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left to us not made with hands. At any rate, these most divine men, having provoked the tyrant's madness and savagery by speaking out very boldly, after many other tortures were driven out of the city, and having fled to an oratory of the Forerunner, so-called of Phoberos, by the Euxine Sea, and being completely exhausted by the unbearable lashes of the whips, they were deemed worthy of the lot above; whose sacred bodies, for a long time cast down upon the ground, not even having been fortunate enough for burial, were kept safe and unharmed, until, having been revealed to the faithful, they were both buried and honored in a manner befitting those who had martyred for Christ. 102 12 A certain monk, becoming a rival to these, having just reached the beginning of the priesthood and filled with zeal, decided to rebuke the tyrant and to persuade him concerning the holy icons, if possible. And indeed, standing before his face he went through many other things and the saying of the apostle Paul, namely this which says, "If anyone preaches a gospel to you contrary to what you have received, let him be anathema." But upon this one too he inflicted no few blows, since he perceived that he spoke things wiser and more powerful than himself, and he sent him away to John, who had been his own guide and teacher, ordering him to overcome him using dialectical proofs. But this noble combatant proved him more silent than fishes not with sophistic and dialectical proofs, but with apostolic and evangelical words, and for a time he was separated from him, but later, having gone away to the so-called Kalon Oros, finding a certain God-bearing man, Ignatius, he was deemed worthy of ordination, and having taught about future events and emperors, he remained until the time of the Christ-loving Leo and his children, and departed to the Lord. 13 And since the tyrant intended to do away with from among men all those who painted the divine forms or, for those choosing to live, to spit upon and cast them on the ground as something profane and trample on them and thus be saved, he also decided to compel the monk Lazarus (at that time he was famous 103 for the art of painting living figures). But finding this man superior to his flatteries and also superior to his own opinion, and being rebuked by him not once or twice but many times, he tortured him so much with torments that first his flesh flowed away with the blood and he was supposed by many not to be alive at all. But when he heard that this man, having been locked up again in prison, had barely recovered, and was occupied with his own art, restoring the forms of the saints on panels, he ordered red-hot iron plates to be placed on his palms. The fire therefore fed on his flesh and consumed it, until at one point, giving up, he lay half-dead. But it was necessary for him to be preserved by grace as a spark for those to come; whence, when he learned the holy man was breathing his last, at the supplications of the Augusta and some other intimates, he released him from prison, and he hid himself away in the church of the Forerunner, so-called of Phoberos, where, even while his wounds were still with him, he painted an icon of the Forerunner which is preserved even to our day and performs many healings. And these things happened then, but after the death of the tyrant, when orthodoxy shone forth again, the icon of the God-man Jesus Christ in the Chalke Gate this man restored with his own hands. Who also, being summoned by the renowned Theodora to give and ask for forgiveness for her husband, said, "God is not unjust, O queen, 104 to forget our love and our labors for Him, and to prefer that man's hatred and excessive madness." But this happened later. 14 And once, Theophanes the confessor and Theodore his brother, since he recognized that they surpassed many in learning, in the of the Lausiac

