THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD IN LATE ANTIQUITYdemonstrate directly from archaeological evidence (see Chapter 7). How-
ever, it cannot but have had a serious effect; the death toll had an immediate
effect on imperial tax revenues and military manpower clearly apparent in
subsequent legislation to recover taxes from the estates of those who had
died intestate,^33 and in the great diffi culties now experienced in sustaining
the war on two fronts simultaneously.^34 The plague spread widely and struck
in successive waves in both parts of the empire. However, historians differ
greatly as to its probable effects or mortality rate, and the identifi cation
with bubonic plague, largely a retrojection from the Black Death, has been
challenged; faced with the problems surrounding its interpretation, Per-
egrine Horden aptly describes the problem as ‘a [historiographical] black
hole at the centre of the Age of Justinian’.^35
Despite the plague, a large Byzantine army gathered to defend Armenia in
543, but thanks to confusion and mismanagement on the Byzantine side a
small force of Persians was able to kill the general Narses and infl ict a heavy
defeat at the fortress of Anglon near Dvin.^36 Eventually a fi ve-year treaty was
concluded in 545 at a cost to the empire of 2,000 lbs of gold. Even during
this period, operations continued between the Arab allies of Byzantium and
Persia, the Ghassanids and the Lakhmids, and a substantial Byzantine force,
having previously laid siege to Petra in Lazica, which was held by the Persians,
was able to destroy the Persian forces in Lazica twice in the course of the year
- A further fi ve-year treaty was concluded in 551 in Constantinople, the
empire paying on this occasion 2,600 lbs of gold; but hostilities dragged on
in Lazica, where a complex local situation exacerbated the diffi culties caused
by the rival powers. By 561, however, both sides had reasons for concluding
a more solid peace, and the end of that year saw a fi fty-years’ peace agreed
at Dara between Justinian’s Master of Offi ces, Peter the Patrician, and the
Persian ambassador Yesdegusnaph, with the Persians renouncing their claims
to Lazica, but exacting from the empire the large annual sum of 30,000 gold
nomismata, of which ten years’ instalments would be paid in advance in two
instalments. Existing frontiers were confi rmed and trade across the borders
was limited to those cities where there were customs facilities. A long and
detailed account of the negotiations, which provides interesting information
about contemporary diplomacy, and a complete text of the treaty itself, is
given by the historian Menander Protector, who also records the letters sent
by both rulers to ratify what had been agreed by their envoys. The letter of
ratifi cation from the Roman Emperor, bearing the usual superscription, is
well known to us. The letter from the Persian king was written in Persian, and
Menander provides a Greek translation:
‘The divine, good, father of peace, ancient Khosro, king of kings, fortu-
nate, pious and benefi cent, to whom the gods have given great fortune
and a great kingdom, giant of giants, formed in the image of the gods,
to Justinian Caesar, our brother.’ Such was the superscription, while the
meaning of the text was as follows (I use a word-for-word translation, a