itate the horse of Trajan, which stands by itself in the
middle of the hall, bearing the emperor himself on his back.

16. And the royal prince Hormisdas, whose departure from Persia we have
already mentioned, standing by answered, with the refinement of his
nature, "But first, O emperor, command such a stable to be built for
him, if you can, that the horse which you purpose to make may have as
fair a domain as this which we see." And when he was asked what he
thought of Rome, he said that "he was particularly delighted with it
because he had learnt that men died also there."

17. Now after he had beheld all these various objects with awful
admiration, the emperor complained of fame, as either deficient in
power, or else spiteful, because, though it usually exaggerates
everything, it fell very short in its praises of the things which are
at Rome; and having deliberated for some time what he should do, he
determined to add to the ornaments of the city by erecting an obelisk in
the Circus Maximus, the origin and form of which I will describe when I
come to the proper place.

18. At this time Eusebia, the queen, who herself was barren all her
life, began to plot against Helena, the sister of Constantius, and wife
of the Caesar Julian, whom she had induced to come to Rome under a
pretence of affection, and by wicked machinations she induced her to
drink a poison which she had procured, which should have the effect,
whenever Helena conceived, of producing abortion.

19. For already, when in Gaul, she had borne a male child, but that also
had been dishonestly destroyed because the midwife, having been bribed,
killed it as soon as it was born, by cutting through the navel-string
too deeply; such exceeding care was taken that this most gallant man
should have no offspring.

20. But the emperor, while wishing to remain longer in this most august
spot of the whole world, in order to enjoy a purer tranquillity and
higher degree of pleasure, was alarmed by repeated intelligence on which
he could rely, which informed him that the Suevi were invading the
Tyrol, that the Quadi were ravaging Valeria,[65] and that the
Sarmatians, a tribe most skilful in plunder, were laying waste the upper
Moesia, and the second Pannonia. And roused by these news, on the
thirtieth day after he had entered Rome, he again quitted it, leaving it
on the 29th of May, and passing through Trent he proceeded with all
haste towards Illyricum.

21. And fro