y an ambassador, the terms which he was inclined to grant to
the suppliant Romans. Narses, whom he invested with that character, was
honorably received in his passage through Antioch and Constantinople:
he reached Sirmium after a long journey, and, at his first audience,
respectfully unfolded the silken veil which covered the haughty epistle
of his sovereign. Sapor, King of Kings, and Brother of the Sun and Moon,
(such were the lofty titles affected by Oriental vanity,) expressed his
satisfaction that his brother, Constantius Caesar, had been taught
wisdom by adversity. As the lawful successor of Darius Hystaspes, Sapor
asserted, that the River Strymon, in Macedonia, was the true and ancient
boundary of his empire; declaring, however, that as an evidence of his
moderation, he would content himself with the provinces of Armenia and
Mesopotamia, which had been fraudulently extorted from his ancestors. He
alleged, that, without the restitution of these disputed countries, it
was impossible to establish any treaty on a solid and permanent basis;
and he arrogantly threatened, that if his ambassador returned in vain,
he was prepared to take the field in the spring, and to support the
justice of his cause by the strength of his invincible arms. Narses, who
was endowed with the most polite and amiable manners, endeavored, as far
as was consistent with his duty, to soften the harshness of the message.
Both the style and substance were maturely weighed in the Imperial
council, and he was dismissed with the following answer: "Constantius
had a right to disclaim the officiousness of his ministers, who had
acted without any specific orders from the throne: he was not, however,
averse to an equal and honorable treaty; but it was highly indecent,
as well as absurd, to propose to the sole and victorious emperor of
the Roman world, the same conditions of peace which he had indignantly
rejected at the time when his power was contracted within the narrow
limits of the East: the chance of arms was uncertain; and Sapor should
recollect, that if the Romans had sometimes been vanquished in battle,
they had almost always been successful in the event of the war." A few
days after the departure of Narses, three ambassadors were sent to the
court of Sapor, who was already returned from the Scythian expedition to
his ordinary residence of Ctesiphon. A count, a notary, and a sophist,
had been selected for this important commission; and Constantius, wh