few exceptions, to the flames; while his avarice caused him
to plunder the churches, and to claim as his own the works of art, the
marbles, bronzes, tablets, and pictures, with which the Queen of
the Roman East was at this time abundantly provided. But, while thus
gratifying his most powerful passions, he did not lose sight of the
opportunity to conclude an advantageous peace. Justinian's ambassadors
had long been pressing him to come to terms with their master. He now
consented to declare the conditions on which he was ready to make peace
and withdraw his army. Rome must pay him, as an indemnity for the cost
of the war, the sum of five thousand pounds of gold, and must also
contract to make a further payment of five hundred pounds of gold
annually, not as a tribute, but as a fair contribution towards the
expense of maintaining the Caspian Gates and keeping out the Huns. If
hostages were given him, he would consent to abstain from further acts
of hostility while Justinian was consulted on these proposals, and would
even begin at once to withdraw his army. The ambassadors readily agreed
to these terms, and it was understood that a truce would be observed
until Justinian's answer should be delivered to Chosroes.

But the Great King, in thus formulating the terms on which he would be
content to make peace, did not intend to tie his own hands, or to allow
the Syrian cities before which he had not yet appeared to be quit of
him without the payment of ransom. After visiting Seleucia, the port of
Antioch at the mouth of the Orontes, bathing in the blue waters of the
Mediterranean, and offering sacrifice to the (setting?) sun upon the
shore, he announced his intention of proceeding to Apameia, a city
on the middle Orontes, which was celebrated for its wealth, and
particularly for its possession of a fragment of the "true cross,"
enshrined in a case which the pious zeal of the faithful had enriched
with gold and jewels of extraordinary value. Received peacefully into
the city by the submissive inhabitants, instead of fixing their ransom
at a definite sum, he demanded and obtained all the valuables of the
sacred treasury, including the precious relic which the Apamaeans
regarded as the most important of their possessions. As, however, it was
the case, and not its contents, that he coveted, while he carried off
the former, he readily restored the latter to the prayers of the bishop
and inhabitants.

From Apameia Chosroes returned