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I will leave aside the monks and those with him. For he was so incensed that it was only necessary for someone to be accused, and punishment followed the accusation, so that the accuser was believed merely for having spoken, relying on his suspicions towards his subjects as sufficient testimony. And in defense of the implacability of his anger to the men who could speak freely to him, he put forward the imperial laws, saying that it was neither good nor just for the Romans to be governed according to the ways of monks, so that offenses could be atoned for by acts of repentance, and also to treat the informant with hostility, whatever he might say, whether having heard it or fabricating it out of hatred for his neighbor; but that he himself, having heard it, was obliged to prosecute the crime. He often made these excuses, and also that, having been known as a friend of monks since infancy, he was forced to hate monks because of their disaffection; and he called their avoidance of what was being done disaffection. For which reason perhaps they were also looking for times when there would be no emperor—for it was not beneficial for the ungoverned to live, like a body without a heart—but that they would be delivered from their own evils. For whenever the will is enslaved to human beings, who were created with free will, forced to be led by a single will, wherever it might incline, if it looks to the danger to the body, even then it is most difficult—for existence itself for both the ruler and the ruled, and otherwise it is not possible for them to be saved, unless they willingly agree, but if also to the soul, as some then thought, deliverance is in every way salutary; which perhaps for those seeking it, terrible things were inflicted by the ruler. And when the crooked should have been straightened against the straight, so that they might be equal, he forced the straight to be straightened against the crooked, not correcting what was not right, but finding fault with what was right, if it were not made crooked. That for some of them the matters of zeal were carried to excess and, slipping past the mean, struck the opposite, it is for the discerning to consider; yet the punishments could extinguish also what was in some way reasonable in the things being done. Therefore, with free speech cut off for the free, pamphlets were being cast about in darkness, censuring the transgression of the government. And they, not being able to punish the writer—for he did not reveal himself—dealt harshly with those who found them, as if they themselves were the perpetrators; for they called the censure an outrage. Therefore, the punishment was legally established in writing for anyone who merely found one, if he read it himself, if he told another, or if he did not burn it immediately. And in addition, for the one accused of possessing a libel against the emperor, merely for having it, the threat was outright death.

25. The events concerning Kaloeidas and concerning John Doukas. And the event concerning Kaloeidas provides proof, a man who claimed the height of piety, living in chastity and practicing almsgiving and an incomparable love for his neighbor, but who was in the service of the empress's treasury, whom, when he was caught merely possessing such a thing, neither his piety saved him, nor indeed did the empress's effort on his behalf protect him, but, ordering him to be deprived of his eyes, he barely commuted the punishment to something more