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they arrived. Therefore, having been received by John, the domestic of the schools, he sent them to the emperor; and having made a peace agreement, they returned to their own lands. From that time, they campaigned with the Romans against their fellow Agarenes, and in the victory celebrations they entered the city with the Romans, leading Agarene captives, which was marvelous and strange and a sign of the misfortune of the godless Saracens. But when Abochaps, a prudent and intelligent man, died, the inhabitants of Melitene broke the peace. Therefore, the domestic of the schools, John Kourkouas, with the themes and tagmata, and Melias with the Armenians, again campaigned against them; and making many forays and raids every day, and with constant attacks capturing and plundering them, they brought Melitene into such straits that they very quickly sacked it and razed it to the ground, and not only this city but also its neighboring cities and lands, which were very fertile and rich and provided much revenue. Therefore, the emperor, having established this Melitene as a curatorship, 417 caused many thousands in gold and silver to be collected in tribute from there annually. 25 And Niketas the magistros and father-in-law of the emperor Christopher was accused of inciting him to act against his own father and to expel him from the imperial office. Therefore, having led him out of the city, they tonsured him a monk, exiling him to his own estate. 26 On the 15th of the month of July, in the 3rd indiction, Stephen the patriarch died, having been patriarch for two years and eleven months. And in the month of December, on the fourteenth, they brought Tryphon, a monk living as a solitary in the Opsikion, who was attested for his piety and holiness, and they ordained him patriarch for a specified time, until Theophylact, the son of Romanos, should reach the measure of age, whom they intended to ordain patriarch of Constantinople. 27 On the twenty-fifth of the same month, an unbearable winter occurred, so that the earth was frozen for 120 days. From which also came the great famine, surpassing all that had ever occurred, and from this, much death, so that the living were not able to carry out the dead. But the emperor Romanos, understanding that unbearable force, made provision worthy of his own compassionate and merciful nature, consoling the want from the famine with many alms; and he blocked up the porticoes of the colonnades with doors and planks, so that the snow and the 418 cold would not enter there upon the poor. Then he also constructed the so-called chests in all the colonnades, and he ordered that silver coins be given monthly to the poor lying in these, and that the monthly tremisses be distributed to the poor in the churches, so that what was given to the beggars in the chests and to those in the churches amounted to twelve thousand stamped silver coins. Not only these things did his compassionate soul decree, providing for the poor, but he also ordered that three poor men should dine with him each day, who each received one nomisma. And on Wednesday and Friday, three poor monks dined with him, each receiving the prescribed nomisma. And what was accustomed to happen in the monasteries at the time of the meal, this he himself did, setting a double table for himself and his guests, so that the body might be nourished with the usual food, and the soul might delight in the appropriate pleasure of the readings, to which he, diligently applying his mind, moved his soul to compunction and let loose many springs of tears. And the faith which he possessed toward all monks, but especially those renowned for holiness and piety, who could describe? For he never saw a monk clinging to virtue to whom he did not confess his own deeds with many tears being most faithful

