he
returned homeward with his whole army.

XXVIII

At about this time two generals of the Romans died, Justus, the nephew
of the emperor, and Peranius, the Iberian, of whom the former succumbed
to disease, while Peranius fell from his horse in hunting and suffered a
fatal rupture. The emperor therefore appointed others in their places,
dispatching Marcellus, his own nephew who was just arriving at the age
of manhood, and Constantianus, who a little earlier had been sent as an
envoy with Sergius to Chosroes. Then the Emperor Justinian sent
Constantianus and Sergius a second time to Chosroes to arrange the
truce. And they overtook him in Assyria, at the place where there are
two towns, Seleucia and Ctesiphon, built by the Macedonians who after
Alexander, the son of Philip, ruled over the Persians and the other
nations there. These two towns are separated by the Tigris River only,
for they have nothing else between them. There the envoys met Chosroes,
and they demanded that he should give back to the Romans the country of
Lazica, and establish peace with them on a thoroughly secure basis. But
Chosroes said that it was not easy for them to come to terms with each
other, unless they should first declare an armistice, and then should
continue to go back and forth to each other without so much fear and
settle their differences and make a peace which should be on a secure
basis for the future. And it was necessary, he said, that in return for
this continued armistice the Roman Emperor should give him money and
should also send a certain physician, Tribunus by name, in order to
spend some specified time with him. For it happened that this physician
at a former time had rid him of a severe disease, and as a result of
this he was especially beloved and greatly missed by him. When the
Emperor Justinian heard this, he immediately sent both Tribunus and the
money, amounting to twenty centenaria. [545 A.D.] In this way the treaty
was made between the Romans and the Persians for five years, in the
nineteenth year of the reign of the Emperor Justinian.

And a little later Arethas and Alamoundaras, the rulers of the Saracens,
waged a war against each other by themselves, unaided either by the
Romans or the Persians. And Alamoundaras captured one of the sons of
Arethas in a sudden raid while he was pasturing horses, and straightway
sacrificed him to Aphrodite; and from this it was known that Arethas was
not betraying the Romans to th