Note 564 — Chapter XI · THE SECOND PERSIAN WAR: FALL OF ANTIOCH: MILITARY OPERATIONS IN LAZICA

Procopius, De Bel. Pers., i, 26.

[565] Procopius, De Bel. Pers., ii, 9. The veneration of the Persians for truth has been referred to in a former chapter, but in actual fact deceitfulness was a prominent characteristic of the nation. Thus Horace alludes to the "lying Persians" ("infidi Persae," Od., iv, 15) as the verdict of common experience. Truth was rare and precious in Persia, and esteemed accordingly. The opinions of modern travellers coincide. See Müller, Encycl. Brit., xxii, p. 663; cf. Palgrave, Ibid., ii, p. 248.

[566] In this rebellion they managed to kill Sittas, Theodora's brother-in-law, and, it was said, by the hand of Artabanes, who joined the Imperial service soon after, and so much distinguished himself in Africa. See p. 522.

[567] Procopius, De Bel. Pers., ii, 2, 3, whence the narrative proceeds as below.

[568] See p. 193.

[569] Founded and developed by Macedonian Kings of Syria, beginning at 300 B.C. For a full history, see Mülller, Antiq. Antioch., Götting., 1839. For a topographical and sociological account the bulk of the materials are to be found in Libanius, Chrysostom, and Jn. Malala.

[570] On the taking of Antioch, etc., cf. Jn. Lydus, De Magistr., iii, 54. Not a taxpayer was left in Syria, he says, but nevertheless the Rector had to extort the revenue out of the province in some way.

[571] Five thousand pounds of gold (£200,000) paid down, and five hundred (£20,000) annually. The latter was for the upkeep of the Caspian gates, which he, like his father, chafed at having to guard without specified assistance from the Romans; Procopius, loc. cit., 10.

[572] Apamea was one of those places where a log of wood, said to be a fragment of the true cross, was preserved and venerated. On this occasion it was brought out and paraded, a miraculous light following the Bishop as he went on his round with it; Procopius, loc. cit., 11 (by hearsay); Evagrius, iv, 26, who says he was taken to see it himself when a schoolboy. Chosroes did not allow his soldiers unbounded licence. Thus, when a citizen of Apamea complained that his daughter had been ravished, he hanged the man, in spite of the prayers of his comrades.

[573] Procopius, Anecd., 2.

[574] Ibid., 15, 28.

[575] Procopius, Anecd., 2.

[576] Cf. Zachariah Myt., xii, 7.

[577] Procopius, De Bel. Goth., iv, 11, et seq.; where he continues his history of the Persian war after the record closes in his work specified to that subject.

[578] De Bel. Pers., 22 et seq. The great plague at Athens (430 B.C.) was probably the same, but the historian (Thucydides, ii, 47, et seq.) does not give the pathognomonic symptoms with exactitude.

[579] Evagrius, iv, 29. A long and lugubrious account of the plague is given by John Ephes. (Hist. ad calc. Com., p. 227, et seq.), not only at CP., but in Asia and Egypt. It lacks, however, the precision of that of Procopius.