so low as to purchase a peace; it was
thought that Antioch and the other important towns might successfully
defy the Persian arms, and hoped that Justinian would soon send into
the field an army strong enough to cope with that of his adversary. The
terms, therefore, which Chosroes offered by the mouth of Megas, bishop
of Berhcea, were rejected; the Antiochenes were exhorted to remain firm;
Ephraim, the bishop, was denounced to the authorities for counselling
submission; and it was determined to make no pacific arrangement, but to
allow Chosroes to do his worst. The Persian, on his side, was not slack
or remiss. No sooner had he received the ransom of Hierapolis than
he advanced upon Berhoea (now Aleppo), which he reached in four days.
Observing that the defences were weak, he here demanded twice the ransom
that he had accepted from the Hierapolites, and was only induced to
forego the claim by the tears and entreaties of the good bishop, who
convinced him at length that the Berhoeans could not pay so large a sum,
and induced him to accept the half of it. A few more days' march brought
him from Aleppo to the outskirts of Antioch; and after an interval of
nearly three centuries the "Queen of the East," the richest and most
magnificent of Oriental cities, was once more invested by Persian troops
and threatened by a Sassanian monarch.

A great calamity had fallen upon Antioch only fourteen years previously.
The entire town had been ruined by a succession of terrible earthquakes,
which commenced in October, A.D. 525, and terminated in August of the
ensuing year. All for a time was havoc and disorder. A landslip had
covered a portion of the city, and in the remainder almost every house
was overthrown. But the liberality of Justinian, the spirit of the
inhabitants, and the efforts of the governor, had effaced these
disasters; and the city, when the Persians appeared before it, was in
most respects grander and more magnificent than ever. The defences were,
however, it would seem, imperfect. The citadel especially, which was
on the high ground south of the city, had been constructed with small
attention to the rules of engineering art, and was dominated by a height
at a little distance, which ought to have been included within the
walls. Nor was this deficiency compensated by any strength in the
garrison, or any weight of authority or talent among those with whom
rested the command. Justinian had originally sent his nephew, German