Res Gestae

And as the finny tribe,[*](Cf. xxvi. 10, 16.) when removed from its own element, does not breathe very long on dry land, so he pined away when not holding prefectures; these he was compelled to seek because of the constant lawlessness of certain families which on account of their boundless avarice were never free from guilt, and in order to carry out their many evil designs with impunity, plunged their patron into affairs of state.[*](That is, they used their power secretly by controlling a high magistrate; mergentium suits the metaphor of the finny tribe. )

Now it must be admitted that he had such natural greatness of spirit that he never ordered a client or a slave to do anything illegal; but, on the other hand, if he learned that any one of them had committed any crime, even though Justice herself cried out against the man, without investigating the matter and without regard to honour and virtue, he defended him. That is a fault which Cicero[*](Philipp. ii. 12, 29.) censures in the following words: For what difference

Yet he was suspicious, and fortified by his own character; he could smile rather bitterly and sometimes resorted to flattery in order to work harm.

He had, moreover, what is a conspicuous evil in such characters, especially when one thinks to be able to conceal it, in that he was so merciless and unbending, that if he had made up his mind to injure anyone, he could not be made to relent nor induced to pardon errors; indeed, his ears seemed to be stopped, not with wax,[*](Cf. Odyss. xii. 47–9.) but with lead. At the very height of riches and honours he was worried and anxious, and hence always troubled with slight illnesses. This was the course of events throughout the western regions.

Now the king of the Persians, the famous[*](368–70 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