THE SECOND PERSIAN WAR: FALL OF ANTIOCH: MILITARY OPERATIONS IN LAZICA
While Justinian was thus conquering in the West and substituting his own
rule for that of barbarian potentates, the tide of war was rising in the
East, and almost similar disasters to those he was inflicting were
impending on the integral territory of the Empire.
The triumphal progress of the Imperial arms in Africa and Italy was
watched with the keenest solicitude by Chosroes, and he began to fear
that the power and resources of his hereditary rival were being so
formidably increased that he would soon be able to make an irresistible
attack on his own dominions. Even before the formalities of the
Perpetual Peace had been completely adjusted the news arrived of the
virtual subjugation of the Vandalic kingdom; and Chosroes, while
congratulating the Emperor by his legates, jestingly put forward a claim
to share in the spoils, which, he observed, could not have been won but
for his own ready assent to the Roman suit for peace. Justinian,
however, took his banter seriously, and presented him with a large sum
of money as a conciliatory gift.[564]
Chosroes is represented by the historian of the period as a man who
talked humanity and philosophy in a most engaging manner, but with
treacherous intent, and who never failed to take advantage of his
opponents after he had lulled their suspicions by an outward show of
sympathy and benevolence.[565] Whatever his individual inclination may
have been in 539 as to the expediency of entering on a war with the
Empire, ample incitement from without was not wanting to induce him to
bend his mind intently to the question. While Vitigis was struggling to
retain his kingdom the natives of Roman Armenia were in revolt against
Justinian's newly imposed taxes and stricter system of local
government.[566] Hoping to divert the armaments of the Emperor from
themselves, both parties successively sent legations to Chosroes urging
that in his own interest he should make war on their oppressor. If he
did not take up arms in time, they argued, his encroachments would
continue unchecked, and Persia would shortly find that no option was
left to her but that of being devoured last. To such representations the
Persian monarch was quickly responsive, and in each instance the
emissaries departed feeling satisfied that their object had been
attained.[567]
In the autumn of 539 Chosroes made up his mind to wage war with the
Romans, and cast about him for some plausible pretext to begin his
military operations. He accused Justinian of tampering with the
allegiance of his Saracenic ally Alamundar by pecuniary inducements, of
bribing the Huns to invade Persia, and finally he instigated the Arab
sheikh to make a raid into Syria in order to provoke a declaration of
war from his rival. Justinian, however, was very anxious to keep the
peace, and addressed a dignified expostulation to the Persian Court, in
which he exhorted the Shahinshah to deal with him in good faith. To this
appeal Chosroes deigned no reply, but retained the ambassador till he
had matured his preparations for invading the Empire. In the spring of
540 he crossed the Euphrates in great force, and advanced along the
river for four hundred miles until he arrived in the vicinity of
Callinicum. During the latter third of this march he was on Roman
territory, where he exacted a pecuniary ransom from some small towns,
and destroyed others. At this point he dismissed Justinian's legate,
telling him simply to go and inform his master in what part of the world
he had left Chosroes, the son of Cavades.
The whole of Syria was now at the mercy of the Persian King, and
deputies arrived on all sides to inquire what amount he would accept in
order to leave their districts unmolested. A small force stationed at
Hierapolis was deserted by its commander, Buzes, who disappeared
suddenly and forgot to leave his address. Chosroes soon appeared before
the walls, but he allowed himself to be bought off for two thousand
pounds of silver; and from thence he proceeded further on his
depredations, but his price rose as he went along. At Beroea, a much
smaller place, having been paid a similar sum, he demanded more, and, in
default, ended by sacking and burning the town. At the same time he was
convened by a bishop on the part of the Antiochians, who offered him a
thousand pounds of gold (£40,000) to quit the country. To these terms he
agreed, but when the bishop returned to Antioch to clinch the bargain,
he found that legates had arrived from Constantinople, who issued a
prohibition against the Syrians continuing to buy back the Emperor's
cities from the Persian monarch. Having received an intimation,
therefore, consonant to this decree, Chosroes marched with all speed
against the city.
