When Chosroes reached Antioch, he was still willing to accept a ransom, but the citizens were now in no mood to meet his proposals. A certain number, the most timid, had already fled, but those who remained were suddenly reassured by the arrival of six thousand troops from the south under the military governors of Libanus. Having encamped his army along the Orontes, the Shah sent forward an interpreter to interrogate the municipality as to a ransom, but a mob congregated on the walls immediately overwhelmed him with jeers and insults; and shortly he had to run for his life in order to escape from a shower of stones. Burning with resentment, Chosroes now commanded that the siege should be pressed on all sides with the utmost ardour. He himself, with the most strenuous body of troops he could select, ascended the southern hill, where he took up his position on the rocky plateau, from whence, with all the advantage of being on level ground, his men began to discharge their arrows with tireless energy against the defenders of the wall. On their side the garrison had improvised a means of doubling their powers of resistance by erecting a wooden platform above the battlements in the interspace between the pair of towers which confronted the threatening ridge of rock. From thence soldiers commingled with citizen volunteers, in superimposed ranks, launched their darts against the enemy. The battle with missiles raged hotly for some time, when suddenly the wooden platform, imperfectly sustained, gave way with a loud crash, and precipitated all those who were supported by it to the ground. A senseless panic then ensued, a cry was raised that the Persians had forced the wall and were pouring into the city, whereupon the newly-arrived garrison descended and leaped on to their horses, which were tethered below, and rushed to the gate of Daphne on the opposite side of the town. Their leaders rode at their head, and, wishing to get away without hindrance, scattered the news that Buzes was at hand with an army of relief, which they were hastening to admit into the city. But the citizens thronged after them excitedly, and a fatal crush occurred in the vicinity of the gate, where people of all ages were trampled to death by the horses of the flying cavalry.
In the meantime the Persians, seeing the walls deserted, brought up ladders, and, ascending in great numbers, took possession of the battlements. There they remained for some time, for Chosroes, seated outside on a high tower, having noticed the flight of the military, thought it wisest to give them time to evacuate the city, instead of provoking them to rally by an untimely attack. As soon as the tumult appeared to have subsided, the Persians began to descend and make their way into the level part of the city with some difficulty, as the tract adjoining the south wall inside consisted for the most part of precipitous crags. In a short time, however, they unexpectedly found themselves in conflict with a large mass of the youth of Antioch, members of the Circus factions, who had assembled in the Forum, some armed in military fashion, others provided only with stones. The first bands of the Orientals were severely repulsed, and already the Syrio-Greeks began to sing the pæan of "Justinian the Victor," when large forces arrived and extinguished their resistance. A ruthless massacre then followed, neither age nor sex being spared, until the Shah thought fit to give the signal for its cessation.
Previous to the commencement of the siege, the Roman legates had been received in the Persian camp, where they vainly endeavoured to dissuade Chosroes from continuing the war. He now summoned them to his presence, and, in a lacrymose tone, delivered a homily on the diversified nature of human fortune. The ruin of this noble capital, he remarked, was a sad spectacle, which he had done all in his power to prevent. By their rash defence with unequal forces, the citizens had brought this calamity on themselves, but he had restrained the incensed soldiery and given time for great numbers to escape. The arrogance of mortals, he continued, was visited with condign punishment by the Deity, who sought to restrain them from encroaching beyond their proper sphere. He pointed at Justinian, on whom he cast the whole onus of originating the war. But to his hearers it seemed that only wanton aggression had impelled him on this campaign, whilst all understood that he had delayed the assault discreetly lest his own army should incur needless risk.
