Georgius Pachymeres, Chronicle II

having appeared, as it seemed, "if you love me, Peter, feed my lambs." for which reason he came immediately and confirmed that he would not leave from there, no matter what might happen. Then indeed some of the archbishops accepted him, but others were refractory, alleging no ordinary reasons for his unwillingness to agree with them on many points, but that he wished to remain, as it were, autonomous. But saying these things, they were concealing the matter concerning John of Ephesus most of all; for he was unwilling to agree with whatever they might do on his behalf. The emperor, therefore, wishing to maintain once again his respect for the patriarch, both made frequent visits to him and, summoning the archbishops, smoothed out the swelling of their opinion in various ways, by which he was able to care for the patriarch's position; he also promised that these things would be done in peace and that what was amiss would be corrected. And they, willy-nilly, partly due to the emperor's pressure and partly to the inexorability of the matter, submitted, 304 but they set a time to bring up again the matters that lay between them and seek a correction.

13. At this time Michael the despot, having lost his wife of many years (she was the emperor's sister), cast his eyes upon the now-widowed daughter of Terter, wife of the kral of Serbia, and, as both were willing, he married her, with the emperor permitting it, and the church also permitting it after the events had taken place. And having indeed married her, while still holding the rank of despot, he shared the dignity with his cohabiting former kralaina, by whom he had also fathered children. And he was clearly living with Terter's daughter as his legitimate wife.

14. And then a comet shone forth from the west, about which I also made mention in verse in my personal writings, writing thus. Now the autumnal equinox was approaching, and the sun held the lovely face of the Virgin. And then indeed a bright comet shone from Thrace, and it had its hair stretched out, leaning eastward, and in the evening it gleamed for so long as the night advanced, ever taking away more now than before, as much as it shone with its higher transits. 305 for it did not hold one place by fate among the fixed stars. But each night it had higher paths, until, always rising higher, it passed beyond the point where its outermost hairs first grew, gently fading with a smaller tail, and then it ceased. Concerning this, some declared one thing, others another, and spoke according to their knowledge, but most prophesied that its appearance meant a common evil; for there is no comet, they say, that is not evil by nature. But to me, adhering to the nature of the universe, and more so to what the philosopher from Stagira teaches, it occurred to speak about the moving cause and again the final cause and of what future events it portended, as many as had already happened and were about to happen. For from spring until then a drought, showing the plain to be dusty, encompassed our inhabited world, so that nothing that was accustomed to sprout in the summer had the strength to sprout, and all wells and all springs dried up. Then also there were dry and harsh storms; meadows for a whole month and premature ones have occurred. And the writer said these things, basing his thought on natural principles; but he was unaware, it seems, of what great evils that one was the beginning, not for this or that part of the regions that burst in from the east, but 306 that would seize our entire inhabited world from the attack of the Persians.

15. In the same year, in the present month of January, which those who interpret the poet from Ascra called Lenaeon according to the Athenians, not correctly, I think, even if we in our own epic verses have followed their interpretation (for the Athenians accurately call the Roman January Hecatombaeon), during this month, therefore, on the first foundation of the moon, an eclipse of it occurs, with the experts of the science having foretold it to the emperor. And we have written thus in our own works. And in the month Lenaeon the first foundation of the moon was set, which was at mid-month,

