t mentioned
into the land of the Persians and the Romans, they come with their
horses fresh and without making any detour or encountering any
precipitous places, except in those fifty stades over which, as has been
said, they pass to the boundary of Iberia. If, however, they go by any
other passes, they reach their destination with great difficulty, and
can no longer use the same horses. For the detours which they are forced
to make are many and steep besides. When this was observed by Alexander,
the son of Philip, he constructed gates in the aforesaid place and
established a fortress there. And this was held by many men in turn as
time went on, and finally by Ambazouces, a Hun by birth, but a friend of
the Romans and the Emperor Anastasius. Now when this Ambazouces had
reached an advanced age and was near to death, he sent to Anastasius
asking that money be given him, on condition that he hand over the
fortress and the Caspian Gates to the Romans. But the Emperor Anastasius
was incapable of doing anything without careful investigation, nor was
it his custom to act thus: reasoning, therefore, that it was impossible
for him to support soldiers in a place which was destitute of all good
things, and which had nowhere in the neighbourhood a nation subject to
the Romans, he expressed deep gratitude to the man for his good-will
toward him, but by no means accepted this proposition. So Ambazouces
died of disease not long afterwards, and Cabades overpowered his sons
and took possession of the Gates.

The Emperor Anastasius, after concluding the treaty with Cabades, built
a city in a place called Daras, exceedingly strong and of real
importance, bearing the name of the emperor himself. Now this place is
distant from the city of Nisibis one hundred stades lacking two, and
from the boundary line which divides the Romans from the Persians about
twenty-eight. And the Persians, though eager to prevent the building,
were quite unable to do so, being constrained by the war with the Huns
in which they were engaged. But as soon as Cabades brought this to an
end, he sent to the Romans and accused them of having built a city hard
by the Persian frontier, though this had been forbidden in the agreement
previously made between the Medes and the Romans[12]. At that time,
therefore, the Emperor Anastasius desired, partly by threats, and partly
by emphasizing his friendship with him and by bribing him with no mean
sum of money, to deceive him a