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

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 again be sent back to the crown. He suspected the man, therefore, was an amphibious beast, and the more so on hearing the prophecies and predictions and the boastings of the astrologers. He therefore set machines in motion, he devised schemes, so that he might hinder his good fortune. Learning therefore that he had married Theodora, the sister of the ruler of the Khazars, the Khagan, and was dwelling and living with him, he sends an embassy to the terrible barbarian, the Khagan, promising him whole seas of money, if he would bind Justinian in unbreakable bonds and sell him back as a thrice-slave, like a household servant, or if he would cut off his head and send it. That barbarian, the Khagan, hears these things, his heart is inflamed with the love of money (for what else is a thrice-barbarian Khagan of Scythian mind?); he devises an inhuman and beastly plan against his kinsman and one who had done him no wrong, and he resolves to betray the unfortunate man to the one who sought him. O gold, you traitor, all-daring, perverse, evildoer, seller of friends and destroyer of kin, what is this? How you make men turn back and reverse their course? How you change to a fickle mind the guileless, the simple, who were fashioned by God? But that which is to be, as they say, and that which is decreed, not a wall of iron will break, nor the jaw of fire. For Justinian, learning of the Khagan's tricks and plans, escapes from there, and having won over with lavish promises Tervel, the ruler of the nation of the Bulgars, he seizes with him the Byzantine land, bringing ten thousand legions of Bulgars. But having entrusted his plan to a few of those around him, and having run with them through the water pipes, he artfully steals his way into the city, and for a second time he leads and is girded with power. But the calamities upon these events, what account will describe? To the ruler of the Bulgars he fulfills his promises and repays him with much more lavish gifts, but he gives many of the most splendid houses to the fire, and plunders wealth, and like cattle he most piteously slaughters very many of the great men. And indeed he kills Leontius along with Apsimar as robbers and plunderers of his scepter. Thus are the evil subject to the eyes of justice; and even if they escape the punishments for a moment, yet later they suffer greater penalties. And not only against these leaders of the tyranny did he brandish the avenging sword for what he suffered, but also having tortured and mocked Callinicus, the high priest of this queen of cities, and having made him the insult of foolish children, at last he extinguished the lamps of his body; for he was indeed both an accomplice and a doer and a witness of the things once dared against Justinian. But indeed the emperor, considering how many bitter cups the inhabitants of the regions of Pontic Cherson had mixed for him, when he was living among them, having been driven from power, at one time mocking, at another time slandering and piercing with the arrows of evil-tongued reproaches, at another time contriving evil-scheming plans, that they might either dip their knives in his entrails or send him as a miserable prisoner to Apsimar,– Justinian, therefore, writing these things in his thoughts, and by himself re-stamping and painting the images, and being embittered by them as by barbarian customs, sends a sea-faring army, commanding to slaughter the entire race of those who had previously grieved him from youth upwards, and to spare not women, not suckling infants, not the old, not the young, not the most aged; so heavily did his anger against them rage. The suffering of the Chersonites was therefore worthy of mourning, and moved the more philanthropic to wailing; it surpassed Bethlehem's much-groaned pains and grievous moans, cries of much lamentation. For there the infantile and only

