133

DISCOURSE 17. IN THE TIMES OF THE EMPEROR JUSTIN. And after the reign of Anastasius, the most divine Justin reigned, a Thracian from Bederiana, in the consulship of Magnus, on the ninth of the month of July, in the eleventh indiction; whom the army of the palace guards, the Excubitors, by the command of God, along with the people, crowned and made emperor; for he was count of the Excubitors. He reigned for nine years and twenty-two days. In age he was in his late sixties, well-built, with curly hair, completely grey, with a fine nose, somewhat reddish, handsome, worn out by wars, ambitious, but illiterate. As soon as he began to reign, he put to death Amantius his praepositus and Andrew his cubicularius, the Lausiacus, and Theocritus the count, the domesticus of the same Amantius; whom the same Amantius had planned to make emperor, having given money to the same Justin to distribute as a donative, so that Theocritus might become emperor; 411 and he distributed it. The army and the people, therefore, having received it, did not choose to make Theocritus emperor, but by the will of God made Justin emperor. And after he began to reign, he killed those who had wanted to plot against his rule inside the palace. The same emperor recalled the patrician Appion and Diogenianus and Philoxenus, who were senators, sent into exile by the emperor before him; and he made Appion praetorian prefect and Diogenianus magister militum of the East, and after a time he also made Philoxenus consul. And in the beginning of his reign a fearful star rose in the east, by name a comet, which had a ray pointing downwards, which they said was a bearded star; and they were afraid. The same emperor immediately also won over Vitalian, who had rebelled against the emperor Anastasius and the state, and he made him magister militum praesentalis. In the first year of his reign, Severus the patriarch of Antioch fled to Egypt, fearing Vitalian; and in his place Paul became patriarch, from the hospices of Eubulus. He inscribed the six hundred and thirty bishops of the Council of Chalcedon in the diptychs of the churches of each city; and because of this a great schism occurred, and many did not comm 412 une with him, saying that the adherents of the council held the opinions of Nestorius. And during his reign, the hippodrome games were given to the Seleucians and Isaurians. And at that time a certain woman appeared from the country of Cilicia, of gigantic stature, exceeding an ordinary person in both length and breadth by one cubit; who, begging, went through the whole Roman state; and the same was found also in Antioch the Great; who received from each workshop one follis. The same emperor Justin designated Vitalian, magister militum praesentalis, as consul, who came forth as consul of the Romans; and while he was serving as consul, after his first mappa, the same Vitalian was slain in the palace, as one who had rebelled against the Romans and plundered many cities and lands of Romania. And during his reign, Zathius, the king of the Lazi, grew angry and departed from the Persian territories while Koades was king of the Persians and was a friend of the same Zathius, king of the Lazi, as he had once been subject to the kingdom of the same Koades; for which reason also if it happened that one of the kings of the Lazi died, he was appointed and cro 413 wned by the king of the Persians, from the race of the Lazi themselves, however; but the same king of the Lazi, having fled the doctrine of the Greeks because he had not been appointed

