Without taxing him with falsehood, we may suspect that, for the glorification of his favorite hero, he has kept back a portion of the truth.

The retreat of Chosroes may be ascribed with much probability to the advance of another danger, more formidable than Belisarius, which exactly at this time made its appearance in the country whereto he was hastening.

It was in the summer of A.D.542 that the plague broke out at Pelusium, and spread from that centre rapidly into the rest of Egypt and also into Palestine.

Chosroes may well have hesitated to confront this terrible foe.

He did not ultimately escape it; but he might hope to do so, and it would clearly have been the height of imprudence to have carried out his intention of invading Palestine when the plague was known to be raging there.
The fourth year of the Roman war (A.D.