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having decreed, but having kept unshaken the doctrines of the holy and blessed fathers and having renounced the new heresy and having anathematized the three falsely-named patriarchs, I mean Anastasios, and Constantine, and Niketas and all those of like mind with them. And the first assembly and session of the bishops took place in the catholic church of St. Sophia of Nicaea on the 11th of the month of October, in the 11th indiction. And in the month of November they all entered the imperial city; and the emperors, presiding with the bishops in the Magnaura, the Tome was read aloud, and both the emperor and his mother signed, ratifying piety and the ancient doctrines of the holy fathers, and having honored the priests, they dismissed them. And the church of God was at peace, even if the enemy does not cease to sow his own tares among his own workers; but the church of God, though always warred against, is victorious. 9. 4. 20. 5. In this year a raid of the Arabs went out against Romania in the month of September, and entered into the Anatolic theme, to a place called Kopidnados. And the generals of the Romans, having gathered, fought with them, and were defeated, and many died, and not a few of the exiled scholarii; and Diogenes also fell, the capable tourmarch of the Anatolics, and the commanders of the Opsikion. But the empress Irene, having dissolved the agreement with the Franks, dismissed Theophanes the protospatharios, and brought a maiden from the Armeniacs named Maria from Amnia, and married her to Constantine the emperor and her son, though he was greatly grieved and unwilling on account of his relationship with the daughter of Charles, the king of the Franks, to whom he had been previously betrothed. And they celebrated his wedding in the month of November, in the 12th indiction. And Philetos, the strategos of Thrace, having gone to the Stry464mon and having encamped unguardedly, when the Bulgars suddenly fell upon him, was killed by them along with many others. And Irene sent John, the sakellarios and logothete of the military, to Lombardy with Theodotos, the former king of greater Lombardy, to see if he could defend against Charles, and detach some from him. And so they went down with Theodore, patrician and strategos of Sicily; and when war broke out, the same John was captured by the Franks and terribly slain. 10. 5. 21. 