ill have to wage
war, most noble Sir." "But what is this," he said; "is it just, my dear
ambassador?" And Peter, immediately taking him up, said "And how is it
not just, my good Sir, that the pursuits appropriate to each man's
nature should be preserved?" "What, pray, may this mean?" asked
Theodatus. "It means," was the reply, "that your great interest is to
philosophize, while Justinian's is to be a worthy emperor of the Romans.
And there is this difference, that for one who has practised philosophy
it would never be seemly to bring about the death of men, especially in
such great numbers, and it should be added that this view accords with
the teachings of Plato, which you have evidently espoused, and hence it
is unholy for you not to be free from all bloodshed; but for him it is
not at all inappropriate to seek to acquire a land which has belonged
from of old to the realm which is his own." Thereupon Theodatus, being
convinced by this advice, agreed to retire from the kingship in favour
of the Emperor Justinian, and both he and his wife took an oath to this
effect. He then bound Peter by oaths that he would not divulge this
agreement until he should see that the emperor would not accept the
former convention. And he sent with him Rusticus, a priest who was
especially devoted to him and a Roman citizen, to negotiate on the basis
of this agreement. And he also entrusted a letter to these men.

So Peter and Rusticus, upon reaching Byzantium, reported the first
decision to the emperor, just as Theodatus had directed them to do. But
when the emperor was quite unwilling to accept the proposal, they
revealed the plan which had been committed to writing afterwards. This
was to the following effect: "I am no stranger to royal courts, but it
was my fortune to have been born in the house of my uncle while he was
king and to have been reared in a manner worthy of my race; and yet I
have had little experience of wars and of the turmoils which wars
entail. For since from my earliest years I have been passionately
addicted to scholarly disputations and have always devoted my time to
this sort of thing, I have consequently been up to the present time very
far removed from the confusion of battles. Therefore it is utterly
absurd that I should aspire to the honours which royalty confers and
thus lead a life fraught with danger, when it is possible for me to
avoid them both. For neither one of these is a pleasure to me; the
first, becau