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 pit of murder for the emperor, was himself justly cast down into it, and the evil-doer Photius is cast from the throne. Thus nothing escapes the eyelids of God, thus God repays the arrogant, sings the most sweet-sounding lyre of David. But the emperor Michael, delighting in chariot races and demonically revelling in his beloved horse-riding, associated and spent time with those mad for the theatre, himself fulfilling the role of charioteer. And once, having well guided the four-horse chariot and having been praised by someone by the name of Basiliscus, he rewards the praiser not with stones, not with gold, but generously bestows the imperial high office itself. Which when Basil the Great, the Macedonian, saw, who had been appointed co-emperor by Michael himself, and fearing the fickleness of his judgment, he decided it was necessary to anticipate and act first. From there, then, he mixes a cup of murder for Michael, who had ruled for fourteen years, and he becomes sole ruler and sceptre-bearing emperor. For no daughter nor son was born to Michael; for the seed, say the wise, of those prone to the orgies of Aphrodite does not have fertility. They say that the empress, Theodora, empress both in spirit and by fortune, having once seen him, said such things to Michael: "O emperor and son, do you see this great and robust man, who is honored by you and spends his time with you? This man, alas, will suck out our lineage like a serpent and will plunder and kill and utterly destroy it like the helpless young chicks of a wretched bird." But it is worthwhile to speak about Basil, whence and from whom he sprang, who were his forefathers. He came, then, from a poor village, neighboring the chief city, the brilliant city of the Macedonians, which formerly bore its name from Orestes, but Hadrian the Roman emperor, having founded it, bestowed his own name upon the city. And his parents and planters of the fair-branched tree were not men of many talents, they were not flowing with wealth, nor sheep-breeders, not boasting of acres of land, but laborers and poor men and of those who live by their hands. When they had left this life and departed from the earth, and Krum, the ruler of the Bulgars at that time, having attacked all the land under the Romans and having filled his army with spoils and having destroyed all the flower of youth, and having placed many in the lot of slaves, Basil also was captured by the hands of the Bulgars like a fair-winged sparrow by a bitter net-hunter. But having fled the murderous