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grain and selling this for a high price to the starving, not caring that he was cursed by the people, but rather boasting as if he were a benefactor to his subjects, because he was selling two medimnoi for a nomisma, and this while having the example of Basil the Macedonian, who not so very long ago had shown great generosity in the face of such a shortage. For that emperor was once going out, making his customary procession to the church of the Holy Apostles, and seeing some of the men of the city showing a rather solemn disposition and looking gloomy, he asked the reason for their gloominess. And they said, "And how could we not be gloomy, master, seeing death hanging over us, we who are buying two medimnoi of grain for a gold nomisma?" Hearing this, he groaned aloud and both relieved their dejection with money, and reviled and cursed those entrusted with the civil offices because they had not informed him of the shortage; and straightway he ordered the imperial granaries to be opened 515 and twelve medimnoi of grain to be sold for one nomisma. But while that action was kingly for him, for the king now being chronicled it was very much that of a petty retailer, who, seeing his subjects oppressed by famine, did not help, but rather even reveled in their misfortunes and was scratching at the wounds of the victims of the famine. And the emperor's brother, Leo, no less oppressed both the people of the city and the inhabitants of the countryside, he too engaging in petty retail. So they were thus disposed towards the sufferers, while the people mocked the ruler on account of these things. For once when the emperor was reviewing newly recruited soldiers, since a gray-haired man was also numbered among them, the emperor said to him, "How is it, man, that you, being an old man, enlist yourself among the soldiers?" And he immediately replied wittily, "I am much stronger now than when I was in my prime, master; for then I could not have shouldered even half a nomisma's worth of grain, but now I will more easily lift two nomismata's worth of grain on my shoulders." So the emperor understood the irony, but bearing it calmly, he moved on to another. 516 And Nikephoros, who before had been very amorously disposed towards Theophano, afterwards abstained from intercourse with her, either having had his fill of it or abstaining from union out of self-control; for not even as a very young man was he at all prone to love affairs. But she, hating her husband because of his lack of intercourse or also fearing for her sons (for it was being whispered by some that Nikephoros wanted to deprive the royal boys of their reproductive organs and