Antioch, with a previous history of eight centuries, was the great
commercial emporium between the Far East and the West; and it is
supposed that the term Ta-Thsin,[568] which represents the Roman Empire
in Chinese annals, is a travesty of the proper name of the overflowing
Syrian mart, of which alone they had any practical cognizance. Under the
Empire, its history is especially dignified by the names of Julian,
Libanius, and Chrysostom. But it must have been shorn of much of its
splendour by the disastrous earthquake of 526, an account of which has
been given on a previous page.[569]
The city was situated in a plain about two miles wide between the
Orontes and Mount Casius. On the north the river, which flowed past the
walls, afforded adequate protection, but on the south two spurs from the
mountain projected to such an extent that part of the city was built on
their declivities and in the valley between them. On that side,
consequently, the fortifications were disposed in two loops, which rose
over the hills with a dip in the interspace. The moment information as
to the hostile irruption was conveyed to Justinian, he sent his nephew,
Germanus, with a small brigade, to the seat of war, promising him that
large forces should follow with the least possible delay. On his
arrival, Germanus inspected the fortifications, and observed that on the
summit of one of the hills masses of rock arose at a short distance
outside the walls, which they almost equalled in height. Hence an enemy,
by occupying this elevation, could dominate that part of the town. He
advised, therefore, that a deep foss should be excavated so as to render
the walls inaccessible on that aspect, or that a huge tower conjoined to
the wall should be built opposite the rocks, which could thus be
rendered untenable by showers of missiles. The local engineers, however,
decided that there was no time to undertake works of such magnitude,
whilst an unfinished attempt would only advertise the enemy as to the
weak point in the line of defence. Shortly afterwards, Germanus, having
no news of a Byzantine army being on the route, retired into Cilicia,
giving as his reason that the presence of a prince of the blood would be
an incentive to Chosroes to exert all his force to capture the city.
When Chosroes reached Antioch, he was still willing to accept a ransom,
but the citizens were now in no mood to meet his proposals. A certain
number, the most timid, had already fled, but those who remained were
suddenly reassured by the arrival of six thousand troops from the south
under the military governors of Libanus. Having encamped his army along
the Orontes, the Shah sent forward an interpreter to interrogate the
municipality as to a ransom, but a mob congregated on the walls
immediately overwhelmed him with jeers and insults; and shortly he had
to run for his life in order to escape from a shower of stones. Burning
with resentment, Chosroes now commanded that the siege should be pressed
on all sides with the utmost ardour. He himself, with the most strenuous
body of troops he could select, ascended the southern hill, where he
took up his position on the rocky plateau, from whence, with all the
advantage of being on level ground, his men began to discharge their
arrows with tireless energy against the defenders of the wall. On their
side the garrison had improvised a means of doubling their powers of
resistance by erecting a wooden platform above the battlements in the
interspace between the pair of towers which confronted the threatening
ridge of rock. From thence soldiers commingled with citizen volunteers,
in superimposed ranks, launched their darts against the enemy. The
battle with missiles raged hotly for some time, when suddenly the wooden
platform, imperfectly sustained, gave way with a loud crash, and
precipitated all those who were supported by it to the ground. A
senseless panic then ensued, a cry was raised that the Persians had
forced the wall and were pouring into the city, whereupon the
newly-arrived garrison descended and leaped on to their horses, which
were tethered below, and rushed to the gate of Daphne on the opposite
side of the town. Their leaders rode at their head, and, wishing to get
away without hindrance, scattered the news that Buzes was at hand with
an army of relief, which they were hastening to admit into the city. But
the citizens thronged after them excitedly, and a fatal crush occurred
in the vicinity of the gate, where people of all ages were trampled to
death by the horses of the flying cavalry.
