215

Year of the world 6268. Year of the divine incarnation 768. Leo, emperor of the Romans

5 years. 1st. Mahdi, chief of the Arabs, 9 years. 1st. Adrian, bishop of Rome, 27 years. 7th. Niketas, bishop of Constantinople, 14 years. 11th. In this year, Mahdi sent al-Abbas ibn Muhammad against Romania with a large force, opened the cave called Kasin by means of smoke, and having taken the captives in it, he returned. But the emperor Leo began to be generous with the money left to him by his father and conciliated the people and those in the city; and for a short time he seemed to be pious and a friend of the holy Theotokos and of the monks; for which reason he also appointed metropolitans from among the abbots to the foremost thrones; and he created many armies according to the themes and increased the tagmata; for which reason the governors of the themes were moved and all entered with a great multitude of people, demanding his son Constantine as emperor. But he, as is the custom for emperors, indicated to them in return, that "my son is my only-begotten, and I am afraid to do this, lest the human lot befall me, and while he is an infant you kill him and appoint another. But they with oaths professed to assure him that no one would be emperor except his son, even if God should wish him to die. And while the people were clamoring for this from Palm Sunday until Maundy Thursday and were gathering in the Hippodrome and demanding it, on Holy Friday he ordered them to swear an oath. And all the people swore on the precious and life-giving Wood, both those of the themes and of the senate and of the inner tagmata and all the citizens and artisans, not to accept an emperor except Leo and Constantine and their seed, and they made documents as they had sworn with their own hands; and on the next day, which was Holy Saturday, the emperor went out to the tribunal of the nineteen couches and appointed his brother Eudokimos nobelissimos. For his father had appointed Anthimos while he was alive. And the emperor went forth with the two caesars and three nobelissimoi and the young Constantine to the Great Church, and having changed his garment, as is the custom for emperors, he ascended the ambo with his son and the patriarch. And all the people having entered, they deposited their documents on the holy altar. And the emperor spoke thus: "Behold, brothers, I fulfill your request and I bestow upon you my son as emperor. Behold, from the church and from the hand of Christ you receive him." And they shouted with a great voice, saying: "Answer us, son of God, that from your hand we receive the lord Constantine as emperor to guard him and to die for him." And on the next day, which was the great Sunday of Easter, on the 24th of the month of April, in the 14th indiction, at the hour of dawn, the emperor went out with the patriarch into the Hippodrome, and an antimension having been brought, while all the people were watching, the patriarch said the prayer, and the emperor crowned his son; and thus the two emperors went forth into the Great Church with the two caesars and three nobelissimoi. And the empress Irene also went forth after the emperors had gone forth, attended by the scepters through the scholae, and she ascended through the stairway of the Chalke into the catechumena of the church, not going out into the middle of the gallery. And in the month of May of the same indiction, Nikephoros, the caesar and brother of the emperor, was slandered to the emperor as preparing a plot against him with certain spatharioi and stratores and other imperial men; and the emperor, having held a silentium in the Magnaura, laid before the people the things said about him. And they with one accord shouted for both to be removed from their midst, the ever-perjured ones not remembering what they had sworn to their father, not to accept after his death that his children be wronged

