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572-575] previous instalments should be paid in advance. Sebocthes arrived (probably early in 572) to remind the Emperor of his obligations. In the judgment of Chosroes it was to Persia's present advantage that the peace should remain unbroken. The disagreeable question of Suania was shelved for the time, and Rome's claims were quietly ignored. Sebocthes preserved a studied silence in relation to the disturbances in Armenia and, when Justin mentioned that country, even appeared willing to recognise the rights of the Christian inhabitants. On dismissal, however, he was warned by the Emperor that if a finger was raised against Armenia it would be regarded as a hostile act. Justin indeed seems to have been anxious to force Persia to take the aggressive. He chose this moment of diplomatic tension to send the magistrianus Julian on a mission to Arethas, then reigning in Abyssinia over the Axumite kingdom. The envoy persuaded Arethas to break faith with his Persian suzerain, to send his merchandise through the country of the Homerites by way of the Nile to Egypt and to invade Persian territory. At the head of his Saracens the king made a successful foray, and dismissed Julian with costly gifts and high honour. Evidently Justin considered that Chosroes was only waiting until the Roman gold had been safely received, and that he would then declare war on the first favourable opportunity.

The Emperor determined to strike the first blow. The continuance of the peace entailed heavy periodical payments, and throughout his reign Justin was consistently opposed to enriching the Empire's enemies at the expense of the national treasury. Though the subsidies paid to Persia were to be devoted to the upkeep of the northern forts and the guarding of the passes against eastern invaders, it was easy for any unkindly critic to represent them as tribute paid by Rome to her rival. Again Justin had welcomed the Turkish overtures: the power which had overthrown the Ephthalites would, he thought, be a formidable ally in the coming struggle. Further, through the mistakes in diplomacy of his own envoy, Suania had remained subject to Chosroes, and it was now additionally necessary that the country should belong to the Empire, since Persian ambushes rendered insecure the trade route to Turkish territory from which so much was hoped. But above all the capital had been deeply stirred by the oppression of the Armenians: Justin was resolved to champion their cause and, as a Christian monarch, to challenge the persecutor in their defence. When the ambassadors of the Frankish Sigebert returned to Gaul early in 575 they were full of the sufferings of the Armenians; it was to this cause, they told Gregory of Tours, that the war with Persia was due.