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to betray the Romans and to go to the head from which they had defected. So he secretly makes this clear to the emperor, and he thought it right to save himself with his chosen men and not to wait for the capture. And when the emperor asked, "how will there be safety for so great a people, who have waited for me?" he says, "may safety from God be for you alone, O emperor; these men will quickly manage their own affairs." So late, around dawn, when the emperor had taken to flight and had escaped to Chiliocome, 129 the deserter generals, meeting the emperor, said they were unworthy of life, for having abandoned their emperor in war, and at the same time they drew their own swords and placed them at his feet, their cheeks wet with tears. But Theophilos, his own soul wounded more than theirs by the strangeness of the event, says, "If I have been saved by God, you too will be saved by fighting against the enemies." This stratagem, therefore, on the part of the enemies, and the somehow nocturnal conversation of the Persians, or to call it a truce, for the enemies of Theophobos who were voting for his death, became a second cause and a timely pretext for slander, (33) but for the emir who had heard of no small victory and a raid against Amorium. So both armies were united against the emperor's homeland, both that of the emir himself and that of his son which had fought fiercely before, and they set up a palisade and began the siege. and meanwhile Theophilos, having turned towards Dorylaeum, made an attempt to make him depart from there with gifts and return to his own lands. But he is not persuaded, carrying deep within him the capture and sacking of his own homeland. Rather, then, he scorned him and called him a slave and a coward, mocking and ridiculing the things which he was relying on not before this time, but now that he was standing on a razor's edge. So he even kept the envoys who had been sent 130 right there, as observers and witnesses of the events. (34) And indeed, as time passed, the city would have escaped destruction, with every form of siege being displayed by some and overthrown by others, and with many men having been killed on both sides, some defending and others besieging, while the Hagarenes for the time being remained unsuccessful and their great arrogance was brought down by the great number of people who had been killed. For indeed about seventy thousand were found to be missing when they were counted after the capture. But it was not possible to escape the sword from God that was threatened from above, by which things the divine was being insulted, as the heresy was indeed growing. For this reason a certain man of a lower rank (this wretch was called Boiditzes), as they were already about to withdraw and return to their own land in shame, having sent a message by means of arrows, says, "Why, O you men, after having toiled so much, are you about to depart, having labored and toiled in vain? Come, therefore, against those towers, where a stone bullock from above and a marble lion on the outside stand; and meeting me there, one who, that is, thinks and arranges things for your side, and where the battlements are by nature weaker anyway, you will become masters of the interior and you will judge me worthy of much." They came according to his word, and entered at the same time as the attack, striking and wounding those they caught. And there was not one who 131 was not among the dying. And all were being killed and were falling, stirring up rivers of blood. Thus, then, is Amorium captured and most lawlessly betrayed into the hands of lawless men, with only those surviving who were sent as far as Baghdad, the magnates serving in the themes and the more powerful men, among whom the 42 martyrs were also numbered. But all the others became a trophy of the sword of war. For not even thus did Theophilos, having sent a second embassy, persuade the enemy to both ransom for two hundred centenaria and

