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to transfer that Germanus. 8..1 While these things were being done, the Romans, holding to their march, hastened their impetus toward Byzantium. But Germanus, surrounded by hoplites, held fast to the sanctuary. But the emperor sent out a multitude of the bodyguards, desiring to lead Germanus out of the church. Thereupon great anger 8..2 befell the city. Therefore Germanus was persuaded to withdraw from the precinct. Then the multitude of the city, having gathered, came to be around the forecourts of the sanctuary, and a certain man (Andreas was his name) of those occupied with sacred supplications shouted with a very great voice: "Return to the sanctuary, Germanus; save your own soul; death is what is being brought upon you." 8..3 <and> he persuaded Germanus to go again to the inner parts of the church. And the multitudes, having rushed together, blasphemed against the emperor and assailed Maurice with the greatest insults and enrolled him in the catalogue of the Marcianists; and this is a heresy with a certain foolish piety, both simple and 8..4 ridiculous. Therefore, as the disturbance was swelling, the citizens guarding the walls, having heard these things, bidding farewell to the guard 8..5, mingled with the seditious populace. Therefore, as the evil was surging everywhere in the city, with an irrational impulse, the multitudes furiously burned down the house of Constantine, 8..6 called Lardys, with all-consuming fire. This man happened to be one of the most distinguished in the senatorial council, and he was invested with the dignity of the patricians, and some time before had received from the emperor the command of the revenues of the East, whom the Romans are accustomed to name praetorian prefect. Maurice had him among the 8..7 foremost of his officials. Therefore, in the middle of the night, Maurice, having taken off his royal robe and put on the garment of a private citizen and having brought alongside a service boat (which the multitudes are accustomed to call a dromon) and having put money into it, embarked upon it together with his wife and children, and taking Constantine, 8..8 he looked to escape. But the multitudes, having slipped into tyranny, spent the whole night in evil deeds and composed songs with insults against Maurice. And they mocked the hierarch of that time, whom it is customary for the Romans to call patriarch; Cyriacus was his name. For in reality the multitude is uneducated and frenzied in its inclinations toward the worse, difficult to admonish and exceedingly uninitiated in what is advantageous. Therefore, when a very great storm had occurred, and a prodigious south wind blew against them, Maurice was barely saved at the church of Autonomus the martyr, about one hundred and fifty stades from the city of the emperor Constantine. 8..10 And diseases of arthritis befell him. And an unhappy abundance of this disease has always been established for those who inhabit the royal city; but I will not go through the causes, so that 8..11 I may not disfigure the history. Then Maurice sends out Theodosius to go to Chosroes and to beseech the barbarian for an alliance and to remind him of all the things that Maurice had accomplished for him when he was unfortunate, and to ask that the favor be counterbalanced in return, since his whole 8..12 house had fallen into the greatest danger. And Maurice also showed the ring and pledged that he should by no means make the return journey, unless he should see the ring again. So then Theodosius went to Nicaea. But Constantine, whom the multitudes called Lardys, also became his fellow traveler. 8..13 During this night a distinguished citizen (Hebdomites was his surname) and other lovers of the green color, having opened the gates of the wall, came to 8..14 the tyrant. But Germanus, having fallen into a love for kingship, and Theodore (this man was adorned with the rank of silentiarius) to Sergius

