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[1] Amid these troublesome disturbances, which the treachery of a general brought about by the atrocious murder of the king of the Quadi, a terrible crime was committed in the Orient, where Papa,
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king of the Armenians, was killed by secret plots. Of this matter, which was conceived by a nefarious plan, the following (as we have learned) was the original
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cause.
[2] Some crafty men, who had often fattened themselves through losses sustained by the public, brought before Valens and maliciously exaggerated a patchwork of charges against this king, even then only just come to manhood. Among these was the general Terentius,
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a man who walked humbly and always wore a somewhat sad expression, but so long as he lived was a zealous abettor of dissensions.
[3] He formed a cabal with a few of the gentiles
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who were in fear and suspense because of their misdeeds, and writing constantly to the court harped on the death of Cylaces and Arrabanes,
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adding that this same young king was aroused to acts of arrogance and was excessively cruel to his subjects.
[4] Accordingly, under pretence that he was to take part in a consultation to be held at the time with regard to the present situation of affairs, the said Papa was summoned with the courtesy due to his royal rank; but at Tarsus in Cilicia he was put under guard as if it were doing him honour.
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And when he could neither get access to the emperor’s quarters, nor learn the reason for his urgent coming, since all kept silence, he finally found out through secret information, that Terentius by letters was advising the Roman ruler at once to appoint another king of Armenia, to prevent a nation that was useful to us from going over to the side of the Persians through hatred of Papa and the expectation that he would return; for they were burning with the desire of seizing Armenia by force, or threats, or flattery.
[5] The king, thinking over the matter, foresaw that he was threatened by a sad end. And being now aware of the plot, and seeing no other way to save himself except by a swift departure, at the advice of trusted friends he got together three hundred companions who had followed him from his native country; and when the greater part of the day had passed they mounted swift horses and set out with more boldness than discretion, as is usual under pressing and doubtful alarms, and fearlessly hastened away in close order.
[6] The governor of the province, aroused by a message from the officer who guarded the gate, proceeded in eager haste and overtook the king in the suburbs. He earnestly besought him to remain; but since this request was not granted, he turned his back through fear of his life.
[7] More than that, when a legion followed him a little later and overtook him, Papa charged back upon them with his bravest men, pouring in his arrows like a shower of sparks. He missed intentionally but put them to flight, so that the whole legion with its tribune was terrified and they all returned to the walls more briskly than they had come.
[8] Then, freed from all fear, after completing two days and two nights of very toilsome marching, he came to the bank of the Euphrates; but since he had no boats he could not ford the eddying stream, so that many of his men, being unable to swim were terrified, and the king himself hesitated most of all. Indeed, he would have remained there, if he had not, amid the various plans suggested by all, been able to find an expedient which seemed safest in their dire necessity.
[9] They took the beds which they found in the farmhouses and supported each of them upon two bladders,
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of which there was an abundant supply in the vine-producing fields. The prince himself and his most distinguished followers seated themselves each upon one of these, led their horses behind them, and by taking oblique courses avoided the high waves of the onrushing waters; and by this device, after extreme dangers, they at length reached the opposite bank.
[10] All the rest, carried by their swimming horses, and often submerged and tossed about by the flood swirling around them, exhausted by the danger and the wetting, were thrown out on the opposite bank. There they refreshed themselves with a brief rest and went on more rapidly than on the days just past.
[11] When this was reported, the emperor, greatly troubled by the flight of the king, and thinking that after escaping this snare he would break faith, sent Danielus and Barzimeres (the one a general, the other tribune of the targeteers) with a thousand nimble and light-armed archers, to call him back.
[12] They, trusting to their knowledge of the region, since the king, though in haste, yet being a foreigner and unacquainted with the neighbourhood, kept making meanders and circles,
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got ahead of him by short cuts through the valleys. Then, dividing their forces, they beset the two nearest roads, which were separated by a distance of three miles, in order that, through whichever of the two he should pass, he might be caught off his guard; but the plan came to nothing through this chance event:
[13] A wayfarer who was hastening towards the nearer
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bank of the river, seeing the ascent filled with armed soldiers, in order to avoid them took to a bypath between the two roads, rough with thickets and brambles; falling in with the wearied Armenians, and being led before the king, he told him in a private interview what he had seen; he was then detained, but not harmed.
