395

he took courage, was expelled from the church, and having left Kabala with his whole household, he took refuge with the Hagarenes; whom the amermoumnes received honorably and magnificently. But the emperor, considering what a general he had lost and what an enemy he was about to have, was vexed and distressed and sought a way how he might recover him for the Romans. Therefore, a royal letter was written, granting him a complete amnesty for his misdeeds, permitting his return home, and promising his former prosperity and countless other gifts and benefactions; which they rolled up in wax resembling a taper and gave to a certain Saracen who had been expelled from the praetorium and magnificently treated, instructing him to go to Syria and hand this to 2.268 Andronikos. When the Saracen had departed, Samonas took him aside privately and asked, "Do you know what you are holding?" alluding to the wax. And when he said he did not know, he said, "The wax given to you, my friend, is the ruin of Syria; and if you care at all for your nation and for your co-religionists, place this in the hands of the vizier." And so that he would carry out what he had been ordered, he also treated him kindly with the greatest and most costly gifts. So the Saracen went away and handed the wax to the vizier; who, breaking it open and finding the small letter, and reading the meaning contained in it, reported it to the amermoumnes. And immediately the prison received Andronikos and those with him. Therefore, being mistreated for a long time, and not bearing the sorrows of the prison, some were forced to renounce their own faith. Andronikos, then, thus also ended his life. But Constantine, his son, before his father died, with his father's knowledge, having conspired with some others around him (for many were still imprisoned with him in the garrison because they were unwilling to renounce their own religion), breaking their bonds, they came out of the prison, and letting themselves down with a rope and procuring horses, they escaped. And when soldiers were sent to capture them, at one moment turning back and fighting, at another throwing gold, they drove off their pursuers, and thus they were able to reach the borders of the Romans. Therefore the emperor quickly summoned Constantine, 2.269 and having brought him to him, he treated him and those around him kindly with all sorts of gifts. But when the audience was finished, as Constantine was about to depart from the Chrysotriklinos (for the emperor had held his reception there), ordering him to turn back, the