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He did away with, but the patrician Bardanes, general of the Anatolics, whose surname was Tourkos, who had been proclaimed emperor by the eastern regiments, whether willingly or unwillingly (for both are said), and who then repent304ed and had received from him pledges of immunity, and had become a monk and crossed over to the island called Proti, where he had built a monastery, he, sending some men in secret, so that the deed might seem to have been done without his knowledge, deprived of his sight, and he pretended to be grieved and swore that he had no part in such a daring act. And he took in Constantine, the son of Irene, and treated him with deference, so that he might show him hidden treasures. And that one showed him many things immured in a wall. But the emperor Nikephoros, realizing that everyone was vexed with him and fearing that they might take Irene, who was again nearby, and restore her to the throne, placed her in exile on Lesbos and set guards over her, where, consumed by grief, she ended her life. And Nikephoros also crowned his son Staurakios, who was very ugly and simple, and had neither the appearance, nor the nobility, nor the intelligence worthy of imperial power. 305 When, however, the patriarch Tarasios had departed this life during the first week of the fast, Nikephoros of famous memory, who was an asecretis, was ordained patriarch by common vote on Easter Sunday, with Platon and Theodoros, who had become hegumenos of the Stoudios monastery, raising sedition because of the ordination of that blessed man, because he had been advanced suddenly from the laity to the episcopate, although this had often been done. The emperor planned to expel them from the city, but he did not carry his plan into effect. But there are those who say that their sedition on the grounds that the holy Nikephoros had become patriarch from the laity was a pretext, and that the true cause was love of power. For they wished to gain control of the church and they considered it of the utmost importance to ascend the patriarchal throne of Constantinople. And when the emperor wished his son Staurakios to take a wife, he unlawfully separated Theophano the Athenian, who was a kinswoman of the empress Irene and already betroth306ed to a man, from him and joined her to Staurakios. And this emperor, being a hotchpotch of all kinds of wickedness, did not cease devising one thing after another for the crushing of his subjects. But I shall mention a few things, omitting the many, so that these might be a taste from a full jar for those who read this history. He decreed that the poor from the themes should serve in the army, and that arms