Chosroes, Lazica, and the Maeotic Route

This Good Works Translation continues the Book 8 Procopius dossier passages from the Greek.

The chapter belongs to the Scythian shelf because Procopius explains Persian interest in Lazica by reference to the barbarians around the Maeotic Lake and the left side of the Euxine, who overran Roman territory by land and suggested a route toward Byzantium without crossing the sea.

The translation is newly made from the Greek source text printed below. Dewing's public-domain English translation was used only as a control.

Translation

Wars 8.7.1-13

The reason why Chosroes was eager to possess Lazica has already been stated by me in an earlier passage. But the particular consideration that most of all drove him and the Persians toward this desire I shall set forth here, now that I have described the whole country and so made clear my account of the matter.

Many times these barbarians, under Chosroes' leadership, had invaded Roman territory with a mighty army; and although they inflicted sufferings on their enemy not easy to describe, as I have told in the books concerning these matters, nevertheless they gained no advantage at all from these invasions and had to bear the loss of both money and lives.

For they always departed from Roman territory after losing many men. Therefore, after returning to their own land, they would very secretly revile Chosroes and call him the destroyer of the Persian nation.

On one such occasion, when they had returned from Lazica and saw that they had suffered terrible losses there, they were actually on the point of joining openly against him and destroying him by a most cruel death. They would have done this if he had not learned of it beforehand and guarded against it by winning over the most notable men among them with constant flattery. Because of this incident, he wished to remove the sting of the accusation and was eager to gain some great advantage for the Persian empire.

Accordingly he made an attempt on the city of Daras; but, as I have told, he met with failure there and came into complete despair of capturing the place.

For he could no longer take it by a surprise attack, since the guards of the city were so alert; nor did he have hope of overpowering them by any device in a siege.

There is always a great abundance of provisions of every sort stored in the city of Daras against a siege, enough for it to last a very long time.

Nearby there is a spring set by nature among precipices, forming a large river which flows straight toward the city. Those who try to interfere with it are unable, because of the roughness of the terrain, either to turn it into another course or to do it violence in any other way.

As soon as this river gets inside the circuit-wall, it flows around the whole city, fills its cisterns, and then flows out; very close to the circuit-wall it falls into a chasm and disappears from sight. Where it emerges from there has become known to no one up to this time.

This chasm was not there in ancient times. Long after the Emperor Anastasius built this city, nature, unaided, fashioned and placed it there. For this reason, those who wish to draw a siege around the city of Daras are very hard pressed by lack of water.

So Chosroes, having failed in this attempt, as I have said, concluded that even if he should be able to take some other Roman city, he would still never be able to establish himself in the midst of the Romans while many strongholds were left behind in the hands of his enemy.

Indeed it was for this reason that, when he captured Antioch, he razed it to the ground and then departed from Roman soil. Consequently his thoughts rose high and were carried toward more distant hopes as he sought impossible things. For when he learned by report how those barbarians on the left of the Euxine sea, who dwell around the Maeotic Lake, overrun Roman territory fearlessly, he kept saying that if the Persians held Lazica, it would be possible for them, whenever they wished, to go straight to Byzantium without trouble and without crossing the sea, just as the other barbarian nations settled in that region are constantly doing.

For this reason, then, the Persians are trying to gain Lazica. But I shall return to the point from which I made this digression in the narrative.

Colophon

This Good Works Translation was prepared for the Scythian shelf by the New Tianmu Anglican Church from the Greek source text printed below. The Greek text was downloaded from the PerseusDL canonical Greek repository as tlg4029.tlg001.perseus-grc2.xml and inspected locally. Dewing's public-domain English, preserved in the local ToposText capture and Ready archival dossier, was used only as a control.

This is the thirtieth unit in the Procopius Wars steppe and Black Sea translation dossier, and the fifth Book 8 unit.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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Source Text: Procopius, Wars 8.7.1-13

Greek source text from Procopius, Wars 8.7. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.

