ons which I have now offered."

It must have been a severe blow to Imperial pride to receive such a
letter: and the sense of insult can scarcely have been much mitigated by
the fact that the missive was enveloped in a silken covering, or by the
circumstance that the bearer, Narses, endeavored by his conciliating
manners to atone for his master's rudeness. Constantius replied,
however, in a dignified and calm tone. "The Roman emperor," he said,
"victorious by land and sea, saluted his brother, King Sapor. His
lieutenant in Mesopotamia had meant well in opening a negotiation with
a Persian governor; but he had acted without orders, and could not bind
his master. Nevertheless, he (Constantius) would not disclaim what had
been done, since he did not object to a peace, provided it were fair and
honorable. But to ask the master of the whole Roman world to surrender
territories which he had successfully defended when he ruled only over
the provinces of the East was plainly indecent and absurd. He must add
that the employment of threats was futile, and too common an artifice;
more especially as the Persians themselves must know that Rome always
defended herself when attacked, and that, if occasionally she was
vanquished in a battle, yet she never failed to have the advantage in
the event of every war." Three envoys were entrusted with the delivery
of this reply--Prosper, a count of the empire; Spectatus, a tribune
and notary; and Eustathius, an orator and philosopher, a pupil of
the celebrated Neo-Platonist, Jamblichus, and a friend of St. Basil.
Constantius was most anxious for peace, as a dangerous war threatened
with the Alemanni, one of the most powerful tribes of Germany. He seems
to have hoped that, if the unadorned language of the two statesmen
failed to move Sapor, he might be won over by the persuasive eloquence
of the professor of rhetoric.

But Sapor was bent on war. He had concluded arrangements with the
natives so long his adversaries in the East, by which they had pledged
themselves to join his standard with all their forces in the ensuing
spring. He was well aware of the position of Constantius in the West,
of the internal corruption of his court, and of the perils constantly
threatening him from external enemies. A Roman official of importance,
bearing the once honored name of Antoninus, had recently taken refuge
with him from the claims of pretended creditors, and had been received
into high favor on account o