133

ΛΟΓΟΣ ΙΖʹ ΧΡΟΝΩΝ ΙΟΥΣΤΙΝΟΥ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ. Μετὰ δὲ τὴν βασιλείαν Ἀναστασίου ἐβασίλευσεν ὁ θειότατος Ἰουστῖνος, ἀπὸ Βεδεριάνας ὢν Θρᾴξ, ἐπὶ τῆς ὑπατείας Μάγνου, μηνὶ ἰουλίῳ θʹ, ἰνδικτιῶνι ἑνδεκάτῃ· ὅντινα ὁ στρατὸς τῶν φυλαττόντων τὸ παλάτιον κελεύσει θεοῦ ἐξκουβιτόρων ἅμα τῷ δήμῳ στέψαντες ἐποίησαν βασιλέα· ἦν γὰρ κόμης ἐξκουβιτόρων. ἐβασίλευσε δὲ ἔτη θʹ καὶ ἡμέρας εἰκοσιδύο. τῇ δὲ ἡλικίᾳ ἦν διμοιριαῖος, εὔστηθος, οὖλος, ὁλοπόλιος, εὔρινος, ὑπόπυῤῥος, εὔμορφος, ἐν πολέμοις κοπωθείς, φιλότιμος, ἀγράμματος δέ. ἢ μόνον δὲ ἐβασίλευσεν, ἀνεῖλεν Ἀμάντιον τὸν πραιπόσιτον αὐτοῦ καὶ Ἀνδρέαν τὸν κουβικουλάριον αὐτοῦ τὸν Λαυσιακὸν καὶ Θεόκριτον τὸν κόμητα τὸν τοῦ αὐτοῦ Ἀμαντίου δομέστικον· ὅντινα ἐβουλεύετο ποιῆσαι βασιλέα ὁ αὐτὸς Ἀμάντιος, δοὺς τῷ αὐτῷ Ἰουστίνῳ χρήματα ῥογεῦσαι, ἵνα γένηται Θεόκριτος βασιλεύς· 411 καὶ ἐῤῥόγευσεν. ὁ στρατὸς οὖν καὶ ὁ δῆμος λαβὼν οὐχ εἵλατο Θεόκριτον ποιῆσαι βασιλέα, ἀλλὰ θελήσει θεοῦ ἐποίησαν Ἰουστῖνον βασιλέα. μετὰ δὲ τὸ βασιλεῦσαι αὐτὸν τοὺς βουληθέντας ἐπιβουλεῦσαι τῇ αὐτοῦ βασιλείᾳ ἐφόνευσεν ἔσω ἐν τῷ παλατίῳ. Ὁ δὲ αὐτὸς βασιλεὺς ἀνεκαλέσατο τὸν πατρίκιον Ἀππίωνα καὶ ∆ιογενιανὸν καὶ Φιλόξενον, ὄντας συγκλητικούς, ἐν ἐξορίᾳ πεμφθέντας παρὰ τοῦ πρὸ αὐτοῦ βασιλέως· καὶ ἐποίησεν Ἀππίωνα ἔπαρχον πραιτωρίων καὶ ∆ιογενιανὸν στρατηλάτην ἀνατολῆς, καὶ Φιλόξενον δὲ μετὰ χρόνον ἐποίησεν ὕπατον. Ἐν δὲ τῇ ἀρχῇ τῆς αὐτοῦ βασιλείας ἀνῆλθεν ἐν τῇ ἀνατολῇ φοβερὸς ἀστήρ, ὀνόματι κομήτης, ὃς εἶχεν ἀκτῖνα πέμπουσαν ἐπὶ τὰ κάτω, ὃν ἔλεγον εἶναι πωγωνίαν· καὶ ἐφοβοῦντο. Ὁ δὲ αὐτὸς βασιλεὺς εὐθέως προετρέψατο καὶ Βιταλιανὸν τὸν τυραννήσαντα Ἀναστασίῳ τῷ βασιλεῖ καὶ τῇ πολιτείᾳ, καὶ ἐποίησεν αὐτὸν στρατηλάτην πραισέντου. Τῷ δὲ πρώτῳ ἔτει τῆς βασιλείας αὐτοῦ ἔφυγε Σέβηρος ὁ πατριάρχης Ἀντιοχείας εἰς Αἴγυπτον, φοβηθεὶς Βιταλιανόν· καὶ ἐγένετο ἀντ' αὐτοῦ Παῦλος πατριάρχης ὁ ἀπὸ ξενοδόχων τῶν Εὐβούλου. ὅστις τοὺς τῆς συνόδου Χαλκηδόνος ἑξακοσίους τριάκοντα ἐπισκόπους ἐνέταξε τοῖς διπτύχοις τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν ἑκάστης πόλεως· καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἐγένετο σχίσμα μέγα, καὶ οὐκ ἐκοι 412 νώνουν αὐτῷ πολλοί, λέγοντες ὅτι οἱ τῆς συνόδου ἀκολουθοῦντες τὰ Νεστορίου φρονοῦσιν. Ἐπὶ δὲ τῆς αὐτοῦ βασιλείας τὰ ἱπποδρόμια παρεσχέθη τοῖς Σελευκέσι καὶ Ἰσαύροις. καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ χρόνῳ ἀνεφάνη γυνή τις ἐκ τῆς χώρας τῆς Κιλικίας γιγαντογενὴς ὑπάρχουσα τὴν ἡλικίαν, εἰς μῆκός τε καὶ πλάτος ἄνθρωπον ὑπερτέλειον πῆχυν ἕνα· ἥτις προσαιτοῦσα περιῆλθε πᾶσαν τὴν Ῥωμαίων πολιτείαν· εὑρέθη δὲ ἡ αὐτὴ καὶ ἐν Ἀντιοχείᾳ τῇ μεγάλῃ· ἥτις ἐκομίζετο ἀπὸ ἑκάστου ἐργαστηρίου φόλλιν μίαν. Ὁ δὲ αὐτὸς Ἰουστῖνος βασιλεὺς ἐδισιγνάτευσεν ὕπατον στρατηλάτην πραισέντου Βιταλιανόν, ὅστις προῆλθεν ὕπατος Ῥωμαίων· καὶ ἐν τῷ ὑπατεύειν αὐτὸν μετὰ τὴν πρώτην αὐτοῦ μάππαν ἐσφάγη ὁ αὐτὸς Βιταλιανὸς ἐν τῷ παλατίῳ, ὡς τυραννήσας Ῥωμαίους καὶ πολλὰς πόλεις καὶ χώρας τῆς Ῥωμανίας πραιδεύσας. Ἐπὶ δὲ τῆς αὐτοῦ βασιλείας Ζτάθιος ὁ τῶν Λαζῶν βασιλεὺς μηνιάσας καὶ ἀναχωρήσας ἀπὸ τῶν Περσικῶν μερῶν βασιλεύοντος Περσῶν Κωάδου καὶ φίλου ὄντος τοῦ αὐτοῦ Ζταθίου, βασιλέως Λαζῶν, ὡς ἅπαξ ὑποκειμένου τῇ βασιλείᾳ τοῦ αὐτοῦ Κωάδου· διὸ καὶ εἰ συνέβη τινὰ τελευτῆσαι τῶν βασιλέων Λαζῶν, ὑπὸ τοῦ Περσῶν βασιλέως προεχειρίζετο καὶ ἐστέφε 413 το, ἐκ τοῦ γένους μέντοι τῶν αὐτῶν Λαζῶν· ὁ δὲ αὐτὸς βασιλεὺς Λαζῶν φυγὼν τὸ τῶν Ἑλλήνων δόγμα διὰ τὸ μὴ προχειρισθέντα αὐτὸν