[14] Presently the king, pretending that there was nothing to fear, secretly sent a horseman on the road to the right with orders to secure lodging and food; but after he had gone a little way, another was ordered to go with all speed towards the left on a similar errand, but without knowing that the other horseman had been sent in a different direction.
[15] After these helpful precautions, the king himself, with his followers—the wayfarer tracing his way back amongst the thickets through which he had come and showing a rough path very narrow indeed for a loaded pack-animal— left the soldiers
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behind him, and made his escape. They, after capturing his messengers, who had been sent merely to confuse the minds of those who were lying in wait for the king, were almost expecting him to rush into their open arms, like a wild beast at a hunt.
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But while they were waiting for his coming, he was restored safe and sound to his kingdom, where he was received with the greatest joy by his subjects; but thereafter he remained unmoved in true allegiance, bearing in silence all the wrongs that he had suffered.
[16] After this, as soon as Danielus and Barzimeres, baffled, had returned, they were assailed with shameful reproaches as blunderers and slothful, and like venomous serpents whose bite had been blunted by the first attack, they sharpened their deadly fangs, intending as soon as they could and to the extent of their powers to injure him who had given them the slip.
[17] And to palliate their fault or the deception which they had suffered from greater cleverness, they bombarded the ears of the emperor (most retentive of all gossip) with false charges against Papa, alleging that he was wonderfully skilled through the incantations of Circe
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in changing and weakening men’s bodies; and they added that, having by arts of that kind spread darkness round himself,
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and by changing his own form and that of his followers, having passed through their lines, if he survived this trickery, he would cause sad troubles.
[18] In this way the irreconcilable hatred of the emperor for Papa was increased, and plots were devised every day for taking his life either by violence or secretly; and to Trajanus,
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who was then in Armenia in command of the military forces, this work was entrusted through secret letters.
[19] That general sought to win the king by treacherous flattery, now showing him letters of Valens as tokens of his calm state of mind, and now forcing himself upon his banquets; finally, when his plot was matured, he invited him with great respect to a luncheon. The king came, fearing no hostility, and took his place in the seat of honour granted him.
[20] And when choice dainties were set before him, and the great building rang with the music of strings, songs, and wind-instruments,
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the host himself, already heated with wine, went out, under pretence of a call of nature. Then a rude barbarian, fiercely glaring with savage eyes and brandishing a drawn sword, one of the class called scurrae,
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was sent in to kill the young man, who had already been cut off from any possibility of escape.
[21] At this sight the young king, who, as it happened, was leaning forward beyond his couch, drew his dagger and was rising to defend his life by every possible means, but fell disfigured, pierced through the breast like some victim at the altar, foully slain by repeated strokes.
[22] By such treachery was credulity basely deceived, and at a banquet, which ought to be respected even on the Euxine Sea,
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before the eyes of the god of hospitality
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a stranger’s blood was shed, which bespattered the spendid linen cloths with foaming gore, was more than enough to sate the guests, who scattered in utmost horror. If the dead can feel grief,
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the famous Fabricius Luscinus might groan at this arrogant act, when he recalled with what greatness of soul he rejected the promise of Demochares or (as some write)
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Nicias, the king’s attendant, made in a secret conference; for he said that he would kill king Pyrrhus, who at that time was reducing Italy to ashes
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in cruel warfare, by mixing poison with his cups; but Fabricius warned the king in a letter to beware of his more intimate servants. Such a place of respect in those days of old-time justice was held by the conviviality even of an enemy’s table.
[23] True, some sought to excuse this recent extraordinary and shameful deed by the example of the assassination of Sertorius,
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but those flatterers perhaps did not know that no act which is proved to be contrary to law is justified because another crime was similar or went unpunished, as Demosthenes, eternal glory of Greece, declares.
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Res Gestae. Ammianus Marcellinus. John C. Rolfe (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1935-1940.
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