es, and with prayers couched in
explicit language inquired the will of the deities; and the paper or
parchment on which their wants were written, after the answer had been
given, was sometimes left in the temple.

5. Some of these were spitefully sent to the emperor, and he, narrow
minded as he was, though often deaf to other matters of serious
consequence, had, as the proverb says, a soft place in his ear for this
kind of information; and being of a suspicious and petty temper, became
full of gall and fury; and immediately ordered Paulus to repair with all
speed to the East, giving him authority, as to a chief of great eminence
and experience, to try all the causes as he pleased.

6. And Modestus also, at that time count of the East, a man well suited
for such a business, was joined with him in this commission. For
Hermogenes of Pontus, at that time prefect of the praetorium, was passed
over as of too gentle a disposition.

7. Paulus proceeded, as he was ordered, full of deadly eagerness and
rage; inviting all kinds of calumnies, so that numbers from every part
of the empire were brought before him, noble and low born alike; some of
whom were condemned to imprisonment, others to instant death.

8. The city which was chosen to witness these fatal scenes was
Scythopolis in Palestine, which for two reasons seemed the most suitable
of all places; first, because it was little frequented and secondly,
because it was half-way between Antioch and Alexandria, from which city
many of those brought before this tribunal came.

9. One of the first persons accused was Simplicius, the son of Philip;
a man who, after having been prefect and consul, was now impeached on
the ground that he was said to have consulted the oracle how to obtain
the empire. He was sentenced to the torture by the express command of
the emperor, who in these cases never erred on the side of mercy; but by
some special fate he was saved from it, and with uninjured body was
condemned to distant banishment.

10. The next victim was Parnasius, who had been prefect of Egypt, a man
of simple manners, but now in danger of being condemned to death, and
glad to escape with exile; because long ago he had been heard to say
that when he left Patrae in Achaia, the place of his birth, with the view
of procuring some high office, he had in a dream seen himself conducted
on his road by several figures in tragic robes.

11. The next was Andronicus, subsequently celebrate