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

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 his bed. For indeed a constant drop hollows out a hard rock, and caterpillars consume the leaves of the trees, and flatterers devour small-minded men. But he sobered up late at last from his extreme self-love, he understood that he was caught in the midst of the worst evils, and again he beseeches the empress his mother to steer the fair-prowed vessel of the empire. The empress Irene is swayed by the words of her child, and again she was with her child, and with him she administered the power and the affairs and the fortune of the Romans; for she was by nature a lover of power and thirsty to rule. But he who spoke whispers into the ears of Eve, and vomited the poison of wickedness into her soul, and persuaded her to taste of the fair-fruited tree, and brought death instead of indestructible life, and changed what was delightful into unmixed bitterness and what was sweetening into gall, what was charming into pain, and from there cast the thrice-wretched one into an open sea and into a sea of temptations and into a wave of misfortunes, this one, having then become both a plotter against and a counselor to the empress Irene, and having charmed her heart with a love for monarchy and sole rule, persuades her to devise a sinister plan, alas, a most inhuman one, against this youth, this emperor, one which not even a tigress, nor a roaring lion, nor a savage-hearted bear, nor a flesh-eating dragon. For seeing her son living both irreverently and treating everyone according to his own whim, and herself being able to accomplish nothing, having found Patroklos as a plausible pretext, so to speak, that the emperor had not rightly but unlawfully disgraced the daughters of his paternal uncles, she communicates, alas, her beastly design to those around her, she finds all compliant, none disobedient; for what would the chamberlain eunuchs with their filthy souls, workers of all evils, not have done? she contrives the plot, alas, against her beloved, she lays down the methods. What then after this? The emperor was sleeping, but a darkness-giving sleep, a sleep after which he was not to see the beauty of the sun; but the ravens rush in like eye-gougers, and, alas, they dim the brightness of his eyes. And eyeballs flowed down from his eyelids, and a bloody dripping stained his garments, and a hail formed of murder descended; and he, the most long-suffering, lay convulsing, a pitiable sight, alas, persuading even stones to mourn, there having his eyes cut out, there having his pupils extinguished, where