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would buy. For this reason, one would not easily have seen him go- 88 ing forth into public procession, displaying much zeal for common affairs and care, now in the law courts, now, as has been said, during the weekly processions. 4 Whence, since the sights before the city, which for the most part call the emperors to them, provide a feast for the eyes, this man, having extended the palace walls toward the sea beyond the ancient foundations, and toward the sunlit places, where previously a cistern existed in which it happened that a royal son was drowned, made gardens, from there he made up for what was lacking and with these he delighted and diverted himself, as was natural. And once while he was staying there, or even dining, as the story goes, it happened that a certain cargo ship of ten thousand measures, sailing with a fair wind and its sails unfurled, overshadowed the harbor with its size and brought the emperor to amazement. He therefore asked at once whose the trading vessel was and what foodstuffs it was carrying. When he heard it was the Augusta's, and this could not be concealed, he is said to have kept quiet for the time being and to have passed the time until the day he was accustomed to go to Blachernae. But when the day arrived and the ship's anchorage was known to the emperor, having learned it from someone, he set out on the road leading to the ship; and it was along the Bosphorus. And when he arrived and stood by the stern of the ship, with his retinue following, he asked the senate not just once, but twice and three times, what 89 anyone might have need of in terms of foodstuffs, of grain or wine or anything else consumed in the household. And when, having been asked many times, they answered just once that they lacked nothing as long as we prosper under your lordship and reign, and added that they knew nothing of the things about which we are being asked, "But do you not know," he said, "that the Augusta and my wife has made me, who was made emperor by God, a ship-owner? And who ever," saying this with bitterness of soul, "has seen an emperor of the Romans or his wife as a merchant?" And upon this, as they remained without excuse, he ordered on the spot that, with only the men disembarking, that ship be given to the fire with its anchors, sails, and all its other cargo, later speaking many words against and covering the empress with all sorts of insults, so as even to threaten to take her life, if indeed she were ever caught doing such a thing from that time on. 5 But Theodora (for this was the Augusta's name) claimed Paphlagonia as her homeland, and the village of Ebissa, and as her father Marinus, not some obscure man or private person in fortune, but a droungarios or tourmarches according to some, and her mother Theoktiste, who was thus called Florina, both of them reared in piety and not denying the veneration of the holy icons, as all at that time, but embracing and cherishing them exceedingly. But Theodora had long ago been crowned with the diadem of imperial rule, 90 and her mother Theoktiste had been honored as both a zostē and a patricia. This Theoktiste, therefore, in her own house, where the monastery of Gastria now has its foundation and establishment (she having bought it from that patrician Niketas), would summon Theodora's daughters (and they were five in number, Thekla and Anna, Anastasia and Pulcheria, and Maria) and welcomed them with other gifts by which the female sex is naturally won over, and taking them aside privately she begged and implored them not to be soft nor to remain the females they were, but to be courageous and to think thoughts worthy and fitting for their mother's breast, rejecting their father's heresy, and kissing and embracing the forms of the holy icons. And at the same time, putting these into their hands (for they were kept by her in a certain small chest), and placing them to her face and lips, she both sanctified them and stirred them to affection for them. Therefore, by doing this continually and rekindling in her granddaughters their affection for the icons, she did not escape the notice of Theophilos,

