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Maria, daughter of the emperor Christophoros, and being greatly pleased with her, they wrote to Peter to come with speed, having first made agreements concerning the peace that had been made. And Niketas the magistros, the co-father-in-law of the emperor Romanos, was sent to meet and bring Peter to the city. So when Peter the Bulgarian arrived, the emperor Romanos boarded a trireme and came to Blachernae, and he both saw and greeted Peter as he approached him. And when they had spoken fittingly with one another, the symbols of peace and the marriage contracts were signed, with Theophanes the protovestiarios mediating in these matters and wisely directing things between the Romans and the Bulgarians. 414 (23) On the eighth of the month of October, the patriarch Stephen went out with Theophanes the protovestiarios and Maria, the daughter of the emperor Christophoros, and the whole senate to the church of the most holy Theotokos of the Pege, and he blessed Peter and Maria, and placed the nuptial crowns on their heads, with Theophanes the protovestiarios and George Soursouboulis acting as groomsmen. And after a splendid and sumptuous banquet had taken place, and all the customs of weddings had been joyfully performed, Theophanes the protovestiarios entered the city with Maria, the daughter of the emperor. On the third day of the wedding, the emperor Romanos held a splendid feast at the landing-place of the Pege, having adorned it with silken fabrics, with the imperial dromon standing by the landing-place itself; there Romanos joined Peter the Bulgarian along with Constantine his son-in-law and Christophoros his son. But when the Bulgarians made no small objection that Christophoros should be acclaimed first, and then Constantine, the emperor Romanos yielded to their objection, and what they had requested was done. And when all the wedding ceremonies were completed, and Maria was about to journey to Bulgaria with her husband Peter, her parents went out with her as far as the Hebdomon, along with Theophanes the protovestiarios. When she was about to depart, they embraced their daughter and shed copious 415 tears, and did all that is natural at the loss of a most beloved child, and having embraced their son-in-law and entrusted her to his hands, they returned to the palace. But Maria, having been handed over to Bulgarian hands, departed for Bulgaria, at once rejoicing and grieving; grieving because she was deprived of her dearest parents and the imperial household and the company of her kinsmen, but rejoicing because she was joined to a man who was an emperor and was proclaimed mistress of the Bulgarians. She departed, therefore, bringing all kinds of wealth and innumerable possessions. 24 At that time also John Kourkouas, magistros and Domestic of the Schools, who had been managing the Roman army well almost from the accession of the emperor Romanos, and who was warring against the Assyrians every year, and who had sacked their cities and forts and villages and countryside and taken prisoners, among which was also the notable and famous and very strong and powerful fortress of Syria, called Melitene, having warred against and plundered it in various ways, and brought it to the brink of destruction, and having set fire to the surrounding villages and lands, having besieged the invincible and impregnable fortress itself and set up siege engines, and having thrown them into complete want and helplessness as to what they should do, and when they sent envoys to the Domestic once and many times asking for terms, 416 the prudent and wise John Kourkouas, the Domestic of the Schools, considering their tears and lamentations and the vicissitudes of fortune, such as are human affairs, yielded, and having given them terms, Apochaps, the grandson of Amer, being the emir of Melitene, and Aposalath, a general of most noble birth and rich in Melitene,

