226

of the Arian opinion and to make him well-disposed to the emperor. In the 15th year, the holy Euthymius fell asleep in Christ, having lived for 97 years. 1.614 In the 16th and 17th year, the events of the war with Gizerichus happened one after another.

In the 17th, the emperor Leo, having crowned Leo the son of Zeno and of his own daughter Ariadne, who was his grandson, proclaimed him emperor. At that time also the robe of the most-holy Theotokos was brought from Jerusalem, having been found with a certain most-pious Hebrew virgin woman. And the relics of Saint Anastasia were brought up from Nicomedia, and were placed in her church. At this time a certain Romulus, surnamed Augustulus, was established as emperor of the empire in Italy, one thousand and eighty years after king Romulus who founded Rome. It should be noted that the western empire, which had flourished starting from a Romulus, again ceased under a Romulus after so many years. Therefore, when the little Leo was proclaimed, while the hippodrome games were being held in the second hour of the day, a deep darkness covered the city, and suddenly dust was rained down in the form of a snowstorm, as the clouds appeared fiery, so that everyone thought it was raining fire; and the dust was deposited to the depth of a palm. When the emperor Leo suffered from a flux of the stomach and was driven by terrible pangs inside, the disease proved that the medical art is useless in dangerous situations. For when he was sitting on the chamber pot, whether the light from a fire was behind him or in front, it shone through his stomach and back. And having become so emaciated, he died, and 1.615 his body was placed in a green sarcophagus in the mausoleum of the great Constantine. His wife was Verina, sister of Basiliscus, who had commanded the great fleet sent against Gizerichus. Leo, the son of Zeno and Ariadne, while still an infant, was appointed emperor by his grandfather, Leo the Great; who reigned for one year, and having crowned his own father Zeno, with Verina and Ariadne helping him, he died. Zeno, emperor of the Romans for 27 years and 4 months, a heretic of the syncretistic heresy of the Acephali. Under him Amorium was founded. In his first year, in the beginning, Saracens overran Mesopotamia and Huns overran Thrace, since the emperor was managing affairs very badly, and was devoting his time to unnatural pleasures and affairs. For Zeno was of the very bad and hideous race of the Isaurians, hairy and most hideous, just as the Greeks paint Pan goat-legged and shaggy-calved, dark in complexion, of an indeterminate age, quick to anger, resentful and full of envy. His wife was Ariadne. But Basiliscus, the brother of Verina, while staying in Heraclea of Thrace, revolted against Zeno; fearing him, Zeno fled with his wife Ariadne and sufficient money to Isauria, to a certain strong fortress called Oubara. But Basiliscus was proclaimed emperor on the plain, and he made his son Marcus a Caesar 1.616, and crowned his own wife Zenonis as Augusta, and immediately he arrayed himself against the faith. When he was proclaimed, the conflagration that occurred throughout the city destroyed its most flourishing part; for beginning in the middle of the Chalkoprateia, it consumed both the stoas themselves and all the adjacent buildings, and the so-called Basilica, in which was housed a library having twelve myriads of books, among which books was also the serpent's intestine, one hundred and twenty feet long, on which were written the poems of Homer, both the Iliad and the Odyssey, in golden letters, along with the history of the deeds of the heroes. It also destroyed part of the stoa of the Mese on both sides of the palaces and the most beautiful votive offerings of Lausus; for many of the ancient statues had been set up there, the famous one of Aphrodite of Cnidus, and that of the Samian Hera, and that of the Lindian Athena from another material, which Amasis the king of the Egyptians sent to the wise Cleobulus,

226

τῆς Ἀρειανικῆς δόξης καὶ εὐνοεῖν ποιῆσαι τῷ βασιλεῖ. Τῷ ιεʹ ἔτει ὁ ὅσιος Εὐθύμιος ἐν Χριστῷ ἐκοιμήθη, ζήσας ἔτη ζʹ. 1.614 Τῷ ιʹ καὶ ιζʹ ἔτει τὰ τοῦ Γιζερίχου πολέμου ἄλλο ἐπ' ἄλλῳ συνέβαινε.

