Chosroes gathered a great army and made his preparations for the inroad,
not disclosing the plan to the Persians except those alone to whom he
was accustomed to communicate his secrets, and commanding the envoys to
tell no one what was being done; and he pretended that he was setting
out into Iberia, in order to settle matters there; for a Hunnic tribe,
he kept saying in explanation, had assailed the Persian domain at that
point.

XVI

At this time Belisarius had arrived in Mesopotamia and was gathering his
army from every quarter, and he also kept sending men into the land of
Persia to act as spies. And wishing himself to encounter the enemy
there, if they should again make an incursion into the land of the
Romans, he was organizing on the spot and equipping the soldiers, who
were for the most part without either arms or armour, and in terror of
the name of the Persians. Now the spies returned and declared that for
the present there would be no invasion of the enemy; for Chosroes was
occupied elsewhere with a war against the Huns. And Belisarius, upon
learning this, wished to invade the land of the enemy immediately with
his whole army. Arethas also came to him with a large force of Saracens,
and besides the emperor wrote a letter instructing him to invade the
enemy's country with all speed. He therefore called together all the
officers in Daras and spoke as follows: "I know that all of you, my
fellow officers, are experienced in many wars, and I have brought you
together at the present time, not in order to stir up your minds against
the enemy by addressing to you any reminder or exhortation (for I think
that you need no speech that prompts to daring), but in order that we
may deliberate together among ourselves, and choose rather the course
which may seem fairest and best for the cause of the emperor. For war is
wont to succeed by reason of careful planning more than by anything
else. Now it is necessary that those who gather for deliberation should
make their minds entirely free from modesty and from fear. For fear, by
paralyzing those who have fallen into it, does not allow the reason to
choose the nobler part, and modesty obscures what has been seen to be
the better course and leads investigation the opposite way. If,
therefore, it seems to you that any purpose has been formed either by
our mighty emperor or by me concerning the present situation, let no
thought of this enter your minds. For, as for him, he i