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And even before this, being greatly distressed and troubled by such things, and then, having listened carefully to the ambassadors and considering the sufferings of his fellow believers as his own wounds, he set about the preparation of those who were to be sent out to help the supplicants; and having fitted out a fleet of one hundred ships and duly prepared everything, and having selected a man distinguished from the many in intelligence and experience, I mean the patrician Niketas, the droungarios of the fleet, who was surnamed Ooryphas, he sends him out against the enemy like some fiery thunderbolt. But the Saracens from Africa, who were engaged in the siege of the city, having learned from deserters that the Ragusans had sent ambassadors to the emperor to ask for a force and an army against them, on the one hand despairing of a swift capture, and on the other hand fearing the expected aid from the emperor, they lift the siege and depart from those places. And having crossed over to Italy, which is now called Lombardy, they sacked the fortress of Bari, and having encamped there and attacking those who were nearer every day and daring to attack those further away and always taking something more, they gained control of all Lombardy almost up to the once magnificent Rome itself. And so matters stood. 291 54 And when the aforementioned tribes, the Croats and Serbs and the rest, saw what had happened concerning those in Dalmatia through Roman aid, and hearing of the clemency and justice in all things and the virtue of the then-reigning emperor of the Romans, and preferring to be ruled well than to rule precariously through recklessness, they made haste to return again to their former dominion and to be brought back to Roman servitude. And indeed for this purpose they themselves also send ambassadors to the emperor, both those who had apostatized from the same religion and those who had completely deserted the divine baptism, opportunely reminding him both of their servitude from the beginning and of the many ways in which they had once been useful to the Romans, and asking that they too be placed under the benevolent yoke of Roman authority and under its leader. And when the emperor heard their reasonable request, since even before this he was distressed and vexed about them, as if his empire had been cut down and plundered of no small part, he himself received and accepted them graciously, just as a benevolent father receives the son who has foolishly run wild and then repented and returned, and he immediately sent out priests with them along with an imperial official, so that before all else he might deliver them from spiritual danger and restore them to their former faith and free them from the transgressions committed out of 292 ignorance or folly. And when this God-pleasing work was accomplished, and all had partaken of divine baptism and returned to Roman subjection, the emperor's dominion received its integrity in this part, as all, by the benevolent command of the ruler, received rulers from their own kin and tribe for their governance. For he did not hold the offices for their governance for sale, so that from this he might promote those who gave more and ensnared his subjects to dominate them; and for this reason he wisely appointed to rule them those who were chosen by themselves and, as it were, elected, as chosen rulers who ought to preserve a fatherly goodwill towards them. And so much for that. 55 But since the barbarians who had crossed over into the dominion of the Romans during the neglectful and indolent reign and had been repulsed from Ragusa, as has already been said before, were still tarrying in Italy, continually overrunning it

