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of James. And it was, so to speak, a ravine of all evils; and while their doctrines disagreed, the others agreed with the Manichaeans in their apostasies. 14.8.8 But my father and emperor, setting his great military experience against these men, arrested some without a fight, and enslaved others after a battle. What a thing this steadfast man again did and endured, a deed truly most apostolic. For who would not praise him? Was it because he was negligent in matters of strategy? And yet he filled the east and west with his stratagems. But was it because he held reasoning of little account? And yet, like no one else, he had devoted himself to the divine scripture, so as to sharpen his tongue for the entanglements of the heretics. And he alone mixed arms and words, and with arms he conquered the barbarians, and with words he subdued the godless, just as then he was armed against the Manichaeans, having undertaken an apostolic struggle instead of a strategic one. And I for my part would name him the thirteenth apostle. And yet some attach this glory to Constantine the Great, but it seems to me that either he is to be ranked with the emperor Constantine, or if anyone should be contentious, let Alexios be an apostle and emperor after Constantine. 14.8.9 For as we have already said above, being in Philippopolis for the reasons mentioned, before the Cumans had arrived, he made a sideline of the journey greater than the main business, converting the Manichaeans from their salty religion and filling them with the sweet doctrine. From morning, therefore, until late afternoon [or dawn] or even evening, and sometimes until the second or even the third watch of the night, he would summon them and teach the orthodox faith, refuting the perversity of their heresy. With him were Eustratius, the prelate of Nicaea, a man wise in things divine and things secular, priding himself on his dialectics more than those who spend their time in the Stoa and Academy, and also the one established on the archiepiscopal throne of Philippopolis. And in all things and before all, the emperor had my Caesar Nicephorus assisting him, having sharpened him with the study of the divine books. Many of the Manichaeans, then, at that time, not hesitating at all, went to the priests, confessing their sins and receiving the divine illumination; but many could be seen then, more than those Maccabees, clinging to their own religion, bringing forward uses and testimonies of the divine scriptures, thinking thereby to strengthen their own detestable dogma. But by the continuous discourse of the emperor and his frequent exhortations, the majority of these too were persuaded and partook of the divine baptism. For from the rising rays of the sun often to the deepest night the dialectic was extended, and not desisting from such discourse he remained fasting for the most part, and this while enduring in a tent in the open air in the summertime.

14.9.1 While these things were being accomplished and that rational contest with the Manichaeans was being waged, someone arrived from the Ister and announced the crossing of the Cumans. And the emperor, not delaying at all, marched toward the Danube, using the soldiers he happened to have with him. And having occupied Vidin and not found the barbarians (for having learned of the emperor's arrival they had already crossed back), he immediately selected brave soldiers and ordered them to pursue the barbarians. And they immediately marched after them, having crossed the Ister. And after pursuing them for three days and nights, when they saw the Cumans had crossed the river that flows there, the Danube, by means of the rafts they were carrying, unsuccessful to the emperor