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his own and his nation's ancestral judgement for managing all affairs. Those descending from that lineage were called *kristatoi*, which is interpreted as *trichorachatoi*; for they had hairs growing along their spines like pigs. In the 9th year the impious Leo began to speak of the destruction of the holy icons.

But Gregory the Pope of Rome, having learned this, withheld the taxes of Italy and Rome, and wrote a dogmatic letter to Leo, that it was not right for an emperor to make pronouncements about the faith and to innovate upon the ancient dogmas of the church that were established by the holy fathers. In the same year a torrent, having flooded, entered Edessa, and destroyed the city and many people. In the 10th year Masalmas campaigned against Caesarea in Cappadocia and took it. There was also a plague in Syria. In the same year, in the summer season, a vapor of fiery furnace boiled up between the islands of Thera and Therasia from the depth 1.795 of the sea for some days, and as it gradually thickened and petrified by the fiery eruption, the whole place and the air appeared fiery. By the thickness of the earthy substance it sent up large pumice-stones like certain rocks over all of Asia Minor and Lesbos and Abydos and Macedonia by the sea, so that the entire surface of this sea was full of floating pumice. And in the midst of so great a fire an island was formed from the earth and joined to the so-called sacred island, not having existed before, but just as the aforementioned Thera and Therasia were once erupted, so also this one now in the times of the God-fighter Leo. Who, reckoning the divine wrath against him to be for him, more shamelessly stirred up war against the holy venerable icons. However, the crowds in the imperial city, being greatly distressed, were about to attack him and killed many of the emperor's men, including those who had taken down the icon of the Lord over the great bronze gate, so that many were punished for their piety by being subjected to the cutting off of limbs and scourgings and exiles and fines, and the pious teaching of the schools was extinguished. For near the so-called imperial cistern was a venerable palace, in which, according to ancient custom, an ecumenical teacher sat, having twelve students venerable in word and life. These men, pursuing all rational knowledge with speed and greatness of nature, pursued not least the ecclesiastical divine wisdom; 1.796 without whose opinion it seemed not lawful for even the emperors themselves to do anything. Conon, frequently summoning them, tried to persuade them to his heresy. But when they would not accept it but resisted, he ordered them to be dishonorably shut up there, and during the night, having set fire all around, the defiled one burned them with their very hearths and many good books and sacred vessels. From this, the Helladics and those of the Cyclades islands, having agreed, rebelled against him in a great naval battle, who, having approached Byzantium, were defeated, when they were burned inside their ships by the prepared fire. And the impious Leo increased his wickedness, intensifying the persecution against piety. In the same year, Amer marched against Nicaea of the Bithynians with 15,000 light-armed troops, running ahead and surrounding the unprepared city, and Mabias following with another 85,000; who after a long siege and the partial destruction of the walls, being put to shame by visions of the holy fathers honored in it, withdrew without success. And a certain Constantine, a groom of Artabasdos, seeing an icon of the Theotokos standing, took a stone and threw it at it and shattered it and, as it fell, trampled on it. He sees, therefore, in a vision the Lady standing by him and saying to him, "Do you know what a noble deed you have done to me? Truly you have done this against your own head." And on the next day

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πρόοικον γνώμην αὐτοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἔθνους εἰς τὸ διοικεῖν πάντα τὰ πράγματα. ἐλέγοντο δὲ οἱ ἐκ τοῦ γένους ἐκείνου καταγόμενοι κριστάτοι, ὃ ἑρμηνεύεται τριχοραχάτοι· εἶχον γὰρ κατὰ τῆς ῥά χεως αὐτῶν τρίχας ἐκφυομένας ὡς χοῖροι. Τῷ θʹ ἔτει ἤρξατο ὁ δυσσεβὴς Λέων τὸν κατὰ τῆς τῶν ἁγίων εἰκόνων καθαιρέσεως λόγον ποιεῖσθαι.