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παρεγένοντο. ἀποδεχθέντες ουν παρὰ τοῦ δομεστίκου τῶν σχο- λῶν ̓Ιωάννου, πρὸς τὸν αὐτοκράτορα τούτους ἀπέστειλεν· καὶ σύμφωνα εἰρήνης ποιήσαντες ὑπέστρεψαν πρὸς τὰ ιδια. εκτοτε δὲ συνεξεστράτευον τοῖς ̔Ρωμαίοις κατὰ τῶν ὁμοφύλων ̓Αγαρηνῶν, εν τε τοῖς ἐπινικίοις συνεισήρχοντο τοῖς ̔Ρωμαίοις ἐν τῇ πόλει αἰχ- μαλώτους αγοντες ̓Αγαρηνούς, οπερ ην θαυμαστὸν καὶ παράδο- ξον καὶ δεῖγμα τῆς ἀθέων Σαρακηνῶν δυστυχίας. τελευτήσαν- τος δὲ τοῦ ̓Απόχαψ, ἀνδρὸς φρονίμου καὶ συνετοῦ, διέλυσαν τὴν εἰρήνην οἱ τὴν Μελιτινὴν κατοικοῦντες. ἐκστρατεύουσιν ουν κατ' αὐτῶν πάλιν ο τε δομέστικος τῶν σχολῶν ὁ Κουρκούας ̓Ιωάννης μετὰ τῶν θεμάτων καὶ ταγμάτων καὶ ὁ Μελίας μετὰ τῶν ̓Αρμε- νίων· καὶ πολλὰς προνομὰς καὶ πραίδας καθ' ἑκάστην ποιούμενοι, καὶ ταῖς συνεχέσιν ἐπιδρομαῖς αἰχμαλωτίζοντες τούτους καὶ ληϊζό- μενοι, εἰς τοσαύτην στένωσιν τὴν Μελιτινὴν περιέστησαν ωστε αὐτὴν συντομώτατον ἐκπορθῆσαι καὶ εως ἐδάφους καταστρέψαι, οὐ μόνον δὲ ταύτην ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰς ὁμόρους αὐτῇ πόλεις καὶ χώρας πολυφόρους τε καὶ πιοτάτας ουσας καὶ οιας πολλὰς παρέχειν προσόδους. ταύτην ουν τὴν Μελιτινὴν εἰς κουρατωρίαν ἀποκα- 417 ταστήσας ὁ βασιλεὺς πολλὰς χιλιάδας χρυσίου καὶ ἀργυρίου ἐκεῖ- θεν δασμοφορεῖσθαι ἐτησίως πεποίηκεν. 25 Κατηγορήθη δὲ Νικήτας ὁ μάγιστρος καὶ πενθερὸς Χριστοφόρου βασιλέως ὡς ὑποτιθέμενος αὐτῷ κατὰ τοῦ ἰδίου γενέσθαι πατρὸς καὶ τῆς βασιλείας αὐτὸν ἐξεῶσαι. τοῦτον ουν ἐξαγαγόντες τῆς πόλεως ἀπέκειραν μοναχόν, ὑπερορίσαντες τῷ ἑαυτοῦ προαστείῳ. 26 Μηνὶ δὲ ̓Ιουλίῳ ιεʹ, ἰνδικτιῶνος ʹ, τελευτᾷ Στέφα- νος πατριάρχης, πατριαρχεύσας ετη δύο μῆνας ενδεκα. ∆εκεμ- βρίῳ δὲ μηνί, τῇ τεσσαρεσκαιδεκάτῃ, αγουσι Τρύφωνα μοναχὸν ἐν τῷ ̓Οψικίῳ μονάζοντα, ἐπ' εὐλαβείᾳ καὶ ἁγιότητι μαρτυρού- μενον, καὶ χειροτονοῦσι πατριάρχην ἐπὶ χρόνῳ ῥητῷ, μέχρις αν εἰς μέτρον ἡλικίας φθάσῃ Θεοφύλακτος ὁ τοῦ ̔Ρωμανοῦ υἱός, ον εμελλον πατριάρχην χειροτονεῖν Κωνσταντινουπόλεως. 27 Εἰκάδι δὲ πέμπτῃ τοῦ αὐτοῦ μηνὸς χειμὼν ἀφόρητος γέγονεν, ωστε κρυσταλλωθῆναι τὴν γῆν ἐπὶ ἡμέρας ρκʹ. οθεν καὶ γέγονεν ὁ μέγας λιμός, τοὺς πώποτε γενομένους ὑπερβαλλό- μενος, καὶ θάνατος ἐκ τούτου πολύς, ὡς μὴ δύνασθαι τοὺς ζῶν- τας ἐκκομίζειν τοὺς τεθνεῶτας. ὁ δὲ βασιλεὺς ̔Ρωμανὸς τὴν ἀφό- ρητον ἐκείνην βίαν κατανοήσας ἀξίαν τῆς ἑαυτοῦ συμπαθοῦς καὶ ἐλεήμονος φύσεως πρόνοιαν ἐποιήσατο, πολλαῖς ἐλεημοσύναις τὴν ἐκ τοῦ λιμοῦ παραμυθησάμενος ενδειαν· ἀνέφραξέν τε θυρίσι καὶ σανιδώμασι τὰς τῶν ἐμβόλων στοάς, ὡς μὴ τὴν χιόνα καὶ τὸ 418 ψῦχος ἐκεῖθεν ἐπεισιέναι τοῖς πένησι. τότε καὶ τὰς λεγομένας αρκλας ἐν πᾶσι κατεσκεύασε τοῖς ἐμβόλοις, ἀργύριά τε κατὰ μῆνα τοῖς ἐν ταύταις κατακειμένοις πένησι δίδοσθαι διετάξατο καὶ τὰ μηνιαῖα τριμίσια ἐν ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις τοῖς πένησι διανέμεσθαι, ὡς ειναι τὰ διδόμενα τοῖς τε ἐν ταῖς αρκλαις πτωχοῖς καὶ τοῖς ἐν ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις ἀργύρου ἐγκεχαραγμένου χιλιάδας δώδεκα. οὐ μόνον δὲ ταῦτα ἡ συμπαθὴς αὐτοῦ ψυχὴ διετύπωσεν τῶν πενήτων προ- νοουμένη, ἀλλὰ καὶ καθ' ἡμέραν αὐτῷ τρεῖς συνεσθίειν πένητας διετάξατο, οι ἀνὰ εν ἐλάμβανον νόμισμα. τετράδι δὲ καὶ παρα- σκευῇ τρεῖς πένητες μοναχοὶ τούτῳ συνήσθιον, τὸ τετυπωμένον εκαστοι λαμβάνοντες νόμισμα. οπερ δὲ ἐν τοῖς μοναστηρίοις ειωθεν γίνεσθαι ἐν τῷ καιρῷ ἀνὰ τῆς ἑστιάσεως, τοῦτο αὐτὸς ἐποίει, διπλῆν ἑαυτῷ καὶ τοῖς δαιτυμόσι τὴν τράπεζαν παρατιθείς, ωστε τὸ μὲν σῶμα τρέφεσθαι τῇ συνήθει τροφῇ, τῇ δὲ ψυχῇ καταλ- λήλῳ τῶν λόγων ἐπεντρυφᾶν ἡδονῇ, οις ἐκεῖνος ἐπιμελῶς προσέ- χων τὸν νοῦν κατένυσσε τὴν ψυχὴν καὶ πολλὰς δακρύων ὑφίει πηγάς. τὴν δὲ πίστιν οσην ἐκέκτητο πρὸς πάντας μὲν μοναχούς, μάλιστα δὲ τοὺς ἐπ' ἁγιοσύνῃ διαβοήτους καὶ εὐλαβείᾳ, τίς αν διηγήσαιτο; οὐκ ἐθεάσατο γάρ ποτε μοναχὸν ἀρετῆς ἀντεχόμενον, ῳ τινὶ τὰς ἑαυτοῦ πράξεις σὺν πολλοῖς δάκρυσιν οὐκ ἐξηγόρευε πιστότατος δὲ ων