tolerable on account of the empress's frequent entreaty. For he gives the order, and the condemned man is led to the column of the Forum in the Constantinianae, and he commands the clerics, who knew nothing, to meet there with all speed and to be present at the place. And he always summoned clerics, being ever suspicious of them, as if to frighten them with the punishments inflicted on that man. Therefore, as many as were not aware of what was happening arrived; but those who knew managed to stay away, each as he was able. They therefore stood the man up and first, having shaved the hair of his head not close to the skin, so that it might help the fire burn, they set fire to the papers, which were of parchment and placed on his head, so that they would be burned along with it, then also, having cut off his nose with a sword, they let him go, half-dead, or rather, half-burned. But these things happened a little later, when he had arrived in the city. But then, on the sixteenth of Poseideon, after the feast of the Theotokos, the emperor had departed, and the patriarch had departed, with the former patriarch Joseph having been sent to the Kosmidion. But the one, having sent also the

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μοναχοὺς καὶ τοὺς κατ' ἐκεῖνον ἐῶ. Ἐς τόσον γὰρ παρωξυσμένος ἦν ὥστε προβάλλειν ἦν μόνον τινὰ κινηθέντα καὶ τὴν προβολὴν ἡ ποινὴ διεδέχετο, ὥστε καὶ πιστὸς ἦν ὁ λέγων μόνον εἰπών, ταῖς πρὸς τοὺς ὑπηκόους ὑπονοίαις ὡς ἱκαναῖς μαρτυρίαις ἰσχυριζόμενος. Καὶ πρὸς τὸ τῆς ὀργῆς ἀπαραίτητον ἀνδράσιν οἷς ἦν παρρησιάζεσθαι πρὸς ἐκεῖνον ἀπολογούμενος, βασιλικοὺς προέτεινε νόμους, ὡς μὴ καλὸν ὂν οὐδὲ δίκαιον κατὰ μοναστὰς τοὺς Ῥωμαίους πολιτεύεσθαι, ὡς μετανοίαις ἐξιᾶσθαι τὰ πταίσματα, ἔχειν δὲ καὶ τῷ προσαγγέλλοντι δυσμενῶς, ὅ τι λέγοι ἢ ἀκούσας ἢ καὶ πλαττόμενος ἐκ τῆς περὶ τὸν πλησίον ἀπεχθείας· αὐτὸν δ' ἀκούσαντα ἀνάγκην εἶναι μετιέναι τὸ ἔγκλημα. Ταῦτα πολλάκις ἀπελογεῖτο καὶ ὅτι, φίλος μοναχῶν ἀκούων βρεφόθεν, εἰς ἀνάγκην ἦλθε μισεῖν μοναχοὺς διὰ τὴν σφῶν δύσνοιαν· δύσνοιαν δὲ τὴν ἀποφυγὴν τῶν πραττομένων ἐκάλει. Παρ' ἣν αἰτίαν ἴσως καὶ χρόνους ἠρεύνων, ὁπότε μὴ βασιλέωςἀβασιλεύτοις γὰρ οὐδὲ ξυνήνεγκε ζῆν, ὡς σώματι μὴ καρδίαν ἔχοντι, ἀλλὰ τῶν κατὰ σφᾶς κακῶν ἀπαλλάξουσιν. Ὁπότε γὰρ τὸ τῆς γνώμης δουλοῦται ἀνθρώποις οὖσι, πλασθεῖσιν αὐτεξουσίοις, ἑνὶ θελήματι, κἂν ὅπῃ ῥέψοι, ἀναγκαζομένοις ἄγεσθαι, εἰ μὲν εἰς σῶμα τὸ κινδυνῶδες ὁρᾷ, καὶ τότε παγχάλεπονταὐτὸν γὰρ τὸ εἶναι τῷ τ' ἄρχοντι τοῖς τ' ἀρχομένοις, καὶ ἄλλως οὐκ ἔστι σφίσι σῴζεσθαι, εἰ μή γε ἑκουσίως καὶ συμφωνοῖεν, εἰ δὲ καὶ ἐς ψυχήν, ὡς τότ' ᾤοντό τινες, σωτήριον ἡ ἀπαλλαγὴ πάντως· ὃ κἀκείνοις ἴσως ζητοῦσι δεινὰ παρὰ τοῦ κρατοῦντος ἐφῆπται. Καὶ δέον τὸ σκαμβὸν πρὸς τὸ ὀρθὸν ἀπευθύνεσθαι, ὡς ἰσάζοιεν, ὁ δὲ τὸ ὀρθὸν πρὸς τὸ σκαμβὸν ἀπευθύνειν ἠνάγκαζεν, οὐκ εὐθύνων τὸ μὴ καλῶς ἔχον, ἀλλ' ἐγκα λῶν, εἰ μὴ στρεβλοῖτο, τῷ καλῶς ἔχοντι. Ὅτι δὲ καί τισιν ἐκείνων παρεξήγετο τὰ τοῦ ζήλου καί, τοῦ μέσου παρολισθαῖνον, τοῖς ἐναντίοις προσέπαιεν, ἔξεστι τῷ διακρινοῦντι σκοπεῖν· πλὴν τὰ τῆς τιμωρίας σβεννύειν εἶχε καὶ τὸ ἀμηγέπη ἐπὶ τοῖς πραττομένοις εὔλογον. Ἐκκεκομμένης τοίνυν τῆς παρρησίας τοῖς ἐλευθέροις, ὑπὸ σκότον φάμουσα ἐρριπτοῦντο, τὴν τῆς ἀρχῆς παραβασίαν ἐλέγχοντα. Οἱ δὲ τὸν γράφοντα μὴ 621 ἔχοντες τιμωρεῖνοὐ γὰρ ἦν ἐμφανίζεσθαι, τοῖς εὑρίσκουσι βαρέως ἐπεῖχον, ὡς αὐτοῖς ὑβρίζουσιν· ὕβριν γὰρ ἐκάλουν τὸν ἔλεγχον. Ἐγγράφως τοιγαροῦν ἐκυροῦτο ἡ τιμωρία τῷ μόνον εὑρήσοντι, εἰ αὐτὸς ἀναγνοίη, εἰ ἄλλῳ ἐξείποι, εἰ μὴ κάοι παραυτίκα. Πρὸς δὲ καὶ τῷ βασιλογραφείου ἐγκαλουμένῳ, ὡς ἔχοι μόνον, ἡ ἀπειλὴ θάνατος ἄντικρυς.

