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shall I repay you? Here, or in the age to come?" And he said, "O merciful Master, just Judge, here rather, and not in the age to come." And immediately he commanded that he and his wife and his children and all his kindred be handed over to Phocas the soldier. Awakening, therefore, he immediately sent his chamberlain to bring Philippicus; who at that very hour, seeing the chamberlain and despairing of his own life, asked to receive communion, and so he went to the emperor, leaving his wife 1.705 mourning on sackcloth and ashes. And coming to the emperor, he fell at his feet. But the emperor ordered the chamberlain to go out, and he himself fell at the feet of Philippicus, saying, "Forgive me, brother, for I have sinned greatly against you. For I suspected you of plotting against my life; but now I know you are innocent. I ask you, therefore, to tell me if you know a certain soldier in the regiments named Phocas." And Philippicus said, "I know one, who some time ago was sent from the army and spoke against your rule." And the emperor said, "What is his disposition?" And he said, "Cowardly and insolent." And the emperor said, "If he is cowardly, he is also a murderer," and the emperor related the dream. And he said, "See, master, how not a letter escapes God." And on that night, a comet appeared in the sky, the one called the "sword-like." And on the following day, the dispatched imperial agent arrived, bringing a response from the holy ones that God, having accepted your repentance, saves your soul and ranks you with your whole house among the saints, but you will fall from the empire with dishonor and dangers. Hearing these things, Maurice greatly glorified God. And Maurice wrote to Peter, who was general, to cross the Ister and to have the army winter in a foreign land. When the host heard this, it rebelled, and they put forward as exarch Phocas the centurion, and raising him on a shield, they acclaimed him exarch. Peter, having heard this, fled to Byzantium and announced everything 1.706 to the emperor. But Maurice, in the middle of the night, putting on private clothing, boarding a dromon with his wife and his children, fled. And when a tempest arose, he was saved with difficulty at the shrine of Saint Autonomus. And on that night, arthritis and gout befell him. And the Greens, going out to the Rhegion, honored the tyrant Phocas with great acclamations, and persuaded him to come to the Hebdomon. Therefore both the patriarch Cyriacus and the senate went out to him, and the patriarch demanded from him a confession of the orthodox faith and that he keep the church untroubled, and the evil