Wars 8.7

§ 8.7.1 Ὅτου δὲ ὁ Χοσρόης ἕνεκα Λαζικῆς μεταποιεῖσθαι διὰ σπουδῆς εἶχεν ἤδη μὲν πρόσθεν μοι ἐρρήθη· ὃ δὲ δὴ αὐτόν τε καὶ Πέρσας μάλιστα πάντων ἐς τοῦτο ἤνεγκεν, ἐνταῦθα δηλώσω, ὅτι δὴ καὶ χώραν τήνδε περιηγησάμενος ξύμπασαν σαφῆ τὸν περὶ τούτου πεποίηκα λόγον.

§ 8.7.2 πολλάκις οἱ βάρβαροι οὗτοι, Χοσρόου σφίσιν ἡγουμένου, στρατῷ μεγάλῳ ἐμβαλόντες ἐς Ῥωμαίων τὴν γῆν οὐκ εὐδιήγητα μὲν τοῖς πολεμίοις ἐπήνεγκαν πάθη, ἅπερ μοι ἐν τοῖς ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν λόγοις ἐρρήθη, αὐτοῖς δὲ ὄφελος οὐδ’ ὁτιοῦν ἀπενεγκαμένοις ἐνθένδε τοῖς τε χρήμασι καὶ τοῖς σώμασι προσκεκακῶσθαι ξυνέπεσε· πολλοὺς γὰρ ἀποβεβληκότες ἀεὶ ἀπηλλάσσοντο ἐκ Ῥωμαίων τῆς γῆς.

§ 8.7.3 διὸ δὴ ἐς ἤθη ἐπανιόντες τὰ πάτρια Χοσρόῃ ὡς λαθραιότατα ἐλοιδοροῦντο καὶ διαφθορέα τοῦ Περσῶν γένους αὐτὸν ἀπεκάλουν.

§ 8.7.4 καί ποτε καὶ ἐκ Λαζικῆς ἐπανήκοντες, ἐπειδὴ ἐνταῦθα πάθεσιν ἔτυχον ὡμιληκότες ἀνηκέστοις τισί, ξυστήσεσθαί τε ἐκ τοῦ ἐμφανοῦς ἐπ’ αὐτὸν ἔμελλον καὶ διαχρήσεσθαι θανάτῳ οἰκτίστῳ, εἰ μὴ προμαθὼν ἐφυλάξατο, θωπείᾳ πολλῇ τοὺς ἐν σφίσι λογιμωτάτους περιελθών.

§ 8.7.5 καὶ ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ ἀπολογεῖσθαι τὴν κατηγορίαν ἐθέλων μέγα τι ὄφελος Περσῶν τῇ ἀρχῇ ἐκπορίζεσθαι διὰ σπουδῆς εἶχε. Πόλει γοῦν Δάρας αὐτίκα ἐγκεχειρηκὼς ἀπεκρούσθη ἐνθένδε, ὥσπερ μοι εἴρηται, ἐς ἀπόγνωσίν τε τῆς τοῦ χωρίου ἐπικρατήσεως παντάπασιν ἦλθεν.

§ 8.7.6 οὐδὲ γὰρ αὐτὸ ἐξ ἐπιδρομῆς ἐξαιρήσειν τὸ λοιπὸν εἶχεν, οὕτω φυλασσομένων τῶν ἐκείνῃ φρουρῶν, οὐ μὴν οὐδὲ πολιορκῶν μηχανῇ τινὶ περιέσεσθαι αὐτῶν ἤλπιζε.

§ 8.7.7 τά τε γὰρ ἄλλα τῶν ἐπιτηδείων ἐσαεὶ ἐν πόλει Δάρας διαρκῶς ἐστὶν ἐξεπίτηδες ἀποκείμενα, ὅπως δὴ ἐς μέγα τι χρόνου διαρκέσειε μῆκος, καὶ πηγὴ ἄγχιστά πη φυομένη ἐν χώρῳ κρημνώδει ποταμὸν ἀπεργάζεται μέγαν ὅσπερ τῆς πόλεως εὐθὺ φέρεται, οὐ δυναμένων ʽτῶν ἐπιβουλεύειν ἐφιεμένων’ ἑτέρωσέ πη αὐτὸν ἀποτρέπειν ἢ τρόπῳ τῳ ἄλλῳ διὰ τὴν δυσχωρίαν βιάζεσθαι.

