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a king having at first beautified the suburb, but having been filled in and made into land and having received a planting of both trees and vegetables by the emperor Heraclius, just as were also those of the imperial palaces that are inside, both the one before the Magnaura and the one between the triclinium of Justinian and that of the Ekthesis, which also themselves having abundant water and raising fish for the delight and sport of the emperors, were made into mainland by the same emperor for the construction of pleasure-gardens, because Stephen the mathematician, having busied himself with the nativity of the said emperor, said that he would die by water. For this reason, then, the cistern in Hiereia also having been changed into a pleasure-garden, the renowned emperor Basil, seeing that the place possessed sufficient and adequate spaces for plantings of pleasure-gardens, but was somewhat lacking in potable and clean water, again carrying out the earth with many hands and with zeal, he changed the meadow that a little before was seen luxuriant with plants into its ancient form, and instead of a pleasure-garden he made a receptacle of abundant and lasting water. And these are the things which the renowned emperor industriously and at the same time piously constructed in the imperial precincts; (93) but let the account now henceforth depart from the imperial palaces, and proceed to the next works of the emperor in both buildings and rebuildings of divine houses in this reigning city and the areas around it. 339 For seeing the urban and vulgar crowd that was in the marketplace, which is called the Forum, spending their time and being devoted to the necessities of life, and in not having a nearby house of prayer, falling into neglect of the care of their souls, he built a most beautiful and venerable temple to the Mother of God in the marketplace, so that it might be both a protection from rains and winters for the crowds and a delight and help for the salvation of their souls. And the other divine temple of the all-hymned Mother of God, the one in the Chalkoprateia of the all-venerable and holy reliquary, seeing that it was low and unlit, and having raised light-receiving apses on both sides and having lifted the roof to a seemly height, he illuminated it and made it shine with the gleams of light. And the divine temple of the first of the angels in the place called of Tzeros, and the philanthropic ministry and provision for the poor around it, it is he who provided for it, both brightening the temple and establishing and bringing it to the beauty now seen, and establishing the ministry in a state of self-sufficiency by the increase of revenues, and lavishing mercy upon the poor. And he raised up the very great temple of the hieromartyr Laurentius in the Pulcherianai, which had collapsed, filling it with much delightfulness. And he raised up about a hundred other sacred houses around the city, and he built new poorhouses and hostels, and he renewed very many of the old ones, both hospitals and homes for the aged and monasteries. 340 94 And not only in the city did he work at such tasks in a manner both God-loving and ambitious, but also outside it he showed similar diligence. with which also the temple of the apostle and evangelist John the Theologian in the so-called Hebdomon, which had suffered from time and been cast down, he raises up, having both adorned it with beauties and secured it with fortifications. And still also the nearby house of the Forerunner, which had fallen down very many years before and was a ruin instead of a temple, he clears of its rubble and earth, and with very swift building and care he makes it equal to the conspicuous and great ones. And the sanctuary of the chief of the apostles in Rhegion, which happened to be inaccessible because of its threatened collapse, he himself tore down and, rebuilding it new from its foundations, built it for his own perpetual and irreproachable memory. And in the regions lying above the river Bathyrsos

