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he devised the utter destruction of injustice, but also gave himself over to such a role; and when he happened to be at leisure from military campaigns and from dealing with embassies from all over, he himself, descending from the palace and sitting in what was called the *Genikon*, as it seems, on account of those who ran together to it from all sides, would examine with much labor and frequent diligence those who were often wronged, as happens, by the collectors of public taxes on account of the magnitude of their power, and who were taking refuge in such a court of arbitration as in a common town-hall and were bringing forward their own complaints, and thus he helped the wronged and stopped the wrongdoers by means of lawful punishment from daring to do such things any longer. And later it is said that he once went down to such a place of occupation for the vindication of the wronged; but as it happened 261 there was no one with a complaint, suspecting that they were being barred from access to him by certain people, he sent the bodyguards around him to search in many parts of the city if there was anyone making an accusation against someone; and when they returned saying they had found no one anywhere with a complaint against anyone, they say that that noble man wept for joy, and so gave thanks to God. And seeing that there was a certain pretext for the wicked to do wrong, from the fact that the ancients, for the sake of brevity, had perhaps used fractions and parts of numbers for the half and the sixth and the twelfth in the records of the tax collection, he wished to remove even such a pretext from those who wanted to do wrong, and he decreed that the codes of the demands be written in simple letters, which even the uneducated are able to read, and with the figures of the declared amount in full words and clearly written out, assigning from his own house the expense for this, both of the papers and of the writing and of the writers, so that the poor might not be wronged. And this indeed has been established as such and so great a mark of his concern for his subjects, and that he wished no one to be wronged by anyone. And such he was in political and public affairs. 32 And not wishing to seem to neglect the churches of God either (for in every way, as being contained in the ship of the world, these too happen to be under the providence of the ruler, and 262 especially his, as he was a lover of God and possessed great reverence for divine things), since, then, he saw that these too were, as it were, in a certain tossing and turmoil because they too had partaken of the common ruin under his predecessor and because he who lawfully presided over them had been cast out from his own see and flock, and another had been brought in his place, he did not neglect these things either, but through a common synod and assembly of God's bishops from all over, he stopped the tossing of the churches as far as was possible, both by ratifying the seventh holy synod before this one, and by giving over the remaining iconoclast heretics to anathema, and by canonically providing the legitimate bridegroom to the church and the father to the children, and ordering the one brought in his place to remain at leisure until the Lord should transfer him to Himself, and thus he arranged matters concerning the church well and finely, and provided the possible calm for it as well by his own zeal and forethought. 33 And finding also that the civil laws had much obscurity and confusion on account of the mixing of good and bad, I mean the indiscriminate and common listing of repealed and active laws, he appropriately corrected these too, as was fitting and possible, by removing the uselessness of the repealed ones, and cleansing the multitude of the authoritative ones, and 263 as it were in a synopsis, in headings for the sake of easy remembrance, he encompassed their former vastness. 34 But since envy always grows alongside good things, as worms especially do on the sweetest of woods, and to the worldly prosperity and abundance

