Tacitus
- (Tragic circumstances of Radamistus and his wife, Zenobia)
The Annals, Book XII (109 A.D)
ტაციტუსი აღწერს რადამისტის მეუღლე, ზენობიას ტრაგიკულ ბედს. რადამისტი და ზენობია
გარბიან სომხეთიდან და რადამისტი სასიკვდილოდ იმეტებს ფეხმძიმე ცოლს, რათა
ტყვეობის სირცხვილს გადაარჩინოს.
Rhadamistus
had no means of escape but in the swiftness of the horses which bore
him and his wife away. Pregnant as she was, she endured, somehow or
other, out of fear of the enemy and love of her husband, the first part
of the
flight, but after a while, when she felt herself shaken by its continuous
speed, she implored to be rescued by an honourable death from the shame
of captivity. He at first embraced, cheered, and encouraged her, now
admiring her heroism, now filled with a sickening apprehension at the
idea of her being left to any man's mercy. Finally, urged by the intensity
of his love and familiarity with dreadful deeds, he unsheathed his
scymitar, and having stabbed her, dragged her to the bank of the Araxes
and committed
her to the stream, so that her very body might be swept away. Then
in headlong flight he hurried to Iberia, his ancestral kingdom. Zenobia
meanwhile (this was her name), as she yet breathed and showed signs
of
life on the calm water at the river's edge, was perceived by some shepherds, who inferring from her noble appearance that she was no base-born woman,
bound up her wound and applied to it their rustic remedies. As soon
as they knew her name and her adventure, they conveyed her to the city
of
Artaxata, whence she was conducted at the public charge to Tiridates,
who received her kindly and treated her as a royal person. |