2. In this year the devil, out of envy for the piety of the emperors, stirred up wicked men, and set the mother against the son, and the son against the mother. For they persuaded her, as if being informed by diviners, that "it is not ordained by God for your son to hold the empire, unless it is yours, given to you by God." But she, being deceived as a woman, and also having a love of power, was convinced it was so, and did not consider that they themselves, wishing to manage affairs, had contrived this pretext. So the emperor, having become twenty years old, being both robust and very capable, saw himself exercising no authority; and he was grieved seeing Staurakios the patrician and logothete controlling everything, and everyone going to him, [and] no one daring to frequent the emperor. And having taken counsel with his own men, who were few, both Peter the magistros and Theodore the patrician, the Kamoulianos, and Damian the patrician, he resolved to seize him and exile him to Sicily, and for him to hold the empire with his own mother. On the 9th of the month of February of the 13th indiction a most terrible earthquake occurred, so that no one dared to sleep in a house, but all made tents in the gardens and open places to live. And the empress together with her son went out to Saint Mamas. And when 465 this plot was revealed to Staurakios, he stirs up the Augusta against her son, and seizing the men of the emperor, having flogged and tonsured them all along with John the

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δογματίσασα, ἀλλὰ τὰ τῶν ἁγίων καὶ μακαρίων πατέρων δόγματα ἀσάλευτα φυ463 λάξασα καὶ τὴν νέαν αἵρεσιν ἀποκηρύξασα τούς τε τρεῖς ψευδωνύμους πατριάρχας ἀναθεματίσασα, Ἀναστάσιον, φημί, καὶ Κωνσταντῖνον καὶ Νικήταν καὶ πάντας τοὺς ὁμόφρονας αὐτῶν. ἐγένετο δὲ ἡ πρώτη συνέλευσις καὶ καθέδρα τῶν ἐπισκόπων ἐν τῇ καθολικῇ ἁγίᾳ Σοφίᾳ τῆς Νικαίας μηνὶ Ὀκτωβρίῳ ιαʹ, ἰνδικτιῶνος ιαʹ. καὶ τῷ Νοεμβρίῳ μηνὶ εἰσῆλθον πάντες ἐν τῇ βασιλευούσῃ πόλει· καὶ προκαθίσαντες οἱ βασιλεῖς σὺν τοῖς ἐπισκόποις ἐν τῇ Μαγναύρᾳ, ὑπανεγνώσθη ὁ τόμος, καὶ ὑπέγραψεν ὅ τε βασιλεὺς καὶ ἡ μήτηρ αὐτοῦ κυρώσαντες τὴν εὐσέβειαν καὶ τὰ τῶν ἁγίων πατέρων ἀρχαῖα δόγματα, καὶ φιλοτιμησάμενοι τοὺς ἱερεῖς ἀπέλυσαν. καὶ εἰρήνευσεν ἡ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐκκλησία, εἰ καὶ ὁ ἐχθρὸς τὰ ἑαυτοῦ ζιζάνια ἐν τοῖς ἰδίοις ἐργάταις σπείρειν οὐ παύεται· ἀλλ' ἡ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐκκλησία πάντοτε πολεμουμένη νικᾷ. θʹ. δʹ. κʹ. εʹ. Τούτῳ τῷ ἔτει ἐξῆλθε κοῦρσον τῶν Ἀράβων κατὰ Ῥωμανίαςμηνὶ Σεπτεμβρίῳ, καὶ εἰσῆλθεν εἰς τὸ τῶν ἀνατολικῶν θέμα, εἰς τόπον λεγόμενον Κοπιδνάδον. καὶ ἐπισυναχθέντες οἱ τῶν Ῥωμαίων στρατηγοὶ ἐπολέμησαν μετ' αὐτῶν, καὶ ἡττήθησαν, καὶ ἀπέθανον πολλοί, καὶ ἐκ τῶν ἐξορισθέντων