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on the 25th of the month of December, of the 9th indiction. Irene, empress of the Romans, again for 5 years. 1. 13. 2. 14. In this year, Irene, having taken control of the empire, immediately sends Dorotheos, the abbot of Chrysopolis, and Constantine, the chartophylax of the Great Church, to Abimelech who was plundering the regions of Cappadocia and Galatia, to negotiate for peace; but it did not happen. And in the month of October some revolutionaries persuade the sons of the God-fighting Constantine, who were being guarded in the palace of Therapia, to take refuge in the Great Church and supposedly to ask for a guarantee of their future safety, so that on this pretext they might proclaim one of them emperor. And when a great crowd had run to the church, Aetios the patrician eunuch entered and brought them out by persuasion, since no one paid them any mind, and exiled them to Athens. The two patricians, Staurakios and Aetios, being confidants of the empress, turned against each other, so that they displayed their enmity openly, both having the intention of securing the empire for their own relatives after her death. 2. 14. 3. 15. In this year Abimelech set out against Roman territory, and sending a raiding party of light-armed men, he came down as far as Malagina. And arriving at the stables of Staurakios, he took the horses and the imperial baggage train and returned unharmed; and the rest went down as far as Lydia and took many captives. Another raiding party of theirs set out and fell upon Paul, patrician and count of the Opsikion, with his entire theme and the Optimates, and inflicted great slaughter upon them; and having seized also their baggage train, it too returned. And in the month of March of the 7th indiction, Akameros, the archon of the Sclaveni of Belzetia, instigated by 474 the Helladics, planned to lead out the sons of Constantine and to appoint one of them as emperor. But when the empress Irene learned this, she sends to the patrician Constantine Sarantapechos Theophylact, his son, who was a spatharios and her nephew; and she blinded them all and scattered their plot against her. On the second day of Holy Pascha the empress proceeded from the Holy Apostles riding on a golden carriage drawn by four white horses and held by four patricians, I mean Bardanes, strategos of the Thrakesians, and Sisinnios, strategos of Thrace, and Niketas, domestic of the Schools, and Constantine Boilas, scattering a consul's largesse abundantly. In the month of May the empress fell ill, close to death; and