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it turned back, whom also it turned back by setting them on fire. The Persians, having suffered rather than inflicted these things, not once but twice and many times, withdrew without success with infinite shame. And since the most holy and beautiful things flowed together from all sides to the queen of cities, and it was a divine will that this sacred and divine icon also be treasured with the other beautiful things, Romanos Lekapenos, who ruled the Romans, made it his endeavor to obtain this good fortune and to enrich the queen of cities. and indeed at various times he sent to Edessa, accomplishing nothing. For he was pressing them, but they were holding back and prevaricating. And at last, having been persuaded, they consented; for the emperor of the Romans, in his desire for such a good thing, yielded to all their proposals, and having given them two hundred Saracens and twelve thousand pieces of stamped silver, and having secured by a golden seal that the armies of the Romans would not advance hostilely against those four cities, nor plunder them, he obtained his request. For when it was permitted to happen and the emir conceded, 1.314 the bishops, both of Samosata and of Edessa, and certain others of the pious, having taken that holy image and the small letter written by Christ, set out on the road; and again countless miracles were performed. And when they arrived in the theme of the Optimatoi, in the church of the Theotokos called 'of Eusebius', many who approached with faith were healed from various diseases. There someone who was troubled by a demon also approached, and uttered these things as if possessed by a god: "Receive, Constantinople, glory and joy, and you, porphyrogennetos, your kingdom." And immediately the man was healed. On the 15th of the month of August, in the #22υνβʹ year from the creation of the world, those who were conveying the holy thing arrived at the church of the most holy Theotokos in Blachernae, which was also reverently and joyfully received and venerated by the emperors and those in authority and all the rest. And on the next day after the veneration and adoration, having lifted the icon of Christ onto their shoulders, both the high priest Theophylact and the young emperors (for the old man was left behind on account of weakness), but also all of the senate with the whole body of the church, escorted it with a fitting bodyguard as far as the Golden Gate. and from there, having taken it up again in like manner with psalms and hymns, they arrived at the most renowned great church of Hagia Sophia. Then they went up to the emperor, and in the church of the Mother of God of the Pharos they deposited the precious and holy image of our Lord Jesus Christ, 1.315 as a most great protection for the queen of cities and for all Christians. And these things thus, but again we shall follow the sequence of the histories. When our Lord Jesus Christ was born according to the flesh, immediately Augustus Caesar held sway over all, and having abolished all the ethnarchies and petty kingdoms, he subjected all to the helm of the Romans, and a deep peace came to be everywhere; for with the appearance of divine assistance the enemies have turned their backs, and the kingdoms that formerly thought the opposite bowed their necks and accepted the saving yoke. For using the truth and the testimony of the facts as a kind of voice, God showed his own loftiness. Therefore, foreseeing the madness of the Jews, God said through the prophet: "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." But showing to us who this is, and as if rejoicing with us, he adds: "The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our helper." And he did not make mention of Jacob without reason; but because that one first prophesied the calling of the nations (for he says, "a ruler shall not fail from Judah, until he comes for whom it is laid up, and he is the expectation of the nations"), prophesying here also the conversion of the nations, reasonably the God of Jacob

