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in his drunkenness he condemned and gave over to death, but learning from his bodyguards and servants what he had decreed against them in the evening, he would repent and groan. and sometimes the ones sought were found, but at other times his repentance for the unholy deeds was useless, as those handed over had been executed. but again when evening came, and the drinking bout with its avenging deeds and words vigorously advanced far into the night, he would be at the same things. a Who, hearing and seeing, even if he had a heart of stone or was completely senseless, would not be moved to anger and inflamed at some point for the vindication of those unjustly perishing? I think not even David, the meekest of all men, would have endured such great drunken violence from the scoundrel; for here forbearance is reckoned as stupidity and insensibility, not long-suffering. 253 27 And now, with almost all of the reserved funds failing, having been spent on such things, a necessity arose for all those in office to be openly slaughtered and their property confiscated, so that the emperor might have the means to bestow favors on charioteers and prostitutes and licentious men. for nine hundred and seventy centenaria of minted gold, apart from silver both uncoined and coined, which his father Theophilus had left behind, kept in the imperial treasury, and moreover his mother Theodora had added another thirty and completed the number of a thousand centenaria, in not even fourteen full years, from when this man received power over all things, he squandered and spent it all, so that nothing else was found after his death except only three centenaria. and how were they not going to fail, even if they flowed from rivers, being scattered so licentiously and profligately? for once, having received the child of a charioteer so-called Cheilas, he gifted him a whole centenarium. but also to the patrician Himerios, whom the emperor himself named Pig on account of the wildness of his appearance, but was more worthy of such an appellation on account of the swinish and filthy nature of his life, to this man, therefore, for once speaking obscenely in his presence and using stage buffoonery, both for being utterly shameless and shrinking from nothing disgraceful and for emitting a licentious noise from his 254 foul belly, so heavy and violently storming that even the shining lamp was extinguished, he honored him with a bonus of fifty pounds, as if he had accomplished some Heraclean labor. and to the others of his ilk, his gifts were likewise excessive. and if he had so readily offered these things to soldiers and champions and heroes or to those excelling in some other good thing, one would have considered them symbols of magnanimity and liberality and an ambitious character; but when it was foolishly scattered on mimes and charioteers and dancers and buffoons and flatterers and those full of every abomination, while not even an obol went towards any serious matter, one would certainly reckon these to be proofs of profligacy and drunken violence and madness. and with these things now failing, it was necessary, as has been said, both for temples to be plundered and pious houses to be despoiled, and for all those possessing more money than others to be killed and slaughtered. for all which reasons, indeed, the most reputable of those in power and the sensible part of the senatorial council, having come to an agreement, through the soldiers who attend upon the emperors, kill him in the palace of the holy martyr Mamas, as he insensibly joined sleep with death from excessive drunkenness. for just as men kill scorpions and vipers merely on sight and before they can wound, because of the evil inherent in them, so also those from them hasten to kill the 255 venomous and murderous among men before they can wound and destroy.

