camp with the spoil and captives of
Syria. Instead of repelling the arms, Justinian attempted to seduce the
fidelity of Almondar, while he called from the extremities of the earth
the nations of AEthiopia and Scythia to invade the dominions of his
rival. But the aid of such allies was distant and precarious, and the
discovery of this hostile correspondence justified the complaints of
the Goths and Armenians, who implored, almost at the same time, the
protection of Chosroes. The descendants of Arsaces, who were still
numerous in Armenia, had been provoked to assert the last relics of
national freedom and hereditary rank; and the ambassadors of Vitiges
had secretly traversed the empire to expose the instant, and almost
inevitable, danger of the kingdom of Italy. Their representations were
uniform, weighty, and effectual. "We stand before your throne, the
advocates of your interest as well as of our own. The ambitious and
faithless Justinian aspires to be the sole master of the world. Since
the endless peace, which betrayed the common freedom of mankind, that
prince, your ally in words, your enemy in actions, has alike insulted
his friends and foes, and has filled the earth with blood and confusion.
Has he not violated the privileges of Armenia, the independence of
Colchos, and the wild liberty of the Tzanian mountains? Has he not
usurped, with equal avidity, the city of Bosphorus on the frozen Maeotis,
and the vale of palm-trees on the shores of the Red Sea? The Moors, the
Vandals, the Goths, have been successively oppressed, and each nation
has calmly remained the spectator of their neighbor's ruin. Embrace, O
king! the favorable moment; the East is left without defence, while the
armies of Justinian and his renowned general are detained in the distant
regions of the West. If you hesitate or delay, Belisarius and his
victorious troops will soon return from the Tyber to the Tigris, and
Persia may enjoy the wretched consolation of being the last devoured."
By such arguments, Chosroes was easily persuaded to imitate the example
which he condemned: but the Persian, ambitious of military fame,
disdained the inactive warfare of a rival, who issued his sanguinary
commands from the secure station of the Byzantine palace.

Whatever might be the provocations of Chosroes, he abused the confidence
of treaties; and the just reproaches of dissimulation and falsehood
could only be concealed by the lustre of his victories. The Persian