therefore concluded, at the
cost to Rome of 45,000 aurei; and immense efforts were at once made by
Tiberius to levy troops from his more distant, provinces, or hire them
from the lands beyond his borders. An army of 150,000 men was, it
is said, collected from the banks of the Danube and the Rhine, from
Scythia, Pannonia, Moesia, Illyricum, and Isauria; a general of repute,
Justinian, the son of Germanus, was selected to command them; and the
whole force was concentrated upon the eastern frontier but, after all
these preparations, the Caesar's heart failed him, and, instead of
offering battle to the enemy, Tiberius sent a second embassy to the
Persian head-quarters, early in A.D. 575, and besought an extension of
the truce. The Romans desired a short term of peace only, but wished for
a general suspension of hostilities between the nations; the Persians
advocated a longer interval, but insisted that the truce should not
extend to Armenia. The dispute continued till the armistice for a year
had run out; and the Persians had resumed hostilities and threatened
Constantina before the Romans would give way. At length it was agreed
that there should be peace for three years, but that Armenia should
be exempt from its operation. Rome was to pay to Persia, during the
continuance of the truce, the sum of 30,000 aurei annually.

No sooner was the peace concluded than Chosroes put himself at the
head of his army, and, entering Armenia Proper, proceeded to crush the
revolt, and to re-establish the Persian authority throughout the entire
region. No resistance was offered to him; and he was able, before the
close of the year, to carry his arms into the Roman territory of Armenia
Minor, and even to threaten Cappadocia. Here Justinian opposed his
progress; and in a partial engagement, Kurs (or Cursus), a leader of
Scythians in the Roman service, obtained an advantage over the Persian
rear-guard, captured the camp and the baggage, but did not succeed in
doing any serious damage. Chosroes soon afterwards revenged himself by
surprising and destroying a Roman camp during the night; he then took
and burnt the city of Melitene (Malatiyeh); after which, as winter was
approaching, he retired across the Euphrates, and returned into his own
country. Hereupon Justinian seems to have invaded Persian Armenia, and
to have enriched his troops with its plunder; according to some writers,
he even penetrated as far as the Caspian Sea, and embarked upon it