δὲ σχολαρίων οὐκ ὀλίγοι· ἔπεσε δὲ καὶ ∆ιογένης, ὁ τῶν ἀνατολικῶν τουρμάρχης ἱκανός, καὶ τοῦ Ὀψικίου ἄρχοντες. λύσασα δὲ ἡ βασίλισσα Εἰρήνη τὴν πρὸς τοὺς Φράγγους συναλλαγὴν ἀπέλυσε Θεοφάνην τὸν πρωτοσπαθάριον, καὶ ἤγαγε κόρην ἐκ τῶν Ἀρμενιάκων ὀνόματι Μαρίαν ἀπὸ Ἀμνίας, καὶ ἔζευξεν αὐτὴν Κωνσταντίνῳ τῷ βασιλεῖ καὶ υἱῷ αὐτῆς, πολλὰ λυπουμένου αὐτοῦ καὶ μὴ θέλοντος διὰ τὴν πρὸς τὴν τοῦ Καρούλου θυγατέρα, τοῦ ῥηγὸς τῶν Φράγγων, σχέσιν, ἣν ἦν προμνηστευσάμενος. καὶ ἐπετέλεσαν τοὺς γάμους αὐτοῦ μηνὶ Νοεμβρίῳ, ἰνδικτιῶνος ιβʹ. Φιλητὸς δέ, ὁ τῆς Θρᾴκης στρατηγός, ἀπελθὼν ἐν τῷ Στρυ464 μῶνι καὶ ἀφυλάκτως ἀπληκεύσας, ἐπιπεσόντων αὐτῷ ἄφνω Βουλγάρων, ἀνῃρέθη ὑπ' αὐτῶν σὺν καὶ ἄλλοις πολλοῖς. ἀποστείλασα δὲ Εἰρήνη Ἰωάννην, τὸν σακελλάριον καὶ λογοθέτην τοῦ στρατιωτικοῦ, εἰς Λογγιβαρδίαν μετὰ καὶ Θεοδότου τοῦ ποτε ῥηγὸς τῆς μεγάλης Λογγιβαρδίας πρὸς τὸ εἰ δυνηθείη ἀμύνασθαι τὸν Κάρουλον, καὶ ἀποσπάσαι τινὰς ἐξ αὐτοῦ. καὶ κατῆλθον οὖν σὺν Θεοδώρῳ πατρικίῳ καὶ στρατηγῷ Σικελίας· καὶ πολέμου κροτηθέντος, ἐκρατήθη ὑπὸ τῶν Φράγγων ὁ αὐτὸς Ἰωάννης καὶ δεινῶς ἀνῃρέθη. ιʹ. εʹ. καʹ. ʹ. Τούτῳ τῷ ἔτει ἐκίνησεν ὁ διάβολος φθόνῳ τῆς εὐσεβείας τῶν βασιλέων ἀνθρώπους πονηρούς, καὶ συνέβαλον τὴν μητέρα κατὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ, καὶ τὸν υἱὸν κατὰ τῆς μητρός. ἔπεισαν γὰρ αὐτὴν ὡς ἐκ προγνωστικῶν πληροφορηθέντες, ὅτι "οὐκ ἔστιν ὡρισμένον παρὰ τῷ θεῷ κρατῆσαι τὸν υἱόν σου τὴν βασιλείαν, εἰ μὴ σή ἐστιν, ἐκ θεοῦ δεδομένη σοι." αὐτὴ δὲ ὡς γυνὴ ἐξαπατηθεῖσα, ἔχουσα δὲ καὶ τὸ φίλαρχον, ἐπληροφορήθη οὕτως εἶναι, καὶ οὐκ ἐλογίσατο, ὅτι αὐτοὶ θέλοντες διοικεῖν τὰ πράγματα τοῦτο προεφασίσαντο. τοῦ οὖν βασιλέως γεγονότος εἰκοσαετοῦς, ῥωμαλέου τε ὄντος καὶ ἱκανοῦ πάνυ, ἑώρα ἑαυτὸν μηδὲν ἐξουσιάζοντα· καὶ ἐλυπεῖτο βλέπων Σταυράκιον τὸν πατρίκιον καὶ λογοθέτην τὰ πάντα κατέχοντα, καὶ πάντας πρὸς αὐτὸν προερχομένους, [καὶ] μηδενὸς τολμῶντος τῷ βασιλεῖ συχνάσαι. καὶ βουλευσάμενος τοῖς οἰκείοις αὐτοῦ ἀνθρώποις, ὀλιγοστοῖς οὖσιν, καὶ Πέτρῳ μαγίστρῳ καὶ Θεοδώρῳ πατρικίῳ τῷ Καμουλιανῷ καὶ ∆αμιανῷ πατρικίῳ, ἐκύρωσε τοῦ πιάσαι αὐτὸν καὶ ἐξορίσαι ἐν Σικελίᾳ, καὶ κρατῆσαι αὐτὸν τὸ βασίλειον μετὰ τῆς ἰδίας μητρός. τῇ δὲ θʹ τοῦ Φεβρουαρίου μηνὸς τῆς ιγʹ ἰνδικτιῶνος σεισμὸς γέγονε φοβερώτατος, ὥστε μὴ τολμᾷν τινας ἐν οἴκῳ καθευδῆσαι, ἀλλὰ πάντας εἰς τοὺς κήπους καὶ τὰ ἐξάερα σκηνὰς ποιήσαντας διάγειν. ἡ δὲ βασίλισσα ἅμα τῷ υἱῷ αὐτῆς ἐξῆλθεν ἐν τῷ ἁγίῳ Μάμαντι. μηνυθείσης 465 δὲ τῷ Σταυρακίῳ τῆς προφάσεως ταύτης, συγκινεῖ τὴν Αὐγούσταν κατὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ, καὶ πιάσασα τοὺς ἀνθρώπους τοῦ βασιλέως, πάντας δείρασα καὶ κουρεύσασα σὺν Ἰωάννῃ τῷ