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αὐτόν, ἓν μόνον ἐθορύβει, μὴ πρὸς Ἰουστινιανὸν πάλιν τὰ σκῆπτρα φθάσῃ, καὶ πάλιν ἀναπόμπιμος γένηται πρὸς τὸ στέφος ὁ πρὶν αὐτὸ ζημιωθεὶς καὶ σὺν αὐτῷ τὴν ῥῖνα. ὡς θῆρα γοῦν ὑγρόχερσον ὑπώπτευε τὸν ἄνδρα, καὶ μᾶλλον τοὺς προφοιβασμοὺς ἀκούων καὶ προρρήσεις καὶ τὰ κομπολογήματα τῶν ἀστερολεσχούντων. ἐκίνει τοίνυν μηχανάς, ὤρυττεν ἐπινοίας, ὡς ἂν αὐτοῦ κωλύσειε τὰς πρὸς τὸ κρεῖττον τύχας. μαθὼν γοῦν ὡς ἡρμόσατο τὴν αὐθομαιμονοῦσαν τῷ τῶν Χαζάρων ἄρχοντι χαγάνῳ Θεοδώραν, καὶ παρ' αὐτῷ καὶ μετ' αὐτοῦ σκηνοῖτο καὶ διάγοι, πρεσβείαν πέμπει τῷ δεινῷ βαρβάρῳ τῷ χαγάνῳ, χρημάτων ὑπισχνούμενος ὅλας αὐτῷ θαλάσσας, ἂν τὸν Ἰουστινιανὸν δήσας δεσμοῖς ἀρρήκτοις ἀπεμπολήσειεν αὐτῷ τρίδουλον ὡς οἰκέτην, ἤγουν αὐτοῦ τὴν κεφαλὴν ἀποτεμὼν ἐκπέμψῃ. ἀκούει ταῦθ' ὁ βάρβαρος ἐκεῖνος ὁ χαγάνος, τῷ τῶν χρημάτων ἔρωτι πυροῦται τὴν καρδίαν (καὶ τί γὰρ ἢ τριβάρβαρος χαγάνος σκυθογνώμων;) ἀπάνθρωπον βουλεύεται βουλὴν καὶ θηριώδη εἰς προσγενῆ καὶ τὸ μηδὲν αὐτὸν ἠδικηκότα, καὶ τῷ ζητοῦντι μελετᾷ τὸν δυστυχῆ προέσθαι. χρυσὲ προδότα, πάντολμε, δύστροπε, κακεργάτα, καὶ φίλων ἀπεμπολητὰ καὶ γένους ἀναιρέτα, τί τοῦτο; πῶς παλιμπετεῖς καὶ παλιμβόλους τίθης; πῶς δὲ πρὸς ἀλλοπρόσαλλον γνώμην μεταβιβάζεις τοὺς ἀποικίλους τοὺς ἁπλοῦς ὑπὸ θεοῦ πλασθέντας; ἀλλὰ τὸ μέλλον, ὥς φασι, καὶ τὸ κεκυρωμένον οὐ τεῖχος σχίσει σιδηροῦν, οὐ τοῦ πυρὸς ἡ γνάθος. ὁ γὰρ Ἰουστινιανὸς τοὺς δόλους τοῦ χαγάνου καὶ τὰς βουλὰς ἀναμαθὼν ἐκεῖθεν δραπετεύει, καὶ προσεταιρισάμενος ἁδραῖς ἐπαγγελίαις τὸν Τέρβελιν τὸν ἄρχοντα τοῦ τῶν Βουλγάρων ἔθνους καταλαμβάνει σὺν αὐτῷ τὴν Βυζαντίδα χθόνα, Βουλγάρων ἐπαγόμενος μυρίους λεγεῶνας. ὀλίγοις δὲ τῶν ἀμφ' αὐτὸν τὸ βούλευμα πιστεύσας καὶ σὺν αὐτοῖς ὑποδραμὼν σωλῆνας ὑδρορρόους τὴν εἰς τὴν πόλιν πάροδον ἐντέχνως ὑποκλέπτει, καὶ δεύτερον ἀρχηγετεῖ καὶ ζώννυται τὸ κρότος. τὰς δ' ἐπὶ τούτοις συμφορὰς τίς παραστήσει λόγος; τῷ μὲν Βουλγάρων ἄρχοντι πληροῖ τὰς ὑποσχέσεις καὶ δωρεαῖς ἀμείβεται πολλῷ δαψιλεστέραις, πυρὶ δὲ δίδωσι συχνοὺς τῶν περιλάμπρων οἴκους, καὶ διαρπάζει χρήματα, καὶ δίκην βοσκημάτων τῶν μεγιστάνων πλείονας οἴκτιστα καταθύει. καὶ δὴ καὶ τὸν Λεόντιον κτείνει σὺν Ἀψιμάρῳ οἷα λῃστὰς καὶ συλευτὰς αὐτοῦ τῆς σκηπτουχίας. οὕτω κακοὶ τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ὑπόκεινται τῆς δίκης· κἂν παραυτίκα φύγωσι τὰ τῆς ποινηλασίας, ἀλλ' ὕστερον ὑπέχουσι μείζονας τὰς κολάσεις. οὐ μόνοις δὲ τοῖς ἀρχηγοῖς τούτοις τῆς τυραννίδος ἐπέσεισε τὸν σίδηρον ἐκδικητὴν ὧν ἔτλη, ἀλλά γε καὶ Καλλίνικον αἰκίσας καὶ χλευάσας, τὸν ἀρχιερατεύοντα ταύτης τῆς βασιλίδος, καὶ παιδαρίων θέμενος ὕβριν μωρονηπίων, τέλος ἀπέσβεσεν αὐτοῦ τοῦ σώματος τοὺς λύχνους· ἦν γάρ τοι καὶ συναίτιος καὶ ῥέκτης καὶ συνίστωρ τῶν εἰς Ἰουστινιανὸν ποτὲ τετολμημένων. οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ κατὰ νοῦν βαλλόμενος ὁ κράτωρ ὅσας ἐκέρασαν αὐτῷ κύλικας πικροπότους οἱ τῶν ὁρίων κάτοικοι τῆς Ποντικῆς Χερσῶνος, ὅτε διῆγε παρ' αὐτοῖς ἀπελαθεὶς τοῦ κράτους, ποτὲ μὲν ἀποσκώπτοντες, ποτὲ δὲ δυσφημοῦντες καὶ βέλεσιν ὀνειδισμῶν κεντοῦντες κακογλώσσων, ποτὲ βυσσοδομεύοντες βουλὰς κακομηχάνους, ὡς ἢ τοῖς σπλάγχνοις τοῖς αὐτοῦ βάψαιεν τὰς μαχαίρας ἢ καὶ δεσμώτην ἄθλιον πέμψειαν Ἀψιμάρῳ,- ταῦτ' οὖν Ἰουστινιανὸς τοῖς λογισμοῖς ἐγγράφων, καὶ καθ' αὑτὸν ἀνατυπῶν καὶ ζωγραφῶν τοὺς τύπους, καὶ πικραινόμενος αὐτοῖς οἷα βαρβαροτρόποις πέμπει στρατὸν ναυσίπλοον, κελεύων ἀποσφάττειν ἅπαν τὸ γένος ἡβηδὸν τῶν προλελυπηκότων, καὶ φείδεσθαι μὴ γυναικῶν, μὴ τῶν ὑποτιτθίων, μὴ γηραιῶν, μὴ νεαρῶν, μὴ πρεσβυγενεστέρων· οὕτω βαρὺς ἐκάχλαζεν ὁ κατ' ἐκείνων χόλος. ἦν γοῦν ἀξιοπένθητον Χερσωνιτῶν τὸ πάθος, καὶ συγκινοῦν εἰς οἰμωγὰς τοὺς φιλανθρωποτέρους, ὑπερενίκα Βηθλεὲμ τοὺς πολυστόνους πόνους καὶ στοναχὰς βαρυαλγεῖς, βοὰς πολυστενάχους. ἐκεῖ μὲν γὰρ ἡ βρεφικὴ καὶ μόνη

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