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We add dreadful things to dreadful things to represent the violence of that time. Alas, alas that even after suffering so many things, we were judged harshly—or rather I should say, we are judged—by those who came later, who appeared for nothing, said nothing, suffered nothing, but were only hidden by obscurity and for the sake of being considered worthy of no consideration. You, sirs, men of the church, where did you stand or where did you go or what useful thing did you demonstrate? But the blame is not for you, but for those who received them, and all the more because we treated them as attackers. But enough about these matters; for us it is time to relate the new story. It was a day of assembly in the sacred palace, and the assembly was a sacred one, and attended by all the people in so far as it consisted of hieromonks and other consecrated men and monks; and the patriarch and the entire synod were also present. And the deliberation was concerning that peace which was being negotiated. Then indeed, when they had sat down, and both of these men had been honored with a seat, as they were struggling alongside the emperor—both the archdeacon Meliteniotes and the protoapostolarios Cyprios—the rhetor Holobolos was standing, expecting the emperor’s permission; but when it was not decreed that he too should sit on 503 a chair, he went out and sat down. But when, as discussions were in progress, the rhetor was sought and his presence seemed useful, he was sought out and presented himself, but not, however, so as to seem benevolent towards the emperor on account of the supposed recent instance of that dishonor. Therefore when asked he did not answer and, though he was expected to speak favorably, he, having made a kind of recantation of his former positions, was clearly taking the opposite course to the emperor, as if the matter proposed for inquiry would in no way be advantageous. And immediately the emperor’s anger was aroused, and there was shouting, and that he was always disloyal and fickle in his sentiment, and that for no other reason than this very thing, his constant malevolence, he had also suffered the injury to his nose, the punishment being hinted at from this. But he, mixing unseasonable anger with an unrestrained passion for honor and the appearance of contempt, spoke openly of the reason for his punishment; and this was, as he said, his goodwill toward the boy John and emperor. And so he spoke; but those around the emperor, as if showing goodwill for the sake of favor, leaping up some from one place, some from another, rushed to tear him apart, but the emperor, as if acting philanthropically, prevented them, setting a time for vengeance, as he later showed. The rhetor, therefore, suspecting the ruler’s anger, ran to the church and hoped to be