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When the emperor Nikephoros sent a letter with some gifts, the Arab was pleased and, having sent back many and wonderful gifts, returned in peace, greatly admiring the intelligence of Nikephoros. And having agreed that thirty thousand nomismata should be paid to them annually, and three nomismata each for the emperor himself and for his son, as a poll tax, and that the forts captured by him should not be rebuilt, he departed. But when they had returned, the emperor immediately rebuilt and fortified them. When Harun learned this, he sent an army and again took Thebes, and sending a fleet to Cyprus, he destroyed the churches and relocated the Cypriots, and after taking much booty, he broke the peace. 2.36 In the second year, the Arabs with a fleet seized Rhodes, and though they took many captives, they were not strong enough to hold the fortress. And as they were returning, having come to Myra, they tried to break open the holy sarcophagus of St. Nicholas, but they smashed another one lying nearby instead of it; and immediately a great storm of winds and a surge of sea waves, and an irregularity of thunder and lightning, overtook the fleet, so that many ships were wrecked, and the people themselves recognized the power of the saint, and against hope escaped the disaster.

In the seventh year, Theodore, the abbot of Stoudios, and Joseph his brother, the archbishop of Thessalonica, together with Plato the recluse and the other monks, broke from communion with the most holy patriarch Nikephoros on account of Joseph the oikonomos, for having unlawfully crowned Constantine and Theodote. But the emperor seized the opportunity and, gathering many bishops and abbots, ordered a synod to be convened against him, by which they were expelled from the monastery and the city, and sent into exile. In the same year, when the pay was being given to the army in the Strymon theme, the Bulgars attacked and seized it, one thousand one hundred pounds of gold, and they slaughtered the general along with the army, and having taken the military baggage train they returned. At the same time Krum, the leader of the Bulgars, captured Sardica and slaughtered six thousand soldiers. But Nikephoros, supposedly marching out against him, 2.37 did nothing worthy of note, but to the commanders who had survived the flight and were asking for a word of safety, he gave none and forced them to flee to the enemy, among whom was Euthymios the spatharios, an engineer. And when a revolt arose against him, having won over the majority with gifts, he later mistreated them, subjecting them to confiscations and exiles. And having