are defended by our soldiers; men for whose pay the
whole wealth of the empire is exhausted." This bitter speech the crowd
of soldiers afterwards recollected at Chalcedon, when they rose up and
destroyed him.

6. Then proceeding onward in close column, he reached Bezabde, and
having fixed his camp there, and fortified it with a rampart and a deep
fosse, as he took a long ride round the camp, he satisfied himself, by
the account which he received from several persons, that those places in
the walls which the carelessness of ancient times had allowed to become
decayed, had been repaired so as to be stronger than ever.

7. And, not to omit anything which was necessary to do before the heat
of the contest was renewed, he sent prudent men to the garrison to offer
them two conditions; either to withdraw to their own country, giving up
what did not belong to them, without causing bloodshed by resistance, or
else to become subjects of the Romans, in which case they should receive
rank and rewards. But when they, with native obstinacy, resisted the
demands as became men of noble birth, who had been hardened by dangers
and labours, everything was prepared for the siege.

8. Therefore the soldiers with alacrity, in dense order, and cheered by
the sound of trumpets, attacked every side of the town; and the legions,
being protected by various kinds of defences, advanced in safety,
endeavouring by slow degrees to overthrow the walls; and because all
kinds of missiles were poured down upon them, which disjoined the union
of their shields, they fell back, the signal for a retreat being given.

9. Then a truce was agreed upon for one day; but the day after, having
protected themselves more skilfully, they again raised their war-cry,
and tried on every side to scale the walls. And although the garrison,
having stretched cloths before them not to be distinguished, lay
concealed within the walls; still, as often as necessity required, they
boldly put out their arms and hurled down stones and javelins on their
assailants below.

10. And while the wicker penthouses were advanced boldly and brought
close to the walls, the besieged dropped upon them heavy casks and
millstones, and fragments of pillars, by the overpowering weight of
which the assailants were crushed, their defences torn to pieces, and
wide openings made in them, so that they incurred terrible dangers, and
were again forced to retreat.

11. Therefore, on the tenth day from