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at the time of untimely demands of the wretched poor. And to the Anatolikon, Romanos the magistros, the Saronites, to the Opsikion, Romanos Mousele the magistros, to the Thrakesion, Photios the patrikios, to the Armeniakon, Leon the Agelastos, and to the other themes in succession; who at the emperor's urging granted a small respite to the poor. And this was a prize and an achievement 444 with God cooperating with the ruler. For he so protected his subjects as an eagle sheltering its own; for he was never angered at any of the rulers or the middle class or the common people, although he found many who had committed great absurdities against the common good and against him, but, being an imitator of Christ, he rather distributed benefactions and gifts and rendered to the one who judges justly. And Theophilos, the eparch of the city, an eloquent man and competent in the civil laws, he promoted to patrikios and honored and appointed quaestor, and in his place he appointed as eparch Constantine the protospatharios, at that time mystikos and professor of the philosophers, praiseworthy in word and deed, so that there was no other in the senate of this man's knowledge and wisdom; and thus he made the eparchy excel in good governance and justice. 11 The patriarch Theophylaktos, having fallen ill and approached death, and having recovered a little, did not give up his wicked depravity and the practice of ordaining high priests for gifts and caring for horses and stupidities. And again, being overcome by the disease, he meets the end of his life, having been patriarch for twenty-four years. And in his place is ordained Polyeuktos, a monk shining with an ascetic life, and having been a monk from his tender 445 nails and having excelled in every virtue and right doctrine; and he was known and spoken of by many as another John Chrysostom, and not only was he spoken of as such, but he also appeared so. Seeing him, the lover of beauty Constantine rejoiced and was exceedingly glad, having found such a man in his days. 12 The God-loving and beauty-loving emperor Constantine, finding Joseph, a patrikios and praepositus, of a similar character, and prudent in his civil duties and swifter than a bird, appoints him sakellarios, then droungarios of the fleet, and has entrusted all his authority to him. 13 As I am about to narrate the love of beauty and good cultivation of Constantine Porphyrogennetos and his correction and improvement of all things, and how he piously and justly preserved his subjects, and not being well-equipped to praise the man according to his worth, being afraid, it is more worthy to be silent; nevertheless, it is worthy to speak sporadically from the many things. 14 This man, having found everything in a state of uselessness and neglect, and the virtuous men vulgarized and despised, as a lover of God and beauty, he preferred the bold and brave over the cowardly and unmanly, and having handed them over to the magistros and domestikos of the scholai, Bardas Phokas, he brought about victory for the Roman 446 empire. And while there are many fine and praiseworthy kinds of knowledge and rational arts and sciences in our state, these having been, I know not how, neglected and overlooked, what does that most philosophical mind devise? For since he knew that practice and theory make us familiar with God, and that practice is fitting for civil matters, while theory is for rational ones, he assists both for each other, preparing the practical to be exercised through the art of rhetoric, and the theoretical through philosophy and the natural diagnosis of existing things. And he has preferred the best teachers; to Constantine the protospatharios, at that time mystikos, he has given the training school of the philosophers, and to Alexander, metropolitan of Nicaea, that of the rhetoricians, and to Nikephoros the patrikios, the son-in-law of Theophilos the eparch, the son of Erotikos, that of geometry,

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κατὰ καιρὸν ἀκαίρων ἀπαιτήσεων τῶν ταλαιπώρων πτωχῶν. καὶ εἰς μὲν τὸν ̓Ανατολικὸν ̔Ρωμανὸν μάγιστρον τὸν Σαρωνίτην, εἰς δὲ τὸ ̓Οψίκιον τὸν Μουσελὲ ̔Ρωμα-νὸν μάγιστρον, εἰς δὲ τὸν Θρᾳκήσιον Φώτιον πατρίκιον, εἰς δὲ τὸν ̓Αρμενιακὸν Λέοντα τὸν ̓Αγέλαστον, καὶ εἰς τὰ λοιπὰ ἐφεξῆς θέματα· οιτινες τῇ προτροπῇ τοῦ αὐτοκράτορος μικρὰν ἀνακω- χὴν τοῖς πένησιν ἐδωρήσαντο. καὶ τοῦτο αθλον καὶ προτερήματα 444 τοῦ θεοῦ συνεργοῦντος τῷ ανακτι. ουτως γὰρ περιεῖπεν τὸ ὑπή- κοον ὡς ἀετὸς σκέπων τὴν αὐτοῦ· οὐδενὶ γὰρ τῶν ἀρχόντων η τῶν μέσων η τῶν χυδαίων ὠργίσθη πώποτε, καίτοι μεγάλας ἀτο- πίας ευρε πολλοὺς εἰς τὸ κοινὸν καὶ εἰς αὐτὸν ἁμαρτήσαντας, ἀλλὰ χριστομίμητος ων μᾶλλον εὐποιίαις καὶ δωρεαῖς ἀπένειμεν καὶ τῷ κρίνοντι δικαίως ἀπεδίδου. τὸν δὲ επαρχον τῆς πόλεως Θεόφιλον, ανδρα λόγιον καὶ πρὸς τοὺς πολιτικοὺς νόμους ἱκανόν, πατρίκιον προέκρινεν καὶ ἐτίμησεν καὶ κοιαίστωρα προεβάλετο, καὶ ἀντ' αὐτοῦ προεχειρίσατο επαρχον Κωνσταντῖνον πρωτοσπαθά- ριον, τὸν τηνικαῦτα μυστικὸν καὶ καθηγητὴν τῶν φιλοσόφων, λόγῳ καὶ εργῳ ἀξιέπαινον, ὡς μὴ ετερον τῆς γνώσεως καὶ σοφίας τοῦ ἀνδρὸς ειναί τινα τῆς συγκλήτου· καὶ ουτως τὴν ἐπαρχίαν εὐ- νομίᾳ καὶ δικαιοσύνῃ διέπρεψεν. 11 ̔Ο δὲ πατριάρχης Θεοφύλακτος ἀρρωστήσας καὶ πρὸς τὸ θανεῖν ἐγγίσας καὶ μικρὸν ῥωσθεὶς οὐκ ἐνέδωκεν ἑαυτὸν τῆς πονηρᾶς μοχθηρίας καὶ τοῦ μετὰ δώρων χειροτονεῖν τοὺς ἀρχιε- ρεῖς καὶ ἐπιμελεῖσθαι τῶν ιππων καὶ βλακειῶν. καὶ αυθις ὑπὸ τῆς νόσου κυριευθεὶς τέλει τοῦ βίου χρᾶται, πατριαρχεύσας χρό- νους εικοσι καὶ τέσσαρσι. χειροτονεῖται δὲ ἀντ' αὐτοῦ Πολύευκτος μοναχὸς ἀσκητικὸν βίον διαλάμπων, καὶ μονάσας ἐξ ἁπαλῶν ὀνύ- 445 χων καὶ διαπρέψας ἐν πάσῃ ἀρετῇ καὶ ὀρθῷ δόγματι· καὶ ὡς αλ- λος ̓Ιωάννης Χρυσόστομος παρὰ πολλῶν ἐγνωρίζετο καὶ ἐλέγετο, καὶ οὐκ ἐλέγετο μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐφαίνετο. τοῦτον ὁρῶν ὁ φιλόκα- λος Κωνσταντῖνος εχαιρε καὶ ἠγαλλιᾶτο ὡς τοιοῦτον ανδρα ἐπιτυ- χὼν ἐπὶ τῶν ἡμερῶν αὐτοῦ. 12 ̔Ο δὲ φιλόθεος καὶ φιλόκαλος βασιλεὺς Κωνσταντῖνος ὁμοιότροπον εὑρὼν ̓Ιωσὴφ πατρίκιον καὶ πραιπόσιτον, καὶ πρὸς τὰς πολιτικὰς λειτουργίας ἐχέφρονα καὶ πτηνοῦ ταχύτερον, σακελ- λάριον προχειρίζεται, επειτα δρουγγάριον πλωΐμου, καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν ἐξουσίαν αὐτοῦ πρὸς αὐτὸν ἀνατέθεικεν. 13 Τὴν δὲ τοῦ πορφυρογεννήτου Κωνσταντίνου φιλοκα- λίαν καὶ καλλιεργίαν καὶ τὴν πρὸς πάντα διόρθωσιν καὶ βελτίωσιν μέλλων διηγεῖσθαι, καὶ οπως εὐσεβῶς καὶ δικαίως τὸ ὑπήκοον περιέσωσεν, καὶ τὸ κατ' ἀξίαν τοῦ ἀνδρὸς μὴ εὐπορῶν, ἐπαινέσαι δεδοικώς, σιγῆσαι μᾶλλον αξιον· πλὴν ουν ἐκ τῶν πολλῶν σπορά- δην αξιον εἰπεῖν. 14 Ουτος πάντα ἐφευρὼν εἰς ἀχρειότητα καὶ ἀμέλειαν, καὶ τῶν ἐναρέτων ἀνδρῶν χυδαιωθέντων καὶ καταφρονηθέντων, ὡς φιλόθεος καὶ φιλόκαλος προέκρινεν τῶν δειλῶν καὶ ἀνάνδρων τοὺς εὐτόλμους καὶ ἀνδρείους, καὶ τούτους τῷ μαγίστρῳ καὶ δομεστίκῳ τῶν σχολῶν Βάρδᾳ τῷ Φωκᾷ παραδοὺς νίκην τῇ ̔Ρωμαϊκῇ 446 ἀρχῇ προεξένησεν. πολλῶν δὲ ἐν τῇ πολιτείᾳ ἡμῶν καλῶν καὶ ἀξιεπαινέτων γνώσεις καὶ λογικαὶ τέχναι καὶ ἐπιστῆμαι, τούτων οὐκ οιδ' οπως ἀμεληθέντων καὶ παροραθέντων τί σοφίζεται ὁ φι- λοσοφώτατος ἐκεῖνος νοῦς; ἐπεὶ γὰρ ἠπίστατο πρᾶξιν καὶ θεωρίαν πρὸς θεὸν ἡμᾶς οἰκειοῦντα, καὶ τὴν μὲν πρᾶξιν πολιτικοῖς προσ- αρμόζουσαν πράγμασιν, τὴν θεωρίαν δὲ τοῖς λογικοῖς, ἀλλήλοις δι' ἀμφοτέρων βοηθεῖ, τὸ μὲν πρακτικὸν διὰ ῥητορικῆς τέχνης ἀσκεῖσθαι παρασκευάζων, τὸ δὲ θεωρητικὸν διὰ φιλοσοφίας καὶ φυσικῆς τῶν οντων διαγνώσεως. παιδευτὰς δὲ ἀρίστους προκέ- κρικεν· εἰς Κωνσταντῖνον πρωτοσπαθάριον τὸν τηνικαῦτα μυστι- κὸν τὸ τῶν φιλοσόφων παιδοτριβεῖον δέδωκεν, εἰς δὲ τὸ τῶν ῥητό- ρων ̓Αλέξανδρον μητροπολίτην Νικαίας, εἰς δὲ τὸ τῆς γεωμετρίας Νικηφόρον πατρίκιον τὸν γαμβρὸν Θεοφίλου ἐπάρχου τοῦ ̓Ερω-τικοῦ,