a monk. 1 Constantine, his son-in-law, was therefore left as sole emperor; who, having immediately honored Bardas, the son of Phokas, with the dignity of *magistros*, a man who for a long time had shown his valor in wars, appointed him domestic of the schools, then Basil, surnamed Peteinakes, a patrician and grand hetaireiarches. And Marianos of the Argyros family, having stripped off his monastic habit, he made a patrician and count of the stable, likewise also Manuel, called Kourtikes, a patrician and drungary of the watch; these three, not long after, the just judgment of God, as men who had insulted the Lord's anointed and unjustly laid hands upon him, and who were aspiring to the empire, pursued; for having been caught in a conspiracy, each of them 922 ended their life by a most wretched death. But I shall set forth the matters concerning them more broadly and in more detail in the preceding narrative. 2. After 40 days, on the 27th of the month of January, Constantine, suspecting the then emperor Stephen and Constantine his brother, lest they should ever do the same things against him, and reasoning, as was likely, that if they did not spare their own father, how would they spare him? having invited them to a banquet, while they were already seated at the table, with the food still in their mouths, those called Tornikioi and the patrician Marianos and the rest who had been prepared for this seized them, and leading them down from the palace and confining them on the nearby islands, tonsured them as clerics. 3. After a short while, therefore, having asked to see their own father, they arrived at the island of Prote, and seeing him in the monastic habit, they were seized with unbearable grief. To whom the father, weeping over them, said, "I have begotten and exalted sons, but they have rejected me." Then they were exiled, Stephen to Prokonnesos, and from Prokonnesos to Rhodes, and from Rhodes to Mytilene, and Constantine to Tenedos, and from there to Samothrace, where, having plotted a rebellion, he was slaughtered by those guarding him 923. And Michael, the son of Christopher, he stripped of the imperial sandals and made a cleric. 4. While the emperor Romanos was on the island, the patriarch Theophylact and Theophanes the patrician and *parakoimomenos* formed a plan to bring him back to the palace again; and having communicated it to him and persuaded him, they were watching for an opportunity to put such a plan into effect. But when the details of the plan were discovered and reported to the emperor Constantine, he took vengeance on its collaborators; for he exiled the patrician Theophanes, and George the *protospatharios* and cupbearer and Thomas the *primikerios* he flogged and tonsured and paraded through the middle of the city, and thus sent them into exile. 5. In the month of December, in the 2nd indiction, some men plotted a conspiracy against the emperor Constantine, wishing to bring the emperor Stephen from the island to the palace. When this conspiracy was therefore reported to Constantine by Michael, called Diabolinos, the emperor arrested the conspirators and cut off the noses and ears of some, and subjected others to an unbearable flogging, and having set them on donkeys, paraded them through the middle of the city and sent them into exile. 924 6. On the fifteenth of the month of July, in the 2nd indiction, Romanos the emperor dies on the island of Prote; and his body, having been transported to the city, was laid to rest in his own monastery.

