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the Ister, now we find the same river called the Danube; so it will need explanation. 32 From the Rhaetian mountains, which Caesar says are in the Celtic highlands in the first book of his Gallic Commentaries, from one spring both the Rhine and the Ister, but neither of them without changing its name, is pushed out to the sea. For the Rhine, running through all the Gallic inland divided in three into Celtic, Germanic, and Gallic, not only irrigates it after the Rhone, but also guards it, keeping it inaccessible; and toward the end of its course, slipping into the river Mosus, a neighbor of the northern ocean to the west, it loses the name it had at the beginning, and with that river it is drawn into the bays of the Britannic sea. But the Ister, leaving its brother the Rhine departing toward the setting sun, is itself apportioned to the east; and as far as 184 Pannonia, which the Greeks innovatively called Paeonia for euphony and to avoid barbarism, and Sirmium, once a prosperous city of the Romans, but now of the Gepids, it preserves its own name, but winding around Thrace it loses its former name among the locals, being renamed the Danube; and the Thracians called it thus because towards the northern mountains and the Thrascian wind the cloudy air, being produced almost perpetually from the underlying excess of moisture, is considered to be the cause of continuous rainfall for them; and they call the Danube the cloud-bearer in their native tongue. And this about the rivers, as in a digression, according to Sammonicus the Roman historian, who discoursed to Diocletian and Galerius the elder On Various Questions. 33 Constantine therefore lost Scythia and Mysia and the tributes from them, as I said. But having made all Syria and Palestine one country—it is one land and is raised to the number of a province only for the sake of enumeration—he needed a prefect to be appointed after that of Libya and Galatia, Illyricum, Italy, and the East, considering, as the emperor himself says in his own writings, to attack the Persians unexpectedly. For Constantine knew, being great in both the education of letters and the practice of arms—for unless one happened to be distinguished in both educations, he was not appointed emperor of the Romans—that it was not easy for the Persians to be defeated otherwise, unless a sudden attack was poured upon them. And Celsus the Roman tactician has left a single treatise about this, clearly teaching that the Persians will not otherwise submit to the Romans, unless the Romans suddenly rush upon their country like a storm cloud, providing a reason not without sense; and it is as follows. 