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And having sent Bardanios the spatharios, surnamed Anemas, he took as captive every proselyte and paroikos and transported them to Thrace, thinking to procure no small amount of gold from them out of the annual 483 taxes, he who did all things for the sake of his beloved gold and not for Christ. ʹ. κγʹ. ιβʹ. γʹ. In this year, in the month of September, in the 1st indiction, Aaron, the ruler of the Arabs, sent Humaid with a fleet against Rhodes. This man, having sailed down suddenly and seized Rhodes, made a great capture there; the fortress in it, however, was preserved unsacked. But when he was returning, he was openly warred against by the holy and miracle-working Nicholas. For having come to Myra and attempting to smash his holy reliquary, he broke another one lying nearby instead of it; and immediately a great disturbance of winds and sea waves, of thunders and lightnings, seized the fleet, so that a considerable number of ships were wrecked, and the God-fighter Humaid himself came to recognize the power of the saint and, against hope, to escape the danger. And on the twentieth of the month of December, Nikephoros, after making a great selection of virgins from all the authority under him in order to marry his son Staurakios, took Theophano the Athenian, a kinswoman of the blessed Irene, who was betrothed to a man and had often slept with him, and separating her from him, joined her to the wretched Staurakios, acting unlawfully and shamelessly in this as in all things, and having chosen two others more beautiful than she along with her, he openly debauched them during the very days of the wedding, being laughed at by all, the defiled one. And in the month of February, many of those in high office, having planned a revolt against him, voted for Arsaber, the quaestor and patrikios, a pious and most learned man. But the resourceful Nikephoros, having learned this, beat him and tonsured him, making him a monk, and exiled him to Bithynia, and he subjected the rest to floggings and exiles, and also to confiscations, not only the rulers in secular life, but also holy bishops and monks and those of the Great 484 Church, both the synkellos and the sakellarios and the chartophylax, being men who were distinguished and worthy of respect. Ruler of the Arabs, Muḥammad, 4 years. ζʹ. αʹ. ιγʹ. δʹ. In this year Aaron, the ruler of the Arabs, died in inner Persia, which is called Khorasan, in the month of March, in the 2nd indiction. And Muḥammad, his son, succeeded to the rule, being inept in all things. Against him Abdallāh, his brother, revolting from the same country of Khorasan