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he consumed with various punishments those who venerate the icons. He demanded a universal oath from all those under his rule, not to venerate any icon. Among these he also made Constantine, the falsely named patriarch, go up to the ambo and, raising the precious wood, swear that he was not one of those who venerate icons; and he immediately persuaded him 2.14 to become a layman instead of a monk and to partake of meat and to endure cithara players at the imperial table. But before long, justice delivered him into the hands of the blood-stained one. For the avenging spirit, learning that the patriarch had informed many that the emperor had said to him that Christ is not God, and for this reason "I do not hold his mother to be the Theotokos," went mad against him as one who had exposed his mystery. And after inflicting many blows upon him, he made a spectacle of him in the hippodrome, being spat upon and dragged. Then, having secured him, he sends patricians to him, and says, "What do you say now about our faith and the synod which we held?" But he, having been made foolish in his mind, thinking to appease him again, answered and said, "You did well to hold the synod, and you believe well." But they, laughing at him, said to him, "We only wanted to hear this from your polluted mouth," and immediately they brought him out and beheaded him, and threw his body into the sea, where the church of Saint Pelagia first was, which the God-hated one, having submerged and made a tomb for convicts, called the Pelagion. He appointed in his place as patriarch Nicetas, a eunuch and a Slav. Likewise also, after killing holy Peter and the God-bearing Stephen of Auxentius with many tortures, he ordered them to be dragged and thrown into the sea. And he handed over many other rulers and monks 2.15 to a terrible death on account of the holy icons. He pilloried and dishonored the habit of the monks, commanding at the hippodrome each abbot to pass through the midst of the people holding a woman by the hand, at whom all spat and insulted them. He campaigned against the Bulgarians on foot and by sea, and he sent to Anchialus βχʹ chelandia. But when a north wind blew, all were lost except a few, and he returned to the city ingloriously. But also the precious relic of the holy and all-praised Euphemia he sank along with its reliquary, which by the grace of God sailed safely and came to be on the island of Lemnos, and again under Constantine and Irene, the pious emperors, it returned with fitting honor to her sanctuary, which the enemy of the churches, or rather of his own soul, had made an armory and a dung-heap, but