so without being
perceived; as was subsequently learnt from the evidence of this same
Strategius after repeated investigations had been made into the conduct
of all who were accomplices in his enterprise.

6. Accordingly, like a skilful scout, since hardship and want had so
altered his countenance that no one knew him, he collected the reports
that were flying about, spread by many who, as the present is always
grievous, accused Valens of being inflamed with a passion for seizing
what belonged to others.

7. An additional stimulus to his ferocity was the emperor's
father-in-law, Petronius, who, from the command of the Martensian
cohort, had been suddenly promoted to be a patrician. He was a man
deformed both in mind and appearance, and cruelly eager to plunder every
person without distinction; torturing all, guilty and innocent, and then
binding them with fourfold bonds; exacting debts due as far back as the
time of the emperor Aurelian, and grieving if any one escaped without
loss.

8. And his natural cruelty was inflamed by this additional incentive,
that as he was enriched by the sufferings of others, he was inexorable,
cruel, hard hearted, and unfeeling, incapable either of doing justice or
of listening to reason. He was more hated than even Cleander, who, as we
read, while prefect in the time of Commodus, oppressed people of all
ranks with his foolish arrogance; and more tyrannical than Plautian, who
was prefect under Severus, and who with more than mortal pride would
have thrown everything into confusion, if he had not been murdered out
of revenge.

9. The cruelties which in the time of Valens, who acted under the
influence of Petronius, closed many houses both of poor men and nobles,
and the fear of still worse impending, sank deep into the hearts of both
the provincials and soldiers, who groaned under the same burdens; and
though the prayers breathed were silent and secret, yet some change of
the existing state of things by the interposition of the supreme Deity
was unanimously prayed for.

10. This state of affairs came home to the knowledge of Procopius, and
he, thinking that if Fate were at all propitious, he might easily rise
to the highest power, lay in wait like a wild beast which prepares to
make its spring the moment it sees anything to seize.

11. And while he was eagerly maturing his plans, the following chance
gave him an opportunity which proved most seasonable. After the winter
was past, Va