and expenses should be supplied to them by their fellow villagers, and that the taxes of the poor should be exacted from the well-to-do, which was named the allelengyon. He appointed inspectors, instructing them to increase the public revenues, and that two keratia on the nomisma should be demanded also for the chartiatikon. These men also took the better of the immovable properties from their owners and assigned them to the public treasury. His imposition of the kapnikon was also a most wicked invention, having been levied on the paroikoi of the churches and poor-houses and homes for the aged and monasteries, and on everyone 307 who had neither land nor tax obligation, and the practice of demanding money from those who had passed from poverty to wealth in whatever way, as if they were finders of treasures, and that of forcing the owners of ships, men who did not even know what agriculture is, to buy land from the public treasury; and this was done in the case of the ship-owners living in the themes. And to the owners of ships in Constantinople he lent twelve litrai of gold each, so that they might pay interest to the public treasury, over and above the other burdens laid upon the ships. And whomever of the merchants or heads of workshops he learned was very well off, he would send and take away their money, leaving them some small fraction, as he also did in the case of a certain seller of wax. For learning that that man was the master of much money, he summoned him and "Place your," he says, "hand on my head and swear

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ἀνεῖλε, τὸν δὲ πατρίκιον Βαρδάνην καὶ στρατηγὸν τῶν ἀνατολικῶν, ᾧ Τοῦρκος ἦν ἐπίκλησις, ἀναγορευθέντα εἰς βασιλέα παρὰ τῶν ἑῴων ταγμάτων εἴτε θέλοντα εἴτε ἄκοντα (λέγεται γὰρ ἀμφότερα), εἶτα μεταμελη304 θέντα καὶ πίστεις ἀπαθείας παρ' αὐτοῦ εἰληφότα μοναχόν τε γενόμενον καὶ εἰς τὴν νῆσον τὴν λεγομένην Πρώτην διαπεραιωθέντα, ὅπου ἦν δειμάμενος μοναστήριον, στείλας κρυφίως τινάς, ὡς δοκεῖν ἀγνοοῦντος αὐτοῦ πεπρᾶχθαι τὸ ἔργον, ἐστέρησε τοῦ φωτὸς καὶ λυπεῖσθαι ἐσχηματίζετο καὶ ἐξώμνυτο ἀμέθεκτος εἶναι τοῦ τοιούτου τολμήματος. τὸν δὲ τῆς Εἰρήνης υἱὸν τὸν Κωνσταντῖνον προσελάβετο καὶ ὑπεποιεῖτο, ἵν' αὐτῷ ὑποδείξῃ κρυπτόμενα χρήματα. κἀκεῖνος ὑπέδειξεν ἐν τοίχῳ συνεκτισμένα πολλά. συνεὶς δὲ ὁ βασιλεὺς Νικηφόρος ἀχθομένους αὐτῷ ἅπαντας καὶ δείσας μὴ τὴν Εἰρήνην αὖθις ἐγγὺς οὖσαν λαβόντες εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν ἐπαναγάγωσιν, εἰς Λέσβον αὐτὴν ὑπερόριον ἔθετο καὶ φρουροὺς ἐπιστήσας αὐτῇ, ἔνθα τῇ λύπῃ καταποθεῖσα τὴν ζωὴν ἐξεμέτρησεν. ἔστεψε δὲ καὶ τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ Σταυράκιον ὁ Νικηφόρος, εἰδεχθῆ τε λίαν ὄντα καὶ ἀφελῆ καὶ μήτε εἶδος μήτε μὴν γενναιότητα μήτε σύνεσιν ἔχοντα τυραννίδος ἐπάξια. 