one is acclaimed, and the tyrant is appointed master of the scepters, and misfortune takes hold of the fortunate city, and the great misfortunes of the Romans take their beginning, and he is acclaimed in the church of the Forerunner, and after two days, sitting on a royal chariot, he enters the palace. On the fifth day, he crowned Leonto his wife as Augusta. And when the tyrant went up to the Hippodrome, and a dispute arose between the factions concerning precedence of place, the demes shouted, "Maurice has not died but is alive; let him be questioned." But the fiend was moved to the murder of Maurice, and sending men, he brought him to the harbor of Eutropius; and his five male children were slain before his eyes. But Maurice, bearing his misfortune philosophically, constantly uttered, "You are just, O Lord, and your judgments are just." 1.707 Thus the death of his children became the father's epitaph, as he demonstrated his virtue in the magnitude of his misfortune; for when his nurse stole one of the royal children and offered her own for slaughter, Maurice did not accept it, but sought out his own. And some say that when this one was slain, milk flowed with the blood, so that all who saw it wept terribly. Thus, then, the emperor, having become higher than the laws of nature, himself also departed this life. And the heads of these in the

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ἀποδώσω σοι; ὧδε, ἢ ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι αἰῶνι;" ὁ δὲ ἔφη "φιλάνθρωπε δέσποτα, δικαιοκρίτα, ὧδε μᾶλλον, καὶ μὴ ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι." καὶ εὐθέως ἐκέλευσεν ἐκδοθῆναι αὐτόν τε καὶ τὴν γυναῖκα καὶ τὰ τέκνα αὐτοῦ καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν συγγένειαν Φωκᾷ τῷ στρατιώτῃ. διυπνισθεὶς οὖν ἀπέστειλεν εὐθὺς τὸν παρακοιμώμενον αὐτοῦ ἀγαγεῖν Φιλιππικόν· ὃς αὐτῇ τῇ ὥρᾳ ἰδὼν τὸν παρακοιμώμενον καὶ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ ζωῆς ἀπογνοὺς ᾐτήσατο κοι νωνῆσαι, καὶ οὕτως ἀπῄει πρὸς τὸν βασιλέα, καταλιπὼν τὴν γυ 1.705 ναῖκα ἐπὶ σάκκου καὶ σποδοῦ θρηνοῦσαν. ἐλθὼν δὲ πρὸς τὸν βα σιλέα ἔπεσεν ἐπὶ τοῖς ποσὶν αὐτοῦ. ὁ δὲ βασιλεὺς ἐξελθεῖν ἐκέ λευσε τὸν παρακοιμώμενον, καὶ αὐτὸς ἔπεσεν εἰς τοὺς πόδας Φιλιππικοῦ, λέγων "συγχώρησόν μοι, ἀδελφέ, ὅτι ἥμαρτόν σοι πολλά. σὲ γὰρ ὑπενόουν τῇ ζωῇ μου ἐπιβουλεῦσαι· ἀλλὰ νῦν ἔγνων ἀθῶον εἶναι. παρακαλῶ οὖν σε εἰπεῖν μοι εἰ γινώσκεις ἐν τοῖς τάγμασι Φωκᾶν τινὰ στρατιώτην." ὁ δὲ Φιλιππικὸς ἔφη "ἕνα γινώσκω, ὃς πρὸ καιροῦ πεμφθεὶς ἐκ τοῦ στρατοῦ ἀντέλεγε τῷ κράτει σου." καὶ ὁ βασιλεὺς ἔφη "ποίας ἐστὶ γνώμης;" ὁ δὲ ἔφη "δειλὸς καὶ θρασύς." καὶ ὁ βασιλεὺς ἔφη "εἰ δειλός, καὶ φονεύς," καὶ διηγήσατο ὁ βασιλεὺς τὸ ἐνύπνιον. ὁ δὲ εἶπε "ἴδε, δέσποτα, πῶς οὐ λείπει τὸν θεὸν γράμμα." τῇ δὲ νυκτὶ ἐκείνῃ ἐφάνη ἀστὴρ κομήτης ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ ὁ λεγόμενος ξιφίας. καὶ τῇ ἐπιούσῃ ἡμέρᾳ ἔφθασεν ὁ ἀποσταλεὶς μαγιστριανός, φέ ρων ἀπόκρισιν ἐκ τῶν ἁγίων ὅτι ὁ μὲν θεὸς δεξάμενος τὴν μετά νοιάν σου σώζει τὴν ψυχήν σου καὶ μετὰ τῶν ἁγίων κατατάττει σε πανοικί, τῆς δὲ βασιλείας μετὰ ἀτιμίας καὶ κινδύνων ἐκπίπτεις. ταῦτα ἀκούσας Μαυρίκιος μεγάλως τὸν θεὸν ἐδόξαζε. τῷ δὲ Πέτρῳ στρατηγῷ ὄντι γράφει Μαυρίκιος τὸν Ἴστρον διαπερᾶσαι καὶ ἐν ξένῃ χώρᾳ τὸν λαὸν παραχειμάσαι. ὅπερ ἀκοῦσαν τὸ πλῆ θος ἐστασίασε, καὶ προβάλλονται ἔξαρχον Φωκᾶν τὸν κένταρχον, καὶ ἐπὶ ἀσπίδι τοῦτον ὑψώσαντες εὐφήμησαν ἔξαρχον. τοῦτο ὁ Πέτρος ἀκηκοὼς εἰς τὸ Βυζάντιον φεύγει καὶ πάντα ἀναγγέλλει 1.706 τῷ βασιλεῖ. ὁ δὲ Μαυρίκιος μεσούσης νυκτὸς ἰδιωτικὴν περιβα λόμενος ἐσθῆτα, εἰς δρόμωνα εἰσελθὼν μετὰ τῆς γυναικὸς καὶ τῶν τέκνων αὐτοῦ ἀποδιδράσκει. λαίλαπος δὲ γεγονυίας μόλις διασώζεται εἰς τὸν ἅγιον Αὐτόνομον. ἐν ταύτῃ δὲ τῇ νυκτὶ ἀρ θρῖτις καὶ ποδάγρα ἐπιπίπτει αὐτῷ. οἱ δὲ Πράσινοι ἐξελθόντες εἰς τὸ Ῥήγιον μεγάλαις εὐφημίαις ἐτίμων τὸν τύραννον Φωκᾶν, καὶ πείθουσιν αὐτὸν ἐν τῷ Ἑβδόμῳ παραγενέσθαι. ἐξέρχονται οὖν ὅ τε πατριάρχης Κυριακὸς καὶ ἡ σύγκλητος πρὸς αὐτόν, καὶ ἀπαιτεῖ αὐτὸν ὁ πατριάρχης ὁμολογίαν τῆς ὀρθοδόξου πίστεως καὶ τοῦ ἀτάραχον φυλάξαι τὴν ἐκκλησίαν, καὶ ἀναγορεύεται τὸ κακόν, καὶ κύριος τῶν σκήπτρων ὁ τύραννος προχειρίζεται, καὶ κρατεῖ τῆς εὐδαίμονος ἡ συμφορά, καὶ λαμβάνει τὴν ἔναρξιν τὰ μεγάλα τῶν Ῥωμαίων ἀτυχήματα, καὶ ἀναγορεύεται ἐν τῷ ναῷ τοῦ προδρόμου, καὶ μετὰ δύο ἡμέρας ἐπὶ βασιλικῆς ἁμάξης καθεζόμενος εἰς τὰ βασίλεια εἰσέρχεται. τῇ δὲ εʹ ἡμέρᾳ Λεοντὼ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ γυναῖκα ἔστεψεν Αὐγοῦσταν. εἰς δὲ τὸ ἱππικὸν ἀνελ θόντος τοῦ τυράννου, καὶ στάσεως γενομένης περὶ προτιμήσεως τόπου τοῖς μέρεσιν, ἔκραξαν οἱ δῆμοι "ὁ Μαυρίκιος οὐκ ἀπέθανεν ἀλλὰ ζῇ· ἐρωτηθήτω." ὁ δὲ ἀλάστωρ κινεῖται πρὸς τὸν φόνον Μαυρικίου, καὶ ἀποστείλας ἤγαγε τὸν τοιοῦτον εἰς τὸν Εὐτροπίου λιμένα· καὶ προαναιροῦνται οἱ τούτου πέντε ἄρρενες παῖδες ἐπ' ὄψεσιν αὐτοῦ. ὁ δὲ Μαυρίκιος φιλοσοφῶν τῷ δυστυχήματι συνε χῶς ἐπεφθέγγετο "δίκαιος εἶ, κύριε, καὶ δίκαιαι αἱ κρίσεις σου." 1.707 γίνεται τοίνυν τῶν παίδων ὁ θάνατος τοῦ πατρὸς ἐπιτάφιον, ἐπι δειξαμένου τὴν ἀρετὴν ἐν τῷ μεγέθει τῆς συμφορᾶς· τῆς γὰρ τι θήνης αὐτοῦ κλεψάσης ἕνα τῶν βασιλικῶν παίδων καὶ τὸ ἑαυτῆς ἐπιδούσης εἰς σφαγήν, ὁ Μαυρίκιος οὐ κατεδέξατο, ἀλλὰ τὸ ἴδιον ἐπεζήτησε. φασὶ δέ τινες ὅτι τούτου σφαγέντος γάλα σὺν τῷ αἵ ματι ἔρρευσεν, ὡς πάντας τοὺς ὁρῶντας θρηνῆσαι δεινῶς. οὕτω μὲν οὖν ὁ βασιλεὺς νόμων φύσεως ὑψηλότερος γεγονὼς καὶ αὐτὸς ὑπαλλάττει τὸν βίον. τούτων δὲ τὰς κεφαλὰς ἐν τῷ