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ἐν τῇ μέθῃ κατεψηφίσατο καὶ τῷ θανάτῳ ἐξέδωκε, μανθάνων δὲ παρὰ τῶν δορυφόρων τε καὶ ὑπηρετῶν α ἐν τῇ ἑσπέρᾳ κατ' αὐτῶν ἐψηφίσατο, μετεμελεῖτο καὶ εστενεν. καὶ αλλοτε μὲν εὑρίσκοντο οἱ ζητούμενοι, αλλοτε δὲ ἀνό- νητος ην αὐτῷ ἡ ἐπὶ τοῖς ἀνοσίοις τῶν εργων μετάνοια, τῶν ἐκδο- θέντων ἀνῃρημένων. πάλιν δὲ τῆς ἑσπέρας καταλαβούσης, καὶ νεανικῶς τοῦ πότου πόρρω τῆς νυκτὸς μετὰ τῶν ἀλαστόρων εργων καὶ λόγων προκόπτοντος, ἐν τοῖς ὁμοίοις ἐγίνετο. α τίς ἀκούων τε καὶ ὁρῶν, εἰ καὶ λιθίνην καρδίαν ἐκέκτητο η παντάπασιν ἀναί- σθητος ην, μὴ πρὸς ὀργὴν ἐκινήθη καὶ διεθερμάνθη ποτὲ πρὸς τὴν τῶν ἀναιτίως ἀπολλυμένων ἐκδίκησιν; μηδὲ τὸν πραότατον πάντων ἀνθρώπων ∆αβὶδ ἀνασχέσθαι οιμαι τὴν τοσαύτην τοῦ καθάρματος παροινίαν· ἠλιθιότης γὰρ καὶ ἀναλγησία, οὐ μακρο- θυμία ἐνταῦθα λογίζεται ἡ φειδώ. 253 27 Ηδη δὲ πάντων σχεδὸν τῶν ἀποθέτων χρημάτων ἐπιλειπόντων, ἐν τοῖς τοιούτοις ἀναλωθέντων αὐτῶν, ἀνάγκη ἐπήρ- τητο τοὺς ἐν τέλει πάντας φανερῶς ἀποσφάττεσθαι καὶ δημεύε- σθαι τὰς οὐσίας αὐτῶν, ιν' εχοι πόρον ὁ βασιλεὺς ἡνιόχοις καὶ πόρναις καὶ ἀσελγέσιν ἀνθρώποις χαρίζεσθαι. ἑβδομήκοντα γὰρ καὶ ἐννακόσια κεντηνάρια κεχαραγμένου χρυσοῦ, χωρὶς ἀργύρου τοῦ τε ἀσήμου καὶ ἐπισήμου, καταλιπόντος Θεοφίλου τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ ἐν τῷ φύλακι τηρούμενα τῷ βασιλικῷ, ετι δὲ καὶ Θεοδώρας τῆς τούτου μητρὸς αλλα προσθείσης τριάκοντα καὶ ἀπαρτισάσης τὸν χίλια τῶν κεντηναρίων ἀριθμόν, ἐν οὐδὲ ολοις τεσσαρεσκαίδεκα χρόνοις, ἀφ' ου τὴν τῶν ολων ἐξουσίαν ουτος ἐδέξατο, πάντα διεφόρησε καὶ ἀνάλωσεν, ὡς μηδὲν ετερον μετὰ τὸν αὐτοῦ θάνατον εὑρεθῆ- ναι πλὴν τρία καὶ μόνα κεντηνάρια. καὶ πῶς δὲ οὐκ εμελλον ἐπι- λιπεῖν, καν ἐκ ποταμῶν ἐπέρρει, ουτως ἀσελγῶς καὶ ἀσώτως δια- σκιδνάμενα; ἡνιόχου γάρ ποτε παιδίον δεξάμενος τοῦ ουτω καλου- μένου Χειλᾶ ὁλόκληρον αὐτῷ κεντηνάριον ἐδωρήσατο. ἀλλὰ καὶ τῷ πατρικίῳ ̔Ημερίῳ, ον Χοῖρον αὐτὸς μὲν ὁ βασιλεὺς διὰ τὴν τῆς οψεως ὠνόμαζεν ἀγριότητα, διὰ δὲ τὸ χοιρῶδες τοῦ βίου μᾶλ- λον καὶ ῥυπαρὸν αξιος ην τῆς τοιαύτης προσρήσεως, τούτῳ τοί- νυν αἰσχρολογοῦντί ποτε κατενώπιον αὐτοῦ καὶ ταῖς ἀπὸ σκηνῆς φλυαρίαις καταχρωμένῳ, εκ τε τοῦ παντελῶς ἀπερυθριᾶσαι καὶ μηδὲν τῶν ἐπονειδίστων ὀκνῆσαι καὶ ψόφον ἀκόλαστον ἀπὸ τῆς 254 μιαρᾶς ἀφέντος γαστρός, ουτω βαρὺν καὶ σφοδρῶς καταιγίζοντα ωστε καὶ τὸ φαῖνον φατλίον ἀποσβεσθῆναι, πεντήκοντα λιτρῶν ἐπιδόσει ἐτίμησεν ὡς ̔Ηράκλειόν τινα τοῦτον αθλον ἀνύσαντι. καὶ πρὸς τοὺς αλλους δὲ τῶν ὁμοίων αὐτῷ ουτως ὑπέρμετροι αἱ δόσεις ησαν αὐτοῦ. ταῦτα δὲ εἰ μὲν εἰς στρατιώτας καὶ προμάχους καὶ ἀριστεῖς η εἰς τοὺς ἐπ' αλλῳ τινὶ τῶν ἀγαθῶν διαφέροντας ἑτοί- μως ουτως προΐετο, μεγαλοψυχίας αν τις καὶ ἐλευθεριότητος καὶ τρόπου φιλοτίμου ἐνόμισε σύμβολα· οτε δὲ εἰς μίμους καὶ ἡνιό- χους καὶ ὀρχηστὰς καὶ βωμολόχους καὶ κόλακας καὶ βδελυρίας ἁπάσης μεστοὺς ἀφρόνως διεσκορπίζετο, εἰς δέ τι τῶν σπουδαίων προῄει οὐδ' ὀβολός, ἀσωτίας πάντως καὶ παροινίας καὶ ἐμπληξίας λογίσαιτ' αν τις ειναι τεκμήρια. καὶ τούτων ἐπιλειπόντων ηδη ἀνάγκη ην, ωσπερ ειρηται, καὶ ναοὺς περισυλᾶσθαι καὶ εὐαγεῖς οικους αἰχμαλωτίζεσθαι καὶ πάντας τοὺς πλέον τῶν αλλων κεκτη- μένους εἰς χρήματα ἀναιρεῖσθαι καὶ ἀποσφάττεσθαι. δι' α δὴ πάντα συμφρονήσαντες τῶν ἐν τέλει οἱ δοκιμώτατοι καὶ τὸ εμφρον τῆς συγκλήτου βουλῆς, διὰ τῶν προκοιτούντων τοῖς βασιλεῦσι στρατιωτῶν, ἐν τοῖς παλατίοις τοῦ ἁγίου μάρτυρος Μάμαντος ἀναιροῦσιν αὐτόν, ἐκ τῆς αγαν οἰνοφλυγίας ἀνεπαισθήτως τὸν υπνον τῷ θανάτῳ συνάψαντα. ωσπερ γὰρ τοὺς σκορπίους καὶ εχεις μόνον ἰδόντες καὶ πρὶν η τρῶσαι ἀναιροῦσιν οἱ ανθρωποι διὰ τὴν ἐνυπάρχουσαν αὐτοῖς κακίαν, ουτω καὶ τῶν ἀνδρῶν τοὺς 255 ἰώδεις καὶ φονικοὺς πρὸ τοῦ τρῶσαι καὶ ἀνελεῖν σπουδάζουσιν ἀποκτεῖναι οἱ ἐκ τούτων