they, having cleaned it, consecrated it again. This impious man appointed generals of like mind with him and worthy agents of his wickedness: Michael Melissenos as strategos of the Anatolics, Michael Lachanodrakon to Thrace, and Manes, who was named for his wickedness, to the Bucellarian theme. Lachanodrakon, therefore, imitating his teacher, gathered every monk and monastery in the Thracesian theme to Ephesus, and says to them, "He who wishes to obey the emperor and us, let him put on secular clothing, and take a wife at this hour. But those who do not do this will be blinded and exiled to Cyprus 2.16." And at the same time as the word, the deed was accomplished, and many martyrs were revealed on that day. This man sold all the monasteries and all the sacred vessels and books and animals and all their properties, and brought the proceeds from them to the emperor. And whatever patristic books or relics of saints he found, he burned, and he punished and variously destroyed those who possessed them as being impious, and anointing their heads with pitch and oil, he set them on fire. And if anyone was found calling upon the name of the Theotokos or living piously or respecting oaths, he was punished as an enemy of the emperor. So it happened that in a short time not a single monk was to be found in the whole theme under him. which when the... learned

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προσκυνεῖν τὰς εἰκόνας διαφόροις τιμωρίαις τούτους ἀνάλωσεν. ὅρκον δὲ καθολικὸν πάντας τοὺς ὑπὸ τὴν αὐτοῦ βασιλείαν ὄντας ἀπῄτησεν, εἰκόνι μὴ προσκυνῆσαί τινι. μεθ' ὧν καὶ Κωνσταντῖνον τὸν ψευδώνυμον πατριάρχην ἐπὶ ἄμβωνος ἀνελθεῖν καὶ ὑψώσαντα τὰ τίμια ξύλα ὀμόσαι πεποίηκεν ὡς οὐκ ἔστι τῶν προσκυνούντων τὰς εἰκόνας· καὶ τοῦτον παραυτὰ 2.14 στεφανίτην ἀντὶ μοναχοῦ ἔπεισε γενέσθαι καὶ κρεῶν μεταλαμβά νειν καὶ κιθαρῳδῶν ἀνέχεσθαι ἐν τῇ βασιλικῇ τραπέζῃ. ἀλλ' οὐκ εἰς μακρὰν ἡ δίκη τοῦτον ταῖς τοῦ μιαιφόνου χερσὶ παραδέδωκε. μαθὼν γὰρ ὁ ἀλάστωρ ὅτι ὁ πατριάρχης πολλοὺς ἐπληροφόρησεν εἰπεῖν τὸν βασιλέα πρὸς αὐτὸν ὅτι οὐκ ἔστι θεὸς ὁ Χριστός, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο οὐδὲ τὴν μητέρα αὐτοῦ ἔχω θεοτόκον, ἐξεμάνη κατ' αὐτοῦ ὡς τὸ μυστήριον αὐτοῦ θριαμβεύσαντος. καὶ ἐπιθεὶς αὐτῷ πολλὰς πληγὰς ἐθριάμβευσεν ἐν τῷ ἱπποδρόμῳ ἐμπτυόμενον καὶ συρόμενον. εἶτα ἀσφαλισάμενος αὐτὸν ἀποστέλλει πρὸς αὐτὸν πατρικίους, καὶ φησί "τί λέγεις ἄρτι περὶ τῆς πίστεως ἡμῶν καὶ τῆς συνόδου ἧς ἐποιήσαμεν;" ὁ δὲ ματαιωθεὶς ταῖς φρεσίν, οἰό μενος αὐτὸν πάλιν ἐξευμενίσασθαι, ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπε "καλῶς ἐποίη σας τὴν σύνοδον, καὶ καλῶς πιστεύεις." οἱ δὲ ἐπιγελάσαντες εἶπον πρὸς αὐτόν "ἡμεῖς τοῦτο μόνον ἠθέλομεν ἀκοῦσαι