ty,
Daras, as a stronghold against the Persians, although this was
explicitly forbidden in the treaty which Anatolius arranged with the
Persians; and as a result of this it is necessary for the Persian state
to be afflicted with the difficulties and the expense of two armies, the
one in order that the Massagetae may not be able fearlessly to plunder
the land of both of us, and the other in order that we may check your
inroads. When lately we made a protest regarding these matters and
demanded that one of two things should be done by you, either that the
army sent to the Caspian Gates should be sent by both of us, or that the
city of Daras should be dismantled, you refused to understand what was
said, but saw fit to strengthen your plot against the Persians by a
greater injury, if we remember correctly the building of the fort in
Mindouos[21]. And even now the Romans may choose peace, or they may
elect war, by either doing justice to us or going against our rights.
For never will the Persians lay down their arms, until the Romans either
help them in guarding the gates, as is just and right, or dismantle the
city of Daras." With these words Cabades dismissed the ambassador,
dropping the hint that he was willing to take money from the Romans and
have done with the causes of the war. This was reported to the emperor
by Rufinus when he came to Byzantium. [531 A.D.] Hermogenes also came
thither not long afterwards, and the winter came to a close; thus ended
the fourth year of the reign of the Emperor Justinian.

XVII

At the opening of spring a Persian army under the leadership of
Azarethes invaded the Roman territory. They were fifteen thousand
strong, all horsemen. With them was Alamoundaras, son of Saccice, with a
very large body of Saracens. But this invasion was not made by the
Persians in the customary manner; for they did not invade Mesopotamia,
as formerly, but the country called Commagene of old, but now
Euphratesia, a point from which, as far as we know, the Persians never
before conducted a campaign against the Romans. But why the land was
called Mesopotamia and why the Persians refrained from making their
attack at this point is what I now propose to relate.

There is a mountain in Armenia which is not especially precipitous,
two-and-forty stades removed from Theodosiopolis and lying toward the
north from it. From this mountain issue two springs, forming immediately
two rivers, the one on the right called the