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208

to say to this. In the same year, in the month of March, stars were seen falling suddenly from the sky, so that all who saw it supposed it to be the end of the present age; and a great drought occurred, so that even springs dried up. And the emperor, bringing the patriarch, says to him: "Now what harm does it do us, if we call the Theotokos Christotokos?" But he, embracing him, says: "Have mercy, master, let not this word enter your thought; do you not see how Nestorius is reviled and anathematized by the whole church?" And the emperor, answering, said: "I asked because I wished to learn; but the matter rests with you."

Year of the world 6250. Year of the divine Incarnation 750. Emperor of the Romans, Constantine, 35 years. 24. Chief of the Arabs, Abdallah, 21 years. 10. Bishop of Rome, Constantine, 5 years. 3. Bishop of Constantinople, Constantine, 12 years. 11.

In this year the Turks again went out to the Caspian Gates and to Iberia, and having fought with the Arabs, many on both sides perished. And Abdallah by such a cunning device removed from power Isa Ibn-Musa, upon whom, as was said above, the third lot of ruling after him had fallen. For seeing him suffering from a migraine and filled with dizziness, he persuades him that he would be cured if a certain sternutatory, prepared by his doctor, a certain Moses by name, a deacon of the church of Antioch, were blown into his nostrils, whom he had already persuaded with gifts to prepare a very pungent drug that was also a strong narcotic. And so the same Isa, persuaded by Abdallah, although he was taking precautions against eating with him because of the plot, received the nasal drug. And being filled about the 436 head and deprived of all his senses along with his governing faculties, he lay speechless. And Abdallah, having summoned the leaders and chief men of the race, said: "What do you think of your future king?" And they, with one mind rejecting him, gave their right hands to the son of the same Abdallah, Mohammed, who was surnamed Mahdi; and they carried the senseless Isa home. And when he recovered on the third day, he consoled him with feigned apologies, compensating for the outrage with 100 talents of gold.

In the same year Paganos, the lord of Bulgaria, sent to the emperor asking to meet with him. And having received his word, he came down to him with his boilas, and when the emperor was seated, with Sabinos also seated with him, he received them and reproached them for their disorder and their hatred for Sabinos; and they made a semblance of peace. But the emperor, sending secretly to Bulgaria, seized the Severian archon Sklabounos, who had done much evil in Thrace. And Christianos was also seized, a renegade from the Christians and first of the Skamaroi, whom they brought to the mole of St. Thomas, and after cutting off his hands and feet, they brought surgeons and dissected him alive from the groin to the chest in order to understand the construction of man; and thus they handed him over to the fire. And suddenly the emperor, going out of the city and finding the passes unguarded because of the deceptive peace, entered Bulgaria as far as the Tzikas. And setting fire to the courts that he found, he returned in fear, having done nothing noble.

25. 11. 4. 12.

In this year, on the 20th of the month of November, of the 4th indiction, the impious and unholy emperor, becoming enraged against everyone who feared God, ordered Stephen the new protomartyr, who was an anchorite at Saint Auxentios on the nearby 437 mountain of Damatrys, to be dragged away; whom those who partook of his lack of culture [enemies] and had become of like mind with him, both scholarii and from the other tagmata, took and, tying a rope to his foot, dragged him from the praetorium to the Pelagios, where, having torn him apart, they threw his venerable relics into the pit of those who died a violent death, as one who admonished many toward the monastic life and

