none of his time. Now we have come to
thee, and all of us have become slaves and fugitives, not, however, of
our own will, but under most hard constraint, as it might seem by reason
of the Roman power, but in truth, O King, by reason of thy
decision,--if, indeed, he who gives the strength to those who wish to do
injustice should himself justly bear also the blame of their misdeeds.
Now we shall begin our account from a little distance back in order that
you may be able to follow the whole course of events. Arsaces, the last
king of our ancestors, abdicated his throne willingly in favour of
Theodosius, the Roman Emperor, on condition that all who should belong
to his family through all time should live unhampered in every respect,
and in particular should in no case be subject to taxation. And we have
preserved the agreement, until you, the Persians, made this much-vaunted
treaty, which, as we think, one would not err in calling a sort of
common destruction. For from that time, disregarding friend and foe, he
who is in name thy friend, O King, but in fact thy enemy, has turned
everything in the world upside down and wrought complete confusion. And
this thou thyself shalt know at no distant time, as soon as he is able
to subdue completely the people of the West. For what thing which was
before forbidden has he not done? or what thing which was well
established has he not disturbed? Did he not ordain for us the payment
of a tax which did not exist before, and has he not enslaved our
neighbours, the Tzani, who were autonomous, and has he not set over the
king of the wretched Lazi a Roman magistrate?--an act neither in keeping
with the natural order of things nor very easy to explain in words. Has
he not sent generals to the men of Bosporus, the subjects of the Huns,
and attached to himself the city which in no way belongs to him, and has
he not made a defensive alliance with the Aethiopian kingdoms, of which
the Romans had never even heard? More than this he has made the
Homeritae his possession and the Red Sea, and he is adding the Palm
Groves to the Roman dominion. We omit to speak of the fate of the
Libyans and of the Italians. The whole earth is not large enough for the
man; it is too small a thing for him to conquer all the world together.
But he is even looking about the heavens and is searching the retreats
beyond the ocean, wishing to gain for himself some other world. Why,
therefore, O King, dost thou still delay? Wh