on him with great eagerness, and a
soldier overtaking him in the ravine struck him a glancing blow with his
sword on the top of his head; and he took off the whole scalp, but the
steel did not injure the bone at all. And Sittas continued to press
forward still more than before, but Artabanes, son of John of the
Arsacidae, fell upon him from behind and with a thrust of his spear
killed him. Thus Sittas was removed from the world after no notable
fashion, in a manner unworthy of his valour and his continual
achievements against the enemy, a man who was extremely handsome in
appearance and a capable warrior, and a general second to none of his
contemporaries. But some say that Sittas did not die at the hand of
Artabanes, but that Solomon, a very insignificant man among the
Armenians, destroyed him.

After the death of Sittas the emperor commanded Bouzes to go against the
Armenians; and he, upon drawing near, sent to them promising to effect a
reconciliation between the emperor and all the Armenians, and asking
that some of their notables should come to confer with him on these
matters. Now the Armenians as a whole were unable to trust Bouzes nor
were they willing to receive his proposals. But there was a certain man
of the Arsacidae who was especially friendly with him, John by name, the
father of Artabanes, and this man, trusting in Bouzes as his friend came
to him with his son-in-law, Bassaces, and a few others; but when these
men had reached the spot where they were to meet Bouzes on the following
day, and had made their bivouac there, they perceived that they had come
into a place surrounded by the Roman army. Bassaces, the son-in-law,
therefore earnestly entreated John to fly. And since he was not able to
persuade him, he left him there alone, and in company with all the
others eluded the Romans, and went back again by the same road. And
Bouzes found John alone and slew him; and since after this the Armenians
had no hope of ever reaching an agreement with the Romans, and since
they were unable to prevail over the emperor in war, they came before
the Persian king led by Bassaces, an energetic man. And the leading men
among them came at that time into the presence of Chosroes and spoke as
follows: "Many of us, O Master, are Arsacidae, descendants of that
Arsaces who was not unrelated to the Parthian kings when the Persian
realm lay under the hand of the Parthians, and who proved himself an
illustrious king, inferior to