advice, I would bid you despise a small part of your dominions which is
ever the parent of sorrow and bloodshed, in order to reign in safety
over the rest. Wisely considering that physicians also sometimes apply
cautery or amputation, and cut off portions of the body that the patient
may have good use of the rest of his limbs. Nay, that even beasts do the
same: since when they observe on what account they are most especially
hunted, they will of their own accord deprive themselves of that, in
order henceforth to be able to live in security.

8. "This, in short, I declare, that should my present embassy return
without having succeeded in its object, after giving the winter season
to rest I will gird myself up with all my strength, and while fortune
and justice give me a well-founded hope of ultimate success, I will
hasten my march as much as Providence will permit."

9. Having given long consideration to this letter, the emperor with
upright and wise heart, as the saying is, made answer in this manner:--

10. "Constantius, always august, conqueror by land and sea, to my
brother Sapor much health. I congratulate thee on thy safety, as one who
is willing to be a friend to thee if thou wilt. But I greatly blame thy
insatiable covetousness, now more grasping than ever.

11. "Thou demandest Mesopotamia as thine own, and then Armenia. And thou
biddest me cut off some members from my sound body in order to place its
health on a sound footing: a demand which is to be rejected at once
rather than to be encouraged by any consent. Receive therefore the
truth, not covered with any pretences, but clear, and not to be shaken
by any threats.

12. "The prefect of my praetorian guard, thinking to undertake an affair
which might be beneficial to the state, without my knowledge discoursed
about peace with thy generals, by the agency of some low persons. Peace
we should neither regret nor refuse--let it only come with credit and
honour, in such a way as to impair neither our self-respect nor our
dignity.

13. "For it would be an unbecoming and shameful thing when all men's
ears are filled with our exploits, so as to have shut even the mouth of
envy; when after the destruction of tyrants the whole Roman world obeys
us, to give up those territories which even when limited to the narrow
boundaries of the east we preserved undiminished.

14. "But I pray thee make an end of the threats which thou utterest
against me, in obedience to thy n