Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/65

This page needs to be proofread.

in Oriental successions the new Shah was unable to seat himself firmly on the throne without making away with several of his near relatives who formed a nucleus around whom malcontents might cluster.[1] Preoccupied, therefore, with his domestic affairs, he was anxious to be relieved from the onus of a foreign war, and signified shortly to the Roman legates his willingness to negotiate a treaty.[2] Rufinus was credited with being a peculiarly grateful personage to Chosroes owing to his having consistently advised Cavades, during his long intimacy with him, to elevate his third son to the throne. It was also reported that the Persian queen-mother was in secret sympathy with Christianity and, therefore, used her influence over her son to promote peaceful relations with the Byzantines.[3] But the lessons of the war

  • [Footnote: to the claim of the eldest son, Caoses; loc. cit., 21. Sometimes Theophanes

seems to copy Malala, but in this case he is so ignorant as to make Chosroes succeed in 525!]

  1. Some details of this dissension are given by Procopius; loc. cit., 23. A party conspired to set up a younger Cavades, grandson of the elder through his second son Zames, who was debarred by reason of his being blind of one eye. Ultimately this Kavádh fled to CP. (c. 546), and it is supposed that he is the authority whence Procopius derived his knowledge of Persian history. The historian, however, gives vent to his suspicion that this fugitive was an impostor, the real pretender having most probably perished.
  2. Procopius, loc. cit., 22; Jn. Malala, p. 471. According to the first the Roman legates sued for peace with cringing flattery, whereas Malala states that Justinian's reply to an announcement from Chosroes that he had ascended the throne was, "We do not acknowledge you as king of Persia, nor do we permit our legates to visit you." Moreover he taunted Chosroes with having invited the Huns, and only after the latter had repudiated all responsibility for their acts were diplomatic relations established.
  3. Zachariah Myt., ix, 6, 7. He says that she was privately a convert to Christianity after a cure wrought upon her by a hermit when physicians had failed.