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ἐξωνήσει. διά τοι τοῦτο οὐδὲ ῥᾳδίως αν ειδέν τις αὐτὸν ἐξ- 88 εληλυθότα εἰς πρόκενσον, πολλὴν ἐνδεικνύμενον σπουδὴν πρὸς τὰ κοινά τε καὶ ἐπιμέλειαν νῦν μὲν ἐν κριτηρίοις, νῦν δέ, ὡς ειρηται, κατὰ τὰς προόδους τῆς ἑβδομάδος. 4Οθεν ἐπεί τινα τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ἑστίασιν τὰ πρὸ τῆς πόλεως εχοντα ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πλεῖστον εἰς ἑαυτὰ καλοῦσι τοὺς βασιλεῖς, τὰ πρὸς τὴν θάλασσαν τοῦ παλατίου τείχη τῶν ἀρχαίων θεμελίων ουτος παρεκβαλών, καὶ πρὸς τὰ ἡλιακά, ενθα πρότερον κινστέρ- νης ουσης συνέβη βασιλικὸν ἀποπνιγῆναι υἱόν, παραδείσους ἐργα- σάμενος, ἐκεῖθεν τὸ λεῖπον ἀνεπλήρου καὶ ἑαυτὸν ετερπε τούτοις καὶ ἐψυχαγώγει, ὡς τὸ εἰκός. καί ποτε τούτου ἐκεῖσε ἐνδιατρί- βοντος, ειτε δὴ καὶ δειπνοῦντος, ὡς λόγος, συνέβη ναῦν τινὰ μυριοφόρον ἐξ οὐρίας πλέουσαν ἀναπεπταμένοις δὴ τοῖς ἱστίοις τῷ μεγέθει τὸν λιμένα κατασκιάσαι καὶ τὸν βασιλέα εἰς θάμβος ἐπα- γαγεῖν. ἐπύθετο ουν αὐτίκα τίνος τε ἡ ὁλκὰς ειη καὶ ο τι φέροι τῶν ἐδωδίμων. ὡς δὲ τῆς Αὐγούστης ηκουσεν καὶ λαθεῖν τοῦτο οὐκ ην, τότε μὲν ἐφησυχάσαι λέγεται καὶ διαπέμψαι τὸν καιρὸν μέχρι τῆς ης εἰώθει ἡμέρας κατὰ τὰς Βλαχέρνας ἰέναι. ἐπεὶ δ' η τε ἡμέρα παρῆν καὶ ὁ τοῦ πλοίου ορμος δῆλος ὑπῆρχε τῷ βασι- λεῖ ἀναμαθόντι διά τινος, τῆς εἰς τὸ πλοῖον φερούσης ἀπήρχετο ὁδοῦ· ην δὲ κατὰ τὸν Βόσπορον. καὶ ἐπείπερ παραγενόμενος παρὰ τὴν πρύμναν εστη τῆς νεὼς ἀκολουθούσης τῆς τάξεως, ἠρώτα τὴν σύγκλητον οὐχ απαξ δὴ μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ δὶς καὶ τρίς, οτου 89 δή τις εχοι χρείαν τῶν ἐδωδίμων, σίτου η  οινου η τινος αλλου τῶν κατ' οικον ἀναλισκομένων. ὡς δὲ πολλάκις ἐρωτηθέντες μόλις απαξ ἀπεκρίθησαν μηδενὸς λείπεσθαι μέχρι τῆς σῆς εὐμοιροῦμεν δεσποτείας τε καὶ βασιλείας, καὶ προστιθέντων μηδὲν εἰδέναι τῶν ων ἐρωτώμεθα, "ἀλλ' οὐκ ιστε" εφησεν "οτι με ὑπὸ θεοῦ βασι- λέα γενόμενον ἡ Αὐγούστα καὶ σύμβιος ναύκληρόν με εἰργάσατο; καὶ τίς πώποτε, μετὰ πικρίας λέγων τοῦτο ψυχῆς, βασιλέα ̔Ρω- μαίων η  τὴν αὐτοῦ γαμετὴν εμπορον ἐθεάσατο;" καὶ ἐπὶ τούτῳ ἀναπολογήτων μενόντων, ἐκέλευσεν αὐθωρὸν μόνους ἐξιόντας τοὺς ἀνθρώπους τὴν ναῦν ἐκείνην παραδοῦναι πυρὶ αὐταῖς ἀγκύραις καὶ ἱστίοις καὶ τοῖς αλλοις πᾶσιν ἀγωγίμοις, πολλὰ κατειπὼν υστερον καὶ παντοίαις υβρεσι τὴν δέσποιναν περιβαλών, ὡς καὶ αὐτῆς ἐπαπειλῆσαι ἐξαγαγεῖν τῆς ζωῆς, ειγε δὴ εκτοτε τοιοῦτόν τι ποι- οῦσα φωραθείη. 5 ̓Αλλὰ πατρίδα μὲν ἡ Θεοδώρα (τοῦτο γὰρ ονομα τῇ Αὐγούστῃ) Παφλαγονίαν ἐσέμνυνεν, καὶ χωρίονΕβισσαν, γεννή-τορα δὲ Μαρῖνον οὐκ ασημόν τινα η  ἰδιώτην τὴν τύχην, δρουγγά- ριον δὲ η  τουρμάρχην κατά τινας, καὶ μητέρα Θεοκτίστην τὴν ουτω Φλωρίναν κατονομαζομένην, ἀμφοτέρους εὐσεβείᾳ ἐντεθραμμένους καὶ τὴν τῶν σεπτῶν εἰκόνων προσκύνησιν οὐκ ἐξαρνουμένους μέν, ὡς κατ' ἐκεῖνο πάντες καιροῦ, ἀσπαζομένους δὲ καὶ ἐνστερνιζομέ- νους ὑπερφυῶς. ἀλλ' ἡ μὲν Θεοδώρα διαδήματι βασιλείας πάλαι 90 δὴ κατέστεπτο, καὶ ἡ αὐτῆς μήτηρ Θεοκτίστη ζωστή τε καὶ πατρι- κία τετίμητο. αυτη δὴ ουν ἡ Θεοκτίστη κατὰ τὸν ἑαυτῆς οικον, ενθα δὴ ἡ τῶν Γαστρίων μονὴ τὴν πῆξιν εχει τὰ νῦν καὶ ιδρυσιν (ην δὲ τοῦτον ἐξ ἐκείνου τοῦ πατρικίου ἐξωνησαμένη Νικήτα), τὰς τῆς Θεοδώρας θυγατέρας μετακαλουμένη (πέντε δὲ ησαν τὸν ἀριθμόν, η τε Θέκλα καὶΑννα ̓Αναστασία τε καὶ Πουλχερία καὶ ἡ Μαρία) αλλαις τε δωρεαῖς αις ὑπάγεσθαι τὸ θῆλυ πέφυκεν ἐδεξιοῦτο, καὶ ἰδίᾳ παραλαμβάνουσα οὐ μαλακίζεσθαι οὐδὲ μένειν θηλείας οπερ ησαν ἐξελιπάρει καὶ καθικέτευεν, ἀνδρίζεσθαι δὲ καὶ τῆς μητρῴας θηλῆς αξια διανοεῖσθαι καὶ πρέποντα, τὴν πατρῴαν μὲν αιρεσιν ἀπορριπιζομένας, καταφιλούσας δὲ καὶ κατασπαζο- μένας τὰς τῶν σεπτῶν εἰκόνων μορφάς. καὶ αμα ταύτας εἰς χεῖ- ρας ἐμβάλλουσα (ἐφυλάττοντο δὲ αὐτῇ εν τινι κιβωτίῳ), τῷ προσώπῳ καὶ τοῖς χείλεσιν ἐπιτιθεμένη ἡγίαζέν τε αὐτὰς καὶ πρὸς τὸ ἐκείνων φίλτρον διήγειρεν. τοῦτο ουν ἐνδελεχῶς ποιοῦσα καὶ ταῖς ἐγγόνοις τὸ περὶ τὰς εἰκόνας φίλτρον ἀναζωπυροῦσα οὐκ ελα- θε τὸν Θεόφιλον,