Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/238

 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