In the meantime the Persians, seeing the walls deserted, brought up
ladders, and, ascending in great numbers, took possession of the
battlements. There they remained for some time, for Chosroes, seated
outside on a high tower, having noticed the flight of the military,
thought it wisest to give them time to evacuate the city, instead of
provoking them to rally by an untimely attack. As soon as the tumult
appeared to have subsided, the Persians began to descend and make their
way into the level part of the city with some difficulty, as the tract
adjoining the south wall inside consisted for the most part of
precipitous crags. In a short time, however, they unexpectedly found
themselves in conflict with a large mass of the youth of Antioch,
members of the Circus factions, who had assembled in the Forum, some
armed in military fashion, others provided only with stones. The first
bands of the Orientals were severely repulsed, and already the
Syrio-Greeks began to sing the pæan of "Justinian the Victor," when
large forces arrived and extinguished their resistance. A ruthless
massacre then followed, neither age nor sex being spared, until the Shah
thought fit to give the signal for its cessation.
Previous to the commencement of the siege, the Roman legates had been
received in the Persian camp, where they vainly endeavoured to dissuade
Chosroes from continuing the war. He now summoned them to his presence,
and, in a lacrymose tone, delivered a homily on the diversified nature
of human fortune. The ruin of this noble capital, he remarked, was a sad
spectacle, which he had done all in his power to prevent. By their rash
defence with unequal forces, the citizens had brought this calamity on
themselves, but he had restrained the incensed soldiery and given time
for great numbers to escape. The arrogance of mortals, he continued, was
visited with condign punishment by the Deity, who sought to restrain
them from encroaching beyond their proper sphere. He pointed at
Justinian, on whom he cast the whole onus of originating the war. But to
his hearers it seemed that only wanton aggression had impelled him on
this campaign, whilst all understood that he had delayed the assault
discreetly lest his own army should incur needless risk.
The fate of Antioch was presently decided. All the remaining inhabitants
were seized as captives, and the buildings were given over to pillage
and fire. Treasures of gold and silver and works of art in marble were
accumulated for the special benefit of the Shah, who departed, leaving
incendiaries in the city to complete the task of destruction.
Ultimately, however, Chosroes showed himself as a benignant master of
the Antiochians whom he had carried off. In the vicinity of Ctesiphon he
built a new city, to which he gave the name of Chosroantioch, and
furnished it with everything appertaining to a Roman town, including a
circus and public baths. Here the captives were housed under the eye of
the monarch himself, with no intermediary satrap, and endowed with many
privileges which were not enjoyed by his Persian subjects. Moreover, if
any of the relatives of the inhabitants, who had been enslaved,
succeeded in escaping to this town, they were granted a permanent
asylum, so that their masters could not reclaim them, even should they
be nobles of the court.[570]
It might be said, without much sacrifice of accuracy, that the war which
had now broken out between Rome and Persia only terminated a century
later, when the Sassanian dynasty was extinguished by the votaries of
Mohammed. There were interruptions to hostilities, vicissitudes in the
martial relations of the two empires, yet no stable peace. But the
Saracens then became the neighbours of Rome on the Euphrates, as they
had always previously been on the Arabian frontiers; and, viewing the
conflict as one between East and West, between Grecian and Oriental
civilization, we might traverse a millennium and aver that the war never
ended until 1453, when Mohammed II made his victorious entry into
Constantinople. Henceforward Justinian was almost perpetually engaged in
desultory and indecisive military operations on the eastern marches; and
the repair of damages inflicted by his restless compeer constituted a
permanent drain on the resources of the Empire.
