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command and having done this of their own free will, so that even the basileopator Romanos was vexed at this. 15 But in the month of August the plot of Konstantinos Ktematinos and David Kamoulianos and Michael, curator of the mangana, was reported; and these, having been blinded, were paraded through the middle of the city and were sent into exile. And they brought Leo, magistros and domestikos of the scholai, into the city, and he passed through the middle of the forum seated on a mule. 16 And Zoe Augusta was also caught plotting against Romanos with poisoned food, prepared by Theokletos, a notarios of the ministry; and they bring her down from the palace and lead her away to the Petrion, having tonsured her in the monastery of Saint Euphemia. And the tutor of Emperor Konstantinos, Theodoros, and his brother Symeon were invited to luncheon by Theophylaktos, patrikios and comes of the stable; and as they were eating, Ioannes, droungarios of the watch, called Kourkouas, entered with a great crowd, and seizing them, he exiled them to the Opsikion in their own suburbs, as they were plotting against Romanos. 17 On the twenty-fourth of the month of September, Romanos is honored with the rank of Caesar; and in the month of December, on the 17th of the 398 month, the Sunday of the Forefathers, he is crowned with the diadem of imperial power by Emperor Konstantinos and Patriarch Nikolaos.

{1THE REIGN OF ROMANOS.}1

In the year #22υκηʹ, indiction 8 and in January, on the day of the holy lights

he crowns Theodora his wife. And on the 17th of the month of May, he crowns Christophoros his son through the emperor on the day of holy Pentecost, and only the two of them went forth in the same procession. And in the month of July, indiction 8, on a Sunday, the union of the church was brought about by Romanos, with all the metropolitans and clerics who had been divided from Patriarch Nikolaos and Euthymios being united. 2 On the eighth of the month of February, indiction 9, Romanos sent and banished Stephanos of Kalomaria to the island of Antigonos, as he had been accused of aspiring to the throne, having tonsured him as a monk along with Theophanes Teichiotes and Paulos Orphanotrophos, his men. 3 And Emperor Romanos held a review in the tribunal, with everyone gathered there with arms. 399 and when the roll-call was made, suddenly Romanos and Konstantinos return to the palace with great speed. For the plot of this Arsenios and of Paulos the manglabites was reported by Leo, a man of Arsenios; who, having been blinded and their property confiscated, were exiled. At that time the presbyteros Ioannes the rhaiktor was the chief minister, who made Leo, the man of Arsenios, a hebdomadarios, having introduced him to the emperor. And Romanos the emperor made Romanos, the son of Leo Argyros, as I said before, his son-in-law, a man of imposing stature, and adorned with beauty of body and appearance and intelligence and especially with charity and generosity and with goodness and simplicity, giving him his daughter Agatha. 4 There was a certain Rentakios of Hellas, a kinsman of Niketas the patrikios, but uneducated and a parricide; who, pursuing his own father to murder him, since he, fleeing his attack, boarded a ship and sailed away and was captured by the Saracens of Crete, this Rentakios, finding an opportunity, plundered all his father's property, and coming into the city took refuge in the great church of God. But Emperor Romanos, having learned of his disorders and plundering, decided to remove him from the church and punish him. But he, false letters

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ἐντολὴν καὶ αὐθαιρέτῳ γνώμῃ τοῦτο πεποιηκότες, ὡς ἀγανα- κτῆσαι ἐπὶ τούτῳ καὶ τὸν βασιλεοπάτορα ̔Ρωμανόν. 15 Αὐγούστῳ δὲ μηνὶ κατεμηνύθη τὰ τῆς ἐπιβουλῆς Κωνσταντίνου Κτηματινοῦ καὶ ∆αβὶδ Καμουλιανοῦ καὶ Μιχαὴλ κουράτωρος τῶν μαγγάνων· καὶ τυφλωθέντες ουτοι διὰ μέσης διῆλθον τῆς πόλεως καὶ ἐξορίᾳ παρεπέμφθησαν. ηγαγον δὲ καὶ Λέοντα μάγιστρον καὶ δομέστικον τῶν σχολῶν ἐν τῇ πόλει, καὶ διῆλθεν ἐν μέσῃ τῇ ἀγορᾷ ἡμιόνῳ καθεζόμενος. 16 ̓Εφωράθη δὲ καὶ Ζωὴ Αὐγοῦστα ἐπιβουλεύουσα ̔Ρω-μανῷ διὰ πεφαρμαγμένων βρωμάτων, ὑπὸ Θεοκλήτου νοταρίου τῆς ὑπουργίας σκευασθέντων· καὶ ταύτην τοῦ παλατίου καταβι- βάζουσιν καὶ εἰς τὸ Πετρίον ἀπάγουσιν ἐν τῇ τῆς ἁγίας Εὐφημίας μονῇ ἀποκείραντες. προσεκλήθη δὲ παρὰ Θεοφυλάκτου πατρι- κίου καὶ κόμητος τοῦ στάβλου εἰς αριστον ὁ παιδαγωγὸς Κων- σταντίνου βασιλέως Θεόδωρος καὶ Συμεὼν ὁ αὐτοῦ ἀδελφός· ἐσθιόντων δὲ αὐτῶν εἰσῆλθεν ̓Ιωάννης δρουγγάριος τῆς βίγλης ὁ Κουρκούας λεγόμενος μετὰ πλείστου λαοῦ, καὶ τούτους ἀναρπά- σας εἰς τὸ ̓Οψίκιον ἐξώρισεν ἐν τοῖς ἑαυτῶν προαστείοις ὡς κατὰ ̔Ρωμανοῦ μελετῶντας. 17 Εἰκάδι δὲ τετάρτῃ Σεπτεμβρίου μηνὸς τιμᾶται ̔Ρω- μανὸς τῇ τοῦ Καίσαρος ἀξίᾳ· καὶ ∆εκεμβρίῳ μηνί, ιζʹ τοῦ μη- 398 νός, τῇ τῶν προπατόρων κυριακῇ, τῷ τῆς βασιλείας στέφεται διαδήματι παρὰ Κωνσταντίνου βασιλέως καὶ Νικολάου πα- τριάρχου.

