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the emperor has given the signal to turn back, and turning around they attack the barbarians, and the war becomes terrible. The emperor had sent the magister 533 Bardas Skleros with the regiments under him to close off the entrance to the city to the barbarians. The battle was for a long time evenly balanced; but it is said that the Romans then received divine assistance. For a storm struck the Scythians in the face and a certain horseman was seen by many of the Romans fighting for them and throwing the phalanxes of the barbarians into confusion. And on the day of that battle, the commemoration of the general Theodore, famous among the martyrs, was being celebrated. So the Scythians are routed and rushed toward the city; but it was not accessible to them; for the entrance into it had already been closed off by Skleros, and so they were scattered into its suburbs and, being caught, were slaughtered, and were killed by one another, being pushed together and trampled, so that those slain were countless. All who were left behind were wounded. And it was known that it was the general Theodore, who then 534 aided and fought with the Romans against the barbarians, from this: a certain woman in Byzantium, living in piety and reverence, one day before this battle, seemed in a dream to see the holy Theotokos proceeding and being escorted by many, and to hear the Mother of God saying to one of those preceding her, 'Lord Theodore, my and your John is in great struggles; hurry, therefore, and help him.' So the woman revealed the dream to some. And they noted the day, and it was the one before the final battle. And the emperor, repaying the martyr for his help, built him a very beautiful temple in Euchaneia or Euchaïta, having torn down the former one, in which he laid his much-suffering body, and he renamed the city Theodoropolis instead of its former name. But the barbarian Svyatoslav, despairing on all sides, sent an embassy to the emperor, asking for forgiveness and requesting to return to his own lands and to be enrolled among the allies of the Romans, and for any Scythian who wished to go to Roman territory and 535 to trade among them. And the emperor accepted the requests and fulfilled them all; then Svyatoslav himself also came to the emperor and conversed with him and asked him to tell the Pechenegs not to prevent the passage of the Rus returning home through their country. And the emperor asked them to do this and to have them as allies, and not to cross the Ister