he first looked upon the lamps of the sun; they call that little room the Porphyra. Who has heard of such great, grievous madness, a mother's madness towards her son? Oh, the passion of love for power! A leopard does not rage so against its cubs; not so does a tiger become savage against its whelps, nor a shark, nor a rabid dog. They say only Medea plotted against her children, and this one out of Scythian savage-mindedness. I hear only that the sea-fish, the tuna, when hungry swallows its own offspring, but nothing else, not in the water, nor yet on dry land; for the dread Eileithyiai put mothers to shame. The gleams of the light-bringer were then extinguished, the all-shining lamp gave no bright light, the light-bearing maiden closed her eyelid, and a deep darkness was spread over for many days; for the elements themselves mourned the misfortune. Oh, a passion pitied wretchedly even by the inanimate! Thus having done this most audacious deed, that woman leads and rules alone (for this she also desired) and alone girds herself with the imperial power. Then also in illustrious Rome, in aged Rome, something worthy of word and memory came to pass. There was one consecrating in it the sacred sacrifices, the first-ruler of the other priests, Leo; he is called pope in the language of the Romans. Certain men from Rome, having bitterly envied him, who were kinsmen to Hadrian, the pope a short time before, and having stirred up a heavy-sounding surge of sedition, of the

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ἐντεῦθεν ἐκκυλίεται πρὸς ἀθεσμοπραγίας, καὶ κείρει μὲν τὴν σύνοικον τὴν σωφρονικωτάτην, ἄλλης δὲ μῖξιν γυναικὸς τοῖς λέκτροις ἐπεισάγει. καὶ γὰρ ῥανὶς ἐνδελεχὴς πέτραν σκληρὰν κοιλαίνει, καὶ κάμπαι τὰς δενδρίτιδας φυλλάδας ἀναλοῦσι, καὶ κόλακες ἐσθίουσιν ἀνθρώπους μικροσπλάγχνους. ἀλλ' ἔνηψεν ὀψέ ποτε τῆς ἄκρας φιλαυτίας, συνῆκεν ὡς συνείληπται μέσος κακοῖς ἐσχάτοις, καὶ πάλιν τὴν βασίλισσαν ἐκλιπαρεῖ μητέρα ἰθύνειν τὸ καλλίπρωρον τῆς βασιλείας σκάφος. κάμπτεται λόγοις τοῦ παιδὸς ἡ βασιλὶς Εἰρήνη, καὶ πάλιν ἦν σὺν τῷ παιδί, καὶ σὺν αὐτῷ διεῖπε τὸ κράτος καὶ τὰ πράγματα καὶ τὴν Ῥωμαίων τύχην· ἦν γὰρ καὶ φύσει φίλαρχος καὶ τοῦ κρατεῖν διψῶσα. ἀλλ' ὁ λαλήσας ψίθυρα ταῖς ἀκοαῖς τῆς Εὔας, καὶ τῆς κακίας τὸν ἰὸν εἰς τὴν ψυχὴν ἐμέσας, καὶ πείσας ἀπογεύσασθαι ξύλου τοῦ καλλικάρπου, καὶ θάνατον ἐπενεγκὼν ἀντὶ ζωῆς ἀλύτου, καὶ τὸ τερπνὸν μεταβαλὼν εἰς ἄκρατον πικρίαν καὶ τὸ γλυκάζον εἰς χολήν, τὸ θέλγον εἰς ὀδύνην, κἀντεῦθεν τὴν τριτάλαιναν εἰς πέλαγος ποντώσας καὶ πειρασμῶν εἰς θάλασσαν καὶ συμφορῶν εἰς κῦμα, οὗτος καὶ τότ' ἐπίβουλος καὶ σύμβουλος Εἰρήνῃ τῇ βασιλίδι γεγονώς, καὶ θέλξας