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Theophylaktos, the son of Damianos Dalassenos, is sent, and after arresting Xiphias sends him 2.478 as a prisoner to the empress, to John the protonotarios, who tonsures him as a monk on the island of Antigonos. But the emperor, freed from the fear of the rebels, engages with the Abasgians, and many of the Romans fall. However, both armies were dispersed, and the victory was doubtful. But after this, a second engagement having occurred, on the 11th of the month of September, in the 2nd indiction, in the year 6531, Liparites falls (for he was commander-in-chief for George) and with him all the best among the Abasgians, while George flees to the inner mountains of Iberia. A little later, having sent an embassy, and having ceded to the emperor as much territory as he wished, he makes a treaty, giving his son Pankratios as a hostage; whom the emperor made a *magistros* and returned. Therefore, he stripped the others who had joined with Xiphias and Phokas of their property and imprisoned them, but he killed only the patrician Pherses, who before all others had joined the rebels, and had killed four *curatores* of the neighboring archons, and had with his own hand beheaded a certain imperial eunuch. And a certain chamberlain was also given as food to the imperial lions, having been convicted of plotting against the emperor with poisons on account of Xiphias. And when Anna, the emperor's sister, died in Rus', and before her her husband Vladimir, a certain kinsman of the deceased, Chrysocheir, having recruited eight hundred men and embarked them on ships, came to Constantinople 2.479 supposedly to serve as a mercenary. But when the emperor ordered him to lay down his arms and thus to have his audience, he refused and sailed through the Propontis. And having come to Abydos and clashed with its *strategos* who was defending the coasts, and having easily overcome him, he went down to Lemnos. But there, having been betrayed by the fleet of the Cibyrrhaeots, and David from Achrida, *strategos* of Samos, and Nikephoros Kabasilas, who was *doux* of Thessaloniki, they were all slaughtered. But the emperor, wishing to campaign against Sicily, sent ahead Orestes with a strong force, one of his most faithful eunuchs, but he himself was prevented by the arrival of his fated end. For on the 15th of the month of December, in the 9th indiction, in the year 6534, he was seized by a sudden illness and died, a few days before his death Eustathios the patriarch also having died, whose successor the emperor had made Alexios, a monk and abbot of the monastery