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16 Blud then recommended his master to go to Vladimir, though another counsellor of his, named Verasco, strongly advised him not to do so. Yaropolk, however, neglected the advice of the latter, and proceeded to his brother; and, as he was entering a gate, he was killed by two Waregi, while Vladimir himself was looking down upon the scene from a tower. After the commission of this crime, Vladimir debauched his brother’s wife, a Greek woman by birth, whom Yaropolk also had got with child previous to marrying her, and at a time when she was a nun.

This Vladimir established many idols at Kiev: one of these was called Perun, whose head was of silver, but the rest of his body wood; the others were called Uslad, Corsa, Dasva, Striba, Simaergla, and Macosch. To these idols, which were also called Cumeri, he offered sacrifices. His wives were numerous. By Rochmida he had Isoslaus, Yeroslas, Servold, and two daughters; by the Greek he had Svyatopolk; by a Bohemian he had Saslaus; and by another Bohemian, Svyatoslav’ and Stanislaus; by a Bulgarian woman he had Boris and Glyeb. He kept, besides, in a high tower, three hundred concubines; in Bielograd, also three hundred, and in Berestov and Selvi, two hundred.

Now that Vladimir was become the undisputed monarch of all Russia, there came to him, from different quarters, ambassadors, exhorting him to join their respective sects; but when he saw that these sects differed from each other, he himself sent out messengers of his own to ascertain what were the requirements and ceremonies of each; and, finally making choice of the Christian religion, according to the Greek ritual, he sent ambassadors to the kings Basil and Constantine, at Constantinople, with a proposal, that, if they would give him their sister Anna to be his wife, he would embrace the Christian religion, with all his subjects, and would restore