ida, was invading the land of the Persians with
Celer's army.[14] And since his owner showed him great kindness, he
attended the school of a grammatist. And at first he became secretary to
Justinus, but when, after the death of Anastasius, Justinus took over
the Roman empire, Peter was made a general, and he degenerated into a
slave of avarice, if anyone ever did, and shewed himself very fatuous in
his treatment of all.

And later the Emperor Justinian sent different officers to Lazica, and
among them John, whom they called Tzibus, a man of obscure and ignoble
descent, but who had climbed to the office of general by virtue of no
other thing than that he was the most accomplished villain in the world
and most successful in discovering unlawful sources of revenue. This man
unsettled and threw into confusion all the relations of the Romans and
the Lazi. He also persuaded the Emperor Justinian to build a city on the
sea in Lazica, Petra by name; and there he sat as in a citadel and
plundered the property of the Lazi. For the salt, and all other cargoes
which were considered necessary for the Lazi, it was no longer possible
for the merchants to bring into the land of Colchis, nor could they
purchase them elsewhere by sending for them, but he set up in Petra the
so-called "monopoly" and himself became a retail dealer and overseer of
all the handling of these things, buying everything and selling it to
the Colchians, not at the customary rates, but as dearly as possible. At
the same time, even apart from this, the barbarians were annoyed by the
Roman army quartered upon them, a thing which had not been customary
previously. Accordingly, since they were no longer able to endure these
things, they decided to attach themselves to the Persians and Chosroes,
and immediately they sent to them envoys who were to arrange this
without the knowledge of the Romans. These men had been instructed that
they should take pledges from Chosroes that he would never give up the
Lazi against their will to the Romans, and that with this understanding
they should bring him with the Persian army into the land.

Accordingly the envoys went to the Persians, and coming secretly before
Chosroes they said: "If any people in all time have revolted from their
own friends in any manner whatsoever and attached themselves wrongfully
to men utterly unknown to them, and after that by the kindness of
fortune have been brought back once more with greatest rejoicin