conferred with Alamoundaras concerning this matter and commanded him to
provide causes for war. So Alamoundaras brought against Arethas, the
charge that he, Arethas, was doing him violence in a matter of boundary
lines, and he entered into conflict with him in time of peace, and began
to overrun the land of the Romans on this pretext. And he declared that,
as for him, he was not breaking the treaty between the Persians and
Romans, for neither one of them had included him in it. And this was
true. For no mention of Saracens was ever made in treaties, on the
ground that they were included under the names of Persians and Romans.
Now this country which at that time was claimed by both tribes of
Saracens[1] is called Strata, and extends to the south of the city of
Palmyra; nowhere does it produce a single tree or any of the useful
growth of corn-lands, for it is burned exceedingly dry by the sun, but
from of old it has been devoted to the pasturage of some few flocks. Now
Arethas maintained that the place belonged to the Romans, proving his
assertion by the name which has long been applied to it by all (for
Strata signifies "a paved road" in the Latin tongue), and he also
adduced the testimonies of men of the oldest times. Alamoundaras,
however, was by no means inclined to quarrel concerning the name, but he
claimed that tribute had been given him from of old for the pasturage
there by the owners of the flocks. The Emperor Justinian therefore
entrusted the settlement of the disputed points to Strategius; a
patrician and administrator of the royal treasures, and besides a man of
wisdom and of good ancestry, and with him Summus, who had commanded the
troops in Palestine. This Summus was the brother of Julian, who not long
before had served as envoy to the Aethiopians and Homeritae. And the one
of them, Summus, insisted that the Romans ought not to surrender the
country, but Strategius begged of the emperor that he should not do the
Persians the favour of providing them with pretexts for the war which
they already desired, for the sake of a small bit of land and one of