planned to humble the armies, what terrible thing against Christians did he not devise? For he ordered the Christians from every theme to be resettled in the Sklavinias, and their properties to be sold; and the affair was no less than a captivity. When all were in a state of helplessness, as a second evil along with this one, he ordered the poor to be conscripted, and that they should be equipped by their fellow villagers, who would provide eighteen nomismata each and be mutually responsible for their public taxes to the treasury. A third evil was that everyone be inspected, and their public taxes be reassessed upwards, and that they provide two keratia each for the receipt tax. A fourth plague, he ordered all the tax exemptions to be reassessed upwards. A fifth disaster, that the tenants of the pious institutions, of the orphanage, hostels, homes for the aged, churches, monasteries, and imperial estates, should be required to pay the hearth tax from the first year of his tyranny, and that the better parts of the estates be taken for the imperial curatorship, but that their taxes be imposed on those remaining in the same pious institutions, so that the taxes of many were doubled, as the dwellings and lands were constrained, and 2.38 to leave one's home. A sixth tyranny was that those who had suddenly recovered from poverty should be investigated by the generals, and be required to pay money as if they were finders of treasures. A seventh evil, those who twenty years before had found and up to now possessed a jar or any kind of vessel were also to be forced to pay it out in silver. An eighth injustice,

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βασιλέως Νικηφόρου ἐπιστείλαντος μετὰ δώρων τινῶν, ὁ Ἄραψ ἀγαθυνθεὶς καὶ ἀνταποστείλας δῶρα πλεῖστά τε καὶ θαυμάσια μετ' εἰρήνης ὑπέστρεψε, τὴν Νικηφό ρου σύνεσιν ὑπερθαυμάζων. καὶ στοιχήσας κατ' ἔτος τελεῖσθαι αὐτοῖς νομίσματα χιλιάδας λʹ, καὶ ἀνὰ τρία νομίσματα αὐτὸν τὸν βασιλέα καὶ τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ, ἐν τάξει κεφαλητίωνος, καὶ μηδὲ τὰ παραληφθέντα ὑπ' αὐτοῦ κάστρα κτισθῆναι, ἀπῄει. τούτων δὲ ὑποστρεψάντων εὐθέως ὁ βασιλεὺς ἔκτισεν αὐτὰ καὶ κατωχύρω σεν. ὅπερ μαθὼν ὁ Ἀαρὼν ἀποστείλας πάλιν εἷλε τὴν Θήβαν, καὶ πέμψας στόλον εἰς Κύπρον τάς τε ἐκκλησίας κατέστρεψε καὶ τοὺς Κυπρίους μετέστησε, καὶ πολλὴν ἅλωσιν ποιήσας τὴν εἰρήνην διέστρεψε. 2.36 Τῷ ʹ ἔτει οἱ Ἄραβες μετὰ στόλου τὴν Ῥόδον κατέλαβον, καὶ πολλοὺς αἰχμαλωτίσαντες τὸ φρούριον κρατῆσαι οὐκ ἴσχυσαν. ἐν δὲ τῷ ἐπανέρχεσθαι αὐτοὺς ἐλθόντες εἰς τὰ Μύρα, τὴν ἱερὰν τοῦ ἁγίου Νικολάου λάρνακα πειραθέντες συντρῖψαι, ἄλλην ἀντ' ἐκείνης πλησίον κειμένην συνέτριψαν· αὐτίκα τε πολλὴ ἀνέμων θύελλα καὶ θαλαττίων κυμάτων φορὰ βροντῶν τε καὶ ἀστραπῶν ἀνωμαλία τὸν στόλον κατέλαβεν, ὡς ἱκανὰ συντριβῆναι σκάφη, αὐτόν τε τὸν λαὸν ἐπιγνῶναι τὴν τοῦ ἁγίου δύναμιν, καὶ παρ' ἐλ πίδα τὴν κάκωσιν ἐκφυγεῖν.

