As I mentioned in an early post, one of the translations that I have been working on is a translation of the life of Basil I the Macedonian which we find in appended to the Chronicle of Theophanes. It was written by Constantine Porphyrogennetos, Basil's grandson, so it is a very interesting piece. This is only a prelininary translation and body of notes. More are pending, but I thought you all would enjoy it.

1. It has been my desire and yearning for a long time to impart experience and knowledge to the minds of the studious through the ever-remembering and immortal mouth of history and I wanted to, if I could, record the entire period of Roman rule in Byzantium as well as its emperors, their officials, their generals, their subordinates, and their more noteworthy deeds one by one. But since such an undertaking would require a long time, constant labor, an endless supply of books, and free time from business, it was not possible for us to make such an undertaking and so I had to take the second course and record the story of a single emperor who raised the empire on high, who was named after empire itself (1), and who greatly benefited the Roman State and the empire. It will be my task to recount how he was brought up and what he accomplished so that posterity shall not be ignorant of the first source and root from which sprung this imperial tree which has lasted so long, and so that his descendants shall have a guide, an image, and an archetype of virtue worthy of imitation. If we are granted more time to live and we are not impeded by external affairs, perhaps we will add an account of what happened down to our own generation.

2. It is our proposition to show that though the emperor Basil came from Macedonia, he was descended from the Armenian line of Arsakes. Arsakes, who ruled the Parthians, rose to such a height of glory and virtue that it became a tradition later on for the Parthians, Armenians, and Medes to be ruled by anyone not descended from Arsakes and his family. And so, later on, when the ruler of Armenia died, there arose a dispute among the royal line of these nations over the throne and who had the right to rule. Artabanus and Kleienes not only lost their ancestral right, but also were in danger of losing their lives, so they fled to the capital of Constantinople. Leo the Elder, Zeno’s father-in-law was emperor at that time. He made them welcome and kindly granted them housing and a pension worthy of their nobility in the capital. When the Persian king at that time learned of their flight from their country to the capital and of how kindly they were received by the emperor, he sent them letters summoning them back with the promise that he would gladly restore them to their paternal throne seeking for himself the resulting subdual of their people. They received the letters and were still considering what to do, when one of their servants informed on them to the emperor and presented him with the letters. It was then realized that the Persian king wanted to take over the kingdom not on their behalf, but his own and it was for this purpose he was summoning them back, which would benefit neither them nor the Roman State, so action was taken to prevent the Persian king’s scheme from being realized. In consequence, the emperor reduced the ease with which they could act under the guise of consideration by moving them to Nike in Macedonia along with their wives (they were later betrayed by them) and their children so that they would have more space and freedom. As time went by and the Saracens increased their power, the amir mnun at that time tempted Arsakes’s descendants in the same way. He sent them letters calling upon them to return to their ancestral heritage and rule. When this was discovered by the emperor at that time, Heracleios, he had the letters seized. Since he decided that the Saracens were doing this not out of any love on their part for them, but their own ambition for power hoping to subdue the race more easily because of its affection for Arsakes, if they had them with them, the emperor consequently moved them again to Philippi, a city in Macedonia, for greater security. Then he moved them again from there to Adrianople on the pretext that he was improving their condition They found the location quite accommodating and mingled amongst themselves prospering quite well, all the while preserving their fathers’ nobility and their line unmixed.

3. Years later, during the reign of Constantine with his mother Irene, Maiktes, who was himself descended from Arsakes, came on some business or other to the preeminent city of Constantinople. There he met by chance a kinsman named Leo recognizing him from his outward appearance and his peculiar clothing which was not like other people or humble, but noble and elegant. He struck up a conversation with him and found out that he was from the same race and location. He preferred this common ground because of the man’s virtue and so he married one of his daughters by which the father of our subject was born, who was brought up well with praiseworthy upbringing and nourishing and reached manhood. He was very healthy and strong with all sorts of other good qualities for which he made many men want to make him their son-in-law. Yet there was a noble woman who lived in Adrianople, who after her husband died lived modestly as a widow (there was a rumor going around that she was related to Constantine I which had not quite died down), who he thought was more preferable to the others who lived around him and consequently he married her noble and beautiful daughter who was modest too. It was from their union that the very root of the imperial family, Basil, sprung with Arsakes’ blood in him on his father’s side, as it has already been said, and with the blood of Constantine I on his mother’s side as well as some glorious blood from Alexander. Descended from parents such as these, Basil had foreboding signs of his later glory straightaway. He had a crimson headband on when his hair first came in and purple dyed swaddling clothes when he was baptized.

