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In the imperial treasury are deposited centenaria of gold, and about three thousand of silver, of which my husband procured some, and I myself collected the rest after his 2.159 death, and much other varied wealth. I am parading this before you for this reason, so that if, after my departure from the palace, my son and your emperor should say that I left the palace wanting in wealth, he may not be easily believed." And as she was speaking, she presented the treasurers of the imperial monies and had them assenting to what was said. And the empress, having given her farewell to the senate and renounced all activity and administration, went out of the palace. But the imperial wealth, being so great and vast, was of no benefit because of the madness of Michael. For, delighting in horse races more than anyone else, and not declining to drive a chariot himself there, he exhausted the imperial wealth by adopting through holy baptism the children of those who played with him and were his fellow-charioteers and competitors, giving to each one hundred and eighty and at least fifty pounds. And once to a certain man whom he had honored as a patrician (this man was called Himerios, so named by antiphrasis for the fierceness of his face), who surpassed the Himerios of Tiberius's time in flattery, and who played the buffoon at the table, spoke filthily, and shamelessly broke wind, in the hearing of the emperor and his fellow-diners, so that he even extinguished a candle with the sound, he gave 100 pounds of gold. And having received the son of Cheilas, his fellow-charioteer, from holy baptism, he gifted him 100 pounds of gold. 2.160 Thus he squandered and spent the public funds for no need. And when in a short time he had squandered so much wealth by such lawless acts, and the time for the distribution of the imperial donatives came and there was no supply of money, that golden and much-famed plane tree and the two golden lions and the two griffins, they too being of hammered gold, and the all-gold instruments and other works, for which the empire of the Romans was admired, having a weight of no less than two hundred centenaria, he melted down and gave orders to mint in the imperial treasury. And he did likewise with the imperial robes, of which some were all-gold and others were woven with gold, having given them to the *eidikos* so that he might melt these down too. But they were not yet melted down when he departed from among men, and Basil succeeded to the rule and called them back, having found nothing more from so much wealth than three centenaria of gold and nine sacks of *miliaresia*; which he also made public before the senate, lamenting the poverty and from where the public needs could be met.

