ves into the citadel, and there resisted to the last
extremity, refusing all terms of capitulation, and maintaining
themselves against an overwhelming force, until at last by sword and
fire they perished to a man.

The siege of Petra was prolonged far into the winter, and the year A.D.
551 had begun ere the resistance ceased. Could the gallant defenders
have maintained themselves for a few more weeks, they might not
improbably have triumphed. Mermeroes, the Persian commander of two years
previously, took the field with the commencement of spring, and, at the
head of a large body of cavalry, supported by eight elephants, began
his march to the coast, hoping to relieve the beleaguered garrison.
Unfortunately he was too late. On his march he heard of the capture of
Petra, and of its complete destruction by Bessas, who feared lest
the Persians should again occupy the dangerous post. Mermeroes had no
difficulty in establishing Persian rule through almost the whole of
Lazica. The Romans did not dare to meet him in the field. Archssopolis,
indeed, repulsed his attack; but no other important place in the entire
country remained subject to the Empire. Qubazes and his followers had to
hide themselves in the recesses of the mountains. Quartering his
troops chiefly on the upper Phasis, about Kutais and its neighborhood,
Mermeroes strengthened his hold on the country by building forts or
receiving their submission, and even extended the Persian dominion
beyond Lazica into Scymnia and Suania. Still Rome, with her usual
tenacity, maintained a hold upon certain tracts; and Gubazes, faithful
to his allies even in the extremity of their depression, maintained a
guerilla war, and hoped that some day fortune would cease to frown on
him.

Meanwhile, at Byzantium, fresh negotiations were in progress, and hopes
were entertained of an arrangement by which all the differences between
the two great powers would be satisfactorily adjusted. Isdigunas
again represented his master at the Byzantine court, and conducted the
diplomatic contest with skill and ability. Taxing Justinian with more
than one infraction of the truce concluded in A.D. 545, he demanded the
payment of a lump sum of two thousand six hundred pounds of gold, and
expressed the willingness of Chosroes to conclude on these terms a fresh
truce for five years, to take effect from the delivery of the money.
With regard to the extent of country whereto the truce should apply, he
agreed