make his brother Leo emperor), came secretly into talks with Tzimiskes, either captured by love for the man (for he was distinguished in beauty and gave off the graces of his appearance), or also having judged him a worthy counterweight to Nikephoros, and as some say, she even came into intercourse with the man and incited him against Nikephoros and, in the words of the proverb, set a ball rolling downhill. For John was also otherwise angry with the emperor, because he, persuaded by his brother who was envious of this man, both considered the man suspect and, having removed him from his military command, transferred him to a civil one, appointing him Logothete of the Drome, which was reckoned by him not as a position of power, but as a punishment, and 517 a heavy one at that. Then adding to the man's degradation, he also ordered him to stay at home; for these reasons John was enraged. And when he found that wanton woman inciting him, and after she had arranged for him also a return by imperial order, he embarked on the usurpation, having the empress as a co-conspirator, and at the same time he revealed the secret to those he trusted and at the same time he put his hand to the deed and taking them with him in the dead of night he arrived at the southern sea of the palace; the place is called Boukoleon, because there is a stone lion in it, mounted upon a like bull and with its left foot holding its horn, twisting the neck of the bull. Arriving there, he sees a basket let down from above and through it he and those with him are drawn up by the maidservants of Theophano. And they were Bourtzes

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σῖτον καὶ πολλοῦ τοῦτον ἀποδιδόμενος τοῖς λιμώττουσι, μηδὲ φροντίζων ὅτι δημοκατάρατος ἦν, ἀλλ' αὐχῶν μᾶλλον ὡς εὐεργετῶν τὸ ὑπήκοον, ὅτι δύο μεδίμνους ἐπίπρασκε τῷ νομίσματι, καὶ ταῦτα παράδειγμα ἔχων τὸν Μακεδόνα Βασίλειον, οὔπω πάνυ πρῴην μεγαλοπρέπειαν πρὸς τοιαύτην ἔνδειαν ἐνδειξάμενον. ἀπῄει γάρ ποτε ὁ αὐτοκράτωρ ἐκεῖνος, συνήθη ποιούμενος πρόοδον εἰς τὸν τῶν ἁγίων ἀποστόλων ναόν, καί τινας τῶν τῆς πόλεως ἄνδρας ὑπόσεμνον δεικνύντας κατάστημα θεασάμενος σκυθρωπάζοντας ἤρετο τὴν αἰτίαν τῆς σκυθρωπότητος. οἱ δέ "καὶ πῶς οὐκ ἂν σκυθρωπάζοιμεν" ἔφασαν "δέσποτα, ἐπηρτημένον ἡμῖν ὁρῶντες τὸν θάνατον, οἵ γε δύο μεδίμνους σίτου εἰς νόμισμα χρυσοῦν ἐξωνούμεθα;" τοῦτο ἀκούσας ἐκεῖνος ἀνῴμωξε καὶ τοῖς μὲν χρήμασι τὴν κατήφειαν ἔλυσε, τοῖς δὲ τὰς πολιτικὰς ἐγκεχειρισμένοις ἀρχὰς ἐλοιδορήσατό τε καὶ ἐπηράσατο, ὅτι μὴ αὐτὸν τὰ τῆς ἐνδείας ἐδίδαξαν· καὶ εὐθὺς τοὺς βασιλικοὺς σιτῶνας ἀνοιγῆναι 515 ἐκέλευσε καὶ δώδεκα μεδίμνους σίτου νομίσματος ἑνὸς ἀποδίδοσθαι. ἀλλ' ἐκείνῳ μὲν ἡ πρᾶξις αὕτη βασιλική, τῷ δ' ἱστορουμένῳ νῦν βασιλεῖ καὶ λίαν καπηλική, ὃς