either they would be sunk by
force of the wind, which encountered them with the utmost violence, or
else they would be overtaken by the enemy and destroyed. The inhabitants
of Byzantium, as they watched this, for a time called unceasingly upon the
gods and kept uttering now one shout and now another at the various
events, according as each one was affected by the spectacle or the
disaster enacted before his eyes. But when they saw their friends
perishing all together, the united throng sent up a chorus of groans and
wailings, and thereafter they mourned for the rest of the day and the
whole night. The entire number of wrecks proved so great that some drifted
upon the islands and the Asiatic coast, and the defeat became known by
these relics before it was reported. The next day the Byzantines had the
horror increased even above what it had been. For, when the surf had
subsided, the whole sea in the vicinity of Byzantium was covered with
corpses and wrecks with blood, and many of the remains were cast up on
shore, with the result that the catastrophe, now seen in its details,
appeared even worse than when in process of consummation.

[Sidenote:--14--] The Byzantines straightway, though against their will,
surrendered their city. The Romans executed all the soldiers and
magistrates except the pugilist who had greatly aided the Byzantines and
injured the Romans. He perished also, for in order to make the soldiers
angry enough to destroy him he immediately hit one with his fist and with
a leap gave another a violent kick.

Severus was so pleased at the capture of Byzantium that to his soldiers in
Mesopotamia (where he was at this time) he said unreservedly: "We have
taken Byzantium, too!" He deprived the city of its independence and of its
civil rank, and made it tributary, confiscating the property of the
citizens. He granted the town and its territory to the Perinthians, and
the latter, treating it after the manner of a village, committed
innumerable outrages. So far he seemed in a way to be justified in what he
did. His demolition of the walls of the city grieved the inhabitants no
more than did the loss of that reputation which the appearance of the
walls had caused them to enjoy; and incidentally he had abolished a strong
Roman outpost and base of operations against the barbarians from the
Pontus and Asia. I was one that viewed the walls after they had fallen,
and a person would have judged that they had been taken by s