Compendium chronicum

 Gold-bearing, glistening with robes studded with pearls. the fragrant violet shone, the rose shone back. every kind of violet's color smiled from ever

 The fine-spun ones. the large-winged, large-hooked-beaked, hooked-clawed, boasting their claws like javelins, having a beak sharper than daggers, for

 Having made him a composite of soul and body, and having bestowed the grace of a will moved by itself, and having formed him according to his likeness

 Of yours, and you will be called gods, and you will know all things. the woman heard these things, she heeded the flattery, she was conquered by the

 Land-born, winged, walking but god, opening the floodgates of heaven, brought down from there whole seas of rain, covered the peaks of the deep-cliff

 They stole, they committed adultery, and finally they looked toward idolatry. seruch was the first to begin to use carved images and pillars, being th

 Javelin-bowmen, armor-bearers, spearmen, men furious in battle, and having taken an allied force from the nation of the huns, and having made allies o

 Chaldeans, and the plaything of fortune and the dice of affairs, having sufficiently mocked others, passed over to others. and when these things were

 Mandane, and that the liquid poured forth was so great as to be able to cover the face of the land of asia. this was the first dream, and a second one

 Not even among the most famous, like that of the medes and persians, or that of the assyrians. candaules was king of lydia and phrygia, tracing his li

 To be contrived by such devices. he, having learned and discerned which mare the horse of darius loved more than all the others, after the two of them

 Having heard that joseph, the one born of rachel, was governing the land of egypt for pharaoh, and also contriving to find a release from his sufferin

 Was sung. and a light of gladness rose for the hebrews, but the darkness of calamities overshadowed the egyptians. the israelites who fled egypt then

 He exposes him in a place called parion after paris himself. he was therefore cast aside carelessly. shepherds found him, pitied him, took him up. the

 Because helen had been seized by someone, all fought on her behalf with their own bodies. so after much entreating and importuning, they persuade the

 While strong-handed achilles was present, the counsels of the son of laertes were ineffective, and every plot devised and scheme stitched together aga

 The swarm of trojans mingled with each other, daring to do nothing. and there was a temple before the walls of beautifully-towered troy, where achille

 To proteus, he also finds his consort there in memphis, and having been hosted and honored he receives helen, and after considerable toils he reaches

 Flapping its wings, a great-winged bird, fanned the fire into flame with its wings. but a certain cunning fox, vying with these and contending against

 To be called, remaining faithful, keepers of the house and guardians of what is within. then taking a clod of earth in his hand from outside, he throw

 The most unjust slaughter of his father, and perceiving as a man of sense that he would share the danger with his father and brother and would die wit

 Caesar wished to take into the fellowship of marriage a woman who was in the sixth month of her pregnancy, and he urged nero to betroth his wife to hi

 And his whole character was lecherous, and worse than others, lusting after women joined to men, and commanding their spouses to serve his abomination

 You will cause me pain for those who are sated on my rotten limbs will vex me for a short time, but if others fall upon me, they will cling more viol

 Bringing with them a chariot-driver mime, they came upon him to kill him. and nero, knowing this, killed himself, saying this at the end: what an art

 Extinguishes it, and dogs, running up and eating the bonds, release the stargazer who was invoking the gods many times. and these things indeed were a

 Ravaging and plundering, being in want of money, pressed by need and having no army from anywhere to arm against them, set forth in the marketplace th

 Of great things, what terror was not present, what was not dared! slaughters and toils everywhere, and pools of blood. and the gloom of the prison hel

 Their names were constans and constantine) manages the western parts and rome and the gauls. but these were extinguished rather quickly and before the

 But when that woman again added that her husband was plotting against gratian himself, he replied again, what is that to you, woman? and they say th

 Orestes, and after orestes the son of romulus was the last to take hold of the rule. and the great-named city, the city of the romans, having had romu

 They set aside the young woman. athenais the maiden, exceedingly distressed at these things and wounded in her soul, goes to her maternal aunt, she sh

 Learning of the emperor, she arrives in the city of jerusalem as quickly as possible, and there, having completed the remainder of her life, she pays

 When a fierce battle had broken out and he was leading the romans against the arrogant persians, marcian, seized by a death-threatening illness, remai

 A man, a treasure of wisdom, was slandered as a hellene, isocasius by name, a quaestor by rank and from there, stripped of both honor and money, he i

 Having reigned over the romans for eighteen years. but this one, having tasted power for a short time, departed from the earth rather quickly, leaving