κεʹ. Τὰ περὶ τοῦ Καλοειδᾶ καὶ περὶ Ἰωάννου τοῦ ∆ούκα. Τεκμηριοῖ δὲ καὶ τὸ περὶ τὸν Καλοειδᾶν γεγονός, ἄνδρα εὐλαβείας μὲν εἰς ἄκρον μεταποιούμενον, παρθενίᾳ συζῶντα καὶ ἐλεημοσύνην ἀσκοῦντα καὶ τὴν πρὸς τὸν πλησίον ἀγάπην ἀσύγκριτον, ἐξυπηρετούμενον δὲ τῇ δεσποίνῃ τῶν ταμιείων, ὅν, ἐπεὶ μόνον ἔχων τοιοῦτον ἑάλω, οὔτε τὸ εὐλαβὲς ἔσῳζεν, οὔτε μὴν ἡ ὑπὲρ ἐκείνου τῆς δεσποίνης σπουδὴ περιεποιήσατο, ἀλλά, τῶν ὀμμάτων στερεῖν κελεύων, μόλις τὰ τῆς κολάσεως εἰς τὸ ἀνεκτότερον περιίστα διὰ τὴν τῆς δεσποίνης συχνὴν ἱκετείαν. Προστάσσει γάρ, καὶ ἄγεται ὁ κατάκριτος παρὰ τὸν τοῦ φόρου κίονα ἐν Κωνσταντιαναῖς, καὶ τοῖς κληρικοῖς ἀπαντᾶν ἐπιστέλλει τὴν ταχίστην, μηδὲν εἰδόσι, καὶ τῷ τόπῳ ἐφίστασθαι. Κληρικοὺς δὲ πάντως ἐκάλει, ὑπόπτως ἀεὶ πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἔχων, ὡς ταῖς εἰς ἐκεῖνον τιμωρίαις δεδιξόμενος. Ὅσοις οὖν οὐκ ἐν εἰδήσει ἦν τὰ πραττόμενα, ἀφικνοῦντο· οἱ δ' εἰδότες ἐπραγματεύσαντο τὴν ἀποφυγήν, ὡς εἶχεν ἕκαστος. Ἱστῶσι τοίνυν τὸν ἄνδρα καὶ πρῶτα μέν, τὰς τρίχας τῆς κεφαλῆς οὐκ ἐν χρῷ κείραντες, ὡς συνεργοῖεν καίοντι τῷ πυρί, ἐμβάλλουσι πῦρ τοῖς χάρταις, βεβράναις οὖσι καὶ τῇ κεφαλῇ ἐντεθεῖσιν, ὡς ἅμα ταύτῃ καυσουμένοις, εἶτα καί, τὴν ῥῖνα τεμόντες μαχαίρᾳ, ἡμιθανῆ, εἴτ' οὖν ἡμιδαῆ, ἀφιᾶσιν. Ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν μικρὸν ὕστερον, ὅτε τῇ πόλει ἐπιδεδήμηκε. Τότε δέ, ποσειδεῶνος ἑκκαιδεκάτῃ, μετὰ τὴν τῆς Θεοτόκου ἑορτήν, ἐξεληλάκει μὲν βασιλεύς, ἐξεληλάκει δὲ πατριάρχης, τοῦ πατριαρχεύσαντος Ἰωσὴφ πεμφθέντος εἰς τὸ Κοσμίδιον. Ἀλλ' ὁ μέν, πέμψας καὶ τὸν