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but otherwise it would not be possible for them, unless they first invent many lies and slanders, and make us hostile to each other. To what a degree of absurdity our affairs will be driven, if such things happen, you yourself, being intelligent, might perceive, but I myself will teach you more clearly. For either I must die, contrary to all reason of justice, having become the victim of slander and calumny, a man not only loyal to the emperor and to you his relatives, carefully tested for so long a time, but also one who has managed the affairs of the Romans honestly and purely, whom if by some chance it happened that he was living among some barbarians far from the land of the Romans, you would be worthy of much just blame and accusation, if you did not make 2.43 every effort to bring him back and recall him, to use him as was fitting. Or if I do not willingly choose death, but wish to deem myself worthy of foresight and not to abandon my safety to those who wish it, it is necessary to stand apart from you and save myself. And when this has happened, that more of the Romans will follow me and there will be a grievous civil war and the overthrow of cities and the destruction of countless things and, so to speak, the complete dissolution of the Roman dominion, I think anyone at all does not fail to know, who has any share of sense. For which things He who is about to judge all the living and the dead will exact the penalty from both of us at that fearful judgment, as having been the cause of all these things, or rather from you alone, who neither understood what was right on your own, nor were willing to learn from me when I taught you. For I myself insist, with the hand from above also helping, that I will transgress none of my duties, nor is there anything that will persuade me to provide a pretext for war myself. If, therefore, you have so persuaded yourself as to never think anything ill of me, but also to consider that I do and think all things on behalf of both you and the emperor your son, and to regard slanderers as sycophants and common enemies and never not only not to believe them as speaking the truth, but not even to lend an ear to them at all for their slanders, 2.44 you will have planned what is both just and advantageous for yourself and for me, and for all the affairs of the Romans in common, and I myself am persuaded to hold to the administration of public affairs. But if you see that your soul is unable to do these things and has doubtful opinions about me, why is it necessary to cause trouble for themselves and for me, and not rather, persuaded by me who advises better things, to allow me to sit at home, having chosen inactivity, and for you yourself, together with the