 The poison with the trisagion hymn, and when he saw the whole crowd immediately run wild and drive the eparch from the temple with stones and burn dow

 Justin, but being inflamed with zeal for the pious religion, kindled an implacable war against the manichaeans and a persecution more severe than thos

 Manly minds for with this man he joined mighty battles, and so terrified chosroes that he wished to exchange peace for man-slaying wars. and rome the

 With graces and bear torches for creation, and appear as bright stars to those on earth but the sun leaped up from a most beautiful lake, and the tor

 Such power, and being filled with greater zeal, he held to what must be done. and it happened that not long after something like this occurred, worthy

 Into the judgments of the judge shook the hearts of all. from there a calm of justice-doing was spread everywhere, instead of a winter and a gloomy te

 And by the things that will be said and the khagan, having attacked the garrisons of the romans (the khagan was king of the northern scythians) and h

 Of dregs. therefore, he is caught fleeing together with the empress and the purple-born branches sprung from him. but the most god-hated, man-slaying

 With golden helmets, delicate, all quiver-bearing, on snorting, gold-phalerad horses. so when the emperor saw it was impossible to engage with the arm

 Having embarked in boats, they came on, covering the back of the sea with their dense light boats, with their single-log vessels. thus there were many

 But nevertheless he did not long enjoy his fortune, but it quickly grew cold, but appearing he was hidden, just as a rose might spring up and immediat

 Him, only one thing troubled, lest the scepter reach justinian again, and he who was formerly deprived of it, and of his nose along with it, might aga

 Infancy was subjected to murderous hands for slaughter but here, boys of fifteen, girls in their early bloom, young men, soft-skinned women, little g

 You will see a dreadful thing, and he bespattered the ground, flowing away like water. thus it was said well and wisely by the ancients, nothing beyo

 But the emperor theodosios, shrinking from the audacity and the beast-like heart of leo, yielded the throne and the crown to his enemy, willingly or u

 From the kandys and the torc i will know, and the croaking raven from its blackness. near the precinct of the wisdom of god a splendid house had been

 He plundered beauty, he cut out the sacred images from the churches, and in their place with the same colors and mosaics he engraved his beloved hunti

 From there he is rolled towards lawless deeds, and he shaves the head of his most temperate consort, and introduces the union with another woman into

 They drive him from the throne and the city as a fugitive. and he, having indicated these things in writing to the empress and having besought to rece

 They were supplicating, even employing force. but he, not knowing the turn of the balancing scale of fortune, and fearing its wavering will, approache

 And again the tail of the dragon was moved. the abomination, i mean, of iconoclasm, like a great dragon, crept, dreadful and gaping, it rushed to devo

 And from there what was being built was overturned from its roots, and having stained his own war-loving hands with murders and having made every spea

 The king, on account of the bruises and the numerous wounds, or rather cases of paralysis, was shaken in his soul at what had happened, and wishing to

 Finding their catch, they write to the just man while he is fishing with nets a short writing in iambic meter, which, since i have deemed it not right

 Having been persuaded and having received complete assurance that theophilos was delivered from the torments there, she became a fellow-diner with the

 Of the ancient kings, both the golden trees, and the chattering sparrows, and lions made of hammered gold, and simply every royal thing gleaming in th

 By his hand, but the contriver of evils paid the penalty, and the preparer of terrible things drank a cup of wrath. bardas, therefore, while digging a

 Scarcely the temple-keeper he immediately makes basil a member of his household, and deems him worthy of fitting care. and basil was handsome, noble,

 To earth-born men, and certain innate dooms accompany men. for this one, great in understanding among emperors, having been persuaded by certain serpe

 By the transgression of tetragamy. but leo, the most philosophical among emperors, having fallen into the natural necessities of the body and being af

 He arms himself on behalf of the one who had been out-generaled with an army drawn from many places, from the lycaonians, from the thracians, from the

 Raising him from a lowly state to the summit, he makes him father and guardian of the empire. and drawing romanos further into his affection, he gives

 Of unstained rule, and being about to be released from the bonds of nature, he appointed his son romanos as sole ruler. but he, entrusting all strengt

 He conveys everything, and says, alas, o general, for the fortune of the romans! until when will woman-souled eunuchs steer the ship of state, resour

 Medimni of grain to be sold for a nomisma. thus phocas managed the matter meanly, and this though he was rich in thousand-bushel granaries, laden with

