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Anastasius, emperor of the Romans, its founder and from whom it was named, he rebuilt again, not all of it, but as much as he could recover, and named it Peritheorion. And he built another fortress, not far from the sea, called Dipotamon. All of which the emperor fortified not so much for ambition as for the security of the regions in which they were built. And he wished to rebuild Arcadiopolis sumptuously, since it was necessary on account of the raids of the Scythians, and to establish inhabitants from among the eminent, and to make it prosperous and wealthy, and greatly surpassing the other cities in Thrace, after the great city. 1.543 39. But when a certain disturbance occurred concerning the church, having waited to remove the pretexts for the disturbance, he died shortly after, having brought none of his plans to fruition. For a certain monk, coming from Calabria, brought up in the customs and laws of the Latins, Barlaam by name, who was otherwise quick to understand and most capable of explaining what he understood, and having studied the works of Euclid, Aristotle, and Plato and being famous in these matters, came to the empire of the Romans for its harm. For he filled the church, which was at peace, with many and great dissensions. For pretending to cast off the ways of the Latins, he wrote discourses against them and demonstrated logically that they were in error concerning the faith, and he delighted in our customs and laws and seemed to offer altogether clear proofs of his having truly condemned the ways of the Latins. Therefore, on account of these things and his other wisdom, he enjoyed the goodwill and honor of the emperor, and was no less beloved by the Grand Domestic and deemed worthy of his providence, and he lacked nothing to prevent his being in a state of prosperity. This Barlaam, whether he had the same opinion from the very beginning, or changed later, or rather, being driven by the common enemy of the Christian flock, seeking some pretext, from which he might mock our ways and proceed openly to war, approached one of 1.544 the hesychasts, as if wishing to learn, a man utterly deprived of speech and little different from brute beasts, and not even partaking of the understanding proper to a layman; and he pretended to wish to be his disciple and to be taught the way of hesychasm and the laws of submission. He persuaded him with his entreaties and stayed with him for not many days. And after this, he begged that ignorant man to teach him about hesychasm and to suggest in what manner he himself might be numbered among the hesychasts that very day. And he, not perceiving the deceit and being puffed up by his