together with his father's forces, became the cause of a civil war for their nation. And from there those throughout Syria and Egypt and Libya, being cut up into different principalities, destroyed both public affairs and one another, being confounded with massacres and plunderings and all sorts of outrages both against themselves and the Christians under them. Whence indeed also the churches in the holy city of Christ our God have been desolated, and the monasteries of the two great lauras, of Chariton and Kyriakos among the saints, and of Saint Sabas, and the other coenobia of Saints Euthymios and Theodosios; and the blood-shedding against one another and against us during such anarchy prevailed for 5 years. But Theodore, the abbot of Stoudios, and Joseph, his brother and archbishop of Thessalonica, together with Plato the recluse and the rest of their monks, withdrew from the communion of Nikephoros, the most holy patriarch, on account of Joseph the oikonomos, for having unlawfully crowned Constantine and Theodote. But the emperor Nikephoros, seizing the opportunity, gathered many bishops and abbots and ordered a synod to be convened against them, by which they were expelled from the monastery and the city and sent into exile in the month of January, in the 2nd indiction. In the same year, as the annual payment was being given to the army in the Strymon, the Bulgars, falling upon it, this

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ἀποστείλας δὲ Βαρδάνιον τὸν σπαθάριον, τὸ ἐπίκλην Ἀνεμᾶν, πάντα προσήλυτον καὶ πάροικον ἐπαιχμαλωτεύσας ἐπέρασεν ἐν τῇ Θρᾴκῃ, οἰόμενος οὐκ ὀλίγην ὁλκὴν χρυσοῦ πορίσασθαι ἐξ αὐτῶν ἐξ ἐτησίων 483 τελεσμάτων, ὁ πάντα διὰ τὸν φιλούμενον αὐτῷ χρυσὸν καὶ οὐ διὰ τὸν Χριστὸν πράττων. ʹ. κγʹ. ιβʹ. γʹ. Τούτῳ τῷ ἔτει, μηνὶ Σεπτεμβρίῳ, ἰνδικτιῶνος αʹ, Ἀαρών, ὁ τῶν Ἀράβων ἀρχηγός, μετὰ στόλου κατὰ τῆς Ῥόδου Χουμεῒδ ἐξέπεμψεν. οὗτος ἀθρόως καταπλεύσας καὶ τὴν Ῥόδον καταλαβὼν πολλὴν ἅλωσιν ἐποιήσατο ἐν αὐτῇ· τὸ μέντοι ἐν αὐτῇ φρούριον διεφυλάχθη ἀπόρθητον. ἐν δὲ τῷ ἐπανέρχεσθαι αὐτὸν φανερῶς κατεπολεμήθη ὑπὸ τοῦ ἁγίου καὶ θαυματουργοῦ Νικολάου. ἐλθὼν γὰρ εἰς τὰ Μύρα καὶ τὴν ἱερὰν αὐτοῦ συντρίψαι πειραθεὶς λάρνακα ἄλλην ἀντ' ἐκείνης πλησίον παρακειμένην κατέκλασεν· αὐτίκα τε πολλὴ ἀνέμων καὶ θαλαττίων κυμάτων, βροντῶν τε καὶ ἀστραπῶν ἀνωμαλία τὸν στόλον κατέλαβεν, ὡς ἱκανὰ συντριβῆναι σκάφη, αὐτόν τε τὸν θεομάχον Χουμεῒδ ἐπιγνῶναι τὴν τοῦ ἁγίου δύναμιν καὶ παρ' ἐλπίδα τὸν κίνδυνον ἐκφυγεῖν. τῇ δὲ εἰκάδι τοῦ ∆εκεμβρίου μηνὸς Νικηφόρος μετὰ πολλὴν ἐκλογὴν παρθένων ἐκ πάσης τῆς ὑπ' αὐτὸν ἐξουσίας εἰς τὸ ζεῦξαι Σταυράκιον, τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ, ποιησάμενος, Θεοφανὼ τὴν