{1ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΑ ΡΩΜΑΝΟΥ.}1

̓Εν ετει #22υκηʹ, ἰνδικτιῶνος ηʹ καὶ ̓Ιανουαρίῳ ʹ, τῇ τῶν ἁγίων φώτων

ἡμέρᾳ στέφει Θεοδώραν τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ. Μαΐῳ δὲ μηνὶ ιζʹ στέφει Χριστοφόρον τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ διὰ βασιλέως τῇ τῆς ἁγίας πεντηκοστῆς ἡμέρᾳ, καὶ μόνοι δύο ἐν τῇ αὐτῇ προελεύσει προῆλθον. ̓Ιουλίῳ δὲ μηνί, ἰνδικτιῶνος ηʹ, ἡμέρᾳ κυριακῇ, ἡ τῆς ἐκκλησίας παρὰ ̔Ρωμανοῦ γέγονεν ενωσις, ἁπάντων ἑνωθέν- των μητροπολιτῶν τε καὶ κληρικῶν τῶν ἀπὸ Νικολάου πατριάρχου καὶ Εὐθυμίου διεσχισμένων. 2 ̓Ογδόῃ δὲ Φεβρουαρίου μηνός, ἰνδικτιῶνος θʹ, ἀπο- στείλας ̔Ρωμανὸς ὑπερορίζει Στέφανον τῆς Καλομαρίας εἰς τὴν ̓Αντιγόνου νῆσον, ὡς τῆς βασιλείας ἐφίεσθαι κατηγορηθέντα, μοναχὸν αὐτὸν ἀποκείρας αμα Θεοφάνει Τειχιώτῃ καὶ Παύλῳ ̓Ορφανοτρόφῳ ἀνθρώποις αὐτοῦ. 3 ̓Εποίησεν δὲ ̔Ρωμανὸς βασιλεὺς πρόκενσον ἐν τῷ τρι-βουναλίῳ, συνηγμένων ἁπάντων μεθ' οπλων ἐκεῖσε. ἀδνουμίου 399 δὲ γενομένου αἰφνίδιον ̔Ρωμανὸς καὶ Κωνσταντῖνος τάχει πολλῷ εἰς τὸ παλάτιον ὑποστρέφει. ἐμηνύθη γὰρ παρὰ Λέοντος ἀν- θρώπου τοῦ ̓Αρσενίου ἡ αὐτοῦ ̓Αρσενίου ἐπιβουλὴ καὶ Παύλου μαγγλαβίτου· οι τυφθέντες καὶ δημευθέντες ἐξωρίσθησαν. ην δὲ τότε παραδυναστεύων ὁ πρεσβύτερος ̓Ιωάννης ὁ ῥαίκτωρ, ος Λέοντα τὸν τοῦ ̓Αρσενίου ἐποίησεν ἑβδομαδάριον, τῷ βασιλεῖ τοῦτον προσοικειώσας. ̔Ρωμανὸν δὲ τὸν υἱὸν Λέοντος, ὡς εφθην εἰπών, τοῦ ̓Αργυροῦ, ̔Ρωμανὸς ὁ βασιλεὺς γαμβρὸν ἐποιήσατο, ανδρα οντα ὑπερώμιον, καὶ κάλλει σώματος καὶ ἰδέᾳ καὶ συνέσει καὶ μάλιστα τῇ ἐλεημοσύνῃ καὶ ἐπιδόσει καὶ τῇ ἀγαθότητι καὶ ἁπλότητι κοσμούμενον, δοὺς αὐτῷ τὴν θυγατέρα αὐτοῦ ̓Αγάθην. 4 ̓Εγένετό τις ̔Ρεντάκιος ̔Ελλαδικός, συγγενὴς ων Νικήτα τοῦ πατρικίου, ἀπαίδευτος δὲ καὶ πατραλοίας· ος τὸν ἑαυ- τοῦ πατέρα καταδιώκων φονεῦσαι, ἐπειδήπερ ἐκεῖνος φεύγων αὐ- τοῦ τὴν ἐπίθεσιν ἐν πλοίῳ εἰσελθὼν ἐξέπλει καὶ παρὰ Σαρακηνῶν τῶν Κρητῶν κατεσχέθη, ουτος ὁ ̔Ρεντάκιος αδειαν εὑρὼν πάντα τὰ τοῦ πατρὸς ἐληΐσατο, καὶ ἐν τῇ πόλει ἐλθὼν τῇ μεγάλῃ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐκκλησίᾳ προσέφυγεν. ̔Ρωμανὸς δὲ ὁ βασιλεὺς τὰς αὐτοῦ ἀταξίας καὶ λεηλασίας ἀναμαθὼν τοῦτον τῆς ἐκκλησίας ἐξαγαγεῖν ἐβουλεύσατο καὶ παιδεῦσαι. ὁ δὲ ψευδεῖς ἐπιστολὰς