excessive foolishness, the witless man taught the most wicked man other things, and how the hesychasts, progressing little by little and praying without disturbance, receive a certain exultation and ineffable and divine pleasure in the soul and see a light with their bodily eyes flashing around them. Now, for the other things, Barlaam condemned the man's great folly and ignorance; but when he heard of a light seen with bodily eyes, he could no longer keep quiet, but made a general denunciation of the hesychasts, calling them impostors and liars and Massalians and Omphalopsychoi (navel-souled) and perverters of the orthodox doctrines of the church and any other such thing, and he protested openly that everyone ought to keep away from them as deceivers and deceived, who ought to be perfect in virtue and especially secure in their doctrines, since men entrust their souls to them on account of their seeming piety. 1.545 And these things he bruited about not only in words publicly against hesychasm, as being the cause of the error, but he also wrote them down, so that the insult might be on record forever. These things were done in Thessalonica at the time when the emperor was away in Acarnania. And in this city were present many other hesychasts, who were indignant at the things being rumored about by Barlaam, and especially Gregory Palamas, who later became archbishop of Thessalonica; who, being of Asian descent and brought up in the imperial courts, together with two others

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Ἀναστάσιον βασιλέα Ῥωμαίων οἰκιστὴν καὶ ἐξ ἐκείνου προσαγορευομένην, ἀνέστησεν αὖθις οὐ πᾶσαν, ἀλλ' ὅσον μάλιστα ἐνῆν ἀπολαβὼν, καὶ Περιθεώριον προσηγόρευσεν. ἕτερον δὲ φρούριον ἐδείματο, οὐ πολὺ ἀφεστηκὸς θαλάσσης, ∆ιπόταμον προσαγορευθέν. ἃ δὴ πάντα οὐ μᾶλλον φιλοτιμίας ἢ ἀσφαλείας τῶν χωρίων ἕνεκα, ἐν οἷς ἐκτίσθησαν, ἐτείχισεν ὁ βασιλεύς. Ἀρκαδιούπολιν δὲ διὰ τὰς ἐκ τῶν Σκυθῶν ἐφόδους ἀναγκαίαν οὖσαν, ἀνοικοδομῆσαι ἠβουλήθη πολυτελῶς καὶ οἰκήτορας ἐκ τῶν ἐπιφανῶν ἐγκαθιδρύσαι, εὐδαίμονά τε καὶ ὀλβίαν ἀποδεῖξαι καὶ τῶν κατὰ τὴν Θρᾴκην ἄλλων πόλεων ὑπερέχουσαν πολλῷ μετὰ τὴν μεγάλην πόλιν. 1.543 λθʹ. Συμβάσης δέ τινος ταραχῆς περὶ τὴν ἐκκλησίαν, περιμείνας ὥστε τὰς προφάσεις τῆς ταραχῆς ποιῆσαι ἐκποδὼν, ἐτελεύτησε μετὰ μικρὸν, μηδὲν ὧν ἐσκέπτετο εἰς ἔργον ἀγαγών. μοναχὸς γάρ τις ὁρμώμενος ἐκ Καλαβρίας τοῖς Λατίνων ἤθεσι καὶ νόμοις ἐντραφεὶς, ὄνομα Βαρλαὰμ, ἄλλως δὲ νοῆσαί τε ὀξὺς καὶ τὰ νοηθέντα ἐξηγήσασθαι ἱκανώτατος, καὶ τὰ Εὐκλείδου καὶ Ἀριστοτέλους καὶ Πλάτωνος ἐκμελετήσας καὶ διαβόητος περὶ ταῦτα ὢν, ἐπὶ κακῷ τῇ Ῥωμαίων ἐπεδήμησε βασιλείᾳ. πολλῶν γὰρ ἐνέπλησε καὶ μεγάλων στάσεων εἰρήνην ἄγουσαν τὴν ἐκκλησίαν. ὑποκρινάμενος γὰρ τὰ Λατίνων ἀποσείεσθαι, λόγους