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No, sir, by this route, the enemy certainly did not expect us.

You speak as if you still thought this route unwisely chosen.

Yes, sir, it is still my opinion that we should rather have taken a more northerly direction. Then our left wing would have rested on Armenia, which is friendly towards us, and all our supplies might have come from that fruitful province. But here? Hampered in our progress by the heavy freight-ships, surrounded by a barren plain, almost a desert Ah! the Emperor is coming. I will go; I am not in his good graces at present.

''He goes out to the right. At the same time enters with his retinue from the ships. , the physician, the philosophers and, with several others, appear from among the tents on the right, and advance to meet the Emperor.''

Thus does the empire grow. Every step I take towards the east shifts the frontier of my dominion.

[He stamps on the earth.

This earth is mine! I am in the empire, not beyond it.—Well, Priscus?

Incomparable Emperor, your command has been executed. Your marvellous dream has been read to every division of the army.