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enfeebled, which also lasted for a considerable time, begging and gathering the means to live. But the emperor Alexander, having long led a luxurious and dissolute life, and being devoted only to hunting and other licentious and effeminate activities, and knowing how to perform no work of an emperor, but having loved to devote himself to luxuries and wantonness, when he became master of the empire and of all things, he neither devised nor accomplished anything worthy of mention; for upon becoming sole ruler, he appointed as rector a certain John, a charlatan and worthy of no account (his surname was Lazares), who also after a short time wretchedly ended his life, the cleric, while playing ball in the Hebdomon. Likewise also Gabrielopoulos and Basilitzes, 2.276 who were his playmates before his reign and partners and ministers in his licentious deeds, he both drenched with very great sums of money and raised to the honor of the patriciate. He wished, as they say, if God had not prevented it, to raise Basilitzes to the imperial throne and to castrate Constantine his own nephew. And this would have happened, if God had not first, as has been said, prevented it, and then those who preserved their goodwill toward Leo, the boy's father, saying at one time that he was an infant, at another that he was weak, and so little by little having beguiled Alexander, they saved the boy, as death overtook the former. During his reign a comet appeared from the west, which those skilled in these things call a xiphias. They said this signified a shedding of blood in the capital. The emperor, having given himself over to impostors and sorcerers, and inquiring about his reign whether it would be long, they promised that he would be long-lived, if the bronze wild boar standing in the Hippodrome, which lacked genitals and tusks, should receive them from him. For this was clearly his own tutelary genius; for it fights against Leo, they say, his brother. Persuaded by them, he who in truth lived like a swine renewed the missing parts on the boar. Therefore, possessed by such folly, having held games in the Hippodrome, he took the sacred vestments of the churches and the divine lamps and chandeliers and decorated the Hippodrome, 2.277 the wretched man dedicating to common use, or rather to idols, the things dedicated to God. And Himerios the Logothete, who had returned from the defeat by the Hagarenes and reached the capital, he sent away and confined in the monastery of Kalypon, threatening to treat him as an enemy because he too had conspired much against him in the days of his brother. This man lived for a short time in exile and died, worn out by affliction. When Symeon, the ruler of the Bulgarians, had sent ambassadors to inquire if he would embrace peace and maintain the same honor toward him as his brother who had reigned before, he sent the ambassadors away dishonorably, uttering bombastic and arrogant and insolent words and using threats against Symeon, thinking to intimidate him by these things. When the ambassadors returned to Symeon, he, not bearing moderately the insults and insolence and threats from Alexander, broke the peace and decided to take up arms against the Romans. Alexander, on the 2nd of the month of June, after bathing and eating lunch and becoming drunk, went down after his sleep to play ball. When a pain arose in his innards from his gluttony for food and from his drunkenness, he went up into the palace, and with much blood flowing from his nostrils and genitals, he died after one day, leaving as regents the patriarch Nicholas, the magistros Stephen, the magistros John Eladas, John the rector, Basilitzes, and Gabrielopoulos, having handed over the 2.278 empire to Constantine his own nephew. And when he died, he was buried with his father Basil. In this manner, which we have described, when Alex