patriarch and the others, who are many and good, to do what is of common advantage to the Romans? For I am neither so foolish, nor so out of my mind, as to cast myself into obvious danger, and this when I intend not only to spare none of my own money for the common good of the Romans, but not even my own life, if it should be necessary, and it will certainly be necessary and often, and to demand no other reward for my labors and dangers and so many expenditures, than first to be kept unharmed from evils, and second the good repute and glory for good deeds, not to be deprived of which is the mark not of the very brilliant and renowned, but of those who have chosen to live basely and without honor and no better than the many. To me, therefore, having considered, such things seemed to myself to be advantageous both for each of us individually and for all of us together. But it is fitting for you, having considered the same things both in common with the others and privately, to choose whatev- 2.45 er might be more profitable. And may God grant that we choose the better things. 2. When the great domestic had spoken such things to the empress with boldness and without any concealment, she herself praised his words as not spoken harshly or roughly, as he had said in his preamble, but as clinging to truth and justice and the boldness befitting a true friend. Concerning, therefore, his being most able, both formerly and now alike, if he wished, to secure the Roman empire for himself, she herself most clearly of all

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δὲ ἄλλως αὐτοῖς οὐκ ἂν ἐξέσται, εἰ μὴ πρότερον πολλὰ ψεύδη καὶ συκοφαντίας πλάσαντες, ἐκπολεμώσουσιν ἡμᾶς ἀλλήλοις. εἰς ὅσον δὲ ἀτοπίας ἐξελάσει τὰ πράγματα ἡμῖν, ἂν συμβῇ τοιαῦτα, καὶ αὐτὴ μὲν ἂν συνορῴης οὖσα συνετὴ, σαφέστερον δὲ διδάξω καὶ αὐτός. ἢ γὰρ ἐμὲ παρὰ πάντα δικαίου λόγον ἀνάγκη ἀποθνήσκειν, ἔργον γεγενημένον συκοφαντίας καὶ διαβολῆς, ἄνθρωπον οὐ μόνον εὔνουν βασιλεῖ καὶ τοῖς ἐκείνῳ προσήκουσιν ὑμῖν ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον χρόνον ἐξητασμένον ἀκριβῶς, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ Ῥωμαίων πράγματα ἀδόλως καὶ καθαρῶς διῳκηκότα, ὃν εἰ κατὰ δή τινα τύχην παρὰ βαρβάροις δή τισι συνέβαινε διατρίβειν πόῤῥω τῆς Ῥωμαίων γῆς, πολλῆς ἂν ᾖτε μέμψεως ἄξιοι δικαίως καὶ κατηγορίας, εἰ μὴ πᾶσαν ἔθεσθε 2.43 σπουδὴν ἐπανάγειν καὶ ἀνακαλεῖσθαι, χρησόμενοι ᾗ αὐτῷ προσῆκεν. ἢ εἰ μὴ αὐτὸς ἑκὼν αἱρήσομαι τὸν θάνατον, ἀλλ' ἐθελήσω προνοίας ἐμαυτὸν ἀξιοῦν καὶ μὴ καταπροΐεσθαι τοῖς βουλομένοις τὴν σωτηρίαν, ἀνάγκη σοῦ ἀφίστασθαι καὶ σώζειν ἐμαυτόν. τούτου δὲ γενομένου, ὅτι πλείους ἐμοὶ τῶν Ῥωμαίων ἕψονται καὶ πόλεμος ἐμφύλιος ἔσται χαλεπὸς καὶ πόλεων ἀναστάσεις καὶ μυρίων φθοραὶ πραγμάτων καὶ συμπάσης, ὡς εἰπεῖν, κατάλυσις τῆς Ῥωμαίων ἡγεμονίας, πάντα