of 2.480 Stoudios, who had come to visit him with the precious head of the Forerunner. whom he also sent and had enthroned by John the protonotarios, whom he used as a collaborator in the administration of public affairs. And in the evening he died, having lived 70 years, and having reigned for all of them, but having directed the autocratic rule for 50 years. He asked his brother, whom he also left as successor to the rule, to bury him in the church of the Evangelist and Theologian at the Hebdomon; which indeed was done. But Constantine, having girded himself with all power, and having taken the authority to do whatever he wished, and delighting in dissolute activities, became the cause of many evils for the state, himself doing nothing or planning what was necessary, but delighting in horse races and mimes and jesters, and spending his nights with dice and kottabos, appointing as rulers in both civil and military offices not those who showed their worth by deed and word but drunken, castrated slaves filled with every pollution and loathsomeness, raising them to the highest pinnacles of dignities, while passing over those who excelled in birth and virtue and experience. For he appointed Nikolaos, the first of his chamberlains, as Domestic of the Schools and *parakoimomenos*, and Nikephoros, who held the second rank after him, as *protovestiarios*, and Symeon, who in rank

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πέμπεται Θεοφύλακτος ὁ ∆α μιανοῦ τοῦ ∆αλασσηνοῦ υἱός, καὶ τὸν Ξιφίαν συλλαβὼν ἐκπέμπει 2.478 δέσμιον πρὸς τὴν βασιλίδα πρὸς Ἰωάννην τὸν πρωτονοτάριον, ὃς ἐν τῇ νήσῳ τοῦ Ἀντιγόνου μοναχὸν αὐτὸν ἀποκείρει. ὁ δὲ βασι λεὺς τοῦ τῶν ἀποστατῶν ἀπολυθεὶς δέους συμβάλλει τοῖς Ἀβασ γοῖς, καὶ πολλοὶ πίπτουσι τῶν Ῥωμαίων. ὅμως διελύθησαν ἄμφω τὰ στρατεύματα, καὶ ἡ νίκη ἀμφίβολος ἦν. μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα δευτέρας συμπλοκῆς γενομένης, τῇ ιαʹ τοῦ Σεπτεμβρίου μηνός, ἰνδικτιῶνος ʹ, κατὰ τὸ #22φλαʹ ἔτος, πίπτει μὲν ὁ Λιπαρίτης (οὗτος γὰρ ἦν ἀρχιστράτηγος τῷ Γεωργίῳ) καὶ σὺν αὐτῷ πᾶν τὸ κρατιστεῦον ἐν Ἀβασγοῖς, φεύγει δὲ καὶ ὁ Γεώργιος εἰς τὰ ἐνδό τερα ὄρη τῆς Ἰβηρίας. μετ' ὀλίγον δὲ διαπρεσβευσάμενος, καὶ τῷ βασιλεῖ ἐκστὰς χώρας ὁπόσης ἐβούλετο, σπένδεται, ὅμηρον δοὺς τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ Παγκράτιον· ὃν μάγιστρον ποιήσας ὁ βασι λεὺς ὑπέστρεψε. τοὺς μὲν οὖν ἄλλους τῶν τῷ Ξιφίᾳ συναραμέ νων καὶ τῷ Φωκᾷ τῶν ὑπαρχόντων γυμνώσας καθεῖρξε, μόνον δὲ τὸν πατρίκιον Φέρσην ἀπέκτεινε, πρὸ πάντων τε προσρυέντα τοῖς ἀποστάταις, καὶ τέσσαρας ἀρχόντων γειτόνων κουράτωρας ἀπο κτείναντα, καὶ ἐκτομίαν τινὰ βασιλικὸν αὐτοχείρως