 Near the ister cutting down the phalanxes, breaking the scytharchs, killing, pursuing, routing the champions, as if some lion falling upon broad-flank

 Slumber to his eyelids, nor sleep to his eyes, until he drove out the wolves, the devourers of sheep. the mighty ones of the bulgars recognized his st

 And having been taught by certain people that after him the rule would pass to romanos, one of the senate, surnamed argyropoulos, he compels the man t

 Having the care of those in the home for the aged, he managed all other matters of state up and down and was seen openly as the keeper of the ruler. t

 Rushing into the inner sanctuary, from there they seize the wretched man, crying out with groans from the heart, with hot tears, and they gouge out hi

 Bloody streams, but murderous outpourings. he seized the fortresses, he seized the cities. he went on, roaring in his anger, breathing fire more than

 Of the power to comnenus. but those who were allotted to steer the ship of state, wishing not to save it but to sink it and swamp the most wretched th

 But suddenly the tempests of the flesh, having grown wild, stirred up a hard-to-calm, wave-tossed wind, they brought on nausea, vomiting, dizziness, t

 To sheep-guarded folds. but a winged dove, flying up from somewhere, alighted on his knees with a silent flutter, not like the one before that flew to

 Promising down on his temples, using caesar his uncle as a rival and the most powerful men and those in high military command, he at once seats himsel

 Shining with purple dye and gold, and using in turn overlapping garments, he sat upon high, silver-studded thrones, adorning with dignities all who ca

into the judgments of the judge shook the hearts of all. From there a calm of justice-doing was spread everywhere, instead of a winter and a gloomy tempest. Instead of waves and surging, fair weather smiled, and an untroubled sea of life was sailed upon; for a sweet-breathing spirit of God was manifestly blowing, and it silenced the terrible and loud-roaring squalls. With this emperor was also a consort, Sophia, courageous, magnanimous, most magnificent in her gifts. Who, having learned that the commonwealth was mourning and grieving as being burdened by debts like inescapable bonds, collected all the debt-records and burned them, and returned the loans to the debtors from her own money. With how many other good deeds and magnificent gifts the emperor and the empress enriched the cities, it is possible for all to learn from these few things; for indeed even the smallest taste reveals the whole jar, and the fringe makes known the well-woven robe, and the great-hearted lion is known from his claws. But since they had no daughter nor even a son, the emperor, having chosen Tiberius, who was skilled in military strategy, as an adopted son, first adorns him with the crown of Caesar, and after a short while, having gathered together the crowd, the priests, the senate, all those in authority for the same purpose, and having prepared him with many divine exhortations, he hands over the scepters of the empire, while still living and present and not breathing his last, having held the scepter for ten years and three months. But then, having survived a short while, he fell into the unwaking and all-common sleep that comes from death, and a stone covered so great a man; for nature is not abashed by the beautiful or the bitter, but together and in confusion makes all men dwellers in tombs. And when Tiberius now came to power, from the very start, as they say, he showed that the hopes of the one who had appointed him were not deceived. For he requited the magnificent empress Sophia with countless good deeds, and for his subjects he gushed forth channels of beneficence and opened up abundant veins of gold. And for the comfort of those struggling with diseases and of those weary with sad and painful old age, he erected many houses and poor-houses. And he was the first to lay the foundations of the sacred precinct of the forty gloriously triumphant martyrs of Christ. And as his life was unstable with two daughters, he joins one of them to Maurice in marriage, a most energetic man, a Cappadocian by race, and while intending to celebrate the wedding feast of the bride, he proclaims the bridegroom of his child Caesar. and after a little while he dies before his time, before his hour, not having reached old age, not seeing the ear of his age ripe and in need of the sickle, having guided the royal power for four years. And immediately Maurice takes up the scepters, since Tiberius had judged the man worthy to be emperor. This man had Philippicus as a brother-in-law, a noble and daring man, great in military strategies, and abounding in wealth and shining in intelligence, having recently left the splendid elder Rome and moved to Constantinople. This man, who had become brilliant in victory and had broken the arrogant pride of the Persians and had conquered in dreadful battles, Maurice suspected of indeed aspiring to the throne and wanting to seize the empire. And the joint cause of this suspicion for him was that some of the superfluous and those who prophesied were bringing forth to Maurice certain old wives' tales, that he was about to be deprived of his life and his rule by someone having the letter phi in his name. From this, the all-splendid one, the great one in battles, alas, having been caught in the midst of envy's nets, changes into a gloomy garment instead of a splendid one, and iron dances over the hair of the head of the very wealthy, the renowned, the stout-hearted one. But the minds of earth-born men were, it seems, precarious, and the pupils of their reasonings blind to the future. To what end, then, it came, and what kind of end the prophecy and clever speech of those who tell monstrous tales had, will be known in what follows.