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τῶν ̔Ρωμαίων καταπροδοῦναι καὶ πρὸς τὴν ἐξ ης ἀπέστησαν χωρεῖν κεφαλήν. δῆλα γοῦν τῷ βασι- λεῖ λάθρα ποιεῖ, καὶ ἑαυτὸν σώζειν μετὰ λογάδων ἠξίου καὶ μὴ περιμένειν τὴν αλωσιν. καὶ "πῶς εσται τοῦ τοσούτου λαοῦ" ἐπε- ρωτήσαντος τοῦ βασιλέως "ἡ σωτηρία, ἐμοὶ προσμεινάντων;" "σοί" φησί "μόνον εστω, βασιλεῦ, τὸ σώζεσθαι ἐκ θεοῦ· ουτοι δὲ ταχέως τὰ κατ' αὐτοὺς διοικήσουσιν." ὀψὲ γοῦν κατὰ τὸ πε- ρίορθρον τοῦ βασιλέως φυγῇ χρησαμένου καὶ πρὸς τὸ Χιλιοκόκω- 129 μον διασωθέντος, οἱ λειποτάκται τῶν στρατηγῶν τῷ βασιλεῖ προσ- απαντήσαντες ἀναξίους εφασκον ειναι τῆς ζωῆς, βασιλέα ἐν πολέ- μῳ καταπροέντας, καὶ αμα τοῖς ἑαυτῶν ἐγυμνοῦντο ξίφεσι καὶ τοῖς ποσὶν ὑπετίθουν αὐτοῦ, δάκρυσι βρεχόμενοι παρειάς. ἀλλ' ὁ Θεόφιλος τρωθεὶς ἐκείνων μᾶλλον αὐτοῦ τὴν ψυχὴν τῷ παρα- δόξῳ τοῦ πράγματος, "εἰ ἐγώ" φησί "σέσωσμαι ἐκ θεοῦ, σωθή- σεσθε καὶ ὑμεῖς ἀγωνιζόμενοι κατὰ τῶν ἐχθρῶν." Τοῦτο ουν τὸ παρὰ ἐχθρῶν στρατήγημα καὶ ἡ νυκτερινή πως λαλιὰ τῶν Περσῶν, ταὐτὸν δὲ καὶ σπονδὴ εἰπεῖν, τοῖς μὲν Θεοφόβου ἐχθροῖς καὶ θάνατον ψηφιζομένοις αὐτοῖ δευτέρα τις γέγονεν αἰτία καὶ ἀφορμὴ ευκαιρος εἰς διαβολήν, (33) τῷ δ' ἀμε- ραμνουνῇ ἀκηκοότι νίκης οὐ μικρᾶς καὶ κατὰ τοῦ ̓Αμορίου κατα- δρομή. ηνωτο γοῦν κατὰ τὴν τοῦ βασιλέως πατρίδα ἀμφότερα τὰ στρατόπεδα, αὐτοῦ τε τοῦ ἀμεραμνουνῆ καὶ τοῦτο δὴ τὸ προ- πολεμῆσαν σφοδρῶς τοῦ υἱοῦ, καὶ χάρακα περιέβαλλον καὶ τῆς πολιορκίας ἀπήρχοντο. καὶ τέως ἀπόπειραν ἐποίει ἀποστραφεὶς κατὰ ∆ορύλαιον ὁ Θεόφιλος τοῦ δώροις αὐτὸν ἐκεῖθεν ἀποστῆσαι καὶ πρὸς τὰ οἰκεῖα ποιῆσαι παλινοστῆσαι. ἀλλ' οὐ πείθεται, ἐνδομυχοῦσαν φέρων τὴν τῆς πατρίδος αὐτοῦ αλωσίν τε καὶ πόρ- θησιν. μᾶλλον μὲν ουν ἐξουθένει καὶ ἀνδράποδον ἐκάλει τε καὶ δειλόν, μυκτηρίζων καὶ διακωμῳδῶν οις οὐ πρὸ τούτου τούτῳ ἀλλὰ νῦν ἐπὶ ξυροῦ ἑστῶτι ἐπείθετο. ειχε μὲν ουν καὶ τοὺς ἀποσταλέντας 130 πρέσβεις αὐτόθι που, τῶν δρωμένων ἐπόπτας καὶ μάρτυρας. (34) καὶ δὴ χρόνου παρῳχηκότος διέφυγεν αν ἡ πόλις τὸν ολε- θρον, τῷ πᾶσαν ἰδέαν πολιορκίας τῶν μὲν ἐνδεικνυόντων τῶν δὲ καταβαλλόντων, καὶ πολλῶν ἀνῃρημένων ἐξ ἀμφοτέρων ἀνδρῶν, τῶν μὲν ἀμυνομένων τῶν δὲ πολιορκούντων, ἀπράκτων δὲ τέως μενόντων τῶν ̓Αγαρηνῶν καὶ τῆς πολλῆς ὀφρύος κατασπωμένων τῷ πλῆθος ἀνῃρῆσθαι λαοῦ. καὶ γὰρ ὡσεὶ χιλιάδες ἑβδομήκοντα ἐκλελοιπότες εὑρέθησαν μετὰ τὴν αλωσιν ἀριθμούμενοι. ἀλλ' οὐκ ην παρελθεῖν τὴν ἐκ θεοῦ μάχαιραν ἠπειλημένην ανωθεν, οις ὑβρίζετο τὸ θεῖον αὐξανομένης δὴ τῆς αἱρέσεως. διὰ τοῦτο ἀνήρ τις τῶν ὑποβεβηκότων (Βοϊδίτζης ουτος ἐκαλεῖτο ὁ αθλιος) μέλ- λουσιν ηδη πως ἀναχωρεῖν καὶ πρὸς τὴν οἰκείαν μετ' αἰσχύνης παλινοστεῖν "τί" φησίν, "ω ουτοι," γράμματα διὰ βελῶν πεπομ- φώς, "τοσοῦτον τεταλαιπωρηκότες μέλλετε ἀποφοιτᾶν, κεκμηκό- τες απρακτα καὶ πεπονηκότες; ελθετε τοιγαροῦν κατὰ τοὺς πύρ- γους ἐκείνους, ενθα μὲν βοΐδιον ανωθεν λίθινον εξωθεν δὲ λέων ἐκ μαρμάρου ἐφίσταται· κἀκεῖσέ μοι περιτυχόντες, τὰ ὑμέτερα δηλαδὴ φρονοῦντά τε καὶ διευθετοῦντα, καὶ αλλως ἀσθενεστέρων πεφυκότων ενθα δὴ τῶν ἐπάλξεων, ἐγκρατεῖς τε τῶν εσω γενή- σεσθε καὶ ἐμὲ πολλοῦ αξιον κρίνετε." ηλθον κατὰ τὸν λόγον ἐκείνου, καὶ εἰσῆλθον αμα τῇ προσβολῇ, παίοντες καὶ τιτρώσκον- τες τοὺς καταλαμβανομένους. οὐκ ην δὲ οστις τῶν ἀποθνησκόν- 131 των οὐκ ην. πάντες δὲ ἀνῃροῦντο καὶ επιπτον ποταμοὺς κινοῦν- τες ἐξ αιματος. ουτω μὲν ουν αἱρεῖται τὸ ̓Αμόριον καὶ χερσὶν ἀνόμων ἀνομωτέρως προδίδοται, ἐκείνων μόνον ζώντων τῶν μέχρι τοῦ Βαγδὰδ παραπεμφθέντων, τῶν κατὰ τὰ θέματα τελούντων μεγιστάνων τε καὶ κραταιοτέρων ἀνδρῶν, οις καὶ οἱ μβʹ μάρτυρες συνηρίθμηντο. οἱ δ' αλλοι απαντες μαχαίρας πολεμικῆς ἐγίνοντο τρόπαιον. οὐδὲ γὰρ οὐδ' ουτως επεισε τὸν ἐχθρὸν ὁ Θεόφιλος πρέσβεις δευτέρους ἀποστείλας, ἐπὶ κεντηναρίοις διακοσίοις ἐξω- νήσασθαί τε καὶ