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Niketas, the eunuch from the Slavs, patriarch of Constantinople. And on the second Sunday of the fasts, the honorable Paul, being a lector, a Cypriot by birth, shining in word and deed, after much refusal on account of the prevailing heresy, was ordained by great force as patriarch of Constantinople. In the middle week of the fasts, James the protospatharios and Papias and Strategios and Theophanes, the koubikoularioi and parakoimomenoi, were arrested, and Leon and Thomas, also koubikoularioi, along with other pious men, for venerating the holy and revered icons. Then Leo, the son of the persecutor, laying bare his own hidden wickedness, after mercilessly flogging and tonsuring them, had them paraded in chains through the Mese and locked them up in the praetorium, among whom the aforementioned Theophanes died, having become a confessor and received the crown of martyrdom; but all the rest, after his death, were revealed to be proven monks. And Aaron, having entered the Armeniakon theme, besieged the fortress of Simalouos all summer and in the month of September took it by agreement. He had sent Thoumamas against Asia with 50,000 men, and Michael Lachanodrakon, encountering his small raiding party, fought it and killed the brother of Thoumamas. On the 8th of the month of September of the 4th indiction, Leo, the son of Constantine, died in the following manner. Being obsessed with precious stones, he greatly desired the crown of the great church and, taking it, he wore it. And carbuncles broke out on his head, and seized by a violent fever, he died, having reigned five years less six days.

454 Years of the world 6273. Years of the divine incarnation 773. Emperor of the Romans

Constantine with his mother, 10 years. 1st year. Ruler of the Arabs, Mahdi, 9 years. 2nd year. Bishop of Rome, Adrian, 27 years. 12th year. Bishop of Constantinople, Paul, 5 years. 2nd year.

In this year the most pious Irene, together with her son Constantine, was wondrously entrusted with the empire by God on the 8th of September, of the 4th indiction, so that God might be glorified in this too, intending through a widowed woman and an orphaned boy to purge the immeasurable impiety against Himself and His servants and the tyranny over all the churches of the God-fighting Constantine, as of old He purged that of the devil by the weakness of the fishermen and the unlettered. Forty days after she took power, while her son was ten years old, some of the officials, having held a council, wished to bring out Nikephoros, one of the Caesars, and make him emperor. But when the plot was discovered, there were arrested Gregory, the logothete of the dromos, and Bardas, who was formerly general of the Armeniakon, and Constantine, the spatharios of the vicarius and domestic of the excubitors, and Theophylact, the son of Rangabe, droungarios of the Dodecanese, and many others; whom she flogged and tonsured and exiled to various places. She had her brothers-in-law, both Caesars and nobelissimoi, tonsured to serve as priests and to give communion to the people on the feast of Christ's nativity, on which day she also, proceeding royally in public with her child, offered to the church the crown taken up by her husband, which had been embellished with pearls. She appointed Elpidios the patrician as general in Sicily, since he had previously been general there, and dispatched him in the month of February. But on the 15th of the month of April, the same Elpidios was accused of favoring the cause of the Caesars, and sending Theophilos the spatharios, she ordered him to seize and bring him back quickly. But when he had gone, the Sicilians did not surrender him. She, however, flogged 455 and tonsured his wife along with his sons and sent them to be guarded in the praetorium. And in the month of June she dispatched all the Anatolian themes to the kleisourai

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Νικήτας ὁ ἀπὸ Σκλάβων εὐνοῦχος πατριάρχης Κωνσταντινουπόλεως. καὶ τῇ δευτέρᾳ κυριακῇ τῶν νηστειῶν Παῦλος ὁ τίμιος, ἀναγνώστης ὑπάρχων, Κύπριος τῷ γένει, λόγῳ καὶ πράξει διαλάμπων, μετὰ πολλὴν παραίτησιν διὰ τὴν κρατοῦσαν αἵρεσιν βίᾳ πολλῇ χειροτονεῖται πατριάρχης Κωνσταντινουπόλεως. τῇ δὲ μέσῃ ἑβδομάδι τῶν νηστειῶν ἐκρατήθη Ἰάκωβος πρωτοσπαθάριος καὶ Παπίας καὶ Στρατήγιος καὶ Θεοφάνης οἱ κουβικουλάριοι καὶ παρακοιμώμενοι, Λέων τε καὶ Θωμᾶς, κουβικουλάριοι καὶ οὗτοι, σὺν καὶ ἑτέροις εὐλαβέσιν ἀνδράσιν ὡς προσκυνοῦντες τὰς ἁγίας καὶ σεπτὰς εἰκόνας. τότε ἀπογυμνώσας τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ἐγκεκρυμμένην κακίαν Λέων, ὁ τοῦ διώκτου υἱός, τούτους ἀνηλεῶς δείρας τε καὶ κουρεύσας διὰ τῆς Μέσης τε δεδεμένους πομπεῦσαι ποιήσας εἰς τὸ πραιτώριον ἀπέκλεισεν, ἐν οἷς καὶ ἀποθνήσκει ὁ προρρηθεὶς Θεοφάνης ὁμολογητὴς γενόμενος καὶ τὸν στέφανον τοῦ μαρτυρίου κομισάμενος· οἱ δὲ λοιποὶ πάντες μετὰ τὴν τούτου τελευτὴν δόκιμοι μοναχοὶ ἀνεδείχθησαν. ὁ δὲ Ἀαρὼν εἰσελθὼν εἰς τὸ τῶν Ἀρμενιάκων θέμα παρεκάθισε τὸ Σημαλοῦος κάστρον ὅλον τὸ θέρος καὶ τῷ Σεπτεμβρίῳ μηνὶ παρέλαβεν αὐτὸ ὑπὸ λόγον. ἦν δὲ πέμψας τὸν Θουμάμαν ἐπὶ Ἀσίαν μετὰ νʹ χιλιάδων, καὶ συναντήσας Μιχαὴλ ὁ Λαχανοδράκων κούρσῳ αὐτοῦ μικρῷ ἐπολέμησεν αὐτὸ καὶ ἔκτεινε τὸν ἀδελφὸν τοῦ Θουμάμα. τῇ δὲ ηʹ τοῦ Σεπτεμβρίου μηνὸς τῆς δʹ ἰνδικτιῶνος τέθνηκε Λέων, ὁ υἱὸς Κωνσταντίνου, τρόπῳ τοιούτῳ. λιθομανὴς ὑπάρχων λίαν ἠράσθη τοῦ στέμματος τῆς μεγάλης ἐκκλησίας καὶ λαβὼν ἐφόρεσεν αὐτό. καὶ ἐξῆλθον ἄνθρακες ἐπὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ, καὶ ληφθεὶς σφοδρῷ πυρετῷ τέθνηκε βασιλεύσας παρὰ ἓξ ἡμέρας ἔτη πέντε.

