The ship or the wishes (33)

Please, your Majesty, leave me behind as satrap of Greece. I’m a coward and I couldn’t bear to go far away from things at home. You seem to be pushing on to the Armenians and Parthians, warlike nations, good shots with the bow. So give the right wing to someone else and leave me in Greece like an Antipater. [*] I don’t want anyone to stick me with an arrow hitting some exposed part of my poor body when I’m leading your phalanx near Susa or Bactra.

You’re deserting the levy, Lycinus, you coward. It’s the law to cut the head off anyone seen leaving the ranks. But now that we are at the Euphrates, the river has been bridged and all is safe in the rear and I’ve put prefects over each tribe to keep control of everything. Others meanwhile will go off for us to win over Phoenicia and Palestine and afterwards Egypt too.