τῷ λιμῷ τὸ ὑπήκοον ὁρῶν πιεζόμενον οὐκ ἐπήμυνεν, ἀλλὰ μέντοι καὶ ἐνετρύφα ταῖς αὐτοῦ συμφοραῖς καὶ τοῖς τοῦ λιμοῦ τραυματίαις ἐπιξαίνων ὑπῆρχε τὰ τραύματα. καὶ ὁ τοῦ βασιλέως δὲ ἀδελφὸς ὁ Λέων οὐχ ἧττον ἔθλιβε τόν τε δῆμον τῆς πόλεως καὶ τοὺς οἰκήτορας τῶν χωρῶν, καπηλείας καὶ αὐτὸς μετιών. οἱ μὲν οὖν οὕτω διέκειντο πρὸς τοὺς πάσχοντας, οἱ δὲ πρὸς τὸν κρατοῦντα διὰ ταῦτα ἀπέσκωπτον. ποτὲ γὰρ νεολέκτους στρατιώτας ὁρῶντος τοῦ βασιλέως, ἐπεὶ καί τις τούτοις συνηρίθμητο πολιός, ἔφη πρὸς ἐκεῖνον ὁ αὐτοκράτωρ "πῶς τοῖς στρατιώταις, ἄνθρωπε, γέρων ὢν συγκαταλέγεις σαυτόν;" ὁ δ' αὐτίκα εὐφυῶς ἀντεφθέγξατο ὡς "πολὺ δυνατώτερος νῦν εἰμι ἢ ὅτε ἤκμαζον, δέσποτα· τότε γὰρ οὐδ' ἡμίσεως ἂν ἐπωμισάμην σῖτον νομίσματος, νῦν δὲ ῥᾷον καὶ δύο νομισμάτων σῖτον ἐπὶ τῶν ὤμων ἀρῶ." συνῆκε μὲν οὖν τὴν εἰρωνείαν ὁ βασιλεύς, ἀταράχως δὲ ταύτην ἐνεγκὼν μετέστη πρὸς ἕτερον. 516 Ἐρωτικῶς δὲ σφόδρα πρὶν διακείμενος ὁ Νικηφόρος πρὸς τὴν Θεοφανὼ μετέπειτα τῆς πρὸς αὐτὴν συνουσίας ἀπείχετο, ἢ κορεσθεὶς ταύτης ἢ καὶ δι' ἐγκράτειαν μίξεως ἀπεχόμενος· οὐδὲ γὰρ πάνυ τι καὶ νέος ὢν πρὸς ἔρωτας ἐτύγχανεν εὐκατάφορος. ἡ δὲ μισήσασα τὸν ἄνδρα διὰ τὸ ἀνομίλητον ἢ καὶ περὶ τοῖς υἱέσι δείσασα (ἦν γάρ τισιν ὑποτονθορυζόμενον βούλεσθαι τὸν Νικηφόρον τὰ βασιλείδια τῶν παιδογόνων στερῆσαι μορίων καὶ τὸν ἀδελφὸν βασιλεῦσαι τὸν Λέοντα) εἰς λόγους ἦλθε λάθρᾳ τῷ Τζιμισκῇ, ἢ ἔρωτι τοῦ ἀνδρὸς ἁλοῦσα (ἦν γὰρ τῷ κάλλει διαπρεπὴς καὶ τοῦ εἴδους χάριτας ἀφιείς), ἢ καὶ ἀξιόχρεων τοῦτον τῷ Νικηφόρῳ λογισαμένη ἀντίρροπον, ὡς δέ τινές φασι, καὶ εἰς συνουσίαν ἐλήλυθε τῷ ἀνδρὶ καὶ κατὰ τοῦ Νικηφόρου ἠρέθισε καὶ τὸ τῆς παροιμίας σφαῖραν ἀφῆκε κατὰ πρανοῦς. ἦν γὰρ καὶ ἄλλως ὁ Ἰωάννης τῷ βασιλεῖ μηνιῶν, ὅτι τῷ ἀδελφῷ πειθόμενος ἐκεῖνος βασκαίνοντι τούτῳ ὕποπτόν τε τὸν ἄνδρα ἐνόμιζε καὶ τῆς στρατιωτικῆς ἀρχῆς παύσας αὐτὸν εἰς πολιτικὴν μετατίθησι, λογοθέτην τοῦ δρόμου προχειρισάμενος, ὃ οὐκ εἰς δυναστείαν, ἀλλ' εἰς τιμωρίαν καὶ 517 ταύτην βαρεῖαν ἐκείνῳ λελόγιστο. εἶτα τῇ κακώσει τοῦ ἀνδρὸς προστιθεὶς καὶ οἴκοι μένειν ἐκέλευσε· διὰ ταῦτα ἐμηνία ὁ Ἰωάννης. ὡς δὲ καὶ τὴν μαχλάδα ἐκείνην εὕρηκεν αὐτὸν παραθήγουσαν, διαπραξαμένην δέ οἱ καὶ κάθοδον κελεύσει βασιλικῇ, τῇ τυραννίδι ἐπέθετο, συμπράττουσαν ἔχων καὶ τὴν βασίλισσαν, καὶ ἅμα τε οἷς ἐθάρρει τὸ ἀπόρρητον ἐξεκάλυψε καὶ ἅμα τῷ ἔργῳ ἐπικεχείρηκε καὶ προσλαβόμενος αὐτοὺς ἀωρὶ τῶν νυκτῶν ἐπὶ τὴν νοτίαν θάλασσαν τῶν βασιλείων ἀφίκετο· Βουκολέων ὁ τόπος ὠνόμασται, ὅτι λίθινος λέων ἐστὶν ἐν αὐτῷ βοὸς ἐπιβεβηκὼς ὁμοίου καὶ τῷ εὐωνύμῳ ποδὶ κατέχοντι τὸ κέρας αὐτοῦ περιστρέφων τὸν αὐχένα τὸν τοῦ βοός. ἔνθα γενόμενος σαργάνην τε καθειμένην ἄνωθεν καθορᾷ καὶ δι' αὐτῆς ἀνιμᾶται παρὰ θεραπαινῶν τῆς Θεοφανοῦς καὶ αὐτὸς καὶ οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ. ἦσαν δὲ ὁ Βούρτζης