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

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 thing with heavy-roaring waves, move the old man, even though unwilling, into battle, and the one nearly entombed into opposing battle lines. [But others again say that the better men of the Romans, the chief of the priests, the chosen men of the senate, summoned him to offer him the crown. For he was a man of strategy and capable of steering the sacred and saving ship of the kingdom, a quick-witted man, skillful in deeds and in battles, and inferior to none of the former emperors. Therefore Comnenus enters the queen city.] Thence a civil war, and right hands of Romans sharpening spear points and lances against Romans and being defiled with kindred slaughter; and a sickle flew, dividing kinsmen and setting them against each other as if in the darkness of the moon, and making children of the same father rage against one another. At any rate, Comnenus becomes superior in the battle, and Michael is removed from power, even unwillingly, having held the scepter for the period of one year. And reaching the first city with wingless speed, and putting on the crown of absolute sovereigns, he took up the affairs of the state on his own terms, and he dealt with all according to his majesty, both those near and those far and those in power. And the brine-drinker, base flattery, and its nauseating effects he hated from his soul. And for this reason he seemed rather burdensome to the majority, bearing more arrogance than was fitting. However, having enjoyed the rule not for many days, but, as the saying goes, having blossomed like field-grass, and after a little while having withered from wasting diseases,- for having enjoyed the power for two years, he adorns Doukas with the symbols of power, as one who opened many treasuries for him and assisted him against the former tyranny, but he himself, having chosen the rugged path of the life according to God, put on dark-colored tunics, and having spent himself in long-suffering works, he ends his life at a much-emulated end; wherefore he also found the life which indeed he had longed for. But Doukas, having received the reins of power, drove the golden four-horse chariot unevenly, and using leisurely, slow-paced steps, neither again giving in completely and running recklessly, but rather reining in the boil of rashness, as it were, and avoiding driving unforeseen over cliffs and evading the dangers of the chariot-wheels. And having supported his house on seven children, as on seven columns firmly fixed, and being about to depart from life and the things of life, he had a turmoil of vast care in his heart and was borne on a surge of successive worries. He loved the empress, he wished her to remain both guardian of the children and sharer of the rule, but he suspected the tenderness of her age; for she was swelling with the ardors and spasms of the flesh. He suspected that she might recline on a second marriage bed, that she might again become a mother of children of another stock, and that from this his own offspring would wither away, while the power would pass to the step-children. Tossed by such squalls of thoughts, he tried to remove the empress from there and to leave the power free for his children, appointing other administrators for them as infants. But what is to be seems to overcome all things, to boast over reasonings, to conquer hearts. And so the empress, perceiving these things and learning the whole plan of her spouse, binds herself with dreadful oaths as with chains to no longer set up the bridal chamber of a second marriage, to no longer know other marriage chambers, but to preserve the power for his children. Doukas, therefore, was brought under the laws of nature and was unburdened of his mortal and earth-born weight, having reigned over the Romans for seven years; but Eudocia became a fellow-sailor with her children, serving as captain of the fair-prowed ship.

