Res Gestae

To him I was sent with a centurion of tried loyalty, for the purpose of getting better informed of what was going on; and I reached him over pathless mountains and through steep defiles. After he had seen and recognized me, and received me cordially, I confided to him alone the reason for my presence. Thereupon with one silent attendant who knew the country he sent me to some lofty cliffs a long distance from there, from which, unless one’s eyesight was impaired, even the smallest object was visible at a distance of fifty miles.

There we stayed for two full days, and at dawn of the third day we saw below us the whole circuit of the lands (which we[*](That is, the Greeks.) call ὁρίζοντες[*](The horizon.) ) filled with innumerable troops with the king leading the way, glittering in splendid attire. Close by him on the left went Grumbates, king of the Chionitae,[*](Sapor had recently made peace with them; see xvi. 9, 4.) a man of moderate strength, it is true, and with shrivelled limbs, but of a certain

How long, storied Greece, will you continue to tell us of Doriscus, the city of Thrace, and of the armies drawn up in troops within enclosures and numbered?[*](Cf. Herodotus, vii. 59. Xerxes, in order to reckon the size of his army, assembled ten thousand men and drew a circle around them; then he filled the space again and again with men, until the whole army was thus counted.) For I am too cautious, or (to speak more truly) too timid, to exaggerate anything beyond what is proven by trustworthy and sure evidence.