Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/383

 Among the most notable incidents during this period of the war in Lazica was the affair of King Gubazes. The mother of that prince was the daughter of a senator, and before his succession he had borne arms for some years as a silentiary at the Byzantine Court. Shortly before the death of Mermeroes, owing to an error of judgment on the part of the Roman generals, a section of the army had been severely handled by the Persians; and the Lazic king had taken upon himself to report the matter to Justinian as resulting from the incapacity of his officers. Martin and two of his subordinates, the brothers Rusticus and John, were those chiefly concerned; and in their minds much animosity was excited against Gubazes. They concerted a plot, therefore, to encompass his death; and John made a special journey to Constantinople with the object of accusing him to the Emperor. Owing to his former defection to the Persians, Justinian was easily persuaded that he was again meditating a similar treachery; wherefore he ordered that he should be arrested and brought to the capital for interrogation. "But," queried John, "should he resist your mandate?" "Then," said the Emperor, "you may kill him as an open enemy." Armed with this authority in a written warrant John returned to Lazica; and the brothers at once sent Gubazes an invitation to meet them at a certain spot, using as a pretext that they wished to confer with him as to an attack upon the Persians. Unsuspectingly the King advanced with a few unarmed followers to the place indicated. With the knowledge of the other generals, who contemplated merely an arrest, Rusticus and John, accompanied by an armed band, proceeded to meet him. The plotters, however, knowing that an interrogatory would reveal their treachery, had it in their minds to provoke Gubazes by an