215

Κόσμου ἔτη σξηʹ. Τῆς θείας σαρκώσεως ἔτη ψξηʹ. Ῥωμαίων βασιλεὺς Λέων

ἔτη εʹ. αʹ. Ἀράβων ἀρχηγὸς Μαδὶ ἔτη θʹ. αʹ. Ῥώμης ἐπίσκοπος Ἀδριανὸς ἔτη κζʹ. ζʹ. Κωνσταντ. ἐπίσκοπος Νικήτας ἔτη ιδʹ. ιαʹ. Τούτῳ τῷ ἔτει ἀποστείλας Μαδὶ τὸν Ἀβασβαλὶ κατὰ Ῥωμανίαςμετὰ δυνάμεως πολλῆς, ἤνοιξε τὸ σπήλαιον τὸ ἐπιλεγόμενον Κάσιν ἀπὸ καπνοῦ, καὶ λαβὼν τοὺς ἐν αὐτῷ αἰχμαλώτους ὑπέστρεψεν. ὁ δὲ βασιλεὺς Λέων ἤρξατο ἁπλοῦσθαι εἰς τὰ καταλειφθέντα αὐτῷ ὑπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς χρήματα καὶ ἐξευμενίσατο τὸν λαὸν καὶ τοὺς ἐν τῇ πόλει· καὶ ἔδοξεν εὐσεβὴς εἶναι πρὸς ὀλίγον χρόνον καὶ φίλος τῆς ἁγίας θεοτόκου καὶ τῶν μοναχῶν· ὅθεν καὶ μητροπολίτας ἐκ τῶν ἀββάδων ἐν τοῖς πρωτίστοις θρόνοις προεβάλετο· στρατεύματά τε ἐποίησε κατὰ θέμα πολλὰ καὶ τὰ τάγματα ἐπηύξησεν· ὅθεν κινηθέντες οἱ τῶν θεμάτων ἄρχοντες εἰσῆλθον πάντες σὺν πολλῷ πλήθει λαοῦ αἰτούμενοι Κωνσταντῖνον τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ εἰς βασιλέα. ὁ δέ, ὡς ἔθος τοῖς βασιλεῦσιν, ἀντεδήλου αὐτοῖς, ὅτι "ὁ υἱός μου μονογενής μοί ἐστιν, καὶ φοβοῦμαι τοῦτο ποιῆσαι, μήπως συμβῇ μοι τὸ ἀνθρώπινον, καὶ νηπίου αὐτοῦ ὄντος θανατώσητε αὐτὸν καὶ ἄλλον προβάλησθε. οἱ δὲ μεθ' ὅρκων ὡμολόγουν πληροφορεῖν αὐτὸν μὴ βασιλευθῆναι ἐκτὸς τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ, εἰ καὶ θανεῖν αὐτὸν θελήσῃ ὁ θεός. τοῦτο δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς κυριακῆς τῶν βαΐων ἕως τῆς μεγάλης πέμπτης τοῦ λαοῦ ἐνοχλοῦντος καὶ ἐν τῷ ἱπποδρομίῳ σωρευομένου καὶ αἰτουμένου, τῇ ἁγίᾳ παρασκευῇ ἐκέλευσεν ὀμόσαι αὐτούς. καὶ ὤμοσε πᾶς ὁ λαὸς εἰς τὰ τίμια καὶ ζωοποιὰ ξύλα, οἵ τε τῶν θεμάτων καὶ τῆς συγκλήτου καὶ τῶν ἔσω ταγμάτων καὶ τῶν πολιτῶν πάντων καὶ ἐργαστηριακῶν, τοῦ μὴ δέξασθαι βασιλέα ἐκτὸς Λέοντος καὶ Κωνσταντίνου καὶ τοῦ σπέρματος αὐτῶν, καὶ ἐποίησαν ἔγγραφα καθὼς ὤμοσαν ἰδιόχειρα αὐτῶν· καὶ τῇ ἐπαύριον, ἥ τις ἦν τὸ ἅγιον σάββατον, ἐξῆλθεν ὁ βασιλεὺς εἰς τὸ τριβουνάλιον τῶν ιθʹ ἀκουβί450 των