4. Up until this point, the descendants of Arsakes had remained cut off on their own living in Adrianople, although they frequently intermarried with locals. But then Krum, the ruler of Bulgaria, broke his treaty with the Romans and laid siege to Adrianople, of which he obtained the surrender after a long siege because it was running out of supplies. He took everybody in it with its archbishop Manuel back to Bulgaria. Amongst those deported, were Basil’s parents who had him still in swaddling cloths. There by maintaining their own Christian faith without renouncing it, the marvelous archbishop and the people with him managed to convert many Bulgarians to the true faith (this nation had not yet been converted to the true religion) and they laid the seeds of Christ’s teaching all over drawing the Scythians away from their error of their race and they brought in the light which is knowledge of God. For this reason, Mutrag, Krum’s son, was moved to anger against them. Because he could not convince holy Manuel and many of his supporters to renounce Christ, he subjected them to torture and martyred them. Thus many of Basil’s kinsmen won a martyr’s glory such that he was not even without his part of people’s reverence for them. Nevertheless God visited his people and led their exodus (the Bulgarian ruler was unable to hold off Roman forces for long and so he had to give in). While the Christians about to be released were being gathered together, he noticed young Basil laughing slyly at something funny and skipping around as though he were free already and pulled him aside to give him an enormous apple. The child bravely then leaned on the ruler’s knees with no ill intention showing his nobility in his unaffected manner so much so that the ruler was taken aback and his bodyguard was slightly irritated.

5. But to make a long story short, every Christian who had been deported as a prisoner left for home by the grace of God as well as Basil’s parents who brought along their beloved son. While he was still a young child, something happened that revealed his later fortune, which I think should not be omitted. One summer, his parents went out to their farm to oversee their laborers and wake them up to work. Since the day was getting hot and the sun was beating down already on them with afternoon intensity, they put their son to sleep fashioning a shelter of a sort from wheat stocks for him so that he sleep protected from the sun’s scorching heat. While they were busy with the workers harvesting, an eagle swooped down and sat down above their son with its wings spread out casting its shadow over him. A shout went up among the bystanders that the eagle would hurt the child and his mother, just like any mother who loves her children, sprinted to him. Seeing the eagle casting a shadow over the child with its wings and unafraid of her approach, rather at ease with it, since she was not able to come up with any better impromptu plan, she threw a stone at it. And so the eagle took off and appeared to have gone away. But when she returned to her husband and the workers, the eagle returned to its old spot cast a shadow over her child and again people cried out seeing it, she rushed to her child and the eagle went away when she threw a stone at it, and then returned to the workers. It is quite clear that what happened did happen by any workings of chance, but divine providence since the same thing happened a third time. Such is how God always gives some of omens of greatness and signs of what it to come. It happened to him not just a few times as he got older, but many times he was found sleeping shaded by an eagle. However, he did not make a make much out of it since he neglected and ignored the great signs that presented themselves to him in preference to showing off his virtues. No one, in the religious houses or public houses he went to, could get him to reckon it at all. Anyway, since spending any more time here would seem like flattery as if we had nothing better to say about him since we are so set on dwelling on this part of his story, we will present everything of the same nature that happened and the rest of his childhood. Let us move on and avoid giving too much praise here which is a thing not at all commendable.

6. Basil was reared by his father and his father explained things to him as well as words. He was his teacher of things literary and physical, which were important and praiseworthy. Unlike Achilles, he did not need a centaur or the legislator Lykourgos, Solon, or study abroad, but Basil needed only his father to teach him good things such as reverence and obedience to God and his parents, respect for his elders, pure affection for his peers and his kinsmen, submission to people in power, and mercy to the poor. His virtue showed in all respects. He was wise from youth and manly, wisely loving and honoring above all equality showing no contempt for people lesser than him in any way. On account of these qualities he was dear and beloved by all.

