eunuchs. where also the body of Saint Lazarus from Cyprus and of Mary Magdalene from Ephesus, having brought, he deposited, and he held the dedication of the same church. And while the fleet was occupied with the building of such churches, Tauromenion in Sicily was taken by the Africans, through the negligence, or rather the treason, of Eustathios the droungarios of the fleet, and Karamalos being there and Michael Charaktos, with great slaughter of the 861 Romans having taken place. And when they came up to the city, having been accused by Michael Charaktos as traitors before both the emperor and the patriarch, they were condemned to death. But the emperor having been entreated by

δόντος αὐτοῦ λόγον τῷ Βασιλείῳ, ἐθάρρησεν αὐτῷ πάντα. ὁ δὲ Σαμωνᾶς εἰσελθὼν εἰς τὸν βασιλέα εἶπεν αὐτῷ ὅτι, δέσποτά μου, θέλω σοι εἰπεῖν τι ἰδίως, ὅπερ ἐὰν μὲν εἴπω, ἀπο θνήσκω, εἰ δὲ μὴ εἴπω, ἀποθνήσκεις σύ. καὶ διεξῆλθε πρὸς τὸν βασιλέα πᾶσαν τὴν ἐπιβουλὴν τοῦ Βασιλείου. ἀπιστήσαντος δὲ τοῦ βασιλέως τοῖς λαληθεῖσι παρ' αὐτοῦ, καὶ εἰρηκότος "μή τίς σοι ὑπέβαλε ταῦτά μοι εἰπεῖν, καὶ ἐκ δωροδοκίας τοῦτο ἐποίησας;" ὁ δὲ εἶπεν "ἀπόστειλον πιστοὺς ἀνθρώπους, οὓς κελεύεις, ἐν τῷ ἐμῷ κελλίῳ, δέσποτά μου, καὶ ἵνα εἰσὶν ἐγκεκρυμμένοι, καὶ εἴ τι ἂν ἀκούουσι παρὰ Βασιλείου καὶ παρ' ἐμοῦ, γράφωσι ταῦτα." παρευθὺ δὲ ὁ βασιλεὺς ἀποστέλλει Χριστοφόρον πρωτοβεστιάριον ἅμα Καλοκύρῳ κοιτωνίτῃ, καὶ ἀνελθόντες ἐκρύβησαν ἐν τῷ κελ λίῳ αὐτοῦ. Βασίλειος οὖν δελεασθείς, καὶ λαβὼν λόγον ἔνορκον παρὰ Σαμωνᾶ εἰς τὸ προσευχάδιον αὐτοῦ, ἐξεῖπεν αὐτῷ πάντα τὰ τῆς βουλῆς καὶ τοὺς συμβουλευομένους. ἀριστώντων δὲ αὐτῶν κατελθόντες Χριστοφόρος καὶ Καλοκῦρος διὰ γραφῆς ἀνέγνωσαν πάντα τῷ βασιλεῖ. καὶ παρευθὺ μὲν Βασίλειον προσκαλεσάμενος 859 δέδωκε μιλιαρήσια χιλιάδας εἰκοσιτέσσαρας ὡς δῆθεν ψυχικὰ τῆς αὐτοῦ θείας Ζωῆς, ὡς ὁρισθέντα παρ' αὐτῆς οὕτως, καὶ ἀπέ στειλεν ἐν Μακεδονίᾳ. καὶ τὸν μὲν Βασίλειον οὕτως τῆς πόλεως ἐξήγαγε, τοὺς δὲ λοιποὺς τοὺς τῆς αὐτῆς βουλῆς μετεσχηκότας καὶ κοινωνήσαντας, Πάρδον μὲν δρουγγάριον τῆς βίγλης ἀποστέλλει πρὸς τὸν Στυπιώτην δῆθεν ἀγαγεῖν αὐτόν, προμηνυθέντος ἐκείνου διὰ βασιλικοῦ πιττακίου τοῦτον δεσμῆσαι. προφασισάμενος δὲ ὁ βασιλεὺς ἀπελθεῖν καὶ δειπνῆσαι εἰς τὸν ἅγιον Λάζαρον, εἰς τὸ καταβάσιον τοῦ τζυκανιστηρίου, ἔστησεν Ἰωάννην Γαριδᾶν μετὰ καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν τῆς ἑταιρείας ἐν τῷ κουβουκλίῳ· καὶ ἐν τῷ κατέρ χεσθαι τὸν βασιλέα κρατήσαντες οἱ μετὰ Ἰωάννου Νικόλαον ἑται ρειάρχην ἐξήγαγον τῆς πόλεως. ἀγαγὼν δὲ ἐκ Μακεδονίας Βασί λειον καὶ ἀνακρίνας καὶ τύψας, καὶ τὰς τρίχας αὐτοῦ καταφλέξας, καὶ ἐν τῇ μέσῃ θριαμβεύσας, ἐξώρισεν ἐν Ἀθήναις· καὶ κακῶς ἐκεῖ τελευτᾷ. ὡσαύτως καὶ Νικόλαον ἑταιρειάρχην καὶ Στυλιανὸν καὶ Ἰωάννην καὶ συγγένειαν πᾶσαν Ζαούτζα τοὺς μὲν ἀπέκειρε τοὺς δὲ ἐξώρισε, δημεύσας τὰς οὐσίας αὐτῶν πάσας. καὶ οὕτως πᾶσα ἡ συγγένεια Ζαούτζα ἐξωλοθρεύθη διὰ Σαμωνᾶ. 21 πάντας δὲ τοὺς μαγίστρους καὶ τοὺς ἐν τέλει προσκαλεσάμενος ὁ βασιλεὺς ἀνέγνω κατενώπιον αὐτῶν τὰ μηνυθέντα παρὰ Σαμωνᾶ· καὶ εἰρή κασιν ἄξιον εἶναι τιμῆς μεγάλης. ὁ δὲ παρευθὺ τοῦτον τῇ τοῦ πρωτοσπαθαρίου ἀξίᾳ τετίμηκεν, καὶ προσῳκειώσατο ἑαυτοῦ. 860 22. Ἐτελεύτησε δὲ Ἀντώνιος ὁ πατριάρχης, καὶ ἀντ' αὐτοῦ χειροτονεῖται Νικόλαος μυστικὸς ὢν τοῦ βασιλέως. παρελή φθη δὲ καὶ τὸ κάστρον ἡ ∆ημητριὰς ἐν τῷ θέματι τῆς Ἑλλάδος ὑπὸ ∆αμιανοῦ τοῦ Ἀγαρηνοῦ. 23. Λέων δὲ ὁ βασιλεὺς στέφει Ἄνναν θυγατέρα Ζωῆς τῆς ἀπὸ τοῦ Ζαούτζα, διὰ τὸ μὴ δύνασθαι ποιεῖν τὰ ἐκ τύπου κλητόρια μὴ οὔσης Αὐγούστης. 24. Ἠγάγετο δὲ ὁ βασιλεὺς κόρην ἐκ τοῦ θέματος Ὀψικίου, ὡραιοτάτην πάνυ, ὀνόματι Εὐδοκίαν, στέψας καὶ ἀναγο ρεύσας καὶ γήμας αὐτήν· ἐξ ἧς παιδίον ποιήσας ἄρρενα, ἐφ' ᾧ τετελεύτηκε καὶ αὐτὴ καὶ τὸ γεννηθέν. 25. Ἐξωνήσατο δὲ οἰκήματα ὁ βασιλεὺς Λέων πλησίον τῶν ἁγίων ἀποστόλων, καὶ ἔκτισεν ἐκεῖ ἐκκλησίαν περιφανῆ ἐπ' ὀνόματι τῆς προτέρας αὐτοῦ γυναικὸς τῆς ἁγίας Θεοφανῶ. 26 ὡσαύτως ἔκτισεν ἐκκλησίαν εἰς τοὺς λεγομένους Τόπους, τὸν ἅγιον Λάζαρον, κατασκευάσας αὐτὴν μονὴν ἀνδρείαν εὐνούχων. ἔνθα καὶ τὸ τοῦ ἁγίου Λαζάρου σῶμα ἐκ Κύπρου καὶ Μαρίας τῆς Μαγδαληνῆς ἀπὸ Ἐφέσου ἀνακομίσας ἀπέθετο, ποιήσας καὶ τὰ ἐγκαίνια τῆς αὐτῆς ἐκκλησίας. ἀσχολουμένου δὲ τοῦ στόλου εἰς τὰ κτίσματα τῶν τοιούτων ἐκκλησιῶν παρελήφθη ἐν Σικελίᾳ τὸ Ταυρομένιον ὑπὸ τῶν Ἄφρων, τῇ ἀμελείᾳ, μᾶλλον δὲ προδοσίᾳ Εὐσταθίου δρουγγαρίου τῶν πλωΐμων, καὶ Καραμάλου ἐκεῖσε ὄντος καὶ Μιχαὴλ τοῦ Χαράκτου, γενομένης πολλῆς σφαγῆς τῶν 861 Ῥωμαίων. ἀνελθόντων δὲ αὐτῶν ἐν τῇ πόλει παρά τε τοῦ βασι λέως καὶ τοῦ πατριάρχου ἐλεγχθέντων παρὰ Μιχαὴλ τοῦ Χαράκτου ὡς προδοτῶν, κατεκρίθησαν θανάτῳ. παρακληθέντος δὲ τοῦ βασιλέως παρὰ