Ἀθηναίαν, προσγενῆ τῆς μακαρίας Εἰρήνης, μεμνηστευμένην ἀνδρὶ καὶ πολλάκις αὐτῷ συγκοιτασθεῖσαν, χωρίσας αὐτὴν ἀπ' αὐτοῦ τῷ ἀθλίῳ Σταυρακίῳ συνέζευξεν, ὡς εἰς πάντα καὶ ἐν τούτῳ παρανομήσας ἀναιδῶς, ἄλλας δὲ δύο ταύτης ὡραιοτέρας ἐκλεξάμενος σὺν αὐτῇ, προφανῶς αὐτὰς ἔφθειρε κατ' αὐτὰς τὰς ἡμέρας τοῦ γάμου παρὰ πάντων ὁ μιαρὸς γελώμενος. τῷ δὲ Φεβρουαρίῳ μηνὶ στάσιν ἐννοήσαντες κατ' αὐτοῦ πολλοὶ τῶν ἐν τέλει Ἀρσαβήρ, τὸν κυαίστωρα καὶ πατρίκιον, ἄνδρα εὐσεβῆ καὶ λογιώτατον ἐψηφίζοντο. γνοὺς δὲ τοῦτο ὁ πολυμήχανος Νικηφόρος, αὐτὸν μὲν τύψας καὶ ἀποκείρας μοναχὸν πεποίηκεν, ἐν Βιθυνίᾳ τοῦτον ἐξορίσας, τοὺς δὲ λοιποὺς δαρμοῖς καὶ ἐξορίαις, πρὸς δὲ καὶ δημεύσεσι καθυπέβαλεν, οὐ μόνον τοὺς ἐν τῷ κοσμικῷ βίῳ ἄρχοντας, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐπισκόπους ἁγίους καὶ μοναχοὺς καὶ τοὺς τῆς μεγάλης 484 ἐκκλησίας, τόν τε σύγκελλον καὶ τὸν σακελλάριον καὶ τὸν χαρτοφύλακα, ἄνδρας ἐλλογίμους ὑπάρχοντας καὶ αἰδοῦς ἀξίους. Ἀράβων ἀρχηγὸς Μουάμεδ ἔτη δʹ. ζʹ. αʹ. ιγʹ. δʹ. Τούτῳ τῷ ἔτει Ἀαρών, ὁ τῶν Ἀράβων ἀρχηγός, τέθνηκεν εἰςτὴν ἐνδοτέραν Περσίδα, τὴν καλουμένην Χωρασάν, μηνὶ Μαρτίῳ, ἰνδικτιῶνος βʹ. καὶ διεδέξατο τὴν ἀρχὴν Μουάμεδ, ὁ υἱὸς αὐτοῦ, ἀφυὴς κατὰ πάντα. πρὸς ὃν Ἀβδελᾶς, ὁ ἀδελφὸς αὐτοῦ, στασιάσας ἐκ τῆς αὐτῆς χώρας τοῦ Χωρασὰν ἅμα ταῖς πατρικαῖς δυνάμεσιν ἐμφυλίου πολέμου τῷ κατ' αὐτοὺς ἔθνει γέγονεν αἴτιος. κἀντεῦθεν οἱ κατὰ τὴν Συρίαν καὶ Αἴγυπτον καὶ Λιβύην εἰς διαφόρους κατατμηθέντες ἀρχὰς τά τε δημόσια πράγματα καὶ ἀλλήλους κατέστρεψαν, σφαγαῖς καὶ ἁρπαγαῖς καὶ παντοίαις ἀτοπίαις πρός τε ἑαυτοὺς καὶ τοὺς ὑπ' αὐτοὺς Χριστιανοὺς συγκεχυμένοι. ἔνθεν δὴ καὶ αἱ κατὰ τὴν ἁγίαν Χριστοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν πόλιν ἐκκλησίαι ἠρήμωνται, τά τε μοναστήρια τῶν δύο μεγάλων λαυρῶν, τοῦ ἐν ἁγίοις Χαρίτωνος καὶ Κυριακοῦ, καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου Σάβα, καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ κοινόβια τῶν ἁγίων Εὐθυμίου καὶ Θεοδοσίου· ἐπεκράτησε δὲ τῆς τοιαύτης ἀναρχίας ἡ κατ' ἀλλήλων καὶ ἡμῶν μιαιφονία ἔτη εʹ. Θεόδωρος δέ, ὁ ἡγούμενος τῶν Στουδίου, καὶ Ἰωσήφ, ὁ ἀδελφὸς αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀρχιεπίσκοπος Θεσσαλονίκης, ἅμα Πλάτωνι ἐγκλείστῳ καὶ τοῖς λοιποῖς αὐτῶν μοναχοῖς τῆς κοινωνίας Νικηφόρου, τοῦ ἁγιωτάτου πατριάρχου, ἀπέστησαν διὰ Ἰωσὴφ τὸν οἰκονόμον ὡς παρανόμως στεφανώσαντα Κωνσταντῖνον καὶ Θεοδότην. Νικηφόρος δὲ ὁ βασιλεὺς ἀφορμῆς δραξάμενος ἐπισκόπους πολλοὺς καὶ ἡγουμένους ἀθροίσας σύνοδον κατ' αὐτῶν κροτηθῆναι ἐκέλευσεν, δι' ἧς ἐξεβλήθησαν τῆς μονῆς καὶ τῆς πόλεως ἐξορίᾳ παραπεμφθέντες μηνὶ Ἰαννουαρίῳ, ἰνδικτιῶνος βʹ. Τῷ δ' αὐτῷ ἔτει ῥόγας διδομένης τῷ λαῷ ἐν τῷ Στρυμῶνι ἐπιπεσόντες οἱ Βούλγαροι ταύτην