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εἰς κρίσεις τοῦ δικαστοῦ κατέσεισεν ἁπάντων τὰς καρδίας. ἔνθεν γαλήνη πανταχοῦ τῆς δικαιοπραγίας ἀντὶ χειμῶνος καὶ στυγνῆς θυέλλης ἐφηπλώθη. ἀντὶ κυμάτων καὶ βρασμῶν ἐγέλασεν εὐδία, καὶ πέλαγος ἀτάραχον ἐπλέετο τοῦ βίου· πνεῦμα θεοῦ γὰρ ἄντικρυς ἐπέπνεεν ἡδύπνουν, καὶ κατεσίγαζε δεινὰς καὶ πολυρρόθους ζάλας. Τούτῳ συνῆν τῷ βασιλεῖ καὶ σύζυγος Σοφία, ἀνδρεία, μεγαλόψυχος, μεγαλοδωροτάτη. ἥτις μαθοῦσα τὸ κοινὸν κόπτεσθαι καὶ στυγνάζειν ὡς χρέεσι βαρούμενον οἷα δεσμοῖς ἀφύκτοις, συναγαγοῦσα τῶν χρεῶν πάντα τὰ γραμματεῖα αὐτὰ μὲν ἐπυρπόλησε, τοῖς δὲ χρεωφειλέταις ἀπέδωκε τὰ δάνεια χρημάτων ἐξ οἰκείων. ὅσοις δ' ἑτέροις ἀγαθοῖς καὶ μεγαλοδωρίαις ὁ βασιλεὺς ἡ βασιλὶς ἐπίαναν τὰς πόλεις, ἅπασι πάρεστι μαθεῖν ἐκ τῶν ὀλίγων τούτων· καὶ γάρ τοι καὶ μικρότατον γεῦμα τὸν ὅλον πίθον καὶ πέπλον τὸ εὐύφαντον τὸ κράσπεδον γνωρίζει, καὶ λέων ὁ μεγάθυμος δῆλος ἐκ τῶν ὀνύχων. Ἐπεὶ δ' οὐκ ἦν θυγάτριον ἀλλ' οὐδ' υἱὸς ἐκείνοις, ὁ βασιλεὺς Τιβέριον εἰσποίητον ὡς παῖδα ἐπιλεξάμενος δεινὸν ἐν στρατηγίαις ὄντα πρῶτα μὲν τῷ τοῦ Καίσαρος κατακοσμεῖ στεφάνῳ, μετὰ βραχὺ δὲ πρὸς ταὐτὸ συναγαγὼν τὸν ὄχλον, τοὺς ἱερεῖς, τὴν σύγκλητον, ἅπαντας τοὺς ἐν τέλει, καὶ παραινέσεσι πολλαῖς ἐνθέοις καταρτίσας, τὰ σκῆπτρα παραδίδωσι τῆς αὐτοκρατορίας, ἔτι καὶ ζῶν καὶ περιὼν καὶ μὴ τὰ λοῖσθα πνέων, ἔτεσι δέκα πρὸς τρισὶ μῆνας σκηπτροκρατήσας. ἀλλὰ γὰρ ὕπνωσε μικρὸν ἐπιβιοὺς τὸν ὕπνον τὸν νήγρετον καὶ πάγκοινον, τὸν ἀπὸ τοῦ θανάτου, καὶ λίθος κατεκάλυψε τὸν τηλικοῦτον ἄνδρα· οὐ γὰρ καλόν, οὐκ ἔμπικρον ἡ φύσις δυσωπεῖται, ὁμοῦ δὲ φύρδην ἅπαντας τίθησι τυμβοχώστους. Ὡς ἤδη δὲ Τιβέριος παρῆλθεν εἰς τὸ κράτος, ἐκ πρώτης, ὡς φασί, γραμμῆς ἔδειξε τὰς ἐλπίδας μὴ ψευσαμένας ἐπ' αὐτῷ τοῦ προχειρισαμένου. τὴν μὲν γὰρ μεγαλόδωρον βασίλισσαν Σοφίαν μυρίαις ἀντημείψατο ταῖς ἀγαθοεργίαις, τοῖς δ' ὑπηκόοις ὀχετοὺς ἔβλυσεν εὐποιίας καὶ φλέβας ἀνεστόμωσε