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years the Romans will enslave the Persians. When these things have been accomplished, the day without evening will come upon men, and the expected cessation of power will come to pass, when the things of corruption are handed over to dissolution and the things of a better way of life are established." In the 10th year of the Khagan, when he attacked Sirmium, the 1.697 emperor appointed Priscus general of Europe. And Priscus, having made Salbanianus his second-in-command, ordered him to run ahead, and advancing against the barbarians, they joined battle and the Romans were victorious. But the Khagan, having heard this, gathered his forces and went to war, and coming to Anchialus, he burned it. Then he crosses to Drizipera. But Priscus, not wanting to face the multitude of the barbarians, entered Tzurulum and fortified himself. The barbarian attempted to besiege Priscus. Maurice, hearing these things, was at a loss what to do; but with good counsel he out-generaled the countless force, and he persuades one of the excubitors with great gifts and promises to fall willingly among the barbarians, and he gives him a letter to Priscus containing the following: "To the most glorious general Priscus. Do not fear the wicked enterprise of the barbarians; for this has happened for their destruction. For know that the Khagan must return with great shame to the land dedicated to him by the Romans. Therefore let your glory hold out in Tzurulum, keeping them at bay. For I am sending ships by sea, and I will capture their families, and he will be forced to return to his own lands with shame and loss." The Khagan, seizing the letter and reading it, became very fearful, and making a treaty with Priscus and making peace for a few insignificant gifts, he returned to his own land in mighty flight. In the 11th year, Priscus performed great feats of courage 1.698 against the Sclaveni and wrought a great slaughter of the barbarians. In the same year Paul, the emperor's father, died in Constantinople, and Anastasia Augusta, the mother-in-law of Maurice, and wife of Tiberius, and she was buried with her husband.

In the 12th year, when Priscus again reached the Ister and plundered the nations of the Sclaveni and sent much booty to the emperor, he writes to him to winter there. In the same year Philippicus builds the monastery of the all-pure Theotokos in Chrysopolis and the palaces to receive the emperor and his children, making also a fish-pond and parks. And in Constantinople he built the house called that of Philippicus. In the 13th year, monsters are born in the suburbs of Byzantium, a four-footed child and another with two heads; it is said that these do not signify good things for the cities in which they occur. And the emperor relieves Priscus of his command, and makes Peter, his own brother, general of the Roman force. In the 14th year, Peter the general puts to flight the Sclaveni who were carrying off Roman captives, and the barbarians, having slaughtered the