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Then let me honestly tell you that these envoys came to seek your predecessor, not you.

What do you dare to tell me?

Pooh, what preposterous nonsense!

Mamertinus.

What a fable!

It is the truth. I have long known that these men were on their way,—long before the Emperor Constantius closed his eyes. Oh, my most gracious lord, let not a false vanity find its way into your young mind

Enough, enough! Then you mean to say that

Think for yourself. How could your victories in Gaul, glorious as they have been, reach the ears of such distant nations with such rapidity? When the envoys spoke of the Emperor's heroic deeds, they had in mind the war against the King of Persia

I did not know that the war against King Sapor had been so conducted as to spead terror to the ends of the earth.