decided to confine him in a castle which it is their habit to call the
"Prison of Oblivion." For if anyone is cast into it, the law permits no
mention of him to be made thereafter, but death is the penalty for the
man who speaks his name; for this reason it has received this title
among the Persians. On one occasion, however, the History of the
Armenians relates that the operation of the law regarding the Prison of
Oblivion was suspended by the Persians in the following way.

There was once a truceless war, lasting two and thirty years, between
the Persians and the Armenians, when Pacurius was king of the Persians,
and of the Armenians, Arsaces, of the line of the Arsacidae. And by the
long continuance of this war it came about that both sides suffered
beyond measure, and especially the Armenians. But each nation was
possessed by such great distrust of the other that neither of them could
make overtures of peace to their opponents. In the meantime it happened
that the Persians became engaged in a war with certain other barbarians
who lived not far from the Armenians. Accordingly the Armenians, in
their eagerness to make a display to the Persians of their goodwill and
desire for peace, decided to invade the land of these barbarians, first
revealing their plan to the Persians. Then they fell upon them
unexpectedly and killed almost the whole population, old and young
alike. Thereupon Pacurius, who was overjoyed at the deed, sent certain
of his trusted friends to Arsaces, and giving him pledges of security,
invited him to his presence. And when Arsaces came to him he shewed him
every kindness, and treated him as a brother on an equal footing with
himself. Then he bound him by the most solemn oaths, and he himself
swore likewise, that in very truth the Persians and Armenians should
thenceforth be friends and allies to each other; thereafter he
straightway dismissed Arsaces to return to his own country.