XLII. CHAP. were regulated; the Perfian affumed the guard of the gates of Caucafus, and the demolition of Dara was fufpended, on condition that it fhould never be made the refidence of the general of the East. This interval of repofe had been folicited, and was diligently improved by the ambition of the emperor: his African conquefts were the first fruits of the Perfian treaty; and the avarice of Chofroes was foothed by a large portion of the fpoils of Carthage, which his ambaffadors required in a tone of pleafantry, and under the colour of friendship ". But the trophies of Belifarius difturbed the flumbers of the great king; and he heard with aftonifirment, envy, and fear, that Sicily, Italy, and Rome itself, had been reduced in three rapid campaigns, to the obedience of Juftinian. Unpractised in the art of violating treaties, he fecretly excited his bold and fubtle vaffal Almondar. That prince of the Saracens, who refided at Hira", had not been included in the general peace, and ftill waged an obfcure war against his rival Arethas, the chief of the tribe of Gaffan, and confederate of the empire. The fubject of their difpute was an extensive fheep-walk in the defert to the south of Palmyra. An immemorial tribute for the licence of pafture, appeared to (A. D. 533, between January 1, and April 1. Pagi, tom. ii. p. 550.). Marcellinus, in his Chronicle, ufes the style of Medes and Perfians. 58 Procopius, Perfic. I. i. c. 26. 59 Almondar, king of Hira, was depofed by Kobad, and restored by Nufhirvan. His mother, from her beauty, was furnamed Cæleftial Water, an appellation which became hereditary, and was extended for a more noble cause (liberality in famine) to the Arab princes of Syria (Pocock, Specimen Hift. Arab. p. 69, 70.). atteft 60 XLII. atteft the rights of Almondar, while the Gaffanite CHAP. appealed to the Latin name of ftrata, a paved road, as an unquestionable evidence of the fovereignty and labours of the Romans 6°. The two monarchs fupported the cause of their respective vaffals; and the Perfian Arab, without expecting the event of a flow and doubtful arbitration, enriched his fly, ing camp with the spoil and captives of Syria. Inftead of repelling the arms, Juftinian attempted to feduce the fidelity, of Almondar, while he called from the extremities of the earth, the nations of Ethiopia and Scythia to invade the dominions of his rival, But the aid of fuch allies was distant and precarious, and the discovery of this hoftile correspondence juftified the complaints of the Goths and Armenians, who implored, almost at the fame time, the protection of Chofroes. The defcendants of Arfaces, who were still numerous in Armenia, had been provoked to affert the laft relics of na tional freedom and hereditary rank; and the ambaffadors of Vitiges had fecretly traverfed the empire to expose the inftant, and almost inevitable, danger of the kingdom of Italy. Their reprefent ations were uniform, weighty, and effectual. "We stand before your throne, the advocates of "your intereft as well as of our own. The "ambitious and faithlefs Juftinian afpires to be "the fole mafter of the world. Since the endless 60 Procopius, Perfic. 1, ii. c. 1. We are ignorant of the origin and object of this ftrata, a paved road of ten days journey from Auranitis to Babylonia. (See a Latin note in Delifle's Map Imp Orient.) Weffeling and d'Anville are filent. XLII. СНАР. " peace, which betrayed the common freedom of "mankind, that prince, your ally in words, your "enemy in actions, has alike infulted his friends "and foes, and has filled the earth with blood and "confufion. Has he not violated the privileges " of Armenia, the independence of Colchos, and "the wild liberty of the Tzanian mountains? Has "he not ufurped, with equal avidity, the city of "Bofphorus on the frozen Matius, and the vale "of palm-trees on the shores of the Red Sea? The "Moors, the Vandals, the Goths, have been "fucceffively oppreffed, and each nation has calmly "remained the spectator of their neighbour's ruin. "Embrace, O king! the favourable moment; "the Eaft is left without defence, while the ar"mies of Juftinian and his renowned general are "detained in the diftant regions of the West. "If you hesitate and delay, Belifarius and his "victorious troops will foon return from the Tiber "to the Tigris, and Perfia may enjoy the wretched "confolation of being the last devoured "." By fuch arguments, Chofroes was eafily perfuaded to imitate the example which he condemned: but the Perfian, ambitious of military fame, disdained the inactive warfare of a rival, who iffued his fanguinary commands from the fecure ftation of the Byzantine palace. 61 I have blended, in a short speech, the two orations of the Arfacides of Armenia and the Gothic ambaffadors. Procopius, in his public hiftory, feels, and makes us feel, that Juftinian was the true author of the war (Perfic. Į. ii. c. 2, 3.). Whatever XLII. He invades Syria, Whatever might be the provocations of Chof- CHAP. roes, he abused the confidence of treaties; and the just reproaches of diffimulation and falsehood could only be concealed by the luftre of his victories 62. The Perfian army, which had been affembled in the plains of Babylon, prudently declined the strong cities of Mefopotamia, and followed the western bank of the Euphrates, till the fmalk though populous town of Dura prefumed to arreft the progress of the great king. The gates of Dura, by treachery and surprise, were burft open; and as foon as Chofroes had stained his fcymiter with the blood of the inhabitants, he difmiffed the ambaffador of Juftinian to inform his master in what place he had left the enemy of the Romans. The conqueror ftill affected the praise of humanity and justice; and as he beheld a noble matron with her infant rudely dragged along the ground, he fighed, he wept, and implored the divine juftice to punifh the author of these calamities. Yet the herd of twelve thousand, captives was ranfomed for two hundred pounds of gold; the neighbouring bishop of Sergioplis pledged his faith for the payment; and in the fubfequent year the unfeeling avarice of Chofroes exacted the penalty of an obligation which it was generous to contract and impoffible to discharge. He advanced into the heart of Syria; but a feeble 62 The invafion of Syria, the ruin of Antioch, &c, are related in a full and regular feries by Procopius (Perfic. 1. ii. c. 5-14.). Small collateral aid can be drawn from the, Orientals: yet not they, but D'Herbelot himself (p. 680.), should biush, when he blames them for making Juftinian and Nushirvan contemporaries. On the geography of the feat of war, D'Anville (l'Euphrate et le Tigre) is fuf ficient and fatisfactory. CHAP. Antioch. ! enemy, who vanished at his approach, disappointed him of the honour of victory; and as he could not hope to establish his dominion, the Perfian king displayed in this inroad the mean and rapa cious vices of a robber. Hierapolis, Berrhea of Aleppo, Apamea and Chalcis, were fucceffively befieged: they redeemed their fafety by a ranfom of gold or filver, proportioned to their refpective ftrength and opulence; and their new mafter enforced, without obferving, the terms of capitu, lation, Educated in the religion of the Magi, he exercifed without remorfe the lucrative trade of facrilege; and, after stripping of its gold and gems, a piece of the true crofs, he generously restored the naked relict to the devotion of the Chriftians of and ruins Apamea. No more than fourteen years had elapfed fince Antioch was ruined by an earthquake; but the queen of the Eaft, the new Theopolis, had been raised from the ground by the liberality of Juftinian; and the increafing greatness of the buildings and the people already erafed the memory of this recent difafter. On one fide, the city was de fended by the mountain, on the other by the river Orontes; but the most acceffible part was com manded by a fuperior eminence; the proper reme, dies were rejected, from the defpicable fear of dif covering its weakness to the enemy; and Germanus, the emperor's nephew, refufed to truft his perfon and dignity within the walls of a befieged city. The people of Antioch had inherited the vain and fatirical genius of their ancestors: they were elated by a fudden reinforcement of fix thousand foldiers; |