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And the relatives of the slain were wailing; but the loss of the ruler brought relief to the disaster. So Nikephoros, having been most wicked, perished most shamefully. But Staurakios, having been wounded, fled to Adrianople and was saved, where he was also proclaimed emperor through the efforts of some of the magistrates, and being in a bad way from his wound, he entered the great city. But he plotted against the kouropalates Michael, whose surname was Rhangabe, his brother-in-law by his sister Pro312 kopia, wishing to leave the empire to his own wife. But the members of the senate council, learning of Staurakios’s plan and gathering those who were left from the tagmata, proclaimed the kouropalates Michael emperor at dawn, while it was still night; and immediately Staurakios, having had his hair tonsured, put on a monastic habit. And Michael, arriving at the great church during the day, was bound with the imperial diadem by the patriarch Nikephoros, after a written promise was first demanded from him not to alter any of the church’s statutes nor to be stained with the blood of Christians. And after some days he both proclaimed and crowned his life’s partner, Prokopia, as Augusta. And being pious and liberal in mind, he comforted those who had been wronged by Nikephoros and the wives of the soldiers who had fallen in the war with distributions 313 of money. And he gave many funds to Staurakios’s wife Theophano, who had her hair shorn and had put on a black robe, and he assigned a house to her for a residence, which he converted into a lodging for nuns, where Staurakios was also buried, having died from the wound which the account has described, having reigned as sole ruler for only two months and six days. This monastery has been called after him, named of Staurakios, but with the name being barbarized by the vulgar mob it is called ta Braka, and by some who were ignorant of the true name, but supposedly changing it to something more Hellenic, it is named ta Hebraika. And finding imprisoned those who had been abbots of the monastery of Stoudios, I mean Plato and Theodore, and indeed also his brother Joseph, the archbishop of Thessaloniki, and the most eminent of the monks of the said monastery, because they were not in communion, as has been related, with the patriarch and the church, he hastened to unite 314 them, and indeed he did unite them. And this emperor deemed his son Theophylaktos worthy of the imperial title and placed a diadem on him through the patriarch. Then, having marched out against a contingent