Since the empress Theodora had the custom of going to the divine church of the Theotokos in Blachernae, both for the sake of worship and for bathing with her daughters, when once the emperor and her brother Bardas learned that she had gone there, sending Petronas, whom the account has made known above to be her brother, they tonsured her as a nun along with her daughters, 2.161 and for a time confined them in the palace of Karianos, having taken away all the wealth they had, commanding them to live as private citizens and not imperially. But Theodora not long after departed from this life; whose body, after he became emperor, Basil, along with her daughters, sent away to dwell in the monastery of Mamas, which is called Gastria. And this empress had two male brothers, this schemer Bardas and Petronas, and three sisters, Sophia, Maria, and Eirene, of whom Sophia was joined to Constantine Babutzikos, who held the rank of *magistros*, Eirene to the patrician Sergios, who happened to be the brother of Photios who was later patriarch, and Maria to Arsaber the *magistros*, a noble man and in those times

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βασιλικῷ ταμιείῳ χρυσοῦ ἐνα πόκεινται κεντηνάρια, ἀργύρου δὲ ὡσεὶ τριῶν χιλιάδων, ὧν τὰ μὲν ὁ ἐμὸς ἀνὴρ ἐπορίσατο, τὰ δ' αὐτὴ μετὰ τὸν ἐκείνου συνέ 2.159 λεξα θάνατον, ἄλλος τε πλοῦτος πολὺς καὶ ποικίλος. διὰ τοῦτο δὲ τοῦτον ἐκπομπεύω ὑμῖν, ἵν' εἰ μετὰ τὴν ἐμὴν ἀπὸ τῶν ἀνακτό ρων κάθοδον ὁ ἐμὸς ἔχῃ λέγειν υἱὸς καὶ ὑμέτερος βασιλεὺς ὡς ἐνδεῆ καταλέλοιπα τὰ βασίλεια πλούτου, μὴ εὐχερῶς πιστεύηται." καὶ ἅμα λέγουσα τοὺς τῶν βασιλικῶν χρημάτων ταμίας παρίστη καὶ συγκατανεύοντας εἶχε πρὸς τὰ λεγόμενα. καὶ ἡ μὲν βασιλὶς ἀσπασμὸν δοῦσα τῇ συγκλήτῳ, καὶ πάσῃ ἐνεργείᾳ καὶ διοικήσει ἀποταξαμένη, ἔξεισι τοῦ παλατίου. Ὁ δὲ τῶν βασιλείων πλοῦτος τοσοῦτος ὢν καὶ τηλικοῦτος εἰς οὐδεμίαν ἐχώρησεν ὄνησιν τῇ ἀπονοίᾳ τοῦ Μιχαήλ. ταῖς γὰρ τῶν ἵππων ἁμίλλαις, εἴ πέρ τις ἕτερος, ἀγαλλόμενος καὶ ἡνιοχεῖν ἐκεῖσε αὐτὸς οὐ παραιτούμενος, τῶν συμπαιζόντων αὐτῷ καὶ συνηνιο χούντων καὶ συναμιλλωμένων ἐκ τοῦ θείου υἱοθετούμενος τὰ τέκνα βαπτίσματος τὸν βασιλικὸν κατεκένου πλοῦτον, ἑκατὸν ὀγδοήκοντα καὶ τουλάχιστον πεντήκοντα τῷ καθεκάστῳ παρεχόμενος λίτρας. καί ποτέ τινι ἀνδρὶ ὃν πατρίκιον ἐτιμήσατο (Ἱμέριος οὗτος ἐκα