μοναχόν. 1 ὑπελείφθη οὖν αὐτοκράτωρ Κων σταντῖνος ὁ τούτου γαμβρός· ὃς παραυτίκα Βάρδαν τὸν τοῦ Φωκᾶ τῇ τοῦ μαγίστρου ἀξίᾳ τιμήσας, χρόνῳ πολλῷ τὴν ἐν πολέ μοις ἀνδραγαθίαν ἐπιδειξάμενον, δομέστικον τῶν σχολῶν προχει ρίζεται, εἶτα Βασίλειον, ᾧ ἐπίκλην Πετεινάκης, πατρίκιον καὶ μέγαν ἑταιρειάρχην. τῷ δὲ τοῦ γένους τῶν Ἀργυρῶν Μαριανῷ τὰ μοναχικὰ ἀποδύσας πατρίκιον καὶ κόμητα τοῦ στάβλου πεποίη κεν, ὡσαύτως καὶ Μανουὴλ τὸν λεγόμενον Κουρτίκην πατρίκιον καὶ δρουγγάριον τῆς βίγλης· οὕς τινας τρεῖς οὐ μετὰ πολὺν χρό νον ἡ τοῦ θεοῦ δικαία κρίσις, ὡς εἰς χριστὸν κυρίου παροινήσαν τας καὶ χεῖρας ἀδίκως ἐπιβαλόντας, τῆς βασιλείας ὀρεγομένους, μετῆλθεν· ἐπὶ καθοσιώσει γὰρ καταληφθέντες ἑκάτερος αὐτῶν 922 οἰκτίστῳ θανάτῳ τὸ ζῆν ἀπέρρηξαν. τὰ δὲ περὶ αὐτῶν πλατύ τερά τε καὶ ἐπεξεργαστικώτερα ἐν τῇ προηγουμένῃ ἐξηγήσει ἐκθή σομαι. 2. Μετὰ δὲ μʹ ἡμέρας, τῇ κζʹ τοῦ Ἰανουαρίου μηνός, ὑποπτεύσας Κωνσταντῖνος τὸν τότε βασιλέα Στέφανον καὶ Κων σταντῖνον τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ μή ποτε κατ' αὐτοῦ τὰ ὅμοια πρά ξωνται, καὶ λογισάμενος, ὅπερ ἦν εἰκός, ὅτι εἰ τοῦ ἰδίου πατρὸς οὐκ ἐφείσαντο, πῶς αὐτοῦ φείσονται; ἑστιάσας αὐτούς, ἤδη ἐν τῇ τραπέζῃ καθεζομένους, ἔτι τῆς βρώσεως οὔσης ἐν τῷ στόματι αὐτῶν, ἀνήρπασαν τούτους οἵ τε λεγόμενοι Τορνίκιοι καὶ ὁ πατρί κιος Μαριανὸς καὶ οἱ λοιποὶ οἱ πρὸς τοῦτο ἡτοιμασμένοι, καὶ τοῦ παλατίου καταγαγόντες καὶ ἐν ταῖς πλησιαζούσαις νήσοις αὐτοὺς περιορίσαντες κληρικοὺς ἀπέκειραν. 3. Μετ' ὀλίγον οὖν αἰτησάμενοι τὸν ἴδιον πατέρα θεάσα σθαι ἐν τῇ Πρώτῃ νήσῳ παρεγένοντο, καὶ τοῦτον ἐν τῷ μοναχικῷ σχήματι θεασάμενοι πένθει κατεσχέθησαν ἀφορήτῳ. οἷς ἐπιδα κρύσας ὁ πατὴρ ἔφη "υἱοὺς ἐγέννησα καὶ ὕψωσα, αὐτοὶ δέ με ἠθέτησαν." εἶθ' οὕτως ἐξωρίσθησαν, ὁ μὲν Στέφανος εἰς Προι κόνησον, ἀπὸ δὲ Προικονήσου εἰς Ῥόδον, ἀπὸ δὲ Ῥόδου εἰς Μιτυλήνην, ὁ δὲ Κωνσταντῖνος εἰς Τένεδον, ἐκεῖθεν εἰς Σαμοθρᾴ κην, ἐν ᾗ καὶ ἀνταρσίαν μελετήσας παρὰ τῶν αὐτὸν φυλασσόν 923 των ἐσφάγη. Μιχαὴλ δὲ τὸν τοῦ Χριστοφόρου υἱὸν τὰ βασιλικὰ πέδιλα ἀφελόμενος κληρικὸν πεποίηκεν. 4. Ὄντος δὲ τοῦ βασιλέως Ῥωμανοῦ ἐν τῇ νήσῳ, ὁ πατριάρχης Θεοφύλακτος καὶ Θεοφάνης ὁ πατρίκιος καὶ παρακοιμώ μενος βουλὴν ἐβουλεύσαντο ὥστε πάλιν ἐν τῷ παλατίῳ τοῦτον ἀγαγεῖν· ἣν καὶ αὐτῷ ἀνακοινωνησάμενοι καὶ παραπείσαντες τοῦτον, ἐκαιροσκόπουν πότε πέρας τῇ τοιαύτῃ βουλῇ ἐπιθῶσιν. ἐπεὶ δὲ τὰ τῆς βουλῆς ἐφωράθη καὶ κατεμηνύθη Κωνσταντίνῳ βασιλεῖ, τοὺς συνεργοὺς ταύτης ἠμύνετο· τὸν μὲν γὰρ πατρίκιον Θεοφάνην ἐξώρισεν, τὸν δὲ πρωτοσπαθάριον καὶ πιγκέρνην Γεώργιον καὶ Θωμᾶν πριμικήριον δείρας καὶ κουρεύσας καὶ μέσον τῆς πόλεως θριαμβεύσας οὕτως ὑπερορίᾳ παρέπεμψε. 5. ∆εκεμβρίῳ δὲ μηνί, ἰνδικτιῶνος ʹ, ἐπιβουλήν τινες κατὰ τοῦ βασιλέως Κωνσταντίνου ἐμελέτησαν, βουλόμενοι τὸν βασιλέα Στέφανον ἐν τῷ παλατίῳ ἐκ τῆς νήσου ἀγαγεῖν. ταύτης οὖν μηνυθείσης τῆς ἐπιβουλῆς Κωνσταντίνῳ διὰ Μιχαὴλ τοῦ ∆ιαβολίνου λεγομένου, τοὺς ἐπιβούλους κρατήσας ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν μὲν τὰς ῥῖνας καὶ τὰ ὦτα ἀπέτεμεν, τοὺς δὲ δαρμῷ ἀφορήτῳ ὑπέβαλε, καὶ ὄνοις ἐπικαθίσας διὰ μέσης τῆς πόλεως ἐθριάμβευσε καὶ ἐξορίᾳ παρέπεμψε. 924 6. Πεντεκαιδεκάτῃ Ἰουλίῳ μηνί, ἰνδικτιῶνος ʹ, Ῥωμανὸς ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐν τῇ Πρώτῃ νήσῳ τελευτᾷ· καὶ τὸ σῶμα αὐτοῦ ἐν τῇ πόλει διακομισθὲν ἐν τῇ αὐτοῦ ἀπετέθη μονῇ.