moderating, by his presence and counsels, the
pride of Galerius. The interview of the Roman princes at Nisibis was
accompanied with every expression of respect on one side, and of
esteem on the other. It was in that city that they soon afterwards gave
audience to the ambassador of the Great King. [74] The power, or at
least the spirit, of Narses, had been broken by his last defeat; and
he considered an immediate peace as the only means that could stop
the progress of the Roman arms. He despatched Apharban, a servant who
possessed his favor and confidence, with a commission to negotiate a
treaty, or rather to receive whatever conditions the conqueror should
impose. Apharban opened the conference by expressing his master's
gratitude for the generous treatment of his family, and by soliciting
the liberty of those illustrious captives. He celebrated the valor of
Galerius, without degrading the reputation of Narses, and thought it
no dishonor to confess the superiority of the victorious Caesar, over
a monarch who had surpassed in glory all the princes of his race.
Notwithstanding the justice of the Persian cause, he was empowered
to submit the present differences to the decision of the emperors
themselves; convinced as he was, that, in the midst of prosperity,
they would not be unmindful of the vicissitudes of fortune. Apharban
concluded his discourse in the style of eastern allegory, by observing
that the Roman and Persian monarchies were the two eyes of the world,
which would remain imperfect and mutilated if either of them should be
put out.

[Footnote 74: The account of the negotiation is taken from the fragments
of Peter the Patrician, in the Excerpta Legationum, published in the
Byzantine Collection. Peter lived under Justinian; but it is very
evident, by the nature of his materials, that they are drawn from the
most authentic and respectable writers.]

"It well becomes the Persians," replied Galerius, with a transport of
fury, which seemed to convulse his whole frame, "it well becomes the
Persians to expatiate on the vicissitudes of fortune, and calmly to read
us lectures on the virtues of moderation. Let them remember their own
moderation, towards the unhappy Valerian. They vanquished him by fraud,
they treated him with indignity. They detained him till the last moment
of his life in shameful captivity, and after his death they exposed
his body to perpetual ignominy." Softening, however, his tone, Galerius
insinua