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

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 immediately wither. For the son of Constans, having just taken the scepters (and the name of the emperor from infancy was Constantine), with a heavy fleet seizes the island of the Sicilians, and justly slaughters all the murderers and destroyers of his king and father, and with them Mizizius who had tyrannized. This emperor the rabble and the mixed crowd of the people called Pogonatus, because, they say, when he sailed against Mizizius as a tender-faced, downy-cheeked, beardless youth, he returned from there a fully-bearded man. He, having gathered an assembly of God-bearing men, tore up his father's impiety by the roots, having been instructed by the planters of the pious doctrines. Therefore he guided the empire for seventeen years. And when he was about to die and descend to dust, he designated his son Justinian as emperor and established him as sole ruler of the land of the Romans; who raised from its foundations, from its deepest roots, the great and brilliant house in the palace, illuminating the walls with the fire-like gleam of golden mosaics, and the floor with beautifully-colored marbles, which still preserves the name of its builder. But the emperor, being hated by the rulers, by private citizens, by the crowds in the marketplace, by those in the palace, as hard-minded, as awkward, as delighting in murders, and moreover as self-willed from a self-pleasing opinion (for he was also conceitedly wise and full of folly, and in his counsels had no partner, no co-worker, thinking he possessed all the knowledge among men), therefore, being hated, he found a fall from the scepter-holding worthy of his wickedness. For a certain noble man from the senate, a patrician in rank, Leontius by name, finding the populace both cooperative and of one mind (for all nurtured hatred towards Justinian) rose up against the emperor with his allies, when his beautiful-lidded and light-bearing eye was closing as it set toward the earth and all was in bed, and having mastered him like a beast in a net, he sends him across the sea to the city of Cherson, having first cut his nose and shamed his face. But the eye of justice did not close, but looked on rightly, and it requited the one who rose up with equal and same-measured measures. For when African pirates were plundering the borders (the pirates were Arabs and from the descendants of Hagar) and were harming and laying waste to the whole coast, the emperor, greatly distressed, equipped a heavy fleet, and sends it against these sea-faring pirates; with whom the naval forces, having engaged