IX
IN the meantime the following took place. The Lazi began to slander Dagisthaeus to the emperor, going to Byzantium to do so, charging him with treason and Medizing. For they declared that he had yielded to the persuasion of the Persians in refusing to establish himself inside the fallen circuit-wall of Petra, while the enemy in the interval had filled bags with sand and laid courses with them instead of stones, and thus had made secure such parts of the circuit-wall as had fallen down. And they stated that Dagisthaeus, whether impelled to do so by a bribe or through negligence, had postponed the attack to some other time, and had thus let slip for the moment the precious opportunity which, of course, he had never again been able to grasp. The emperor consequently confined him in the prison and kept him under guard; he then appointed Bessas, who had returned not long before from Italy, General of Armenia and sent him to Lazica with instructions to command the Roman army there. Vendus, the brother of Buzes, had also been sent there already with an army, as well as Odonachus, Babas from Thrace, and Uligagus of the Eruli.
Now Nabedes had invaded Lazica with an army, but he accomplished nothing of consequence beyond spending some time with this army among the Abasgi, who had revolted from the Romans and Lazi, and taking from them sixty children of their notables as hostages. It was at that time that Nabedes as an incident of his journey captured Theodora, the consort of Opsites (he was uncle of Gubazes and king of the Lazi), finding her among the Apsilii, and he carried her off to the land of Persia. Now this woman happened to be a Roman by birth, for the kings of the Lazi from ancient times had been sending to Byzantium, and, with the consent of the emperor, arranging marriages with some of the senators and taking home their wives from there. In fact Gubazes was sprung from a Roman family on his mother’s side. But the reason why these Abasgi turned to revolt I shall now set forth.
When they had removed from power their own kings, as has been told by me above, Roman soldiers sent by the emperor began to be quartered among them very generally, and they sought to annex the land to the Roman empire imposing certain new regulations upon them. But because these were rather severe the Abasgi became exceedingly wroth. Fearing, consequently, that they would be mere slaves of the Romans thereafter, they again put their rulers in power, one named Opsites in the eastern part of their country, and Sceparnas in the western part. Thus, because they had fallen into despair of good things, they naturally enough sought to regain the status which had previously seemed to them grievous in place of their later estate, seeing this had been worse, and in consequence of this change they were in fear of the power of the Romans and as secretly as possible went over to the Persians. When the Emperor Justinian heard this, he commanded Bessas to send a strong army against them. He accordingly selected a large number from the Roman army, appointed to command them Uligagus and John the son of Thomas, and immediately sent them by sea against the Abasgi. Now it happened that one of the rulers of the Abasgi, the one named Sceparnas, was away for some reason among the Persians; for he had gone under summons not long before to Chosroes. But the other ruler, learning of the inroad of the Romans, mustered all the Abasgi and made haste to encounter them.
Now there is a place beyond the boundary of Apsilia on the road into Abasgia of the following description: a lofty ridge runs out from the Caucasus, and gradually sinks, as it runs along, to a lower level, resembling in a way a ladder, until it comes to an end at the Euxine Sea. And the Abasgi in ancient times built an exceedingly strong fortress of very considerable size on the lower slope of this mountain.
Here they always take refuge and repel the inroads of their enemies, who are in no way able to storm the difficult position. Indeed there is only one path leading to this fortress and to the rest of the land of the Abasgi, and this happens to be impassable for men marching by twos. For there is no possibility of getting along there except in single file and on foot, and that with difficulty. Above this path rises the side of an exceedingly rough gorge which extends from the fortress to the sea. And the place bears a name worthy of the gorge, for the inhabitants call it Trachea, using a Greek word.
So the Roman fleet put in between the boundaries of the Abasgi and Apsilii, and John and Uligagus disembarked their troops and proceeded on foot, while the sailors followed the army along the coast with all the boats. And when they came close to Trachea, they beheld the entire force of the Abasgi fully armed and standing in order along the whole gorge above the path which I have just mentioned, whereupon they fell into great perplexity because they were quite unable to handle the situation before them, until John, after reasoning long with himself, discovered a remedy for the trouble. For leaving Uligagus there with the half of the army, he himself took the others and manned the boats. And by rowing they rounded the place where Trachea was and passed it entirely and thus got in the rear of the enemy. Thereupon the Romans raised their standards and advanced. The Abasgi, then, seeing their enemy pressing upon them from both sides, no longer offered resistance nor even kept their ranks, but turning to withdraw in a very disorderly retreat they kept moving forward, but so impeded were they by their fear and the helplessness resulting therefrom that they were no longer able to find their way about the rough terrain of their native haunts, nor could they easily get away from the place. The Romans meanwhile were following them up from either side and caught and killed many. And they reached the fortress on the run together with the fugitives and found the small gate there still open; for the guards could by no means shut the gates, since they were still taking in the fugitives. So pursued and pursuers mingled together were all rushing toward the gate, the former eager to save themselves, the latter to capture the fortress. Finding then the gates open, they charged through them together: for the gate-keepers were neither able to distinguish the Abasgi from the enemy nor to shut the gates to with the throng overpowering them.