λεῖτο, διὰ τὴν τοῦ προσώπου αὐτοῦ οὕτω καλούμενος κατὰ ἀντί φρασιν ἀγριότητα), κολακείᾳ μὲν ὑπερβάλλοντι τὸν ἐπὶ Τιβερίου Ἱμέριον, βωμολοχοῦντι δὲ κατὰ τὴν τράπεζαν καὶ αἰσχρολογοῦντι καὶ ἀναιδῶς ἀποπέρδοντι, ἀκούοντος δὲ τοῦ βασιλέως καὶ τῶν συνδείπνων, ὡς καὶ κηρὸν ἀποσβεννύει τῷ ψόφῳ, χρυσίου δέδωκε λίτρας ρʹ. καὶ Χειλᾶ δὲ τοῦ συνηνιοχοῦντος αὐτῷ τὸν υἱὸν ἐκ τοῦ θείου βαπτίσματος ἀναδεξάμενος ἐδωρήσατο χρυσίου λίτρας ρʹ. 2.160 οὕτως ἐκεῖνος εἰς οὐδὲν δέον τὰ δημόσια κατεδαπάνα τε καὶ ἀνή λισκεν. ἐπεὶ δὲ ἐντὸς ὀλίγου ταῖς τοιαύταις ἀθέσμοις πράξεσι τὸν τοσοῦτον κατεδαπάνησε πλοῦτον, ἦλθε δὲ ὁ τῆς διανομῆς τῶν βασιλικῶν δωρεῶν καιρὸς καὶ χρημάτων πόρος οὐκ ἦν, τήν τε χρυσῆν ἐκείνην καὶ πολυθρύλητον πλάτανον καὶ τοὺς δύο χρυ σοῦς λέοντας καὶ τοὺς δύο γρῦπας, χρυσοῦς καὶ αὐτοὺς σφυρη λάτους ὄντας, καὶ τὰ ὁλόχρυσα ὄργανα καὶ ἕτερα ἔργα, δι' ὧν ἡ Ῥωμαίων ἐθαυμάζετο βασιλεία, ὁλκὴν ἔχοντα διακοσίων οὐκ ἔλαττον κεντηναρίων, χωνεύσας χαράξαι δέδωκεν ἐν τῷ βασιλικῷ ταμιείῳ. παραπλησίως δὲ ἐποίησε καὶ ἐν στολαῖς βασιλικαῖς, ὧν αἱ μὲν ἦσαν ὁλόχρυσοι αἱ δὲ χρυσοΰφαντοι, δεδωκὼς τῷ εἰδικῷ ὥστε καὶ ταύτας χωνεῦσαι. οὐκ ἔφθασαν δὲ χωνευθῆναι, κἀκεῖ νος ἐξ ἀνθρώπων ἐγένετο, καὶ Βασίλειος τὴν ἀρχὴν διεδέξατο καὶ ταύτας ἀνεκαλέσατο, ἐκ τοσούτου πλούτου μηδὲν εὑρηκὼς πλέον ἀλλ' ἢ χρυσίου μὲν κεντηνάρια τρία, μιλιαρισίων δὲ σακκία ἐννέα· ἃ καὶ δημοσιεύσας ἐπὶ τῆς συγκλήτου ἀπωδύρετο τὴν ἀπορίαν καὶ τὸ πόθεν ἂν ἐκπληρωθεῖεν αἱ δημόσιοι χρεῖαι.

Ἔθος δ' ἐχούσης τῆς βασιλίδος Θεοδώρας ἀπιέναι πρὸς τὸν ἐν Βλαχέρναις τῆς θεοτόκου θεῖον ναόν, ἅμα μὲν προσκυνήσεως χάριν ἅμα δὲ καὶ λουτροῦ μετὰ τῶν ἑαυτῆς θυγατέρων, ἐπεί ποτε ἔγνω αὐτὴν ἐκεῖσε φοιτήσασαν ὁ βασιλεὺς καὶ ὁ ταύτης ὁμαίμων Βάρδας, Πετρωνᾶν ἐκπέμψαντες, ὃν αὐτῆς ἀδελφὸν εἶναι ἄνω θεν ὁ λόγος ἐγνώρισεν, ἀποκείρουσι μοναχὴν σὺν ταῖς θυγατράσι, 2.161 καὶ ἐν τοῖς κατὰ τὰ Καριανοῦ ἀνακτόροις τέως περιορίζουσιν, ἀφελόμενοι καὶ ὃν εἶχον αἱ πᾶσαι πλοῦτον, ἰδιωτικῶς ζῆν ἀλλ' οὐ βασιλικῶς ἐπιτάξαντες. ἀλλ' ἡ μὲν Θεοδώρα μετ' οὐ πολὺ τῶν τῇδε μεθίσταται· ἧς τὸν νεκρὸν μετὰ ταῦτα βασιλεύσας ὁ Βασί λειος, καὶ τὰς αὐτῆς θυγατέρας, πρὸς τὸ τῆς Μάμμης ἐξαπέ στειλε μοναστήριον ἐνδιαιτᾶσθαι, ὃ Γάστρια κατονομάζεται. ἦσαν δὲ τῇ τοιαύτῃ βασιλίδι ἄρρενες μὲν ἀδελφοὶ δύο, ὅ τε μηχανορρά φος οὗτος Βάρδας καὶ ὁ Πετρωνᾶς, ἀδελφαὶ δὲ τρεῖς, Σοφία Μαρία καὶ Εἰρήνη, ὧν ἡ μὲν Σοφία Κωνσταντίνῳ συνήφθη τῷ Βαβουτζίκῳ, εἰς μαγίστρους τελοῦντι, Εἰρήνη δὲ Σεργίῳ πατρι κίῳ, ἀδελφῷ τυγχάνοντι Φωτίου τοῦ μετὰ ταῦτα πατριάρχου, καὶ ἡ Μαρία Ἀρσαβὴρ μαγίστρῳ, ἀνδρὶ γενναίῳ καὶ ἐν τοῖς τότε καιροῖς