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Γερμανὸν ἐκεῖνον μεταγαγεῖν. 8..1 τούτων δὴ πραττομένων, οἱ ῾Ρωμαῖοι τῆς ὁδοιπορίας ἐχόμενοι ἐς Βυζάντιον τὰς ὁρμὰς ἐπιτείνουσιν. ὁ δὲ Γερμανὸς ὁπλίταις συμπεφραγμένος ἀπρὶξ εἴχετο τοῦ ἱεροῦ. ὁ δὲ αὐτοκράτωρ πλῆθος τῶν σωματοφυλάκων ἐξέπεμψεν ὑπεξάγειν τοῦ ναοῦ τὸν Γερμανὸν ὀρεγόμενος. ἐντεῦθεν θυμὸς μέγας 8..2 τῇ πόλει ἐνέσκηψεν. πείθεται τοίνυν ὁ Γερμανὸς τοῦ τεμένους ὑπεξελθεῖν. τὸ τοίνυν πλῆθος τῆς πόλεως ἀθροισθὲν περὶ τὰ προαύλια γίνεται τοῦ ἱεροῦ, καί τις ἀνήρ (᾿Ανδρέας ὄνομα αὐτῷ) τῶν περὶ τὰς ἱερὰς ἀπασχολουμένων λιτὰς μεγίστῃ φωνῇ κέκραγεν· "παλινδρόμει πρὸς τὸ ἱερόν, Γερμανέ· τὴν σεαυτοῦ σῶζε ψυχήν· θάνατός σοι τὸ ἐπαγόμενον." 8..3 <καὶ> πείθει τὸν Γερμανὸν μεταφοιτῆσαι πάλιν πρὸς τὰ ἐνδόμυχα τοῦ ναοῦ. τὰ δὲ πλήθη συρρεύσαντα ἐβλασφήμουν εἰς τὸν αὐτοκράτορα καὶ μεγίσταις ὕβρεσι τὸν Μαυρίκιον ἔβαλλον τῷ τε τῶν Μαρκιανιστῶν καταλόγῳ συνέταττον· αἵρεσις δὲ αὕτη μετά τινος μωρᾶς εὐλαβείας εὐήθης τε καὶ 8..4 καταγέλαστος. σφριγῶντος τοιγαροῦν τοῦ ταράχου, οἱ τὰ τείχη διαφρουροῦντες δημόται τούτων ἀκηκοότες, τῇ φρουρᾷ 8..5 χαίρειν εἰπόντες ἀναμίγνυνται τῷ λαῷ τῷ στασιάζοντι. πανταχοῦ τοιγαροῦν τῇ πόλει περικυμαίνοντος τοῦ κακοῦ, ἀλογίστῳ ὁρμῇ καταμανῶς τὰ πλήθη τὴν οἰκίαν Κωνσταντίνου τοῦ 8..6 λεγομένου Λαρδῦ τῷ παμφάγῳ πυρὶ καταφλέγουσιν. ἀνὴρ δὲ οὗτος ἐτύγχανεν ὢν τῶν ἐς συγκλήτου βουλὴν ἐπιφανέστατος, τήν τε τῶν πατρικίων ἀξίαν περιεβέβλητο οὗτος, καὶ τὴν ἡγεμονίαν τῶν φόρων τῆς ἑῴας πρό τινος καιροῦ ὑπὸ τοῦ αὐτοκράτορος ἀπειλήφει, ὃν ἔπαρχον πραιτωρίων εἰώθασιν ὀνομάζειν ῾Ρωμαῖοι. τοῦτον ὁ Μαυρίκιος ἐν τοῖς 8..7 προτερεύουσι τῶν ἀρχόντων ἐκέκτητο. τοιγαροῦν μεσούσης νυκτὸς τὴν βασίλειον στολὴν ἀποδυσάμενος ὁ Μαυρίκιος καὶ ἰδιώτου ἐσθῆτα περιβαλόμενος τήν τε ὑπηρέτιν ὁλκάδα παραστησάμενος (δρόμωνα δὲ ταύτην εἰώθασι τὰ πλήθη ἀποκαλεῖν) καὶ χρήματα ἐς αὐτὴν ἐμβαλὼν ἅμα τῷ γυναίῳ καὶ τοῖς παισὶν ἐπ' αὐτῆς ἐπιβαίνει, τόν τε Κωνσταντῖνον ἀναλαβὼν 8..8 πρὸς ἀπόδρασιν εἶδεν. τὰ δὲ πλήθη ἐπὶ τὴν τυραννίδα κατολισθήσαντα κατεπαννυχίζοντο τοῖς κακοῖς καὶ ἐς τὸν Μαυρίκιον ἐρραψῴδουν μεθ' ὕβρεως ᾄσματα. ἐπέσκωπτόν τε καὶ τὸν ἱεράρχην τὸ τηνικαῦτα καιροῦ, ὃν πατριάρχην 8.. σύνηθες ῾Ρωμαίοις ἀποκαλεῖν· Κυριακὸς ὄνομα αὐτῷ. τῷ ὄντι γὰρ τὸ πλῆθος ἀπαίδευτον καὶ πρὸς τὸ χεῖρον ταῖς τροπαῖς ἐμμανές, δυσνουθέτητόν τε καὶ τοῦ συνοίσοντος λίαν ἀμύητον. λαίλαπος τοιγαροῦν γεγονυίας μεγίστης, ἐξαισίου τε νότου προσπνεύσαντος, μόλις ὁ Μαυρίκιος διασώζεται ἐπὶ τὸν νεὼν Αὐτονόμου τοῦ μάρτυρος, ὡς ἀπὸ σταδίων ἑκατὸν καὶ πεντήκοντα τῆς πόλεως Κωνσταντίνου τοῦ αὐτο8..10 κράτορος. ἐπιγίνονται δὲ αὐτῷ νόσοι ἀρθρίτιδες. ταύτης δὲ τῆς νόσου εὐθένεια καθέστηκε δυστυχὴς τοῖς τὸ βασίλειον ἄστυ κατοικοῦσι διὰ παντός· τὰς δὲ αἰτίας οὐ δίειμι, ἵνα 8..11 μὴ τὴν ἱστορίαν παραμορφώσωμαι. τότε Μαυρίκιος ἐξαποστέλλει τὸν Θεοδόσιον ὡς τὸν Χοσρόην γενέσθαι καὶ περὶ συμμαχίας καθικετεῦσαι τὸν βάρβαρον ἀναμιμνήσκειν τε καὶ ὅσα περ αὐτῷ δυστυχήσαντι Μαυρίκιος διελύσατο, ἀξιοῦν τε ἀμοιβαίαν τὴν χάριν ἀντιταλαντεύεσθαι, ὅλης ὁμοῦ τῆς 8..12 οἰκίας ἐν μεγίστῳ καταπεπτωκυίας κινδύνῳ. ὑπεδείκνυε δὲ καὶ τὸν δακτύλιον ὁ Μαυρίκιος παρενεγύα τε μηδαμῶς ποιήσασθαι τὴν ἀνάζευξιν, εἰ μή πού γε αὖθις θεάσοιτο τὸν δακτύλιον. οὕτω μὲν οὖν ὁ Θεοδόσιος ἐπὶ τὴν Νίκαιαν γίνεται. ἀλλὰ καὶ συνέκδημος γίνεται αὐτῷ Κωνσταντῖνος, ὃν τὰ πλήθη Λαρδῦν κατωνόμαζον. 8..13 Κατὰ ταύτην τὴν νύκτα ἀνὴρ δημότης ἐπίσημος (῾Εβδομίτης δὲ ἦν αὐτῷ τὸ ἐπώνυμον) καὶ ἕτεροι τοῦ χλοάζοντος χρώματος ἐρασταὶ τὰς πύλας τοῦ τείχους ἀναπετάσαντες πρὸς 8..14 τὸν τύραννον παραγίνονται. ὁ δὲ Γερμανὸς ἐς βασιλείας καταπεπτωκὼς ἔρωτα, καὶ Θεόδωρον (σιλεντιαρίου δὲ οὗτος στρατεύματι ἐκεκόσμητο) πρὸς τὸν Σέργιον