steadfastly, drove away those who were attacking with spirit and daring like foaming boars, and for the Romans they recovered the territories of the Carthaginians. But the blood-stained beasts were not quiet, but again they campaigned in return with a fleet of ten thousand ships, and having engaged the Romans with a greater fleet-command they turned the sea-faring admirals to flight, and having captured and plundered and razed the blessed city of the Carthaginians, they cut off the golden lock of Libya. The naval crowd, therefore, and all the fleet-commanders, not bearing the bitter shame from the defeat, and curing one evil with another great evil, bring forth the seeds of rebellion and come to anchor at Crete, the thrice-greatest island, and having made a pact with each other and sworn an oath together, there they burst forth with the weight of their audacity, and having chosen one of their own as a fellow-rebel, called Apsimar, they establish him as emperor, who with them and after them, having surrounded the city and met with traitors, gains control of Byzantium. And first he renames himself Tiberius, then also bringing Leontius into the open and measuring out the punishment by the cutting of the nose, he confines him in an inescapable, bitter-guarded prison, who had ruled the Romans for only three years. So Apsimar held the power of the Romans, and was borne along by the soft-blowing winds of fortune. Only one thing troubled him

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πλὴν ὅμως οὐκ ἐπὶ μακρὸν ἀπήλαυσε τῆς τύχης, ἀλλ' ἀπεψύγη τάχιον, ἀλλὰ φανεὶς ἐκρύβη, ὥσπερ ἂν ῥόδον ἐκφυῇ καὶ παραυτίκα ῥεύσῃ. ὁ γάρ τοι παῖς τοῦ Κώνσταντος ἄρτι λαβὼν τὰ σκῆπτρα (τοὔνομα δὲ τῷ βασιλεῖ βρεφόθεν Κωνσταντῖνος) στόλῳ βαρεῖ τὴν Σικελῶν καταλαμβάνει νῆσον, καὶ πάντας τοὺς αὐτόχειρας καὶ τοὺς ὀλεθρεργάτας τοὺς βασιλέως καὶ πατρὸς ἐνδίκως ἀποσφάττει, καὶ σὺν αὐτοῖς Μιζίζιον τὸν τετυραννηκότα. τοῦτον τὸν αὐτοκράτορα λαὸς ὁ συρφετώδης καὶ τὸ τοῦ δήμου συμμιγὲς ἐκάλουν Πωγωνᾶτον, ὅτι, φασίν, ἐκναυστολῶν κατὰ τοῦ Μιζιζίου μεῖραξ τρυφεροπρόσωπος ἀνίουλος ἀπώγων ἐκεῖθεν ἀνθυπέστρεψεν ἀνὴρ τελειοπώγων. οὗτος ἀθροίσας σύλλογον ἀνδρῶν θεοφορήτων τὴν πατρικὴν ἀσέβειαν ἀνέσπασε ῥιζόθεν, τοῖς φυτουργοῖς τῶν εὐσεβῶν καταρτισθεὶς δογμάτων. ἴθυνεν οὖν ἐν ἔτεσι δεκαεπτὰ τὸ κράτος. ὡς δὲ καὶ θνήσκειν ἔμελλε καὶ καταντᾶν εἰς κόνιν, υἱὸν Ἰουστινιανὸν δείκνυσι βασιλέα καὶ κράτορα καθίστησιν αὔταρχον γῆς Ῥωμαίων· ὃς ἀπὸ βάθρων ἤγειρεν, ἀπὸ ῥιζῶν ἐσχάτων τὸν μέγαν οἶκον τὸν λαμπρὸν τὸν ἐν τοῖς ἀνακτόροις, χρυσέων πυραυγήμασι ψηφίδων καταυγάσας τοὺς τοίχους, καὶ τὸ δάπεδον μαρμάροις καλλιχρόοις, ὃς ἔτι τοῦ δομήτορος τὴν κλῆσιν διασώζει. Ὁ βασιλεὺς δὲ μισηθεὶς