After this signal success there was a lull in the activity of Chosroes,
and he showed a disposition to grant a peace. He discussed the subject
with the Byzantine envoys, and finally dismissed them with a precise
statement as to what terms he would accept.[571] He then took a pleasure
trip to the sea at Seleucia, the port of Antioch, visited the grove of
Daphne, after which his greed for acquisition returned, and he bethought
himself of the rich city of Apamea, which was in the vicinity. He
appeared before the gates, but, as an informal truce was supposed to be
in existence, he professed himself to be an amicable visitor, desirous
only of viewing the objects of interest in the town. He was admitted
with a guard of cavalry, and presided in the Circus in imitation of the
Byzantine autocrat. Hearing that Justinian favoured the Blues, he
announced himself in opposition as a partisan of the Greens. As,
however, his temper was uncertain, it was thought prudent to conciliate
him with a gift of a thousand pounds of silver before his departure;
but, still insatiate, he insisted also in appropriating the treasures of
the cathedral.[572] He now discarded all respect for the peace
negotiations, and resumed his career of subjugation. Ransoms were
exacted as before, and he decided on the blockade of Edessa, but was
deterred by the evil omen of a boil on his cheek. He then laid siege to
Dara, and drove a tunnel beneath the walls. His design, however, was
betrayed, and frustrated by a counterwork on the part of the besieged,
whereupon he abandoned the enterprise and returned to Persia for the
winter.
Justinian now repudiated the peace convention, which had been made by
his legates, on the ground that Chosroes had violated the conditions;
and in the spring of 541 Belisarius arrived at Dara to organize the
defences of the country. The result of a military council was an
advance, with all the forces which could be mustered, on Nisibis. Here
the usual round of skirmishes were fought outside the walls, but at
length it was decided that the fortress was impregnable, and the Roman
army retired. A conflict with the Shah had been expected, but he was
reported to be occupied with a Hunnish incursion, and did not make his
appearance on the Euphrates this year. After directing some raids on
Persian territory, in the course of which Sisauranum, an important
fortress, with its garrison, was captured, Belisarius returned to
Constantinople for the winter. Arethas, the Saracen sheikh, with a large
following, took part in this expedition, and even crossed the Tigris
into Assyria; but, being ill-directed and supported, rendered little
effective service. The Persian soldiers who had been taken as prisoners
of war, about eight hundred in number,[573] were sent to Italy, there to
do duty as combatants against the Goths.
In the meantime Chosroes had really absented himself on an expedition
which he had undertaken insidiously against Byzantine commerce in the
Euxine Sea. After the Lazi and Iberians had taken refuge in the arms of
Rome, Justinian had proceeded to make his suzerainty practical by
building a strong fortress on the coast of Lazica. Founded among
inaccessible rocks, and approachable from the plain on one side only,
this stronghold received the appropriate name of Petra. A pair of
military Dukes, distinguished as usual for rapacity, were placed in
charge, and they immediately created a monopoly in their own favour of
the imports by sea, on which the Lazi were almost wholly dependent. The
region, in fact, was devoid of agricultural produce and salt.[574] For
such necessaries they bartered slaves and skins. Soon the fiscal
oppression became so intolerable that deputies were secretly despatched
to implore the Persian King to take up arms on behalf of the Lazi and
expel the Romans. Chosroes seized the opportunity, and, giving out that
he was marching against the Huns, proceeded with a numerous army to the
occupation of Lazica. The country was shut in by precipitous mountains,
but level passes existed, which, however, were blocked by a dense
forest. With the aid of native guides and a strong body of pioneers, a
route was quickly opened; and Gubazes, the King, met and adored the Shah
on his arrival. The Persians poured in rapidly and disposed themselves
for an assault on Petra. At the onset they suffered severely through a
ruse of the Byzantine commandant, who withdrew all his men from the
battlements so as to give the fortress a deserted appearance. The
Orientals, therefore, crowded up carelessly, and began to arrange their
siege engines in suitable positions, when suddenly the gates were flung
open, and the garrison, charging impetuously, drove them back with great
slaughter. Within a few days, however, the resourceful author of this
success was slain by an arrow, and thereafter the defence became languid
and ineffective. Two great towers were the chief bulwarks of the town,
and the Persians, without being observed, bored a tunnel which
terminated under the base of one of them. Then the stone foundations
were cautiously removed and substituted by a mass of inflammable wood.