Γρηγόριος δὲ ὁ πάπας Ῥώμης τοῦτο μαθὼν τοὺς φόρους τῆς Ἰταλίας καὶ Ῥώμηςἐκώλυσε, γράψας καὶ πρὸς Λέοντα ἐπιστολὴν δογματικήν, μὴ δεῖν βασιλέα λόγον περὶ πίστεως ποιεῖσθαι καὶ καινοτομεῖν τὰ ἀρ χαῖα δόγματα τῆς ἐκκλησίας τὰ ὑπὸ τῶν ἁγίων πατέρων δογματι σθέντα. τῷ δ' αὐτῷ ἔτει καὶ ὁ χείμαρρος πλημμυρήσας εἰσῆλθεν εἰς Ἔδεσαν, καὶ τὴν πόλιν καὶ πολλοὺς ἠφάνισε. Τῷ ιʹ ἔτει ἐπεστράτευσε Μασαλμᾶς τὴν Καισάρειαν Καπ παδοκίας καὶ παρέλαβεν αὐτήν. γέγονε δὲ καὶ θανατικὸν εἰς Συ ρίαν. ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ ἔτει, ὥρᾳ θέρους, ἀτμὶς καμίνου πυρὸς ἀνέ βρασεν ἀνὰ μέσον Θήρας καὶ Θηρασίας τῶν νήσων ἐκ τοῦ βυθοῦ 1.795 τῆς θαλάσσης ἐπὶ ἡμέρας τινάς, καὶ κατὰ βραχὺ παχυνομένης καὶ ἀπολιθουμένης τῇ πυρώδει ἐκκαύσει ὅλος ὁ τόπος καὶ ὁ ἀὴρ πυροφανὴς ἐδείκνυτο. τῇ δὲ παχύτητι τῆς γεώδους οὐσίας πετρο κισσήρους μεγάλους ὡς λίθους τινὰς ἀναπέμψαι καθ' ὅλης τῆς μικρᾶς Ἀσίας καὶ Λέσβου καὶ Ἀβύδου καὶ τῆς πρὸς θάλασσαν Μακεδονίας, ὡς ἅπαν τὸ πρόσωπον τῆς θαλάσσης ταύτης κισσή ρων ἐπιπολαζόντων γέμειν. μέσον δὲ τοῦ τηλικούτου πυρὸς νῆσος ἀπογεωθεῖσα τῇ λεγομένῃ ἱερᾷ νήσῳ συνήφθη, μήπω τὸ πρὶν οὖσα, ἀλλ' ὡς αἱ προρρηθεῖσαι Θήρα τε καὶ Θηρασία ποτὲ ἐξε βράσθησαν, οὕτω καὶ αὕτη νῦν ἐπὶ τῶν χρόνων τοῦ θεομάχου Λέοντος. ὃς τὴν κατ' αὐτοῦ θείαν ὀργὴν ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ λογισά μενος ἀναιδέστερον κατὰ τῶν ἁγίων σεπτῶν εἰκόνων ἤγειρε πόλε μον. οἱ μέντοι κατὰ τὴν βασιλίδα πόλιν ὄχλοι σφόδρα λυπού μενοι αὐτῷ τε ἔμελλον ἐπελθεῖν καὶ πολλοὺς βασιλικοὺς ἀνθρώ πους ἀνεῖλον, τούς τε καθελόντας τὴν ἐπὶ τῆς μεγάλης χαλκῆς πύλης τοῦ κυρίου εἰκόνα, ὡς πολλοὺς ὑπὲρ τῆς εὐσεβείας τιμωρη θῆναι μελῶν τε ἐκκοπαῖς καὶ μάστιξι καὶ ἐξορίαις καὶ ζημίαις ὑπο βληθῆναι, σβεσθῆναί τε τῶν παιδευτηρίων τὴν εὐσεβῆ διδασκα λίαν. πρὸς γὰρ τῇ λεγομένῃ βασιλικῇ κινστέρνῃ παλάτιον ἦν σεμνόν, ἐν ᾧ κατὰ τύπον ἀρχαῖον οἰκουμενικὸς ἐκάθητο διδάσκα λος, ἔχων μαθητὰς λόγῳ καὶ βίῳ σεμνοὺς τὸν ἀριθμὸν δώδεκα. οὗτοι πᾶσαν λογικὴν ἐπιστήμην τάχει τε καὶ μεγέθει φύσεως μετερχόμενοι οὐχ ἥκιστα τὴν ἐκκλησιαστικὴν μετῄεσαν θεοσοφίαν· 1.796 ὧν τῆς γνώμης χωρὶς οὐ θεμιτόν τι ποιεῖν ἐδόκει οὐδὲ τοῖς βασι λεῦσιν αὐτοῖς. τούτους ὁ Κόνων συχνῶς προσκαλούμενος ἐπεί ραζε πεῖσαι τῇ αὐτοῦ αἱρέσει. καταθέσθαι δὲ μὴ καταδεχομένους ἀλλ' ἀντιπίπτοντας ἀτίμως κατακλεισθῆναι διεκελεύσατο ἐκεῖσε, διὰ δὲ τῆς νυκτὸς πῦρ κυκλόθεν ὑφάψας αὐταῖς ἑστίαις καὶ βί βλοις πολλαῖς καὶ καλαῖς καὶ σκεύεσιν ἱεροῖς ὁ μιαρὸς κατέκαυσεν. ἐντεῦθεν στασιάζουσι κατ' αὐτοῦ μεγάλῃ ναυμαχίᾳ συμφωνήσαν τες Ἑλλαδικοί τε καὶ οἱ τῶν Κυκλάδων νήσων, οἳ καὶ προσπελά σαντες τῷ Βυζαντίῳ ἡττῶνται, ἐμπρησθέντων αὐτῶν ἐντὸς νηῶν τῷ σκευαστῷ πυρί. αὔξει δὲ τὴν κακίαν Λέων ὁ δυσσεβής, κατὰ τῆς εὐσεβείας τὸν διωγμὸν ἐπιτείνων. Τῷ δ' αὐτῷ ἔτει κατὰ τῆς Βιθυνῶν Νικαίας παρατάττεται Ἄμερ ἐν χιλιάσι ιεʹ μονοζώνων προδραμὼν καὶ ἀπαρασκεύαστον κυκλώσας τὴν πόλιν, καὶ Μαβίας ἐπακολουθῶν ἐν ἄλλαις ὀκτὼ ἥμισυ μυριάσιν· οἳ μετὰ πολλὴν πολιορκίαν καὶ καθαίρεσιν μερι κὴν τῶν τειχῶν, δι' ὀπτασίας τῶν ἐν αὐτῇ τιμωμένων ἁγίων πα τέρων αἰσχυνθέντες, ἄπρακτοι ὑπεχώρησαν. Κωνσταντῖνος δέ τις στράτωρ τοῦ Ἀρταβάσδου, ἰδὼν εἰκόνα τῆς θεοτόκου ἑστῶσαν, λαβὼν λίθον ἔρριψε κατ' αὐτῆς καὶ συνέτριψεν αὐτὴν καὶ πεσοῦ σαν κατεπάτησε. θεωρεῖ οὖν ἐν ὁράματι παρεστῶσαν αὐτῷ τὴν δέσποιναν καὶ λέγουσαν αὐτῷ "οἶδας ποῖον πρᾶγμα γενναῖον εἰρ γάσω εἰς ἐμέ; ὄντως κατὰ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ κεφαλῆς τοῦτο ἐποίησας." τῇ δὲ ἐπαύριον