to drag down those undermining, but the mountains are walls to the enemies, holding the keys of the blocked road. And I wished, although a slow writer, to write of your assembling of armies, which had been scattered to every part of the earth, but by your counsels were gathered in a short time; for your persuasive words drew them, as another with a single drop of mercury draws and gathers the fragments of gold. However, I am silent about these things and the passage of the Euphrates, through which you passed, running faster than the Euphrates, and the effective calamity of the Dubius, with its painful labors, as if a side-task, if it is right to compare to a calamity a land ravaged for a pious master, or saved for an impious Chosroes. Now I approach the city of Darartas; they say this is the northernmost of the Persian boundaries, and its position to the South is set opposite to us, and I shall describe in flowing speech the brief, circuitous turning point against it. For they say that Ardashir, a slave by fortune, with a tyrannical and bold sword removed the Parthians from their power at that time, and onto the captive throne which he had seized, in turn enthroned Persia amidst misfortunes. And they reckon the time that has passed, as they say, to be ten and six run through with sixties, in which the bitter race of this seed travailed from blood with an offspring of blood; for in so great an expanse of time the indissoluble bond of that blood-stained chain had no alteration, but from children to children this bond was molded together, steeped in slaughter, and every hostile murderer among them sowed a child into a patricidal lineage, and he in turn, like the essence of a viper, sent back the inheritance to his descendants; and a stream was poured, flowing over the murders, until, widening into an immeasurable flood, it has come to a stop, having cast Chosroes into the abyss. For it was necessary, I think, for them, emulating the life of Jocasta, to run back with mutual jealousy to similar calamities. He therefore founded this city as a high tower, as an impregnable place, as a wall, as it has been shown, of sin; for there Chosroes kept both the Magi and his own protectors, the embers, reasonably held by a terrible suspicion lest you seize the revered captives. But you yourself, coming with the speed of lightning and fashioning a feigned slaughter for them—for you yourself do not desire the slaughter even of barbarians, unless they should draw their swords against themselves—and having set up many war engines, rams, tortoises, stone-throwing slings, and having fenced in your phalanx and with a new wall entirely enclosed their wall, you captured all those within from fear alone. First then, most mighty one, of all the spoils you turned to embers the gods of Persia, offering acceptable first-fruits to your God, the heirlooms of Chosroes’ ancestors; for by extinguishing them you set Chosroes ablaze, not as an enemy of the substance of fire—for you are wholly fire, joined to God—but as one wishing to offer creation to God both freed and saved. For the fire too was delivered from the defilements, having been rather outraged by worship, and it holds its dishonor as a noble honor, having been purified by your pious destruction, and it endured to suffer misfortune profitably, being nobly reduced to ashes rather than wickedly kindled. Thus, having extinguished all that fire, you left nothing, except for what was needed to be told, a little spark to set Chosroes ablaze.

