ch himself and tell him that it was no kingly act to
slaughter captives. "Why, then, did you elect to fight?" said the angry
prince. "It was God's doing," replied the priest, astutely; "He willed
that thou shouldest owe thy conquest of Amida, not to our weakness, but
to thy own valor." The flattery pleased Kobad, and induced him to stop
the effusion of blood; but the sack was allowed to continue; the whole
town was pillaged; and the bulk of the inhabitants were carried off as
slaves.

The siege of Amida lasted eighty days, and the year A.D. 503 had
commenced before it was over. Anastasius, on learning the danger of his
frontier town, immediately despatched to its aid a considerable force,
which he placed under four commanders--Areobindus, the grandson of the
Gothic officer of the same name who distinguished himself in the Persian
war of Theodosius; Celer, captain of the imperial guard; Patricius, the
Phrygian; and Hypatius, one of his own nephews. The army, collectively,
is said to have been more numerous than any that Rome had ever brought
into the field against the Persians but it was weakened by the divided
command, and it was moreover broken up into detachments which acted
independently of each other. Its advent also was tardy. Not only did
it arrive too late to save Amida, but it in no way interfered with the
after-movements of Kobad, who, leaving a small garrison to maintain his
new conquest, carried off the whole of his rich booty to his city of
Nisibis, and placed the bulk of his troops in a good position upon
his own frontier. When Areobindus, at the head of the first division,
reached Amida and heard that the Persians had fallen back, he declined
the comparatively inglorious work of a siege, and pressed forward,
anxious to carry the war into Persian territory. He seems actually to
have crossed the border and invaded the district of Arzanene, when
news reached him that Kobad was marching upon him with all his troops,
whereupon he instantly fled, and threw himself into Constantia, leaving
his camp and stores to be taken by the enemy. Meanwhile another division
of the Roman army, under Patrilcius and Hypatius, had followed in the
steps of Areobindus, and meeting with the advance-guard of Kobad, which
consisted of eight hundred Ephthalites, had destroyed it almost to a
man.

Ignorant, however, of the near presence of the main Persian army, this
body of troops allowed itself soon afterwards to be surprised on the