Zenobia or The fall of Palmyra Novel

It is with difficulty that I persuade myself that it is I who am sitting and writing to you from this great city of the East. Whether I look upon the face of nature or the works of man I see every thing different from what the West presents; so widely different that it seems to me at times as if I were subject to the power of a dream. But I rouse myself and find that I am awake and that it is really I your old friend and neighbor Piso late a dweller upon the Coelian hill who am now basking in the warm skies of Palmyra and notwithstanding all the splendor and luxury by which I am surrounded longing to be once more in Rome by the side of my Curtius and with him discoursing as we have been wont to do of the acts and policy of the magnificent Aurelian.