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with 35 forts having been added, and he was well received. Dragomouzos also came over, having handed over the things in Stroumpitza and been honored as a patrikios, bringing with him also the patrikios John of Chaldia, who was then released from his long confinement; for he had been captured by Samuel and had been in prison for twenty-two years. Now the emperor had just approached Stroumpitza, and David, archbishop of Bulgaria, came with letters from Maria, the wife of John, promising to depart from Bulgaria if she obtained her objectives. Bogdanos, the toparch of the inner forts, also came to meet him, and he too was honored as a patrikios as he had long favored the emperor's cause and had killed his own father-in-law. From there he departed to Skopje, and leaving the 2.468 patrikios David Arianites as strategos autokrator in the city, he returned via the fortresses of Stypeion and Prosakos, being acclaimed and honored with litanies and hymns. Then again, having turned to the right, he went to Achrida, and there he pitched camp, as all the people came to meet him with paeans and applause and acclamations; The city of Achris is situated on a high hill, very near a great lake, from which the Drin river makes its outflow, going towards the north, then turning to the west and emptying into the Ionian sea around the fortress of Elisson, being the metropolis of all Bulgaria, in which also the palaces of the kings of Bulgaria were established and their treasures were stored up; which the emperor opened and found much money and diadems of pearls and gold-woven garments and one hundred centenaria of coined gold, all of which he distributed as salaries to the army around him. Having therefore appointed the patrikios Eustathios Daphnomeles as governor of the city, and having given him a worthy garrison, he went out to the camp and received the wife of John, also called Vladislav, who was brought to him, bringing with her three sons and six daughters and a bastard son of Samuel and two daughters of Radomir, the son of Samuel, 2.469 and five sons, one of whom had been maimed in his eyes by John, when he killed Radomir, the son of Samuel, together with his wife, and Vladimir, his son-in-law. Maria also had three other sons born from John, but they had managed to flee to Mount Tmoros, which is a peak of the Ceraunian mountains. Having received her gently, he ordered that she be guarded kindly along with the others. Other magnates of the Bulgarians also came to the emperor, Nestoritzes, Zaritzes and