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When Samuel campaigned against Thessalonica, dividing most of his force into companies and ambushes, but sending a few on a raid as far as Thessalonica itself, the doux Gregorios, perceiving the attack, sent his own son Asotes to see and reconnoiter the force and give him knowledge, while he himself followed behind. But he, having gone out and clashed with the scouts and put them to flight, was unwittingly surrounded in the midst of the companies. When Gregorios learned this, he quickly went to help, eager to rescue his son from captivity; but he too, being surrounded by the Bulgarians and fighting bravely and heroically, fell. When the killing of the doux was announced to the emperor, the magistros Nikephoros Ouranos was sent as commander of the entire West; for he had managed to purchase his escape from Babylon and had reached the capital. He, having arrived in Thessalonica, when he learned that Samuel was puffed up by the slaughter of the doux Gregorios Taronites and the capture of his son, and that for this reason he had crossed the Thessalian Tempe and forded the Peneios river, and had invaded Thessaly and Boeotia and Attica 2.450 and the Peloponnese by way of the Isthmus at Corinth, and was ravaging and plundering all these places, he too set out with the armies under his command, and having passed through the foothills of Olympus and arrived at Larissa, and having left his baggage there and taken his lightly-armed army, he crossed Thessaly by a forced march and passed the plain of Pharsalia and the Apidanos river, and pitched his camp on the bank of the Spercheios river, with Samuel himself also encamped on the opposite side; for since immense rains had fallen from the sky, and the river was flooding and spreading like a sea, an engagement for the present was despaired of. But the magistros, having scouted the river up and down, and having found a certain place by which he thought it would be possible for him to cross, gathered the army by night, forded the river and attacked Samuel’s men, who were sleeping without a care; and a number beyond counting were slaughtered, with no one daring to look to their own defense, and Samuel himself and his son Romanos were struck with deep wounds. And they would have been captured, if they had not mingled themselves with the dead and lain as if they were dead, and when night came on they secretly escaped to the mountains of the Aetolians, and from there, passing over the peaks of these mountains and through the Pindus, they were saved in Bulgaria. The magistros, having freed the Roman captives, and despoiled the fallen Bulgarians, and plundered the enemy camp and seized the greatest possible amount of booty, returned with his army to Thessalonica. 