ὁντινοῦν οἴομαι μὴ ἀγνοεῖν, τὸν καὶ ὁπωσοῦν φρενῶν μετειληχότα. ὧν τὰς δίκας παρ' ἀμφοτέρων λήψεται ἡμῶν ἐπὶ τῆς δίκης ἐκείνης τῆς φοβερᾶς ὁ πάντας μέλλων κρίνειν ζῶντας καὶ νεκροὺς, ὡς τούτων αἰτίους πάντων γενησομένους, μᾶλλον δὲ παρὰ μόνης σοῦ, τῆς μήτε παρ' ἑαυτῆς τὸ δέον συνιείσης, μήτε παρ' ἐμοῦ μαθεῖν διδάσκοντος βουλησομένης. ἐγὼ γὰρ αὐτὸς διϊσχυρίζομαι καὶ τῆς ἄνωθεν χειρὸς συνεφαπτομένης, ὡς οὐδὲν παραβήσομαι τῶν δεόντων, οὐδ' ἔστιν ὅ με πείσει πρόφασιν αὐτὸν τῷ πολέμῳ παρασχέσθαι. εἰ μὲν οὖν οὕτω πέπεικας σαυτὴν, ὥστε μηδὲν μηδέποτε φαῦλον λογίζεσθαι περὶ ἐμοῦ, ἀλλὰ καὶ πάντα ἡγεῖσθαι πράττειν καὶ διανοεῖσθαι ὑπὲρ σοῦ τε καὶ βασιλέως τοῦ σοῦ παιδὸς, τοὺς δὲ διαβάλλοντας ἡγεῖσθαι συκοφάντας καὶ κοινοὺς ἐχθροὺς καὶ μηδέποτε αὐτοῖς ὡς ἀληθεύουσι μὴ μόνον μὴ πιστεύειν, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ τὴν ἀρχὴν αὐτοῖς ὑπέχειν οὖς πρὸς τὰς συκοφαν 2.44 τίας, δίκαιά τε ὁμοῦ καὶ σαυτῇ τε καὶ ἐμοὶ συμφέροντα ἐβουλεύσω καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς Ῥωμαίων πράγμασι κοινῇ, καὶ αὐτὸς τῆς διοικήσεως ἔχεσθαι πείθομαι τῶν κοινῶν. εἰ δὲ πρὸς ταῦτα τὴν ψυχὴν ὁρᾷς ἀδυνατοῦσαν καὶ ἀμφιβόλους δόξας ἔχουσαν περὶ ἐμοῦ, τί δεῖ σφίσι τε αὐτοῖς κἀμοὶ πράγματα παρέχειν, ἀλλὰ μὴ πειθομένους ἐμοὶ τὰ βελτίω συμβουλεύοντι, ἐμὲ μὲν ἐᾷν οἴκοι καθῆσθαι τὴν ἀπραγμοσύνην ᾑρημένον, αὐτὴν δ' ἅμα πατριάρχῃ καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις, πολλοῖς τε καὶ ἀγαθοῖς οὖσι, τὰ κοινῇ συμφέροντα Ῥωμαίοις πράττειν; οὐδὲ γὰρ ἀνόητος, οὐδ' οὕτως ἔξω φρενῶν ἐγὼ, ὥστ' εἰς προὖπτον κίνδυνον ἐμβάλλειν ἐμαυτὸν, καὶ ταῦτα μέλλων, μὴ χρημάτων μόνον τῶν ἰδίων ὑπὲρ τῶν κοινῇ Ῥωμαίοις συμφερόντων, ἀλλ' οὐδ' αὐτῆς, εἰ δεήσει, φείδεσθαι ψυχῆς, πάντως δὲ δεήσει καὶ πολλάκις, μηδεμίαν δὲ ἑτέραν τῶν πόνων καὶ τῶν κινδύνων καὶ τῶν τοσούτων ἀναλωμάτων τὴν ἀντιμισθίαν ἀπαιτεῖν, ἢ πρῶτον μὲν τὸ ἀπαθῆ κακῶν διατηρεῖσθαι, δεύτερον δὲ τὴν ἐπὶ τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς ἔργοις εὔκλειαν καὶ εὐδοξίαν, ἧς τὸ μὴ ἡττῆσθαι οὐ τῶν πάνυ λαμπρῶν καὶ περιδόξων, ἀλλὰ τῶν φαύλως καὶ ἀτίμως καὶ οὐδὲν ἄμεινον τῶν πολλῶν βιοῦν προῃρημένων. ἐμοὶ μὲν οὖν σκεψαμένῳ, τοιαῦτα ἔδοξε πρὸς ἐμαυτὸν ἰδίᾳ τε ἡμῶν ἑκάστῳ καὶ πᾶσιν ὁμοῦ συμφέρειν. σὲ δὲ προσήκει καὶ κοινῇ μετὰ τῶν ἄλλων καὶ ἰδίᾳ σκεψαμένην περὶ τῶν αὐτῶν, ἅτ 2.45 τα ἂν εἴη λυσιτελέστερα, ἑλέσθαι. δοίη δὲ θεὸς ἑλέσθαι τὰ βελτίω. ʹ. Τοιαῦτα πρὸς βασιλίδα μετὰ παῤῥησίας τοῦ μεγάλου δομεστίκου καὶ χωρίς τινος περικαλύμματος διειλεγμένου, ἐπῄνεσέ τε τοὺς λόγους καὶ αὐτὴ, ὡς οὐ σκληρῶς οὐδὲ τραχέως, ὥσπερ προοιμιαζόμενος εἶπεν, εἰρημένους, ἀλλ' ἀληθείας τε ἐχομένους καὶ δικαιοσύνης καὶ παῤῥησίας πρεπούσης φίλῳ ἀληθεῖ. περὶ μὲν οὖν τοῦ πρότερόν τε καὶ νῦν ὁμοίως μάλιστα εἶναι δυνατὸν αὐτῷ, εἰ ἐβούλετο, τὴν Ῥωμαίων βασιλείαν ἑαυτῷ περιποιεῖν, σαφέστατα πάντων αὐτὴ