186 34 The whole people of the Persians and simply the entire nation is accustomed to rush to war, as also the Romans before Marius's disposition of the so-called legions. Therefore, cutting a man in two, they themselves lead the army through the middle of the two sections of the body. For it is clear that the Persians do not maintain fixed or well-prepared armies, so as to be ready for battles, like the Romans. Therefore, they need time for the preparation of an army and for sufficient expense for the war; so that Celsus says it is fitting to attack them unexpectedly, and especially with the beginning of the attack being made through Colchis—our contemporaries call it Lazica after a leader; for the difficult terrain is hard for the horse-riding Persians to enter; whence Corbulo in the time of Nero appeared intolerable to them; for having blocked their raids in the deserts of Persis through Hyrcania, he took away their victory from flight, so that in a narrow place, as far as the Persian multitudes were concerned, being taken alive they took refuge only in Antioch on the Mygdonius—which the Persians captured and renamed Nisibis, which they also then abandoned as the Romans pressed upon them like waterspouts. 35 Constantine therefore, having come to this thought and having appointed a prefect over the east with assessors for him

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Ἴστρον, νῦν δὲ ∆ανούβιον τὸν αὐτὸν εὑρίσκομεν ὀνομαζόμενον· ὥστε δεήσει διδασκαλίας. 32 Ἐκ τῶν Ῥητικῶν ὀρῶν, ἃ τῆς Κελτικῆς ὀρεινῆς εἶναί φησιν ὁ Καῖσαρ ἐν βιβλίῳ τῷ πρώτῳ τῆς κατ' αὐτὸν Γαλλικῆς Ἐφημερίδος, ἐκ μιᾶς πηγῆς ὅ τε Ῥῆνος ὅ τε Ἴστρος, οὐδέτερος δὲ αὐτῶν μὴ τὴν ἐπωνυμίαν ἀμείψας, ἐπὶ τὴν θάλασσαν ἐξωθεῖται. ὁ μὲν γὰρ Ῥῆνος, πᾶσαν τὴν Γαλατικὴν μεσόγειον τριχῇ διῃρημένην εἰς Κελτικὴν Γερμανικὴν καὶ Γαλατικὴν διατρέχων, οὐκ ἄρδει μόνον αὐτὴν μετὰ Ῥοδανόν, ἀλλὰ καὶ φρουρεῖ, φυλάττων ἀνέφοδον· πρὸς δὲ τὸ πέρας σχεδὸν τῆς ῥύσεως εἰς Μόσον τὸν ποταμόν, γείτονα τοῦ βορείου πρὸς δύσιν ὠκεανοῦ, ὀλισθαίνων ἀποβάλλει μὲν τὴν οὖσαν αὐτῷ κατ' ἀρχὰς ἐπωνυμίαν, μετ' ἐκείνου δὲ τοῖς τῆς Βρεττανικῆς θαλάττης ἐπισύρεται κόλποις. ὁ δὲ Ἴστρος, ἐάσας τὸν ἀδελφὸν Ῥῆνον πρὸς δύνοντα ἥλιον ἀναχωροῦντα, αὐτὸς ἐπὶ τὴν ἑῴαν μερίζεται· καὶ ἄχρι μὲν 184 Παννονίας ἣν Ἕλληνες Παιονίαν δι' εὐφωνίαν καὶ φυγὴν βαρβαρισμοῦ καινοτομοῦντες ἐκάλεσαν καὶ Σιρμίου, τῆς πάλαι μὲν Ῥωμαίων εὐδαίμονος πόλεως, νῦν δὲ Γηπαίδων, τὴν ἰδίαν διασῴζει προσηγορίαν, περὶ δὲ τὴν Θρᾳκίαν εἰλούμενος ἀποβάλλει μὲν παρὰ τοῖς ἐπιχωρίοις τὸ ἔμπροσθεν ὄνομα, ∆ανούβιος