On fire being applied, the ponderous pile soon collapsed; whereupon the
besieged gladly accepted the terms offered them to surrender. The
treasures of John Tzibus—such was the name of the Duke who had been in
command—which he had amassed by his extortions to a large amount, fell
into the hands of the victor, who then evacuated the principality,
leaving a Persian garrison in the fortress. Chosroes was now in a
position to ruin Byzantine commerce in the Euxine, but it was first
essential that he should build a fleet in order to make his conquest of
Petra effective for the purpose. In order to guard his retreat during
this expedition, the Shah had impelled an irruption of Huns into Roman
Armenia, but they were met and defeated by the Master of Soldiers in
that region, who, however, neglected to follow up his success, being
ignorant or misdirected as to the opportunity of intercepting the
Persians on their way through the mountain passes of Lazica.[575]
The insufficiency of the Byzantine forces in the East was such that next
year (542), when Belisarius returned to the seat of war, he was obliged
to trust to a ruse to stop the progress of the Persian army. Chosroes
again led the invasion, and this time with Jerusalem as the object of
his cupidity, when he heard that a Roman camp had been formed on the
river, south of the frontier, so as to intercept him should he return by
his usual line of march. Thereupon he sent an exploratory legation,
ostensibly to interrogate the Master of Soldiers as to Justinian's
intentions with respect to a treaty. Having named a day for their
reception, Belisarius advanced from his camp accompanied by six thousand
of his tallest soldiers, chosen from as many diverse nationalities as
possible. When the time of meeting was at hand, he appeared reclining in
an extemporized tent, as if resting after a hunting expedition, whilst
in various directions, as far as the eye could reach, were seen
Thracians, Mysians, Goths, Herules, Vandals, and Moors, all in undress,
hurrying to and fro, seemingly busied with matters relating only to the
chase. On the opposite side of the river a thousand cavalry were
disposed, making as much show as possible by their evolutions. When the
Persians came up, Belisarius, regarding them in a questioning manner,
with an air of repellant surprise, inquired what might be the object of
their visit to his camp. At the same time the men, passing and
repassing, one with a horse-whip, another with an axe, a sword, or a
bow, gave them a look of careless and contemptuous scrutiny, and went on
as if too intent on their occupation to notice them any further. In
reply to the general, the chief legate said that the Shah was indignant
at Justinian's not having sent an ambassador with a definite answer as
to the proposed treaty. "It is not customary," said Belisarius in a
haughty tone, "for people to act like Chosroes—to invade a neighbouring
kingdom with a great army, and then to inquire what pacific measures
would be most acceptable. Withdraw your forces; we decline to treat with
you unless upon equal terms." Making a gesture of dismissal, he then
turned away and began to occupy himself with something else.
Duly impressed by this burlesque, the envoy reported to Chosroes that he
had never met a general so decided and authoritative, nor seen soldiers
of such splendid proportions, whilst the main army must be very
numerous, since so many could be out of arms at one time as a mere
hunting party. Moved by this report, the Shah thought it prudent to
retreat across the Euphrates at the spot where he found himself instead
of retracing his usual route to Ctesiphon. Thus was Palestine saved; and
by many Belisarius was credited with a finer achievement than when he
led Gelimer or Vitigis captive to Constantinople. Yet it was the last
occasion on which he held a command in the Orient; and his activities in
future were to be confined to Italy and the vicinity of the capital.
Even on this occasion, however, the Persian monarch did not regain his
capital empty handed, but, finding on his way back that Callinicus was
poorly fortified, he took it by a sudden assault, and made a clean sweep
of everything worth removing from the site.
During the following year, owing to the prevalence of a fatal epidemic,
Chosroes remained inactive; but the Romans penetrated into Persarmenia,
where they carried on the war with little success, and sustained at
least one decisive defeat. In 544, however, the Shah again emerged from
his boundaries, this time resolved on the capture of Edessa, a city
which affirmed itself to possess a direct guarantee from the Deity that
it would never be taken by an enemy, and a passage to that effect from a
letter, said to have been written by Jesus to Abgar, a former ruler, was
inscribed over the gates. But Chosroes was ambitious of disproving the
validity of this safeguard, and, therefore, set about beleaguering the
city in a manner which should exclude the possibility of being
unsuccessful. His ardour in this undertaking was sustained by the
fanaticism of the Magi, who, having adored Jesus at his birth, ever
afterwards regarded him as an impostor most obnoxious to their religion.