ἄρχουσιν, ἰδιώταις, τοῖς ὄχλοις τοῖς ἐν ἀγορᾷ, τοῖς ἐν τοῖς ἀνακτόροις, ὡς σκληρογνώμων, ὡς σκαιός, ὡς ἐντρυφῶν τοῖς φόνοις, καὶ πλέον ὡς αὐθέκαστος ἐξ αὐταρέσκου γνώμης (ἦν γὰρ καὶ δοκησίσοφος καὶ πλήρης ἀπονοίας, κἀν ταῖς βουλαῖς οὐ κοινωνόν, οὐ συνεργάτην εἶχε, πᾶσαν πλουτεῖν οἰόμενος τὴν ἐν ἀνθρώποις γνῶσιν), ἐντεῦθεν τοίνυν μισηθεὶς ἀξίαν τῆς κακίας τὴν ἔκπτωσιν ἐφεύρατο τὴν ἐκ τῆς σκηπτουχίας. καὶ γὰρ ἀνήρ τις εὐγενὴς τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς συγκλήτου, πατρίκιος ἀξίωμα, Λεόντιος τὴν κλῆσιν, εὑρὼν καὶ συναιρόμενον καὶ συμφρονοῦν τὸ πλῆθος (πρὸς γὰρ Ἰουστινιανὸν ἔτρεφον πάντες μῖσος) ἐφίσταται τῷ βασιλεῖ μετὰ τῶν συμμαχούντων, ὅτε τὸ καλλιβλέφαρον ὄμμα καὶ φωτοφόρον ἔμυε δῦναν κατὰ γῆς καὶ πᾶν ἦν ἐν δεμνίοις, καὶ χειρωσάμενος αὐτὸν ὡς ἐν δικτύῳ θῆρα ἐκπέμπει διαπόντιον εἰς τὴν Χερσῶνα πόλιν, τὴν ῥῖνα πρότερον τεμὼν καὶ πρόσωπον αἰσχύνας. ἀλλὰ γὰρ οὐκ ἐκάμμυε τὸ βλέφαρον τῆς δίκης, ἀλλ' ἐπεντράνισεν ὀρθῶς, καὶ τὸν ἐπαναστάντα τοῖς ἴσοις ἀντημείψατο καὶ ταυτομέτροις μέτροις. λῃστῶν ληϊζομένων γὰρ Ἀφρικανῶν τοὺς ὅρους (Ἄρραβες ἦσαν οἱ λῃσταὶ κἀκ τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς Ἄγαρ) καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν παράλιον κακούντων καὶ κειρόντων, ὁ βασιλεὺς ὑπερπαθῶν στόλον βαρὺν ἀρτύει, καὶ πέμπει κατὰ τῶν λῃστῶν τούτων τῶν ὑγροπόρων· οἷς καὶ συμμίξασαι στερρῶς αἱ ναυτικαὶ δυνάμεις ἐκείνους μὲν μετὰ θυμοῦ καὶ τόλμης ἐπιόντας καθάπερ κάπρους ἀφριστὰς ἀπήλασαν ἐκεῖθεν, Ῥωμαίοις δ' ἀνεσώσαντο τὰ τῶν Καρχηδονίων. ἀλλὰ γὰρ οὐκ ἠρέμησαν οἱ παλαμναῖοι θῆρες, πάλιν δ' ἀντεπεστράτευσαν μυριοστόλῳ στόλῳ, καὶ πλείονι συμμίξαντες Ῥωμαίοις στολαρχίᾳ ἐτρέψαντό τε πρὸς φυγὴν ναυάρχους ναυσιπλόους, καὶ τὴν ὀλβιοδαίμονα πόλιν Καρχηδονίων ἑλόντες καὶ σκυλεύσαντες καὶ κατηδαφικότες τὸν χρύσεον ἐξέκοψαν βόστρυχον τῆς Λιβύης. ὄχλος οὐκοῦν ὁ ναυτικὸς καὶ πάντες οἱ στολάρχαι τὴν ἐκ τῆς ἥττης ἔμπικρον οὐ φέροντες αἰσχύνην, ἰώμενοί τε τὸ κακὸν ἄλλῳ κακῷ μεγάλῳ, ὠδίνουσί τε σπέρματα τὰ τῆς ἀποστασίας καὶ Κρήτῃ προσορμίζονται τῇ τρισμεγίστῃ νήσῳ, ἀλλήλοις τε συνθέμενοι καὶ συνομωμοκότες ἐνταῦθα τῆς θρασύτητος ἐκρήσσουσι τὸ βάρος, καὶ σφῶν ἐπιλεξάμενοι συναποστάτην ἕνα, λεγόμενον Ἀψίμαρον, κράτορα καθιστῶσιν, ὃς σὺν αὐτοῖς καὶ μετ' αὐτῶν τὴν πόλιν περισφίγξας καὶ προδοτῶν ἐπιτυχὼν κρατεῖ τῆς Βυζαντίδος. καὶ πρῶτα μὲν Τιβέριον αὑτὸν μετονομάζει, ἔπειτα καὶ Λεόντιον ἐξενεγκὼν εἰς μέσον καὶ τῇ τομῇ τῇ τῆς ῥινὸς τὴν κόλασιν μετρήσας φρουρᾷ καθείργνυσιν αὐτὸν ἀφύκτῳ πικροφρούρῳ, ἔτεσι μόνοις ἐν τρισὶ κρατήσαντα Ῥωμαίους. Εἶχε μὲν οὖν Ἀψίμαρος τὸ τῶν Ῥωμαίων κράτος, καὶ πνεύμασιν ἐφέρετο τύχης ἁπαλοπνόοις. ἓν μόνον ἔθραττεν

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