ἐπιστάντος, ὡς ἔδοξεν, "εἰ φιλεῖς με, Πέτρε, ποίμαινε τὰ ἀρνία μου." παρ' ἣν αἰτίαν καὶ ἐλθεῖν αὐθωρὶ καὶ βεβαιοῦν ἔτι μὴ ἂν ἐξελθεῖν ἐντεῦθεν, εἴ τι καὶ γένοιτο. τότε δὴ καὶ τῶν ἀρχιερέων οἱ μὲν ἐδέχοντο τοῦτον, οἱ δ' ἀφηνίαζον ἐπ' αἰτίαις ταῖς οὐ τυχούσαις τιθέντες τὸ μὴ συμφωνεῖν ἐπὶ πολλοῖς σφίσιν ἐθέλειν τοῦτον, ἀλλ' οἷον μένειν αὐτόνομον. ὑπεκρούοντο δὲ ταῦτα λέγοντες τὸ κατὰ τὸν Ἐφέσου Ἰωάννην τοῦ παντός γε μᾶλλον· μηδὲ γὰρ συμφωνεῖν ἐθέλειν, ὅ τι καὶ πράττοιεν, ὑπὲρ τούτου. βασιλεὺς τοίνυν τὸ πρὸς τὸν πατριάρ χην τιμητικὸν συντηρεῖν καὶ αὖθις ἐθέλων συχνάς τε προσόδους πρὸς αὐτὸν ἐποιεῖτο, καὶ τοὺς ἀρχιερέας μεταπεμπόμενος τὴν τῆς γνώμης σφῶν ἀνοίδησιν ἐξωμάλιζε πολυτρόπως, οἷς δὴ πολυω ρεῖν εἶχε τὴν τοῦ πατριάρχου σύστασιν· προσυπέσχετο δὲ καὶ ταῦτα γίνεσθαι μετ' εἰρήνης καὶ διορθοῦσθαι τὸ πλημμελούμε νον. καὶ οἱ μὲν ἑκόντες ἄκοντες, τοῦτο μὲν τῇ παρὰ βασιλέως βίᾳ τοῦτο δὲ καὶ τῷ ἀπαραιτήτῳ τοῦ πράγματος, ὑπεκλίνοντο, 304 καιρὸν δ' ἐτίθουν καὶ αὖθις ἀνακινεῖν τὰ μεταξὺ κείμενα καὶ ζη τεῖν διόρθωσιν.

13. Ἐν τούτῳ δὲ καὶ Μιχαὴλ ὁ δεσπότης τὴν συνοικοῦ σαν πρὸ χρόνων ἀποβαλὼν (ἡ δ' ἦν ἡ τοῦ βασιλέως αὐταδέλφη) τῇ τοῦ Τερτερῆ κεχηρωμένῃ ἤδη τοῦ κράλη Σερβίας ἐποφθαλμί ζει, καὶ θέλων θέλουσαν ἄγεται, ἐφιέντος μὲν βασιλέως, ἐφιεί σης δὲ καὶ ἐκκλησίας ἐν ὑστέρῳ τῶν γενομένων. ἣν δὴ καὶ ἁρ μοσάμενος ἑαυτῷ, τὸ τῆς δεσποτείας ἀξίωμα ἔχων καὶ ἔτι, συμ μετεδίδου τῆς ἀξίας καὶ τῇ συνῳκημένῃ ἐκ κραλαίνης, ἐξ ἧς καὶ παῖδας ἀποτετόκει. καί γε δῆλος ἦν τῇ τοῦ Τερτερῆ συνοικῶν ὡς γνησίᾳ.

