At that time one of the citizens of Apamea came before Chosroes and accused a Persian of entering his house and violating his maiden daughter.  Upon hearing this, Chosroes, boiling with anger, commanded that the man should be brought.  And when he came before him, he directed that he should be impaled in the camp.  And when the people learned this, they raised a mighty shout as loud as they could, demanding that the man be saved from the king’s anger.  And Chosroes promised that he would release the man to them, but he secretly impaled him not long afterwards.  So after these things had been thus accomplished, he departed and marched back with the whole army.

XII

And when he came to the city of Chalcis, eighty-four stades distant from the city of Beroea, he again seemed to forget the things which had been agreed upon, and encamping not far from the fortifications he sent Paulus to threaten the inhabitants of Chalcis, saying that he would take the city by siege, unless they should purchase their safety by giving ransom, and should give up to the Persians all the soldiers who were there together with their leader.  And the citizens of Chalcis were seized with great fear of both sovereigns, and they swore that, as for soldiers, there were absolutely none of them in the city, although they had hidden Adonachus, the commander of the soldiers, and others as well in some houses, in order that they might not be seen by the enemy; and with difficulty they collected two centenaria[10] of gold, for the city they inhabited was not very prosperous, and they gave them to Chosroes as the price of their lives and thus saved both the city and themselves.

From there on Chosroes did not wish to continue the return journey by the road he had come, but to cross the River Euphrates and gather by plunder as much money as possible from Mesopotamia.  He therefore constructed a bridge at the place called Obbane, which is forty stades distant from the fortress in Barbalissum; then he himself went across and gave orders to the whole army to cross as quickly as possible, adding that he would break up the bridge on the third day, and he appointed also the time of the day.  And when the appointed day was come, it happened that some of the army were left who had not yet crossed, but without the least consideration for them he sent the men to break up the bridge.  And those who were left behind returned to their native land as each one could.

Then a sort of ambition came over Chosroes to capture the city of Edessa.  For he was led on to this by a saying of the Christians, and it kept irritating his mind, because they maintained that it could not be taken, for the following reason.  There was a certain Augarus in early times, toparch of Edessa (for thus the kings of the different nations were called then).  Now this Augarus was the most clever of all men of his time, and as a result of this was