§ 8.7.8 ἐπειδὰν δὲ τοῦ περιβόλου ἐντὸς γένηται, τήν τε πόλιν περιιὼν ξύμπασαν καὶ τὰς ταύτῃ δεξαμενὰς ἐμπλησάμενος εἶτα ἔξεισιν, ὡς ἀγχοτάτω τε τοῦ περιβόλου ἐς χάος ἐμπεσὼν ἀφανίζεται. καὶ ὅπη

§ 8.7.9 ποτὲ τὸ ἐνθένδε ἐκδίδωσιν οὐδενὶ γέγονε φανερὸν ἐς τόδε τοῦ χρόνου. τοῦτο δὲ τὸ χάος οὐκ ἐπὶ παλαιοῦ γεγονὸς ἔτυχεν, ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ πολλῷ ὕστερον ἢ τὴν πόλιν Ἀναστάσιος βασιλεὺς ἐδείματο ταύτην ἡ φύσις αὐτὸ τοῦ χωρίου ἀπαυτοματίσασα ἔθετο, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ξυμβαίνει τοῖς προσεδρεύειν ἐθέλουσιν ἀμφὶ πόλιν Δάρας πιέζεσθαι ὕδατος ἀπορίᾳ πολλῇ.

§ 8.7.10 Ταύτης οὖν, ὥσπερ μοι εἴρηται, ἀποτυχὼν ὁ Χοσρόης τῆς πείρας ἐς ἔννοιαν ἦλθεν ὡς, ἢν καὶ πόλιν οἱ Ῥωμαίων ἑτέραν τινὰ παραστήσασθαι δυνατὰ εἴη, ἀλλὰ καθίζεσθαι οὐ μή ποτε οἷός τε εἴη ἐν μέσῳ Ῥωμαίων, ὀχυρωμάτων τοῖς πολεμίοις ἀπολελειμμένων ὀπίσω πολλῶν.

§ 8.7.11 καὶ Ἀντιόχειαν γὰρ τούτου δὴ εἵνεκα ἐς ἔδαφος καθελὼν ἡνίκα ἐξεῖλεν, ἀπηλλάγη ἐκ Ῥωμαίων τῆς γῆς. διὸ δὴ μετεωρισθεὶς τὴν διάνοιαν ἐπὶ μακροτέρας ἐλπίδος ὠχεῖτο, διερευνώμενος ἀμήχανα ἔργα.

§ 8.7.12 ἀκοῇ γὰρ ἔχων ὅντινα τρόπον ἐπ’ ἀριστερᾷ Πόντου τοῦ Εὐξείνου οὗτοι δὴ βάρβαροι οἳ ἀμφὶ τὴν Μαιῶτιν ᾤκηνται Λίμνην ἀδεῶς κατατρέχουσι Ῥωμαίων τὴν γῆν, οὕτω καὶ Πέρσαις Λαζικὴν ἔχουσι πόνῳ οὐδενὶ δυνατὰ ἔσεσθαι ἔλεγεν, ἡνίκα ἂν βουλομένοις ᾖ, εὐθὺ Βυζαντίου ἰέναι, οὐδαμῆ διαπορθμευομένοις τὴν θάλασσαν, ὥσπερ καὶ τὰ ἄλλα βαρβαρικὰ ἔθνη ἃ ταύτῃ ἵδρυται ἐσαεὶ δρῶσι.

§ 8.7.13 διὰ ταῦτα μὲν Λαζικῆς Πέρσαι μεταποιοῦνται. ἐγὼ δὲ ὅθεν τὴν ἐκβολὴν τοῦ λόγου ἐποιησάμην ἐπάνειμι.

Source Colophon

Greek source text from the PerseusDL canonical Greek repository file tlg4029.tlg001.perseus-grc2.xml, inspected locally for this translation unit.

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