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a man of the people who had been under Michael, so that he alone with his household clashed with the Manichaeans from Tephrike and the Hagarenes from Melitene, and he easily put them to flight. And his name alone, when spoken, was a terror to all his adversaries. But having been sent out for the purpose of an exchange from both Tarsus and Melitene, both that Abelbakes and the father of Samonas reached the reigning city. And the emperor received them, making a great reception and adorning the Magnaura with much splendor. And he also lavishly embellished the great church, and led them in there, and showed all the precious objects and the vessels used in the divine service. But this was unworthy of a Christian state, to make visible to foreign and infidel men things that are unseen even by pious men who are not living well. But the father of Samonas, seeing the confidence which his son had with the emperor and the honor and the glory, chose to be with his son, having renounced his homeland Melitene. But Samonas did not permit it, but rather advised him to return home and hold to his own faith, and to expect that he himself, if he got the opportunity, would go there. And when the feast arrived on which the Holy Spirit descended upon the apos 2.271 tles in tongues of fire, the emperor crowned his own son Constantine through Euthymius the patriarch. And Samonas, hastening to attract the empress's goodwill toward himself, gave Constantine his servant, who was a eunuch and hailed from the land of the Paphlagonians, to serve the Augusta. But this man was so loved by her and by Leo the emperor as to provoke Samonas himself to envy, and to be slandered by him to the emperor as perhaps being intimate with the Augusta; believing this to be true, he sent and had him tonsured a monk in the monastery of Saint Tarasios, through Samonas himself. But after a little while, changing his mind again and wishing to take him back, he had him transferred through Samonas himself to the monastery of Speirai. Therefore, when the emperor had gone out to Damatrys and lunched at the monastery of Samonas, and saw Constantine, he immediately gave orders, and they stripped him of the garments of the monastic life and dressed him in secular clothes. And while feasting with him, he ordered the cup to be given to him at lunch, and entering the palace he drew him along with himself. And Samonas, seeing the emperor's love for Constantine growing, weaves a plot against him, composed in the following manner. Having conferred with