A preliminary skirmish, however, having turned out unfavourably for his
arms, he began to dread the disgrace of failure, and proposed a ransom;
but the amount was so exorbitant that the citizens elected rather to
endure a siege. Preparations for capture were, therefore, pushed on
energetically; and first of all the Persians began to construct an
immense quadrangular mound, from the flat top of which they intended to
dominate the city with their missiles. Trunks of trees, stones, and
earth were congested together, in the beginning at a distance beyond
bow-shot from the walls, but as the work progressed towards the town,
the builders became attainable by the arrows and engines of the
garrison. The discharge was at first effective, especially that of
flaming darts, but the Orientals soon erected huge screens made of
hides, under cover of which they were able to work in safety. The
citizens now became seriously alarmed, and sent a further deputation to
Chosroes, but in vain, fifty thousand pounds of gold (£4,000,000) being
the lowest price he would accept to raise the siege. All hope of an
accommodation being now lost, the engineers of the city began to devise
means to counteract the hostile operations. First they tried to raise a
mound, conjoined to the walls, to oppose that of the enemy, but the task
proved to be beyond their powers, and so they desisted. Then they bored
a tunnel, which reached as far as the centre of the mound, designing to
destroy it by fire from below, but the Persian sentinels heard the
excavators at work, and the scheme was frustrated by a counterboring.
Another tunnel, which only attained the proximate part of the mound, was
achieved with better success, and a cavern was hollowed out, into which
a vast quantity of dry wood impregnated with oil, sulphur, and bitumen
was introduced. Here a fire was kept burning constantly by fresh
supplies, whilst the enemy's attention was diverted from the rising
smoke by an incessant discharge of blazing arrows and pitch-pots. After
some days, however, as the fire pervaded the viscera of the mound,
volumes of smoke betrayed the real nature of the conflagration. The
Persians then essayed to extinguish it with earth and water, but,
failing to check it, they decided to abandon this siege work. A surprise
attack by night with ladders was the next manœuvre, but the Romans were
too vigilant, and the coup only led to a slaughterous repulse. During
the whole period of the beleaguerment, sallies were regularly organized
by the garrison, and generally with considerable loss to the besiegers.
Finally Chosroes nerved himself to make a supreme effort with all his
powers to storm the city. With this object in view, myriads of adobes
were moulded and laid over the top of the smouldering mound. The assault
was begun in the early morning, and at first bid fair to be successful,
the defenders of the wall being comparatively few; but, as the day wore
on, the whole effective population—men, women, and children, crowded to
the battlements. Then improvised projectiles of every available
substance were hurled, cauldrons of oil were brought up and fired along
the top of the wall, and, with the aid of suitable sprinklers, drops of
the burning liquid were rained down on the escaladers. After a prolonged
and vigorous attack, the besiegers retired and informed the Shah that
they could make no headway. He raged, and drove them back again; they
returned to the assault with reckless fury; ladders, towers, and engines
of every description were rushed up to the walls, but for the second
time the ceaseless torrent of missiles put them to flight. Chosroes then
resigned himself and left his post of observation, while the townspeople
hurled their taunts of defiance after his retreating figure. The siege
of Edessa had failed; and, with the slight compensation of five hundred
pounds of gold (£20,000), he broke up his camp and departed.
Shortly after Justinian's legates again convened Chosroes and in 545 he
granted a truce for five years in exchange for two thousand pounds of
gold (£80,000), and a Greek physician, whose skill had formerly relieved
him from a painful malady.[576] Yet such was his ill faith that when he
sent a plenipotentiary to conclude the pact at Constantinople, he
commissioned him to attempt the capture of Dara, while on his way, by a
stratagem. But for the wariness of the inhabitants of that fortress, the
emissary would have gained admission with a large retinue, fired the
houses in the night, and opened the gates to the army of Nisibis, which
was to lie in waiting outside the walls.
