n a conference with the
Imperial chiefs, had presumed to declare that he disposed of victory
as absolutely as of the ring on his finger. Such presumption was the
natural cause and forerunner of a shameful defeat. The Romans had been
gradually repulsed to the edge of the sea-shore; and their last camp, on
the ruins of the Grecian colony of Phasis, was defended on all sides
by strong intrenchments, the river, the Euxine, and a fleet of galleys.
Despair united their counsels and invigorated their arms: they withstood
the assault of the Persians and the flight of Nacoragan preceded or
followed the slaughter of ten thousand of his bravest soldiers. He
escaped from the Romans to fall into the hands of an unforgiving master
who severely chastised the error of his own choice: the unfortunate
general was flayed alive, and his skin, stuffed into the human form, was
exposed on a mountain; a dreadful warning to those who might hereafter
be intrusted with the fame and fortune of Persia. [86] Yet the prudence
of Chosroes insensibly relinquished the prosecution of the Colchian war,
in the just persuasion, that it is impossible to reduce, or, at
least, to hold a distant country against the wishes and efforts of its
inhabitants. The fidelity of Gubazes sustained the most rigorous trials.
He patiently endured the hardships of a savage life, and rejected with
disdain, the specious temptations of the Persian court. [8611] The king
of the Lazi had been educated in the Christian religion; his mother was
the daughter of a senator; during his youth he had served ten years a
silentiary of the Byzantine palace, [87] and the arrears of an unpaid
salary were a motive of attachment as well as of complaint. But the long
continuance of his sufferings extorted from him a naked representation
of the truth; and truth was an unpardonable libel on the lieutenants
of Justinian, who, amidst the delays of a ruinous war, had spared
his enemies and trampled on his allies. Their malicious information
persuaded the emperor that his faithless vassal already meditated
a second defection: an order was surprised to send him prisoner to
Constantinople; a treacherous clause was inserted, that he might be
lawfully killed in case of resistance; and Gubazes, without arms,
or suspicion of danger, was stabbed in the security of a friendly
interview. In the first moments of rage and despair, the Colchians
would have sacrificed their country and religion to the gratification