Res Gestae

After this comes Phoenicia, lying at the foot of Mount Libanus,[*](Lebanon.) a region full of charm and beauty, adorned with many great cities; among these in attractiveness and the renown of their names Tyre, Sidon and Berytus are conspicuous, and equal to these are Emissa and Damascus, founded in days long past.

Now these provinces, encircled by the river Orontes, which, after flowing past the foot of that lofty mountain Cassius, empties into the Parthenian Sea,[*](Near the Gulf of Issos, in south-eastern Cilicia.) were taken from the realms of the

The last region of the Syrias is Palestine, extending over a great extent of territory and abounding in cultivated and well-kept lands; it also has some splendid cities, none of which yields to any of the others, but they rival one another, as it were, by plumb-line.[*](I.e. exactly.) These are Caesarea, which Herodes[*](Herod the Great.) built in honour of the emperor Octavianus,[*](Augustus. ) Eleutheropolis, and Neapolis, along with Ascalon and Gaza, built in a former age.

In these districts no navigable river is anywhere to be seen, but in numerous places natural warm springs gush forth, adapted to many medicinal uses. But these regions also met with a like fate, being formed into a province by Pompey, after he had defeated the Jews and taken Jerusalem,[*](In 63 B.C.) but left to the jurisdiction of a governor.

Adjacent to this region is Arabia, which on one side adjoins the country of the Nabataei, a land producing a rich variety of wares and studded with strong castles and fortresses, which the watchful care of the early inhabitants reared in suitable and readily defended defiles, to check the inroads of neighbouring tribes. This region also has, in addition to some towns, great cities, Bostra, Gerasa and Philadelphia, all strongly defended by mighty walls. It was given the name of a province, assigned a governor, and compelled to obey our laws by the emperor Trajan,[*](In A.D. 105.) who, by frequent victories crushed the arrogance of its inhabitants when he was waging glorious war with Media and the Parthians.

Cyprus, too, an island far removed from the mainland, and abounding in harbours, besides having numerous towns, is made famous by two cities, Salamis and Paphos, the one celebrated for its shrines of Jupiter, the other for its temple of Venus. This Cyprus is so fertile and so abounds in products of every kind, that without the need of any help from without, by its native resources alone it builds cargo ships from the very keel to the topmast sails, and equipping them completely entrusts them to the deep.

Nor am I loth to say that the Roman people in invading that island showed more greed than justice; for King Ptolemy,[*](Brother of Ptolemy Auletes, King of Egypt from 80 B.C.) our ally joined to us by a treaty, without any fault of his, merely because of the low state of our treasury was ordered to be proscribed, and in consequence committed suicide by drinking poison; whereupon the island was made tributary and its spoils, as though those of an enemy, were taken aboard our fleet and brought to Rome by Cato.[*](Cato Uticensis in 58 B.C.) I shall now resume the thread of my narrative.

Amid this variety of disasters Ursicinus, to whose attendance the imperial command had attached me, was summoned from Nisibis, of which he was in charge, and was compelled, in spite of his reluctance and his opposition to the clamorous troops of flatterers, to investigate the accusations in the deadly strife. He was in fact a warrior, having always been a soldier and a leader of soldiers, but far removed from the wranglings of the forum;

But by too great caution he had fallen into worse snares, as we shall show later, since his rivals patched up dangerous plots with Constantius, who was in other respects a moderate emperor, but cruel and implacable if anyone, however obscure, had whispered in his ear anything of that kind, and in cases of that nature unlike himself.

Accordingly, on the day set for the fatal examinations the master of the horse took his seat, ostensibly as a judge, attended by others who had been told in advance what was to be done; and here and there shorthand writers were stationed who reported every question and every answer posthaste to Caesar; and by his cruel orders, instigated by the queen, who from time to time poked her face through a curtain, many were done to death without being allowed to clear themselves of the charges or to make any defence.