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ἀχειρότευκτον ἡμῖν ἐγκατέλιπεν. ουτοι γοῦν οἱ θειότατοι ανδρες τὴν τοῦ τυράννου μανίαν καὶ θηριωδίαν ἐκκα- λεσάμενοι τῷ σφόδρα παρρησιασθῆναι μετὰ πολλὰς ἑτέρας βασά- νους τῆς πόλεως ἐξώσθησαν, πρὸς δὲ εὐκτήριον προδρόμου τὸ ουτω καλούμενον τοῦ Φοβεροῦ κατὰ τὸν Ευξεινον πόντον πεφευ- γότες, καὶ ταῖς τῶν μαστίγων ἀφορήτοις φοραῖς τελείως κατα- πονηθέντες, τῆς ανω λήξεως ἠξιώθησαν· ων καὶ τὰ ἱερὰ σώματα ἐπὶ πολὺ αλλως ἐρριμμένα πρὸς τουδαφος, μηδὲ τῆς ταφῆς εὐμοι- ρηκότα, σῶα διετηρήθησαν καὶ ἀλώβητα, μέχρις οτου τοῖς πιστοῖς γενόμενα φανερὰ ἐκηδεύθησάν τε καὶ καταλλήλως τοῖς ὑπὲρ Χρι- στοῦ μαρτυρήσασιν ἐτιμήθησαν. 102 12 Τούτοις ἐφάμιλλος καί τις γενόμενος μοναχός, αρτι δὲ πρὸς ἀρχὴν τῆς ἱερωσύνης ἀναδραμὼν καὶ ζήλου πλη- σθείς, τὸν τύραννον ἐλέγξαι διέγνωκε καὶ περὶ τῶν ἁγίων εἰκόνων πεῖσαι, εἰ δυνατόν. καὶ δὴ κατὰ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ στὰς αλλα τε διεξῄει πολλὰ καὶ τὸ τοῦ ἀποστόλου Παύλου ῥητόν, τοῦτο δὴ τὸ φάσκον "ει τις ὑμῖν εὐαγγελίζεται παρ' ο  παρελάβετε, ἀνάθεμα εστω." ἀλλὰ καὶ τούτῳ πληγὰς ἐπιθεὶς οὐκ ὀλίγας, ἐπεὶ σοφώτερα λέγειν διέγνωκεν αὐτοῦ τε δυνατώτερα εἰπεῖν, πρὸς τὸν ̓Ιωάννην ἐξαπέσταλκεν, καθηγητὴν αὐτοῦ γεγονότα τε καὶ διδάσκαλον, δια- λεκτικαῖς ἀποδείξεσι χρώμενον καταβαλεῖν αὐτὸν ἐγκελευσάμενος. ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦτον ὁ γενναῖος ἀγωνιστὴς οὐ ταῖς σοφιστικαῖς καὶ δια- λεκτικαῖς ἀποδείξεσι, τοῖς ἀποστολικοῖς δὲ καὶ εὐαγγελικοῖς ῥήμασιν ἀφωνότερον ἰχθύων ἀποδείξας τέως μὲν ἀπὸ τούτου ἐγένετο, υστε- ρον δὲ πρὸς τὸ Καλὸν ουτω λεγόμενον ἀποδημήσας ορος, ̓Ιγνάτιόν τινα θεοφόρον ανδρα καταλαβὼν χειροτονίας τε ἠξίωσεν, καὶ περὶ τῶν μελλόντων πραγμάτων τε καὶ βασιλέων ἀναδιδάξας, αχρι καὶ τοῦ φιλοχρίστου Λέοντος καὶ τῶν τέκνων αὐτοῦ διαμείνας, πρὸς κύριον ἐξεδήμησεν. 13 ̓Επεὶ δὲ πάντας τοὺς τὰς θείας ἐκτυποῦντας μορφὰς ἐξ ἀνθρώπων ποιεῖν ὁ τύραννος ἐνενόησεν η  τὸ ζῆν αἱρουμένους ἐμπτύειν τε καὶ ὡς βέβηλά τινα ἐπ' ἐδάφους ῥιπτεῖν καὶ καταπα- τεῖν καὶ ουτω σώζεσθαι, καὶ τὸν μοναχὸν Λάζαρον (περιβόητος 103 δὲ τηνικαῦτα κατὰ τὴν ζῷα γράφουσαν ὑπῆρχε τέχνην) βιάζεσθαι τὸν ανδρα διέγνωκεν. ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦτον κρείττω μὲν τῶν θωπειῶν κρείττω δὲ καὶ τῆς αὐτοῦ γνώμης εὑρίσκων, οὐχ απαξ η  δὶς ἀλλὰ καὶ πολλάκις ὑπ' αὐτοῦ ἐλεγχόμενος, τοσοῦτον ταῖς βασάνοις κατῄκισεν ὡς πρῶτον μὲν συναπορρέειν τὰς σάρκας τῷ αιματι καὶ μηδὲ ζῆν ολως ὑπονοεῖσθαι παρὰ πολλῶν. ἐπεὶ δὲ τῷ δεσμωτη- ρίῳ τοῦτον αυθις ἐγκαθειργμένον μόλις τε ἀναρραΐσαντα διήκουσε, καὶ τῇ ἑαυτοῦ τέχνῃ ἐνασχολούμενον τὰς τῶν ἁγίων ἐν πίναξιν ἀναστηλοῦν μορφάς, πέταλα σιδηρᾶ ἀπανθρακωθέντα ταῖς πα- λάμαις αὐτοῦ τεθῆναι προσέταξεν. ἐβόσκετο ουν τὸ πῦρ τὰς σάρκας αὐτοῦ καὶ κατενέμετο, αχρι ποτὲ ἀπαγορεύσας εκειτο ἡμιθνής. ἀλλ' εδει τοῦτον ὑπὸ τῆς χάριτος διατηρεῖσθαι καὶ τοῖς υστερον εναυσμα· οθεν ἐπεὶ τὰ τελευταῖα πνεῖν τὸν οσιον ἀνεμάνθανεν, ἱκετείαις τῆς Αὐγούστης καί τινων αλλων οἰκειοτέρων τῆς εἱρκτῆς μὲν ἀπέλυσεν, ὁ δὲ πρὸς τὸν ναὸν τοῦ προδρόμου τὸν ουτω κα- λούμενον τοῦ Φοβεροῦ ἐναπεκρύβη, ενθα καὶ τῶν πληγῶν συνου- σῶν αὐτῷ εἰκόνα διέγραψε τοῦ προδρόμου τὴν καὶ μέχρις ἡμῶν διασωζομένην τε καὶ ἰάσεις ἐπιτελοῦσαν πολλάς. καὶ τότε μὲν ταῦτα, μετὰ δὲ τὴν τοῦ τυράννου ἀποβίωσιν, τῆς ὀρθοδοξίας ἀνα- λαμψάσης, τὴν ἐν τῇ Χαλκῇ εἰκόνα τοῦ θεανθρώπου ̓Ιησοῦ Χρι- στοῦ οἰκείαις ουτος χερσὶν ἀνεστήλωσεν. ος καὶ καλούμενος ὑπὸ τῆς περιφανοῦς Θεοδώρας συγγνώμην δοῦναί τε καὶ αἰτήσασθαι τῷ ταύτης ἀνδρί, "οὐκ αδικος ὁ θεός" εφη, "ω βασίλισσα, ἐπι- 104 λαθέσθαι τῆς ἡμῶν ἀγάπης καὶ τῶν πρὸς αὐτὸν κόπων, ἐκείνου δὲ τὸ μῖσος καὶ τὴν ὑπερβάλλουσαν μανίαν καὶ προτιμῆσαι." ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν υστερον. 14 Καί ποτε δὲ τὸν ὁμολογητὴν Θεοφάνην καὶ Θεόδωρον τὸν αὐτοῦ ἀδελφόν, ἐπείπερ λογιότητι διαφέροντας ἀνεγίνωσκε τῶν πολλῶν, κατὰ τὸν τοῦ Λαυσιακοῦ