n unwearied sower of discord.

3. He, having formed a combination with a few people of Para's nation,
whom a consciousness of their own crimes had filled with fear, was
continually harping in his letters to the court on the deaths of Cylax
and Artabannes; adding also that this same young king was full of
haughtiness in all his conduct, and that he behaved with excessive
cruelty to his subjects.

4. In consequence of these letters, Para, as if it were intended that he
should become a partaker in a treaty of which existing circumstances
required ratification, was invited to court with all the ceremony to
which he was entitled as a king, and then was detained at Tarsus in
Cilicia, with a show of honour, without being able to procure permission
to approach the emperor's camp, or to learn why his arrival had been so
eagerly pressed; since on this point all around him preserved a rigid
silence. At last, however, by means of private information, he learnt
that Terentius was endeavouring by letter to persuade the Roman
sovereign to send without delay another king to Armenia; lest, out of
hatred to Para, and a knowledge of what they had to expect if he
returned among them, his nation, which at present was friendly to us,
should revolt to the Persians, who had long been eager to reduce them
under their power either by violence, fear, or flattery.

5. Para, reflecting on this warning, foreboded grievous mischief for
himself; and being a man of forethought and contrivance, as he could not
perceive any means of safety, except by a speedy departure, by the
advice of his most trusty friends he collected a body of 300 persons who
had accompanied him from his own country, and with horses selected for
especial speed, acting as men are wont to do under the pressure of
great terror and perplexity, that is to say, with more boldness than
prudence; late one afternoon he started boldly forth at the head of his
escort, formed in one solid body.

6. And when the governor of the province, having received information
from the officer who kept the gate, came with prompt energy and found
him in the suburb, he earnestly entreated him to remain; but finding
that he could not prevail upon him, he quitted him, for fear of his own
life.

7. And not long afterwards Para, with his escort, turned back upon the
legion which was pursuing him and on the point of overtaking him, and
pouring arrows upon them as thick as sparks of fire, though designedly
m