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ἐκλελυμένην, ἥτις καὶ διήρκεσεν ἐπὶ χρόνους ἱκανοὺς μεταιτοῦσα καὶ τὰς πρὸς τὸ ζῆν ἀφορμὰς συλλέγουσα. Ὁ δὲ βασιλεὺς Ἀλέξανδρος καὶ πάλαι βίον ἁβροδίαιτον ἔχων καὶ διακεχυμένον καὶ πρὸς μόνα ἐπτοημένον τὰ κυνηγέσια καὶ τὰς ἄλλας ἀκολάστους καὶ ἐκδεδιῃτημένας τῶν πράξεων, καὶ μηδὲν ἔργον βασιλέως εἰδὼς διαπράττεσθαι, ἀλλὰ τρυφαῖς καὶ ἀσελ γείαις σχολάζειν ἠγαπηκώς, ἐπεὶ τῆς βασιλείας καὶ τῶν ὅλων ἐγέ νετο ἐγκρατής, οὐδὲν ἄξιον λόγου ἢ διενοήσατο ἢ κατεπράξατο· μοναρχήσας γὰρ Ἰωάννην τινὰ ἀγύρτην καὶ μηδενὸς ἄξιον λόγου (Λαζάρης τούτῳ ἐπώνυμον) ῥαίκτωρα πεποίηκεν, ὃς καὶ μετὰ μικρὸν κακῶς ἀπέρρηξε τὴν ζωήν, ἐν τῷ Ἑβδόμῳ σφαιρίζων ὁ κληρικός. ὡσαύτως καὶ Γαβριηλόπουλον καὶ Βασιλίτζην, συμ 2.276 παίστορας αὐτῷ ὄντας πρὸ τῆς βασιλείας καὶ τῶν ἀκολάστων πρά ξεων κοινωνοὺς καὶ θεράποντας, πλείστοις τε χρήμασι περιήντλησε καὶ εἰς πατρικιότητος τιμὴν ἀνεβίβασεν. ἐβούλετο δ', ὥς φασιν, εἰ μὴ θεὸς ἐπέσχε, τὸν Βασιλίτζην εἰς τὸν βασίλειον θρόνον ἀνα γαγεῖν καὶ Κωνσταντῖνον εὐνουχίσαι τὸν οἰκεῖον ἀνεψιόν. ὃ καὶ ἐγένετο ἄν, εἰ μὴ θεὸς μὲν πρότερον, ὡς εἴρηται, διεκώλυσεν, ἔπειθ' οἱ πρὸς Λέοντα τὸν τοῦ παιδὸς πατέρα διαφυλάττοντες εὔνοιαν, ποτὲ μὲν λέγοντες ὡς νήπιός ἐστι ποτὲ δὲ ὡς ἀσθενής, καὶ οὕτω κατὰ μικρὸν ἀποβουκολήσαντες τὸν Ἀλέξανδρον τὸν παῖδα ἐσώσαντο, τοῦ θανάτου καταλαβόντος ἐκεῖνον. ἐπὶ τού του βασιλεύσαντος ἐφάνη κομήτης ἐκ δύσεως, ὃν ξιφίαν καλοῦσιν οἱ περὶ ταῦτα δεινοί. τοῦτον δὲ ἔλεγον αἱμάτων χύσιν προσημαί νειν ἐν τῇ βασιλίδι. Ὁ δὲ βασιλεὺς πλάνοις καὶ γόησιν ἐκδεδωκὼς ἑαυτόν, καὶ πυνθανόμενος περὶ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ βασιλείας εἰ μακροχρόνιος ἔσεται, ὑπέσχοντο μακρόβιον αὐτὸν ἔσεσθαι, εἰ ὁ ἐν τῷ ἱππικῷ ἑστηκὰς σύαγρος ὁ χαλκοῦς, αἰδοῖα καὶ ὀδόντας μὴ ἔχων, προσλάβοι παρ' αὐτοῦ. στοιχεῖον γὰρ αὐτοῦ τοῦτον εἶναι προφανῶς· Λέοντι γὰρ ἀντιμάχεται τῷ αὐτοῦ, φασίν, ἀδελφῷ. οἷς πει σθεὶς ὁ ταῖς ἀληθείαις χοιρόβιος τὰ λείποντα μέρη τῷ χοίρῳ προσανενέωσε. τῇ τοιαύτῃ οὖν ἐχόμενος ἀπονοίᾳ, ἱππικὸν πε ποιηκώς, τοὺς ἱεροὺς τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν πέπλους καὶ τοὺς θείους λύ χνους καὶ τοὺς λαμπτῆρας ἀναλαβὼν τὸ ἱππικὸν κατεκόσμησε, 2.277 τὰ θεῷ ἀνατεθειμένα κοινῶν ἢ μᾶλλον εἰπεῖν τοῖς εἰδώλοις ἀνα τιθεὶς ὁ δείλαιος. Ἱμέριον δὲ τὸν λογοθέτην ἐκ τῆς τῶν Ἀγαρηνῶν ἥττης ὑποστρέψαντα καὶ τὴν βασιλίδα κατειληφότα ἀποστεί λας περιώρισεν ἐν τῇ μονῇ τῶν Καλυπῶν, ἐπαπειλούμενος ὡς ἐχθρῷ τούτῳ χρήσασθαι διὰ τὸ καὶ αὐτὸν πολλὰ κατ' αὐτοῦ συν θέσθαι ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ. οὗτος δὲ μικρὸν ἐν τῇ ἐξορίᾳ βιοὺς ἀπέθανεν ὑπὸ τῆς θλίψεως κατεργασθείς. τοῦ Βουλγάρων δὲ ἄρχοντος Συμεὼν πρέσβεις πεπομφότος τοὺς πευ σομένους εἰ τὴν εἰρήνην ἀσπάζοιτο καὶ τιμὴν φυλάττοι πρὸς αὐτὸν ὁποίαν ὁ προβεβασιλευκὼς ἀδελφὸς αὐτοῦ, τοὺς μὲν πρέσβεις ἀτίμως ἐξέπεμψεν, ὑπερόγκους καὶ ἀλαζόνας λόγους καὶ φρυαγμα τώδεις ἐκπέμψας καὶ ἀπειλαῖς χρησάμενος κατὰ Συμεών, ἐν τούτοις καταπλήττειν τοῦτον οἰόμενος. ὑποστρεψάντων δὲ τῶν πρέσβεων πρὸς τὸν Συμεών, μὴ ἐνεγκὼν οὗτος μετρίως τὰς ἐκ τοῦ Ἀλεξάνδρου ὕβρεις καὶ τὰ φρυάγματα καὶ τὰς ἀπειλάς, ἔλυσε τὴν εἰρήνην καὶ κατὰ Ῥωμαίων ἔκρινεν ὅπλα κινεῖν. Ἀλέξανδρος δὲ τῇ ʹ τοῦ Ἰουνίου μηνὸς λουσάμενος καὶ ἀριστήσας καὶ οἰνωθεὶς μετὰ τοὺς ὕπνους κατῆλθε σφαιρίσων. πόνου δὲ γεννηθέντος ἐν τοῖς ἐγκάτοις αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ τῆς τῶν βρωμάτων ἀπληστίας καὶ τῆς μέθης ἀνελθὼν ἐν τῷ παλατίῳ, αἵματος αὐτῷ πολλοῦ ἐκ τῶν ῥινῶν καὶ τῶν αἰδοίων ῥυέντος, μετὰ μίαν ἡμέραν ἐτελεύτησεν, ἐπιτρόπους καταλιπὼν τὸν πατριάρχην Νικόλαον, τὸν μάγιστρον Στέφανον, τὸν μάγιστρον Ἰωάννην τὸν Ἐλαδᾶν, Ἰωάννην τὸῥαίκτωρα, τὸν Βασιλίτζην καὶ τὸν Γαβριηλόπουλον, τὴν βασι 2.278 λείαν παραδοὺς Κωνσταντίνῳ τῷ οἰκείῳ ἀνεψιῷ. ἀποθανὼν δὲ ἐτέθη μετὰ τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ Βασιλείου. Τοῦτον μὲν τὸν τρόπον, ὃν εἴπομεν, ἀποθανόντος Ἀλε