saved by it. But he, taking him from there, confines him to Nicaea, sending him supposedly as an act of good will to the monastery of Hyacinthos. Not much time had passed, and, at a time when our party was in turmoil, since he heard that Holobolos too was defecting from the decrees, having also accepted accusations not at all appropriate for him, the emperor, thinking this an opportune moment from another source both to punish that man and to frighten us, and that he was the right person for this purpose, sends for him and has him brought in chains; and first he orders him to be cruelly and inhumanly tortured, and then he works that strange triumph. For having ordered him first, and Melias the Iasites second, and then another and again another, until the number of men reached ten, and last of all his niece, to be tied by their necks with a long rope, for the supposed proof of witchcraft, he also loads the first two—as they had not consented in that matter—with sheep's entrails along with 505 their excrement, but he orders the rhetor in particular to be struck repeatedly in the mouth with sheep's livers, and, thus paraded in triumph through the whole city, to be led around the church, dishonoring them there all the more as a display of fear and threat to the clergy. These things, then, were done on the sixth of the month of Elaphebolion of the coming year, Patriarch Arsenios having died on the island six days before these things happened, that is, on the thirtieth of the month of Gamelion. And the clergy, seeing the danger hanging over them, beseeched the ruler to release them from his anger, on the condition that they would remain quiet, until the envoys should return from Rome; but though they pleaded much, they did not persuade him,

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Συνάπτομεν δὲ τοῖς δεινοῖς τὰ δεινὰ εἰς τὴν τῆς τότε βίας παράστασιν. Αἲ αἲ ὅτι καί, τοσαῦτα παθόντες, τοῖς ὕστερον ἐλθοῦσι, μηδὲν φανεῖσι, μὴ λέξασι, μὴ παθοῦσι, μόνον δ' ἀφανείᾳ κρυβεῖσι καὶ τοῦ μηδεμιᾶς ἀξιοῦσθαι φροντίδος χάριν, ἀπηνῶς ἐκρινόμεθα, εἴπω δὲ καὶ κρινόμεθα. Ὑμεῖς, ὦ οὗτοι, τοὺς τῆς ἐκκλησίας, ποῦ στάντες ἢ ποῦ βάντες ἢ τί καὶ χρήσιμον ἐνδειξάμενοι; Ἀλλ' οὐχ ὑμῖν, τοῖς δὲ δεξαμένοις ἡ μέμψις, καὶ μᾶλλον ὅτι κἀκείνοις ἐπιτιθεμένοις ἐχρώμεθα. Ἀλλὰ τὰ μὲν περὶ τούτων ἅλις, ἡμῖν δὲ καιρὸς τὸ καινὸν διηγεῖσθαι διήγημα. Ἡμέρα ἦν ἐν τοῖς ἱεροῖς ἀνακτόροις συνάξεως, καὶ ἡ σύναξις ἱερά, καὶ ὅσον ἐν ἱερομονάχοις καὶ ἄλλως ἱερωμένοις καὶ μοναχοῖς πάνδημος· παρῆν δὲ καὶ πατριάρχης καὶ ἅπασα σύνοδος. Ἡ δὲ σκέψις περὶ τῆς κινουμένης εἰρήνης ἐκείνης. Τότε γοῦν καθεσθέντων, τιμηθέντων δ' ἐπὶ καθέδρᾳ καὶ ἀμφοῖν τούτοιν, ὡς συναγωνιζομένοιν τῷ βασιλεῖ, τοῦ τε ἀρχιδιακόνου Μελιτηνιώτου καὶ τοῦ πρωτοαποστολαρίου Κυπρίου, ὁ ῥήτωρ Ὁλόβωλος ἵστατο, προσδοκῶν τὴν ἀπὸ βασιλέως ἐκχώρησιν· ὡς δ' οὐχ ὡρίζετο ἐπὶ 503 καθέδρας καὶ αὐτὸν ἕζεσθαι, ἐξελθὼν καθῆστο. Ἐπεὶ δέ, λόγων κινουμένων, καὶ ὁ ῥήτωρ ἐζητεῖτο καὶ χρήσιμος ἐδόκει ἡ παρουσία ἐκείνου, ἀνεζητεῖτό τε καὶ παρίστατο, οὐ μὴν δὲ καὶ ὥστε δοκεῖν εὐμενὴς τὰ πρὸς βασιλέα διὰ τὸ ὡς δῆθεν τῆς ἀτιμίας ἐκείνης ὑπόγυον. Ὅθεν καὶ ἐρωτώμενος οὐκ ἀπεκρί νετο καί, ἐλπιζόμενος τὰ πρὸς χάριν λέγειν, ἐκεῖνος παλινῳδίαν οἷον πρὸς τὰ πρότερον ποιησάμενος, τὴν ἐναντίαν τῷ βασιλεῖ δῆλος ἦν βαδίζων, ὡς μὴ συνοίσοντος οὐδαμοῦ τοῦ εἰς ζήτησιν προκειμένου. Καὶ εὐθὺς αἴρεται μὲν τῷ βασιλεῖ ὁ θυμός, καὶ βοὴ ἦν, καὶ ὡς δύσνους ἀεὶ καὶ τῷ φρονήματι ἀλλοπρόσαλλος, καὶ ὅτι οὐ παρ' ἄλλην αἰτίαν, ἀλλ' αὐτὸ τοῦτο τὸ ἀεὶ δυσνοεῖν, καὶ τὸ ἐπὶ τῆς ῥινὸς πέπονθεν, αἰνιττομένης τῆς ποινῆς ἐντεῦθεν. Ὁ δέ, ἀκράτῳ πάθει φιλοτιμίας καὶ δόξῃ καταφρονήσεως θυμὸν ἄκαιρον μίξας, τὴν τῆς ποινῆς αἰτίαν ἐπαρρησίαζεν· ἡ δ' ἦν, ὡς ἐκεῖνον λέγειν, ἡ πρὸς τὸν παῖδα Ἰωάννην καὶ βασιλέα εὔνοια. Καὶ ὁ μὲν εἶπεν· οἱ δὲ περὶ τὸν βασιλέα, ὡς δῆθεν εὐνοοῦντες εἰς χάριν, ἄλλος ἄλλοθέν ποθεν ἐκπη δήσαντες, διασπᾶν ὥρμων, ἀλλ' ὁ βασιλεύς, ὡς δῆθεν φιλανθρωπευόμενος, διεκώλυε, καιρὸν εἰς ἐκδίκησιν θείς, ὡς ἔδειξεν ὕστερον. Ὁ μὲν οὖν ῥήτωρ, τὴν τοῦ κρατοῦντος ὀργὴν ὑποπτεύων, τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ προστρέχει καὶ παρ' αὐτῆς ἤλπιζε σῴζεσθαι. Ὁ δέ, λαβὼν ἐκεῖθεν, περιορίζει εἰς Νίκαιαν, ὡς ἐπ' εὐμενείᾳ δῆθεν εἰς τὴν τοῦ Ὑακίνθου ἀποστέλλων μονήν. Οὔπω χρόνος τετέλεστο, καί, κινουμένων τότε τῶν ἡμετέρων, ἐπεὶ κἀκεῖνον ἤκουε τῶν δεδογμένων ἀποστατεῖν, δεξάμενος καὶ κατηγορίας μὴ προσηκούσας ἐκείνῳ μηδ' ὁπωσοῦν, ἄλλοθεν καιρὸν νομίσας, κἀκεῖνον μὲν τιμωρῆσαι, ἡμᾶς δὲ δεδίξασθαι, ἐκεῖνον εἶναι τὸν πρέποντα, πέμπων ὑπὸ δεσμοῖς ἄγει· καὶ πρῶτον μὲν ἀπηνῶς προστάσσει καὶ ἀπανθρώπως αἰκί ζεσθαι, ἔπειτα δὲ τὸν καινὸν ἐκεῖνον θρίαμβον ἀπεργάζεται. Σχοίνῳ γὰρ μακρῷ τῶν τραχήλων κελεύσας ἐκδῆσαι ἐκεῖνόν τε πρῶτον καὶ τὸν Ἰασίτην Μελίαν δεύτερον καὶ ἑξῆς ἄλλον καὶ αὖθις ἄλλον, ἕως καὶ δέκα τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ τῶν ἀνδρῶν ποσωθέντος, ὕστατον δὲ καὶ τὴν ἐκείνου ἀνεψιάν, εἰς τὴν μαγειῶν δῆθεν ἔνδειξιν, τοὺς μὲν δύο τοὺς πρώτους, ὡς καὶ ἐπὶ τῇ ὑποθέσει ἐκείνῃ μὴ κατανεύσαντας, καὶ ἐγκάτοις προβάτων ἐπιφορτίζει σὺν αὐτοῖς 505 τοῖς ἐκείνων διαχωρήμασι, τὸν ῥήτορα δὲ διαφερόντως καὶ ἥπασι προβάτων κατὰ στόμα κελεύει τύπτεσθαι συνεχέστερον, καί, οὕτως ἀνὰ τὴν πόλιν ἅπασαν θριαμβευομένους, κύκλῳ τῆς ἐκκλησίας περιαγαγεῖν, ἀτιμοῦντας ἐκεῖσε πλέον εἰς φόβου καὶ ἀπειλῆς τοῖς κληρικοῖς ἔνδειξιν. Ἐπράττετο μὲν οὖν ταῦτα ἐλαφηβολιῶνος ἕκτῃ μηνὸς τοῦ ἐπιόντος ἔτους, τοῦ πατριάρχου Ἀρσενίου πρότερον ἢ ταῦτα γενέσθαι ἡμερῶν ἓξ κατὰ τὴν νῆσον μεταλλά ξαντος, εἴτ' οὖν τριακοστῇ γαμηλιῶνος μηνός. Οἱ δὲ τοῦ κλήρου, τὸν κίνδυνον σφίσιν αἰωρούμενον βλέποντες, καθικέ τευον τὸν κρατοῦντα ἀνεῖναι αὐτοὺς τῆς ὀργῆς, ἐφ' ᾧ ἡσύχως καθῆσθαι, μέχρις ἂν ἐκ Ῥώμης οἱ πρέσβεις ἐπαναζεύξωσιν· ἀλλ' οὐ πεῖθον πολλὰ λιπαροῦντες,