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Elias immediately cut off his head with his own hands. But his son Tiberius, along with his maternal grandmother Anastasia (for his mother Theodora had already died), fleeing to the church in Blachernae, entered the divine sanctuary and getting under the all-holy table, clutching one of the small columns supporting it, begged not to be killed. But those sent to search for him, having dragged the boy out of the sanctuary, cruelly cut his throat with a sword as if he were a beast. And having now obtained the empire, Philippicus armed himself against the Sixth Ecumenical Council, and having assembled a synod, 243 the vain man invalidated, as far as he was able, that holy council by means of it. For it is said that just as Leontius took up the scepters, a certain monk, being an enclosed recluse in the monastery of Callistratus, prophesied to this very Philippicus his elevation to the imperial throne, and asked as a reward for the prophecy the rejection of the Sixth Council (for that monk was of the Monothelite heresy), and that he promised. He therefore invalidated the Sixth Ecumenical Council, as it seemed. But he himself, having found in the palace heaps of money hoarded by earlier emperors, used them for no good purpose and scattered the greater part in a short time; and perhaps he would have consumed it all, if he had remained in the empire longer. For in speaking he seemed most eloquent and not lacking in intelligence, but in acting he was more foolish 244 and utterly clumsy than all. And having driven Patriarch Cyrus from the church, after he had spent six years in it, he appointed John, who shared his beliefs. However, the Bulgars, having plundered all of Thrace, overran everything up to the City, and having taken much booty and captives almost beyond number, they returned. And indeed, the sons of Hagar also acted similarly in the east. Two years and some months having passed since he took power, after holding a horse race and bathing in the bath of Zeuxippus after the race, he made some of the senate his table-companions, or as some say, those who had won in the horse contest. Therefore, while reclining at the banquet, he was seized by some of the senate and was blinded. And these things were done on the Saturday of Pentecost. And on the next day, that is, on Pentecost itself, both the members of the senatorial council and the common multitude gathered and appointed Artemius the protoasekretis as emperor, renaming him Anastasius. 