139

at lunch, and he returned with the emperor in the palace. But Samonas, 376 seeing the emperor's affection for Constantine growing, composed a note with the chief chamberlain and Michael Tzirithon, containing countless slanders against the emperor, having composed this through Constantine of Rhodes, the same secretary; which they threw in the changing-room. And when the emperor had entered the great church and was in the changing-room itself, and in the place where he was praying found this and read it, he was overcome with much grief, and he sought the one who had done this. (30) There was a lunar eclipse. And the emperor summoned Pantaleon, the metropolitan of Synnada, to learn from him the result of the eclipse; as he was approaching the emperor, Samonas asked him, "Against whom is the affliction?" And he said, "Against you; and if you get through the thirteenth of June, you will suffer no evil thereafter." But to the emperor he said that the eclipse would fall upon the second person. And the emperor suspected that this would befall Alexander, his own brother. But Tzirithon, after this, privately confessed to the emperor that Samonas had made the note. Immediately, therefore, he sends Samonas down to his house and tonsures him a monk and leads him away to the monastery of Martinakios. And he made Constantine parakoimomenos, and built for him a monastery at Nosiai, and arriving together with Euthymios the patriarch, he consecrated it. 31 And in the month of October a naval battle took place between Himerios the logo- 377 thete and Damian and Leo of the Hagarenes, while Romanos, who afterwards became emperor, was strategos in Samos. Himerios was defeated and barely saved, nearly all of those with him having been endangered. 32 Having fallen ill with a stomach ailment, Leo the emperor came to a state of extreme weakness, so that he was barely able, according to the imperial custom, to deliver a public address on the day of continence: "You see me emaciated and worn out by sickness; perhaps I will no longer celebrate the resurrection of Christ with you." There was also a fire in the candle-store of the great church, the places and chart-stores of the patriarchal sacristy having been burned. And on May 11, the 3rd day, in the 15th indiction, Leo the emperor died, having handed over the empire to Alexander his brother; upon seeing him, as they say, coming towards him he said, "Behold, the evil time after thirteen months." And he enjoined many things upon him, beseeching him to guard his son Constantine.

{1THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER, SON OF BASIL.}1 Alexander reigned for one year and 22 days with Constantine, the son

of Leo. And having sent, he brought Nicholas from Galakrenai, having brought down Euthymios from the patriarchate, and he enthroned 378 the same Nicholas for the second time. And after holding a silentium in the Magnaura, Alexander brought down Euthymios from the monastery of Agathos, and sitting together with Nicholas, they carried out his deposition. And immediately, like savage beasts leaping upon the venerable man, they plucked his revered beard and pushed him by the neck and inflicted other unbearable punishments upon him, calling him an intruder and an adulterer and one who had leaped upon another's wife. But that holy and reverend man bore everything meekly and quietly. Therefore, having been sent into exile at the monastery of Agathos, and having met the end of his life, he is buried in the city in his own monastery. But the cleric of the patriarch who had plucked his grey hairs in the Magnaura when he was being exiled, upon returning to his house, at that very hour his house was given over to an unseen fire. And he also found

