Book IX, 210: On the “Tactics” of Orbicius

Look on me, the book pregnant with vigorous toil, the book that the Emperor Hadrian had by him in his wars, but which for ages lay disused and nearly forgotten. But Anastasius, our powerful emperor, brought me to light again, that I might help his campaigns. For I can teach the labours of murderous war; and I know how, with me, thou shalt destroy the men of the western sea, and the Persians, and the doomed Saracens, and the swift cavalry of the warlike Huns, and the Isaurians taking refuge on their rocky summits. I will bring all things under the sceptre of Anastasius, whom time brought into the world to outshine even Trajan.