208

εἰπεῖν πρὸς τοῦτο. τῷ δ' αὐτῷ ἔτει μηνὶ Μαρτίῳ ἀστέρες ἀθρόως ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ πίπτοντες ὤφθησαν, ὡς πάντας τοὺς ὁρῶντας τὴν τοῦ παρόντος αἰῶνος ὑπολαμβάνειν εἶναι συντέλειαν· αὐχμός τε πολὺς γέγονεν, ὡς ξηρανθῆναι καὶ πηγάς. ἀγαγὼν δὲ ὁ βασιλεὺς τὸν πατριάρχην λέγει αὐτῷ· "ἄρτι τί ἡμᾶς βλάπτει, ἐὰν λέγωμεν τὴν θεοτόκον χριστοτόκον;" ὁ δὲ περιπτυξάμενος αὐτὸν λέγει· "ἐλέησον, δέσποτα, μηδὲ εἰς ἔννοιάν σου ἔλθῃ οὗτος ὁ λόγος· οὐχ ὁρᾷς ὅσα στηλιτεύεται καὶ ἀναθεματίζεται Νεστόριος ὑπὸ πάσης τῆς ἐκκλησίας;" καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς ὁ βασιλεὺς εἶπεν· "ἐγὼ μαθεῖν θέλων ἠρώτησα· ἕως δὲ σοῦ ὁ λόγος." Κόσμου ἔτη σνʹ. Τῆς θείας σαρκώσεως ἔτη ψνʹ. Ῥωμαίων βασιλεὺς Κωνσταντῖνος ἔτη λεʹ. κδʹ. Ἀράβων ἀρχηγὸς Ἀβδελᾶς ἔτη καʹ. ιʹ. Ῥώμης ἐπίσκοπος Κωνσταντῖνος ἔτη εʹ. γʹ. Κωνσταντ. ἐπίσκοπος Κωνσταντῖνος ἔτη ιβʹ. ιαʹ. Τούτῳ τῷ ἔτει ἐξῆλθον πάλιν οἱ Τοῦρκοι εἰς τὰς Κασπίας πύλας καὶ εἰς Ἰβηρίαν, καὶ πολεμήσαντες μετὰ τῶν Ἀράβων, ἐξ ἀμφοτέρων ἀπώλοντο πολλοί. ὁ δὲ Ἀβδελᾶς πανουργίᾳ τοιαύτῃ καθεῖλε τῆς ἀρχῆς τὸν Ἰσὲ Ἰβινμουσέ, εἰς ὅν, ὡς ἀνωτέρω εἴρηται, ὁ τρίτος κλῆρος τοῦ κρατεῖν μετ' αὐτὸν ἔπεσεν. κεφαλαλγούμενον γὰρ ἡμικρανικῶς αὐτὸν ὁρῶν καὶ σκοτοματικῶς πληρούμενον πείθει θεραπευθήσεσθαι μέλλειν, εἰ ταῖς ῥισὶν ἐμφυσηθῇ πταρμικῷ τινι σκευαζομένῳ τῷ αὐτοῦ ἰατρῷ, Μωσεῖ τινι τοὔνομα, διακόνῳ τῆς Ἀντιοχέων ἐκκλησίας, ὃν ἤδη δωρεαῖς ἦν πεπεικὼς δριμύτατον κατασκευάσαι φάρμακον μετὰ τοῦ καὶ ναρκῶδες εἶναι σφόδρα. καὶ δὴ πεισθεὶς ὁ αὐτὸς Ἰσὲ τῷ Ἀβδελᾷ, καίπερ ἀσφαλιζόμενος τοῦ συμφαγεῖν αὐτῷ διὰ τὴν ἐπιβουλήν, ἐδέξατο διάρρινον. καὶ πληρωθεὶς τὰ περὶ τὴν 436 κεφαλὴν πάσας τε τὰς αἰσθήσεις μετὰ τῶν ἡγεμονικῶν ἐνεργειῶν στερηθεὶς ἄφωνος προύκειτο. προσκαλεσάμενος δὲ τοὺς ἡγεμόνας καὶ προύχοντας τοῦ γένους ὁ Ἀβδελᾶς ἔφη· "τί ὑμῖν δοκεῖ περὶ τοῦ μελλοβασιλέως ὑμῶν;" οἱ δὲ ὁμοφρόνως ἀρνησάμενοι αὐτὸν δεξιὰς ἔδωκαν τῷ υἱῷ τοῦ αὐτοῦ Ἀβδελᾶ Μουάμεδ, τῷ ἐπικληθέντι Μαδί· τὸν δὲ Ἰσὲ ἀναίσθητον μετήνεγκαν οἴκαδε. τοῦτον δὲ μετὰ τρίτην ἡμέραν ἀναλαβόμενον ἀπολογίαις ἐπιπλάστοις παρεμυθήσατο, ταλάντοις χρυσίου ρʹ τὴν ὕβριν ἀνταμειψάμενος. Τῷ δ' αὐτῷ ἔτει ἀπέστειλε Παγάνος, ὁ κῦρις Βουλγαρίας, πρὸς τὸν βασιλέα αἰτούμενος συνοψισθῆναι αὐτῷ. καὶ λαβὼν λόγον κατῆλθε πρὸς αὐτὸν μετὰ τῶν βοϊλάδων αὐτοῦ, καὶ καθεσθέντος τοῦ βασιλέως, καὶ τοῦ Σαβίνου συγκαθεζομένου αὐτῷ, ἐδέξατο αὐτοὺς καὶ ὠνείδισε τὴν ἀταξίαν αὐτῶν καὶ τὸ κατὰ Σαβίνου μῖσος· καὶ ἐποίησαν τὸ δοκεῖν εἰρήνην. ἀποστείλας δὲ ὁ βασιλεὺς λάθρα εἰς Βουλγαρίαν ἐπίασε τὸν Σεβέρων ἄρχοντα Σκλαβοῦνον, τὸν πολλὰ κακὰ ἐν τῇ Θρᾴκῃ ποιήσαντα. κατεσχέθη δὲ καὶ Χριστιανός, ἀπὸ Χριστιανῶν μαγαρίτης καὶ πρῶτος τῶν Σκαμάρων, ὃν ἐν τῷ μώλῳ τοῦ ἁγίου Θωμᾶ χειροκοπήσαντες καὶ ποδοκοπήσαντες ἤνεγκαν τοὺς ἰατροὺς καὶ τοῦτον ἀνέτεμον ζῶντα ἀπὸ ἥβης ἕως τοῦ θώρακος πρὸς τὸ κατανοῆσαι τὴν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου κατασκευήν· καὶ οὕτως αὐτὸν τῷ πυρὶ παρέδωκαν. ἄφνω δὲ ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐξελθὼν τῆς πόλεως καὶ ἀφυλάκτους εὑρὼν τὰς κλεισούρας διὰ τὴν ἀπατηλὴν εἰρήνην εἰσῆλθεν εἰς Βουλγαρίαν ἕως τοῦ Τζίκας. καὶ βαλὼν πῦρ εἰς τὰς αὐλάς, ἃς εὗρεν, μετὰ φόβου ὑπέστρεψε μηδὲν γενναῖον ποιήσας. κεʹ. ιαʹ. δʹ. ιβʹ. Τούτῳ τῷ ἔτει, τῇ κʹ τοῦ Νοεμβρίου μηνὸς ἰνδικτιῶνος δʹ, ἐκμανὴς γενόμενος ὁ δυσσεβὴς καὶ ἀνόσιος βασιλεὺς κατὰ παντὸς φοβουμένου τὸν θεόν, Στέφανον τὸν νέον πρωτομάρτυρα συρθῆναι προσέταξεν ἔγκλειστον ὄντα εἰς τὸν ἅγιον Αὐξέντιον εἰς τὸ πλησίον 437 ὄρος τοῦ ∆αματρῦ· ὃν λαβόντες οἱ τῆς ἀπαιδευσίας αὐτοῦ μετέχοντες [ἐχθροὶ] καὶ ὁμόφρονες αὐτῷ γεγονότες σχολάριοί τε καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν ταγμάτων, καλωδίῳ δήσαντες αὐτοῦ τὸν πόδα εἷλκον αὐτὸν ἀπὸ τοῦ πραιτωρίου ἕως τῶν Πελαγίου, ἔνθα καὶ διασπάσαντες ἔρριψαν τὰ τίμια αὐτοῦ λείψανα ἐν τῷ τῶν βιοθανάτων λάκκῳ ὡς πολλοὺς νουθετοῦντα πρὸς τὸν μονήρη βίον καὶ