g the Persians for any man by birth a common
citizen to be set upon the throne, except in case the royal family be
totally extinct. Blases, upon receiving the royal power, gathered
together the nobles of the Persians and held a conference concerning
Cabades; for it was not the wish of the majority to put the man to
death. After the expression of many opinions on both sides there came
forward a certain man of repute among the Persians, whose name was
Gousanastades, and whose office that of "chanaranges" (which would be
the Persian term for general); his official province lay on the very
frontier of the Persian territory in a district which adjoins the land
of the Ephthalitae. Holding up his knife, the kind with which the
Persians were accustomed to trim their nails, of about the length of a
man's finger, but not one-third as wide as a finger, he said: "You see
this knife, how extremely small it is; nevertheless it is able at the
present time to accomplish a deed, which, be assured, my dear Persians,
a little later two myriads of mail-clad men could not bring to pass."
This he said hinting that, if they did not put Cabades to death, he
would straightway make trouble for the Persians. But they were
altogether unwilling to put to death a man of the royal blood, and
decided to confine him in a castle which it is their habit to call the
"Prison of Oblivion." For if anyone is cast into it, the law permits no
mention of him to be made thereafter, but death is the penalty for the
man who speaks his name; for this reason it has received this title
among the Persians. On one occasion, however, the History of the
Armenians relates that the operation of the law regarding the Prison of
Oblivion was suspended by the Persians in the following way.

There was once a truceless war, lasting two and thirty years, between
the Persians and the Armenians, when Pacurius was king of the Persians,
and of the Armenians, Arsaces, of the line of the Arsacidae. And by the
long continuance of this war it came about that both sides suffered
beyond measure, and especially the Armenians. But each nation was
possessed by such great distrust of the other that neither of them could
make overtures of peace to their opponents. In the meantime it happened
that the Persians became engaged in a war with certain other barbarians
who lived not far from the Armenians. Accordingly the Armenians, in
their eagerness to make a display to the Persians of their goodwill