Notwithstanding the establishment of peaceful relations, a desultory
warfare was still carried on in Lazica. A twelve-month's experience of
Persian domination convinced the Lazi that there was something even
worse than Byzantine extortion, and they prayed to be received again
into the fold of a nation which was at least Christian like themselves.
Nor could the Romans endure the loss of Petra, but sent an expeditionary
force into the country to retake it. They were opposed by a Persian
army, and for many years the principality was the scene of numerous
petty successes and defeats. Chosroes imported a large quantity of
material for the purpose of building a fleet on the Euxine, but it was
suddenly consumed by lightning, whence it happened that the command of
the sea in these regions was never obtained by the Persians.
Intermittently the siege of Petra was pressed for eight years before the
stronghold again came into the hands of the Byzantines (551). The
successful general was Bessas, who, though above seventy years of age,
was the first to ascend the scaling ladders at the last assault. The
defence of the fortress had been persisted in by the Persians with
extraordinary fortitude; and out of seven hundred and thirty men of the
garrison, who were taken prisoners, it was found that only eighteen had
not received a wound. Five hundred of the survivors took refuge in the
citadel, and in spite of an earnest exhortation by Bessas, preferred
death by fire to surrender; whence all of these perished in the flames
with which the Romans consumed the buildings. The fortress contained a
store of provisions calculated to last for five years, and the reserve
of arms and armour would have sufficed to fit out each man of the
garrison five times over. But the captors were chiefly amazed at seeing
a copious flow issuing from an aqueduct, although every channel of water
supply had apparently been cut off. In the only possible track a surface
conduit had been divided, but for long afterwards no signs could be
detected of a lack of water in the town. Evidently there must be a
second supply; they dug down and came on an underground conduit beneath
the first, and that also was severed. Only after the capture of the
fortress was it discovered that at a still greater depth a third
watercourse for the supply of the inhabitants had been constructed.
Petra was now abolished by Bessas, who razed every building to the
ground level, and departed with his prisoners to the capital.[577]
Two years after the beginning of this war an outbreak of bubonic plague,
the first circumstantially recorded in history, was manifested in the
Eastern Hemisphere. The phenomena of the disease were first noted at
Pelusium, whence it spread throughout Egypt on the one hand, and Asia
Minor on the other. In the spring of the next year (543) it reached
Constantinople, where it raged for four months. At first few persons
were stricken, but the epidemic became intensified gradually, until at
the height of its virulence as many as ten thousand victims died in one
day. The cessation of all normal activities of social life, and the
changed aspect of the Imperial capital have been described by
Procopius,[578] who was present there at the time. Deserted streets,
except for those hurrying to bury the dead without religious rites; the
oppletion of all ordinary sepulchres and cemeteries; the digging of
graves in every available patch of ground in the suburbs; the ultimate
difficulty of disposing of the corpses by any recognized method, when
some were projected into the sea, and others were hurled down the wall
towers of Sycae, the roofs having been temporarily removed for the
purpose; the stench afterwards pervading the city when the wind set from
that quarter; the wailing of the bereaved and the fearful who betook
themselves to the churches; the opulent households in which sometimes a
few slaves were the sole survivors of the family; the dying left
untended and those who fell dead in the thoroughfares while conveying
their relatives to the tomb; finally the obliteration of the feud
between the Circus factions, and their dejectedly working in harmony for
the removal of their own dead and those of others; such were the main
features which denoted the state of hopeless desolation prevailing
during this calamitous visitation.
