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He exiled Theophanes, and the protospatharios George and the cup- 441 bearer and Thomas the primikerios, after flogging and tonsuring them, he thus sent into exile. 6 And in the month of December, in the 2nd indiction, some men planned a plot against the emperor Constantine, wishing to bring the emperor Stephen, who was on the island, into the palace. When this was therefore revealed to Constantine through Michael, called Diabolinos, the emperor arrested the plotters, and cut off the noses and ears of some, while others he subjected to an unbearable flogging and seating them on donkeys, he paraded them through the middle of the city and sent them into exile. 7 On the fifteenth of the month of June, in the sixth indiction, the emperor Romanos died on the island called Prote; and his body, having been brought to the city, was laid to rest in his own monastery. 8 I have passed over a great and wonderful narrative that should be told. When the emperors Stephen and Constantine had been brought down from the palace at the urging of Constantine Porphyrogennetos, plundering occurred in the house of the magistros John Kourkouas, the former domestikos of the scholae, and in that of the magistros Romanos Saronites and in other and various houses, and they caused them plunder and poverty. But the emperor Constantine, pitying that they were seen suddenly and all at once as paupers, ordered the eparch Theophilos that these things 442 be collected and returned. But he appointed his protokankellarios along with the one called Zonaras, who, being a clever thief and wicked, and holding their dwellings and putting forth much effort, appropriated everything and sated his insatiable mind, and scarcely gave a tenth part back to them. And who will recount the great and boundless deceit and wickedness of the deceitful man? who became a ruin and a disease to the state of the Romans. Or in what evil was the man not found foremost? Affirming with persuasive speech and oaths to all that he was faithful and upright. And as the story is told, this man, calling on the help of demons, prospered in all things, so that even the emperor Constantine himself, wishing to remove him in various ways, did not have the strength, but rather he promoted him with benefactions and gifts. And concerning his fawning and flattery and great shamelessness, and his faithless disposition and his wicked and indescribable greed, I will set forth more broadly and in greater detail in the preceding explanation. 9 After Constantine was left sole emperor, he appointed Basil his protovestiarios, the natural son by a concubine of Romanos, the emperor before him, as patrikios and parakoimomenos and chief minister of the senate. This man was prudent and learned, and he served the emperor in 443 all things auspiciously and fittingly. And the philanthropic Constantine planned to make an exchange with the Tarsians and to rescue the Romans in captivity under the deniers of Christ because for many years they were mistreated in bonds and afflictions. And having sent the aforementioned magistros and former domestikos of the scholae, John, called Kourkouas, a man who was sensible and of good counsel and experienced in political administrations, and Kosmas, a magistros who was wise and learned in the law and foremost in political tribunals; they made the exchange at the river Lamos, with no contrary or treacherous event occurring. And having done this they returned, being received benevolently by Constantine Porphyrogennetos. 10 And the emperor, having fresh in his mind the injustices and losses which the pitiable and wretched poor had suffered at the hands of the strategoi and protonotarioi and soldiers and cavalrymen under his father-in-law Romanos, sent pious and virtuous men in order to lighten the great burden of the

