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CHAPTER XI
THE SECOND PERSIAN WAR : FALL OF ANTIOCH : MILITARY OPERATIONS IN LAZICA
WHILE Justinian was thus conquering in the West and substituting
his own rule for that of barbarian potentates, the tide of war was rising
in the East, and almost similar disasters to those he was inflicting
were impending on the integral territory of the Empire. The triumphal
progress of the Imperial arms in Africa and Italy was watched with the
keenest solicitude by Chosroes, and he began to fear that the power
and resources of his hereditary rival were being so formidably increased
that he would soon be able to make an irresistible attack on his own
dominions. Even before the formalities of the Perpetual Peace had been
completely adjusted the news arrived of the virtual subjugation of the Vandalic kingdom; and Chosroes, while congratulating
the Emperor by his legates, jestingly put forward a claim to share in
the spoils, which, he observed, could not have being won but for his
own ready assent to the Roman suit for peace. Justinian, however, took
his banter seriously, and presented him with a large sum of money as
a conciliatory gift.
Chosroes is represented by the historian of the period
as a man who talked humanity and philosophy in a most engaging manner,
but with treacherous intent, and who never failed to take advantage
of his opponents after he had lulled their suspicions by an outward
show of sympathy and benevolence. Whatever his individual inclination
may have been in 539 as to the expediency of entering on a war with
the Empire, ample incitement from without was not wanting to induce
him to bend his mind intently to the question.
While Vitigis was struggling
to retain his kingdom the natives of Roman Armenia were in revolt against
Justinian's newly imposed taxes and stricter system of local government.
Hoping to divert the armaments of the Emperor from themselves, both
parties successively sent legations to Chosroes urging that in his own
interest he should make war on their oppressor. If he did not take up
arms in time, they argued, his encroachments would continue unchecked,
and Persia would shortly find that no option was left to her but that
of being devoured last. To such representations the Persian monarch
was quickly responsive, and in each instance the emissaries departed
feeling satisfied that their object had been attained.
In the autumn of 539 Chosroes made up his mind to wage
war with the Romans, and cast about him for
some plausible pretext to begin his military operations. He accused
Justinian of tampering with the allegiance of his Saracenic ally Alamundar by pecuniary inducements, of bribing the Huns to invade Persia, and
finally he instigated the Arab sheikh to make a raid into Syria in order
to provoke a declaration of war from his rival. Justinian, however,
was very anxious to keep the peace, and addressed a dignified expostulation
to the Persian Court, in which he exhorted the Shahinshah to deal with him in good faith. To this appeal Chosroes deigned no reply,
but retained the ambassador till he had matured his preparations
for invading the Empire.
In the spring of 540 he crossed the Euphrates in great
force, and advanced along the river for four hundred miles until he
arrived in the vicinity of Callinicum. During
the latter third of this march he was on Roman territory, where he exacted
a pecuniary ransom from some small towns, and destroyed others. At this point he dismissed Justinian’s legate, telling
him simply to go and inform his master in what part of the world he
had left Chosroes, the son of Cavades.
The whole of Syria was now at the mercy of the Persian
King, and deputies arrived on all sides to inquire what amount he would
accept in order to leave their districts unmolested. A small force stationed
at Hierapolis was deserted by its commander, Buzes,
who disappeared suddenly and forgot to leave his address. Chosroes soon
appeared before the walls, but he allowed himself to be bought off for
two thousand pounds of silver; and from thence he proceeded further
on his depredations, but his price rose as he went along. At Beroea,
a much smaller place, having been paid a similar sum, he demanded more,
and, in default, ended by sacking and burning the town. At the same time he was convened by a bishop on the part
of the Antiochians, who offered him a thousand pounds of gold to quit
the country. To these terms he agreed, but when the bishop returned
to Antioch to clinch the bargain, he found that legates had arrived
from Constantinople, who issued a prohibition against the Syrians continuing
to buy back the Emperor’s cities from the Persian monarch. Having received
an intimation, therefore, consonant to this decree, Chosroes marched
with all speed against the city.