7. As he grew up and approached his teens starting to perform more manly occupations, his father passed away and left this earthly state. Naturally, mourning and lamentation reigned throughout the household. Widowhood descended upon Basil’s mother and orphanhood upon Basil the eldest, as well as the resulting grief and sorrow. It also invited a host of worries for him over the management of the household, concern for the house, and the task of looking after his mother and siblings. Since what succor farming could provide was little and insignificant, Basil made the decision to journey to the capital and show his virtue and accordingly furnish the necessaries for himself and his family and make his protection and foresight for his family highly beneficial. He knew that in large cities and especially capital cities people with adroit natures flourish and people with something over others make a name for themselves, while in little known and humble cities, just like in villages, virtues fade away and dwindle when they cannot be shown and be amazed at. For this reason, the road leading to the capital called to him seeming profitable and advantageous, but his mother’s love and her wish for him to lighten her of her loads held him back and kept him there because she really wanted him to be their in her old age and because she required his aid and service with things.

8. Yet, since divine will was to have its way and he had been ordained to go, dreams persuaded his mother to give in to him and let him go to the city, or rather she urged and instructed him to go the capital and show the meadow of his soul and the superiority of his noble mind. His mother had a dream, in which she saw huge plant sprout from her, just like Cyrus’s mother saw the vine, that was standing over her house with tons of leaves and blossoms while its huge trunk was golden and the branches and leafs were gold colored. When she recounted her dream to one of her relatives who was quite well off in this respect, she heard it meant that her son would attain a great, famous destiny. A second time a short while later, she saw an old man while she was sleeping who gave off fire from his mouth and told her explicitly that your favorite son Basil will obtain the Roman crown at God’s hands and you have to instruct him to go to Constantinople. She was overwhelmed by this joyful announcement and prostrated herself before the old man in joy saying, “Who are you, my lord, that you did not refuse to show yourself before your servant, but that you brought me such happy news?” He replied, “I’m Elias of Thesbus.” With that, he disappeared from sight. She woke up and fired by those auspicious dreams and divine revelations, she readily urged and sent her son off to the capital and like a mother, she admonished and called upon him to always fear God and remember that the eye of providence was watching everything he did and thought. He should not do anything unworthy of such an honor, but show his own virtues properly and in no way bring shame to the nobility of his ancestors.

9. He set out from Macedonia in Thrace and came to this city which rules over all the others. His plan was get an interview with one of the people in power with a name and join that person’s service. On finishing the rest of the journey he reached the Golden Gate of the capital and he passed through as night was falling. He approached the nearby monastery of Saint Diomedes the Martyr and exhausted from his journey he collapsed carelessly upon the on the porch in front of the main entranceway to rest. Then, during the first part of the night, the martyr Diomedes appeared in a dream to the abbot ordering him to go out the monastery entrance and call out the name Basil and to bring in the person who responded to his call into the monastery and deem him worthy of concern and give him food, shelter, clothing, anything that he needed because it had been ordained by God that he would become emperor and that he would enlarge and extend the present monastery. Since the abbot thought the dream was just an illusion and a figment of his imagination, he did not take it much into account, but went back to sleep. He saw and heard the same thing a second time. Yet because he was still drowsy and sleepy, he went back to sleep again. He saw the martyr a third time no longer kindly and nicely instructing him to do it, but this time viciously threatening him and appearing to get ready to whip him if he did not quickly do what he was told. Having hardly come to his senses and shaken off the death-like sleep from his eyes, he went to the entrance and like the martyr commanded him called out the name Basil. Basil immediately responded, “Here I am, sir. What is your command to your servant?” He brought him inside the monastery and on seeing that he was dirty, unwashed, and sun-burned, he treated him as necessary and treated him compassionately. Then he recounted to him the mystery and told him to keep it to himself and not go telling anybody because of how dangerous it was, revealing to him the martyr’s prediction, and the abbot made him promise to remember him after it came to pass. Basil, for whom the whole thing was over his head, he did not really admit it, but instead he was the one asking the abbot to find him a place to live and find him someone important to serve. The abbot readily set himself to work on this task. Since a relative of the emperor Michael and Bardas the Caesar, whom people gave the nickname Theophilitzes and the second name Paideuomenos, passed by the monastery and was on friendly terms with the abbot, the abbot introduced Basil to him. Theophilidion liked his temperament and was not without magnanimity, but made it a priority to keep noble, good-looking, and youthful men who stood out for their manliness especially and physical strength and to look after them and honor them. They could always be seen wearing silk clothing and other fashionable clothing. The young newcomer Basil fit in well their number and surpassed the others in physical strength and spiritual manliness, so Theophilos made him his protostrator and day by day he grew to love him more and be more and more amazed at his those traits that set him apart from other men. He was strong, wise, keen and adept to any command.

