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211

3. 27. 13. 1. 2. In this year, in the month of October, [day], indiction [number], Constantine the falsely-named patriarch was brought from the island of Prinkipos; and the tyrant Constantine flogged him, so that he was unable to walk. And he ordered him to be carried on a litter, and having gone, to sit on the solea of the great church. And an asecretis was with him carrying a scroll of paper, on which were written the charges against him. And when all the people of the city had been gathered there by royal command and were watching, the scroll was read out within the hearing of all the people. And at each charge the asecretis struck his face, while the patriarch Niketas was sitting on the synthronon and watching. And after this, having brought him up to the ambo and stood him upright, Niketas took the scroll, and sending bishops and taking his omophorion, he anathematized him; and having nicknamed him Skotiopsis, they cast him out of the church backwards. And on the next day, there being hippodrome races, they shaved his face and stripped bare his beard and the hair of his head and eyebrows, and having dressed him in a silk and sleeveless tunic, they sat him backwards on a saddled donkey, holding its tail, and they brought him through the Dihippion into the hippodrome, with all the people and the demes hooting and spitting at him. And Constantine, his nephew whose nose had been cut off, led the donkey. And when he came to the demes, they came down and spat and threw dust on him. And bringing him to the Stama, they threw him from the donkey and trampled on his neck; and having seated him opposite the demes, he heard mocking words from them until the dismissal of the races. And on the 15th of the same month, he sends the patricians to him and makes it known to him, saying: "What do you say concerning our faith and the synod which we held?" But he, having become futile in his mind, answered that "You both believe rightly and have held the synod well," thinking through this to appease him again; but they, answering straightforwardly, said: "We wanted to hear this from your defiled mouth; and from now on, go into the darkness and into the anathema." And thus having received the sentence, he was beheaded at the Kynegion. And having tied his head by the ears, they hung it for three days at the Milion for a display to the people. But his body, having tied the foot with a rope, they dragged through the Mese and threw it at Pelagiou with those who had died a violent death; likewise