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wishing to save the man, He allowed the emperor Romanos to fall into an unexpected misfortune, so that being brought to his senses by it and having become aware of his own transgressions, he might be deemed worthy of salvation. For He allowed his son Stephen to rise up against him, just as Absalom once rose up against David his own father. Therefore, using as counselors for this purpose both Marianos Argyros, from among the monks, and Basil the *protospatharios* Peteinos, and Manuel Kourtikes, with the other emperors also being aware, he wickedly brought him down from the palace and having exiled him to the island of Prote, tonsured him a monk.

436 {1THE REIGN OF CONSTANTINE.}

1 Therefore Constantine his son-in-law was left as emperor in the month

on the twentieth of December, of the third indiction, in the year six thousand four hundred and fifty-four; who, having immediately honored Bardas Phokas with the dignity of *magistros*, as one who had for a long time often demonstrated bravery in wars, appointed him Domestic of the Schools, and Constantine Gongyles commander of the fleet, and certain useful commanders. Then Basil, surnamed Peteinos, he made *patrikios* and grand *hetaeriarch*, and Marianos of the Argyros family, he stripped of his monastic garb and made *patrikios* and Count of the Stable. Likewise, he also made Manuel, called Kourtikes, *patrikios* and *droungarios* of the Watch. These three, not much later, the just judgment of God, as men who had committed an outrage against the Lord's Anointed and laid unjust hands upon him, pursued as they were aspiring to the imperial power; for being caught in a conspiracy, both of them ended their lives by a most wretched death. But I shall set out the things concerning them more broadly and in greater detail in the preceding narrative. 437 2 But after forty days, on the twenty-seventh of the month of January, Constantine, suspecting both the emperor Stephen and his brother Constantine, lest they might ever perpetrate the same things against him, and reasoning, as was likely, that if they did not spare their own father, how would they spare him, having invited them to a feast, while they were already sitting at the table, with the food still in their mouths, these so-called Tornikioi and the *patrikios* Marianos and the others who had been prepared for this, seized them, and brought them down from the palace and confined them on the nearby islands and tonsured them as clerics. (3) Therefore, after a little while, having requested to see their own father, they arrived at the island of Prote, and seeing him in the monastic habit, they were overcome with unbearable grief; shedding tears over them, the father said, "I have begotten and raised up sons; but they have rejected me." Then thus they were exiled, Stephen to Prokonnesos (which was called a certain Nebria, which Samian colonists renamed from the pitcher (*prochoos*) given according to an oracle, to whom, having arrived at an island and propitiating the god and preparing breakfast, it happened to be untimely from where they might get water. But a certain woman said to them, "If you have a pitcher, I will give you water." Having taken it, as the oracle said, they also asked for land. And when she had also given this, they named the island Prochoos and depicted a pitcher on their silver coins), 438 and from Prokonnesos to Rhodes, and from Rhodes to Mytilene, and Constantine to Tenedos, from there to Samothrace; in which he also plotted a rebellion, and having killed Niketas the *protospatharios*, who had been entrusted with guarding him by imperial command, he himself was also slaughtered by those guarding him. whose body, having been brought for burial

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βούλεται σώζειν τὸν ανθρωπον, συνεχώρησε ̔Ρωμανὸν βασιλέα συμφορᾷ ἀδοκήτῳ προσπεσεῖν, ινα δι' αὐτῆς σωφρονισθεὶς καὶ τῶν οἰκείων ἐν συν- αισθήσει παραπτωμάτων γενόμενος σωτηρίας ἀξιωθῇ. συνεχώρησε γὰρ ἐπαναστῆναι αὐτῷ τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ Στέφανον, ωσπερ ποτὲ ̓Αβεσσαλὼμ ἐπανέστη ∆αβὶδ τῷ οἰκείῳ πατρί. συμβούλοις ουν ουτος πρὸς τοῦτο χρησάμενος τῷ τε ἀπὸ μοναχῶν Μαριανῷ τῷ ̓Αργυρῷ καὶ Βασιλείῳ τῷ πρωτοσπαθαρίῳ τῷ Πετεινῷ καὶ Μανουὴλ τῷ Κουρτίκῃ, συνειδότων αὐτῷ καὶ τῶν αλλων βασιλέων, τοῦτον τοῦ παλατίου κακῶς κατήγαγεν καὶ ἐν τῇ Πρώτῃ νήσῳ ἐξορίσας ἀπέκειρεν μοναχόν.