the younger Dobromeros, each with his own contingents; and they were received favorably and royally honored. Then also Prousianos and his two brothers, the sons of Vladislav who had fled to Tmoros, as was said before, and who were worn down by a long siege (for soldiers, having been ordered by the emperor, were blockading and guarding the passes of the mountain), sent envoys to the emperor asking for pledges and promising to surrender themselves. And to these the emperor gave humane replies, and departing from Achrida he came to the lake called Prespa, having built a fortress on the mountain between, above it, and named it Vasilis, and another in the said lake. From Prespa he went to the so-called Diabolis, where, a high dais having been erected, he received Prousianos and his brothers as they entered, and having encouraged them with gentle and humane words, he honored him as magistros and the rest as patrikioi. And 2.470 Ivatzes was also brought, with his eyes put out. But it is worthwhile to relate also the manner of his blinding; for the story has something pleasant and wonderful about it. For after the death of Vladislav, also called John, and the surrender of his wife Maria and her children and the submission of the other dynasts of all Bulgaria, this Ivatzes, having fled and in some

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προσρυέντων λεʹ κάστρων, καὶ καλῶς ὑπεδέχθη. προσερρύη δὲ καὶ ∆ραγομοῦζος, τὰ ἐν τῇ Στρουμπίτζῃ παρεσχηκὼς καὶ πατρίκιος τιμηθείς, ἄγων μεθ' ἑαυτοῦ καὶ τὸν πατρίκιον Ἰωάννην τὸν Χαλδίας, τότε τῆς χρονίας ἀπολυθέντα καθείρξεως· ἔτυχε γὰρ ἁλοὺς παρὰ τοῦ Σα μουὴλ καὶ ἐπὶ εἴκοσι καὶ δύο χρόνους ὢν ἐν τῇ φυλακῇ. ἄρτι δὲ τῇ Στρουμπίτζῃ προσήγγισεν ὁ βασιλεύς, καὶ ἧκεν ὁ ἀρχιεπίσκο πος Βουλγαρίας ∆αβὶδ μετὰ γραμμάτων Μαρίας τῆς Ἰωάννου γυναικός, ὑπισχνουμένης ἐκστῆναι Βουλγαρίας, εἰ τεύξεται τῶν κατὰ σκοπόν. ὑπήντησε δὲ καὶ Βογδάνος ὁ τῶν ἐνδοτέρω κάστρων τοπάρχης, καὶ τιμᾶται καὶ οὗτος πατρίκιος ὡς καὶ πάλαι τὰ βα σιλέως φρονῶν καὶ τὸν ἑαυτοῦ πενθερὸν ἀνελών. ἐκεῖθεν ἄπεισιν εἰς τὰ Σκόπια, καὶ στρατηγὸν αὐτοκράτορα λιπὼν ἐν τῇ πόλει 2.468 ∆αβὶδ πατρίκιον τὸν Ἀρειανίτην ὑπέστρεψε διὰ τῶν φρουρίων Στυπείου τε καὶ Προσάκου, μετὰ λιτῶν καὶ ὕμνων εὐφημούμενος καὶ τιμώμενος. αὖθις δὲ πάλιν πρὸς τὰ δεξιὰ νενευκὼς ἄπεισιν εἰς Ἀχρίδας, κἀκεῖσε στρατοπεδείαν ἐπήξατο, τοῦ λαοῦ παντὸς μετὰ παιάνων καὶ κρότων καὶ εὐφημιῶν προσυπαντῶντος αὐτῷ· πόλις δὲ ἡ Ἀχρὶς ἐπὶ λόφου κειμένη ὑψηλοῦ, ἔγγιστα λίμνης μεγί στης, ἐξ ἧς ποιεῖται τὰς ἐκβολὰς ὁ ∆ρῖνος ποταμὸς πρὸς ἄρκτον ἰών, εἶτα νεύων πρὸς δύσιν καὶ εἰσβάλλων εἰς τὸ Ἰόνιον