And the Abasgi for their part, though feeling relief at getting inside the fortress, were actually being captured with the fortress, while the Romans, thinking they had mastered their opponents, found themselves involved there in a more difficult struggle. For the houses were numerous and not very far apart from each other — indeed they were even crowded close enough together so that they resembled a wall all round, and the Abasgi mounted them and defended themselves with all their strength by hurling missiles upon the heads of their enemy, struggling with might and main and filled with terror and with pity for their children and women, and consequently overcome with despair, until it occurred to the Romans to fire the houses. They accordingly set fire to them on all sides, and thus were completely victorious in this struggle. Now Opsites, the ruler of the Abasgi, succeeded in making his escape with only a few men, and withdrew to the neighbouring Huns and the Caucasus mountains. But the others were either charred and burned to ashes with their houses or fell into the hands of their enemy. The Romans also captured the women of their rulers with all their offspring, razed the defences of the fortress to the ground, and rendered the land desolate to a great distance. For the Abasgi, then, this was the result of their revolution. But among the Apsilii the following took place.
Ἀψίλιοι μὲν ἐκ παλαιοῦ κατήκοοι Λαζῶν τυγχάνουσιν ὄντες. ἔστι δέ τι φρούριον ἐν ταύτῃ τῇ χώρᾳ ἐχυρὸν μάλιστα: Τζιβιλὴν αὐτὸ καλοῦσιν οἱ ἐπιχώριοι. [2] τῶν δέ τις ἐν Λαζοῖς λογίμων, Τερδέτης ὄνομα, ὅσπερ εἶχε τὴν τοῦ καλουμένου μαγίστρου ἀρχὴν ἐν τούτῳ τῷ ἔθνει, Γουβάζῃ τῷ τῶν Λαζῶν βασιλεῖ προσκεκρουκώς τε καὶ χαλεπῶς ἔχων, Πέρσαις ὡμολόγησε λάθρα τοῦτο δὴ ἐνδώσειν τὸ φρούριον, στράτευμά τε Περσῶν ἐπαγόμενος ἐπὶ ταύτῃ τῇ πράξει ἐς Ἀψιλίαν ᾔει. [3] καὶ ἐπεὶ ἄγχιστα τοῦ φρουρίου ἐγένοντο, προτερήσας αὐτ�
�ς ξὺν τοῖς ἑπομένοις οἱ Λαζοῖς ἐντὸς τοῦ περιβόλου ἐγένετο, ἐπεὶ οἱ τὸ φυλακτήριον ταύτῃ ἔχοντες ἀπιστεῖν τῷ Λαζῶν ἄρχοντι οὐδαμῆ εἶχον, οὐδεμιᾷ ἐς αὐτὸν ὑποψίᾳ ἐχόμενοι. οὕτω τε ἀφικόμενον τὸ Περσῶν στράτευμα τῷ φρουρίῳ ὁ Τερδέτης ἐδέξατο. [4] καὶ ἀπ̓ αὐτοῦ Μῆδοι οὐ Λαζικὴν μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ Ἀψιλίαν ἔχεσθαι τότε πρὸς αὐτῶν ᾤοντο. οὔτε δὲ Ῥωμαῖοι οὔτε Λαζοὶ ἀσχολίᾳ τῇ ἀμφὶ Πέτρᾳ τε καὶ τῷ Μήδων στρατῷ πιεζόμενοι Ἀψιλίοις ἐπαμύνειν ἔσχον. [5] Ἦν δέ τις γυνὴ τῷ ἄρχοντι τοῦ ἐνταῦθα φυλακτηρίου, Ἀψιλία γένος, τὴν ὄψιν εὐπρεπὴς μάλιστα. ταύτης δὴ τῆς γυναικὸς ἐκτόπως ἐρασθεὶς ἐξαπιναίως ὁ τοῦ Περσῶν στρατεύματος ἄρχων τὰ μὲν πρῶτα πειρᾶν ἤρξατο, ἔπειτα δέ, ἐπεί οἱ πρὸς τῆς γυναικὸς οὐδὲν προὐχώρει, βιάζεσθαι μελλήσει αὐτὴν οὐδεμιᾷ ἐνεχείρησεν. [6] οἷς δὴ ὀξυθυμωθεὶς ὁ τῆς γυναικὸς ἀνήρ, αὐτόν τε νύκτωρ καὶ τοὺς ξὺν αὐτῷ ἐς τὸ φρούριον εἰσεληλυθότας ἅπαντας ἔκτεινε, παρανάλωμα τῆς τοῦ ἄρχοντος ἐπιθυμίας γεγενημένους, καὶ τὸ φρούριον ἔσχεν αὐτός. Ἀψίλιοί τε Κόλχων διὰ τοῦτο ἀπέστησαν, ἐπικαλοῦντες ὅτι δὴ σφᾶς πρὸς Περσῶν κακουμένους προσποιεῖσθαι οὐδαμῆ ἤθελον. [7] ἀλλὰ Γουβάζης Ῥωμαίων χιλίους καὶ Ἰωάννην τὸν Θωμᾶ υἱόν, οὗπερ ἔναγχος ἐπεμνήσθην, ἐπ̓ αὐτοὺς ἔπεμψεν: ὅσπερ αὐτοὺς πολλὰ τιθασσεύων ἐπαγαγέσθαι ἀμαχητὶ ἔσχε καὶ Λαζῶν κατηκόους κατεστήσατο αὖθις. τὰ μὲν οὖν ἀμφί τε Ἀψιλίοις καὶ Τζιβιλῇ τῷ φρουρίῳ τῇδε ἐχώρησεν. [8] Ὑπὸ τοῦτον δὲ τὸν χρόνον Χοσρόῃ ξυνέβη μηδὲ τὸν γόνον τῇ ἀπανθρωπίᾳ τῇ αὐτοῦ ἀνέπαφον μεῖναι. τῶν γάρ οἱ παίδων ὁ πρεσβύτατος Ἀνασώζαδος ὄνομα ῾δύναται δὲ τοῦτο τῇ Περσῶν φωνῇ ἀθανατίζων̓ προσκεκρουκὼς αὐτῷ ἔτυχεν, ἄλλα τε πολλὰ τῇ ἐς τὴν δίαιταν παρανομίᾳ ἐξαμαρτὼν καὶ ταῖς γυναιξὶ τοῦ πατρὸς ὀκνήσει οὐδεμιᾷ ἐς εὐνὴν συνιών. τὰ μὲν οὖν πρῶτα φυγῇ τὸν παῖδα τοῦτον ὁ Χοσρόης ἐζημίωσεν. [9] ἔστι δέ τις ἐν Πέρσαις Οὐαζαΐνη χώρα, ἀγαθὴ μάλιστα, οὗ δὴ πόλις Βηλαπατὼν καλουμένη οἰκεῖται, ἑπτὰ ἡμερῶν ὁδῷ Κτησιφῶντος διέχουσα. [10] ἐνταῦθα τοῦ πατρὸς ἐπαγγείλαντος Ἀνασώζαδος οὗτος διατριβὴν εἶχε. Τότε δὲ τῷ Χοσρόῃ χαλεπώτατα νοσῆσαι ξυνέβη, ὥστε καὶ ἐλέχθη ἐξ ἀνθρώπων ἀφανισθῆναι: νοσώδης γὰρ ἦν ὁ Χοσρόης φύσει. [11] ἀμέλει καὶ τοὺς ἰατροὺς πανταχόθεν πολλάκις ἀμφ̓ αὑτὸν ἤγειρεν, ἐν τοῖς καὶ Τριβοῦνος ὁ ἰατρὸς ἦν, Παλαιστῖνος γένος. [12] ὁ δὲ Τριβοῦνος οὗτος λόγιος μὲν ἦν καὶ τὰ ἐς τέχνην τὴν ἰατρικὴν οὐδενὸς ἥσσων, ἄλλως δὲ σώφρων τε καὶ θεοφιλὴς καὶ τῆς ἐπιεικείας ἐς ἄκρον ἥκων. [13] καί ποτε Χοσρόην κακῶς τοῦ σώματος ἔχοντα ἰασάμενος ἀπηλλάγη ἐκ τῆς Περσῶν χώρας, δῶρα πολλά τε καὶ λόγου ἄξια πρὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου κεκομισμένος. [14] ἡνίκα τοίνυν ἡ ταύτης προτέρα ἐκεχειρία ἐγένετο, Ἰουστινιανὸν βασιλέα Χοσρόης τὸν ἰατρὸν τοῦτον συνδιαιτησόμενον αὑτῷ ἐς ἐνιαυτὸν ᾔτησε δοῦναι. τῆς τέ οἱ αἰτήσεως ἐπιτελεσθείσης, ὥσπερ μοι ἔμπροσθεν εἴρηται, ἐκέλευσε τὸν Τριβοῦνον ὁ Χοσρόης αἰτεῖσθαι ὅτου ἂν δέηται. [15] ὁ δὲ ἄλλο οὐδὲν ᾔτει τῶν πάντων χρημάτων ἢ ὥστε οἱ Ῥωμαίων τῶν αἰχμαλώτων τινὰς Χοσρόην ἀφεῖναι. [16] ὁ δέ οἱ ἄλλους τε τρισχιλίους ἀφῆκε καὶ ὅσους πρὸς ὄνομα ἐξῃτήσατο ἐν τοῖς αἰχμαλώτοις λογίμους ὄντας, κλέος τε μέγα ἐκ τοῦ ἔργου τούτου ἐς πάντας ἀνθρώπους ὁ Τριβοῦνος ἔσχε. ταῦτα μὲν οὖν τῇδε ξυνηνέχθη γενέσθαι. [17] Ἐπειδὴ δὲ Ἀνασώζαδος τὰ Χοσρόῃ τῷ πατρὶ ἀμφὶ τῇ νόσῳ ξυμπεσόντα ἔγνω, τῆς βασιλείας ἐπιβατεύων, νεώτερα πράγματα ἔπρασσε. [18] τοῦ τε πατρός οἱ ῥαΐσαντος, οὐδέν τι ἧσσον τήν τε πόλιν αὐτὸς ἀποστήσας καὶ ὅπλα ἀντάρας ἐς τὸν πόλεμον ἀκμάζων ᾔει. [19] ταῦτα ὁ Χοσρόης ἀκούσας στρατιάν τε καὶ στρατηγὸν Φάβριζον ἐπ̓ αὐτὸν ἔπεμψε. νικήσας οὖν τῇ μάχῃ ὁ Φάβριζος ὑποχείριόν τε τὸν Ἀνασώζαδον πεποιημένος παρὰ Χοσρόην οὐ πολλῷ ὕστερον ἤνεγκε. [20] καὶ ὃς τοὺς τοῦ παιδὸς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἐλωβήσατο, οὐ τὰς ὄψεις ἀφελόμενος, ἀλλὰ βλέφαρά τε ἄνω καὶ κάτω ἀκοσμίᾳ πολλῇ ἀντιστρέψας. [21] περόνην γὰρ σιδηρᾶν πυρακτώσας τινὰ καὶ ταύτῃ μυόντοιν τοῖν τοῦ παιδὸς ὀφθαλμοῖν τὰ ἔξω χρίσας, οὕτω δὴ τῶν βλεφάρων τὸν κόσμον λωβήσασθαι ἔσχε. [22] ταῦτα δὲ Χοσρόης τούτου δὴ ἕνεκα ἐποίει μόνον, ὅπως ἂν τῷ παιδὶ ἀναστέλληται ἡ ἐπὶ τῇ βασιλείᾳ ἐλπίς. ἄνδρα γὰρ λώβῃ ἐχόμενον οὐκέτι ὁ νόμος ἐφίησι βασιλέα καθίστασθαι Πέρσαις, ὥσπερ κἀν τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν λόγοις ἐρρήθη.
X
The Apsilii have been subjects of the Lazi from ancient times. Now there is in this country an exceedingly strong fortress which the natives call Tzibile. But one among the notables of the Lazi, Terdetes by name, who held the office of “magister,” as it is called, in this nation, had had a falling out with Gubazes, the king of the Lazi, and was hostile to him; accordingly he secretly promised the Persians to hand over this particular fortress to them, and he came into Apsilia leading an army of Persians to accomplish this object. Then, when they came close to the fortress, he himself went ahead with his Lazic followers and got inside the fortifications, because those keeping guard there could in no way disobey the commander of the Lazi, feeling as they did no suspicion of him. Thus when the Persian army arrived Terdetes received it into the fortress. And as a result of this the Medes considered that not Lazica alone, but also Apsilia was held by them. Meanwhile neither the Romans nor the Lazi were in a position to defend the Apsilii, being hard pressed, as they were, by the task of dealing with Petra and the Median army.
Delphi Complete Works of Procopius Page 513