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the scriptures and the hypostatic union being almost ignored, wishing to stop the violent rush of evil, he gathered the chosen men of the church and jointly deliberated that a synod be held concerning this. 10.1.5 And at that time the entire body of the high priests was present and the patriarch Nicholas himself. And Nilus stood in the midst with the Armenians, and his dogmas were revealed, and he taught these things with a clear voice and strongly clung to them through many arguments. What then? The synod, in order to deliver many souls from his corrupt teaching, subjected him to eternal anathema and proclaimed the hypostatic union more clearly according to the traditions of the saints. 10.1.6 After him, or rather to say with him, the Blachernites was also publicly exposed for holding impious and alien views from the church, although he was a priest. For having associated with enthusiasts and partaken of their corruption, deceiving many and undermining great houses in the great city and handing down the dogmas of impiety, since, although often summoned and instructed by the emperor, he in no way desisted from his own evil doctrine, the emperor referred this man also to the church. And they, having examined him further and having recognized that he too was unchangeable, subjected both him and his dogmas to eternal anathema.

10.2.1 Thus then, like a good pilot, the emperor, having as it were swum through the successive onslaughts of the waves and having washed away much brine from the world and having set the affairs of the church in good order, is again led to other seas of wars and tumults. For always one thing after another arose, and sea upon sea, they say, and river of evils upon river, so as not to allow the emperor, so to speak, to catch his breath, nor to close his eyelids. And though we have drawn a small drop, one might reasonably say, from the Adriatic sea, sketching rather than writing a few of the things accomplished by the emperor at that time, yet he held out against all waves and surges, until he might moor the ship of the empire, running before a fair wind, in calm harbors. And who could, either an echo of Demosthenes or a rushing of Polemon or all the Homeric Muses, praise his achievements worthily? But I would say, not even Plato himself nor the entire Stoa and Academy, having come together into the same place, would have philosophized fittingly about his soul. For while those storms and intricate wars had not yet ceased, nor had the surge abated its insolence, another storm, no less than those mentioned, is stirred up against him. 10.2.2 For a certain man, not of the notable but of the lower fortune, coming from the camp, said that he was the son of Diogenes, even though that one had already been killed, when Isaac Comnenus, the emperor's own brother, had joined the war with the Turks near Antioch; but for one wishing to learn in more detail, it will be possible to read about it from the writings of the renowned Caesar. Therefore, though silenced by many, this man in no way ceased. For he came from the east, both poor and wearing a goatskin cloak, but being most villainous and of a shifty character, he went about the city, from house to house and through the streets, announcing some lofty things about himself, and that he was that Leo, son of the former emperor Diogenes, who near Antioch, struck by an arrow as has been said, had died. Therefore reviving the dead man, this impostor both took that man's name for himself and openly played the king and was winning over the more flighty people. And so this terrible thing was also an addition to the emperor's misfortunes, as if Fortune were making a tragedy for him with this wretch. And just as, I think,

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γραφὰς καὶ τὴν καθ' ὑπόστασιν ἕνωσιν ἀγνοου μένην σχεδόν, στῆσαι τὴν σφοδρὰν τοῦ κακοῦ ῥύμην βου ληθεὶς τοὺς τῆς ἐκκλησίας λογάδας συναγαγὼν σύνοδον περὶ τούτου γενέσθαι κοινῇ συνεσκέψατο. 10.1.5 Καὶ παρῆν τηνικαῦτα ἅπαν τὸ τῶν ἀρχιερέων πλήρωμα καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ πατριάρχης Νικόλαος. Καὶ ὁ Νεῖλος εἰς τὸ μέσον μετὰ τῶν Ἀρμενίων ἵστατο, καὶ τὰ τούτου ἀνεκαλύπτοντο δόγ ματα, καὶ ὃς λαμπρᾷ τῇ φωνῇ ταῦτα ἐδίδασκε καὶ ἰσχυρῶς αὐτῶν διὰ πλειόνων ἀντείχετο. Τί τὸ ἐντεῦθεν; Ἡ σύνο δος, ἵνα πολλῶν ἀπαλλάξῃ ψυχὰς τῆς διεφθαρμένης αὐτοῦ διδαχῆς, αἰωνίῳ τούτου καθυπέβαλεν ἀναθέματι καὶ τὴν καθ' ὑπόστασιν ἕνωσιν κατὰ τὰς τῶν ἁγίων παραδόσεις ἐμφανέστερον ἀνεκήρυξε. 10.1.6 Μετὰ τοῦτον ἢ μᾶλλον εἰπεῖν σὺν τούτῳ καὶ ὁ Βλαχερνίτης δεδημοσίευτο ἀσεβῆ καὶ ἔκφυλα τῆς ἐκκλησίας φρονῶν, κἂν ἱερωμένος ἦν. Ἐνθουσιασταῖς γὰρ ὁμιλήσας καὶ τῆς τούτων λύμης μετασχὼν πολλούς τε ἐξαπατῶν καὶ μεγάλας τῶν ἐν τῇ μεγαλοπόλει οἰκίας ὑπορύττων καὶ παραδιδοὺς τὰ τῆς ἀσεβείας δόγματα, ἐπεὶ πολλὰ πολλάκις μεταπεμπόμενος καὶ διδασκόμενος παρὰ τοῦ αὐτοκράτορος οὐδ' ὅλως τῆς οἰκείας κακοδοξίας ἀφίστατο, τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ καὶ τοῦτον ὁ αὐτοκράτωρ παρέπεμψεν. Οἱ δὲ ἐπὶ πλέον τοῦτον ἐξετά σαντες, ὡς ἀμετάθετον καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐγνώκεσαν, αὐτόν τε αἰωνίῳ ἀναθέματι καὶ τὰ τούτου δόγματα καθυπέβαλον.