captives, fled; and the Romans, having captured a few, returned to Roman territory. In the same year the emperor built the round sun-dial of the Magnaura, erecting his own column in the central court, and he deposited there the armamentum. He also built the home for the infirm elderly in the district of Herion, the 1.699 so-called provider of life's needs, because it, being wooden-roofed, had been burned by the Sclaveni, and he supplied many things in it for the care of the infirm brothers. In the 15th year Peter, having disastrously lost the army to the Sclaveni, is replaced by the emperor, and Priscus is again sent as general of Thrace. In the 10th year, Peter the brother of Maurice built the church of the most-holy Theotokos of Areobindus. Likewise also Kyriakos the patriarch the deaconess's, having become the successor of John the Faster. In the 17th year the Khagan, having gathered the forces around him against the

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ἐνιαυτῶν Ῥωμαῖοι Πέρσας δουλα γωγήσετε. τούτων δὴ διηνυσμένων τὴν ἀνέσπερον ἡμέραν ἐνδη μεῖν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις, καὶ τὴν προσδοκωμένην λῆξιν ἀποβαίνειν τοῦ κράτους, ὅτε τὰ τῆς φθορᾶς παραδίδοται λύσει καὶ τὰ τῆς κρείττονος διαγωγῆς πολιτεύεται." Τῷ ιʹ ἔτει τοῦ χαγάνου ἐπελθόντος κατὰ τὸ Σίρμιον, ὁ βα 1.697 σιλεὺς στρατηγὸν Εὐρώπης τὸν Πρίσκον χειροτονεῖ. ὁ δὲ Πρί σκος Σαλβανιανὸν ὑποστράτηγον ποιήσας προτρέχειν ἐκέλευσε, καὶ κατὰ τῶν βαρβάρων χωρήσαντες συγκροτοῦσι πόλεμον καὶ νικῶσι Ῥωμαῖοι. ὁ δὲ χαγάνος τοῦτο ἀκηκοώς, ἀναλαβὼν τὰς δυνάμεις ἐχώρει πρὸς πόλεμον, καὶ εἰς Ἀγχίαλον ἐλθὼν ταύτην κατέκαυσεν. εἶτα εἰς τὸ ∆ριζὶν περᾷ. ὁ δὲ Πρίσκος μὴ θέλων θεωρεῖν τὰ πλήθη τῶν βαρβάρων εἰς Τζουρουλὸν εἰσελθὼν ἠσφα λίσατο. ὁ δὲ βάρβαρος τὸν Πρίσκον πολιορκεῖν ἐπεχείρει. ταῦτα δὲ ἀκηκοὼς Μαυρίκιος διηπόρει τί δράσει· εὐβουλίᾳ δὲ καταστρα τηγεῖ τῆς ἀπείρου δυνάμεως, καὶ ἕνα τῶν ἐξκουβιτώρων μεγάλαις δωρεαῖς καὶ ὑποσχέσεσι πείθει ἑκοντὶ περιπεσεῖν τοῖς βαρβάροις, καὶ δίδωσιν αὐτῷ πρὸς Πρίσκον γραφὴν περιέχουσαν τάδε "τῷ ἐνδοξοτάτῳ στρατηγῷ Πρίσκῳ. τὴν ἀλιτηρίαν τῶν βαρβάρων ἐγχείρησιν μὴ δειλιάσῃς· πρὸς γὰρ ἀπώλειαν αὐτῶν τοῦτο γέγονε. γίνωσκε γὰρ ὅτι μετὰ πολλῆς αἰσχύνης ἔχει ὁ χαγάνος ὑποστρέψαι εἰς τὴν ἀφιερωθεῖσαν αὐτῷ παρὰ Ῥωμαίων χώραν. διὰ τοῦτο καρτερησάτω ἡ σὴ ἐνδοξότης ἐν τῇ Τζουρουλῷ περιρέμβουσα αὐ τούς. πέμπω γὰρ διὰ θαλάσσης πλοῖα, καὶ αἰχμαλωτίζομαι τὰς φαμιλίας αὐτῶν, καὶ ἀναγκάζεται μετ' αἰσχύνης καὶ ζημίας εἰς τὰ ἴδια ὑποστρέψαι." ὁ δὲ χαγάνος κρατήσας τὰ γράμματα καὶ ἀναγνοὺς γίνεται περιδεής, καὶ συνθήκας πρὸς τὸν Πρίσκον δια θέμενος καὶ εἰρηνεύσας ἐπὶ δώροις ὀλίγοις καὶ ἀναξιολόγοις εἰς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ἐπανέζευξε γῆν μετὰ φυγῆς κραταιᾶς. Τῷ ιαʹ ἔτει Πρίσκος μεγάλως ἐπὶ τοῖς Σθλαβίνοις ἠνδρα 1.698 γάθησε καὶ φόνον πολὺν τῶν βαρβάρων εἰργάσατο. τῷ αὐτῷ ἔτει Παῦλος ὁ τοῦ βασιλέως πατὴρ ἐτελεύτησεν ἐν Κωνσταντινου πόλει, καὶ Ἀναστασία Αὐγοῦστα ἡ πενθερὰ Μαυρικίου, γυνὴ δὲ Τιβερίου, καὶ ἐτάφη μετὰ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς αὐτῆς.

Τῷ ιβʹ ἔτει τοῦ Πρίσκου πάλιν τὸν Ἴστρον καταλαβόντος καὶ τὰ Σθλαβίνων ἔθνη πραιδεύσαντος καὶ πολλὴν αἰχμαλωσίαν τῷ βασιλεῖ πέμψαντος, γράφει αὐτῷ ἐκεῖσε παραχειμάσαι. τῷ δ' αὐτῷ ἔτει Φιλιππικὸς κτίζει τὴν ἐν Χρυσουπόλει μονὴν τῆς παναχράντου θεοτόκου καὶ τὰ παλάτια πρὸς τὸ ὑποδέχεσθαι τὸν βασιλέα καὶ τὰ τέκνα αὐτοῦ, ποιήσας καὶ ἰχθυοτροφεῖον καὶ πα ραδείσους. καὶ ἐν Κωνσταντινουπόλει δὲ ἔκτισε τὸν οἶκον τὸν λεγόμενον τοῦ Φιλιππικοῦ. Τῷ ιγʹ ἔτει εἰς τὰ τοῦ Βυζαντίου προάστεια τίκτονται τέ ρατα, παιδίον τετράπουν καὶ ἄλλο δικόρυφον· λέγεται δὲ μὴ ση μαίνειν ἀγαθὰ ταῖς πόλεσιν ἐν αἷς γίνονται ταῦτα. καὶ ὁ βασιλεὺς Πρίσκον τῆς στρατηγίας ἀποπαύει, Πέτρον δὲ τὸν ἑαυτοῦ ἀδελφὸν στρατηγὸν τῆς δυνάμεως Ῥωμαίων ποιεῖ. Τῷ ιδʹ ἔτει Πέτρος ὁ στρατηγὸς τοὺς Σθλαβίνους ἐπιφε ρομένους Ῥωμαϊκὴν αἰχμαλωσίαν τρέπει, καὶ οἱ βάρβαροι τὴν αἰχμαλωσίαν ἀποσφάξαντες ἔφυγον· ὀλίγους δὲ καὶ οἱ Ῥωμαῖοι κρατήσαντες ἐπὶ τὰ Ῥωμαϊκὰ ὑπέστρεψαν. τῷ δ' αὐτῷ ἔτει ἔκτισεν ὁ βασιλεὺς τὸν στρογγύλον ἡλιακὸν τῆς Μαγναύρας, στή σας ἐν τῷ μεσαυλίῳ τὴν ἰδίαν στήλην, καὶ ἀπέθηκεν ἐκεῖ τὸ ἀρμα μέντον. ἔκτισε δὲ καὶ τὸ λωβῶν γηροκομεῖον εἰς τὰ Ἠρίου, τὸ 1.699 λεγόμενον τοῦ ζωτικοῦ ἐγχόρηγον, διὰ τὸ ὑπὸ τῶν Σθλαβίνων καῆ ναι ξυλόστεγον ὄν, καὶ πολλὰ ἐν αὐτῷ ἐχορήγησε πρὸς θεραπείαν τῶν λωβῶν ἀδελφῶν. Τῷ ιεʹ ἔτει Πέτρος κακῶς ὑπὸ τῶν Σθλαβίνων τὸ στράτευμα ἀφανίσας διαδέχεται ὑπὸ τοῦ βασιλέως, καὶ πάλιν Πρίσκος στρα τηγὸς Θρᾴκης ἀποστέλλεται. Τῷ ιʹ ἔτει Πέτρος ὁ ἀδελφὸς Μαυρικίου ἔκτισε τὸν ναὸν τῆς ὑπεραγίας θεοτόκου τοῦ Ἀρεοβίνδου. ὁμοίως καὶ Κυριακὸς ὁ πατριάρχης τὰ διακονίσσης, διάδοχος γενόμενος Ἰωάννου τοῦ νηστευτοῦ. Τῷ ιζʹ ἔτει συναθροίσας ὁ χαγάνος τὰς περὶ αὐτὸν δυνάμεις ἐπὶ τὴν