Page:Secret History of the Court of the Emperor Justinian 1674.djvu/21

 directly towards Nisibe, with design to besiege it: That another way he had sent a strong party under the command of Arethas, the cheif of the Sarrarius, who had passed the River Tigre; so that the whole Countrey of Assyria, which before had never been subject to the In­roads of the Enemy, was at present infested, and become a prey to any that would invade it. Moreover, a Body of Huns which Cosroes had sent into Armenia (a Province belonging to the Roman Empire) had unfortunately encoun­tred with the Troops of Valerian, and been al­most utterly cut off. This news being brought to the Persian Camp, which was already per­plexed with the incommodities which they had suffered a long time in the Countrey of the La­riens, caused them to apprehend, That if the Enemy should cut off the Passages, after all the Distresses and Calamities they had endured, they should again be reduced to a necessity of starving among the Rocks and Desarts, and their ruine be attended by the distruction of their Wives and their Children, and the inevi­table Conquest of their whole Countrey, espe­cially at a time when their Army was so afflicted with diseases. Hereupon they began to mutiny against Cosroes, and to upbraid him for having broken his Oath, and violated the Law of Na­tions, which is Sacred even among the Barba­rians; they could not forgive him, that after a solemn Peace with the Romans, he had in­vaded their Territories, undertaken an unjust War against them, and attacked an Empire, not