10.2.1 Οὕτω μὲν οὖν ὥσπερ τις ἀγαθὸς κυβερνήτης ὁ αὐτο κράτωρ τὰς ἀλλεπαλλήλους τῶν κυμάτων ἐπιδρομὰς ὥσπερ διανηξάμενος καὶ πολλὴν ἀποκλυσάμενος ἅλμην τῆς οἰκου μένης καὶ τὰ κατὰ τὴν ἐκκλησίαν εὖ διαθέμενος ἐπ' ἄλλα τινὰ πάλιν πελάγη πολέμων καὶ θορύβων ἐπάγεται. Ἀεὶ γὰρ ἕτερον ἐφ' ἑτέρῳ προσίστατο καὶ θάλασσά φασιν ἐπὶ θαλάσσῃ καὶ ποταμὸς κακῶν ἐπὶ ποταμῷ, ὡς μηδ' ἀναπνεῖν ἐᾶν τὸ τοῦ λόγου τὸν βασιλέα μηδ' ἐπιμῦσαι τὰ βλέφαρα. Κἂν ἡμεῖς σταγόνα μικράν, εἶπεν ἄν τις εἰκότως, ἐκ τοῦ Ἀδριαντικοῦ πελάγους ἀνιμησάμεθα ὀλίγα τῶν κατ' ἐκεί νου καιροῦ πεπραγμένων τῷ βασιλεῖ περιγράψαντες μᾶλ λον ἢ γράψαντες, ἀλλ' ἐκεῖνος ἀντέσχε πρὸς ἅπαντα κύματά τε καὶ κλύδωνας, ἕως τὴν τῆς βασιλείας οὐριοδρο μοῦσαν ναῦν εἰς λιμένας ἀκλύστους ὁρμίσειε. Καὶ τίς ἂν ἢ ∆ημοσθένους ἠχὼ ἢ ῥοῖζος Πολέμωνος ἢ Ὁμηρικαὶ πᾶσαι Μοῦσαι τὰ ἐκείνῳ κατωρθωμένα πρὸς ἀξίαν ὑμνήσειαν; Ἐγὼ δ' ἂν φαίην, οὐδ' ἂν αὐτὸς Πλάτων οὐδ' ἂν ξύμπασα στοὰ καὶ ἀκαδημία εἰς ταὐτὸ ξυνεληλυθυῖαι προσῆκον τῆς ἐκείνου ψυχῆς ἐφιλοσόφησαν. Μήπω γὰρ παυσαμένων τῶν χειμώνων ἐκείνων καὶ τῶν πολυπλόκων πολέμων μηδὲ τοῦ κλύδωνος ἀφυβρίσαντος ἕτερος χειμὼν οὐδενὸς τῶν εἰρη μένων ἐλάττων αὐτῷ ἐπεγείρεται. 10.2.2 Καὶ γὰρ ἄνθρωπός τις οὐ τῶν ἐπιφανῶν, ἀλλὰ τῆς κάτω τύχης ἐκ τοῦ χάρα κος ὁρμώμενος τὸν τοῦ ∆ιογένους υἱὸν ἑαυτὸν εἶναι ἔλεγε, κἂν ἐκεῖνος φθάσας ἀνῃρέθη, ὁπηνίκα τὸν μετὰ τῶν Τούρ κων κατὰ τὴν Ἀντιόχειαν πόλεμον ὁ Κομνηνὸς Ἰσαάκιος καὶ αὐτάδελφος τοῦ αὐτοκράτορος συνεκρότησεν· ὅπως δὲ τῷ λεπτομερέστερον ἐθέλοντι μανθάνειν ἐξέσται ἀπὸ τῶν τοῦ κλεινοῦ Καίσαρος συγγραμμάτων διεντυχεῖν. Παρὰ πολλῶν μὲν οὖν ἐπιστομιζόμενος ὁ τοιοῦτος ἐπαύετο οὐδα μῶς. Καὶ γὰρ ἦλθε μὲν οὗτος ἐξ ἀνατολῆς πένης τε καὶ σισυροφορῶν, πανουργότατος δὲ ὢν καὶ τὸ ἦθος πολύτρο πος περιενόστει τὴν πόλιν κατ' οἴκους τε καὶ ῥυμοτομίας περὶ ἑαυτοῦ ὑψηλά τινα διαγγέλλων καὶ ὡς εἴη τοῦ προβε βασιλευκότος ∆ιογένους υἱὸς Λέων ἐκεῖνος, ὃς κατὰ τὴν Ἀντιόχειαν ὑπὸ βέλους, ὡς εἴρηται, πληγεὶς ἐτετελευτή κει. Ἀναβιώσκων τοίνυν τὸν τεθνηκότα οὗτος ὁ ἀλαζὼν τοὔνομά τε ἐκείνου ἑαυτῷ περιετίθει καὶ φανερῶς ἐβασι λεία καὶ τοὺς κουφοτέρους ὑπήγετο. Καὶ ἦν ἄρα καὶ τοῦτο τὸ δεινὸν ἐπιθήκη τῶν τοῦ βασιλέως συμφορῶν, ὥσπερ τι δρᾶμα ἐπιτραγῳδούσης αὐτῷ τῆς Τύχης τοῦτον τὸν κακο δαίμονα. Καὶ ὥσπερ, οἶμαι,