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τῆς ἀδικίας ἐπενοή- σατο ἐξολόθρευσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἑαυτὸν εἰς τὸ τοιοῦτον μέρος ἐπέ- δωκε· καὶ οταν ετυχε τῶν στρατειῶν σχολάζων καὶ τοῦ χρηματί- ζειν ταῖς ἁπανταχόθεν πρεσβείαις, αὐτὸς τῶν βασιλείων ὑποκατ- ιὼν καὶ εἰς τὸ διὰ τοὺς πανταχόθεν εἰς αὐτὸ συντρέχοντας, ὡς εοικεν, λεγόμενον Γενικὸν καθεζόμενος τοὺς ὑπὸ τῶν εἰσπραττόν- των τοὺς δημοσίους φόρους πολλάκις, οια συμβαίνει, διὰ τὸ μέ- γεθος τῆς ἀρχῆς ἀδικουμένους καὶ ωσπερ εἰς κοινὸν πρυτανεῖον εἰς τὸ τοιοῦτον διαιτητήριον καταφεύγοντας καὶ τὰς οἰκείας ἐγκλήσεις προβαλλομένους μετὰ πόνου πολλοῦ καὶ συχνῆς ἐπιμελείας ἐξήτα- ζεν, καὶ ουτω τοῖς ἀδικουμένοις ἐπήμυνεν καὶ τοὺς ἀδικοῦντας επαυε διὰ τῆς νομίμου τιμωρίας τοῦ μηκέτι τολμᾶν τὰ τοιαῦτα ποιεῖν. χρόνοις δὲ υστερον λέγεταί ποτε κατελθεῖν εἰς τὴν τοιαύ- την διατριβὴν πρὸς τὴν τῶν ἀδικουμένων ἐκδίκησιν· ὡς δ' ετυχεν 261 οὐδεὶς ἐγκαλῶν, ὑποτοπήσας ὑπό τινων τῆς πρὸς αὐτὸν εἰσόδου ἀνείργεσθαι, τοὺς περὶ αὐτὸν δορυφόρους ἀπέστειλε ζητοῦντας κατὰ πολλὰ μέρη τῆς πόλεως ει τις εστι κατά τινος ποιούμενος εγκλη- σιν· ὡς δ' ἐπανῆλθον ουτοι μηδένα μηδαμοῦ εὑρηκέναι λέγοντες ἐγκαλοῦντα κατά τινος, δακρῦσαί φασι τὸν γενναῖον ἐκεῖνον ὑφ' ἡδονῆς, καὶ ουτω τὴν εὐχαριστίαν ἀποδοῦναι θεῷ. ὁρῶν δὲ οτι εστι τις τοῖς πονηροῖς εἰς τὸ ἀδικεῖν ἀφορμὴ ἀπὸ τοῦ διὰ τὸ σύν- τομον τοῖς τῶν ἀριθμῶν μορίοις καὶ μέρεσι τοῦ ἡμίσεως καὶ εκτου καὶ δωδεκάτου τυχὸν κεχρῆσθαι τοῖς παλαιοῖς ἐν ταῖς ἀναγραφαῖς τῆς τῶν φόρων εἰσπράξεως, ἠθέλησε καὶ τὴν τοιαύτην τῶν ἀδι- κεῖν βουλομένων περιελεῖν ἀφορμήν, καὶ διωρίσατο καὶ γράμμασι λιτοῖς, α καὶ τοῖς ἀγροίκοις ἀναγινώσκειν ἐστὶν ἐν δυνατῷ, καὶ ὁλογράφοις καὶ φανεραῖς ταῖς ψήφοις τῆς δηλουμένης ποσότητος τοὺς τῶν ἀπαιτήσεων γράφεσθαι κώδικας, οικοθεν τὸ εἰς τοῦτο τάξας ἀνάλωμα καὶ τῶν χαρτίων καὶ τῆς γραφῆς καὶ τῶν γρα- φέων, πρὸς τὸ μὴ ἀδικεῖσθαι τοὺς πένητας. καὶ τοῦτο μὲν τοιοῦ- τον καὶ τοσοῦτον τῆς περὶ τὸ ὑπήκοον κηδεμονίας αὐτοῦ καθέστηκε γνώρισμα, καὶ οτι ὑπ' οὐδενὸς οὐδένα ἀδικεῖσθαι ἐβούλετο. καὶ τοιοῦτος μὲν ην περὶ τὰ πολιτικὰ καὶ δημόσια. 32 Μὴ βουλόμενος δὲ μηδὲ τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν τοῦ θεοῦ δοκεῖν ἀμελεῖν (πάντως γὰρ ὡς ἐν τῷ κοσμικῷ περιεχόμεναι σκάφει, ὑπὸ τὴν πρόνοιαν τοῦ κρατοῦντος καὶ αυται τυγχάνουσιν, ἐκείνου 262 δὲ καὶ μᾶλλον ατε θεοφιλοῦς καὶ πολλὴν περὶ τὰ θεῖα κεκτημένου εὐλάβειαν), ἐπεὶ γοῦν καὶ ταύτας οιον ειναι ἐν σάλῳ τινὶ καὶ ταρά- χῳ τυγχανούσας ἑώρα διὰ τὸ τῆς κοινῆς λύμης ὑπὸ τοῦ προάρξαν- τος καὶ ταύτας μεταλαχεῖν καὶ ἐξωσθῆναι μὲν τῆς οἰκείας καθέ- δρας καὶ ποίμνης τὸν ἐννόμως τούτων κατάρχοντα, ἀντεισαχθῆναι δὲ ετερον, οὐδὲ τούτων ἠμέλησεν, ἀλλὰ διὰ κοινῆς συνόδου καὶ συνελεύσεως τῶν ἁπανταχόθεν ἀρχιερέων θεοῦ ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις τὸν σάλον κατὰ τὸ ἐνδεχόμενον εστησεν, τήν τε πρὸ τούτου ἑβδόμην ἁγίαν σύνοδον ἐπικυρώσας, καὶ τοὺς περιλιπεῖς τῶν εἰκονομάχων αἱρετικῶν τῷ ἀναθέματι δούς, καὶ τὸν γνήσιον νυμφίον τῇ ἐκ- κλησίᾳ καὶ τοῖς τέκνοις τὸν πατέρα κανονικῶς παρασχών, τὸν δὲ ἀντεισαχθέντα σχολάζειν κελεύσας εως τοῦτον πρὸς ἑαυτὸν μετα- στήσει ὁ κύριος, καὶ ουτω μὲν ευ καὶ καλῶς τὰ κατὰ τὴν ἐκκλη- σίαν διέθετο, καὶ τὴν ἐνδεχομένην καὶ ταύτῃ γαλήνην τῇ οἰκείᾳ σπουδῇ καὶ προμηθείᾳ παρέσχετο. 33 Εὑρὼν δὲ καὶ τοὺς πολιτικοὺς νόμους πολλὴν ἀσά- φειαν καὶ σύγχυσιν εχοντας διὰ τὴν ἀγαθῶν ωσπερ καὶ πονηρῶν συναναστροφήν, λέγω δὴ τὴν τῶν ἀνῃρημένων καὶ πολιτευομένων ἀδιάκριτον καὶ κοινὴν ἀναγραφήν, καὶ τούτους κατὰ τὸ προσῆκον καὶ ἐνδεχόμενον προσφόρως ἐπηνωρθώσατο, τὴν τῶν ἀνῃρημένων ἀχρηστίαν περιελών, καὶ τῶν κυρίων ἀνακαθάρας τὸ πλῆθος, καὶ 263 ωσπερ ἐν συνόψει, ἐν κεφαλαίοις διὰ τὸ εὐμνημόνευτον τὴν προ- τέραν ἀπειρίαν περιλαβών. 34 ̓Αλλ' ἐπεὶ τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς ἀεὶ παραφύεται φθόνος ὡς τοῖς γλυκέσι μάλιστα τῶν ξύλων οἱ σκώληκες, καὶ τῇ κοσμικῇ εὐετηρίᾳ καὶ εὐθηνίᾳ