245 This emperor was both conversant in all kinds of learning and most experienced in the administration of affairs. He, having deposed Patriarch John from the archepiscopal throne as not being orthodox after he had held the church for three years, transferred Germanus from Cyzicus to the holy see of the queen of cities, whom the account somewhere above recorded as having been deprived of his genital organs by Constantine Pogonatus. And having learned that ships had put in from Alexandria to Phoenicia, in order to get shipbuilding timber from there, he prepared a fleet and sent it against them, having ordered the fleets of the themes also to put in at the island of Rhodes and to be united there and thus to sail out against the enemy, appointing as commander of the whole fleet John, a deacon of the great church of God and general logothete. When all had therefore gathered at Rhodes, the deacon John prepared to sail out, but the men of the fleet, and especially those of the Opsikion theme, were not 246 obedient; for they were not well-disposed toward the emperor, since he had not treated the naval force skillfully. And as the deacon acted more authoritatively in the face of their disobedience and dealt with them more harshly, he provoked them to rebellion, and after reviling the emperor, they killed him immediately. And ceasing to go forward, some went away home, while others set out for Byzantium; and having arrived at Adramyttium, a certain Theodosius, a collector of public revenues, a private citizen

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οἰκείαις εὐθὺς ὁ Ἡλίας ἀφεῖλε τὴν αὐτοῦ κεφαλήν. ὁ δὲ τούτου παῖς ὁ Τιβέριος μετὰ τῆς πρὸς μητρὸς μάμμης Ἀναστασίας (ἡ γὰρ μήτηρ αὐτοῦ Θεοδώρα ἔφθη θανεῖν) τῷ ἐν Βλαχέρναις ναῷ προσφυγὼν εἰσέδυ τὸ θεῖον θυσιαστήριον καὶ ὑπὸ τὴν παναγῆ γενόμενος τράπεζαν, ἑνὸς τῶν ταύτην ἀνεχόντων στυλίσκων δεδραγμένος ἱκέτευε μὴ θανεῖν. ἀλλ' οἱ σταλέντες εἰς ζήτησιν αὐτοῦ ἐξελκύσαντες τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου τὸν παῖδα μαχαίρᾳ τούτου τὸν λαιμὸν ὡς βοσκήματος ἀπέτεμον ἀπηνῶς. Ἤδη δὲ τῆς βασιλείας τυχὼν ὁ Φιλιππικὸς κατὰ τῆς ἕκτης οἰκουμενικῆς συνόδου ὡπλίσατο, καὶ σύνοδον ἀθροίσας 243 ὁ μάταιος ἠκύρωσεν ὅσον τὸ κατ' αὐτὸν δι' αὐτῆς τὴν ἁγίαν ἐκείνην σύνοδον. λέγεται γὰρ ἄρτι τοῦ Λεοντίου τῶν σκήπτρων ἐπειλημμένου χρησμοδοτῆσαι τούτῳ δὴ τῷ Φιλιππικῷ τὴν εἰς τὸν βασίλειον θρόνον ἀναγωγὴν μοναχόν τινα ἔγκλειστον ὄντα ἐν τῇ τοῦ Καλλιστράτου μονῇ καὶ τῆς προρρήσεως αἰτῆσαι μισθὸν τὴν τῆς ἕκτης συνόδου ἀθέτησιν (ἦν γὰρ τῆς τῶν Μονοθελητῶν ὁ μοναχὸς ἐκεῖνος αἱρέσεως), καὶ τὸν ὑποσχέσθαι. τὴν μὲν οὖν οἰκουμενικὴν ἕκτην σύνοδον ἠκύρωσεν, ὡς ἐδόκει. αὐτὸς δὲ σωροὺς χρημάτων ἐκ παλαιοτέρων θησαυρισθέντας αὐτοκρατόρων ἐν τοῖς βασιλείοις