Xenophon of Ephesus, An Ephesian Tale 2.13.3 · 2.13.3
A noise in the forest
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Ὡς δὲ πάντα ἕτοιμα ἦν καὶ κρεμᾶν τὴν κόρην ἤθελον, ψόφος τῆς ὕλης ἠκούετο καὶ ἀνθρώπων κτύπος. Ἦν δὲ ὁ τῆς εἰρήνης τῆς ἐν Κιλικίᾳ προεστώς, Περίλαος τοὔνομα, ἀνὴρ τῶν τὰ πρῶτα ἐν Κιλικίᾳ δυναμένων.
When everything was ready and they meant to hang the girl, a noise was heard from the forest, and the tramping of men. It was the man in charge of keeping the peace in Cilicia, Perilaus by name, one of the most powerful men in Cilicia.
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The setting
Book 2, chapter 13. The robbers have everything ready for the sacrifice of Anthia to Ares.
A note on this passage
ὁ τῆς εἰρήνης προεστώς, "the man set over the peace," describes a real office in the cities of the Roman East, the eirenarch (εἰρήναρχος, "ruler of the peace"), a leading local man chosen to keep order and to hunt down bandits. When Perilaus' story is told again in Book 3, he is said to have been elected "to rule the peace in Cilicia" (3.9.5). He is introduced in the words that introduced Habrocomes' father at the opening of the story, "a man among those with the most power" (ἀνὴρ τῶν τὰ πρῶτα … δυναμένων, 1.1.1).
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