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

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 devour again the church like the unfledged chicks of a small-winged sparrow. The images of the saints and of Christ were smeared with soot, they were daubed with lime, they were consumed by fire, caves were searched out, the lodgings of monasteries and schools for souls which lived like angels, and every worshipper of the holy icons was persecuted. Then Zion also, the daughter of God, mourned, and dripping tears of grief, she wore sackcloth, and instead of a bridal robe, the tunic of widowhood. Then also the chorus of the heavenly stars mourned, and looked down upon the earth with dark eyelids. This one, striving to wipe out the family of Michael, cut out the genitals of his son Niketas, lest he might ever beget a child and avenge him. Therefore the son of Michael, having been made a eunuch, was later seen as high priest of the New Rome, renamed Ignatius upon the change of his life. This fierce beast, the roaring Leo, pondering by himself the sacred prophecies of the wondrous old man, of the golden-winged swan, and fearing Michael, who was from Amorion, lest the roller of power should fall to him, he shuts him up as a prisoner in a labyrinthine guard, and considered in his mind how he might destroy him. But every man is weak against the hands of God; for the strength of the earth-born is of little power, but God is mighty and strong-armed, and who could wrestle against his dominion? But Michael, trusting in the things prophesied by the eloquent old man, the most prophetic, uncovers, reveals, lays bare the hidden thing. To the keeper of the chambers in the palace (we call him *papian* in the language of the Romans), and with him and through him he contrives the plot and prepares a cup of conspiracy for the ruler. And so they bring in by night among the singers armed spearmen, sword-bearing men, who, falling upon the most blood-stained beast as he was performing the liturgy of the morning hymns, cut him down with their swords and sacrifice him like a lamb, after he had ruled for seven years and five months. And Michael is established as ruler, from a prisoner free, from a guard an absolute sovereign, an emperor. And these things were indeed thus, but what of the things that followed? Michael also hated the holy icons, but he was not bitter towards those who venerated them, nor did he scourge their flesh with whips. Therefore, having failed in not a few battles against the sons of Hagar, he appeared a mockery and a laughingstock, who, often tearing apart the phalanxes of the Romans and leading their commanders away as captives, called the ruler a coward, faint-hearted. From this Michael had heart-pains and soul-biting misfortunes and the bitterness of afflictions; for he was sick with the terrible and wicked impiety, which walled him off from the eyes of God. As successive evils therefore fell upon him and rushed at him like a stormy sea, a more terrible, great-billowed surge roared, and it shook his heart like a merchant ship. For Thomas, of whom the account made mention before, a resourceful man, fiery in his boldness, having gathered a military force from ten thousand places, bloodthirsty hoplites, valiant, stout-hearted, murderous, warlike, daring, bold in battle, he leaps upon Michael with a violent rush, like a boar from a thicket and a dense wood, or a mountain-bred cub of a bloodthirsty lioness, and having surrounded every city around Thrace with naval forces and with a land army, and having brought upon them every heavy affliction, and having enslaved and broken and torn them apart, he advanced upon the blessed city itself. But if the almighty God should oppose mortals, every plan and action is plainly a spider's web. Therefore Thomas, not having the divine fighting for him, was building the towers of his plot on sand, he was fixing his foundations on a weak base.