79

Κομνηνῷ τοῦ κράτους. ἀλλ' οἱ τὸ σκάφος τῆς ἀρχῆς ἰθύνειν κληρωθέντες, μὴ σώζειν τοῦτο θέλοντες ἀλλὰ καὶ καταδύειν καὶ κλύζειν τὸν ταλάντατον κύμασι βαρυβρόμοις, εἰς μάχην καὶ μὴ θέλοντα τὸν γέροντα κινοῦσι καὶ τὸν μικροῦ τυμβόχωστον εἰς ἀντιπαρατάξεις. [ἕτεροι δ' αὖθις λέγουσιν ὡς οἱ Ῥωμαίων κρείττους, ἀρχιθυτῶν οἱ προύχοντες, λογάδες τῆς συγκλήτου, αὐτὸν μετεκαλέσαντο παρέξοντες τὸ στέφος. ἦν γὰρ ἀνὴρ στρατηγικὸς καὶ κυβερνᾶν ἰσχύων τὴν ἱερὰν καὶ σωστικὴν τῆς βασιλείας σκάφην, ἀνὴρ ἀγχίνους, δεξιὸς πρὸς ἔργα καὶ πρὸς μάχας, καὶ μηδενὸς λειπόμενος τῶν πρώην βασιλέων. εἴσεισιν οὖν ὁ Κομνηνὸς τὴν βασιλίδα πόλιν.] ἐντεῦθεν μάχη σύμφυλος, καὶ δεξιαὶ Ῥωμαίων κατὰ Ῥωμαίων τὰς αἰχμὰς θήγουσαι καὶ τὰς λόγχας καὶ καταπαλασσόμεναι φόνοις τοῖς ὁμογνίοις· καὶ δρέπανον ἐπέτετο διχάζον ὁμοφύλους καὶ κατ' ἀλλήλων συγκινοῦν ὥσπερ ἐν σκοτομήνῃ καὶ παῖδας ταυτοπάτορας ἀλλήλοις ἀγριαῖνον. γίνεται γοῦν ὑπέρτερος ὁ Κομνηνὸς τῇ μάχῃ, καὶ Μιχαὴλ καθίσταται τοῦ κράτους καὶ μὴ θέλων, ἐνιαυτοῦ περίμετρον ἑνὸς σκηπτροκρατήσας. καὶ πόλιν τὴν πρωτόπολιν φθάσας ἀπτέρῳ τάχει, καὶ στέφος περιθέμενος κρατόρων αὐτανάκτων ἐφήπτετο τῶν τῆς ἀρχῆς πραγμάτων αὐθεκάστως, καὶ πᾶσι προσεφέρετο κατὰ τὸ μεγαλεῖον, καὶ τοῖς ἀγχοῦ καὶ τοῖς μακρὰν καὶ τοῖς ἐν ἐξουσίαις. καὶ τὴν ἁλμοποτίστριαν, τὴν φαύλην κολακείαν, καὶ τοὺς αὐτῆς ναυτιασμοὺς ἀπὸ ψυχῆς ἐστύγει. κἀντεῦθεν φορτικώτερος τοῖς πλείοσιν ἐδόκει, καὶ πλείω τοῦ καθήκοντος φέρων ἀγερωχίαν. πλὴν ἀπολαύσας τῆς ἀρχῆς οὐκ ἐν μακροῖς ἡλίοις, ἀλλὰ τὸ δὴ λεγόμενον ὡς ἄγρωστις ἀνθήσας, καὶ μετ' ὀλίγον μαρανθεὶς ὑπὸ φθινάδων νόσων,- ἐπὶ δυσὶ γὰρ ἔτεσι τοῦ κράτους ἀπολαύσας τὸν ∆οῦκαν μὲν κατακοσμεῖ τοῦ κράτους τοῖς συμβόλοις ὡς ὑπανοίξαντα πολλὰς αὐτῷ χρηματοθήκας καὶ συναντιλαβόμενον τῆς πρώην τυραννίδος, αὐτὸς δὲ τὸ τραχύβιον τοῦ κατὰ θεὸν βίου ἑλόμενος ἀμφέθετο χιτῶνας μελαγχρόους, καὶ δαπανήσας ἑαυτὸν ἔργοις μακροκαμάτοις πολυζηλώτῳ τέρματι τὸν βίον καταλύει· διὸ καὶ εὕρηκε ζωὴν ἥνπερ καὶ ἐπεπόθει. Ὁ ∆οῦκας δὲ παραλαβὼν τοῦ κράτους τὰς ἡνίας τὸ τέτρωρον τὸ χρύσεον ἴθυνεν ἀγχωμάλως, καὶ χρώμενος βηματισμοῖς σχολαίοις βραδυπόροις, μήτ' αὖθις ἅπαν ἐνδιδοὺς καὶ παραβόλως θέων, ἀλλὰ καὶ θράσους τὸν βρασμὸν ὥσπερ ἀνασειράζων καὶ φεύγων τὸ κατὰ κρημνῶν ἐλαύνειν ἀπροόπτως καὶ τοὺς τῶν ἁμαξοτροχῶν κινδύνους ὑπεκκλίνων. ἐν ἑπταρίθμοις δὲ παισὶ τὸν οἶκον ὑπερείσας ὥσπερ ἐν κίοσιν ἑπτὰ παγίως ἀραρόσι, καὶ μέλλων ἀπανίστασθαι τοῦ βίου καὶ τῶν βίου, κλόνον ἀπειρομέριμνον εἶχε κατὰ καρδίας καὶ κλύδωσιν ἐφέρετο φροντίδων ἐπαλλήλων. ἔστεργε τὴν βασίλισσαν, ἤθελε ταύτην μένειν τῶν παίδων τε φροντίστριαν καὶ τῆς ἀρχῆς μερῖτιν, ὑπώπτευε τὸ τρυφερὸν πάλιν τῆς ἡλικίας· τοῖς γὰρ βρασμοῖς καὶ σφαδασμοῖς τοῖς τῆς σαρκὸς ἐσφρίγα. ὑπώπτευε μὴ δεύτερον πρὸς λέχος ἀνακλίνῃ, μὴ πάλιν μήτηρ γένηται παίδων ἀλλοβλαστήτων, κἀντεῦθεν οἱ μὲν ἐξ αὐτοῦ φυέντες μαρανθεῖεν, πρὸς δὲ τοὺς ἑτεροθαλεῖς τὸ κράτος μεταβαίη. τοιαύταις κυματούμενος τῶν λογισμῶν ταῖς ζάλαις μετάγειν τὴν βασίλισσαν ἐκεῖθεν ἐπειρᾶτο καὶ τοῖς παισὶ καταλιπεῖν ἐλεύθερον τὸ κράτος, ἄλλους αὐτοῖς διοικητὰς θέμενος ὡς νηπίοις. ἀλλὰ τὸ μέλλον ἔοικε πάντων ὑπερισχύειν, κατακαυχᾶσθαι λογισμῶν, ὑπερνικᾶν καρδίας. καὶ τοίνυν ἡ βασίλισσα τούτων ἐπαισθομένη καὶ πᾶν τὸ διαβούλιον μαθοῦσα τοῦ συλλέκτρου ὅρκοις αὑτὴν φρικώδεσιν οἷα δεσμοῖς συσσφίγγει μηκέτι παστοπήγια στῆσαι δευτέρου γάμου, ἄλλους μηκέτι γνώσεσθαι θαλάμους γαμηλίους, ἀλλὰ τοῖς τέκνοις τοῖς αὐτοῦ τὸ κράτος συντηρῆσαι. Ὁ μὲν οὖν ∆οῦκας τοῖς θεσμοῖς τοῖς φυσικοῖς ὑπήχθη καὶ τὸ θνητὸν καὶ γηγενὲς ἀπεφορτίσθη βάρος ἐν ἑπταρίθμοις ἔτεσι Ῥωμαίων βασιλεύσας· ἡ δ' Εὐδοκία σύμπλοος ἐγίνετο τοῖς τέκνοις ναυβάτις χρηματίζουσα τοῦ καλλιπρώρου σκάφους.

79