any specific terms, and dismissed the Roman emissaries in the evident expectation that some decisive success would enable him to dictate the articles of a treaty. He was encouraged by the fact that he was entertaining at the time several thousand refugees of the Samaritan sect, who had been driven from their homes in Palestine by religious persecution. Such internal disorders must lessen the offensive powers of his rival, whilst the expatriated sectarians were even anxious to bear arms against their late oppressor.[1]
In the beginning of spring (531) it became manifest that the Persians had been maturing a plan of campaign based on a strategical diversion, by which they hoped to surprise the enemy and possess themselves of a rich booty before their operations could be arrested. The originator of the scheme was Alamundar, his Saracenic ally, who pointed out to Cavades that if a descent were made on Euphratesia, the overlying province of Syria, they might advance to the walls of Antioch through a populous district teeming with wealthy towns but slightly guarded, and totally unapprehensive of their security being threatened. "Antioch itself," said he, "the richest city of the East, is always given over to public festivities and theatrical rivalries, and is divested of a garrison. Well might we capture it and make good our retreat to Persia without meeting with a hostile force. In Mesopotamia, to which the war has been confined hitherto, the enemy is prepared for us, and we can inflict no damage on them without engaging in a perpetual series of battles." His advice was acted upon, and a Persian general, Azarathes,
- ↑ Jn. Malala, pp. 445, 455; Procopius, Anecd., 11, 18. I pass over events in which religion was the chief question at issue, as the whole can be treated most instructively in a special chapter; see below, chap. xiv.