10. Basil’s mother was perpetually worried about him and she was depressed and upset because she had not yet had any news that his trip went well. Again she had a dream in which she saw a large plant which looked like a cypress standing in her courtyard thickly covered with golden leaves with golden branches and a golden trunk on top of which was sitting her son Basil. She woke up and recounted her dream during the day to a pious woman who never left the church according to Anna day or night, but was always busy praying and fasting. She advised her to be happy for her son because in her judgment the dream surely meant that her son would become Roman emperor. And so, taking this dream into account with the previous dream, she no longer was depressed and worried about him, but she fed by her hopes and accepting the succor from heaven above she became happy again.

11. During this time it happened that Basil’s master, Theophilos, was sent to the Peloponnese on some public business by the emperor Michael and the Caesar Bardas. Basil went along with him to serve him in his assigned role. When he came to Patras in Achaia, Theophilos went into the Church of the Apostle Andreas to pray. Basil, it seems, was busy with his own duties, so he did not go in with him, instead he went into the church later all alone to pay the saint the reverence he was due. There was a monk inside the church who was there all alone who was there when Theophilos came in. He did not get up, say a prayer for him, or deign to say a single word to him. He did not even show any reverence to him because of his magnificent appearance or the escort accompanying him. But later when Basil came in, he got up as a mark of respect for his superior and he addressed with the acclamation reserved for the emperor. When the people there saw and heard this, they reported it to a noble and wealthy woman in those parts who was named Danelis after her husband. She knew from experience that the monk was gifted with the gift of foresight, so she did not neglect what he said. She summoned the monk to her and she proceeded to upbraid him saying, “You’ve known me how long, father, me who stands above the crowd and is superior to the people in this area, and you’ve never ever gotten up on seeing me or prayed for me, or even reserved this honor for my son or my grandson. Why on seeing a poor foreign man unknown to many people did you get up and honor him as emperor?’ The pious monk responded to her that, “I didn’t just see any regular man, but I saw a Roman emperor anointed by Christ, so I got up and acclaimed him. People owe the honor that is their due to people who have been honored by God.” After staying in those parts for some time and accomplishing his public business, Basil’s master was about to return to the capital when Basil fell ill. Basil was left behind there and when he got the necessary treatment and got better a little while later, he started to get ready to return too. And so the lady Danelis summoned him to her and she greeted him with many great gifts shrewdly and wisely laying them down like seeds on fertile land so that she receive far more gifts when the time came. She gave him plenty of gold, thirty slaves to serve him, and a great wealth of clothing and other commodities asking of him nothing in return except to make a bond of brotherhood with her son John. He at first refused because of how superior she was to him in position and because of his own poorness. Nevertheless, after she asked him to do it even more, he did it. Then she got a more bold and openly said to him, “Though God has a great destiny ahead for you and he will raise you on high, I seek, no I ask of you nothing else than to love and take pity on us.” He responded that he would make her mistress of all that land if he could and the prediction came to pass. And so, he set out from there and returned to the city and his own master. After he got back, he sold the things he got from her and bought large plots of land in Macedonia with which he enriched everybody in his service and became rich himself in virtues as property and money. All the while, he remained in his master’s service.

1. 1. Note in Greek basileia here refers to the empire from which we get the name Basil