on themselves
through fear of Perozes, yet they earnestly entreated Eusebius to urge
upon the king, who was completely ignorant of his own plight, that he
should take counsel rather than make an untimely display of daring, and
consider well whether there was any way of safety open to them. So he
went before Perozes, but by no means revealed the calamity which was
upon them; instead he began with a fable, telling how a lion once
happened upon a goat bound down and bleating on a mound of no very great
height, and how the lion, bent upon making a feast of the goat, rushed
forward with intent to seize him, but fell into a trench exceedingly
deep, in which was a circular path, narrow and endless (for it had no
outlet anywhere), which indeed the owners of the goat had constructed
for this very purpose, and they had placed the goat above it to be a
bait for the lion. When Perozes heard this, a fear came over him lest
perchance the Medes had brought harm upon themselves by their pursuit of
the enemy. He therefore advanced no further, but, remaining where he
was, began to consider the situation. By this time the Huns were
following him without any concealment, and were guarding the entrance of
the place in order that their enemy might no longer be able to withdraw
to the rear. Then at last the Persians saw clearly in what straits they
were, and they felt that the situation was desperate; for they had no
hope that they would ever escape from the peril. Then the king of the
Ephthalitae sent some of his followers to Perozes; he upbraided him at
length for his senseless foolhardiness, by which he had wantonly
destroyed both himself and the Persian people, but he announced that
even so the Huns would grant them deliverance, if Perozes should consent
to prostrate himself before him as having proved himself master, and,
taking the oaths traditional among the Persians, should give pledges
that they would never again take the field against the nation of the
Ephthalitae. When Perozes heard this, he held a consultation with the
Magi who were present and enquired of them whether he must comply with
the terms dictated by the enemy. The Magi replied that, as to the oath,
he should settle the matter according to his own pleasure; as for the
rest, however, he should circumvent his enemy by craft. And they
reminded him that it was the custom among the Persians to prostrate
themselves before the rising sun each day; he should, therefore, watch
the