es
learned this he was forthwith exceedingly angry, and he counted it a
dreadful thing that he had suffered such things at the hand of a man who
was his slave; and since he had no other means of getting the man under
his hand he devised the following plan. When he was about to return
homeward from the land of Colchis, he wrote to this chanaranges that he
had decided to invade the land of the Romans with his whole army, not,
however, by a single inroad into the country, but making two divisions
of the Persian army, in order that the attack might be made upon the
enemy on both sides of the River Euphrates. Now one division of the army
he himself, as was natural, would lead into the hostile land, while to
no one else of his subjects would he grant the privilege of holding
equal honour with the king in this matter, except to the chanaranges
himself on account of his valour. It was necessary, therefore, that the
chanaranges should come speedily to meet him as he returned, in order
that he might confer with him and give him all the directions which
would be of advantage to the army, and that he should bid his attendants
travel behind him on the road. When the chanaranges received this
message, he was overjoyed at the honour shown him by the king, and in
complete ignorance of his own evil plight, he immediately carried out
the instructions. But in the course of this journey, since he was quite
unable to sustain the toil of it (for he was a very old man), he relaxed
his hold on the reins and fell off his horse, breaking the bone in his
leg. It was therefore necessary for him to remain there quietly and be
cared for, and the king came to that place and saw him. And Chosroes
said to him that with his leg in such a plight it was not possible that
he make the expedition with them, but that he must go to one of the
fortresses in that region and receive treatment there from the
physicians. Thus then Chosroes sent the man away on the road to death,
and behind him followed the very men who were to destroy him in the
fortress,--a man who was in fact as well as in name an invincible
general among the Persians, who had marched against twelve nations of
barbarians and subjected them all to King Cabades. After
Adergoudounbades had been removed from the world, Varrames, his son,
received the office of chanaranges. Not long after this either Cabades
himself, the son of Zames, or someone else who was assuming the name of
Cabades came to Byzanti