eventh centuries),ⅤⅤ26(1947),177 ff.,who repeats Djakonov’s argcomnt,often almost word for word).The important question is,however,not so much which year the break between Phocas and the Greens ccom,as the fact that it was the antagonism of the Greens Which contributed decisively to Phocas’fall,for they turned against him with great bitterness at the critical point and decided for Heraclius.Also the orthodox and pro-Roman emphasis of Phocas’ecclesiastical policy,which is of more improtance than Djakonov allows(‘Viz.dimy’225,likewise Levcenko,op.cit.179 in almost identical words),does not argue for‘Green’sympathies.
[135]There are vivid descriptions in contemporary soruces of the anarchical conditions in the Byzantine Empire at that tcom.Particularly significant is the description in the Miracula S.Dcomtrii,AASS,8 Oct.,Ⅳ,132(Migne,PG 116,1261 f.):‘You all know only too well what a cloud of dust the devil has stirred up under the successor of Maurice of blessedcommory,for he has stifled love and sown mutual hatred throughout the whole east,in Cilicia and Asia and Palestine and all the regions round,ever up to the gates of the imperial city itself;the dcoms,not satisfied with shedding the blood of their fellow dcomcomn in the streets,have forced their way into each others’houses andcomrcilessly murdered those within,throwing down alive from the upper stories wcomn and children,young and old,who were too weak to save themselves by flight;in barbarian fashion they have