τὴν καρδίαν τῆς μοναρχίας ἔρωτι καὶ μονοκρατορίας, πείθει κατὰ τοῦ μείρακος τούτου τοῦ βασιλέως βουλὴν βουλεύσασθαι σκαιάν, φεῦ, ἀπανθρωποτάτην, ἣν οὐδὲ τιγροπάρδαλις, οὐ λέων βρυχητίας, οὐκ ἄρκτος ἀγριόθυμος, οὐ δράκων ὠμοφάγος. ὁρῶσα γάρ τοι τὸν υἱὸν ἀσέμνως τε βιοῦντα καὶ πᾶσι προσφερόμενον κατὰ τὸ βουλητέον, αὐτὴν δὲ διαπράττεσθαι μηδέν τι δυναμένην, Πάτροκλον δῆθεν πρόφασιν εὔλογον εὑραμένη, ὡς οὐ καλῶς ὁ βασιλεὺς ἀλλὰ καὶ παρανόμως τὰς κόρας ἀπησβόλωσεν αὐτοῦ τῶν πατραδέλφων, κοινοῦται φεῦ τοῖς ἀμφ' αὐτὴν τὴν θηριώδη γνώμην, εὑρίσκει πάντας εὐπειθεῖς, ἀνήκοον οὐδένα· καὶ τί γὰρ ἂν οὐκ ἔδρασαν οἱ θαλαμηπολοῦντες εὐνοῦχοι ῥυπαρόψυχοι, πάντων κακῶν ἐργάται; τυρεύει τὴν ἐπιβουλὴν φεῦ κατὰ τοῦ φιλτάτου, τοὺς τρόπους ὑποτίθεται. τί δὴ τὸ μετὰ ταῦτα; ὕπνωττε μὲν ὁ βασιλεύς, ἀλλ' ὕπνον σκοτοδότην, ὕπνον μεθ' ὃν οὐκ ἔμελλε κάλλος ἡλίου βλέπειν· οἱ δ' εἰσπηδῶσι κόρακες ὥσπερ ὀφθαλμορύκται, καὶ τῶν ὀμμάτων φεῦ αὐτοῦ τὸ σέλας ἀμαυροῦσι. καὶ γλῆναι μὲν κατέρρεον ἐκ τῶν αὐτοῦ βλεφάρων, καὶ σταλαγμὸς αἱματηρὸς ἐμόλυνε τοὺς πέπλους, καὶ χάλαζα κατέβαινεν ἐκ φόνου σφαιρουμένη· αὐτὸς δ' ὁ τληπαθέστατος ἔκειτο σφακελίζων, θέαμα φεῦ ἐλεεινόν, πεῖθον πενθεῖν καὶ λίθους, ἐκεῖ τὰς ὄψεις ἐκκοπείς, ἐκεῖ σβεσθεὶς τὰς κόρας, ὅπου τὸ πρῶτον ἔβλεψεν ἡλίου τὰς λαμπάδας· Πορφύραν ὀνομάζουσιν ἐκεῖνον τὸν οἰκίσκον. τίς τηλικαύτην ἤκουσε βαρύθυμον μανίαν, μητρὸς μανίαν εἰς υἱόν; αἲ πάθους φιλαρχίας! οὐ πάρδαλις ἐκμαίνεται κατὰ τῶν σκύμνων οὕτως· οὐχ οὕτως ἀγριαίνεται κατὰ τῶν σκυλακίων οὐ τίγρις, οὐδὲ κάρχαρος οὐδὲ λυσσώδης κύων. Μήδειαν μόνην λέγουσιν τέκνοις ἐπιβουλεῦσαι, καὶ ταύτην ἀπὸ Σκυθικῆς ἀγριογνωμοσύνης. μόνον ἀκούω τὸν ἰχθὺν τὸν πελαγίτην θύννον πεινάσαντα καταρροφεῖν τὸν γόνον τὸν οἰκεῖον, ἄλλο δ' οὐδὲν οὐκ ἔνυγρον, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ χερσοπόρον· αἱ γὰρ Εἰλείθυιαι δειναὶ μητέρας δυσωποῦσι. ἔσβη τὰ σελαγίσματα τότε τὰ τοῦ φωσφόρου, φῶς οὐκ ἐδίδου λαμπραυγὲς παντοφανὴς ὁ λύχνος, ἐπέμυε τὸ βλέφαρον ἡ φωτοφόρος κόρη, ζόφος δ' ἐφήπλωτο βαθὺς ἐπὶ συχναῖς ἡμέραις· καὶ τὰ στοιχεῖα γὰρ αὐτὰ τὴν συμφορὰν ἐπένθουν. αἲ πάθος ἐλεούμενον οἰκτρῶς καὶ τοῖς ἀψύχοις! οὕτω δὲ τοῦτο δράσασα τὸ πάντολμον ἐκείνη ἀρχηγετεῖ καὶ μοναρχεῖ (τοῦτο καὶ γὰρ ἐπόθει) καὶ μόνη περιζώννυται τὴν αὐτοκρατορίαν. Τότε καὶ Ῥώμῃ τῇ λαμπρᾷ, τῇ γηραλέᾳ Ῥώμῃ, λόγου καὶ μνήμης ἄξιον πρᾶγμά τι συνηνέχθη. ἦν ἁγιστεύων ἐν αὐτῇ τὰς ἱερὰς θυσίας τῶν ἄλλων τε πρωτόαρχος ἱεροπόλων Λέων· πάπας κατονομάζεται τῇ τῶν Ῥωμαίων γλώσσῃ. τούτῳ πικρῶς βασκήναντες ἄνδρες τινὲς ἐκ Ῥώμης οἱ προσγενεῖς Ἀδριανῷ τῷ πρὸ βραχέος πάπᾳ, καὶ στάσεως κλυδώνιον κυμάναντες βαρύθρουν, τοῦ

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