FALL OF ANTIOCH
Antioch, with a previous history of eight centuries,
was the great commercial emporium between the Far East and the West;
and it is supposed that the term Ta-Thsin,
which represents the Roman Empire in Chinese annals, is a travesty of
the proper name of the overflowing Syrian mart, of which alone they
had any practical cognizance. Under the Empire, its history is especially
dignified by the names of Julian, Libanius, and Chrysostom. But it must have been shorn of much
of its splendour by the disastrous earthquake of 526, an account of
which has been given on a previous page.
The city was situated in a plain about two miles wide
between the Orontes and Mount Casius. On the
north the river, which flowed past the walls, afforded adequate protection,
but on the south two spurs from the mountain projected to such an extent
that part of the city was built on their declivities and in the valley
between them. On that side, consequently, the fortifications were disposed
in two loops, which rose over the hills with a dip in the interspace.
The moment information as to the hostile irruption was conveyed to Justinian,
he sent his nephew, Germanus, with a small brigade, to the seat of war,
promising him that large forces should follow with the least possible
delay. On his arrival, Germanus inspected the fortifications, and observed
that on the summit of one of the hills masses of rock arose at a short
distance outside the walls, which they almost equalled in height. Hence
an enemy, by occupying this elevation, could dominate that part of the
town. He advised, therefore, that a deep foss should be excavated so as to render the walls
inaccessible on that aspect, or that a huge tower conjoined to the wall
should be built opposite the rocks, which could thus be rendered untenable
by showers of missiles. The local engineers, however, decided that there
was no time to undertake works of such magnitude, whilst an unfinished
attempt would only advertise the enemy as to the weak point in the line
of defence. Shortly afterwards, Germanus, having no news of a Byzantine
army being on the route, retired into Cilicia, giving as his reason
that the presence of a prince of the blood would be an incentive to
Chosroes to exert all his force to capture the city.
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 lo 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 bis 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 paean 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 lachrymose 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.
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.
MILITARY OPERATIONS IN LAZICA
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. 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. 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 check. 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 bis 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, 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. For such necessaries they bartered slaves and skins. Soon
the fiscal oppression became so intolerable that deputies were secretly
despatched lo 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, so that 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.
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 repellent 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 horsewhip, 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 Witigis 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.
During the following year, owing to the prevalence of
a fatal epidemie, Chosroes remained inactive;
but the Romans penetrated into Persarmenia,
where they carried on the war with little success, and sustained at
least one decisive defeat.
In 544, however, the Shah again emerged from his boundaries,
this time resolved on the capture of Edessa, a city which affirmed itself
to possess a direct guarantee from the Deity that it would never he
taken by an enemy, and a passage to that effect from a letter, said
to have been written by Jesus to Abgar, a former ruler, was inscribed
over the gates. But Chosroes was ambitious of disproving the validity
of this safeguard, and, therefore, set about beleaguering the city in
a manner which should exclude the possibility of being unsuccessful.