454 Κόσμου ἔτη σογʹ. Τῆς θείας σαρκώσεως ἔτη ψογʹ. Ῥωμαίων βασιλεὺς

Κωνσταντῖνος σὺν τῇ μητρὶ αὐτοῦ ἔτη ιʹ. αʹ. Ἀράβων ἀρχηγὸς Μαδὶ ἔτη θʹ. ʹ. Ῥώμης ἐπίσκοπος Ἀδριανὸς ἔτη κζʹ. ιβʹ. Κωνσταντ. ἐπίσκοπος Παῦλος ἔτη εʹ. βʹ. Τούτῳ τῷ ἔτει Εἰρήνη ἡ εὐσεβεστάτη ἅμα τῷ υἱῷ αὐτῆς Κωνσταντίνῳ παραδόξως θεόθεν τὴν βασιλείαν ἐγχειρίζεται μηνὶ Σεπτεμβρίῳ ηʹ, ἰνδικτιῶνος δʹ, ὡς ἂν θαυμαστωθῇ ὁ θεὸς καὶ ἐν τούτῳ διὰ γυναικὸς χήρας καὶ παιδὸς ὀρφανοῦ μέλλων καθαίρειν τὴν ἄμετρον κατ' αὐτοῦ καὶ τῶν αὐτοῦ θεραπόντων δυσσέβειαν καὶ πασῶν τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν τυραννίδα τοῦ θεομάχου Κωνσταντίνου, ὡς πάλαι τοῦ διαβόλου τῇ ἀσθενείᾳ τῶν ἁλιέων καὶ ἀγραμμάτων. μετὰ δὲ μʹ ἡμέρας τοῦ κρατῆσαι αὐτήν, τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτῆς δεκαετοῦς ὑπάρχοντος, συμβούλιον ποιήσαντές τινες τῶν ἐν τέλει ἠθέλησαν ἐξαγαγεῖν Νικηφόρον, τὸν ἀπὸ καισάρων, καὶ στῆσαι εἰς βασιλέα. διαγνωσθείσης δὲ τῆς ὑποθέσεως, ἐκρατήθησαν Γρηγόριος, ὁ λογοθέτης τοῦ δρόμου, καὶ Βάρδας, ὅ ποτε στρατηγὸς τῶν Ἀρμενιάκων, Κωνσταντῖνός τε, ὁ τοῦ βικαρίου σπαθάριος καὶ δομέστικος τῶν ἐκσκουβιτόρων, καὶ Θεοφύλακτος, ὁ τοῦ Ῥαγγαβέ, δρουγγάριος τῆς ∆ωδεκανήσου, καὶ πολλοὶ ἕτεροι· οὓς δείρασα καὶ κουρεύσασα ἐξώρισεν εἰς διαφόρους τόπους. τοὺς δὲ ἀνδραδέλφους αὐτῆς καίσαράς τε καὶ νοβελισίμους ἀποκείρασα ἱερατεῦσαι καὶ μεταδοῦναι τῷ λαῷ πεποίηκεν ἐν τῇ ἑορτῇ τῆς Χριστοῦ γεννήσεως, ἐν ᾗ καὶ προελθοῦσα βασιλικῶς δημοσίᾳ σὺν τῷ παιδὶ προσήνεγκε τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ τὸ ὑπὸ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς αὐτῆς ἀρθὲν στέμμα ἐπικαλλωπισθὲν διὰ μαργαριτῶν. προεβάλετο δὲ Ἐλπίδιον τὸν πατρίκιον στρατηγὸν ἐν Σικελίᾳ, ὡς καὶ προστρατηγήσαντα τῶν ἐκεῖσε, καὶ ἀπέλυσε τῷ Φεβρουαρίῳ μηνί. ἐν δὲ τῷ Ἀπριλλίῳ μηνὶ ιεʹ διεβλήθη ὁ αὐτὸς Ἐλπίδιος, ὡς τὰ τῶν καισάρων φρονῶν, καὶ ἀποστείλασα Θεόφιλον τὸν σπαθάριον παρήγγειλεν, ἵνα συντόμως ἁρπάσῃ καὶ φέρῃ αὐτόν. τοῦ δὲ ἀπελθόντος οὐκ ἀπέδωκαν αὐτὸν οἱ Σικελοί. ἡ δὲ τὴν τούτου γυναῖκα δείρασα 455 καὶ κουρεύσασα σὺν τοῖς υἱοῖς τῷ πραιτωρίῳ παρέπεμψε φυλάττεσθαι. τῷ δὲ Ἰουνίῳ μηνὶ ἀπέστειλε πάντα τὰ περατικὰ θέματα εἰς τὰς κλεισούρας