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βασιλέως Χριστοφόρου Μαρίαν, καὶ μεγάλως ἐπ' αὐτῇ ἀρεσθέντες, εγραψαν τῷ Πέτρῳ διὰ τάχους παραγενέσθαι, σύμ- φωνα ποιήσαντες πρότερον περὶ τῆς γεγονυίας εἰρήνης. ἀπεστάλη δὲ Νικήτας ὁ μάγιστρος ὁ συμπενθερὸς ̔Ρωμανοῦ βασιλέως ὑπαν- τῆσαι καὶ ἀγαγεῖν Πέτρον μέχρι τῆς πόλεως. τοῦ Βουλγάρου ουν Πέτρου καταλαβόντος, τριήρει ὁ βασιλεὺς ̔Ρωμανὸς ἐπιβὰς ἐν Βλαχέρναις παρεγένετο, καὶ τὸν Πέτρον ὡς αὐτὸν ἀφικνούμενον ἐθεάσατό τε καὶ κατησπάσατο. ἐπεὶ δὲ ἀλλήλοις εἰκότα συνωμί- λησαν, ὑπογράφονται τά τε σύμβολα τῆς εἰρήνης καὶ τὰ γαμικὰ συναλλάγματα, μεσολαβοῦντος ἐν τούτοις καὶ νουνεχῶς διευθύ- νοντος μεταξὺ ̔Ρωμαίων τε καὶ Βουλγάρων πρωτοβεστιαρίου Θεο- 414 φάνους. (23) ὀγδόῃ δὲ τοῦ ̓Οκτωβρίου μηνὸς ἐξῆλθεν ὁ πα- τριάρχης Στέφανος αμα Θεοφάνει πρωτοβεστιαρίῳ καὶ Μαρίᾳ τῇ τοῦ βασιλέως Χριστοφόρου θυγατρὶ καὶ πάσῃ τῇ συγκλήτῳ εἰς τὸν ναὸν τῆς ὑπεραγίας θεοτόκου τῆς Πηγῆς, καὶ εὐλόγησεν Πέ- τρον τε καὶ Μαρίαν, καὶ τοὺς νυμφικοὺς στεφάνους ταῖς αὐτῶν ἐπέθηκε κεφαλαῖς, παρανυμφευόντων Θεοφάνους πρωτοβεστια- ρίου καὶ Γεωργίου Σουρσουβούλη. λαμπρᾶς δὲ καὶ πολυτελοῦς γεγονυίας τραπέζης, καὶ πάντων τῶν εἰθισμένων τοῖς γάμοις φαι- δρῶς ἐπιτελεσθέντων, εἰσῆλθεν Θεοφάνης πρωτοβεστιάριος αμα Μαρίᾳ τῇ θυγατρὶ τοῦ βασιλέως ἐν τῇ πόλει. τῇ τρίτῃ δὲ τοῦ γάμου ἡμέρᾳ ἐποίησεν ὁ βασιλεὺς ̔Ρωμανὸς εὐωχίαν λαμπρὰν ἐν τῇ τῶν Πηγῶν ἀποβάθρᾳ, περικοσμήσας αὐτὴν ὑφάσμασι σηρι- κοῖς, παρ' αὐτῇ τῇ ἀποβάθρᾳ τοῦ βασιλικοῦ δρόμωνος ἑστηκό- τος· ενθα συνέστη ̔Ρωμανὸς Πέτρῳ Βουλγάρῳ αμα Κωνσταντίνῳ γαμβρῷ καὶ Χριστοφόρῳ υἱῷ. τῶν δὲ Βουλγάρων ενστασιν οὐ μικρὰν ποιησαμένων πρότερον εὐφημισθῆναι Χριστοφόρον, εἰθ' ουτω τὸν Κωνσταντῖνον, ὑπεῖξε τῇ ἐνστάσει τούτων ̔Ρωμανὸς ὁ βασιλεύς, καὶ γέγονεν οπερ ᾐτήσαντο. ἐπεὶ δὲ πάντα τὰ ἐν γάμοις συνετελέσθησαν, εμελλε δὲ ἡ Μαρία ηδη τὴν πρὸς Βουλγα- ρίαν σὺν τῷ ἀνδρὶ Πέτρῳ ὁδεύειν, οἱ ταύτης γονεῖς μέχρι τοῦ ̔Εβδόμου συνεξῆλθον αὐτῇ αμα Θεοφάνει πρωτοβεστιαρίῳ. ἐπειδὴ ἀπαίρειν εμελλεν, περιχυθέντες τῇ θυγατρὶ καὶ πυκνὰ καταχέον- 415 τες δάκρυα, καὶ οσα εἰκὸς ἐπὶ στερήσει σπλάγχνου περιποθήτου, τόν τε αὐτῶν γαμβρὸν ἀσπασάμενοι καὶ ταύτην ταῖς τούτου χερσὶν παραθέμενοι ἐν τοῖς βασιλείοις ὑπέστρεψαν. Μαρία δὲ Βουλγα- ρικαῖς παραδοθεῖσα χερσὶ τὴν ἐπὶ Βουλγαρίαν ἀπῄει, χαίρουσά τε αμα καὶ λυπουμένη, λυπουμένη μὲν ἐν οις γονέων φιλτάτων ἐστέ- ρητο καὶ βασιλείων οικων καὶ συνηθείας τῶν γένει προσηκόντων, χαίρουσα δὲ ἐν οις βασιλεῖ προσήρμοστο ἀνδρὶ καὶ δέσποινα Βουλ- γάρων προσηγορεύθη. ἀπῄει τοίνυν πλοῦτον κομιζομένη παντο- δαπῆ καὶ ἀποσκευὴν ἀναρίθμητον. 24 Τότε δὲ καὶ ̓Ιωάννης μάγιστρος καὶ δομέστικος τῶν σχολῶν ὁ Κουρκούας, καλῶς διοικῶν τὸν ̔Ρωμαϊκὸν στρατὸν σχε- δὸν ἀπὸ τῆς ἀναρρήσεως ̔Ρωμανοῦ βασιλέως, καὶ καταπολεμῶν καθ' ἑκάστην τοὺς ̓Ασσυρίους, καὶ πόλεις καὶ κάστρα καὶ κώμας καὶ χώρας αὐτῶν πορθήσας καὶ αἰχμαλώτους ποιήσας, μεθ' ων καὶ τὸ ἐπίσημον καὶ ἐξάκουστον καὶ πάνυ ὀχυρὸν καὶ δυνατὸν κά- στρον τῆς Συρίας, Μελιτινὴν ὀνομαζόμενον, διαφόρως καταπο- λεμήσας καὶ πραιδεύσας, καὶ εἰς φροῦδον ἀπωλείας τοῦτο ποιή- σας, καὶ τὰς πέριξ κώμας καὶ χώρας πυρικαύστους ἐργασάμενος, αὐτὸ τὸ ἀήττητον καὶ ἀμάχητον κάστρον παρακαθίσας καὶ ἑλε- πόλεις μηχανικὰς στήσας, καὶ εἰς παντελῆ ἀπορίαν καὶ ἀμηχα- νίαν ἐμβαλὼν αὐτοὺς ο τι πράξαιεν, καὶ απαξ καὶ πολλάκις πρέσβεις πρὸς τὸν δομέστικον στελλόντων καὶ λόγον αἰτούντων, 416 ὁ συνετὸς καὶ ἐχέφρων ̓Ιωάννης ὁ δομέστικος τῶν σχολῶν ὁ Κουρ- κούας τὰ τῶν δακρύων καὶ ἐλεεινολογιῶν καὶ τὰ τῆς τύχης σκοπή- σας, οια τὰ ἀνθρώπινα, ὑπεῖξεν, καὶ λόγον δοὺς αὐτοῖς, ὁ ̓Απόχαψ ὁ τοῦ Αμερ εκγονος ἀμηρᾶς ων Μελιτινῆς, καὶ ὁ ̓Αποσαλὰθ στρατηγὸς εὐγενέστατος ων καὶ πλούσιος ἐν Μελιτινῇ,