436 {1ΑΥΤΟΚΡΑΤΟΡΙΑ ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΙΝΟΥ.}

1 ̔Υπελείφθη ουν αὐτοκράτωρ Κωνσταντῖνος ὁ τούτου γαμβρὸς μηνὶ

∆εκεμβρίῳ εἰκάδι, ἰνδικτιῶνος τρίτης, ἐν ετει ἑξάκις χιλιο- στῷ τετρακοσιοστῷ πεντηκοστῷ τετάρτῳ· ος αὐτίκα Βάρδαν τὸν τοῦ Φωκᾶ τῇ τοῦ μαγίστρου ἀξίᾳ τιμήσας, ὡς χρόνῳ πολλῷ τὴν ἐν τοῖς πολέμοις ἀνδραγαθίαν πολλάκις ἐπιδειξαμένου, δομέστικον τῶν σχολῶν προχειρίζεται, καὶ Κωνσταντῖνον τὸν Γογγύλην ναυ- μαχίας ἡγήτορα, καὶ στρατιάρχας τινὰς τῶν εὐχρήστων. ειτα Βασίλειον, ῳ ἐπίκλην Πετεινός, πατρίκιον καὶ μέγαν ἑταιρειάρχην, τὸν δὲ ἐκ τοῦ γένους τῶν ̓Αργυρῶν Μαριανὸν τὰ μοναχικὰ ἀπο- δύσας πατρίκιον καὶ κόμητα τοῦ στάβλου πεποίηκεν. ὡσαύτως καὶ Μανουὴλ τὸν ἐπιλεγόμενον Κουρτίκην πατρίκιον καὶ δρουγγά- ριον τῆς βίγλης ἐποίησεν. ους τινας τρεῖς οὐ μετὰ πολὺν χρόνον ἡ τοῦ θεοῦ δικαία κρίσις, ὡς εἰς Χριστὸν τοῦ κυρίου παροινήσαντας καὶ χεῖρας ἀδίκως ἐπιβαλόντας, τῆς βασιλείας ὀρεγομένους μετῆλθεν· ἐπὶ καθοσιώσει γὰρ καταληφθέντες ἑκάτεροι οἰκτίστῳ θανάτῳ τὸ ζῆν ἀπέρρηξαν. τὰ δὲ περὶ αὐτῶν πλατύτερόν τε καὶ ἐπεξεργαστικώτερον ἐν τῇ προηγουμένῃ ἐξηγήσει ἐκθήσομαι. 437 2 Μετὰ δὲ τεσσαράκοντα ἡμέρας, τῇ εἰκάδι ἑβδόμῃ τοῦ ̓Ιανουαρίου μηνός, ὑποπτεύσας Κωνσταντῖνος τόν τε βασιλέα Στέ- φανον καὶ Κωνσταντῖνον τὸν αὐτοῦ ἀδελφόν, μή ποτε καὶ κατ' αὐτοῦ τὰ ομοια διαπράξωνται, καὶ λογισάμενος οπερ ην εἰκός, οτι εἰ τοῦ ἰδίου πατρὸς οὐκ ἐφείσαντο, πῶς αὐτοῦ φείσωνται, ἑστιά- σας αὐτούς, ηδη ἐν τῇ τραπέζῃ καὶ καθεζομένους, ετι τῆς βρώ- σεως ουσης ἐν τῷ στόματι αὐτῶν, ἀνήρπασαν ουτοι οἱ λεγόμενοι Τορνίκιοι καὶ ὁ πατρίκιος Μαριανὸς καὶ οἱ λοιποὶ οἱ πρὸς τοῦτο ηὐτρεπισμένοι, καὶ τοῦ παλατίου κατήγαγον καὶ ἐν ταῖς πλησια- ζούσαις νήσοις τούτους περιώρισαν καὶ κληρικοὺς ἀπέκειραν. (3) μετ' ὀλίγον ουν ουτοι αἰτησάμενοι τὸν ιδιον πατέρα θεάσα- σθαι ἐν τῇ Πρώτῃ νήσῳ παρεγένοντο, καὶ τοῦτον ἐν τῷ μοναχικῷ σχήματι θεασάμενοι πένθει κατεσχέθησαν ἀφορήτῳ· οις ἐπιδα- κρύσας ὁ πατὴρ εφη "υἱοὺς ἐγέννησα καὶ υψωσα· αὐτοὶ δέ με ἠθέτησαν." ειθ' ουτως ἐξωρίσθησαν, ὁ μὲν Στέφανος εἰς Προι- κόννησον (ην τινα Νεβρίαν ὠνομασμένην ἐκ τῆς κατὰ χρησμὸν δε- δομένης προχόου αποικοι Σαμίων μετωνόμασαν, οις ἀφικομένοις πρὸς νῆσον καὶ τῷ θεῷ ἱλασκομένοις ἀριστοποιουμένοις τε ἀωρία ἐτύγχανεν ὁπόθεν υδωρ κομίσοιντο. γυνὴ δέ τις εφη αὐτοῖς, "εἰ εχετε πρόχοον, δώσω ὑμῖν υδωρ." οπερ λαβόντες, ὡς ὁ χρησμός, καὶ γῆν ἐξῃτήσαντο. τῆς δὲ καὶ ταύτην δεδωκυίας, Πρόχοον τὴν νῆσον ὠνόμασαν καὶ τοῖς ἀργυροῖς νομίσμασιν πρόχοον εἰκόνιζον), 438 ἀπὸ δὲ Προικοννήσου εἰς ̔Ρόδον, ἀπὸ δὲ ̔Ρόδου εἰς Μιτυλήνην, ὁ δὲ Κωνσταντῖνος εἰς Τένεδον, ἐκεῖθεν εἰς Σαμοθρᾴκην· ἐν ῃ καὶ ἀνταρσίαν μελετήσας, καὶ τὸν ἐκ βασιλικῆς κελεύσεως τὴν αὐτοῦ φυλακὴν πεπιστευμένον Νικήταν πρωτοσπαθάριον ἀναιρήσας, καὶ αὐτὸς παρὰ τῶν αὐτὸν φυλασσόντων ἀνεσφάγη. ου τὸ σῶμα πα- ρακομισθὲν ταφῇ