Magistos the koubikoularios and Michael Tzirithon, he composes a note containing endless slanders against the emperor, with Constantine of Rhodes, who was under-secretary to Samonas, having composed it; which, after writing and sealing it, they threw in 2.272 the metatorion. And when the emperor made a public procession in the great church, and entered the metatorion, and in the place where he prayed saw this thrown there, and picked it up and read it, great confusion seized those present, each one being uncertain and not knowing who had thrown it. And great despondency also seized the emperor, and he sought the one who had done it. And at the same time there also occurred a very great lunar eclipse, on account of which the emperor summoned Pantaleon, the metropolitan of Synada, who happened to have a recollection of astronomical learning, desiring to learn the outcome of the eclipse. As he was entering to the emperor, Samonas took him aside privately and asked to whom the misfortune would happen, and he said, "To you; but if you pass the 13th day of June, you will suffer no evil thereafter." And when asked by the emperor about this, he said that the misfortune would befall the second person. The emperor therefore suspected the second person to be his own brother Alexander. And as for the prediction which he had

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ἀνὴρ τῶν ἐπὶ τοῦ Μιχαὴλ γενομένων ἀνθρώπων ὥστε μόνος μετὰ τῶν οἰκογενῶν συνερρήγνυτο τοῖς ἐκ Τεφρικῆς Μανιχαίοις καὶ τοῖς ἐκ Μελιτηνῆς Ἀγαρηνοῖς, καὶ τούτους ῥᾳδίως ἐτρέπετο. καὶ τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ μόνον φημιζόμενον φόβητρον ἦν πᾶσι τοῖς ἀντιπάλοις. Χάριν δὲ ἀλλαγίου ἐκπεμφθέντες ἀπό τε Ταρσοῦ καὶ Μελι τηνῆς ὅ τε Ἀβελβάκης ἐκεῖνος καὶ ὁ τοῦ Σαμωνᾶ πατὴρ κατέλαβον τὴν βασιλεύουσαν. καὶ τούτους ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐδέξατο μεγάλην δοχὴν ποιήσας καὶ κόσμῳ πολλῷ τὴν Μαγναύραν κατακοσμήσας. ἐκαλλώπισε δὲ καὶ τὴν μεγάλην ἐκκλησίαν πολυτελῶς, καὶ εἰσ ήγαγε τούτους ἐκεῖσε, καὶ τὰ τίμια ὑπέδειξεν ἅπαντα καὶ τὰ τῇ θείᾳ λατρείᾳ λειτουργοῦντα σκεύη. τοῦτο δὲ ἀνάξιον ἦν Χρι στιανικῆς καταστάσεως, ἀλλοφύλοις ἀνθρώποις καὶ ἀλλοπίστοις ἐκθεατὰ ποιεῖν τὰ καὶ τοῖς μὴ καλῶς βιοῦσιν εὐσεβέσιν ἀνθρώποις ἀθέατα. ὁ δὲ τοῦ Σαμωνᾶ πατὴρ τὴν παρρησίαν, ἣν ὁ τούτου υἱὸς ἔσχε πρὸς βασιλέα καὶ τὴν τιμὴν θεασάμενος καὶ τὴν δόξαν, ᾑρετίσατο συνεῖναι τῷ υἱῷ, Μελιτηνὴν τὴν πατρίδα ἀπαρνησά μενος. Σαμωνᾶς δὲ οὐ συνεχώρει, παρῄνει δὲ μᾶλλον εἰς τὰ οἰκεῖα ὑπονοστῆσαι καὶ τῆς ἰδίας ἔχεσθαι πίστεως, προσμένειν δὲ καὶ αὐτόν, εἰ καιροῦ λάβοιτο, ἐκεῖσε