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καλλύναντος βα- σιλέως κατ' ἀρχὰς τὸ προάστειον, ὑπὸ δὲ τοῦ βασιλέως ̔Ηρακλείου συγχωσθεῖσαν καὶ γεωθεῖσαν καὶ καταφύτευσιν δεξαμένην δένδρων τε καὶ λαχάνων, καθάπερ καὶ αἱ τῶν βασιλικῶν παλατίων ουσαι ἐντός, η τε πρὸ τῆς Μαγναύρας καὶ ἡ μεταξὺ τοῦ τε ̓Ιουστινιανοῦ τρικλίνου καὶ τοῦ τῆς ̓Εκθέσεως, αιτινες καὶ αὐταὶ υδωρ αφθονον εχουσαι καὶ ἰχθύας πρὸς τέρψιν καὶ αγραν τῶν βασιλέων ἐκτρέ- φουσαι, ὑπὸ τοῦ αὐτοῦ βασιλέως ἠπειρωθεῖσαι εἰς παραδείσων κατασκευὴν ἐχρημάτισαν διὰ τὸ Στέφανον τὸν μαθηματικὸν τὴν γένεσιν τοῦ εἰρημένου βασιλέως πολυπραγμονήσαντα εἰπεῖν ἐξ υδα- τος αὐτὸν τελευτᾶν. διὰ τὴν τοιαύτην ουν αἰτίαν καὶ τῆς ἐν ̔Ιε- ρείᾳ κινστέρνης εἰς παράδεισον μεταμειφθείσης, ἰδὼν τὸ χωρίον ὁ ἀοίδιμος βασιλεὺς Βασίλειος πρὸς μὲν παραδείσων καταφυτεύσεις τόπους κεκτημένον ἀποχρῶντας καὶ ἱκανούς, ὑποσπανίζον δὲ υδα- τος ποτίμου καὶ καθαροῦ, αυθις ἐκφορήσας τὸν χοῦν πολυχειρίᾳ τε καὶ σπουδῇ τὸν ὁρώμενον πρὸ ὀλίγου λειμῶνα κομῶντα φυτοῖς εἰς τὸ ἀρχαῖον σχῆμα μετήγαγε, καὶ ἀντὶ παραδείσου δοχεῖον ἀπειρ- γάσατο υδατος ἀφθόνου τε καὶ διαρκοῦς. Καὶ ταῦτα μὲν οσα κατὰ τὰς βασιλείους περιοχὰς φιλοπόνως αμα καὶ εὐσεβῶς ὁ ἀοίδιμος βασιλεὺς ἐτεκτήνατο· (93) ἐξελθέτω δὲ τῶν βασιλείων ηδη λοιπὸν ὁ λόγος, καὶ χωρείτω πρὸς τὰ ἑξῆς τῶν κατὰ τὴν βασιλεύουσαν ταύτην πόλιν καὶ τὰ περὶ αὐτὴν ἐν οἰκοδομαῖς τε καὶ ἀνοικοδομαῖς θείων οικων εργα τοῦ αὐτοκράτο- 339 ρος. ὁρῶν γὰρ τὸν ἀστικὸν καὶ βάναυσον οχλον τὸν κατὰ τὴν ἀγοράν, η Φόρος προσαγορεύεται, διατρίβοντα καὶ προστετηκότα ταῖς χρείαις τοῦ βίου ἐν τῷ μὴ εχειν πλησίον οικον εὐκτήριον τῆς ψυχικῆς ἐπιμελείας λήθην λαμβάνοντα, ναὸν περικαλλῆ καὶ σε- βάσμιον τῇ θεομήτορι κατὰ τὴν ἀγορὰν ἐδείματο, ὡς αν καὶ ομ- βρων καὶ χειμώνων ειη τοῖς οχλοις ἀλέξημα καὶ ψυχικῆς σωτηρίας ἐντρύφημα καὶ βοήθημα. καὶ τὸν ετερον δὲ τῆς πανυμνήτου θεο- τόκου, τὸν ἐν τοῖς Χαλκοπρατείοις θεῖον ναὸν τῆς πανσέπτου καὶ ἁγίας σοροῦ, ταπεινὸν ἰδὼν καὶ ἀφώτιστον, καὶ φωτοδόχας ἑκα- τέρωθεν ἀναστήσας ἁψῖδας καὶ τὸ τέγος μετεωρίσας υψει εὐπρε- πείας κατηύγασεν καὶ μαρμαρυγαῖς φωτὸς κατηγλάϊσε. τὸν δὲ τοῦ πρώτου τῶν ἀγγέλων ἐν τοῖς Τζήρου λεγομένοις θεῖον ναὸν καὶ τὴν περὶ αὐτὸν φιλάνθρωπον εἰς τοὺς πένητας ὑπουργίαν καὶ χορηγίαν ἐκεῖνός ἐστιν ὁ περιποιησάμενος, καὶ τόν τε ναὸν φαι- δρύνας καὶ εἰς τὸ νῦν ὁρώμενον κάλλος περιστήσας καὶ ἀγαγών, καὶ τὴν διακονίαν εἰς τὸ ἀνενδεὲς τῇ τῶν προσόδων ἐπαυξήσει κα- ταστήσας, καὶ ἐπιδαψιλευσάμενος τὸν εἰς τοὺς πένητας ελεον. καὶ τὸν ἐν Πουλχεριαναῖς δὲ τοῦ ἱερομάρτυρος Λαυρεντίου μέγι- στον ναὸν συμπτωθέντα ἀνέστησε, πολλῆς ἐμπλήσας τερπνότητος. καὶ αλλους δὲ ἱεροὺς οικους ἀμφὶ τοὺς ἑκατὸν περὶ τὴν πόλιν ἀνέ- στησε, πτωχοτροφεῖά τε καὶ ξενῶνας ἐκαινούργησε, καὶ τῶν πα- λαιωθέντων πλεῖστα ἀνενέωσε, νοσοκομεῖά τε καὶ γηροκομεῖα καὶ μοναστήρια. 340 94 Οὐ κατὰ τὴν πόλιν δὲ μόνον τὰ τοιαῦτα τῶν εργων θεοφιλῶς τε αμα καὶ φιλοτίμως εἰργάζετο, ἀλλὰ καὶ ταύτης ἐκτὸς τὴν ὁμοίαν ἐπεδείκνυτο ἐπιμέλειαν. μεθ' ης καὶ τὸν τοῦ ἀποστό- λου καὶ εὐαγγελιστοῦ ̓Ιωάννου τοῦ θεολόγου ἐν τῷ καλουμένῳ ̔Εβ-δόμῳ ναὸν τῷ χρόνῳ πονήσαντα καὶ καταβληθέντα ἀνίστησι, καλ- λοναῖς τε ὡραΐσας καὶ ὀχυρώμασι κατασφαλισάμενος. ετι δὲ καὶ τὸν πλησιόχωρον αὐτοῦ τοῦ προδρόμου οικον, πρὸ πάνυ πολλῶν καταπτωθέντα χρόνων καὶ ἐρείπιον ἀντὶ ναοῦ χρηματίζοντα, περι- καθαίρει μὲν τῆς υλης καὶ τῶν χωμάτων, ταχίστῃ δὲ οἰκοδομῇ καὶ ἐπιμελείᾳ τῶν περιφανῶν καὶ μεγάλων ισον καθίστησι. τὸ δὲ τοῦ κορυφαίου τῶν ἀποστόλων τέμενος ἐν τῷ ̔Ρηγίῳ, διὰ τὴν ἀπειλουμένην πτῶσιν αβατον τυγχάνον, αὐτὸς καθελὼν καὶ ἐκ βά- θρων καινουργήσας ἐδείματο εἰς μνήμην αὐτοῦ διηνεκῆ τε καὶ ἀνεπίληστον. ἐν δὲ ταῖς τοῦ Βαθύρσου ποταμοῦ ὑπερκειμέναις