the Picentes.  He refused, however, to obey the order to put down his dagger when he approached the Roman monarch, and he nailed it firmly to the scabbard.  Yet he knelt upon the ground, and with arms crossed called him master and did obeisance. [Sidenote:—­3—­] Nero manifested his approbation of this act and entertained him in many ways, one of which was a gladiatorial show at Puteoli.  The person who directed the contests was Patrobius, one of his freedmen.  He managed to make it a brilliant and costly affair, as is shown by the fact that on one of the days not a person but Ethiopians, men, women, and children, appeared in the theatre.  By way of showing Patrobius some proper honor Tiridates shot at beasts from his elevated seat.  And, if we may trust the report, he transfixed and killed two bulls together with one arrow.

[Sidenote:—­4—­] After this affair Nero took him up to Rome and set the diadem upon his head.  The entire city had been decorated with lights and garlands, and great crowds of people were to be seen everywhere, the Forum, however, being especially full.  The center was occupied by the populace, arranged according to rank, clad in white and carrying laurel branches:  everywhere else were the soldiers, arrayed in shining armor, their weapons and standards reflecting back the sunbeams.  The very roof tiles of the buildings in this vicinity were completely hidden from view by the spectators who had ascended to these points of vantage.  Everything was in readiness by the time night drew to a close and at daybreak Nero, wearing the triumphal garb and accompanied by the senate and the Pretorians, entered the Forum.  He ascended the rostra and seated himself upon the chair of state.  Next Tiridates and his suite passed through rows of heavy-armed men drawn up on each side, took their stand close to the rostra, and did obeisance to the emperor as they had done before. [Sidenote:—­5—­] At this a great roar went up which so alarmed Tiridates that for some moments he stood speechless, in terror of his life.  Then, silence having been proclaimed, he recovered courage and quelling his pride made himself subservient to the occasion and to his need, caring little how humbly he spoke, in view of the prize he hoped to obtain.  These were his words:  “Master, I am the descendant of Arsaces, brother of the princes Vologaesus and Pacorus, and thy slave.  And I have come to thee, my deity, to worship thee as I do Mithra.  The destiny thou spinnest for me shall be mine:  for thou art my Fortune and my Fate.”

Nero replied to him as follows:  “Well hast thou done to come hither in person, that present in my presence thou mayest enjoy my benefits.  For what neither thy father left thee nor thy brothers gave and preserved for thee, this do I grant thee.  King of Armenia I now declare thee, that both thou and they may understand that I have power to take away kingdoms and to bestow them.”  At the end of these words he bade him come up the inclined plane