139

ἀρίστῳ, καὶ ὑπέστρεψεν μετὰ τοῦ βασιλέως ἐν τῷ παλατίῳ. ὁρῶν δὲ Σαμωνᾶς 376 τὴν τοῦ βασιλέως ἀγάπην πρὸς Κωνσταντῖνον αὐξανομένην, πιττά- κιον συντίθησι μετὰ μεγίστου κοιτωνίτου καὶ Μιχαὴλ Τζιρήθωνος λοιδορίας κατὰ βασιλέως εχον ἀπείρους, διὰ τοῦ ̔Ροδίου Κωνσταν- τίνου τοῦ αὐτοῦ ὑπογραφέως τοῦτο συντάξαντες· οπερ ἐν τῷ μη- τατορίῳ ερριψαν. τοῦ δὲ βασιλέως εἰσεληλυθότος ἐν τῇ μεγάλῃ ἐκκλησίᾳ καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ μητατορίῳ γενομένου, καὶ ἐν ῳ ηυχετο τόπῳ τοῦτο εὑρηκὼς καὶ ἀναγνοὺς πολλῇ θλίψει κατεσκεδάσθη, καὶ ἐζήτει τὸν τοῦτο πεποιηκότα. (30) γέγονε δὲ εκλειψις σελη- νιακή. ὁ δὲ βασιλεὺς τὸν μητροπολίτην Συννάδων Πανταλέοντα προσεκαλέσατο, μαθεῖν παρ' αὐτοῦ τὸ τῆς ἐκλείψεως ἀποτέλε- σμα· ον προσερχόμενον πρὸς τὸν βασιλέα ὁ Σαμωνᾶς ἠρώτησεν "εἰς τίνα ἡ κάκωσις;" ὁ δὲ εφη "εἰς σέ· καὶ ἐὰν τὴν ̓Ιουνίου τρισκαιδεκάτην διέλθῃς, οὐδὲν εκτοτε πείσῃ κακόν." πρὸς δὲ τὸν βασιλέα ειπεν ὡς εἰς τὸ δεύτερον πρόσωπον ἡ εκλειψις ἀποσκήψει. ὁ δὲ βασιλεὺς ὑπώπτευσεν τοῦτο εἰς ̓Αλέξανδρον τὸν ἑαυτοῦ ἀδελ- φὸν ἀποβήσεσθαι. ὁ δὲ Τζιρήθων ἰδίᾳ τῷ βασιλεῖ μετὰ ταῦτα καθωμολόγησεν ὡς ὁ Σαμωνᾶς ειη τὸ πιττάκιον πεποιηκώς. παρ- ευθὺ ουν καταβιβάζει Σαμωνᾶν εἰς τὸν οικον αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀποκεί- ρει μοναχὸν καὶ ἀπάγει αὐτὸν εἰς τὴν τοῦ Μαρτινακίου μονήν. ἐποίησεν δὲ Κωνσταντῖνον παρακοιμώμενον, καὶ εκτισεν αὐτῷ μονὴν ἐν Νοσιαῖς, καὶ παραγενόμενος αμα Εὐθυμίῳ πατριάρχῃ ἐνεκαίνισεν αὐτήν. 31 ̓Οκτωβρίῳ δὲ μηνὶ ναυμαχία γέγονεν ̔Ημερίου λογο- 377 θέτου μετὰ ∆αμιανοῦ καὶ Λέοντος τῶν ̓Αγαρηνῶν, στρατηγοῦντος ἐν Σάμῳ ̔Ρωμανοῦ τοῦ μετὰ ταῦτα βασιλεύσαντος. ἡττήθη ̔Ημέ-ριος καὶ μόλις διεσώθη, σχεδὸν ἁπάντων τῶν μετ' αὐτοῦ κεκιν- δυνευκότων. 32 Κοιλιακῷ δὲ νοσήματι περιπεπτωκὼς Λέων ὁ βασι- λεὺς εἰς ἀδυναμίαν ηλθεν ἐσχάτην, ωστε μόλις δυνηθῆναι αὐτὸν κατὰ τὸν βασιλικὸν τύπον ἐν τῷ τῆς ἐγκρατείας δημηγορήσαντα· "ὁρᾶτε κατεσκληκότα με καὶ νόσῳ τρυχόμενον· οὐκέτι τάχα μεθ' ὑμῶν καταλήψομαι τὴν τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἀνάστασιν." γέγονε δὲ καὶ ἐμπρησμὸς εἰς τὰ τῆς μεγάλης ἐκκλησίας κηρουλάρια, καέντων τῶν τοποθεσιῶν καὶ χαρτοθεσιῶν τῆς πατριαρχικῆς σακέλλης. Μαΐῳ δὲ ιαʹ, ἡμέρᾳ γʹ, ἰνδικτιῶνος ιεʹ, τελευτᾷ Λέων ὁ βασι- λεύς, ̓Αλεξάνδρῳ τῷ αὐτοῦ ἀδελφῷ τὴν βασιλείαν παραδούς· ον ἰδών, ως φασι, πρὸς αὐτὸν ἐρχόμενον εφη "ἰδὲ ὁ κακὸς καιρὸς μετὰ δεκατρεῖς μῆνας." πολλὰ δὲ τούτῳ ἐνέσκηψεν ἐκλιπαρήσας τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ Κωνσταντῖνον φυλάττειν.

{1ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΑ ΑΛΕΞΑΝ∆ΡΟΥ ΥΙΟΥ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΟΥ.}1 ̓Αλέξανδρος ἐβασίλευσεν ετος εν ἡμέρας κβʹ σὺν Κωνσταντίνῳ τῷ υἱῷ

Λέοντος. ἀποστείλας δὲ ηγαγεν Νικόλαον ἐκ Γαλακρη- νῶν, καταγαγὼν τοῦ πατριαρχείου Εὐθύμιον, καὶ ἐνεθρονίασεν 378 τὸν αὐτὸν Νικόλαον τὸ δεύτερον. ποιήσας δὲ σελέντιον ἐν τῇ Μαγναύρᾳ ̓Αλέξανδρος κατήγαγεν ἀπὸ τῶν ̓Αγαθοῦ Εὐθύμιον,καὶ αμα Νικολάῳ καθεσθεὶς τὴν αὐτοῦ καθαίρεσιν ἐποιήσαντο. εὐθὺς δὲ ωσπερ ἀνήμεροι θῆρες ἐμπεπηδηκότες τοῦ ἱεροπρεποῦς ἀνδρὸς τὴν σεβασμίαν γενειάδα ἀπέτιλλον καὶ ἐπὶ τράχηλον ωθουν καὶ αλλας ἀνυποίστους ποινὰς τούτῳ ἐπέφερον, ἐπιβάτην ἀποκα- λοῦντες καὶ μοιχὸν καὶ ἀλλοτρίᾳ ἐπιπηδήσαντα γυναικί. ὁ δὲ ἱερὸς ἐκεῖνος ἀνὴρ καὶ αἰδέσιμος πράως πάντα καὶ ἡσύχως ὑπέφερεν. ὑπερόριος ουν ἐν τοῖς ̓Αγαθοῦ σταλείς, καὶ τέλει τοῦ βίου χρησά- μενος, ἐν τῇ πόλει θάπτεται εἰς τὴν αὐτοῦ μονήν. ὁ δὲ τοῦ πα- τριάρχου κληρικὸς ὁ τὰς πολιὰς αὐτοῦ τίλας εἰς τὴν Μαγναύραν ἐν τῷ ἐξορίζεσθαι αὐτόν, ὑποστρέψας εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν αὐτοῦ, τὴν αὐτὴν τὴν ωραν ὁ οικος αὐτοῦ πυρκαϊᾷ παρεδόθη ἀοράτῳ. ευρε δὲ καὶ