d, before a man who carried the power of life and death on the tip of
his tongue.

8. We should not wonder that mankind, whose minds we look upon as akin
to those of the gods, can sometimes discern what is likely to be
beneficial or hurtful to them, when even animals devoid of reason
sometimes secure their own safety by profound silence, of which the
following is a notorious instance:--

9. When the wild geese leave the East because of the heat, and seek a
western climate, as soon as they reach Mount Taurus, which is full of
eagles, fearing those warlike birds, they stop up their own beaks with
stones, that not even the hardest necessity may draw a cry from them;
they fly more rapidly than usual across that range, and when they have
passed it they throw away the stones, and then proceed more securely.

IV.

Sec. 1. While these investigations were being carried on with great
diligence at Sirmium, the fortune of the East sounded the terrible
trumpet of danger. For the king of Persia, being strengthened by the aid
of the fierce nations whom he had lately subdued, and being above all
men ambitious of extending his territories, began to prepare men and
arms and supplies, mingling hellish wisdom with his human counsels, and
consulting all kinds of soothsayers about futurity. And when he had
collected everything, he proposed to invade our territories at the first
opening of the spring.

2. And when the emperor learnt this, at first by report, but
subsequently by certain intelligence, and while all were in suspense
from dread of the impending danger, the dependents of the court,
hammering on the same anvil day and night (as the saying is), at the
prompting of the eunuchs, held up Ursicinus as a Gorgon's head before
the suspicious and timid emperor, continually repeating that, because on
the death of Silvanus, in a dearth of better men, he had been sent to
defend the eastern districts, he had become ambitious of still greater
power.

3. And by this base compliance many tried to purchase the favour of
Eusebius, at that time the principal chamberlain, with whom (if we are
to say the real truth) Constantius had great influence, and who was now
a bitter enemy of the safety of the master of the horse, Ursicinus, on
two accounts; first, because he was the only person who did not need his
assistance, as others did; and secondly, because he would not give up
his house at Antioch, which Eusebius greatly coveted.

4. So this la