παρὰ τοῦ μιαροῦ σου στόματος," καὶ παραχρῆμα ἐξαγαγόντες αὐτὸν ἀπε κεφάλισαν, καὶ τὸ σῶμα αὐτοῦ ἔρριψαν εἰς τὸ πέλαγος, ἔνθα πρῶτον ὑπῆρχεν ὁ τῆς ἁγίας Πελαγίας ναός, ὃν ὁ θεομισὴς κατα κλύσας καὶ τάφον καταδίκων ποιήσας ἐκάλεσε τὸ Πελάγιον. ἀντι χειροτονεῖ δὲ πατριάρχην Νικήταν εὐνοῦχον καὶ Σθλάβον. ὡσαύτως δὲ καὶ Πέτρον τὸν ἱερὸν καὶ τὸν θεοφόρον Στέφανον τὸν τοῦ Αὐξεντίου μετὰ πολλὰς αἰκίας φονεύσας εἰς τὸ πέλαγος συρέντας ῥιφῆναι προσέταξε. πολλοὺς δὲ καὶ ἑτέρους ἄρχοντας καὶ μονα 2.15 χοὺς διὰ τὰς ἱερὰς εἰκόνας δεινῷ θανάτῳ παρέδωκεν. ἐστηλί τευσε δὲ καὶ ἠτίμασε τὸ σχῆμα τῶν μοναχῶν, ἐπὶ ἱπποδρόμου παρακελευσάμενος ἕνα ἕκαστον ἀββᾶν χειροκρατοῦντα γυναῖκα παρέρχεσθαι μέσον τοῦ λαοῦ, οἷς ἐνέπτυον καὶ ὕβριζον πάντες. ἐστράτευσε δὲ κατὰ Βουλγάρων πεζῇ τε καὶ πλωϊστί, καὶ ἀπέστει λεν ἐπὶ Ἀγχίαλον χελάνδια βχʹ. βορρᾶ δὲ πνεύσαντος ἀπώλοντο πάντα πλὴν ὀλίγων, ὑπέστρεψε δὲ ἐν τῇ πόλει ἀδόξως. ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ τίμιον λείψανον τῆς ἁγίας καὶ πανευφήμου Εὐφημίας ἐβύθισε σὺν τῇ λάρνακι, ὅπερ θεοῦ χάριτι ἐν τῇ νήσῳ τῇ Λήμνῳ εὐπλοῆ σαν ἐγένετο, καὶ πάλιν ἐπὶ Κωνσταντίνου καὶ Εἰρήνης τῶν εὐσε βῶν βασιλέων μετὰ τῆς πρεπούσης τιμῆς ἐπανῆλθεν ἐν τῷ τεμένει αὐτῆς, ὅπερ ὁ τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν ἐχθρός, μᾶλλον δὲ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ ψυχῆς, ἀρμάμεντον καὶ κοπροθέσιον ἐποίησεν, αὐτοὶ δὲ ἀνα καθάραντες πάλιν καθιέρωσαν. οὗτος ὁ δυσσεβὴς προεβάλλετο στρατηγοὺς ὁμόφρονας αὐτῷ καὶ τῆς κακίας αὐτοῦ ἐπαξίους ἐργά τας Μιχαὴλ μὲν τὸν Μελισηνὸν στρατηγὸν τῶν ἀνατολικῶν, Μι χαὴλ δὲ τὸν Λαχανοδράκοντα εἰς τὴν Θρᾴκην καὶ Μάνην τὸν τῆς κακίας ἐπώνυμον εἰς τὸ βουκελλάριον. μιμησάμενος τοίνυν ὁ Λαχανοδράκων τὸν διδάσκαλον αὐτοῦ πάντα μοναχὸν καὶ μονα στήριον τοὺς ὑπὸ τὸ θέμα τῶν Θρᾳκησίων ὄντας συνῆξεν εἰς Ἔφε σον, καὶ φησὶ πρὸς αὐτούς "ὁ βουλόμενος τῷ βασιλεῖ καὶ ἡμῖν πειθαρχεῖν ἐνδυσάσθω στολήν, καὶ λαβέτω γυναῖκα τῇ ὥρᾳ ταύτῃ. οἱ δὲ τοῦτο μὴ ποιοῦντες τυφλούμενοι εἰς Κύπρον ἐξορισθήσον 2.16 ται." καὶ ἅμα τῷ λόγῳ τὸ ἔργον ἐξετελεῖτο, καὶ πολλοὶ μάρτυ ρες τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ ἀνεδείχθησαν. οὗτος πάντα τὰ μοναστήρια πέπρακε καὶ πάντα τὰ ἱερὰ σκεύη καὶ βιβλία καὶ ζῷα καὶ πάσας τὰς ὑποστάσεις αὐτῶν, καὶ τὰς τιμὰς τούτων εἰσεκόμισε τῷ βασι λεῖ. ὅσα δὲ εὗρε πατερικὰ βιβλία ἢ λείψανα ἁγίων, κατέκαυσε, καὶ αὐτοὺς τοὺς αὐτὰ ἔχοντας ὡς ἀσεβοῦντας ἐκόλαζε καὶ ποικίλως ἀνῄρει, καὶ πίσσῃ καὶ ἐλαίῳ τὰς κεφαλὰς αὐτῶν ἐπιχρίων ὑφῆπτε πυρί. εἴ που δέ τις εὑρέθη τὸ τῆς θεοτόκου ὄνομα ἐπιβοώμενος ἢ εὐλαβείᾳ συζῶν ἢ ὅρκους αἰδούμενος, ὡς ἐχθρὸς τοῦ βασιλέως ἐτιμωρεῖτο. ὥστε ἐν ὅλῳ τῷ ὑπ' αὐτὸν θέματι μὴ εὑρίσκεσθαί τινα ἐν ὀλίγῳ συνέβη μοναχόν. ὃ μαθὼν ὁ