καρατομή σαντα. ἐδόθη δὲ καὶ λέουσι βασιλικοῖς τις θαλαμηπόλος βρῶμα, ἐλεγχθεὶς φαρμάκοις ἐπιβουλεύων τῷ βασιλεῖ διὰ τὸν Ξιφίαν. Καὶ Ἄννης δὲ τῆς τοῦ βασιλέως ἀδελφῆς ἐν Ῥωσίᾳ ἀποθανούσης, καὶ πρὸ αὐτῆς τοῦ ἀνδρὸς αὐτῆς Βλαδιμηροῦ, Χρυσόχειρ συγγενής τις ὢν τοῦ τελευτήσαντος, ἄνδρας ὀκτακοσίους προσε ταιρισάμενος καὶ πλοίοις ἐμβιβάσας, ἦλθεν εἰς Κωνσταντινούπολιν 2.479 ὡς τάχα μισθοφορήσων. τοῦ δὲ βασιλέως καταθεῖναι τὰ ὅπλα κελεύοντος καὶ οὕτω ποιήσασθαι τὴν ἐντυχίαν, μὴ θελήσας διῆλθε τὴν Προποντίδα. ἐν Ἀβύδῳ δὲ γενόμενος καὶ τῷ στρατηγοῦντι ταύτης συρράξας ὑπερμαχοῦντι τῶν παραλίων, καὶ τοῦτον ῥᾳδίως καταστρεψάμενος, κατῆλθεν εἰς Λῆμνον. ἐκεῖσε δὲ παρὰ τοῦ στόλου τοῦ Κιβυρραιωτῶν, καὶ ∆αβὶδ τοῦ ἀπὸ Ἀχριδῶν στρατη γοῦντος Σάμου, καὶ Νικηφόρου τοῦ Καβάσιλα δουκὸς ὄντος Θεσ σαλονίκης παρασπονδηθέντες ἅπαντες κατεσφάγησαν. Βουλόμενος δὲ ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐκστρατεῦσαι κατὰ τῆς Σικελίας Ὀρέστην προέπεμψε μετὰ δυνάμεως ἁδρᾶς, ἕνα ὄντα τῶν πιστο τάτων εὐνούχων, αὐτὸς δὲ ἐκωλύθη φθάσαντος τοῦ χρεών. ∆ε κεμβρίῳ γὰρ μηνὶ ιεʹ, ἰνδικτιῶνος θʹ, ἔτους #22φλδʹ, αἰφνιδίῳ νόσῳ ληφθεὶς ἀπεβίω, πρό τινων ἡμερῶν τῆς αὐτοῦ τελευτῆς καὶ Εὐσταθίου τοῦ πατριάρχου ἀποθανόντος, οὗ διάδοχον ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐποιήσατο Ἀλέξιον μοναχὸν καὶ καθηγούμενον τῆς μονῆς τοῦ 2.480 Στουδίου, εἰς ἐπίσκεψιν αὐτοῦ πεφοιτηκότα μετὰ τῆς τιμίας κεφα λῆς τοῦ προδρόμου. ὃν καὶ πέμψας ἐνθρονίζει διὰ τοῦ πρωτο νοταρίου Ἰωάννου, ᾧ συνεργῷ ἐχρῆτο πρὸς τὴν τῶν κοινῶν διοί κησιν. καὶ τῇ ἑσπέρᾳ ἐτελεύτησε, ζήσας μὲν ἔτη οʹ, καὶ τὰ πάντα βασιλεύσας, ἐπὶ χρόνους δὲ νʹ τὴν αὐτοκράτορα διιθύνας ἀρχήν. ταφῆναι δὲ παρεκάλεσε τὸν ἑαυτοῦ ἀδελφόν, ὃν καὶ διάδοχον κατέλιπε τῆς ἀρχῆς, ἐν τῷ κατὰ τὸ Ἕβδομον ναῷ τοῦ εὐαγγελι στοῦ καὶ θεολόγου· ὃ δὴ καὶ γέγονεν. Ἀναζωσάμενος δὲ τὴν ἅπασαν δυναστείαν ὁ Κωνσταντῖνος, καὶ πράττειν ὅ τι καὶ βούληται ἐξουσίαν λαβών, καὶ ταῖς ἐκδεδιῃ τημέναις χαίρων τῶν πράξεων, πολλῶν κακῶν αἴτιος ὑπῆρξε τῷ πολιτεύματι, αὐτὸς μὲν πράττων οὐδὲν ἢ βουλευόμενος τῶν δεόν των, ἱπποδρομίαις δὲ χαίρων καὶ μίμοις καὶ γελωτοποιοῖς, καὶ κύβοις καὶ κοττάβοις ἐννυκτερεύων, ἄρχοντας καθιστὰς ἔν τε πολιταρχίαις καὶ στρατηγίαις οὐ τοὺς ἔργῳ καὶ λόγῳ τὸ δόκιμον ἑαυτῶν παρεχομένους ἀλλ' οἰνόληπτα ἐκτετμημένα ἀνδράποδα καὶ πάσης μιαρίας καὶ βδελυρίας ἐμπεπλησμένα, ἀνάγων αὐτοὺς εἰς τὰς τῶν ἀξιωμάτων ὑψηλοτάτας περιωπάς, τοὺς δὲ γένει καὶ ἀρετῇ καὶ πείρᾳ προέχοντας παρατρέχων. Νικόλαον γὰρ τὸν πρῶ τον τῶν αὐτοῦ θαλαμηπόλων δομέστικον προεβάλετο τῶν σχολῶν καὶ παρακοιμώμενον, Νικηφόρον δὲ τὸν μετ' ἐκεῖνον τὰ δευτε ρεῖα φέροντα πρωτοβεστιάριον, Συμεὼν δὲ τὸν κατὰ τὴν τάξιν