and plunder Bulgaria. They agreed to the other things, but refused the passage of the Rus. With the war against the Rus having ended in this way, the emperor returned to Byzantium and was splendidly received by the entire state. For the patriarch had come to meet him with all the clergy, and the members of the senate and the people, bringing crowns and a four-horse chariot (its horses were white), asked him to mount the chariot and celebrate the triumph. But he accepted the crowns and triumphed on a riding horse, and a white one at that, and upon the four-horse chariot he placed the royal robes of the Bulgarian kings and above them an icon of the Theotokos, and the chariot 536 went ahead. And having come to the agora called Plakote, he stripped Boris of the insignia of kingship among the Bulgarians and honored him with the rank of magister. Svyatoslav, however, returning home with the Rus, fell into an ambush of the Pechenegs, and all were killed together. This emperor magnificently built the church of Christ the Savior at the Chalke. And when the patriarch Basil was accused of certain crimes and was deposed by a synod four years after his appointment, Antony the Studite was ordained patriarch. That the cities acquired by the Romans in the east were looking toward rebellion and

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βασιλεὺς ἐπιστροφῆς δέδωκε, καὶ ἀναστρέψαντες προσβάλλουσι τοῖς βαρβάροις, καὶ γίνεται φρικώδης ὁ πόλεμος. ὁ βασιλεὺς δὲ τὸν μάγιστρον 533 Βάρδαν τὸν Σκληρὸν μετὰ τῶν ὑπ' αὐτὸν ταγμάτων ἀποκλεῖσαι τὴν πρὸς τὴν πόλιν εἴσοδον τοῖς βαρβάροις ἐκπέπομφεν. ἡ δὲ μάχη μέχρι πολλοῦ ἰσόρροπος ἦν· λέγεται δὲ θειοτέρας ἐπικουρίας τότε τοὺς Ῥωμαίους τυχεῖν. θύελλα γὰρ κατὰ πρόσωπον τοῖς Σκύθαις προσέβαλλε καί τις ἔφιππος ὡρᾶτο πολλοῖς τῶν Ῥωμαίων ὑπεραγωνιζόμενος καὶ συγκλονῶν τῶν βαρβάρων τὰς φάλαγγας. ἦν δὲ κατὰ τὴν ἡμέραν τῆς μάχης ἐκείνης ἡ τοῦ στρατηλάτου Θεοδώρου τοῦ περιωνύμου ἐν μάρτυσι τελουμένη μνήμη. τρέπονται οὖν οἱ Σκύθαι καὶ πρὸς τὴν πόλιν ὡρμήκεσαν· ἀλλ' ἦν ἐκείνη αὐτοῖς οὐκ εἰσιτητή· ἤδη γὰρ παρὰ τοῦ Σκληροῦ ἀπεκέκλειστο ἡ εἰς ταύτην εἰσέλευσις, καὶ λοιπὸν ἐπὶ τὰ ταύτης προάστεια διεσκίδναντο καὶ καταλαμβανόμενοι διεφθείροντο καὶ ὑπ' ἀλλήλων ἀπώλλυντο συνωθούμενοί τε καὶ συμπατούμενοι, ὡς δυσαρίθμους τοὺς ἀνῃρημένους εἶναι. οἱ δὲ περιλειφθέντες τραυματίαι γεγόνασι ξύμπαντες. ἐγνώσθη δὲ ὅτι ὁ στρατηλάτης Θεόδωρος ἦν, ὃς τοῖς Ῥωμαίοις τότε 534 κατὰ τῶν βαρβάρων ἐπεκούρησέ τε καὶ συνεμάχησεν, ἐντεῦθεν· γύναιόν τι εὐλαβείᾳ συνεζηκὸς καὶ σεμνότητι κατὰ τὸ Βυζάντιον μιᾷ πρὸ τῆς μάχης ταύτης ἡμέρᾳ ἔδοξε καθ' ὕπνους τὴν ἁγίαν θεοτόκον ὁρᾶν προϊοῦσαν καὶ προπεμπομένην ὑπὸ πολλῶν, ἀκοῦσαί τε τῆς θεομήτορος λεγούσης πρὸς ἕνα τῶν προϊόντων αὐτῆς "κύριε Θεόδωρε, ὁ ἐμὸς καὶ σὸς Ἰωάννης ἀγῶνας ἔχει βαρεῖς· σπεῦσον οὖν, αὐτῷ ἐπικούρησον." ἐξέφηνεν οὖν τισιν ἡ γυνὴ τὸ ἐνύπνιον. οἱ δὲ τὴν ἡμέραν ἐσημειώσαντο, καὶ ἦν ἡ πρὸ τῆς τελευταίας μάχης. τὸν μάρτυρα δ' ὁ βασιλεὺς τῆς βοηθείας ἀνταμειβόμενος ναὸν αὐτῷ κατὰ τὴν Εὐχάνειαν ἢ Εὐχάϊτα περικαλλῆ ἐδομήσατο, τὸν πρῴην καταβαλών, ἐν ᾧ τὸ πολύαθλον ἐκείνου σῶμα κατέθετο, καὶ τὴν πόλιν ἀντὶ τῆς προτέρας αὐτῆς κλήσεως Θεοδωρόπολιν ἐπωνόμασεν. ὁ δὲ βάρβαρος Σφενδοσθλάβος πάντοθεν ἀπογνοὺς διεπρεσβεύσατο πρὸς τὸν βασιλέα, συγγνώμην αἰτῶν καὶ εἰς τὰ οἰκεῖα ἐπανελθεῖν ἐξαιτούμενος καὶ τοῖς συμμάχοις Ῥωμαίων συντάττεσθαι καὶ τὸν βουλόμενον Σκύθην ἰέναι πρὸς τὰ Ῥωμαίων ἤθη καὶ 535 ἐν αὐτοῖς ἐμπορεύεσθαι. καὶ ὁ βασιλεὺς τὰς αἰτήσεις προσήκατο καὶ πάσας ἐπλήρωσεν· εἶτα καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ Σφενδοσθλάβος ἀφίκετο πρὸς τὸν αὐτοκράτορα καὶ αὐτῷ συνωμίλησεν ᾐτήσατό τε τοῖς Πατζινάκαις δηλῶσαι μὴ κωλῦσαι τοῖς Ῥῶς οἴκαδε ἀπιοῦσι διὰ τῆς σφετέρας χώρας τὴν δίοδον. καὶ ὁ βασιλεὺς τοῦτό τε ἐκείνους ποιῆσαι ἠξίωσε καὶ συμμάχους ἔχειν αὐτούς, μηδὲ διαβαίνειν τὸν Ἴστρον καὶ τὴν Βουλγαρίαν ληίζεσθαι. οἱ δὲ τοῖς μὲν ἄλλοις συνέθεντο, πρὸς δὲ τὴν δίοδον τῶν Ῥῶς ἀπηγόρευσαν. Τοιούτῳ δὲ τέλει τοῦ πρὸς τοὺς Ῥῶς πολέμου καταλυθέντος ὁ βασιλεὺς πρὸς τὸ Βυζάντιον ἐπανέζευξε καὶ ὑπεδέχθη λαμπρῶς ὑφ' ὅλου τοῦ πολιτεύματος. ὅ τε γὰρ πατριάρχης προϋπηντήκει αὐτῷ μετὰ τοῦ κλήρου παντὸς καὶ οἱ τῆς γερουσίας καὶ οἱ τοῦ δήμου στεφάνους προσάγοντες καὶ τέθριππον ἅρμα (οἱ δὲ ἵπποι τούτου λευκοί) ἐδέοντό τε τοῦ ἅρματος ἐπιβεβηκότα τελέσαι τὸν θρίαμβον. ὁ δὲ τοὺς μὲν στεφάνους ἐδέξατο ἵππῳ τε κέλητι καὶ τούτῳ λευκῷ ἐθριάμβευσε, τῷ δέ γε τεθρίππῳ τὰς βασιλικὰς στολὰς τῶν Βουλγάρων βασιλέων ἐπέθετο καὶ τούτων ἄνωθεν εἰκόνα τῆς θεομήτορος, καὶ προῄει 536 τὸ ἅρμα. κατὰ δὲ τὴν Πλακωτὴν λεγομένην γενόμενος ἀγορὰν ἀπέδυσε τὸν Βορίσην τὰ τῆς παρὰ τοῖς Βουλγάροις βασιλείας παράσημα καὶ τῷ τῶν μαγίστρων ἐτίμησεν ἀξιώματι. ὁ μέντοι Σφενδοσθλάβος μετὰ τῶν Ῥῶς ἐπ' οἴκου ἀναζευγνὺς λόχοις περιπίπτει τῶν Πατζινάκων, καὶ πάντες ἀθρόοι ἀπώλοντο. Οὗτος ὁ βασιλεὺς τὸν ἐν τῇ Χαλκῇ ναὸν τοῦ σωτῆρος Χριστοῦ μεγαλοπρεπῶς ἐδομήσατο. τοῦ δὲ πατριάρχου Βασιλείου ἐπί τισι κατηγορηθέντος ἐγκλήμασι καὶ καθαιρεθέντος συνοδικῶς μετὰ τέσσαρας ἐνιαυτοὺς τῆς αὐτοῦ προχειρίσεως, ἐχειροτονήθη πατριάρχης ὁ Στουδίτης Ἀντώνιος. Ὅτι δὲ αἱ προσκτηθεῖσαι Ῥωμαίοις πόλεις κατὰ τὴν ἕω πρὸς ἀποστασίαν ἀπεῖδον καὶ