χρυσίτιδας ἀφθόνους. ἐπὶ παραμυθίᾳ δὲ τῶν νόσοις παλαιόντων καὶ τῶν καμνόντων τῷ λυγρῷ καὶ πολυπόνῳ γήρᾳ οἴκους ἀνήγειρε πολλοὺς καὶ πενητοτροφεῖα. καὶ πρῶτος κατεβάλετο τὰς ῥίζας τοῦ τεμένους τῶν τεσσαράκοντα Χριστοῦ μαρτύρων καλλινίκων. ἐπὶ δυσὶ σαλεύων δὲ τὸν βίον θυγατράσι τούτων μιᾷ συζεύγνυσι Μαυρίκιον εἰς γάμον, ἄνδρα δραστηριώτατον, τὸ γένος Καππαδόκην, καὶ μέλλων γαμοδαίσια τῆς νύμφης ἑορτάζειν ἀναγορεύει Καίσαρα τὸν τῆς παιδὸς νυμφίον. καὶ μετ' ὀλίγον τελευτᾷ πρὸ χρόνου, πρὸ τῆς ὥρας, μὴ γήρως ἐφαψάμενος, μὴ κατιδὼν τὸν στάχυν τῆς ἡλικίας ὥριμον καὶ χρῄζοντα δρεπάνου, ἰθύνας τὸ βασίλειον τέσσαρσι χρόνοις κράτος. εὐθὺς δ' ἐπιλαμβάνεται Μαυρίκιος τῶν σκήπτρων, τοῦ Τιβερίου κρίναντος τὸν ἄνδρα βασιλεύειν. Οὗτος γαμβρὸν ἐπ' ἀδελφῇ τὸν Φιλίππικον ἔσχεν, ἄνδρα γενναῖον, εὔτολμον, μέγαν ἐν στρατηγίαις, καὶ πλούτῳ περιβρίθοντα καὶ λάμποντα συνέσει, ἄρτι λιπόντα τὴν λαμπρὰν Ῥώμην τὴν πρεσβυτέραν καὶ πρὸς Κωνσταντινούπολιν μετακεχωρηκότα. τοῦτον λαμπρὸν γενόμενον ἐπὶ τροπαιουχίᾳ καὶ παραλύσαντα Περσῶν τὸ φρύαγμα τὸ γαῦρον καὶ καταγωνισάμενον ἐν μάχαις φρικαλέαις ὑπώπτευε Μαυρίκιος ὡς δὴ βασιλειῶντα καὶ παραρπάζειν θέλοντα τὴν αὐτοκρατορίαν. ἦν δὲ παραίτιον αὐτῷ ταύτης τῆς ὑποψίας, ὅτι τινὲς τῶν περιττῶν καὶ τῶν προφοιβαζόντων τῷ Μαυρικίῳ προύφερον ὕθλους τινὰς γραώδεις, ὡς τὴν ζωὴν καὶ τὴν ἀρχὴν ἀφαιρεθῆναι μέλλοι πρός τινος ἔχοντος τὸ φῖ στοιχεῖον ἐν τῇ λήσει. ἐντεῦθεν ὁ περίλαμπρος, ὁ μέγας ἐν ταῖς μάχαις τοῦ φθόνου φεῦ ἀποληφθεὶς ἐν μέσοις ἀρκυστάτοις μεταμφιέννυται στυγνὴν ἀντὶ λαμπρᾶς ἐσθῆτα, καὶ τῶν τριχῶν τῆς κεφαλῆς σίδηρος κατορχεῖται τοῦ πολυόλβου, τοῦ κλεινοῦ, τοῦ καρτεροκαρδίου. Ἀλλ' ἦσαν ἄρα γηγενῶν ἐπισφαλεῖς αἱ φρένες, καὶ πρὸς τὰ μέλλοντα τυφλαὶ τῶν λογισμῶν αἱ κόραι. εἰς τί μὲν οὖν κατήντησε καὶ τέλος οἷον ἔσχε τὸ φοίβασμα καὶ κόμψευμα τῶν τερατολογούντων, τοῖς ἐφεξῆς γνωσθήσεται

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