strength and beauty of
the Roman empire.

Tiridates one day viewed an exhibition of pancratium. One of the
contestants fell to the ground and was being pummeled by his opponent.
When the prince saw it, he exclaimed: "That's an unfair contest. It isn't
fair that a man who has fallen should be beaten."

On rebuilding Artaxata Tiridates named it Neronia. But Vologaesus though
often summoned refused to come to Nero, and finally, when the latter's
invitations became burdensome to him, sent back a despatch to this effect:
"It is far easier for you than for me to traverse so great a body of
water. Therefore, if you will come to Asia, we can then arrange [where we
shall be able] to meet each other." [Such was the message which the
Parthian wrote at last.]

[Sidenote:--8--] Nero though angry at him did not sail against him, nor
yet against the Ethiopians or the Caspian Pylae, as he had intended. [He
saw that the subjugation of these regions demanded time and labor and
hoped that they would submit to him of their own accord:] and he sent
spies to both places. But he did cross over into Greece, not at all as
Flamininus or Mummius or as Agrippa and Augustus his ancestors had done,
but for the purpose of chariot racing, of playing and singing, of making
proclamations, and of acting in tragedies. Rome was not enough for him,
nor Pompey's theatre, nor the great hippodrome, but he desired also a
foreign tour, in order to become, as he said, victor in all the four
contests. [Footnote: Literally "victor of the periodos." This was a name
applied to an athlete who had conquered in the Pythian, Isthmian, Nemean
and Olympian games.] And a multitude not only of Augustans but of other
persons were taken with him, large enough, if it had been a hostile host,
to have subdued both Parthians and all other nations. But they were the
kind you would have expected Nero's soldiers to be, and the arms they
carried were zithers and plectra, masks and buskins. The victories Nero
won were such as befitted that sort of army, and he overcame Terpnus and
Diodorus and Pammenes, instead of Philip or Perseus or Antiochus. It is
probable that his purpose in forcing the Pammenes referred to, who had
been in his prime in the reign of Gaius, to compete in spite of his age,
was that he might overcome him and vent his dislike in abuse of his
statues.

[Sidenote: A.D. 67 (?)] [Sidenote:--9--] Had he done only this, he would
have been the subject of ridicule. So ho