of Bulgarians who were plundering Thrace, when some of the tagmata mutinied against him, so as even to resort to open insults, he calmed them with gentle words and lavish gifts and returned to the palace. And when many sought to renew the madness against the holy icons, he arrested some and tortured them somewhat moderately, and through them he terrified the rest and made them stop. And finding a certain monk, who was perhaps putting on a show of piety, scraping an icon of the Mother of God, he cut out his tongue. And when the Agarenes were again plundering the east, the general of the Anatolics, Leo the Armenian, engaged them and killed about two thousand, and took a great number of horses and weapons from them as plunder. And Krum, the ruler of the Bulgarians, sent an embassy to the emperor, seeking peace on the terms 315 of the treaty made under Theodosios of Adramyttion and patriarch Germanos. And if the emperor would not accept peace on these terms, he threatened to march against Mesembria, and that the one not choosing peace would be the cause of the destruction of the Christian people. But on the advice of those around him, the emperor did not accept the truce on those terms, and Krum marched against Mesembria, bringing city-takers with him. For a certain Arab, an engineer and skilled in these matters, had once come to Nikephoros and been perfected by divine baptism, but not having received any significant provision

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καὶ ὠλόλυζον οἱ τοῖς ἀνῃρημένοις προσήκοντες· κουφισμὸν δ' ἐποίει τῆς συμφορᾶς ἡ τοῦ κρατοῦντος ἀπώλεια. Ὁ μὲν οὖν Νικηφόρος κάκιστος γεγονὼς ἀπώλετο αἴσχιστα. ὁ δέ γε Σταυράκιος πεπληγμένος φυγὼν εἰς Ἀδριανούπολιν διασώζεται, ἔνθα καὶ αὐτοκράτωρ ἀνερρήθη τῶν ἐν ἀρχαῖς ἐνίων σπουδῇ, καὶ κακῶς ἐκ τοῦ τραύματος διακείμενος εἰς τὴν μεγαλόπολιν εἰσελήλυθεν. ἐπεβούλευε δὲ τῷ κουροπαλάτῃ Μιχαήλ, ᾧ Ῥαγγαβὲ τὸ ἐπώνυμον, γαμβρῷ αὐτοῦ ὄντι ἐπὶ Προ312 κοπίᾳ τῇ ἀδελφῇ, βουλόμενος τὴν βασιλείαν τῇ ἑαυτοῦ συμβίῳ καταλιπεῖν. γνόντες δὲ τὴν τοῦ Σταυρακίου μελέτην οἱ τῆς συγκλήτου βουλῆς καὶ τοὺς περιλειφθέντας ἐκ τῶν ταγμάτων ἀθροίσαντες, κατ' ὄρθρον ἤδη τῆς νυκτὸς οὔσης ἀναγορεύουσι τὸν κουροπαλάτην Μιχαὴλ αὐτοκράτορα· καὶ αὐτίκα τὴν κόμην κειράμενος ὁ Σταυράκιος περιβολὴν ἑαυτῷ μοναχικὴν περιέθετο. Ὁ δὲ Μιχαὴλ μεθ' ἡμέραν εἰς τὴν μεγάλην ἐκκλησίαν παραγενόμενος ὑπὸ τοῦ πατριάρχου Νικηφόρου τεταινίωται βασιλικῷ διαδήματι, ἀπαιτηθεὶς παρ' αὐτοῦ πρότερον ἔγγραφον ἐπαγγελίαν τοῦ μή τι παρακινῆσαι τῶν τῆς ἐκκλησίας θεσμῶν μηδ' ἐν αἵμασι χρανθῆναι χριστιανῶν. μετὰ δέ τινας ἡμέρας καὶ τὴν τοῦ βίου κοινωνὸν Προκοπίαν