and revealed many things which were taking place among the barbarians,
and, in particular, that the nation of the Massagetae, in order to
injure the Romans, were on the very point of going out into the land of
Persia, and that from there they were prepared to march into the
territory of the Romans, and unite with the Persian army. When the
emperor heard this, having already a proof of the man's truthfulness to
him, he presented him with a handsome sum of money and persuaded him to
go to the Persian army which was besieging the Martyropolitans, and
announce to the barbarians there that these Massagetae had been won over
with money by the Roman emperor, and were about to come against them
that very moment. The spy carried out these instructions, and coming to
the army of the barbarians he announced to Chanaranges and the others
that an army of Huns hostile to them would at no distant time come to
the Romans. And when they heard this, they were seized with terror, and
were at a loss how to deal with the situation.

At this juncture it came about that Cabades became seriously ill, and he
called to him one of the Persians who were in closest intimacy with him,
Mebodes by name, and conversed with him concerning Chosroes and the
kingdom, and said he feared the Persians would make a serious attempt to
disregard some of the things which had been decided upon by him. But
Mebodes asked him to leave the declaration of his purpose in writing,
and bade him be confident that the Persians would never dare to
disregard it. So Cabades set it down plainly that Chosroes should become
king over the Persians. The document was written by Mebodes himself, and
Cabades immediately passed from among men. [Sept. 13, 531] And when
everything had been performed as prescribed by law in the burial of the
king, then Caoses, confident by reason of the law, tried to lay claim to
the office, but Mebodes stood in his way, asserting that no one ought to
assume the royal power by his own initiative but by vote of the Persian