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Θεοφάνην ἐξώρισεν, τὸν δὲ πρωτοσπαθάριον Γεώργιον καὶ πιγ- 441 κέρνην καὶ Θωμᾶν πριμικήριον δείρας καὶ κουρεύσας ουτως ὑπερ- ορίᾳ παρέπεμψεν. 6 ∆εκεμβρίῳ δὲ μηνί, ἰνδικτιῶνος ʹ, ἐπιβουλήν τινες κατὰ τοῦ βασιλέως Κωνσταντίνου ἐμελέτησαν, βουλόμενοι τὸν βασιλέα Στέφανον ἐν τῇ νήσῳ οντα ἐν τῷ παλατίῳ ἀγαγεῖν. ταύτης ουν μηνυθείσης Κωνσταντίνῳ διὰ Μιχαὴλ τοῦ ∆ιαβολίνου λεγο- μένου, τοὺς ἐπιβούλους κρατήσας ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν μὲν τὰς ῥῖνας καὶ τὰ ωτα ἀπέτεμεν, τοὺς δὲ δαρμῷ ἀφορήτῳ ὑπέβαλεν καὶ ονοις ἐπικαθίσας διὰ μέσης τῆς πόλεως ἐθριάμβευσεν καὶ ἐξορίᾳ παρέ- πεμψεν. 7 Πεντεκαιδεκάτῃ δὲ ̓Ιουνίου μηνὸς ἰνδικτιῶνος εκτης ̔Ρωμανὸς ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐν τῇ νήσῳ τῇ ἐπονομαζομένῃ Πρώτῃ τελευ- τᾷ· καὶ τὸ σῶμα αὐτοῦ ἐν τῇ πόλει ἀποκομισθὲν ἐν τῇ αὐτοῦ ἀπετέθη μονῇ. 8 ∆ιήγημα δὲ μέγα καὶ θαυμαστὸν παρέδραμον τοῦ λε- χθῆναι. Στεφάνου καὶ Κωνσταντίνου τῶν βασιλέων κατενεχθέν- των ἀπὸ τοῦ παλατίου προτροπῇ Κωνσταντίνου τοῦ πορφυρογεν- νήτου, χωννουβαριασμὸς γέγονεν ἐν τῷ οικῳ τοῦ μαγίστρου ̓Ιωάν- νου τοῦ Κουρκούα τοῦ ἀποδομεστίκου τῶν σχολῶν καὶ εἰς τὸν τοῦ μαγίστρου ̔Ρωμανοῦ Σαρωνίτου καὶ εἰς ἑτέρους καὶ διαφόρους οικους, καὶ διαρπαγὴν καὶ πτωχείας αὐτοῖς προεξένησαν. ὁ δὲ βασιλεὺς Κωνσταντῖνος κατοικτείρας τὸ ἐξαίφνης καὶ ἀθρόως ὁρᾶσθαι αὐτοὺς πένητας, διωρίσατο τῷ ἐπάρχῳ Θεοφίλῳ ταῦτα 442 σωρευθῆναι καὶ ἀποδοθῆναι. ὁ δὲ πρωτοκαγκελλαρίῳ αὐτοῦ σὺν τῷ λεγομένῳ Ζωναρᾷ προσδιορισάμενος, ος ατε εὐφυὴς κλέπτης καὶ μοχθηρός, καὶ κατέχων τὰ τούτων οἰκήματα καὶ πολλὴν σπουδὴν καταβαλών, πάντα ἐσφετερίσατο καὶ τῆς ἀπλήστου αὐ- τοῦ γνώμης ἐνεφορήσατο καὶ μόλις τὴν δεκάτην μοῖραν αὐτοῖς ἀπέδωκεν. καὶ τίς τὴν πολλὴν καὶ απειρον δολιότητα καὶ κακίαν τοῦ δολίου ἀνδρὸς διηγήσεται; ος λύμη καὶ νόσος τῇ πολιτείᾳ ̔Ρωμαίων γέγονεν. η ἐν ποίῳ κακῷ πρώτιστος ὁ ἀνὴρ οὐχ εὑρί- σκετο; τῇ πιθανολογίᾳ καὶ τοῖς ορκοις βεβαιῶν ὡς ατε πιστὸν καὶ ὀρθὸν ειναι πᾶσι. ὡς δὲ λόγος ᾳδεται, ουτος βοηθείας δαι- μόνων προσκαλούμενος ἐν πᾶσιν εὐδοκίμει, ὡς καὶ αὐτὸν τὸν βα- σιλέα Κωνσταντῖνον βουληθέντα διαφόρως ἀποκινῆσαι τοῦτον οὐκ ισχυσεν, ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον εὐποιίαις καὶ δωρεαῖς προεξένησεν. περὶ δὲ τῆς τούτου θωπείας καὶ κολακείας καὶ πολλῆς ἀναιδείας, καὶ τὴν απιστον διάθεσιν καὶ τὴν μοχθηρὰν καὶ ἀνείκαστον αὐτοῦ πλεονεξίαν, πλατύτερόν τε καὶ ἐπεξεργαστικώτερον ἐν τῇ προηγου- μένῃ ἐπεξηγήσει ἐκθήσομαι. 9 Μετὰ δὲ τὸ μόνον καταλειφθῆναι αὐτοκράτορα Κων- σταντῖνον, προεχειρίσατο Βασίλειον τὸν πρωτοβεστιάριον αὐτοῦ, τὸν ἀπὸ παλλακῆς φυσικὸν υἱὸν ̔Ρωμανοῦ τοῦ πρὸ αὐτοῦ βασι- λέως, πατρίκιον καὶ παρακοιμώμενον καὶ παραδυναστεύοντα τῆς συγκλήτου. ουτος δὲ ην ἐχέφρων καὶ λόγιος, καὶ τῷ βασιλεῖ ἐν 443 πᾶσιν ὑπηρέτει αἰσίως καὶ πρεπόντως. ὁ δὲ φιλάνθρωπος Κων- σταντῖνος διενοήθη ἀλλάγιον ποιῆσαι μετὰ τοὺς Ταρσίτας καὶ τοὺς ἐν αἰχμαλωσίᾳ ̔Ρωμαίους ὑπὸ τῶν ἀρνητῶν τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἀναρρύσασθαι διὰ τὸ ἐπὶ πολλοῖς χρόνοις κακουχεῖσθαι αὐτοὺς ἐν δεσμοῖς καὶ θλίψεσι. καὶ ἀποστείλας τὸν προμνημονευθέντα μά- γιστρον καὶ γεγονότα δομέστικον τῶν σχολῶν ̓Ιωάννην τὸν λεγόμε- νον Κουρκούαν, ανδρα συνετὸν καὶ ευβουλον καὶ πεπειραμένον πρὸς τὰ πολιτικὰ διοικήματα, καὶ Κοσμᾶν μάγιστρον σοφὸν καὶ νομομαθῆ καὶ τῶν πολιτικῶν κριτηρίων πρώτιστον· καὶ εἰς τὸν ποταμὸν τὸν Λάμον τὸ ἀλλάγιον ἐποιήσαντο, μὴ συμβάν τι ἐναν- τίον η δολερόν. καὶ τοῦτο ποιήσαντες ὑπέστρεψαν, φιλαγάθως παρὰ τοῦ πορφυρογεννήτου Κωνσταντίνου ἀποδεχθέντες. 10 ̔Ο δὲ βασιλεὺς εναυλον εχων τῶν ἀδικιῶν καὶ ζημιῶν ων ὑπέστησαν οἱ ἐλεεινοὶ καὶ αθλιοι πένητες παρὰ τῶν στρατηγῶν καὶ πρωτονοταρίων καὶ στρατιωτῶν καὶ ἱπποτῶν ἐπὶ τοῦ πενθεροῦ αὐτοῦ ̔Ρωμανοῦ, ανδρας εὐσεβεῖς καὶ ἐναρέτους ἀπέστειλε πρὸς τὸ κουφίσαι τὸ πολὺ βάρος τῶν