after
Osroes, a man who was king in that place in former times, when the men
of this country were in alliance with the Persians. After the time,
therefore, when the Persians had taken from the Romans the city of
Nisibis and certain other places in Mesopotamia, whenever they were
about to make an expedition against the Romans, they disregarded the
land outside the River Euphrates, which was for the most part unwatered
and deserted by men, and gathered themselves here with no trouble, since
they were in a land which was their own and which lay very close to the
inhabited land of their enemy, and from here they always made their
invasions.

When the mirranes[23], defeated in battle[24] and with the greater part
of his men lost, came back to the Persian land with the remainder of his
army, he received bitter punishment at the hands of King Cabades. For he
took away from him a decoration which he was accustomed to bind upon the
hair of his head, an ornament wrought of gold and pearls. Now this is a
great dignity among the Persians, second only to the kingly honour. For
there it is unlawful to wear a gold ring or girdle or brooch or anything
else whatsoever, except a man be counted worthy to do so by the king.

Thereafter Cabades began to consider in what manner he himself should
make an expedition against the Romans. For after the mirranes had failed
in the manner I have told, he felt confidence in no one else. While he
was completely at a loss as to what he should do, Alamoundaras, the king
of the Saracens, came before him and said: "Not everything, O Master,
should be entrusted to fortune, nor should one believe that all wars
ought to be successful. For this is not likely and besides it is not in
keeping with the course of human events, but this idea is most
unfortunate for those who are possessed by it. For when men who expect
that all the good things will come to them fail at any time, if it so
happen, they are distressed more than is seemly by the very hope which
wrongly led them on. Therefore, since men have not always confidence in
fortune, they do not enter into the danger of war in a straightforward
way, even if they boast that they surpass the enemy in every respect,
but by deception and divers devices they exert themselves to circumvent
their opponents. For those who assume the risk of an even struggle have
no assurance of victory. Now, therefore, O King of Kings, neither be
thus distressed by the misfortune whic