The fate of Antioch was presently decided. All the remaining inhabitants were seized as captives, and the buildings were given over to pillage and fire. Treasures of gold and silver and works of art in marble were accumulated for the special benefit of the Shah, who departed, leaving incendiaries in the city to complete the task of destruction. Ultimately, however, Chosroes showed himself as a benignant master of the Antiochians whom he had carried off. In the vicinity of Ctesiphon he built a new city, to which he gave the name of Chosroantioch, and furnished it with everything appertaining to a Roman town, including a circus and public baths. Here the captives were housed under the eye of the monarch himself, with no intermediary satrap, and endowed with many privileges which were not enjoyed by his Persian subjects. Moreover, if any of the relatives of the inhabitants, who had been enslaved, succeeded in escaping to this town, they were granted a permanent asylum, so that their masters could not reclaim them, even should they be nobles of the court.[570]
It might be said, without much sacrifice of accuracy, that the war which had now broken out between Rome and Persia only terminated a century later, when the Sassanian dynasty was extinguished by the votaries of Mohammed. There were interruptions to hostilities, vicissitudes in the martial relations of the two empires, yet no stable peace. But the Saracens then became the neighbours of Rome on the Euphrates, as they had always previously been on the Arabian frontiers; and, viewing the conflict as one between East and West, between Grecian and Oriental civilization, we might traverse a millennium and aver that the war never ended until 1453, when Mohammed II made his victorious entry into Constantinople. Henceforward Justinian was almost perpetually engaged in desultory and indecisive military operations on the eastern marches; and the repair of damages inflicted by his restless compeer constituted a permanent drain on the resources of the Empire.
After this signal success there was a lull in the activity of Chosroes, and he showed a disposition to grant a peace. He discussed the subject with the Byzantine envoys, and finally dismissed them with a precise statement as to what terms he would accept.[571] He then took a pleasure trip to the sea at Seleucia, the port of Antioch, visited the grove of Daphne, after which his greed for acquisition returned, and he bethought himself of the rich city of Apamea, which was in the vicinity. He appeared before the gates, but, as an informal truce was supposed to be in existence, he professed himself to be an amicable visitor, desirous only of viewing the objects of interest in the town. He was admitted with a guard of cavalry, and presided in the Circus in imitation of the Byzantine autocrat. Hearing that Justinian favoured the Blues, he announced himself in opposition as a partisan of the Greens. As, however, his temper was uncertain, it was thought prudent to conciliate him with a gift of a thousand pounds of silver before his departure; but, still insatiate, he insisted also in appropriating the treasures of the cathedral.[572] He now discarded all respect for the peace negotiations, and resumed his career of subjugation. Ransoms were exacted as before, and he decided on the blockade of Edessa, but was deterred by the evil omen of a boil on his cheek. He then laid siege to Dara, and drove a tunnel beneath the walls. His design, however, was betrayed, and frustrated by a counterwork on the part of the besieged, whereupon he abandoned the enterprise and returned to Persia for the winter.
Justinian now repudiated the peace convention, which had been made by his legates, on the ground that Chosroes had violated the conditions; and in the spring of 541 Belisarius arrived at Dara to organize the defences of the country. The result of a military council was an advance, with all the forces which could be mustered, on Nisibis. Here the usual round of skirmishes were fought outside the walls, but at length it was decided that the fortress was impregnable, and the Roman army retired. A conflict with the Shah had been expected, but he was reported to be occupied with a Hunnish incursion, and did not make his appearance on the Euphrates this year. After directing some raids on Persian territory, in the course of which Sisauranum, an important fortress, with its garrison, was captured, Belisarius returned to Constantinople for the winter. Arethas, the Saracen sheikh, with a large following, took part in this expedition, and even crossed the Tigris into Assyria; but, being ill-directed and supported, rendered little effective service. The Persian soldiers who had been taken as prisoners of war, about eight hundred in number,[573] were sent to Italy, there to do duty as combatants against the Goths.
In the meantime Chosroes had really absented himself on an expedition which he had undertaken insidiously against Byzantine commerce in the Euxine Sea. After the Lazi and Iberians had taken refuge in the arms of Rome, Justinian had proceeded to make his suzerainty practical by building a strong fortress on the coast of Lazica. Founded among inaccessible rocks, and approachable from the plain on one side only, this stronghold received the appropriate name of Petra. A pair of military Dukes, distinguished as usual for rapacity, were placed in charge, and they immediately created a monopoly in their own favour of the imports by sea, on which the Lazi were almost wholly dependent. The region, in fact, was devoid of agricultural produce and salt.[574] For such necessaries they bartered slaves and skins. Soon the fiscal oppression became so intolerable that deputies were secretly despatched to implore the Persian King to take up arms on behalf of the Lazi and expel the Romans. Chosroes seized the opportunity, and, giving out that he was marching against the Huns, proceeded with a numerous army to the occupation of Lazica. The country was shut in by precipitous mountains, but level passes existed, which, however, were blocked by a dense forest. With the aid of native guides and a strong body of pioneers, a route was quickly opened; and Gubazes, the King, met and adored the Shah on his arrival. The Persians poured in rapidly and disposed themselves for an assault on Petra. At the onset they suffered severely through a ruse of the Byzantine commandant, who withdrew all his men from the battlements so as to give the fortress a deserted appearance. The Orientals, therefore, crowded up carelessly, and began to arrange their siege engines in suitable positions, when suddenly the gates were flung open, and the garrison, charging impetuously, drove them back with great slaughter. Within a few days, however, the resourceful author of this success was slain by an arrow, and thereafter the defence became languid and ineffective. Two great towers were the chief bulwarks of the town, and the Persians, without being observed, bored a tunnel which terminated under the base of one of them. Then the stone foundations were cautiously removed and substituted by a mass of inflammable wood. On fire being applied, the ponderous pile soon collapsed; whereupon the besieged gladly accepted the terms offered them to surrender. The treasures of John Tzibus—such was the name of the Duke who had been in command—which he had amassed by his extortions to a large amount, fell into the hands of the victor, who then evacuated the principality, leaving a Persian garrison in the fortress. Chosroes was now in a position to ruin Byzantine commerce in the Euxine, but it was first essential that he should build a fleet in order to make his conquest of Petra effective for the purpose. In order to guard his retreat during this expedition, the Shah had impelled an irruption of Huns into Roman Armenia, but they were met and defeated by the Master of Soldiers in that region, who, however, neglected to follow up his success, being ignorant or misdirected as to the opportunity of intercepting the Persians on their way through the mountain passes of Lazica.[575]
The insufficiency of the Byzantine forces in the East was such that next year (542), when Belisarius returned to the seat of war, he was obliged to trust to a ruse to stop the progress of the Persian army. Chosroes again led the invasion, and this time with Jerusalem as the object of his cupidity, when he heard that a Roman camp had been formed on the river, south of the frontier, so as to intercept him should he return by his usual line of march. Thereupon he sent an exploratory legation, ostensibly to interrogate the Master of Soldiers as to Justinian's intentions with respect to a treaty. Having named a day for their reception, Belisarius advanced from his camp accompanied by six thousand of his tallest soldiers, chosen from as many diverse nationalities as possible. When the time of meeting was at hand, he appeared reclining in an extemporized tent, as if resting after a hunting expedition, whilst in various directions, as far as the eye could reach, were seen Thracians, Mysians, Goths, Herules, Vandals, and Moors, all in undress, hurrying to and fro, seemingly busied with matters relating only to the chase. On the opposite side of the river a thousand cavalry were disposed, making as much show as possible by their evolutions. When the Persians came up, Belisarius, regarding them in a questioning manner, with an air of repellant surprise, inquired what might be the object of their visit to his camp. At the same time the men, passing and repassing, one with a horse-whip, another with an axe, a sword, or a bow, gave them a look of careless and contemptuous scrutiny, and went on as if too intent on their occupation to notice them any further. In reply to the general, the chief legate said that the Shah was indignant at Justinian's not having sent an ambassador with a definite answer as to the proposed treaty. "It is not customary," said Belisarius in a haughty tone, "for people to act like Chosroes—to invade a neighbouring kingdom with a great army, and then to inquire what pacific measures would be most acceptable. Withdraw your forces; we decline to treat with you unless upon equal terms." Making a gesture of dismissal, he then turned away and began to occupy himself with something else.
Duly impressed by this burlesque, the envoy reported to Chosroes that he had never met a general so decided and authoritative, nor seen soldiers of such splendid proportions, whilst the main army must be very numerous, since so many could be out of arms at one time as a mere hunting party. Moved by this report, the Shah thought it prudent to retreat across the Euphrates at the spot where he found himself instead of retracing his usual route to Ctesiphon. Thus was Palestine saved; and by many Belisarius was credited with a finer achievement than when he led Gelimer or Vitigis captive to Constantinople. Yet it was the last occasion on which he held a command in the Orient; and his activities in future were to be confined to Italy and the vicinity of the capital. Even on this occasion, however, the Persian monarch did not regain his capital empty handed, but, finding on his way back that Callinicus was poorly fortified, he took it by a sudden assault, and made a clean sweep of everything worth removing from the site.