Τῷ ζʹ ἔτει Θεόδωρος ὁ ἡγούμενος τῶν Στουδίου καὶ Ἰωσὴφ ὁ αὐτάδελφος αὐτοῦ ἀρχιεπίσκοπος Θεσσαλονίκης, ἅμα Πλάτωνι ἐγκλείστῳ καὶ τοῖς λοιποῖς μοναχοῖς, τῆς κοινωνίας Νικηφόρου τοῦ ἁγιωτάτου πατριάρχου ἀπέσχισαν διὰ Ἰωσὴφ τὸν οἰκονόμον ὡς παρανόμως στεφανώσαντα Κωνσταντῖνον καὶ Θεοδότην. ὁ δὲ βασιλεὺς ἀφορμῆς δραξάμενος, ἐπισκόπους πολλοὺς καὶ ἡγουμέ νους ἀθροίσας, σύνοδον κατ' αὐτοῦ κροτηθῆναι ἐκέλευσε, δι' ἧς ἐξεβλήθησαν τῆς μονῆς καὶ τῆς πόλεως, ἐξορίᾳ παραπεμφθέντες. τῷ δ' αὐτῷ ἔτει ῥόγας διδομένης τῷ λαῷ ἐν Στρυμόνι, ἐπιπεσόν τες οἱ Βούλγαροι ταύτην ἀφείλοντο, χρυσίου λίτρας χιλίας ἑκατόν, καὶ τὸν στρατηγὸν ἅμα τῷ λαῷ κατέσφαξαν, καὶ λαβόντες τὸ τοῦλδον ὑπέστρεψαν. τῷ αὐτῷ χρόνῳ Κροῦμος ὁ τῶν Βουλγά ρων ἀρχηγὸς τὴν Σαρδικὴν παρέλαβε, καὶ χιλιάδας ʹ στρατιω τῶν κατέσφαξεν. ὁ δὲ Νικηφόρος δῆθεν κατ' αὐτοῦ ἐξελθὼν 2.37 ἀξιόλογον μὲν οὐδὲν ἐποίησε, τοῖς δὲ περισωθεῖσιν ἐκ τῆς φυγῆς ἄρχουσιν αἰτοῦσι λόγον σωτηρίας μὴ δοὺς τοῖς ἐχθροῖς προσφυγεῖν ἐβιάσατο, ἐν οἷς ἦν Εὐθύμιος σπαθάριος μηχανικός. στάσεως δὲ ἐπ' αὐτῷ γινομένης, δώροις τοὺς πλείονας ὑποκλέψας ὕστερον ἐκάκωσε δημεύσεσι καὶ ἐξορίαις καθυποβαλών. σκεψάμενος δὲ ταπεινῶσαι τὰ στρατεύματα, ποῖον δεινὸν κατὰ Χριστιανῶν οὐκ ἐπενόησε; προσέταξε γὰρ τοὺς Χριστιανοὺς ἐκ παντὸς θέματος ἐπὶ τὰς Σθλαβινίας μετοικίζεσθαι, τὰς δὲ τούτων στάσεις πι πράσκεσθαι· καὶ ἦν αἰχμαλωσίας οὐκ ἔλαττον τὸ πρᾶγμα. ἐν ἀμηχανίᾳ τοὺς πάντας γεγονότας, δευτέραν σὺν ταύτῃ κάκωσιν προσέταξε στρατεύεσθαι πτωχούς, καὶ ἐξοπλίζεσθαι αὐτοὺς παρὰ τῶν ὁμοχώρων, παρεχόντων ἀνὰ ιηʹ νομίσματα καὶ πρὸς τὸν δη μόσιον ἀλληλεγγύως τὰ δημόσια αὐτῶν. τρίτη κακόνοια ἐπ οπτεύεσθαι πάντας, καὶ ἀναβιβάζεσθαι τὰ τούτων δημόσια τέλη, παρέχοντας καὶ χαρτιατικοῦ ἕνεκα ἀνὰ κεράτια δύο. τετάρτη πληγή, τοὺς κουφισμοὺς πάντας ἀναβιβάζεσθαι προσέταξε. πέμ πτη συμφορά, τοὺς τῶν εὐαγῶν οἴκων παροίκους, τοῦ τε ὀρφα νοτροφείου ξενώνων γηρωκομείων ἐκκλησιῶν μοναστηρίων βασιλι κῶν, τὰ καπνικὰ ἀπαιτεῖσθαι ἀπὸ τοῦ πρώτου ἔτους τῆς αὐτοῦ τυραννίδος, τὰ δὲ κρείττονα τῶν κτημάτων εἰς τὴν βασιλικὴν κουρατωρείαν αἴρεσθαι, τὰ μέντοι τέλη αὐτῶν ἐπιτίθεσθαι τοῖς ἐναπομείνασιν εἰς τοὺς αὐτοὺς εὐαγεῖς οἴκους, ὡς διπλοῦσθαι πολλῶν τὰ τέλη, τῶν οἰκήσεων στενουμένων, καὶ τῶν χωρίων καὶ 2.38 ἐξοικεῖν. ἕκτη τυραννὶς σκοπεῖσθαι παρὰ τῶν στρατηγούντων τοὺς ἀθρόως ἐκ τῆς πτωχείας ἀνακτισθέντας, καὶ ἀπαιτεῖσθαι χρήματα ὡς εὑρετὰς θησαυρῶν. ἑβδόμη κάκωσις, τοὺς πρὸ κʹ χρόνων εὑρηκότας καὶ μέχρι τῆς δεῦρο πίθον ἢ σκεῦος ὁτιοῦν καὶ αὐτοὺς ἐξαργυρίζεσθαι. ὀγδόη ἀδικία,