γενέσθαι. τῆς δὲ ἑορτῆς ἐπιστάσης ἐν ᾗ τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον ἐν πυρίναις γλώσσαις τοῖς ἀπο 2.271 στόλοις ἐφοίτησεν, ἔστεψε τὸν οἰκεῖον υἱὸν Κωνσταντῖνον ὁ βασι λεὺς διὰ Εὐθυμίου τοῦ πατριάρχου. σπεύδων δὲ ὁ Σαμωνᾶς τὴν τῆς βασιλίδος πρὸς ἑαυτὸν ἐπισπάσασθαι εὔνοιαν, Κωνσταντῖνον τὸν ἑαυτοῦ ὑπηρέτην ἐκτομίαν ὄντα καὶ τῆς τῶν Παφλαγόνων ὁρ μώμενον χώρας τῇ Αὐγούστῃ παρέσχεν ὑπηρετεῖν. τοσοῦτον δὲ οὗτος ἠγαπήθη παρ' αὐτῆς καὶ Λέοντος τοῦ βασιλέως ὡς καὶ αὐ τὸν τὸν Σαμωνᾶν διερεθίσαι πρὸς φθόνον, καὶ διαλοιδορεῖσθαι αὐτῷ πρὸς βασιλέα ὡς τῇ Αὐγούστῃ τάχα πλησιάζοντι· ὅπερ ὡς ἀληθὲς πιστεύσας, ἀποστείλας ἀπέκειρεν αὐτὸν μοναχὸν ἐν τῇ τοῦ ἁγίου Ταρασίου μονῇ δι' αὐτοῦ τοῦ Σαμωνᾶ. μετ' ὀλίγον δὲ πάλιν μεταγνοὺς καὶ προσλαβεῖν τοῦτον ἐθέλων μετήγαγε δι' αὐ τοῦ τοῦ Σαμωνᾶ εἰς τὴν μονὴν τῶν Σπειρῶν. ἐν τῷ ∆αματρύϊ οὖν ἐξελθὼν ὁ βασιλεὺς καὶ ἐν τῇ τοῦ Σαμωνᾶ ἀριστήσας μονῇ, καὶ θεασάμενος Κωνσταντῖνον, εὐθέως διεκελεύσατο, καὶ ἀπέ δυσαν αὐτὸν τὰ τοῦ μονήρους βίου ἄμφια καὶ ἐνέδυσαν στολὴν κοσμικήν. καὶ εὐωχούμενός τε παρ' αὐτῷ δοθῆναί οἱ ἐκέλευσε τὸ ποτήριον ἐν τῷ ἀρίστῳ, καὶ εἰσερχόμενος ἐν τῷ παλατίῳ ἐφείλκετο καὶ αὐτὸν μετ' αὐτοῦ. ὁρῶν δὲ καὶ ὁ Σαμωνᾶς αὐξα νομένην τὴν πρὸς τὸν Κωνσταντῖνον τοῦ βασιλέως ἀγάπην ἐπι βουλὴν κατ' αὐτοῦ ῥάπτει, τόνδε συντεθειμένην τὸν τρόπον. κοινολογησάμενος Μεγίστῳ τῷ κοιτωνίτῃ καὶ Μιχαὴλ τῷ Τζιρίθωνι γραμμάτιον συντίθησι λοιδορίας ἔχον κατὰ τοῦ βασιλέως ἀπείρους, Κωνσταντίνου τοῦ Ῥοδίου, ὃς ὑπεγραμμάτευε τῷ Σα μωνᾷ, τοῦτο συνθέντος· ὅπερ γράψαντες καὶ σφραγίσαντες ἐν 2.272 τῷ μιτατωρίῳ ἔρριψαν. τοῦ δὲ βασιλέως δημοσίαν πρόοδον ἐν τῇ μεγάλῃ ἐκκλησίᾳ ποιησαμένου, κἀν τῷ μιτατωρίῳ εἰσελθόντος, καὶ ἐν ᾧ ηὔχετο τόπῳ τοῦτο ἐρριμμένον ἰδόντος, εἰληφότος τε καὶ ἀναγνόντος, πολλὴ κατέσχεν ἀπορία τοὺς συμπαρόντας, διστά ζοντος ἑκάστου καὶ ἀγνοοῦντος τὸν ῥίψαντα. κατέσχε δὲ καὶ τὸν βασιλέα ἀθυμία πολλή, καὶ τὸν πεποιηκότα ἐζήτει. γέγονε δὲ κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν χρόνον καὶ ἔκλειψις σελήνης μεγίστη, δι' ἣν ὁ βασιλεὺς τὸν μητροπολίτην Συνάδων μετεκαλέσατο Πανταλέοντα, τῆς ἀστρονομικῆς παιδείας ἐν μνήσει τυγχάνοντα, τὸ τῆς ἐκλεί ψεως ἀποτέλεσμα μαθεῖν ὀριγνώμενος. ὃν εἰσερχόμενον πρὸς τὸν βασιλέα ὁ Σαμωνᾶς ἰδίᾳ παραλαβὼν ἠρώτησεν εἰς τίνα τὴν κάκω σιν ἔσεσθαι, καὶ τόνδε φάναι ὅτι εἰς σέ· τὴν ιγʹ δὲ τοῦ Ἰουνίου διερχόμενος ἡμέραν οὐδὲν ἔκτοτε πείσῃ κακόν. ἐρωτηθεὶς δὲ καὶ παρὰ τοῦ βασιλέως περὶ τούτου εἶπεν ὅτι εἰς τὸ δεύτερον πρόσωπον ἡ κάκωσις ἐπισκήψει. ὑπώπτευεν οὖν ὁ βασιλεὺς δεύ τερον πρόσωπον εἶναι τὸν ἑαυτοῦ ἀδελφὸν Ἀλέξανδρον. καὶ τὰ μὲν τῆς προρρήσεως ἣν ἔσχεν