Τῷ ιζʹ Λέων ὁ βασιλεὺς Λέοντα τὸν Ζήνωνος υἱὸν καὶ Ἀριάδνης τῆς ἰδίας θυγατρός, ἑαυτοῦ δὲ ἔγγονον, στέψας βασι λέα ἀνηγόρευσε. τότε καὶ ἡ ἐσθὴς τῆς ὑπεραγίας θεοτόκου ἐξ Ἱεροσολύμων ἤχθη, εὑρεθεῖσα παρά τινι εὐλαβεστάτῃ γυναικὶ Ἑβραίῳ παρθένῳ. καὶ τὰ λείψανα τῆς ἁγίας Ἀναστασίας ἀπὸ Νικομηδείας ἀνεκομίσθη, καὶ ἐτέθη ἐν τῷ ναῷ αὐτῆς. ἐν τούτῳ τῷ καιρῷ Ῥωμύλος τις ἐπίκλην Αὐγουστάλιος αὐτοκράτωρ τῆς ἐν Ἰταλίᾳ βασιλείας καθίσταται, μετὰ χίλια ὀγδοήκοντα ἔτη Ῥωμύλου βασιλέως τοῦ τὴν Ῥώμην κτίσαντος. σημειωτέον δὲ ὡς ἀπὸ Ῥωμύλου ἡ τῆς ἑσπέρας ἀκμάσασα βασιλεία πάλιν ὑπὸ Ῥωμύλου ἐπὶ τοσούτους ἐπαύσατο χρόνους. Ἀναγορευθέντος τοίνυν τοῦ μικροῦ Λέοντος, ἱππικοῦ ἀγο μένου ὥρᾳ ʹ τῆς ἡμέρας σκότος βαθὺ ἐκάλυψε τὴν πόλιν, ἀθρόον δὲ ἐν εἴδει νιφετοῦ ὕσθη κόνις, πεπυρακτωμένων τῶν νεφῶν προ φανέντων, ὡς νομίζειν πάντας ὅτι πῦρ βρέχει· καὶ ἐπὶ παλαιστὴν ἐτέθη ἡ κόνις. τοῦ δὲ βασιλέως Λέοντος ῥευματισμὸν γαστρὸς ὑποστάντος καὶ δεινοῖς κέντροις τὰ ἔνδον ἐλαυνομένου, ἤλεγξε τὸ πάθος τὴν ἰατρικὴν τέχνην ἐν κινδύνοις ἄπρακτον ὑπάρχειν. καθεζομένου γὰρ αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τῆς ἀμίδος, κἄν τε ὄπισθεν αὐτοῦ ἦν τὸ ἐκ τοῦ πυρὸς φῶς κἄν τε ἔμπροσθεν, διὰ τῆς γαστρὸς καὶ τοῦ νώτου ἐφαίνετο. καὶ ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον κατισχνωθεὶς ἐτελεύτησε, καὶ 1.615 ἐτέθη τὸ σῶμα αὐτοῦ ἐν λάρνακι πρασίνῳ ἐν τῷ ἡρῴῳ τοῦ μεγά λου Κωνσταντίνου. γυνὴ δὲ τούτου Βηρίνη ἀδελφὴ Βασιλίσκου, ὃς τοῦ κατὰ Γιζερίχου σταλέντος μεγάλου στόλου ἐξῆρχε. Λέων ὁ Ζήνωνος υἱὸς καὶ Ἀριάδνης, νήπιος ἔτι ὤν, βασι λεὺς προχειρίζεται παρὰ τοῦ πάππου αὐτοῦ μεγάλου Λέοντος· ὃς ἐβασίλευσεν ἔτος ἕν, καὶ στέψας τὸν ἴδιον πατέρα Ζήνωνα, Βηρί νης καὶ Ἀριάδνης συναραμένων αὐτῷ, ἐτελεύτησε. Ζήνων Ῥωμαίων βασιλεὺς ἔτη κζʹ μῆνας δʹ, αἱρετικὸς τῆς συγχυτικῆς αἱρέσεως τῶν ἀκεφάλων. ἐπὶ τούτου ἐκτίσθη τὸ Ἀμμώριον. τούτου τῷ πρώτῳ ἔτει ἐν προοιμίοις Μεσοποταμίαν μὲν Σαρακηνοὶ Θρᾴκην δὲ κατέδραμον Οὗννοι, σφόδρα τοῖς πρά γμασι κακῶς λυμαινομένου τοῦ βασιλέως, καὶ ἡδοναῖς ἀτόποις καὶ πράγμασι σχολάζοντος. ἦν γὰρ ὁ Ζήνων τῆς κακίστης καὶ εἰδεχθοῦς γενεᾶς τῶν Ἰσαύρων, δασύς τε καὶ εἰδεχθέστατος, ὥσπερ Ἕλληνες ζωγραφοῦσι τὸν Πᾶνα τραγοσκελῆ καὶ δασύκνη μον, τὴν χροιὰν μέλας, τὴν ἡλικίαν ἀσύμβλητος, ὀργίλος, μνη σίκακος καὶ φθόνου μεστός. γυνὴ δὲ τούτου Ἀριάδνη. Βασι λίσκος δὲ ὁ Βηρίνης ἀδελφός, ἐν Ἡρακλείᾳ διατρίβων τῆς Θρᾴ κης, ἐστασίασε κατὰ Ζήνωνος· ὃν φοβηθεὶς ὁ Ζήνων σὺν Ἀρι άδνῃ τῇ ἰδίᾳ γυναικὶ καὶ χρήμασιν ἱκανοῖς φεύγει εἰς Ἰσαυρίαν κατά τι φρούριον ὀχυρὸν Οὔβαρα καλούμενον. Βασιλίσκος δὲ ἐν τῷ κάμπῳ ἀνηγορεύθη βασιλεύς, Μάρκον τε τὸν υἱὸν Καίσαρα 1.616 ἐποίησε, καὶ Ζηνωδίαν τὴν ἑαυτοῦ γαμετὴν Αὐγοῦσταν ἔστεψε, καὶ εὐθέως κατὰ τῆς πίστεως παρετάξατο. τούτου δὲ ἀναγορευ θέντος ὁ συμβὰς ἐμπρησμὸς κατὰ τὴν πόλιν τὸ ἀνθηρότατον μέ ρος διέφθειρεν· ἐν γὰρ τῷ μέσῳ τῶν Χαλκοπρατίων ἀρξάμενος αὐτάς τε ἀνάλωσεν ἄμφω τὰς στοὰς καὶ τὰ προσεχῆ πάντα, τήν τε καλουμένην βασιλικήν, ἐν ᾗ ἀπέκειτο βιβλιοθήκη ἔχουσα βί βλους μυριάδας δώδεκα, μεθ' ὧν βιβλίων καὶ τὸ τοῦ δράκοντος ἕτερον ποδῶν ἑκατὸν εἴκοσιν, ἐν ᾧ ἦν γεγραμμένα τὰ τοῦ Ὁμήρου ποιήματα, ἥ τε Ἰλιὰς καὶ ἡ Ὀδύσσεια, χρυσέοις γράμμασι, μετὰ καὶ τῆς ἱστορίας τῆς τῶν ἡρώων πράξεως. συνέφθειρε δὲ καὶ τῆς μέσης τῶν παλατίων ἑκατέρωθεν στοᾶς καὶ τῶν Λαύσου τὰ κάλ λιστα ἀναθήματα· πολλὰ γὰρ τῶν ἀρχαίων ἀγαλμάτων αὐτόθι ἐνίδρυτο, τῆς Ἀφροδίτης τῆς ἐν Κνίδῳ τὸ περιβόητον, καὶ τὸ τῆς Σαμίας Ἥρας, καὶ τὸ τῆς Λινδίας Ἀθηνᾶς ἐξ ἄλλης ὕλης, ἣν Ἄμσις ὁ τῶν Αἰγυπτίων βασιλεὺς τῷ σοφῷ Κλεοβούλῳ ἀπέστειλε,