His ardour in this undertaking was sustained by the fanaticism of the
Magi, who, having adored Jesus at his birth, ever afterwards regarded
him as an impostor most obnoxious to their religion. A preliminary skirmish,
however, having turned out unfavourably for his arms, he began to dread
the disgrace of failure, and proposed a ransom; but the amount was so
exorbitant that the citizens elected rather to endure a siege. Preparations
for capture were, therefore, pushed on energetically; and first of all the Persians began to construct an immense quadrangular mound, from
the flat top of which they intended to dominate the city with their
missiles. Trunks of trees, stones, and earth were congested together,
in the beginning at a distance beyond bow-shot from the walls, but as
the work progressed towards the town, the builders became attainable
by the arrows and engines of the garrison. The discharge was at first
effective, especially that of flaming darts, but the Orientals soon
erected huge screens made of hides, under cover of which they were able
to work in safety. The citizens now became seriously alarmed, and sent
a further deputation to Chosroes, but in vain, fifty thousand pounds
of gold being the lowest price he would accept to raise the siege. All
hope of an accommodation being now lost, the engineers of the city began
to devise means to counteract the hostile operations. First they tried to raise a mound, conjoined to the walls, to oppose that
of the enemy, but the task proved to be beyond their powers, and so
they desisted. Then they bored a tunnel, which reached as far as the
centre of the mound, designing to destroy it by fire from below, but
the Persian sentinels heard the excavators at work, and the scheme was
frustrated by a counterboring. Another tunnel, which only attained the
proximate part of the mound, was achieved with better success, and a
cavern was hollowed out, into which a vast quantity of dry wood impregnated
with oil, sulphur, and bitumen was introduced. Here a fire was kept
burning constantly by fresh supplies, whilst the enemy’s attention was
diverted from the rising smoke by an incessant discharge of blazing
arrows and pitch-pots. After some days, however, as the fire pervaded
the viscera of the mound, volumes of smoke betrayed the real nature
of the conflagration. The Persians then essayed to extinguish it with
earth and water, but, failing to check it,
they decided to abandon this siege work. A surprise attack by night
with ladders was the next manoeuvre, but the Romans were too vigilant,
and the coup only led to a slaughterous repulse.
During the whole period of the beleaguerment, sallies
were regularly organized by the garrison, and generally with considerable
loss to the besiegers. Finally Chosroes nerved
himself to make a supreme effort with all his powers to storm the city.
With this object in view, myriads of adobes were moulded and laid over
the top of the smouldering mound. The assault was begun in the early
morning, and at first bid fair to be successful, the defenders of the
wall being comparatively few; but, as the day wore on, the whole effective
population, men, women, and children, crowded to the battlements. Then
improvised projectiles of every available substance were hurled, cauldrons
of oil were brought up and fired along the top of the wall, and, with
the aid of suitable sprinklers, drops of the burning liquid were rained
down on the escaladers. After a prolonged and vigorous attack, the besiegers
retired and informed the Shah that they could make no headway. He raged,
and drove them back again; they returned to the assault with
reckless fury; ladders, lowers, and engines of every description were
rushed up to the walls, but for the second time the ceaseless torrent
of missiles put them to flight. Chosroes then resigned himself and left
his post of observation, while the townspeople hurled their taunts of
defiance after his retreating figure. The siege of Edessa had failed;
and, with the slight compensation of five hundred pounds of gold, he
broke up bis camp and departed.
Shortly after Justinian’s legates again convened Chosroes
and in 545 he granted a truce for five years in exchange for two thousand
pounds of gold, and a Greek physician, whose skill had formerly relieved
him from a painful malady. Yet such was bis ill faith that when he sent
a plenipotentiary to conclude the pact at Constantinople, he commissioned
him to attempt the capture of Dara, while on his way, by a stratagem.
But for the wariness of the inhabitants of that fortress, the emissary
would have gained admission with a large retinue, fired the houses in
the night, and opened the gates to the army of Nisibis, which was lo
lie in waiting outside the walls.
Notwithstanding the establishment of peaceful relations,
a desultory warfare was still carried on in Lazica. A twelvemonth's
experience of Persian domination convinced the Lazi that there was something even worse than Byzantine extortion, and they
prayed to be received again into the fold of a nation which was at least
Christian like themselves. Nor could the Romans endure the loss of Petra,
but sent an expeditionary force into the country to retake it.
They were opposed by a Persian army, and for many years the principality
was the scene of numerous petty successes and defeats. Chosroes imported
a large quantity of material for the purpose of building a fleet on
the Euxine, but it was suddenly consumed by lightning, whence it happened
that the command of the sea in these regions was never obtained by the
Persians.
Intermittently the siege of Petra was pressed for eight
years before the stronghold again came into the hands of the Byzantines
(551). The successful general was Bessas,
who, though above seventy years of age, was the first to ascend the
scaling ladders at the last assault. The defence of the fortress had
been persisted in by the Persians with extraordinary fortitude; and
out of seven hundred and thirty men of the garrison, who were taken
prisoners, it was found that only eighteen had not received a wound.