also his head, after the three days, they took away and threw there. O the irrationality and cruelty and mercilessness of the untamed beast. Did the wretched man not respect the holy font? For he had received two of his children by his third wife in his arms. Therefore, he was always bestial in character and untamed. And from this time he employed greater madness against the holy churches. For having sent, he brought down Peter the renowned stylite from his pillar, and when he would not yield to his doctrines, he ordered him to be bound by the feet while alive and to be thrown at Pelagiou, dragged through the Mese, others he ordered to be bound in sacks and, with stones attached, to be cast into the sea, blinding, cutting off noses, carding with whips, and devising every kind of punishment against the pious; and in the city he did these things himself and through those of like mind, I mean Antony, patrician and domestic of the schools, and Peter the magistros, and the people of the tagmata trained by him, but in the outer themes through the aforesaid generals. But he himself delighted in cithara-playing and banquets, training those around him in shameful speech and dancing. And if anyone collapsing or in pain uttered the customary Christian cry, "Theotokos, help," or was caught keeping an all-night vigil or frequenting churches or living piously or not with oaths

211

γʹ. κζʹ. ιγʹ. αʹ. βʹ. Τούτῳ τῷ ἔτει μηνὶ Ὀκτωβρίῳ ʹ, ἰνδικτιῶνος ʹ, ἤχθη Κωνσταντῖνος ὁ ψευδώνυμος πατριάρχης ἀπὸ τῆς Πριγκίπου νήσου· καὶ ἔδειρεν αὐτὸν ὁ τύραννος Κωνσταντῖνος, ὡς μὴ ἰσχύειν αὐτὸν βαδίσαι. ἐκέλευσε δὲ αὐτὸν εἰς φορεῖον βασταχθῆναι, καὶ ἀπελθόντα καθίσαι ἐν τῇ σολαίᾳ τῆς μεγάλης ἐκκλησίας. καὶ ἀσηκρήτης ἦν σὺν αὐτῷ βαστάζων τόμον χάρτου, ἐν ᾧ ἦν γεγραμμένα τὰ τούτου αἴτια. παντὸς δὲ τοῦ λαοῦ τῆς πόλεως ἐκ διαταγῆς βασιλικῆς ἐκεῖσε ἀθροισθέντος καὶ ὁρῶντος, ὑπανεγινώσκετο ὁ χάρτης εἰς ἐπήκοον παντὸς τοῦ λαοῦ. καὶ κατὰ ἓν κεφάλαιον ἔπαιεν αὐτοῦ τὸ πρόσωπον ὁ ἀσηκρήτης, τοῦ πατριάρχου Νικήτα ἐν τῷ συνθρόνῳ καθεζομένου καὶ θεωροῦντος. μετὰ δὲ τοῦτο ἀναβιβάσαντες αὐτὸν ἐν τῷ ἄμβωνι καὶ στήσαντες ὄρθιον, ἔλαβε Νικήτας τὸν χάρτην, καὶ ἀποστείλας ἐπισκόπους καὶ λαβὼν τὸ ὠμοφόριον αὐτοῦ ἀνεθεμάτισεν αὐτόν· καὶ ἐπονομάσαντες Σκοτίοψιν ἐξέωσαν αὐτὸν ὀπισθοφανῶς τῆς ἐκκλησίας. τῇ δὲ ἑξῆς ἡμέρᾳ ἱπποδρομίας οὔσης, ἐψίλωσαν αὐτοῦ τὴν ὄψιν καὶ ἐγύμνωσαν αὐτοῦ τὴν γενειάδα καὶ τὰς τῆς κεφαλῆς τρίχας καὶ τῶν ὀφρύων, καὶ ἐνδύσαντες αὐτὸν σηρικὸν καὶ ἀμανίκωτον κονδὸν ἐκάθισαν αὐτὸν ἐπὶ ὄνου σαγματωμένου ἐξανάστροφα κρατοῦντα τὴν οὐρὰν αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐξήνεγκαν διὰ τοῦ διϊππίου εἰς τὸ ἱπποδρόμιον, τοῦ λαοῦ παντὸς καὶ τοῦ δήμου ἀνασκάπτοντος καὶ ἐμπτύοντος αὐτόν. ἔσυρε δὲ τὸν ὄνον Κωνσταντῖνος ὁ ἀνεψιὸς αὐτοῦ ῥινοκοπημένος. ἐλθόντος δὲ αὐτοῦ ἐν τοῖς δήμοις, κατῆλθον καὶ ἐνέπτυσαν καὶ κόνιν ἐπέρριπτον ἐπ' αὐτόν. ἐνέγκαντες δὲ αὐτὸν εἰς τὸ στάμα ἔρριψαν αὐτὸν ἐκ τοῦ ὄνου καὶ ἐπάτησαν τὸν τράχηλον αὐτοῦ· καὶ καθίσαντες αὐτὸν ἀπέναντι τῶν δήμων, ἤκουε παρ' αὐτῶν σκωπτικοὺς λόγους ἕως τῆς ἀπολύσεως τοῦ ἱππικοῦ. καὶ τῇ 442 ιεʹ τοῦ αὐτοῦ μηνὸς ἀποστέλλει πρὸς αὐτὸν τοὺς πατρικίους καὶ δηλοῖ αὐτῷ, ὅτι· "τί λέγεις περὶ τῆς πίστεως ἡμῶν καὶ τῆς συνόδου ἧς ἐποιήσαμεν;" ὁ δὲ ματαιωθεὶς τὰς φρένας ἀπεκρίθη, ὅτι "καλῶς καὶ πιστεύεις καὶ τὴν σύνοδον πεποίηκας," οἰόμενος διὰ τούτου πάλιν ἐξευμενίσασθαι αὐτόν· οἱ δὲ εὐθυβόλως ἀποκριθέντες εἶπον· "ἡμεῖς τοῦτο ἠθέλομεν ἀκοῦσαι ἐκ τοῦ μιαροῦ σου στόματος· ἀπὸ δὲ τοῦ νῦν ἄπελθε εἰς τὸ σκότος καὶ εἰς τὸ ἀνάθεμα." καὶ οὕτω λαβὼν τὴν ἀπόφασιν ἀπεκεφαλίσθη εἰς τὸ Κυνήγιον. καὶ τὴν μὲν κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ ἐκ τῶν ὤτων δήσαντες ἐπὶ τρισὶν ἡμέραις ἐν τῷ Μιλίῳ ἐκρέμασαν εἰς ἔνδειξιν τοῦ λαοῦ. τὸ δὲ σῶμα αὐτοῦ δήσαντες καλωδίῳ τὸν πόδα, διὰ τῆς Μέσης σύραντες εἰς τὰ Πελαγίου μετὰ τῶν βιοθανάτων ἔρριψαν· ὁμοίως καὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ μετὰ τὰς τρεῖς ἡμέρας ἐκεῖσε ἀπαγαγόντες ἔρριψαν. ὢ τῆς ἀλογίας καὶ ὠμότητος καὶ ἀσπλαγχνίας τοῦ ἀνημέρου θηρός. οὐκ ᾐδέσθη τὴν ἁγίαν κολυμβήθραν ὁ ἄθλιος; δύο γὰρ τέκνα αὐτοῦ τῆς τρίτης γυναικὸς ἐν ταῖς ἀγκάλαις αὐτοῦ δεξάμενος ἦν. πάντοτε μὲν οὖν θηριώδης τὸν τρόπον καὶ ἀνήμερος ἦν. ἀπὸ δὲ τούτου τοῦ χρόνου πλείονι μανίᾳ κατὰ τῶν ἁγίων ἐκκλησιῶν ἐχρήσατο. ἀποστείλας γὰρ κατήνεγκε Πέτρον τὸν ἀοίδιμον στυλίτην ἀπὸ πέτρας, καὶ μὴ ὑπείξαντα τοῖς δόγμασιν αὐτοῦ ζῶντα δήσας τῶν ποδῶν ἐν τοῖς Πελαγίου καὶ τοῦτον διὰ τῆς Μέσης συρόμενον ἐκέλευσε ῥιφῆναι, ἄλλους ἐν σάκκοις δεσμῶν καὶ λίθοις προσαρτίζων ἐν τῷ πελάγει ῥίπτεσθαι προσέταττεν, τυφλόνων, ῥινοκοπῶν, μάστιξι ξαίνων, καὶ πᾶν εἶδος κολάσεως κατὰ τῶν εὐσεβούντων ἐπινοῶν· καὶ ἐν μὲν τῇ πόλει δι' ἑαυτοῦ ταῦτα ἔδρα καὶ τῶν ὁμοφρόνων αὐτοῦ, Ἀντωνίου, φημί, πατρικίου καὶ δομεστίκου τῶν σχολῶν καὶ Πέτρου μαγίστρου καὶ τοῦ ἐκπαιδευθέντος ὑπ' αὐτοῦ λαοῦ τῶν ταγμάτων, ἐν δὲ τοῖς ἔξω θέμασι διὰ τῶν προρρηθέντων στρατηγῶν. αὐτὸς δὲ κιθαρῳδίαις ἔχαιρε καὶ συμποσιασμοῖς, αἰσχρολογίαις τε καὶ ὀρχησμοῖς ἐκπαιδεύων τοὺς περὶ αὐτόν. καὶ εἴ πού τις συμπίπτων ἢ ἀλγῶν τὴν συνήθη Χριστιανοῖς ἀφῆκε φωνήν, τὸ "θεοτόκε βοήθει," ἢ παννυχεύων ἐφωράθη ἢ ἐκκλησίαις προσεδρεύων ἢ εὐλαβείᾳ συζῶν ἢ μὴ ὅρκοις