especially indignant when they saw Justinian receiving them with an effusive ceremony which suggested that he conceded everything to their pretensions. These negotiations were protracted over eighteen months, during which the multitude of Persians were allowed to pervade the city with the utmost freedom, engaging in every sort of commerce as if they were natives of the place; and, contrary to custom, subjected to no supervision which might restrain them from gaining information of strategic value. At length a second truce for five years was purchased from Chosroes for two thousand pounds of gold (£80,000), whilst, as compensation for the cessation of arms since the arrival of the ambassador, a further sum of six hundred (£24,000) was agreed upon. The Emperor, judiciously enough, wished to pay by annual instalments, so that he might retain a pledge in his hands to ensure the faithful observance of the compact, but the idea was abhorrent to the Byzantine populace, who considered that they should thus become tributaries of the Persian monarch. The amount was, therefore, paid down in full, and Isdigunas returned home, the bearer on his own part of a splendid pecuniary gift from Justinian.[1]
In the meantime the subsidiary war in Lazica went on continuously, as Chosroes was unwilling to relinquish his hold on the principality, and professed that his pacific engagements did not apply to that outlying region. Thus the capture of Petra by Bessas, as already related, was an occurrence of the same year as the renewal of the truce with Isdigunas. After those events the Persian occupation was still maintained by Mermeroes, who had already been many years in the country, and contested the supremacy of the
- ↑ Procopius, De Bel. Goth., iv, 11, 15.
