They asked Hormoz, “What fault did you find in your father’s ministers that you ordered them to be imprisoned?” He replied, "I found no specific fault, but I saw that their fear of me was immense, and they did not fully trust my reign. I feared that out of concern for their own safety, they might plot my downfall. Therefore, I followed the advice of the wise who have said:
Fear the one who fears you, O wise one, Even if you face a hundred like him in battle. The snake bites the shepherd’s foot, Because it fears he will crush its head with a stone. Do you not see that when the cat is desperate, It claws out the eyes of the leopard?