2.451 Samuel, having been saved and returned to his own lands, took Asotes, the son of Taronites, as a son-in-law for his daughter, having freed him from his bonds; for the girl, being passionately in love with him, threatened to do away with herself if she were not lawfully joined to him. Having concluded the marriage, he sent him with her to Dyrrachion, supposedly for the defense of the region; but having arrived there and conferred with his wife and persuaded her, he fled with her to the Roman triremes that were sailing past the place for the sake of guarding it, and through them he was brought safely to the emperor, being honored as magistros and his wife as a zoste. He also brought a letter from a certain magnate, one of those in Dyrrachion, Chryselios by name, promising to hand over the city of Dyrrachion to the emperor, if he himself and his two sons were honored as patricians. And when the emperor by letter confirmed that he would fulfill the promises, Dyrrachion was betrayed to Eustathios Daphnomeles the patrician, and the sons of Chryselios were honored as patricians, he himself having already ended his life. At this time Paulos Bobos the magistros, a man of the first rank in Thessalonica, and Malakenos the protospatharios over

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Τοῦ δὲ Σαμουὴλ ἐκστρατεύσαντος κατὰ Θεσσαλονίκης, καὶ τὸ μὲν ἄλλο πλῆθος εἰς λόχους καὶ ἐνέδρας διαμερίσαντος, ὀλίγους δέ τινας εἰς ἐκδρομὴν ἄχρι Θεσσαλονίκης αὐτῆς πεπομφότος, ἐπι γνοὺς τὴν ἔφοδον ὁ δοὺξ Γρηγόριος τὸν μὲν οἰκεῖον υἱὸν Ἀσώτην ἔπεμψεν ἰδεῖν καὶ κατασκοπῆσαι τὸ πλῆθος καὶ αὐτῷ γνῶσιν δοῦ ναι, αὐτὸς δὲ ὄπισθεν εἵπετο. ὁ δὲ ἐξελθὼν καὶ τοῖς προδρόμοις συμπλακεὶς καὶ τρεψάμενος ἔλαθεν εἰς μέσους τοὺς λόχους περι ληφθείς. τοῦτο ὡς ὁ Γρηγόριος ἔμαθεν, ἐβοήθει διὰ ταχέων τὸν παῖδα τῆς αἰχμαλωσίας γλιχόμενος ἐκλυτρώσασθαι· ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐ τὸς κυκλωθεὶς ὑπὸ τῶν Βουλγάρων καὶ γενναίως καὶ ἡρωϊκῶς ἀγωνισάμενος ἔπεσεν. ἀγγελθείσης δὲ τῷ βασιλεῖ τῆς τοῦ δουκὸς ἀναιρέσεως πέμπεται πάσης δύσεως ἄρχων ὁ μάγιστρος Νικηφόρος ὁ Οὐρανός· ἔφθασε γὰρ καὶ οὗτος τὴν ἐκ Βαβυλῶνος φυγὴν ὠνησάμενος καὶ τὴν βασιλίδα καταλαβών. ὅστις ἐν Θεσσαλονίκῃ γενόμενος, ἐπεὶ ἔγνω τὸν Σαμουὴλ τῇ τοῦ δουκὸς Γρηγορίου τοῦ Ταρωνίτου σφαγῇ καὶ τῇ ἁλώσει τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐπαιρόμενον, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τά τε Θετταλικὰ διαβάντα τέμπη καὶ τὸν Πηνειὸν πε ραιωσάμενον ποταμόν, Θετταλίαν