he
himself came on, preceded by standards on both sides, sitting alone in a
golden chariot, shining with all kinds of brilliant precious stones,
which seemed to spread a flickering light all around.

7. Numbers also of the chief officers who went before him were
surrounded by dragons embroidered on various kinds of tissue, fastened
to the golden or jewelled points of spears, the mouths of the dragons
being open so as to catch the wind, which made them hiss as though they
were inflamed with anger; while the coils of their tails were also
contrived to be agitated by the breeze.

8. After these marched a double row of heavy-armed soldiers, with
shields and crested helmets, glittering with brilliant light, and clad
in radiant breastplates; and among these were scattered cavalry with
cuirasses, whom the Persians call Clibanarii,[64] protected by coverings
of iron breastplates, and girdled with belts of iron, so that you would
fancy them statues polished by the hand of Praxiteles, rather than men.
And the light circular plates of iron which surrounded their bodies, and
covered all their limbs, were so well fitted to all their motions, that
in whatever direction they had occasion to move, the joints of their
iron clothing adapted themselves equally to any position.

9. The emperor as he proceeded was saluted as Augustus by voices of good
omen, the mountains and shores re-echoing the shouts of the people, amid
which he preserved the same immovable countenance which he was
accustomed to display in his provinces.

10. For though he was very short, yet he bowed down when entering high
gates, and looking straight before him, as though he had had his neck in
a vice, he turned his eyes neither to the right nor to the left, as if
he had been a statue: nor when the carriage shook him did he nod his
head, or spit, or rub his face or his nose; nor was he ever seen even to
move a hand.

11. And although this calmness was affectation, yet these and other
portions of his inner life were indicative of a most extraordinary
patience, as it may be thought, granted to him alone.

12. I pass over the circumstance that during the whole of his reign he
never either took up any one to sit with him in his chariot, or admitted
any private person to be his partner in the consulship, as other
emperors had done; also many other things which he, being filled with
elation and pride, prescribed to himself as the justest of all rules of
conduct, reco