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ἀντέστρεψεν, οὓς καὶ ἐμπυρίζουσα ἀπέστρεψε. ταῦτα παθόντες μᾶλλον ἢ δράσαντες οἱ Πέρσαι, οὐχ ἅπαξ ἀλλὰ δὶς καὶ πολλάκις, μετ' αἰσχύνης ἀπεί ρου ὑπεχώρησαν ἄπρακτοι. Ἐπεὶ δὲ πρὸς τὴν βασιλεύουσαν τῶν πόλεων πανταχόθεν συνερρύη τὰ ἁγιώτατα καὶ κάλλιστα, ἦν δὲ ἄρα θεῖον βούλημα καὶ τὴν ἱερὰν ταύτην καὶ θείαν εἰκόνα μετὰ τῶν ἄλλων ἀποθη σαυρισθῆναι καλῶν, ὁ τῶν Ῥωμαίων κυριαρχῶν Ῥωμανὸς ὁ Λακαπηνὸς σπούδασμα ποιεῖται κατευμοιρῆσαι ταύτης καὶ καταπλου τίσαι τὴν βασιλεύουσαν. καὶ δὴ κατὰ διαφόρους καιροὺς ἐξαπ έστειλε πρὸς τὴν Ἔδεσσαν μηδὲν ἀνύσας. ὁ μὲν γὰρ ἐπέκειτο αὐτῶν, οἱ δὲ ἀνέδυον καὶ παρεκρούοντο. καὶ τελευταῖον πεισθέν τες ἐπένευσαν· ὁ γὰρ ἄναξ Ῥωμαίων τῇ ἐφέσει τοῦ τοιούτου κα λοῦ πρὸς πάντα ὑπείξας τὰ παρ' αὐτῶν προβαλλόμενα, καὶ δοὺς αὐτοῖς διακοσίους Σαρακηνοὺς καὶ ἀργύρου ἐπισήμου χιλιάδας δώδεκα, καὶ ἀσφαλισάμενος διὰ σφραγῖδος χρυσῆς τοῦ μὴ πολε μίως ἐπέρχεσθαι τὰ τῶν Ῥωμαίων στρατεύματα κατὰ τῶν τεσσά ρων πόλεων ἐκείνων, μηδὲ ληΐζεσθαι ταύτας, ἐπέτυχε τῆς αἰτή σεως. ἐπεὶ γὰρ συνεχωρεῖτο γενέσθαι καὶ παρεχώρησεν ὁ ἀμηρᾶς, 1.314 λαβόντες οἱ ἐπίσκοποι, ὅ τε Σαμοσατῶν καὶ ὁ τῆς Ἐδέσσης, καὶ ἕτεροί τινες τῶν εὐλαβῶν τὸ ἅγιον ἐκεῖνο ἀπεικόνισμα καὶ τὸ χρι στόγραφον ἐπιστολίδιον εἴχοντο τῆς ὁδοῦ· καὶ πάλιν ἄπειρα ἐτε λεῖτο θαύματα. ὡς δὲ κατήντησαν ἐν τῷ τῶν ὀπτιμάτων θέματι, ἐν τῷ τῆς θεοτόκου ναῷ τῷ Εὐσεβίου λεγομένῳ, πολλοὶ προσελ θόντες μετὰ πίστεως ἀπὸ ποικίλων νόσων ἰάθησαν. ἔνθα καί τις προσῆλθεν ὑπὸ δαίμονος ἐνοχλούμενος, καὶ τάδε οἱονεὶ ἀπεφοίβα σεν "ἀπόλαβε, Κωνσταντινούπολις, δόξαν καὶ χαράν, καὶ σὺ πορφυρογέννητε τὴν βασιλείαν σου." καὶ παραυτὰ ἰάθη ὁ ἄν θρωπος. τῇ δὲ ιεʹ τοῦ Αὐγούστου μηνός, κατὰ τὸ #22υνβʹ ἔτος τῆς τοῦ κόσμου γενέσεως, κατέλαβον τὸν ἐν Βλαχέρναις ναὸν τῆς ὑπερα γίας θεοτόκου οἱ τὸ ἅγιον διακομιζόμενοι, ὃ καὶ σεβασμίως καὶ περι χαρῶς ὑπεδέχθη καὶ προσεκυνήθη παρά τε τῶν βασιλέων καὶ τῶν ἐν τέλει καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν πάντων. τῇ δὲ ἐπαύριον μετὰ τὸν ἀσπα σμὸν καὶ τὴν προσκύνησιν ἀράμενοι τὴν τοῦ Χριστοῦ εἰκόνα ἐπὶ τῶν ὤμων ὅ τε ἀρχιερεὺς Θεοφύλακτος καὶ οἱ νεάζοντες βασιλεῖς (ὁ γὰρ γέρων δι' ἀσθένειαν ἀπελείπετο), ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ τῆς γερου σίας ἅπαντες μετὰ παντὸς τοῦ τῆς ἐκκλησίας πληρώματος, τῇ προση κούσῃ δορυφορίᾳ παρέπεμπον μέχρι τῆς χρυσείας πόρτης. κἀκεῖ θεν πάλιν ἀναλαβόμενοι ὁμοίως μετὰ ψαλμῶν καὶ ὕμνων κατέλα βον τὸν περιώνυμον μέγιστον ναὸν τῆς ἁγίας σοφίας. εἶτα ἀνῆλ θον εἰς τὸν βασιλέα, καὶ ἐν τῷ θεομητρὸς ναῷ Φάρῳ κατέθεντο τὸ τίμιον καὶ ἅγιον ἐκτύπωμα τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, 1.315 εἰς φυλακτήριον μέγιστον τῆς βασιλίδος τῶν πόλεων καὶ πάντων τῶν Χριστιανῶν. καὶ ταῦτα μὲν οὕτως, πάλιν δὲ τῆς τῶν ἱστο ριῶν ἀκολουθίας ἑξόμεθα. Τοῦ δὲ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ κατὰ σάρκα τεχθέντος εὐθὺς Αὔγουστος Καῖσαρ ἐκράτησε πάντων, καὶ τὰς ἐθναρχίας πάσας καὶ μερικὰς βασιλείας καταλύσας τοῖς Ῥωμαίων οἴαξι πάντας ὑπέταξε, καὶ βαθεῖα εἰρήνη πανταχοῦ γέγονε· τῆς γὰρ θείας βοηθείας ἐπιφανείσης νῶτα δεδώκασιν οἱ πολέμιοι, καὶ αἱ πάλαι τἀναντία φρονοῦσαι βασιλεῖαι ὑπέκλιναν τὸν αὐχένα καὶ τὸν σωτήριον ζυγὸν ὑπεδέξαντο. τῇ γὰρ ἀληθείᾳ καὶ τῇ τῶν πραγμάτων μαρτυρίᾳ οἷόν τινι φωνῇ χρησάμενος ὁ θεὸς τὸ οἰκεῖον ὕψος ὑπέδειξε. προειδὼς τοίνυν ὁ θεὸς τὴν Ἰουδαίων ἀπόνοιαν ἔφη διὰ τοῦ προφήτου "σχολάσατε, καὶ γνῶτε ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ θεός· ὑψωθήσομαι ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν, ὑψωθήσομαι ἐν τῇ γῇ." ἡμῖν δὲ παραδηλῶν τίς οὗτός ἐστι, καὶ ὥσπερ συνευφραι νόμενος ἐπάγει "κύριος τῶν δυνάμεων μεθ' ἡμῶν, ἀντιλήπτωρ ἡμῶν ὁ θεὸς Ἰακώβ." τοῦ δὲ Ἰακὼβ τὴν μνήμην οὐχ ἁπλῶς ἐποιήσατο· ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ πρῶτος ἐκεῖνος τὴν τῶν ἐθνῶν προεθέσπισε κλῆσιν ("οὐκ ἐκλείψει" γάρ φησιν "ἄρχων ἐξ Ἰούδα, ἕως ἂν ἔλθοι ὃ ἀπόκειται, καὶ αὐτὸς προσδοκία ἐθνῶν"), τὴν μεταβο λὴν τῶν ἐθνῶν κἀνταῦθα προθεσπίζων, εἰκότως τὸν τοῦ Ἰακὼβ θεὸν