Envoys of the Barbarian Nations Receive Gifts from the Emperor

Indeed, ambassadors were constantly arriving from every nation, bringing their most precious gifts for him to accept. I myself have sometimes stood near the entrance of the imperial palace and seen a remarkable line of barbarians waiting there. They differed from one another in dress and ornaments, and were just as unlike in the way they wore their hair and beards. They looked fierce and terrifying, and their bodies were enormous. Some had ruddy skin, others were as white as snow, others of a color in between. For among those I have mentioned could be seen people of the Blemmyan tribes, of the Indians, and of the Ethiopians, “that race divided in two, the farthest of mankind.” All these in turn, like figures in a painted procession, presented to the emperor the gifts their own nation valued most. Some offered crowns of gold, others diadems set with precious stones. Some brought fair-haired boys, others barbarian robes embroidered with gold and flowers. Some came with horses, others with shields and long spears, with arrows and bows, offering by these their service and alliance for the emperor to accept. He received these gifts from each of them and carefully laid them aside, and he answered them so generously that he made the bearers rich at once. He also honored the noblest among them with Roman offices of rank, so that many of them from then on preferred to go on living among us and had no wish to see their native land again. [a]