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καὶ πρὸ τούτου λίαν περὶ τῶν τοιούτων δυσφορῶν καὶ διαπονούμενος, καὶ τότε δὲ τῶν πρέσβεων ἐπιμελῶς ἀκροασάμε- νος καὶ ὡς οἰκεῖα τραύματα τὰ τῶν ὁμοπίστων παθήματα ἡγησά- μενος, περὶ τὴν παρασκευὴν ἐγίνετο τῶν εἰς τὴν τῶν ἱκετευσάντων βοήθειαν μελλόντων ἐξαποστέλλεσθαι· καὶ στόλον ἐξαρτυσάμενος νεῶν ἑκατὸν καὶ πάντα δεόντως ἑτοιμασάμενος, καὶ ανδρα συνέσει καὶ ἐμπειρίᾳ τῶν πολλῶν διαφέροντα ἐκλεξάμενος, τὸν πατρίκιον Νικήταν φημί, τὸν τοῦ πλωΐμου δρουγγάριον, ος κατ' ἐπωνυμίαν ̓Ωορύφας ἐλέγετο, ωσπερ τινὰ πρηστήριον κεραυνὸν κατὰ τῶν πο- λεμίων ἐκπέμπει. οἱ δὲ ἐξ ̓Αφρικῆς Σαρακηνοί, οἱ τῇ πολιορκίᾳ τῆς πόλεως προσκαθήμενοι, δι' αὐτομόλων ἀναμαθόντες τοὺς ̔Ραουσίους πρέσβεις ἀποστεῖλαι πρὸς βασιλέα τοὺς αἰτησομένους δύναμιν καὶ στρατὸν κατ' αὐτῶν, τοῦτο μὲν τὴν σύντομον ἀπο- γινώσκοντες αλωσιν, τοῦτο δὲ τὴν ἀφικέσθαι προσδοκωμένην ἐκ βασιλέως δείσαντες βοήθειαν, λύουσι τὴν πολιορκίαν καὶ τῶν τό- πων ἐκείνων ἀπαναστεύουσι. κατὰ δὲ τὴν ̓Ιταλίαν, η νῦν Λα- γοβαρδία ὠνόμασται, διαπεράσαντες τὸ κάστρον Βάρεως ἐξεπόρ- θησαν, καὶ αὐτόθι κατασκηνώσαντες καὶ τοῖς μᾶλλον ἐγγίζουσι καθ' ἑκάστην ἐπιτιθέμενοι καὶ τῶν πορρωτέρω κατατολμῶντες καὶ ἀεί τι προσλαμβανόμενοι, πᾶσαν τὴν Λαγοβαρδίαν αχρι καὶ αὐ- τῆς σχεδὸν τῆς ποτὲ μεγαλοδόξου ̔Ρώμης ἐκράτησαν. καὶ ειχε μὲν ουτω ταῦτα. 291 54 Τὸ δὲ περὶ τοὺς ἐν ∆αλματίᾳ παρὰ τῆς ̔Ρωμαϊκῆς ἐπικουρίας γεγονὸς καὶ τὰ προμνημονευθέντα γένη θεασάμενοι, οι τε Χρωβάτοι καὶ Σέρβλοι καὶ οἱ λοιποί, καὶ τοῦ αρτι βασι- λεύοντος ̔Ρωμαίων τὴν ἐπιείκειαν καὶ περὶ πάντα δικαιοσύνην καὶ ἀρετὴν πυνθανόμενοι, καὶ τὸ καλῶς αρχεσθαι τοῦ ἐπισφαλῶς ἐκ θρασύτητος αρχειν προκρίναντες, σπουδὴν ποιοῦνται πάλιν εἰς τὴν προτέραν δεσποτείαν ἐπανελθεῖν καὶ πρὸς τὴν ̔Ρωμαϊκὴν ἐπ- αναχθῆναι δούλωσιν. καὶ δὴ πρὸς τοῦτο καὶ πρέσβεις καὶ αὐτοὶ πρὸς τὸν βασιλέα πέμπουσιν, οι τε μετὰ τῆς αὐτῆς θρησκείας ἀποστατήσαντες καὶ οἱ τέλειον τοῦ θείου βαπτίσματος ἀπαυτομο- λήσαντες, τῆς τε ἐξ ἀρχῆς αὐτῶν δουλώσεως καὶ εἰς οσα ̔Ρω- μαίοις γεγόνασί ποτε χρήσιμοι εὐκαίρως ὑπομιμνήσκοντες, καὶ ἀξιοῦντες τῇ φιλανθρώπῳ ζεύγλῃ τῆς ̔Ρωμαϊκῆς ἐξουσίας καὶ ὑπὸ τῷ ταύτης ἀγελάρχῃ τάττεσθαι καὶ αὐτούς. ων ὡς εὐλόγου τῆς δεήσεως ἐπακούσας ὁ βασιλεύς, ἐπεὶ καὶ πρὸ τούτου ἐδυσφόρει περὶ αὐτῶν καὶ ησχαλλεν ὡς οὐ μικρῷ μέρει περικεκομμένης καὶ διηρπασμένης τῆς αὐτοῦ ἀρχῆς, εὐμενῶς, ὡς τὸν ἀφρόνως ἀφη- νιάσαντα υἱόν, ειτα μεταγνόντα καὶ ὑποστρέψαντα ὁ φιλάνθρω- πος πατήρ, καὶ αὐτὸς τούτους προσήκατο καὶ ἀνεδέξατο, καὶ ἱερεῖς εὐθέως μετὰ καὶ βασιλικοῦ ἀνθρώπου σὺν αὐτοῖς ἐξαπέ- στειλεν, ὡς αν πρὸ τῶν αλλων τοῦ ψυχικοῦ τούτους κινδύνου ἐξέ- ληται καὶ πρὸς τὴν προτέραν πίστιν ἐπανασώσηται καὶ τῶν ἐξ 292 ἀγνοίας η ἀνοίας ἀπαλλάξῃ πλημμελημάτων αὐτούς. ἀνυσθέντος δὲ τοῦ τοιούτου θεοφιλοῦς εργου, καὶ πάντων τοῦ θείου μετα- σχόντων βαπτίσματος καὶ εἰς τὴν ̔Ρωμαϊκὴν ἐπανελθόντων ὑπό- πτωσιν, ἐδέξατο κατὰ τοῦτο τὸ μέρος τὴν ὁλοκληρίαν ἡ βασιλέως ἀρχή, πάντων φιλανθρώπῳ τοῦ κρατοῦντος προστάγματι ἐκ τῶν οἰκείων καὶ ὁμοφύλων δεξαμένων αρχοντας εἰς ἐπιστασίαν αὐτῶν. οὐ γὰρ ὠνίους ἐκεῖνος τὰς εἰς τὴν ἐπιστασίαν αὐτῶν ειχεν ἀρχάς, ιν' ἐντεῦθεν τοὺς πλεῖον διδόντας καὶ καλαμωμένους αὐτοῦ τὸ ὑπήκοον εἰς τὸ τούτων κατεξουσιάζειν προβάλληται· καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τοὺς ὑπ' αὐτῶν ἐκείνων ἐκλεγομένους καὶ οἱονεὶ χειροτονουμένους, ὡς αἱρετοὺς αρχοντας καὶ πατρικὴν πρὸς αὐτοὺς διασώζειν ὀφεί- λοντας ευνοιαν, αρχειν αὐτῶν νουνεχῶς διωρίσατο. καὶ ταῦτα μὲν ταύτῃ. 55 ̓Επεὶ δὲ οἱ ἐπὶ τῆς ἐκμελοῦς τε καὶ ῥᾳθύμου βασιλείας πρὸς τὴν ἐπικράτειαν τῶν ̔Ρωμαίων διαπεράσαντες βάρβαροι καὶ τοῦ ̔Ραουσίου ἀποκρουσθέντες, καθάπερ ηδη πρότερον ειρηται, ετι κατὰ τὴν ̓Ιταλίαν διέτριβον, συνεχῶς αὐτὴν κατατρέχοντες