ABSTRACT

The accession of Justin I was greeted in the East by a raid of the Lakhmid Arabs on Osrhoene in 519 or 520, perhaps following renewed demands for funds from Kavadh (Chr. 724, 111/14, AG 830, Mich. Syr. IX.16 [270-1a/178]). Probably in the course of this raid the Roman commanders Timostratus and John were taken prisoner by the Lakhmid chief Mundhir (Proc. I.17.43-5). The capture of a dux and another high-ranking officer is an indication of the return of the Roman frontier to a state of ill-preparedness.51 Further south, in Palestine and Arabia, Arab raids also caused problems, such that the aged St Sabas in 530 appealed to the Emperor Justinian to build a fortress to protect the monks here, a request Justinian granted (Cyr. Scyth. V. Sab. 72-3 [175, 178]). See Magoulias 1990-3: 301-3 (noting some other incidents), Shahîd 1995: 92, Di Segni 1999: 151.