he honors of
victory rested with the Persians, but they had gained no substantial
advantage; and when Azarethes returned to his master he was not unjustly
reproached with having sacrificed many lives for no appreciable result.
The raid into Syria had failed of its chief object; and Belisarius,
though defeated, had returned, with the main strength of his army
intact, into Mesopotamia. The battle of Callinicus was fought on Easter
Eve, April 19.

Azarethes probably reached Ctesiphon and made his report to Kobad
towards the end of the month. Dissatisfied with what Azarethes had
achieved, and feeling that the season was not too far advanced for
a second campaign, Kobad despatched an army under three chiefs, into
Mesopotamia, where Sittas was now the principal commander on the Roman
side, as Belisarius had been hastily summoned to Byzantium in order to
be employed against the "Vandals" in Africa. This force found no one to
resist in the open field, and was therefore able to invade Sophene and
lay siege to the Roman fortress of Martyropolis. Martyropolis was ill
provisioned, and its walls were out of repair. The Persians must soon
have taken it, had not Sittas contrived to spread reports of a diversion
which the Huns were about to make as Roman allies. Fear of being caught
between two fires paralyzed the Persian commanders; and before events
undeceived them, news arrived in the camp that Kobad was dead, and
that a new prince sat upon the throne. Under these circumstances,
Chanaranges, the chief of the Persian commanders, yielded to
representations made by Sittas, that peace would now probably be made
between the contending powers, and withdrew his army into Persian
territory.

Kobad had, in fact, been seized with paralysis on the 8th of September,
and after an illness which lasted only five days, had expired. Before
dying, he had communicated to his chief minister, Mebodes, his earnest
desire that Chosroes should succeed him upon the throne, and, acting
under the advice of Mebodes, had formally left the crown to him by a
will duly executed. He is said by a contemporary to have been eighty-two
years old at his death, an age very seldom attained by an Oriental
monarch. His long life was more than usually eventful, and he cannot be
denied the praise of activity, perseverance, fertility of resource, and
general military capacity. But he was cruel and fickle; he disgraced his
ministers and his generals on insufficient grounds; h