τε καὶ Βοιωτίαν καὶ Ἀττικὴν 2.450 εἰσβαλόντα τε καὶ ἐν Πελοποννήσῳ διὰ τοῦ ἐν Κορίνθῳ ἰσθμοῦ, καὶ πάντα ταῦτα δῃοῦντα καὶ ληϊζόμενον, ἄρας καὶ αὐτὸς μετὰ τῶν περὶ αὐτὸν στρατευμάτων καὶ τὰς ὑπωρείας διελθὼν τοῦ Ὀλύμπου καὶ ἐν Λαρίσσῃ γενόμενος, κἀκεῖσε λιπὼν τὴν ἀποσκευὴν καὶ εὔζωνον λαβὼν τὸν στρατόν, τὴν Θετταλίαν ὁδοιπορίᾳ συν τόνῳ διελθὼν καὶ τὸ τῆς Φαρσαλίας πεδίον καὶ τὸν Ἀπιδανὸν διαβὰς ποταμόν, κατὰ τὸ χεῖλος τοῦ Σπερχειοῦ ποταμοῦ πήγνυσι τὴν στρατοπεδείαν, εἰς τὴν περαίαν καὶ αὐτοῦ τοῦ Σαμουὴλ αὐλι ζομένου· ὄμβρων γὰρ ἀπλέτων ὑσθέντων ἐξ οὐρανοῦ, καὶ τοῦ ποτα μοῦ πλημμυροῦντος καὶ πελαγίζοντος, ἀπέγνωστο τὸ νῦν ἔχον ἡ συμ πλοκή. ἀλλ' ὁ μάγιστρος ἄνω καὶ κάτω τὸν ποταμὸν περισκοπήσας, καί τινα τόπον εὑρὼν δι' οὗ ᾠήθη δυνατὸν ἔσεσθαι τούτῳ περαιω θῆναι, ἀγείρας νυκτὸς τὸν στρατὸν περαιοῦται τὸν ποταμὸν καὶ τοῖς περὶ τὸν Σαμουὴλ ἀμερίμνως καθεύδουσιν ἐπιτίθεται· καὶ σφάζονται μὲν ἀριθμοῦ κρείττους, μηδενὸς πρὸς ἀλκὴν ἀπιδεῖν τολμήσαντος, ἐπλήγη δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ Σαμουὴλ καὶ ὁ τούτου υἱὸς ὁ Ῥωμανὸς βαθείαις πληγαῖς. καὶ ἑάλωσαν ἄν, εἰ μὴ τοῖς νεκροῖς συμμίξαντες ἑαυτοὺς ἔκειντο ὡς τεθνεῶτες, καὶ νυκτὸς ἐπιγενο μένης ἔλαθον διαδράντες εἰς τὰ ὄρη τῶν Αἰτωλῶν, κἀκεῖθεν διὰ τῶν κορυφῶν τῶν τοιούτων ὀρέων διελθόντες τὸν Πίνδον διεσώ θησαν ἐν Βουλγαρίᾳ. ὁ δὲ μάγιστρος τοὺς αἰχμαλώτους Ῥω μαίους ἐλευθερώσας, σκυλεύσας δὲ καὶ τοὺς πεσόντας Βουλγά ρους, διαρπάσας δὲ καὶ τὸ τῶν πολεμίων στρατόπεδον καὶ πλοῦ τον ὅτι πλεῖστον περιβαλόμενος, σὺν τῇ στρατιᾷ ἐπανέζευξεν εἰς Θεσσαλονίκην. 2.451 Ὁ Σαμουὴλ δὲ πρὸς τὰ οἰκεῖα ἀνασωθεὶς γαμβρὸν ἄγεται ἐπὶ τῇ αὐτοῦ θυγατρὶ Ἀσώτην τὸν τοῦ Ταρωνίτου υἱόν, τῶν δεσμῶν ἐλευθερώσας· πρὸς τοῦτον γὰρ ἡ παῖς ἐρωτικῶς διατε θεῖσα ἐξάξειν ἑαυτὴν ἠπείλει, εἰ μὴ νομίμως αὐτῷ συναφθείη. ἐκτελέσας δὲ τοὺς γάμους ἐκπέμπει μετ' αὐτῆς τοῦτον εἰς τὸ ∆υρ ράχιον, ἐπὶ φυλακῇ τάχα τῆς χώρας· ὁ δὲ ἐκεῖσε γενόμενος καὶ τῇ συζύγῳ κοινολογησάμενος καὶ πείσας φεύγει μετ' αὐτῆς εἰς τὰς ἐν τῷ τόπῳ φυλακῆς χάριν παραπλεούσας Ῥωμαϊκὰς τριήρεις, καὶ δι' αὐτῶν εἰς τὸν βασιλέα ἀνασώζεται, τιμηθεὶς μάγιστρος καὶ ἡ τούτου σύζυγος ζωστή. διεκόμισε δὲ οὗτος καὶ γράμματα δυνάστου τινός, ἑνὸς τῶν ἐν τῷ ∆υρραχίῳ, Χρυσηλίου τοὔνομα, ὑπισχνουμένου παραδοῦναι τὴν τοῦ ∆υρραχίου πόλιν τῷ βασιλεῖ, εἰ τιμηθείη αὐτός τε καὶ οἱ δύο υἱοὶ αὐτοῦ πατρίκιοι. γράμμασι δὲ τοῦ βασιλέως ἐπιτελεῖς τὰς ὑποσχέσεις ποιῆσαι βεβαιώσαντος, προεδόθη τὸ ∆υρράχιον Εὐσταθίῳ πατρικίῳ τῷ ∆αφνομήλῃ, καὶ οἱ τοῦ Χρυσηλίου υἱοὶ τετίμηντο πατρίκιοι, ἐκείνου φθάσαντος καταστρέψαι τὴν ζωήν. Τούτῳ τῷ χρόνῳ Παῦλος μάγιστρος ὁ Βωβός, ἀνὴρ τῶν ἐν Θεσσαλονίκῃ τὰ πρῶτα, καὶ Μαλακηνὸς πρωτοσπαθάριος ἐπὶ