Five hundred of the survivors took refuge in the citadel, and in
spite of an earnest exhortation by Bessas, preferred death by fire to surrender; whence all of
these perished in the flames with which the Romans consumed the buildings.
The fortress contained a store of provisions calculated to last for
five years, and the reserve of arms and armour would have sufficed to
fit out each man of the garrison five times over. But the captors were
chiefly amazed at seeing a copious flow issuing from an aqueduct, although
every channel of water supply had apparently been cut off. In the only
possible track a surface conduit had been divided, but for long afterwards
no signs could be detected of a lack of water in the town. Evidently
there must be a second supply; they dug down and came on an underground
conduit beneath the first, and that also was severed. Only after the
capture of the fortress was it discovered that at a still greater depth
a third watercourse for the supply of the inhabitants had been constructed.
Petra was now abolished by Bessas, who razed
every building to the ground level, and departed with his prisoners
to the capital.
EPIDEMIE OF PLAGUE
Two years after the beginning of this war an outbreak
of bubonic plague, the first circumstantially recorded in history, was
manifested in the Eastern Hemisphere. The phenomena of the disease were
first noted at Pelusium, whence it spread
throughout Egypt on the one band, and Asia Minor on the other. In the
spring of the next year (543) it reached Constantinople, where it raged
for four months. At first few persons were stricken, but the epidemy
became intensified gradually, until at the height of its virulence as
many as ten thousand victims died in one day.
The cessation of all normal activities of social life,
and the changed aspect of the Imperial capital have been described by
Procopius, who was present there at the time.
Deserted streets, except for those hurrying to bury the
dead without religious rites; the oppletion of all ordinary sepulchres and cemeteries; the digging of graves in
every available patch of ground in the suburbs; the ultimate difficulty
of disposing of the corpses by any recognized method, when some were
projected into the sea, and others were hurled down the wall towers
of Sycae, the roofs having been temporarily
removed for the purpose; the stench afterwards pervading the city when
the wind set from that quarter; the wailing of the bereaved and the
fearful who betook themselves to the churches; the opulent households
in which sometimes a few slaves were the sole survivors of the family;
the dying left untended and those who fell dead in the thoroughfares
while conveying their relatives to the tomb; finally the obliteration
of the feud between the Circus factions, and their dejectedly working
in harmony for the removal of their own dead and those of others; such
were the main features which denoted the state of hopeless desolation
prevailing during this calamitous visitation.
The symptoms of this plague have been described by the
contemporary historian with an accuracy which leaves little to be added
by a modem physician having a clinical acquaintance with the disease.
In typical cases the victim at some unexpected moment felt a sharp stab,
almost invariably in the groin or the axilla; whence the superstitious
declared that they had seen a demon who at the critical instant approached
and struck them. Fever, with the development of a bubo at the sensitive
spot, rapidly set in; coma or delirium then supervened, and death occurred
in three or four days. Black patches often appeared on the body,
and were premonitory of an immediately fatal ending. Among the
worst signs, vomiting or spitting of blood was also observed.
In the most violent attacks the patient without warning fell down in contortions and died before other
symptoms became apparent. Some rushed madly through the street, others
flung themselves from windows or roofs. The disease was not contagious,
and those who handled the infected bodies were not on that account more
liable to be seized. Recovery was forecasted by ripening and suppuration
of the buboes, whilst indolence of those tumours was surely indicative
of a fatal termination. The medical faculty dissected the corpses with assiduity, but found neither explanation nor
remedy. In their prognosis also they were often wrong, some recovering
whom they had given up, and others dying, of whom they had entertained
the best hopes. Having once manifested itself, the plague became endemic,
and more than half a century afterwards continued to be one of the chief
causes of mortality.
CHAPTER XIIPRIVATE LIFE IN THE IMPERIAL CIRCLE AND ITSDEPENDENCIES
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