Αὐγούσταν ἀνηγόρευσέ τε καὶ ἔστεψεν. εὐσεβὴς δὲ τυγχάνων τὴν γνώμην τε ἐλευθέριος τούς τε πρὸς τοῦ Νικηφόρου ἠδικημένους καὶ τὰς συζύγους τῶν ἐν τῷ πολέμῳ πεσόντων στρατιωτῶν παρεμυθήσατο 313 χρημάτων διανομαῖς. καὶ τὴν γαμετὴν δὲ Σταυρακίου Θεοφανὼ καρεῖσαν τὴν κόμην καὶ μέλαιναν ἐνδυσαμένην στολὴν χρήμασι πολλοῖς ἐδωρήσατο καὶ οἶκον εἰς κατοικίαν αὐτῇ προσαπένειμεν, ὃν εἰς μοναζουσῶν μετεποίησε καταγώγιον, ἔνθα καὶ ὁ Σταυράκιος τέθαπται, θανὼν ἐκ τῆς πληγῆς ἣν ὁ λόγος ἐδήλωσε, δύο μῆνας μόνους αὐταρχήσας ἐπὶ ἡμέραις ἕξ. ἥτις μονὴ ἐξ ἐκείνου ἐκλήθη τοῦ Σταυρακίου ὠνομασμένη, βαρβαριζομένου δὲ τοῦ ὀνόματος παρὰ τοῦ συρφετώδους ὄχλου λέγεται τὰ Βρακά, παρά τινων δὲ τὴν ἀληθῆ κλῆσιν ἀγνοησάντων, μεταγόντων δὲ δῆθεν ταύτην πρὸς τὸ ἑλληνικώτερον, ὀνομάζεται τὰ Ἐβραϊκά. καθειργμένους δ' εὑρὼν τοὺς τῆς μονῆς τοῦ Στουδίου ἡγουμενεύσαντας, τὸν Πλάτωνα λέγω καὶ τὸν Θεόδωρον, ἀλλὰ μὴν καὶ τὸν τούτου ὁμαίμονα Ἰωσὴφ τὸν τῆς Θεσσαλονίκης ἀρχιεπίσκοπον καὶ τῶν τῆς εἰρημένης μονῆς μοναχῶν τοὺς λογιμωτέρους, ὡς μὴ κοινωνοῦντας, καθώσπερ ἱστόρηται, τῷ πατριάρχῃ καὶ τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ, ἔσπευσεν ἑνῶσαι αὐ314 τοὺς καὶ μέντοι καὶ ἥνωσε. καὶ τὸν υἱὸν δὲ Θεοφύλακτον ὁ βασιλεὺς οὗτος τῆς βασιλικῆς ἠξίωσε κλήσεως καί οἱ διὰ τοῦ πατριάρχου διάδημα περιέθετο. εἶτα κατὰ Βουλγάρων ληιζομένων τὴν Θρᾳκῴαν μοῖραν ἐκστρατεύσας, στασιάσαντα κατ' αὐτοῦ τῶν ταγμάτων τινά, ὡς καὶ εἰς ὕβρεις χωρῆσαι κατὰ τὸ προφανές, λόγοις μειλιχίοις καὶ δώροις φιλοτίμοις κατηύνασε καὶ εἰς τὰ βασίλεια ἐπανέζευξεν. ἀνακαινίσαι δὲ ζητούντων πολλῶν τὴν κατὰ τῶν σεπτῶν εἰκόνων μανίαν, τινὰς συλλαβὼν καὶ μετρίως πως αἰκισάμενος, δι' αὐτῶν καὶ τοὺς λοιποὺς κατεπτόησε καὶ παύσασθαι παρεσκεύασε. μοναχὸν δέ τινα εὐλαβείας τάχα σκηνὴν ἐνδεικνύμενον εὑρηκὼς εἰκόνα τῆς θεομήτορος ἀποξέσαντα, τῆς γλώσσης ἀφείλετο. Τῶν Ἀγαρηνῶν δὲ τὴν ἑῴαν αὖθις ληιζομένων, ὁ τῶν ἀνατολικῶν στρατηγὸς ὁ Ἀρμένιος Λέων τούτοις συμβαλὼν ἀνεῖλέ τε περὶ δισχιλίους καὶ ἵππους καὶ ὅπλα εἰς πλῆθος ἐξ αὐτῶν ἐλαφυραγώγησε. Κροῦμος δὲ ὁ τῶν Βουλγάρων ἄρχων διεπρεσβεύσατο πρὸς τὸν βασιλέα, εἰρήνην ζητῶν ἐπὶ συνθήκαις 315 ταῖς ἐπὶ Θεοδοσίου τοῦ Ἀτραμυτηνοῦ καὶ Γερμανοῦ πατριάρχου. καὶ εἰ μὴ οὕτω τὴν εἰρήνην ὁ αὐτοκράτωρ αἱρήσεται, ἠπείλει κατὰ Μεσημβρίας χωρῆσαι, καὶ τοῦ τῶν χριστωνύμων ὀλέθρου αἴτιον εἶναι τὸν μὴ τὴν εἰρήνην αἱρούμενον. ἀλλὰ συμβουλῇ τῶν περὶ αὐτὸν τὰς σπονδὰς ἐπὶ ταῖς συνθήκαις ἐκείναις ὁ βασιλεὺς οὐ προσήκατο, καὶ ὁ Κροῦμος κατὰ Μεσημβρίας ἐχώρησεν, ἑλεπόλεις ἐπαγόμενος. Ἄραψ γάρ τις μηχανικὸς καὶ περὶ ταύτας δεξιὸς προσῆλθε τῷ Νικηφόρῳ ποτὲ καὶ τῷ θείῳ βαπτίσματι τελεσθείς, μὴ τυχὼν δὲ προνοίας ἀξιολόγου