emperor, gazing at the icons of Christ and the Theotokos set up above the gate, said these things to Constantine: "Do not let your name deceive you, O Constantine, nor think on account of it that you will rule the Romans; for the empire has been reserved by God for my son Constantine, and this has been made clear to me by the prophecies of divine men who have acquired through purity the ability to foresee the future. Remain, therefore, in the rank given to you, and do not imagine things above yourself. Or else, know that if you play the tyrant, your head without a body will enter through this gate." Which also happened later; for after the death of Leo, having become a usurper, Constantine was killed in the secretum of the genikon, and through the aforementioned gate his head, dripping with gore and blood, was brought into the palace. But the emperor, because of some suspicion, removed Eustathios Argyros the magistros from his office (for he was droungarios of the Vigla), who, on his way home, was done away with by poison and died, leaving behind a great longing for him in both the army and the fleet, who remembered his heroic deeds. And he was buried in the Charsianon district in the monastery of Saint Elizabeth, which Leo his grandfather had 2.270 renovated, who also was the first to inherit the surname of the Argyroi, whether because of the purity of his life, or the beauty of his body, or some other aspect of his nobility; for so much was the

395

ἐθάρρει, ἐξεβλήθη τῆς ἐκκλησίας, καταλιπὼν τὴν Καβάλαν πανοικὶ προσέφυγε τοῖς Ἀγα ρηνοῖς· ὃν ὁ ἀμερμουμνῆς ἐντίμως καὶ μεγαλοπρεπῶς ἐδέξατο. ἀναλογισάμενος δ' ὁ βασιλεὺς οἷον ἀπώλεσε στρατηγὸν καὶ οἷον ἕξειν πολέμιον ἔμελλεν, ἤσχαλλε καὶ ἐδυσφόρει καὶ τρόπον ἐζήτει πῶς ἂν αὐτὸν τοῖς Ῥωμαίοις ἐπανασώσηται. ἐγένετο οὖν γράμμα βασιλικὸν πᾶσάν τε ἀμνηστίαν αὐτῷ κακῶν χαριζόμενον, τὴν οἴκαδέ τε ἐπιστροφὴν ἐπιτρέπον, καὶ τὴν προτέραν εὐημερίαν καθυπι σχνούμενον καὶ μυρίας ἄλλας δωρεὰς καὶ εὐεργεσίας· ὅπερ ἑλί ξαντες κηρῷ λαμπάδι προσεοικότι διδοῦσί τινι τῶν Σαρακηνῶν ἀπὸ τοῦ πραιτωρίου ἐκβληθέντι καὶ μεγαλοπρεπῶς φιλοφρονη θέντι, ἐπισκήψαντες ἀπελθεῖν ἐν Συρίᾳ καὶ ἐγχειρίσαι τοῦτο τῷ 2.268 Ἀνδρονίκῳ. ἀπελθόντα γοῦν τὸν Σαρακηνὸν προσλαβόμενος ἰδίᾳ ὁ Σαμωνᾶς "οἶδας ὃ κατέχεις;" ἠρώτα, τὸν κηρὸν αἰνιξάμενος. ἀγνοεῖν δ' ἐκείνου φήσαντος "ὁ δοθείς σοι κηρός, ὦ φίλος," ἔφη, "τῆς Συρίας ἐστὶν ἡ ἀπώλεια· καὶ εἴ τι κήδῃ τοῦ ἔθνους τοῦ σοῦ καὶ τῶν ὁμοπίστων, χερσὶ κατάθου τοῦτο τοῦ οὐζήρ." ὥστε δὲ διακονῆσαι τοῖς ὑπ' αὐτοῦ παραγγελθεῖσι, καὶ δώροις αὐτὸν με γίστοις πολυτελῶς ἐφιλοφρονήσατο. ἀπελθὼν οὖν ὁ Σαρακηνὸς ἐνεχείρισε τῷ οὐζὴρ τὸν κηρόν· ὃν καθελὼν ἐκεῖνος καὶ τὸ γραμ μάτιον εὑρών, καὶ τὸν ἐν τούτῳ κείμενον ἀναλεξάμενος νοῦν, ἀπήγγειλε τῷ ἀμερμουμνῇ. καὶ εὐθὺς Ἀνδρόνικον καὶ τοὺς σὺν αὐτῷ τὸ δεσμωτήριον ὑπεδέχετο. ἐπὶ πολὺ οὖν κακουχούμενοι, καὶ μὴ φέροντες τὰ ἐκ τῆς φυλακῆς λυπηρά, ἠναγκάσθησάν τινες τὴν οἰκείαν ἐξομόσασθαι πίστιν. ὁ μὲν οὖν Ἀνδρόνικος οὕτω καὶ τὸν βίον κατέλυσε. Κωνσταντῖνος δὲ ὁ τούτου υἱὸς πρὸ τοῦ θανεῖν ἐκεῖνον, εἰδήσει καὶ τοῦ πατρός, συσκευασάμενος μετὰ καί τινων ἄλλων τῶν περὶ αὐτὸν (ἐτύγχανον γὰρ συχνοὶ μετ' αὐτοῦ ἔτι ἐν τῇ φρουρᾷ ἐγκαθειργμένοι διὰ τὸ μὴ θελῆσαι τὸ οἰκεῖον ἀπώμοτον θέσθαι σέβας) τὰ δεσμὰ διαρρήξαντες ἐξέρχονται τῆς φυλακῆς, καὶ καλωδίῳ ἑαυτοὺς καθιμήσαντες ἵππων τε εὐπορήσαντες ἀπεδί δρασκον. στρατιωτῶν δὲ πεμφθέντων εἰς τὴν κατάσχεσιν τούτων, νῦν μὲν ὑποστρέφοντες καὶ πολεμοῦντες νῦν δὲ χρυσίον ῥιπτοῦντες ἀπεσκευάζοντο τοὺς διώκοντας, καὶ οὕτως ἴσχυσαν ἐπιβῆναι τῶν ὁρίων Ῥωμαίων. ταχὺ μὲν οὖν ὁ βασιλεὺς τὸν Κωνσταντῖνον 2.269 μετεπέμψατο, καὶ ὡς αὐτὸν ἀγαγὼν δώροις αὐτὸν παντοίοις καὶ τοὺς περὶ αὐτὸν ἐφιλοφρονήσατο. πληρωθείσης δὲ τῆς ἐντυχίας, ἐν τῷ μέλλειν ἀπὸ τοῦ χρυσοτρικλίνου ἐξιέναι τὸν Κωνσταντῖνον (ἐκεῖσε γὰρ ἐποιήσατο τὴν αὐτοῦ δοχὴν ὁ βασιλεὺς) ὑποστρέψαι κελεύσας αὐτόν, ἐνατενίσας πρὸς τὰς ἐστηλωμένας ἄνωθεν τῆς πύλης εἰκόνας τοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ τῆς θεομήτορος ὁ βασιλεύς, τάδε πρὸς τὸν Κωνσταντῖνον εἰρήκει "μή σε πλανάτω, ὦ Κωνσταντῖνε, τὸ ὄνομα, μηδὲ διὰ τοῦτο οἴου κατάρξειν Ῥωμαίων· ἡ βασιλεία γὰρ τῷ ἐμῷ υἱῷ Κωνσταντίνῳ ἐκ θεοῦ τεταμίευται, καὶ τοῦτό μοι δῆλον γέγονεν ἐκ προρρήσεων θείων ἀνδρῶν καὶ προορᾶν τὰ μέλ λοντα διὰ καθαρότητος κτησαμένων. ἔμμενε γοῦν τῇ δοθείσῃ σοι τάξει, καὶ μὴ φαντάζου τὰ ὑπὲρ σεαυτόν. ἢ μὴν ἴσθι ὡς τυ ραννήσαντος ἡ κεφαλή σου σώματος ἄτερ διὰ τῆσδε τῆς πύλης εἰσελεύσεται." ὃ καὶ γέγονεν ὕστερον· μετὰ θάνατον γὰρ τοῦ Λέοντος τυραννήσας ὁ Κωνσταντῖνος ἀνῃρέθη ἐν τῷ τοῦ γενικοῦ σεκρέτῳ, καὶ διὰ τῆς ῥηθείσης πύλης λύθρῳ καὶ αἵματι σταζο μένη ἡ τούτου κεφαλὴ εἰσήχθη εἰς τὰ βασίλεια. Ὁ δὲ βασιλεὺς διά τινα ὑπόνοιαν Εὐστάθιον μάγιστρον τὸν Ἀργυροῦν μετεκίνησε τῆς ἀρχῆς (ἦν γὰρ δρουγγάριος τῆς βίγλας), ὃς καὶ ἀπιὼν οἴκαδε φαρμάκῳ κατεργασθεὶς ἐτελεύτησε, πολὺν πόθον αὐτοῦ τῷ τε στρατῷ καὶ τῷ στόλῳ καταλιπών, μεμνημένοις τῶν ἀνδραγαθημάτων αὐτοῦ. ἐτάφη δὲ κατὰ τὸ Χαρσιανὸν ἐν τῇ μονῇ τῆς ἁγίας Ἐλιζάβετ, ἣν Λέων ὁ πάππος αὐτοῦ ἐκαι 2.270 νούργησεν, ὃς καὶ τὸ τῶν Ἀργυρῶν ἐπίθετον ἐκληρώσατο πρῶτος, εἴτε διὰ καθαρότητα βίου, εἴτε καὶ δι' εὐπρέπειαν σώματος, εἴτε καὶ διά τινα τρόπον τῆς αὐτοῦ γενναιότητος· τοσοῦτον γὰρ περιῆν ὁ