Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

17 The peace treaty of 298 123
for each other’s destruction. 20 For this is not held as a virtue but rather levity or
weakness. As they believe that later generations will not be able to help them they
make an effort to destroy their opponents.’ He continued by saying that it was not
necessary to think that Narsē was weaker than the other kings but rather to see
Galerius as that much superior to the other kings so that Narsē himself was inferior
to him alone, and rightly so, without, however, proving to be lower in dignity than
his ancestors. Apharbān added that Narsē had given him instructions to entrust,
as they were fair, the right of his empire to the kindness of the Romans; that this
was why he was not bringing the oaths by which the peace had to be concluded
but was handing everything over to the judgement of the emperor, asking only
that his children and wives were returned to him, and he claimed that for their
return he would owe the emperor more for his benefactions than if spared by
his arms. He was not able to thank him appropriately for the fact that those in
captivity had not experienced any cruelty but had been treated as if soon to be
returned to their own high status at home. In this context he also reminded the
emperor of the changeable character of human affairs. But Galerius seemed to be
angry about this remark and, with his body beginning to shake, responded that
it was not quite appropriate for the Persians to remind others of the changes in
human affairs because they themselves did not cease to use every opportunity to
add to human misfortune. 21 ‘For you guarded the rule of victory well in Valerian’s
case, when you deceived him with tricks, took him captive and did not release
him until old age and his shameful death, when you, after his death, conserved
his skin with some disgusting method and thereby afflicted the mortal body with
immortal offence.’ 22 The emperor 23 went through all this and added that his mind
was not changed by what the Persian embassy tried to convey, namely that he
should respect human fate (because one should rather be enraged by this if one
considered what the Persians had done), but that he would follow the footsteps of
his own ancestors, whose custom it had been to spare their subjects but to fight
the ones who opposed them; 24 he told the ambassador to inform his king of the
20 It is striking how much these words resemble those of Xusrō II (590–628) at the end of the sixth
century when he approached the Byzantine emperor Maurice in order to win him as an ally against
his internal rival Bahrām Čōbīn; Theoph. Simoc. iv.11.1–2 must have based his wording on the chronicle
of Peter the Patrician; see also the way ˇ Sāpūr II addresses Constantius II in Amm. xvii.5.3 (34).
21 According to Sprengling 1953: 111 Galerius’ words are too immediate and lively for an account that
was composed 250 years after the events and cannot have been the product of the historian’s own
imagination.
22 At this point Galerius recalls the fate of the Roman emperor Valerian, who had been captured by
the Persians during the reign of ˇ Sāpūr I (240–72) (5).
23 In the Greek text the author uses the title basileus, as it was indeed used for a Roman emperor;
Galerius, however, had been acclaimed ‘Caesar’ on 21 May (?) 293; he was acclaimed ‘Augustus’ in
Nicomedia not before 1 May 305; on the title of basileus in the early Byzantine period see in general
Chrysos 1978: 29–75.
24 Galerius alludes to Vergil’s famous words parcere subiectis et debellare superbos (Aen. vi.853), which
describe a principle of Rome’s attitude towards defeated enemies; ironically, the attribute superbus
describes the Persian ambassador rather well so that Rome’s generosity appears even more noteworthy;
the reader is also reminded of Festus’ statement (25), Persae non modo armis sed etiam moribus Romanos
superiores esse confessi sunt; see Eadie 1967a: 148.