also said to his friends, how, upon the comparison, he
showed his soul to be in all respects superior to his body; and when, as
they were drinking together, he once showed Asineus to Abdagases, one of
the generals of his army, and told him his name, and described the great
courage he was of in war, and Abdagases had desired leave to kill him,
and thereby to inflict on him a punishment for those injuries he had
done to the Parthian government, the king replied, "I will never give
thee leave to kill a man who hath depended on my faith, especially not
after I have sent him my right hand, and endeavored to gain his belief
by oaths made by the gods. But if thou be a truly warlike man, thou
standest not in need of my perjury. Go thou then, and avenge the
Parthian government; attack this man, when he is returned back, and
conquer him by the forces that are under thy command, without my
privity." Hereupon the king called for Asineus, and said to him, "It
is time for thee, O thou young man! to return home, and not provoke the
indignation of my generals in this place any further, lest they attempt
to murder thee, and that without my approbation. I commit to thee the
country of Babylonia in trust, that it may, by thy care, be preserved
free from robbers, and from other mischiefs. I have kept my faith
inviolable to thee, and that not in trifling affairs, but in those that
concerned thy safety, and do therefore deserve thou shouldst be kind to
me." When he had said this, and given Asineus some presents, he sent
him away immediately; who, when he was come home, built fortresses, and
became great in a little time, and managed things with such courage and
success, as no other person, that had no higher a beginning, ever did
before him. Those Parthian governors also, who were sent that way, paid
him great respect; and the honor that was paid him by the Babylonians
seemed to them too small, and beneath his deserts, although he were
in no small dignity and power there; nay, indeed, all the affairs of
Mesopotamia depended upon him, and he more and more flourished in this
happy condition of his for fifteen years.

5. But as their affairs were in so flourishing a state, there sprang
up a calamity among them on the following occasion. When once they had
deviated from that course of virtue whereby they had gained so great
power, they affronted and transgressed the laws of their forefathers,
and fell under the dominion of their lusts and pleasu