305 Τοῦ μέντοι πατριάρχου Ταρασίου τὸν βίον μετηλλαχότος κατὰ τὴν πρώτην ἑβδομάδα τῶν νηστειῶν, Νικηφόρος ὁ ἀοίδιμος ψήφῳ κοινῇ κατὰ τὴν τοῦ πάσχα κυριακὴν πατριάρχης κεχειροτόνητο, ἀσηκρῆτις τυγχάνων, Πλάτωνος καὶ Θεοδώρου τοῦ γεγονότος ἡγουμένου τῆς τοῦ Στουδίου μονῆς στασιασάντων διὰ τὴν τοῦ μάκαρος ἐκείνου χειροτονίαν, ὅτι ἀθρόως ἐκ λαϊκῶν εἰς τὴν ἐπισκοπὴν προκεχείριστο, καίτοι τούτου πολλάκις πραχθέντος. οὓς καὶ ἀπελάσαι τῆς πόλεως ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐβουλεύσατο, οὐ μὴν καὶ εἰς ἔργον τὸ βούλευμα ἤνεγκεν. εἰσὶ δ' οἳ λέγουσι σκῆψιν εἶναι τὸ στασιάσαι αὐτοὺς διὰ τὸ ἐκ λαϊκῶν γενέσθαι πατριάρχην τὸν ἱερὸν Νικηφόρον, τὸ δ' ἀληθὲς αἴτιον φιλαρχίαν εἶναι. ἠβούλοντο γὰρ τῆς ἐκκλησίας ἐγκρατεῖς γενέσθαι καὶ τοῦ ἀρχιερατικοῦ τῆς Κωνσταντινουπόλεως ἐπιβῆναι θρόνου περὶ πλείστου πεποίηντο. τῷ δὲ υἱῷ αὐτοῦ Σταυρακίῳ ἀγαγέσθαι γυναῖκα ὁ βασιλεὺς βουληθεὶς Θεοφανὼ τὴν Ἀθηναίαν, προσγενῆ τῆς βασιλίσσης Εἰρήνης οὖσαν καὶ ἤδη κατηγ306 γυημένην ἀνδρί, διαζεύξας αὐτοῦ ἀθέσμως τῷ Σταυρακίῳ συνέζευξε. Πανσπερμία δὲ παντοδαπῆς κακίας οὗτος τυγχάνων ὁ αὐτοκράτωρ οὐ διέλιπεν ἄλλα ἐπ' ἄλλοις εἰς συντριβὴν τῶν ὑπηκόων ἐπινοούμενος. ὀλίγων δ' ἐπιμνησθήσομαι, τὰ πολλὰ παρεῶν, ἵν' ὡς ἐκ πλήρους πίθου γεῦμα ταῦτα τοῖς τῇ ἱστορίᾳ ἐντυγχάνουσιν ἔσοιντο. στρατεύεσθαι τοὺς ἀπόρους ἐκ τῶν θεμάτων ἐθέσπισε καὶ παρὰ τῶν ὁμοχώρων ὅπλα τε αὐτοῖς χορηγεῖσθαι καὶ ἀναλώματα καὶ τὰ τῶν ἀπόρων τέλη τοὺς εὐποροῦντας εἰσπράττεσθαι, ὃ ἀλληλέγγυον ὠνομάσθη. ἐπόπτας προὐβάλλετο, ἐπισκήπτων ἐπαύξειν σφᾶς τὰ δημόσια, ἀπαιτεῖσθαι δὲ καὶ ὑπὲρ χαρτιατικοῦ ἐπὶ τῷ νομίσματι δύο κεράτια. οἳ καὶ τὰ κρείττω τῶν ἀκινήτων ἐκ τῶν δεσποτῶν ἀφαιρούμενοι τῷ δημοσίῳ ἀφώριζον. τούτου καὶ ἡ τοῦ καπνικοῦ ἐπίθεσις ἐννόημα κάκιστον, ἐπαχθέντος τοῖς τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν καὶ πτωχείων γηρωκομείων τε καὶ μοναστηρίων παροίκοις καὶ παντὶ 307 μήτε γῆν ἔχοντι μήτε τέλος, καὶ τὸ τοὺς ἐξ ἀπόρων ὅπως δήποτε εἰς εὐπορίαν μετενεχθέντας χρήματα ἀπαιτεῖσθαι, ὡς εὑρετὰς θησαυρῶν, καὶ τὸ τοὺς τῶν νηῶν κτήτορας ἀναγκάζεσθαι γῆν ὠνεῖσθαι ἀπὸ τοῦ δημοσίου, ἀνθρώπους οὐδ' ὅ,τι ἐστὶ γεωργία γινώσκοντας· καὶ τοῦτο ἐπὶ τῶν ἐν τοῖς θέμασιν οἰκούντων ναυκλήρων ἐγίνετο. τοῖς δ' ἐν Κωνσταντινουπόλει νηῶν κτήτορσι προσερρίπτει ἀνὰ δώδεκα λίτρας ἑκάστης χρυσίου, ἵνα τόκον καταβάλοι τῷ δημοσίῳ, τῶν ἄλλων βαρῶν τῶν τοῖς πλοίοις ἐπικειμένων ἐπέκεινα. καὶ οὓς δ' ἂν ἔμαθε τῶν ἐμπόρων ἢ ἐργαστηρίων προϊσταμένων πολλῶν εὐπορεῖν, στέλλων ἀφῃρεῖτο τὰ χρήματα, πολλοστόν τι μέρος ἐκείνοις ἐῶν, οἷον καὶ ἐπί τινι πράτῃ κηρίων εἰργάσατο. μαθὼν γὰρ τὸν ἄνδρα ἐκεῖνον κύριον εἶναι χρημάτων πολλῶν μεταπέμπεται αὐτὸν καὶ "ἐπίθες σου" φησί "τὴν χεῖρα τῇ κεφαλῇ μου καὶ ὄμοσον