εὑρὼν εἰς οὐδὲν δέον τούτοις χρησάμενος τὰ πλείω διεσκόρπισε διὰ βραχέος καιροῦ· καὶ τάχα καὶ ἅπαντα κατηνάλωσεν ἄν, εἰ ἐπὶ πλέον τῇ βασιλείᾳ προσέμεινεν. ἐν μὲν γὰρ τῷ λέγειν ἐδόκει ῥητορικώτατος μὴ ἀμοιρῶν τε συνέσεως, ἐν δὲ τῷ πράττειν ἦν ξυμπάντων ἀσυν244 ετώτερος καὶ πάμπαν ἀδέξιος. Κῦρον δὲ τὸν πατριάρχην ἐξωθήσας τῆς ἐκκλησίας, ἐπὶ ἓξ ἔτη ἐν ταύτῃ διαγαγόντα, Ἰωάννην ὁμόδοξον ἑαυτῷ προεβάλετο. οἱ μέντοι Βούλγαροι τὴν Θρᾴκην ἅπασαν ληισάμενοι μέχρι τῆς πόλεως κατέδραμον ἅπαντα, καὶ λείαν πολλὴν καὶ αἰχμαλώτους λαβόντες σχεδὸν ὑπὲρ ἀριθμὸν ὑπενόστησαν. ἀλλὰ μὴν καὶ τὰ πρὸς ἀνίσχοντα ἥλιον ὁμοίως οἱ τῆς Ἄγαρ διέθεντο. ∆ύο δὲ παρελθόντων ἐνιαυτῶν καὶ μηνῶν τινων, ἐξότου τῆς βασιλείας ἐκράτησεν, ἱππήλατον ἐπιτελέσας ἀγῶνα καὶ ἐν τῷ τοῦ Ζευξίππου μετὰ τὸν ἀγῶνα λουσάμενος λοετρῷ, συσσίτους τινὰς τῶν τῆς συγκλήτου πεποίητο, ὡς δ' ἔνιοι λέγουσι, τοὺς ἐν τῇ τῶν ἵππων ἁμίλλῃ νικήσαντας. κατακείμενος οὖν ἐν τῷ συμποσίῳ παρά τινων τῶν τῆς γερουσίας κατασχεθεὶς τυφλοῦται. ταῦτα δ' ἐπράχθη κατὰ τὸ σάββατον τῆς πεντηκοστῆς. τῇ δ' ἑξῆς κατ' αὐτὴν δηλαδὴ τὴν πεντηκοστὴν ἀθροισθέντες οἵ τε τῆς συγκλήτου βουλῆς καὶ ὁ δημώδης ὄχλος Ἀρτέμιον τὸν πρωτοασηκρῆτις προχειρίζονται αὐτοκράτορα, μετονομάσαντες Ἀναστάσιον. 245 Ἦν δὲ οὗτος ὁ βασιλεὺς καὶ λόγοις παντοίοις ὡμιληκὼς καὶ πραγμάτων διοικήσεσιν ἐντριβέστατος. οὗτος τὸν πατριάρχην Ἰωάννην τοῦ ἀρχιερατικοῦ κατασπάσας θρόνου ὡς μὴ ὀρθόδοξον ἔτη τρία τῆς ἐκκλησίας κρατήσαντα, μετατίθησιν ἐκ Κυζίκου ἐπὶ τὴν ἱερὰν καθέδραν τῆς βασιλίδος τῶν πόλεων Γερμανόν, ὃν ἄνωθί που ὁ λόγος ἱστόρησε παρὰ Κωνσταντίνου τοῦ Πωγωνάτου τῶν παιδογόνων ἀφαιρεθῆναι μορίων. μαθὼν δὲ ὅτι ἐξ Ἀλεξανδρείας ἐπὶ Φοινίκην πλοῖα προσώρμισαν, ἵνα ξύλα ἐκεῖθεν κομίσωνται ναυπηγήσιμα, στόλον ἑτοιμάσας ἀπέστειλε κατ' αὐτῶν, κελεύσας καὶ τοὺς τῶν θεμάτων στόλους εἰς τὴν νῆσον κατᾶραι Ῥόδον κἀκεῖ ἑνωθῆναι καὶ οὕτως ἐκπλεῦσαι κατὰ τῶν ἐναντίων, προβαλόμενος ἄρχοντα τοῦ στόλου παντὸς Ἰωάννην τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ μεγάλης ἐκκλησίας διάκονον καὶ γενικὸν λογοθέτην. πάντων οὖν εἰς τὴν Ῥόδον συναθροισθέντων ὁ διάκονος Ἰωάννης πρὸς ἔκπλουν ἡτοίμαστο, οἱ δὲ τοῦ στόλου, καὶ μᾶλλον οἱ τοῦ θέματος τοῦ Ὀψικίου, οὐκ 246 ἦσαν πειθήνιοι· οὐ γὰρ καλῶς πρὸς τὸν κρατοῦντα διέκειντο, ἐπεὶ μηδ' ἐκεῖνος τῇ πλευστικῇ στρατιᾷ κεχρημένος ἦν δεξιῶς. ὡς δὲ πρὸς τὴν ἐκείνων ἀπείθειαν ὁ διάκονος ἀρχικώτερον διετέθη καὶ δριμύτερον αὐτοῖς προσεφέρετο, εἰς στάσιν τούτους ἠρέθισε καὶ τὸν βασιλέα δυσφημήσαντες αὐτὸν ἀνεῖλον εὐθύς. καὶ πρόσω χωρεῖν ἀφέμενοι οἱ μὲν ἀπῄεσαν οἴκαδε, οἱ δὲ πρὸς τὸ Βυζάντιον ὥρμησαν· καὶ ἐν τῷ Ἀτραμυτίῳ γενόμενοι Θεοδόσιόν τινα πράκτορα τῶν δημοσίων τελῶν, ἰδιώτην