with justice on their side, are still willingly overcome and
vanquished by their friends. However I ask of you a certain favour in
return for this, which would bind together in kinship and in the
good-will which would naturally spring from this relation not only
ourselves but also all our subjects, and which would be calculated to
bring us to a satiety of the blessings of peace. My proposal, then, is
this, that you should make my son Chosroes, who will be my successor to
the throne, your adopted son."

When this message was brought to the Emperor Justinus, he himself was
overjoyed and Justinian also, the nephew of the emperor, who indeed was
expected to receive from him the empire. And they were making all haste
to perform the act of setting down in Writing the adoption, as the law
of the Romans prescribes--and would have done so, had they not been
prevented by Proclus, who was at that time a counsellor to the emperor,
holding the office of quaestor, as it is called, a just man and one whom
it was manifestly impossible to bribe; for this reason he neither
readily proposed any law, nor was he willing to disturb in any way the
settled order of things; and he at that time also opposed the
proposition, speaking as follows: "To venture on novel projects is not
my custom, and indeed I dread them more than any others; for where there
is innovation security is by no means preserved. And it seems to me
that, even if one should be especially bold in this matter, he would
feel reluctance to do the thing and would tremble at the storm which
would arise from it; for I believe that nothing else is before our
consideration at the present time than the question how we may hand over
the Roman empire to the Persians on a seemly pretext. For they make no
concealment nor do they employ any blinds, but explicitly acknowledging
their purpose they claim without more ado to rob us of our empire,
seeking to veil the manifestness of their deceit under a shew of
simplicity, and hide a shameless intent behind a pretended unconcern.
And yet both of you ought to repel this attempt of the barbarians with
all your power; thou, O Emperor, in order that thou mayst not be the
last Emperor of the Romans, and thou, O General, that thou mayst not
prove a stumbling block to thyself as regards coming to the throne. For
other crafty devices which are commonly concealed by a pretentious shew
of words might perhaps need an interpreter for the many, but this
emb