ὑπογλύφοντας ἑλκύσαι κάτω, ἀλλ' εἰσὶ τείχη τοῖς ἐναντίοις ὄρη τὰς κλεῖς ἔχοντα τῆς ὁδοῦ πεφραγμένης. ἐβουλόμην δέ, καίπερ ὢν βραδυγράφος, τὴν συλλογήν σου τῶν στρατευμάτων γράφειν τὴν εἰς ἅπαν γῆς ἐσκεδασμένην μέρος, βουλαῖς δὲ ταῖς σαῖς ἐν βραχεῖ συνηγμένην· οἱ σοὶ γὰρ αὐτοὺς ἦγον ἑλκτικοὶ λόγοι, ὡς εἴ τις ἄλλος ἐκ μιᾶς ὑδραργύρου σύρει τὰ χρυσᾶ συλλέγων σπαράγματα. πλὴν ταῦτα σιγῶ καὶ τὸν Εὐφράτου πόρον, δι' οὗ τρέχων παρῆλθες Εὐφράτου πλέον, τὴν δραστικήν τε καὶ μετ' ἔργων ἐμπόνων ὡς ἐν παρέργῳ συμφορὰν τοῦ ∆ούβιος, εἴγε προσήκει συμφορᾷ παρεικάσαι τὴν εὐσεβοῦντι δεσπότῃ πορθουμένην ἢ δυσσεβοῦντι Χοσρόῃ σεσωσμένην. ἤδη πρόσειμι τῇ ∆αραρτάσει πόλει ταύτην δέ φασι Περσικῶν ὁρισμάτων εἶναι βορείαν, τὴν δὲ πρὸς Νότον θέσιν ὅσον πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἀντικειμένως ἔχειν, καὶ τὸν κατ' αὐτῆς ἐν βραχεῖ παραδρόμῳ καμπτῆρα τῷ τρέχοντι μορφώσω λόγῳ. τὸν Ἀρτασὴρ γάρ, δοῦλον ὄντα τὴν τύχην, τυραννικῷ λέγουσι καὶ θρασεῖ ξίφει Πάρθους ἀποστήσαντα τοῦ τότε κράτους εἰς αἰχμάλωτον ὅνπερ ἥρπασε θρόνον ἀντενθρονίζειν ἐν κακοῖς τὴν Περσίδα. χρόνους δὲ συλλέγουσιν, ὥς φασιν, δέκα σὺν ἓξ διαδραμόντας ἑξηκοντάσιν ἐν οἷς τὸ πικρὸν τοῦδε τοῦ σπόρου γένος ἐξ αἱμάτων ὤδινεν αἱμάτων γόνον· ἐν γὰρ τοσαύτῃ τοῦ χρόνου παρεκτάσει ἐναλλαγὴν οὐκ ἔσχε τῆς μιαιφόνου σειρᾶς ἐκείνης ἡ δυσέκλυτος δέσις, ἀλλ' ἐκ τέκνων εἰς τέκνα συμμετεπλάκη ὁ δεσμὸς οὗτος ἐν σφαγαῖς πεφυρμένος, καὶ πᾶς παρ' αὐτοῖς δυσμενὴς βροτοκτόνος ἔσπειρε τέκνον εἰς γονὴν πατροκτόνον, κἀκεῖνος αὖθις ὡς ἐχίδνης οὐσίαν τὸν κλῆρον ἀντέπεμψεν εἰς τοὺς ἐκγόνους· καὶ ῥοῦς ἐχεῖτο τοὺς φόνους ἐπιρρέων ἕως πλατυνθεὶς εἰς ἀμέτρητον χύσιν ἕστηκεν ἐνθεὶς εἰς βυθὸν τὸν Χοσρόην. ἔδει γάρ, οἶμαι, τῆς Ἰωκάστης τὸν βίον ζηλοῦντας αὐτοὺς τῷ παραλλήλῳ φθόνῳ πρὸς τὰς ὁμοίας συμφορὰς ἀνατρέχειν. ἐκεῖνος οὖν ἔκτιζε τήνδε τὴν πόλιν εἰς πύργον ἄκρον, εἰς ἀπόρθητον τόπον, εἰς τεῖχος, ὡς ἔδειξε, τῆς ἁμαρτίας· ἐκεῖ γὰρ εἶχε Χοσρόης καὶ τοὺς μάγους καὶ τοὺς ἑαυτοῦ προστάτας τοὺς ἄνθρακας, δεινῇ κρατηθεὶς εἰκότως ὑποψίᾳ μὴ τοὺς σεβαστοὺς αἰχμαλώτους ἁρπάσῃς. ἀλλ' αὐτὸς ἐλθὼν ὥσπερ ἀστραπῆς τάχος καὶ πλαστὸν αὐτοῖς σχηματουργήσας φόνον φόνον γὰρ αὐτὸς οὐδὲ βαρβάρων θέλεις, εἰ μὴ καθ' αὑτῶν ἐκσπάσοιντο τὰ ξίφη, στήσας τε πολλὰς μηχανὰς τῶν ὀργάνων, κριούς, χελώνας, πετροπομποὺς σφενδόνας φράξας τε τὴν φάλαγγα καὶ τείχει νέῳ τὸ τεῖχος αὐτῶν ἐμπερικλείσας ὅλον ἅπαντας ἔνδον εἷλες ἐκ μόνου φόβου. πρῶτον μὲν οὖν, κράτιστε, τῶν σκύλων ὅλων ἀπηνθράκωσας τοὺς θεοὺς τῆς Περσίδος, δεκτὰς ἀπαρχὰς τῷ Θεῷ σου προσφέρων τὰ τῶν προπάππων Χοσρόου κειμήλια· σβεννὺς γὰρ αὐτοὺς ἔφλεγες τὸν Χοσρόην, οὐχ ὥσπερ ἐχθρὸς τοῦ πυρὸς τῆς οὐσίας ὅλος γὰρ εἶ πῦρ τῷ Θεῷ συνημμένος, ἀλλ' ὡς ἐλευθέραν τε καὶ σεσωσμένην θέλων προσάξαι τῷ Θεῷ καὶ τὴν κτίσιν. ἀπηλλάγη γὰρ καὶ τὸ πῦρ μολυσμάτων τῇ προσκυνήσει μᾶλλον ἐξυβρισμένον, ἔχει δὲ τιμὴν τὴν καλὴν ἀτιμίαν, τῇ σῇ καθαρθὲν εὐσεβεῖ καθαιρέσει καὶ συμφερόντως δυστυχεῖν ἠνέσχετο καλῶς τεφρωθὲν ἢ κακῶς ἀνημμένον. οὕτως ἐκεῖνο πᾶν τὸ πῦρ κατασβέσας ἀφῆκας οὐδέν, πλὴν ὅσον λαλεῖν ἔδει, σπινθῆρα μικρὸν εἰς τὸ φλέξαι Χοσρόην.