These words of Belisarius seemed to all well spoken, and he straightway put the plan into execution.  Accordingly he commanded Arethas with his troops to advance into Assyria, and with them he sent twelve hundred soldiers, the most of whom were from among his own guard, putting two guardsmen in command of them, Trajan and John who was called the Glutton, both capable warriors.  These men he directed to obey Arethas in everything they did, and he commanded Arethas to pillage all that lay before him and then return to the camp and report how matters stood with the Assyrians with regard to military strength.  So Arethas and his men crossed the River Tigris and entered Assyria.  There they found a goodly land and one which had been free from plunder for a long time, and undefended besides; and moving rapidly they pillaged many of the places there and secured a great amount of rich plunder.  And at that time Belisarius captured some of the Persians and learned from them that those who were inside the fortress were altogether out of provisions.  For they do not observe the custom which is followed in the cities of Daras and Nisibis, where they put away the annual food-supply in public store-houses, and now that a hostile army had fallen upon them unexpectedly they had not anticipated the event by carrying in any of the necessities of life.  And since a great number of persons had taken refuge suddenly in the fortress, they were naturally hard pressed by the want of provisions.  When Belisarius learned this, he sent George, a man of the greatest discretion with whom he shared his secrets, to test the men of the place, in the hope that he might be able to arrange some terms of surrender and thus take the place.  And George succeeded, after addressing to them many words of exhortation and of kindly invitation, in persuading them to take pledges for their safety and to deliver themselves and the fortress to the Romans.  Thus Belisarius captured Sisauranon, and the inhabitants, all of whom were Christians and of Roman origin, he released unscathed, but the Persians he sent with Bleschames to Byzantium, and razed the fortification wall of the fortress to the ground.  And the emperor not long afterwards sent these Persians and Bleschames to Italy to fight against the Goths.  Such, then, was the course of events which had to do with the fortress of Sisauranon.

But Arethas, fearing lest he should be despoiled of his booty by the Romans, was now unwilling to return to the camp.  So he sent some of his followers ostensibly for the purpose of reconnoitring, but secretly commanding them to return as quickly as possible and announce to the army that a large hostile force was at the crossing of the river.  For this reason, then, he advised Trajan and John to return by another route to the land of the Romans.  So they did not come again to Belisarius, but keeping the River Euphrates on the right they finally arrived at the Theodosiopolis which is near the River Aborrhas.