he had given up the strong holds of Lazica, and he wrote a letter to the ambassadors expressly commanding them by no means to hand them over to the Persians.  For this reason Chosroes no longer saw fit to make the treaty; and then it came to the mind of Rufinus that he had counselled more speedily than safely in bringing the money into the land of Persia.  Straightway, therefore, he threw himself on the earth, and lying prone he entreated Chosroes to send the money back with them and not march immediately against the Romans, but to put off the war to some other time.  And Chosroes bade him rise from the ground, promising that he would grant all these things.  So the ambassadors with the money came to Daras and the Persian army marched back.

Then indeed the fellow-ambassadors of Rufinus began to regard him with extreme suspicion themselves, and they also denounced him to the emperor, basing their judgment on the fact that Chosroes had been persuaded to concede him everything which he asked of him.  However, the emperor showed him no disfavour on account of this.  At a time not long after this Rufinus himself and Hermogenes were again sent to the court of Chosroes, and they immediately came to agreement with each other concerning the treaty, subject to the condition that both sides should give back all the places which each nation had wrested from the other in that war, and that there should no longer be any military post in Daras; as for the Iberians, it was agreed that the decision rested with them whether they should remain there in Byzantium or return to their own fatherland.  And there were many who remained, and many also who returned to their ancestral homes. [532 A.D.] Thus, then, they concluded the so-called “endless peace,” when the Emperor Justinian was already in the sixth year of his reign.  And the Romans gave the Persians Pharangium and the fortress of Bolum together with the money, and the Persians gave the Romans the strongholds of Lazica.  The Persians also returned Dagaris to the Romans, and received in return for him another man of no mean station.  This Dagaris in later times often conquered the Huns in battle when they had invaded the land of the Romans, and drove them out; for he was an exceptionally able warrior.  Thus both sides in the manner described made secure the treaty between them.

XXIII

Straightway it came about that plots were formed against both rulers by their subjects; and I shall now explain how this happened.  Chosroes, the son of Cabades, was a man of an unruly turn of mind and strangely fond of innovations.  For this reason he himself was always full of excitement and alarms, and he was an unfailing cause of similar feelings in all others.  All, therefore, who were men of action among the Persians, in vexation at his administration, were purposing to establish over themselves another king from the house of Cabades.  And since they longed earnestly