The symptoms of this plague have been described by the contemporary
historian with an accuracy which leaves little to be added by a modern
physician having a clinical acquaintance with the disease. In typical
cases the victim at some unexpected moment felt a sharp stab, almost
invariably in the groin or the axilla; whence the superstitious declared
that they had seen a demon who at the critical instant approached and
struck them. Fever, with the development of a bubo at the sensitive
spot, rapidly set in; coma or delirium then supervened, and death
occurred in three or four days. Black patches often appeared on the
body, and were premonitory of an immediately fatal ending. Among the
worst signs, vomiting or spitting of blood was also observed. In the
most violent attacks the patient without warning fell down in
contortions and died before other symptoms became apparent. Some rushed
madly through the street, others flung themselves from windows or roofs.
The disease was not contagious, and those who handled the infected
bodies were not on that account more liable to be seized. Recovery was
forecasted by ripening and suppuration of the buboes, whilst indolence
of those tumours was surely indicative of a fatal termination. The
medical faculty dissected the corpses with assiduity, but found neither
explanation nor remedy. In their prognosis also they were often wrong,
some recovering whom they had given up, and others dying, of whom they
had entertained the best hopes. Having once manifested itself, the
plague became endemic, and more than half a century afterwards continued
to be one of the chief causes of mortality.[579]
[564] Procopius, De Bel. Pers., i, 26.
[565] Procopius, De Bel. Pers., ii, 9. The veneration of the Persians
for truth has been referred to in a former chapter, but in actual fact
deceitfulness was a prominent characteristic of the nation. Thus Horace
alludes to the "lying Persians" ("infidi Persae," Od., iv, 15) as the
verdict of common experience. Truth was rare and precious in Persia, and
esteemed accordingly. The opinions of modern travellers coincide. See
Müller, Encycl. Brit., xxii, p. 663; cf. Palgrave, _Ibid._, ii, p. 248.
[566] In this rebellion they managed to kill Sittas, Theodora's
brother-in-law, and, it was said, by the hand of Artabanes, who joined
the Imperial service soon after, and so much distinguished himself in
Africa. See p. 522.
[567] Procopius, De Bel. Pers., ii, 2, 3, whence the narrative proceeds
as below.
[568] See p. 193.
[569] Founded and developed by Macedonian Kings of Syria, beginning at
300 B.C. For a full history, see Mülller, Antiq. Antioch., Götting.,
1839. For a topographical and sociological account the bulk of the
materials are to be found in Libanius, Chrysostom, and Jn. Malala.
[570] On the taking of Antioch, etc., cf. Jn. Lydus, De Magistr., iii,
54. Not a taxpayer was left in Syria, he says, but nevertheless the
Rector had to extort the revenue out of the province in some way.
[571] Five thousand pounds of gold (£200,000) paid down, and five
hundred (£20,000) annually. The latter was for the upkeep of the Caspian
gates, which he, like his father, chafed at having to guard without
specified assistance from the Romans; Procopius, _loc. cit._, 10.
[572] Apamea was one of those places where a log of wood, said to be a
fragment of the true cross, was preserved and venerated. On this
occasion it was brought out and paraded, a miraculous light following
the Bishop as he went on his round with it; Procopius, _loc. cit._, 11
(by hearsay); Evagrius, iv, 26, who says he was taken to see it himself
when a schoolboy. Chosroes did not allow his soldiers unbounded licence.
Thus, when a citizen of Apamea complained that his daughter had been
ravished, he hanged the man, in spite of the prayers of his comrades.
[573] Procopius, Anecd., 2.
[574] _Ibid._, 15, 28.
[575] Procopius, Anecd., 2.
[576] Cf. Zachariah Myt., xii, 7.
[577] Procopius, De Bel. Goth., iv, 11, _et seq._; where he continues
his history of the Persian war after the record closes in his work
specified to that subject.
[578] De Bel. Pers., 22 _et seq._ The great plague at Athens (430 B.C.)
was probably the same, but the historian (Thucydides, ii, 47, _et seq._)
does not give the pathognomonic symptoms with exactitude.
[579] Evagrius, iv, 29. A long and lugubrious account of the plague is
given by John Ephes. (Hist. _ad calc._ Com., p. 227, _et seq._), not
only at CP., but in Asia and Egypt. It lacks, however, the precision of
that of Procopius.