the strife of the eunuchs intensified. Aetios took on Niketas, the patrician and domestic of the Schools, and they fiercely opposed Staurakios, persuading the empress that he desired the throne; and she, being terribly angered, attacked him in the palace of Hiereia, saying that he was a contriver of conspiracies and seditions and was procuring for himself a very swift destruction. But he, defending himself before her, secured himself, but he raged against Aetios and Niketas, the aforementioned patricians. 3. 15. 4. 10. In this year, in the month of February, of the 8th indiction, the aforementioned Staurakios was plotting tyranny and sedition against the ruling city, winning over the Scholarii and Exkoubitores in it, along with their commanders, with money and gifts. But the pious Irene, having held a silentium in the Triclinium of Justinian, forbade every soldier from approaching Staurakios. And thus matters achieved a little order. And the aforementioned Aetios and Niketas, with some others, struggled against Staurakios. But he, becoming broken-hearted, brought up frothy blood through his mouth from the parts around his chest 475 and lungs. When the doctors saw this, they declared it to be fatal; but the rest, flatterers and fools, not only doctors but also certain un-monklike monks and sorcerers, were persuading him with oaths until the very day of his death, which happened during the

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μηνὶ ∆εκεμβρίῳ κεʹ, ἰνδικτιῶνος θʹ. Ῥωμαίων βασίλισσα Εἰρήνη πάλιν ἔτη εʹ. αʹ. ιγʹ. βʹ. ιδʹ. Τούτῳ τῷ ἔτει κρατήσασα Εἰρήνη τὴν βασιλείαν παραυτίκα ἀποστέλλει ∆ωρόθεον, τὸν ἡγούμενον Χρυσοπόλεως, καὶ Κωνσταντῖνον, χαρτοφύλακα τῆς μεγάλης ἐκκλησίας, πρὸς Ἀβιμέλεχ ληϊζόμενον τὰ μέρη Καππαδοκίας καὶ Γαλατίας, πρεσβευομένη περὶ εἰρήνης· οὐ γέγονε δέ. καὶ τῷ Ὀκτωβρίῳ μηνί τινες νεωτερισταὶ φρουρουμένοις τοῖς υἱοῖς τοῦ θεομάχου Κωνσταντίνου ἐν τῷ παλατίῳ τῶν Θεραπείας, πείθουσιν αὐτοὺς προσφυγεῖν τῇ μεγάλῃ ἐκκλησίᾳ καὶ δῆθεν αἰτήσασθαι ἀσφάλειαν τῆς μετὰ ταῦτα ἀβλαβείας αὐτῶν, ὡς διὰ τῆς τοιαύτης προφάσεως ἀναγορεῦσαι ἐξ αὐτῶν βασιλέα. καὶ πολλοῦ λαοῦ ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ προσδραμόντος, εἰσελθὼν Ἀέτιος ὁ εὐνοῦχος πατρίκιος ἐξήγαγεν αὐτοὺς λόγῳ, μηδενὸς αὐτοῖς προσχόντος, καὶ ἐξώρισεν αὐτοὺς εἰς Ἀθήνας. οἱ δὲ δύο πατρίκιοι, ὅ τε Σταυράκιος καὶ Ἀέτιος, ἐπιστήθιοι ὄντες τῆς βασιλείας, γεγόνασι κατ' ἀλλήλων, ὥστε φανερῶς τὴν ἔχθραν ἐπιδείκνυσθαι, ἀμφότεροι σκοπὸν ἔχοντες μετὰ θάνατον αὐτῆς τοῖς ἰδίοις συγγενεῦσι τὴν βασιλείαν περιποιήσασθαι. βʹ. ιδʹ. γʹ. ιεʹ. Τούτῳ τῷ ἔτει ἐξῆλθεν ὁ Ἀβιμέλεχ κατὰ Ῥωμανίας, καὶ ἀποστείλας κοῦρσον μονοζώνων κατῆλθεν ἕως τῶν Μαλαγίνων. καὶ ἐπιφθάσας ἐν τοῖς σταύλοις Σταυρακίου τοὺς ἵππους καὶ τὴν βασιλικὴν προμοσέλλαν λαβὼν ὑπέστρεψεν ἀβλαβῶς· καὶ οἱ λοιποὶ κατῆλθον ἕως Λυδίας καὶ πολλὴν αἰχμαλωσίαν ἔλαβον. κοῦρσον δὲ αὐτῶν ἕτερον ἐκδραμὸν καὶ ἐπιπεσὸν Παύλῳ, πατρικίῳ καὶ κόμητι τοῦ Ὀψικίου, σὺν ὅλῳ τῷ θέματι αὐτοῦ καὶ τοῖς ὀπτιμάτοις πολλὴν κοπὴν εἰς αὐτοὺς ἐποίησεν· ἐπάραν δὲ καὶ τὸ τοῦλδον αὐτῶν ὑπέστρεψε καὶ αὐτό. τῷ δὲ Μαρτίῳ μηνὶ τῆς ζʹ ἰνδικτιῶνος ἠβουλήθη Ἀκάμηρος, ὁ τῶν Σκλαυινῶν τῆς Βελζητίας ἄρχων, νυχθεὶς ὑπὸ 474 τῶν Ἑλλαδικῶν ἐξαγαγεῖν τοὺς υἱοὺς Κωνσταντίνου καὶ προχειρίσασθαι ἐξ αὐτῶν βασιλέα. γνοῦσα δὲ τοῦτο ἡ βασίλισσα Εἰρήνη ἀποστέλλει πρὸς τὸν πατρίκιον Κωνσταντῖνον τὸν Σεραντάπηχον Θεοφύλακτον, τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ, σπαθάριον ὄντα καὶ ἀνεψιὸν αὐτῆς· καὶ πάντας ἐτύφλωσε καὶ διεσκέδασε τὴν κατ' αὐτῆς βουλὴν αὐτῶν. τοῦ δὲ ἁγίου πάσχα τῇ βʹ ἡμέρᾳ προῆλθεν ἡ βασίλισσα ἀπὸ τῶν ἁγίων ἀποστόλων ἐπὶ ὀχήματος χρυσοῦ ἐποχουμένη τέσσαρσιν ἵπποις λευκοῖς συρομένου καὶ ὑπὸ τεσσάρων πατρικίων κρατουμένου, φημὶ δὴ Βαρδάνου, στρατηγοῦ τῶν Θρᾳκησίων, καὶ Σισιννίου, στρατηγοῦ τῆς Θρᾴκης, καὶ Νικήτα, δομεστίκου τῶν σχολῶν, καὶ Κωνσταντίνου τοῦ Βοϊλᾶ, ῥίψασα ὑπατείαν ἀφθόνως. τῷ δὲ Μαΐῳ μηνὶ ἐνόσησεν ἡ βασίλισσα παραπλήσιον θανάτου· καὶ ἐπέτεινεν ἡ ἔρις τῶν εὐνούχων. Ἀέτιος δὲ προσελάβετο Νικήταν, τὸν πατρίκιον καὶ δομέστικον τῶν σχολῶν, καὶ ἀντέπιπτον δεινῶς τῷ Σταυρακίῳ, πείθοντες καὶ τὴν βασίλισσαν, ὅτι τοῦ κράτους ἐφίεται· καὶ θυμωθεῖσα δεινῶς αὐτῷ ἐπηνέχθη ἐν τῷ παλατίῳ τῶν Ἱερείου εἰποῦσα μούλτων καὶ στάσεων φροντιστὴν αὐτὸν εἶναι καὶ ἑαυτῷ προξενοῦντα ταχίστην ἀπώλειαν. ὁ δὲ προσαπολογησάμενος αὐτῇ ἠσφαλίζετο ἑαυτόν, ἐμαίνετο δὲ κατὰ Ἀετίου καὶ Νικήτα, τῶν προρρηθέντων πατρικίων. γʹ. ιεʹ. δʹ. ιʹ. Τούτῳ τῷ ἔτει, μηνὶ Φεβρουαρίῳ, ἰνδικτιῶνος ηʹ, Σταυράκιος ὁ προρρηθεὶς τυραννίδα καὶ στάσιν κατὰ τὴν βασιλεύουσαν πόλιν συνεσκεύαζε τοὺς ἐν αὐτῇ σχολαρίους καὶ ἐκσκουβίτορας ἅμα τοῖς ἄρχουσιν αὐτῶν δεξιούμενος χρήμασι καὶ δωρεαῖς. Εἰρήνη δὲ ἡ εὐσεβὴς σιλέντιον ποιήσασα ἐν τῷ Ἰουστινιανοῦ τρικλίνῳ πάντα στρατευόμενον ἐκώλυσε προσπελάζειν Σταυρακίῳ. καὶ οὕτως ἔτυχε μικρᾶς εὐταξίας τὰ πράγματα. Ἀέτιος δὲ ὁ προρρηθεὶς καὶ Νικήτας σὺν ἄλλοις τισὶ κατηγωνίζοντο Σταυρακίου. ὁ δὲ καρδιόπληκτος γενόμενος αἷμα διὰ στόματος ἀνῆξεν ἀφρῶδες ἐκ τῶν κατὰ θώρακα 475 καὶ πνεύμονα μορίων. τοῦτο οἱ ἰατροὶ θεασάμενοι θανάσιμον ἀπεφήναντο· οἱ δὲ λοιποὶ κόλακες καὶ ἀνόητοι, οὐ μόνον ἰατροί, ἀλλὰ καί τινες ἀμόναχοι μοναχοὶ καὶ γόητες, ἔπειθον ὅρκοις ἕως αὐτῆς ἡμέρας τῆς τελευτῆς αὐτοῦ, ἣ γέγονε κατὰ τὸν