Now the king of the Persians, the famous368–70 A.D. Sapor, now aged,He was now 70 years old. and from the very outset of his reign given over to the pleasure of plunder, after the death of the emperor Julian and the shameful treaty of peace that was struck,Cf. xxv. 7, 9 ff. for a time appeared with his subjects to be friendly to us. But then, trampling under foot the promise of the pact made under Jovian,Cf. xxv. 7, 14. he laid his hand on Armenia, with the intention of bringing the country under his sway, as if all force of the agreements that had been made was at an end.

At first he tried to accomplish his purpose through various arts of deception, and he inflicted slight losses on this powerfully populous nation, by soliciting some of the grandees and satraps and surprising others by unexpected forays.

Then, by carefully calculated flattery mingled with perjury, King Arsaces himself was tricked; for after being invited to a banquet he was taken according to orders to a secret rear-door; there, after his eyes had been gouged out, he was bound in silver chains, which among that people is regarded as a consolation, though an empty one, for the punishment of men of rank,Cf. Curtius, v. 12, 20, ne tamen honos regi non haberetur, aureis compedibus Dareum vinciunt; Hdt. iii. 130. and then he was banished to a fortress called Agabana, where after being tortured he was slain by the penal steel.

After this, in order to leave nothing unstained by treachery, Sapor drove out Sauromaces, who by Rome’s authority had been given the rule of Hiberia, and appointed a certain AspacuresCf. xxx. 2, 2, and p. 86, note 1. to govern that same people; and besides he bestowed on him the crown, in order to show his contempt of our authority.

After thus effecting these abominable designs, he entrusted Armenia to Cylaces, a eunuch, and to Arrabannes, both of whom he had long before received as deserters—of these the former was said to have been previously a governor in that nation, the latter, a commander-in-chief-giving them orders to use all care to destroy Artogerassa, a powerful town with strong walls, which guarded the treasury of Arsaces, as well as his son and his wife.She was called Olympias.

These leaders began the siege according to their orders. And since they could not gain access to the fortress, which was situated on a rough mountain, because the weather was then stiff with snow and frost, Cylaces, being a eunuch and skilled in cajoling like a woman, in company with Arrabannes, having first obtained a pledge that their lives would be spared, came quickly up to the very walls; and when at his request he was allowed to enter with his colleague, he persuaded the defenders and the queen, also using threats, that by a speedy surrender they should try to mollify the violent nature of Sapor, who was a man of unexampled cruelty.