μετακληθείς· οὕτως δὲ αὐτὸν οἱ Θρᾷκες ἐκάλεσαν δι' ὅτι ἐπὶ τὰ πρὸς ἄρκτον ὄρη καὶ θρασκίαν ἄνεμον συννεφὴς ὁ ἀὴρ ἐκ τῆς ὑποκειμένης τῶν ὑγρῶν ἀμετρίας σχεδὸν διὰ παντὸς ἀποτελούμενος αἴτιος αὐτοῖς συνεχοῦς ἐπομβρίας ἀποτελεῖσθαι νομίζεται· ∆ανούβιον δὲ τὸν νεφελοφόρον ἐκεῖνοι καλοῦσι πατρίως. καὶ ταῦτα μὲν περὶ τῶν ποταμῶν, ὡς ἐν παρεκβάσει, κατὰ Σαμμωνικὸν τὸν Ῥωμαῖον ἱστορικόν, ὃς πρὸς ∆ιοκλητιανὸν καὶ Γαλέριον τὸν γέροντα Περὶ Ποικίλων Ζητημάτων διελέχθη. 33 Κωνσταντῖνος οὖν Σκυθίαν τε καὶ Μυσίαν καὶ τοὺς ἐξ αὐτῶν φόρους, ὡς ἔφην, ἀπώλεσεν. Συρίαν δὲ ὅλην καὶ Παλαιστίνην μία δέ ἐστι χώρα καὶ διὰ μόνον ἀριθμὸν εἰς πλῆθος ἀνάγεται ἐπαρχίας ἀναδείξας, ἐδεήθη ὕπαρχον μετὰ τὸν Λιβύης καὶ Γαλατίας Ἰλλυρίδος τε καὶ Ἰταλίας καὶ τῆς ἑῴας προχωρήσασθαι, σκεπτόμενος, ὡς αὐτὸς ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐν τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ λέγει συγγράμμασιν, Πέρσαις ἀδοκήτως ἐπελθεῖν. ἠπίστατο γὰρ Κωνσταντῖνος, πολὺς ὢν ἔν τε παιδεύσει λόγων καὶ συνασκήσει ὅπλων οὐδὲ γάρ, εἰ μὴ καθ' ἑκατέραν παίδευσιν ἔτυχέ τις διαπρέπων, βασιλεὺς Ῥωμαίων προεχειρίζετο μὴ εἶναι ῥᾴδιον ἄλλως καταπολεμηθῆναι Πέρσας, μὴ ἐξαπίνης αὐτοῖς ἐπιχεομένης ἐφόδου. καὶ συγγραφὴν περὶ τούτου μονήρη Κέλσος ὁ Ῥωμαῖος τακτικὸς ἀπολέλοιπεν, σαφῶς ἀναδιδάσκων ὡς οὐκ ἄλλως Πέρσαι Ῥωμαίοις παραστήσονται, μὴ αἰφνιδίως εἰς τὴν ἐκείνων χώραν Ῥωμαῖοι γνόφου δίκην ἐνσκήψουσιν, αἰτίαν οὐκ ἔξω λόγου παρασχόμενος· ἡ δὲ τοιαύτη ἐστίν. 186 34 Περσῶν ὁ δῆμος ὅλος καὶ σύμπαν ἁπλῶς τὸ ἔθνος εἴωθεν ἐπὶ πόλεμον ὁρμᾶν, ὡς καὶ Ῥωμαῖοι πρὸ τῆς Μαρίου τῶν λεγομένων λεγιώνων διατάξεως. διχοτομοῦντες οὖν ἄνθρωπον αὐτοὶ διὰ μέσου τῶν δύο τοῦ σώματος τομῶν διαβιβάζουσι τὸν στρατόν. δῆλον γὰρ ὡς οὐχ ὡρισμένα οὐδὲ εὐτρεπῆ στρατεύματα τρέφουσιν οἱ Πέρσαι, ὡς ἑτοίμους εἶναι πρὸς τὰς μάχας, ὥσπερ οἱ Ῥωμαῖοι. χρόνου δεῖ τοίνυν αὐτοῖς εἰς παρασκευὴν στρατοῦ καὶ δαπάνης ἀποχρώσης τῷ πολέμῳ· ὥστε ἁρμόδιόν φησιν ὁ Κέλσος ἀδοκήτως αὐτοῖς ἐπελθεῖν, καὶ μάλιστα διὰ τῆς Κολχίδος τὰ προοίμια τῆς ἐφόδου λαμβανούσης Λαζικὴν αὐτὴν ἐξ ἡγεμόνος ἐπιφημίζουσιν οἱ καθ' ἡμᾶς· ἡ γὰρ δυσχωρία Πέρσαις ἱππηλατοῦσι δυσέμβατος· ὅθεν ἀφόρητος αὐτοῖς ὁ Κορβουλὼν ἐπὶ τοῦ Νέρωνος ἐφάνη· τὰς γὰρ ἐκδρομὰς αὐτῶν τὰς ἐν ταῖς ἐρημίαις τῆς Περσίδος διὰ τῆς Ὑρκανῆς ἀποκλείσας, τὴν ἐκ τῆς φυγῆς νίκην ἀφεῖλεν, ὡς ἐν στενωπῷ, ὅσον ἧκεν εἰς Περσικὰς πολυπληθείας, ζωγρηθέντας εἰς μόνην τὴν πρὸς τῷ Μυγδονίῳ Ἀντιόχειαν Νίσιβιν αὐτὴν ἑλόντες μετεκάλεσαν οἱ Πέρσαι καταφυγεῖν, ἣν καὶ αὐτὴν ἀπέλιπον τὸ τηνικαῦτα δίκην πρηστήρων τῶν Ῥωμαίων αὐτοῖς ἐπικειμένων. 35 Ταύτης οὖν τῆς ἐννοίας ὁ Κωνσταντῖνος γενόμενος καὶ ὕπαρχον ἐπὶ τῆς ἕω χειροτονήσας διαψηφιστὰς αὐτῷ