περὶ τὸν Εἰλισσὸν τὸ φρούριον, μητρόπολις οὖσα τῆς πάσης Βουλγαρίας, ἐν ᾗ καὶ τὰ βασίλεια τῶν βασιλέων ἵδρυντο Βουλγαρίας καὶ τὰ χρήματα ἀποτεθησαύριστο· ἅπερ ἀνοίξας ὁ βασιλεὺς εὗρε χρή ματα πολλὰ καὶ στέμματα ἐκ μαργάρων καὶ χρυσοϋφεῖς ἐσθῆτας καὶ χρυσοῦ ἐπισήμου κεντηνάρια ἑκατόν, ἅτινα πάντα εἰς ῥόγας ἐκένωσε τῆς περὶ αὐτὸν στρατιᾶς. ἐπιστήσας οὖν ἄρχοντα τῆς πόλεως Εὐστάθιον πατρίκιον τὸν ∆αφνομήλην, καὶ φρουρὰν ἀξιό λογον αὐτῷ δούς, ἐξῆλθεν εἰς τὴν παρεμβολὴν καὶ ἀχθεῖσαν ὡς αὐτὸν ἐδέξατο τὴν γυναῖκα Ἰωάννου τοῦ καὶ Βλαδισθλάβου, σὺν τρισὶν υἱοῖς καὶ θυγατράσιν ἓξ ἐπαγομένην καὶ νοθογενῆ υἱὸν τοῦ Σαμουὴλ καὶ δύο θυγατέρας Ῥαδομηροῦ τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ Σαμουὴλ 2.469 καὶ πέντε υἱούς, ὧν ὁ εἷς πεπήρωτο τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς παρὰ τοῦ Ἰωάννου λωβηθείς, ὅτε τὸν Ῥαδομηρὸν τὸν υἱὸν Σαμουὴλ σὺν τῇ αὐτοῦ γυναικὶ καὶ Βλαδιμηρὸν τὸν τούτου γαμβρὸν ἀνεῖλεν. ἦσαν δὲ καὶ ἕτεροι τρεῖς υἱοὶ τῇ Μαρίᾳ ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἰωάννου τεχθέν τες, ἀλλ' ἔφθασαν ἀποδρᾶσαι εἰς τὸ ὄρος τὸν Τμῶρον, κορυφὴν ὑπάρχοντα τῶν Κεραυνίων ὀρῶν. ἣν ἡπίως δεξάμενος καὶ φιλο φρόνως φυλάττεσθαι προσέταξε μετὰ τῶν ἄλλων. προσῆλθον δὲ τῷ βασιλεῖ καὶ ἕτεροι μεγιστᾶνες τῶν Βουλγάρων, ὁ Νεστορίτζης, ὁ Ζαρίτζης καὶ ὁ νέος ∆οβρομηρός, μετὰ τῶν οἰκείων ἕκαστος ταγμάτων· καὶ ἐδέχθησαν εὐμενῶς καὶ βασιλικῶς ἐτιμήθησαν. τότε καὶ Προυσιανὸς καὶ οἱ τούτου δύο ἀδελφοί, οἱ τοῦ Βλαδι σθλάβου παῖδες οἱ εἰς τὸν Τμῶρον φυγόντες, ὡς ἔμπροσθεν εἴρη ται, καὶ χρονίᾳ κακωθέντες πολιορκίᾳ (στρατιῶται γὰρ προστα χθὲν ἐκ βασιλέως προσεδρεύοντες ἐτήρουν τὰς καθόδους τοῦ ὄρους), διακηρυκεύονται πρὸς τὸν βασιλέα πίστεις αἰτοῦντες καὶ ἑαυτοὺς ἐγχειρίσαι ἐπαγγελλόμενοι. καὶ πρὸς μὲν τούτους ὁ βα σιλεὺς φιλανθρώπους ἔδωκεν ἀποκρίσεις, ἄρας δ' ἐξ Ἀχρίδος ἔρχεται εἰς τὴν λίμνην τὴν λεγομένην Πρέσπαν, ἐν τῷ διιέναι τὸ μεταξὺ ὄρος φρούριον οἰκοδομήσας ἄνωθεν τούτου καὶ Βασιλίδα ἐπονομάσας, καὶ ἕτερον ἐν τῇ λεχθείσῃ λίμνῃ. ἐκ δὲ Πρέσπης ἄπεισιν εἰς τὴν λεγομένην ∆ιάβολιν, ἐν ᾗ βήματος ἀρθέντος ὑψη λοῦ εἰσιόντας ἐδέξατο τοὺς περὶ τὸν Προυσιανὸν ἀδελφούς, καὶ λόγοις ἐπιεικέσι καὶ φιλανθρώποις παραμυθησάμενος τοῦτον μὲν μάγιστρον τοὺς δὲ λοιποὺς πατρικίους ἐτίμησεν. ἤχθη δὲ καὶ ὁ 2.470 Ἰβάτζης πεπηρωμένας ἔχων τὰς ὄψεις. ἀλλ' ἄξιον εἰπεῖν καὶ τὸν τρόπον τῆς ἐκτυφλώσεως· ἔχει γὰρ ἡδύ τι καὶ θαυμαστὸν ἡ διήγησις. Μετὰ γὰρ τὸν τοῦ Βλαδισθλάβου τοῦ καὶ Ἰωάννου θάνατον καὶ τῆς γυναικὸς αὐτοῦ Μαρίας καὶ τῶν ταύτης παίδων προσχώ ρησιν καὶ τὴν τῶν ἄλλων δυναστῶν ἁπάσης Βουλγαρίας ὑπακοὴν ὁ Ἰβάτζης οὗτος φυγὼν καὶ ἔν τινι