τε συνεγράφετο κατ' αὐτῶν καὶ ἀπεδείκνυε λογικῶς περὶ τὴν πίστιν σφαλλομένους, καὶ τοῖς ἡμετέροις ἔχαιρεν ἤθεσι καὶ νόμοις καὶ ὅλως σαφεῖς ἐδόκει παρέχεσθαι τὰς ἀποδείξεις τοῦ κατεγνωκέναι τὰ Λατίνων ἀληθῶς. διὰ ταῦτά τε οὖν καὶ τὴν ἄλλην σοφίαν τῆς τε παρὰ βασιλέως ἀπέλαυεν εὐμενείας καὶ τιμῆς, καὶ παρὰ μεγάλου δομεστίκου οὐδὲν ἧττον ἠγαπᾶτο καὶ προνοίας ἠξιοῦτο, καὶ οὐδὲν ἐνέδει αὐτῷ τοῦ μὴ ἐν εὐπραγίαις εἶναι. οὗτος δὴ ὁ Βαρλαὰμ εἴτε καὶ εὐθὺς ἐξ ἀρχῆς τὴν ὁμοίαν γνώμην ἔχων, εἴτε ὕστερον μεταβαλὼν, μᾶλλον δὲ ὑπὸ τοῦ κοινοῦ τῶν Χριστιανῶν πληρώματος πολεμίου ἐναγόμενος, πρόφασίν τινα ζητῶν, ἐξ ἧς τὰ ἡμέτερα διακωμῳδήσει καὶ πρὸς πόλεμον χωρήσει φανερῶς, ὡς δὴ μαθητιῶν τινι προσῆλθε 1.544 τῶν ἡσυχαζόντων, λόγου τε ἀπεστερημένῳ παντελῶς καὶ ὀλίγον διαφέροντι ἀλόγων καὶ οὐδὲ φρονήσεως γοῦν μετεσχηκότι πρεπούσης ἰδιώτῃ· καὶ ὑπεκρίνετο βούλεσθαι μαθητεῦσαι παρ' αὐτῷ καὶ τὴν ὁδὸν τῆς ἡσυχίας ἐκδιδάσκεσθαι καὶ τοὺς νόμους τῆς ὑποταγῆς. ἔπεισέ τε δεηθεὶς καὶ διέτριψε παρ' αὐτῷ ἡμέρας οὐ πολλάς. καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα τοῦ ἀμαθοῦς ἐκείνου ἐδεῖτο διδάσκειν περὶ ἡσυχίας καὶ ὅτῳ τρόπῳ καὶ αὐτὸς ἐν ἡσυχασταῖς αὐθήμερον τελέσειεν ὑποθέσθαι. ὁ δὲ τόν τε δόλον μὴ συνιδὼν, ὑπό τε τῆς ἄγαν κουφότητος ἐπαρθεὶς, ἄλλα τε ἐδίδασκε τὸν πονηρότατον ὁ ἀνόητος καὶ ὡς προκόπτοντες κατὰ μικρὸν οἱ ἡσυχάζοντες καὶ προσευχόμενοι ἀθορύβως, ἀγαλλίασίν τέ τινα καὶ ἄῤῥητον ἡδονὴν καὶ θείαν ἐπιδέχονται ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ καὶ φῶς ὁρῶσι τοῖς σωματικοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ἀστράπτον περὶ αὐτούς. ἐπὶ μὲν οὖν τοῖς ἄλλοις πολλὴν κατεγίνωσκεν ὁ Βαρλαὰμ ἄνοιαν τοῦ ἀνδρὸς καὶ ἀμαθίαν· φῶς δὲ ἀκούσας ὁρώμενον ὀφθαλμοῖς σωματικοῖς, οὐκέτι οὐδὲ ἠρεμεῖν ἠνέσχετο, ἀλλὰ κοινὴν ἐποιεῖτο τῶν ἡσυχαζόντων καταδρομὴν, ἀπατεῶνας καλῶν καὶ ψευδομένους καὶ Μασσαλιανοὺς καὶ Ὀμφαλοψύχους καὶ τὰ ὀρθὰ τῆς ἐκκλησίας δόγματα διαστρέφοντας καὶ εἴ τι ἕτερον τοιοῦτον, καὶ διεμαρτύρετο ἀναφανδὸν ὡς δεῖ πάντα ὁντινοῦν ἀπέχεσθαι αὐτῶν πλανώντων τε καὶ πλανωμένων, οὓς ἔδει τήν τε ἀρετὴν τελείους εἶναι καὶ περὶ τὰ δόγματα μάλιστα ἀσφαλεῖς, ὡς τῶν ἀνθρώπων τὰς ψυχὰς αὐτοῖς διὰ τὴν δοκοῦσαν εὐλάβειαν 1.545 ἐμπιστευόντων. ταῦτα δὲ οὐ λόγοις μόνον διεθρύλλει κοινῶς κατὰ τῆς ἡσυχίας, ὡς αἰτίου τῆς πλάνης γινομένης, ἀλλὰ καὶ συνεγράφετο, ἵνα ἐς ἀεὶ ἀνάγραπτος ἡ ὕβρις εἴη. ταῦτα δὲ ἐπράττετο ἐν Θεσσαλονίκῃ ἐν οἷς καιροῖς καὶ ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐπὶ Ἀκαρνανίαν ἀπεδήμει. ἐν ταύτῃ δὲ ἄλλοι τε παρῆσαν ἡσυχάζοντες πολλοὶ, οἳ δεινὰ ἐποιοῦντο τὰ Βαρλαὰμ διαθρυλλούμενα, καὶ μάλιστα Γρηγόριος ὁ Παλαμᾶς, ὃς καὶ ὕστερον εἰς ἀρχιερέας ἐτέλεσε Θεσσαλονίκης· ὃς ἐξ Ἀσίας ὢν τὸ γένος καὶ βασιλείοις αὐλαῖς ἐντεθραμμένος, ἅμα δυσὶν ἑτέροις