14. Καὶ τότε ἀστὴρ κομήτης ἀφ' ἑσπέρας ἐξέλαμπεν, περὶ οὗ καὶ ἐν τοῖς κατ' ἐμαυτὸν δι' ἐπῶν ὑπέμνησα, οὕτω γράφων. ἤδη μὲν φθινοπωρὶς ἰσημερινὴ ἐπέλαυνεν, ἠέλιος δ' ἔχε παρθενικῆς ἐρατεινὰ πρόσωπα. καὶ τότε δὴ φαιδρὸς λάμπε Θρῄκηθε κομήτης, ἐκταδίην τε κόμην ἔχεν ἀντολίηνδε ῥέπουσαν, ἑσπέριος δ' ηὔγαζ' ἐπὶ τόσσον νυκτὸς ἰούσης, αἰὲν ἀπαινύμενος τὸ πλέον νῦν ἢ τὸ πάροιθεν, ὅσσον ἀνωτερίεσσι διαλλάξεσσιν ἔφωσκεν. 305 οὐ γὰρ ἕν' ἀπλανέων κατὰ μοῖραν χῶρον ἔτετμεν. ἀλλά γ' ἑκάστης νυκτὸς ἀνώτερα εἶχε κέλευθα, μέσφα ὑπερπόδισ' αἰὲν ἀνώτερος ἀμφαναβαίνων, ἔνθα οἱ ἄκραι τὰ πρῶτα τρίχες ἐμπεφύασιν, ἦκα μαραινόμενος μείουρος, καὶ τότε λῆξε. περὶ τούτου ἄλλοι μὲν ἄλλως ἀπεφαίνοντο καὶ ὡς εἶχον γνώσεως ἔλεγον, οἱ πλείους δ' εἰς κακὸν κοινὸν τὴν ἐπιτολὴν ἐκείνου ἐφοί βαζον· οὐδεὶς γὰρ κομήτης ὅστις οὐ φύσει κακός, φασίν. ἐμοὶ δὲ τῇ τῶν ὅλων προσανέχοντι φύσει, καὶ μᾶλλον οἷς ὁ Σταγειρό θεν φιλοσοφεῖ, ἐκεῖνα ἐπῄει λέγειν περί τε τῆς κινούσης αἰτίας καὶ αὖθις τῆς τελικῆς καὶ ὧν προεφωσφόρει ἀποβησομένων, ὅσα δὴ καὶ τὰ μὲν προυγεγόνεισαν τὰ δ' ἔμελλον ἐπιγεγονέναι. ἐξ ἔαρος γὰρ καὶ ἐς τότε αὐχμὸς παιπαλόεν τὸ πέδον δεικνὺς ἀμ φεῖχε τὴν περὶ ἡμᾶς οἰκουμένην, ὡς μηδὲν μὲν ἐκβλαστάνειν ἰσχύειν ὅσα καὶ θέρους εἰώθει βλαστάνειν, πάντα δὲ φρέατα καὶ πᾶσας πηγὰς ἀποσβῆναι. εἶτα δὲ καὶ ἐκνεφίαι ξηροί τε καὶ ἀπη νεῖς· λειμῶνες ἐπὶ ὅλῳ μηνὶ καὶ πρόωροι ξυμβεβήκασι. καὶ ταῦτα μὲν ὁ συγγράφων, τὸν νοῦν ἐπερείδων τοῖς φυσικοῖς· ἠγνόει δὲ ἄρα καὶ ὡς μεγάλων ἐκεῖνος κατάρχει κακῶν, οὐ τῷδε ἢ τῷδε μέρει τῶν κατ' ἀνατολὴν ἐπεισφρησάντων τόπων, ἀλλὰ 306 πᾶσαν ἐπιληψόντων τὴν καθ' ἡμᾶς οἰκουμένην ἐκ τῆς τῶν Περ σῶν ἐπιθέσεως.

15. Τοῦ δ' αὐτοῦ ἔτους, μηνὸς ἐνεστῶτος Ἰαννουαρίου, ὃν οἱ τὸν Ἄσκρηθεν ποιητὴν ἐξηγούμενοι Ληναιῶνα κατ' Ἀθηναίους ἔλεγον, οὐκ ὀρθῶς, οἶμαι, εἰ καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐν τοῖς καθ' αὑ τοὺς ἐποποιοῦντες τῇ ἐκείνων ἠκολουθήκειμεν ἐξηγήσει (ἀκριβῶς γὰρ Ἀθηναῖοι τὸν κατὰ Ῥωμαίους Ἰαννουάριον Ἑκατομβαιῶνλέγουσι), κατὰ τοῦτον οὖν θεμέλιον πρῶτον τῆς σελήνης ἐχού σης ἔκλειψις ταύτης ξυμπίπτει, τῶν τῆς ἐπιστήμης ξυνετῶν τῷ βασιλεῖ προειπόντων. καὶ ἡμεῖς οὕτω πως ἐν τοῖς ἡμετέροις γεγράφαμεν. μηνὶ δὲ Ληναιῷ πρώτη βάσις ἵστατο μήνης, ἣ διχόμηνος ἔην,