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καὶ πάλιν τὸ τοῦ δράκοντος οὐραῖον ἐκινήθη. ἡ βδελυρότης δή φημι τῆς εἰκονομαχίας ὡς δράκων μέγας εἵρπυσε φρικώδης χασματίας, ἐρροίζησε καταπιεῖν πάλιν τὴν ἐκκλησίαν ὡς ὀρταλίχους νεοσσοὺς στρουθίου μικροπτέρου. αἱ τῶν ἁγίων καὶ Χριστοῦ μορφώσεις ἠσβολοῦντο, τιτάνῳ κατεχρίοντο, πυρὶ κατεμπιμπρῶντο, ἀνηρευνῶντο σπήλαια, καταγωγαὶ σεμνείων καὶ φροντιστήρια ψυχῶν αἳ κατ' ἀγγέλους ἔζων, καὶ πᾶς ἠλαύνετο σεπτῶν προσκυνητὴς εἰκόνων. ἐπένθει τότε καὶ Σιὼν ἡ τοῦ θεοῦ θυγάτηρ, καὶ δάκρυον σταλάττουσα πένθους ἐφόρει σάκκον, ἀντὶ στολῆς δὲ νυμφικῆς χηρείας χιτωνίσκον. ἐπένθει τότε καὶ χορὸς ἀστέρων οὐρανίων, καὶ πρὸς τὴν γῆν ἠντράνιζεν ἐν σκοτεινοῖς βλεφάροις. Οὗτος τὸ γένος Μιχαὴλ φιλονεικῶν ἐκτρῖψαι τὰ παιδογόνα τοῦ παιδὸς ἐξέτεμε Νικήτα, μή πως τεκνώσειέ ποτε καὶ τοῦτον ἀμυνεῖται. ὁ τοίνυν παῖς τοῦ Μιχαὴλ τομίας χρηματίσας εἰς ὕστερον ἀρχιερεὺς Ῥώμης τῆς νέας ὤφθη, μετακληθεὶς Ἰγνάτιος ἐν μεταθέσει βίου. Οὗτος ὁ θὴρ ὁ χαλεπός, ὁ βρυχητίας Λέων, ἀναπολῶν καθ' ἑαυτὸν τὰς ἱερὰς προρρήσεις τοῦ θαυμασίου γέροντος, τοῦ χρυσοπτέρου κύκνου, καὶ δεδιὼς τὸν Μιχαὴλ ὃς ἦν ἐξ Ἀμορίου, μὴ πρὸς αὐτὸν ὁ κύλινδρος τοῦ κράτους μεταπέσῃ, δεσμώτην ἐγκαθείργνυσι φρουρᾷ λαβυρινθώδει, καὶ κατὰ νοῦν ἐσκέπτετο πῶς ἀναλώσει τοῦτον. ἀλλ' ἀσθενὴς πᾶς ἄνθρωπος πρὸς τὰς θεοῦ παλάμας· ἀλλὰ γὰρ μικροδύναμος ἰσχὺς τοῖς γηγενέσιν, ὁ δὲ θεὸς μεγασθενὴς καὶ μεγαλοβραχίων, καὶ τίς ἀντιπαλαίσειεν αὐτοῦ τῇ δυναστείᾳ; ὁ Μιχαὴλ δὲ πεποιθὼς τοῖς θεσπιῳδηθεῖσι τῷ καλλιγλώττῳ γέροντι, τῷ προφητικωτάτῳ, ἀνακαλύπτει φανεροῖ γυμνοῖ τὸ κεκρυμμένον. πρὸς τὸν τῶν οἴκων φύλακα τὸν ἐν τοῖς ἀνακτόροις (παπίαν λέγομεν αὐτὸν κατὰ Ῥωμαίων γλῶσσαν), καὶ σὺν αὐτῷ καὶ δι' αὐτοῦ τὸ δρᾶμα συσκευάζει καὶ σκύφον τῆς ἐπιβουλῆς ἀρτύει τῷ κρατοῦντι. καὶ τοίνυν συνεισάγουσι νύκτωρ τοῖς ψαλτῳδοῦσι θωρακοφόρους αἰχμητὰς ἄνδρας ῥομφαιοφόρους, οἳ συμπεσόντες τῷ θηρὶ τῷ παλαμναιοτάτῳ τελοῦντι τὸ λειτούργημα τῶν ὑπορθρίων ὕμνων τοῖς ξίφεσι συγκόπτουσι καὶ θύουσιν ὡς ἄρνα, πέντε μησὶ πρὸς τοῖς ἑπτὰ χρόνοις κεκρατηκότα. καὶ Μιχαὴλ καθίσταται κράτωρ, ἀντὶ δεσμώτου ἐλεύθερος, ἀπὸ φρουρᾶς αὐτάναξ αὐτοκράτωρ. Καὶ ταῦτα μέντοι τοιαδί, τὰ δ' ἐφεξῆς ὁποῖα; ἐστύγει μὲν καὶ Μιχαὴλ τὰς ἱερὰς εἰκόνας, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐνεπικραίνετο τοῖς ταύταις προσκυνοῦσιν, οὐδὲ τὰς σάρκας τὰς αὐτῶν μάστιξιν ἐχαλάζα. ἐν οὐκ ὀλίγοις τοιγαροῦν ἀποσφαλεὶς ταῖς μάχαις τοῖς ἐκ τῆς Ἄγαρ ἐμπαιγμὸς καὶ χλευασμὸς ἐφάνη, οἳ τὰς Ῥωμαίων φάλαγγας σπαράσσοντες συχνάκις καὶ δορυκτήτους ἄγοντες τοὺς τούτων ταγματάρχας δειλὸν μαλακοκάρδιον ἐκάλουν τὸν κρατοῦντα. ἐντεῦθεν εἶχε Μιχαὴλ ὀδύνας ἐγκαρδίους καὶ συμφορὰς θυμοδακεῖς καὶ θλίψεων πικρίας· τὴν γὰρ δεινὴν καὶ φαυλουργὸν δυσσέβειαν ἐνόσει, ἀποτειχίζουσαν αὐτὸν ἀπὸ θεοῦ βλεφάρων. ἀλλεπαλλήλων οὖν κακῶν ἐπεμπιπτόντων τούτῳ καὶ δίκην πολυκύμονος θαλάσσης ἐκθροούντων, δεινότερος ἐπέφλασε μεγαλοκύμων φλοῖσβος, καὶ τὴν αὐτοῦ συνέσεισε καρδίαν ὡς ὁλκάδα. ὁ γὰρ Θωμᾶς, οὗ πρότερον ὁ λόγος ἐπεμνήσθη, ἄνθρωπος πολυμήχανος, ἐμπύριος τὸ θράσος, στρατεύσιμον συνηθροικὼς ἰσχὺν μυριαχόθεν, ὁπλίτας αἱματοχαρεῖς, ἀλκίμους, εὐκαρδίους, φονοεργούς, ἀρεϊκούς, εὐτόλμους, θρασυμάχους, ἐπιπηδᾷ τῷ Μιχαὴλ μετὰ σφοδρᾶς τῆς ῥύμης καθάπερ σῦς ἀπὸ δρυμοῦ καὶ λόχμης πολυξύλου ἢ σκύμνος ὀρεσίτροφος λεαίνης φιλαιμάτου, καὶ πᾶσαν περιθράκιον περιστοιχήσας πόλιν ἐν ναυτικαῖς δυνάμεσι χειρί τε πεζομάχῳ, καὶ πᾶσαν κάκωσιν αὐταῖς ἐπενεγκὼν βαρεῖαν, καὶ καταδουλωσάμενος καὶ ῥήξας καὶ σπαράξας, ἕως αὐτῆς ἐπέδραμε πόλεως τῆς ὀλβίας. ἀλλ' ἂν θεὸς ὁ πανσθενὴς θνητοῖς ἐναντιῷτο, ἱστὸς ἀράχνης ἄντικρυς πᾶσα βουλὴ καὶ πρᾶξις. τὸ θεῖον τοίνυν ὁ Θωμᾶς ὑπερμαχοῦν οὐκ ἔχων εἰς ψάμμον τῆς ἐπιβουλῆς τοὺς πύργους ᾠκοδόμει, ἐπ' ἀσθενοῦς ἐπήγνυεν αὐτοῦ τοὺς θεμελίους.

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