snares of the Bulgars, he came on wings again to the borders of the Romans, and as a poor man hired himself out for service, and having suffered patiently and endured many toils, and having realized that he was sowing the seeds of his labor in barren earth, he departs from his kin and his native land, and having considered all other things small and trivial, he made for the city of Byzantium as his goal. And when he came within the fair-towered city's towers, here one must observe his resourceful counsel, how he lays the foundations of his affairs beforehand, and how august a matter the empire is to him. Basil was sleeping thus neglectedly, wrapped in torn rags, having brought neither silver nor gold from home, but looking only to his own hands, and bringing these as the starting-point of his much-lamented life. He was sleeping, then, on a certain stone-paved bed near the door of the church of the divine Diomedes. But upon these things a white-winged dream flew down; it quickly awakens the sacristan there and urges him to bring the emperor inside. The sacristan leaps from his bed, he quickly walks to the porch, he finds Basil sleeping meanly, on the ground, with unwashed feet, wretched, a rag-wearer; he thinks the vision a delusion, he runs away from there. And again sleep fell upon his eyelids, and again the same dream as before, and this up to a third time. he understood, he perceived

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παλάμη, ὁ τυρευτὴς δὲ τῶν κακῶν ἀπέτισε τὴν δίκην, καὶ τῶν δεινῶν ὁ σκευαστὴς ἔπιε σκύφον θυμοῦ. Βάρδας μὲν οὖν τῷ βασιλεῖ βόθρον ὀρύσσων φόνου αὐτὸς ἐκεῖνος εἰς αὐτὸν ἐνδίκως κατερράγη, ὁ δὲ κακοῦργος Φώτιος ἐκβάλλεται τοῦ θρόνου. οὕτως οὐδὲν τὰ βλέφαρα θεοῦ διαδιδράσκει, οὕτως ἀνταποδίδωσι θεὸς ὑπερηφάνοις, ἡ λύρα ψάλλει τοῦ ∆αβὶδ ἡ καλλιμελεστάτη. Ὁ βασιλεὺς δὲ Μιχαὴλ διφρηλασίαις χαίρων καὶ δαιμονίως ἐντρυφῶν ταῖς φίλαις ἱππασίαις συνῆν καὶ συνδιέτριβε τοῖς θεατρομανοῦσιν, αὐτὸς αὐτὸς ἀναπληρῶν τὴν ἁρματηστροφίαν. καὶ δή ποτε τὸ τέτρωρον εὖ χαλινοστροφήσας καὶ πρός τινος ἀνυμνηθεὶς τοὔνομα Βασιλίσκου ἀμείβεται τὸν ὑμνητὴν οὐ λίθοις, οὐ χρυσίῳ, αὐτὸ δὲ τὸ βασίλειον ὕψος φιλοτιμεῖται. ὅπερ ἰδὼν Βασίλειος ὁ Μακεδὼν ὁ μέγας, ὁ παρ' αὐτοῦ τοῦ Μιχαὴλ κράτωρ προβεβλημένος, καὶ τὸ παλίμβολον αὐτοῦ τῆς γνώμης ὑποτρέσας, δεῖν ἔγνω προκαταλαβεῖν καὶ προκαταταχῆσαι. ἔνθεν τοι φόνου κίρνησι τῷ Μιχαὴλ κρατῆρα, ἔτεσι πρὸς τοῖς τέσσαρσι δέκα κεκρατηκότι, καὶ μονοκράτωρ γίνεται καὶ κράτωρ σκηπτροκράτωρ. οὐ γὰρ θυγάτηρ οὐχ υἱὸς τῷ Μιχαὴλ ἐτέχθη· τὸ σπέρμα γάρ, φασὶ σοφοί, τὸ τῶν εὐκαταφόρων εἰς Ἀφροδίτης ὄργια τὸ γόνιμον οὐκ ἔχει. Τοῦτόν φασιν τὴν ἄνασσάν ποτε θεασαμένην, τὴν καὶ ψυχῇ βασίλισσαν καὶ τύχῃ Θεοδώραν, τοιαῦτ' εἰπεῖν πρὸς Μιχαὴλ "ὦ βασιλεῦ καὶ τέκνον, ὁρᾷς τὸν ἄνδρα τὸν πολὺν τοῦτον καὶ ῥωμαλέον, τὸν παρά σου τιμώμενον καὶ συνδιάγοντά σοι; οὗτος τὸ γένος φεῦ ἡμῶν ὡς δράκων ἐκροφήσει καὶ προνομεύσει καὶ κτενεῖ καὶ παντελῶς ἐκτρίψει καθάπερ ὄρνιθος οἰκτροῦ νηπίους ὀρταλίχους." Ἀλλὰ γὰρ ἄξιον εἰπεῖν τὰ περὶ Βασιλείου, ὅθεν καὶ τίνων ἔβλαστε, τίνες αὐτῷ γενάρχαι. κώμης μὲν οὖν ἐξώρμητο λυπρᾶς, προσγειτονούσης τῇ πρωτοπόλει τῇ λαμπρᾷ τῶν Μακεδόνων πόλει, ἣν ἐξ Ὀρέστου φέρουσαν πρὶν τὴν ἐπωνυμίαν Ἀδριανὸς δειμάμενος ὁ τῶν Ῥωμαίων κράτωρ τὴν κλῆσιν ἐχαρίσατο τῇ πόλει τὴν ἰδίαν. οἱ δὲ γονεῖς καὶ φυτουργοὶ τοῦ καλλικλάδου δένδρου οὐ πολυτάλαντοί τινες, ῥυηφενεῖς οὐκ ἦσαν, οὐδὲ προβατοθρέμμονες, οὐ πλέθρα γῆς αὐχοῦντες, ἀλλ' αὐτουργοὶ καὶ πένητες καὶ τῶν χειροβιώτων. ὧν ἐκλιπόντων τὴν ζωὴν καὶ γῆθεν μεταστάντων, καὶ τοῦ Βουλγάρων ἄρχοντος τοῦ τηνικαῦτα Κρούμου ἐπιδραμόντος σύμπασαν τὴν ὑπὸ τοὺς Ῥωμαίους καὶ σκύλων ὑποπλήσαντος αὐτοῦ τὴν στραταρχίαν καὶ σύμπαν νεοτήσιον ἄνθος ἠφανικότος, θεμένου δὲ καὶ πλείονας ἐν ἀνδραπόδων μοίρᾳ, ἑάλω καὶ Βασίλειος Βουλγάρων ταῖς παλάμαις ὥσπερ στρουθὸς καλλίπτερος πικρῷ δικτυοθήρᾳ. τὰς παλαμναίας δὲ φυγὼν βροχίδας τῶν Βουλγάρων ἐπέστη πτερυξάμενος αὖθις Ῥωμαίων ὅροις, καὶ πρὸς λατρείαν ἑαυτὸν ὡς πένης ἐκμισθώσας, καὶ τληπαθήσας καὶ πολλοὺς καμάτους ἀεθλεύσας, καὶ γνοὺς ὡς εἰς ἀκάρπωτον γῆν τὰ τοῦ πόνου σπείρει, ἀφίσταται τῶν προσγενῶν καὶ τῆς ἐνεγκαμένης, καὶ πάντα λογισάμενος τἆλλα μικρὰ καὶ φαῦλα ὡς πρὸς σκοπὸν ἐφέρετο τὴν Βυζαντίδα πόλιν. ὡς δὲ τῶν πύργων γέγονεν ἐντὸς τῶν καλλιπύργων, ἐνταῦθα τὴν εὐμήχανον βουλὴν θεωρητέον, ὅπως προκαταβάλλεται τὰς ῥίζας τῶν πραγμάτων, καὶ πῶς αἰδέσιμον αὐτῇ τὸ βασιλείας χρῆμα. ὕπνωττε μὲν Βασίλειος οὕτως ἀτημελήτως, διερρωγόσι ῥάκεσιν ἐγκεκορδυλημένος, οὐκ ἄργυρον οὐδὲ χρυσὸν οἰκόθεν ἐπηγμένος, εἰς μόνας δὲ τὰς ἑαυτοῦ παλάμας ἀποβλέπων, καὶ ταύτας φέρων ἀφορμὴν τοῦ πολυστόνου βίου. ὕπνωττεν οὖν ἐπί τινος λιθοπλινθίνης κλίνης ἀγχιθυρούσης τῷ ναῷ τοῦ θείου ∆ιομήδους. ἀλλ' ἐπὶ τούτοις ὄνειρος λευκόπτερος ἐπέπτη· τὸν νεωκόρον τὸν ἐκεῖ τάχιον ἀφυπνίζει προτρέπει τε συναγαγεῖν ἔνδον τὸν βασιλέα. ἀποπηδᾷ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ κλίνης ὁ νεωκόρος, ἐπὶ τὸ προτεμένισμα συντόμως βηματίζει, καταδαρθάνοντα λιτῶς Βασίλειον εὑρίσκει, χαμεύνην, ἀνιπτόποδα, λυπρόν, ῥακιοφόρον· πλάνην νομίζει τὸ φανέν, ἐκεῖθεν ἀποτρέχει. καὶ πάλιν ὕπνος ἔπιπτεν ἐν τοῖς αὐτοῦ βλεφάροις, καὶ πάλιν ὄνειρος ὁ πρίν, καὶ τοῦτο μέχρι τρίτου. συνῆκε κατεφώρασε

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