Volume 1

History of the wars / with an English trans. by H.P.Dewing.

  • Procopius
Date:
1914-35
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: History of the wars / with an English trans. by H.P.Dewing. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    having no power to check its force. Still there are those who take into consideration none of these things, who reverence and worship the ancient times, and give no credit to modern improvements. But no such consideration will prevent the conclusion that most great and notable deeds have been performed in these wars. And the history of them will begin at some distance back, telling of the fortunes in war of the Romans and the Medes, their reverses and their successes. II When the Roman Emperor Arcadius was at the 408 a.d. point of death in Byzantium,having a malechild,Theo- dosius, who was still unweaned, he felt grave fears not only for him but for t he government as well, not know- ing how he should provide wisely for both. For he perceived that, if he provided a partner in govern- ment for Theodosius, he would in fact be destroying his own son by bringing forward against him a foe clothed in the regal power; while if he set him alone over the empire, many would try to mount the throne, taking advantage, as they might be expected to do, of the helplessness of the child. These men would rise against the government, and, after des- troying Theodosius, would make themselves tyrants without difficulty, since the boy had no kinsman in Byzantium to be his guardian. For Arcadius had no hope that the boy's uncle, Honorius, would succour him, inasmuch as the situation in Italy was already troublesome. And he was equally dis- turbed by the attitude of the Medes, fearing lest
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