καὶ προεβάλετο νοβελίσιμον Εὐδόκιμον, τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ. τὸν γὰρ Ἄνθιμον ζῶν ὁ πατὴρ προεβάλετο. καὶ προῆλθεν ὁ βασιλεὺς σὺν τοῖς δυσὶ καίσαρσι καὶ τρισὶ νοβελισίμοις καὶ τῷ νέῳ Κωνσταντίνῳ εἰς τὴν μεγάλην ἐκκλησίαν, καὶ ὑπαλλάξας τὴν ἐνδυτήν, ὡς ἔθος ἐστὶ τοῖς βασιλεῦσιν, ἀνῆλθεν ἐν τῷ ἄμβωνι σὺν τῷ υἱῷ αὐτοῦ καὶ τῷ πατριάρχῃ. καὶ εἰσελθὼν πᾶς ὁ λαὸς ἀπέθεντο τὰ ἔγγραφα αὐτῶν ἐν τῇ ἁγίᾳ τραπέζῃ. ὁ δὲ βασιλεὺς διελάλησεν οὕτως· "ἰδού, ἀδελφοί, τὴν αἴτησιν ὑμῶν πληρῶ καὶ δωροῦμαι ὑμῖν τὸν υἱόν μου εἰς βασιλέα. ἰδοὺ ἐκ τῆς ἐκκλησίας καὶ τῆς χειρὸς τοῦ Χριστοῦ αὐτὸν παραλαμβάνετε." οἱ δὲ μεγάλῃ τῇ φωνῇ ἐβόησαν, λέγοντες· "ἀντιφώνησον ἡμᾶς, υἱὲ τοῦ θεοῦ, ὅτι ἐκ τῆς χειρός σου παραλαμβάνομεν τὸν κῦριν Κωνσταντῖνον βασιλέα τοῦ φυλάττειν αὐτὸν καὶ ὑπεραποθνήσκειν αὐτοῦ." καὶ τῇ ἐπαύριον, ἥτις ἦν ἡ μεγάλη κυριακὴ τοῦ πάσχα, μηνὶ Ἀπριλλίῳ κδʹ ἰνδικτιῶνος ιδʹ, ὥρᾳ αὐγῆς, ἐξελθὼν ὁ βασιλεὺς σὺν τῷ πατριάρχῃ ἐν τῷ ἱπποδρομίῳ, καὶ ἐνεχθέντος ἀντιμισσίου, παντὸς τοῦ λαοῦ ὁρῶντος, ἐποίησεν ὁ πατριάρχης τὴν εὐχήν, καὶ ἔστεψεν ὁ βασιλεὺς τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ· καὶ οὕτω προῆλθον ἐν τῇ μεγάλῃ ἐκκλησίᾳ οἱ δύο βασιλεῖς σὺν τοῖς δυσὶ καίσαρσι καὶ τρισὶ νοβελισίμοις. προῆλθε δὲ καὶ ἡ βασίλισσα Εἰρήνη μετὰ τὸ προελθεῖν τοὺς βασιλεῖς ὀψικευομένη ὑπὸ τῶν σκήπτρων διὰ τῶν σχολῶν, καὶ ἀνῆλθε διὰ τοῦ ἀναβασίου τῆς Χαλκῆς εἰς τὰ κατηχούμενα τῆς ἐκκλησίας μὴ ἐξελθοῦσα εἰς τὴν μέσην τοῦ ἐμβόλου. τῷ δὲ Μαΐῳ μηνὶ τῆς αὐτῆς ἰνδικτιῶνος διεβλήθη Νικηφόρος, ὁ καῖσαρ καὶ ἀδελφὸς τοῦ βασιλέως, τῷ βασιλεῖ ὡς ἐπιβουλὴν σκευάζων κατ' αὐτοῦ μετὰ σπαθαρίων τινῶν καὶ στρατόρων καὶ ἑτέρων βασιλικῶν ἀνθρώπων· καὶ ποιήσας ὁ βασιλεὺς σιλέντιον ἐν τῇ Μαγναύρᾳ ἀνέθετο τῷ λαῷ τὰ περὶ αὐτοῦ ῥηθέντα. οἱ δὲ ὁμοθυμαδὸν ἀνεβόησαν τοῦ παρασταλῆναι ἀμφοτέρους ἐκ τοῦ μέσου, μὴ μνησθέντες οἱ ἀεὶ ἐπίορκοι ἃ ὤμοσαν τῷ πατρὶ αὐτῶν, μὴ καταδέχεσθαι μετὰ θάνατον αὐτοῦ ἀδικηθῆναι τὰ τέκνα