the Persians hesitated.  For when he observed the difficulty of the ground and saw the soldiers fleeing, he feared lest by reason of some necessity they should turn back from their retreat and make trouble for the Persians, and thus become an obstacle, as might well happen, in the way of his capturing a city which was both ancient and of great importance and the first of all the cities which the Romans had throughout the East both in wealth and in size and in population and in beauty and in prosperity of every kind.  Hence it was that, considering everything else of less account, he wished to allow the Roman soldiers freely to avail themselves of the chance for flight.  For this reason too the Persians also made signs to the fugitives with their hands, urging them to flee as quickly as possible.  So the soldiers of the Romans together with their commanders took a hasty departure, all of them, through the gate which leads to Daphne, the suburb of Antioch; for from this gate alone the Persians kept away while the others were seized; and of the populace some few escaped with the soldiers.  Then when the Persians saw that all the Roman soldiers had gone on, they descended from the height and got into the middle of the city.  There, however, many of the young men of Antioch engaged in battle with them, and at first they seemed to have the upper hand in the conflict.  Some of them were in heavy armour, but the majority were unarmed and using only stones as missiles.  And pushing back the enemy they raised the paean, and with shouts proclaimed the Emperor Justinian triumphant, as if they had won the victory.

At this point Chosroes, seated on the tower which is on the height, summoned the ambassadors, wishing to say something.  And one of his officers, Zaberganes, thinking that he wished to have words with the ambassadors concerning a settlement, came quickly before the king and spoke as follows:  “Thou dost not seem to me, O Master, to think in the same way as do the Romans concerning the safety of these men.  For they both before fighting offer insults to thy kingdom, and when they are defeated dare the impossible and do the Persians irreparable harm, as if fearing lest some reason for shewing them humanity should be left in thee; but thou art wishing to pity those who do not ask to be saved, and hast shewn zeal to spare those who by no means wish it.  Meanwhile these men have set an ambush in a captured city and are destroying the victors by means of snares, although all the soldiers have long since fled from them.”  When Chosroes heard this, he sent a large number of the best troops against them, and these not long afterwards returned and announced that nothing untoward had come to pass.  For already the Persians had forced back the citizens by their numbers and turned them to flight, and a great slaughter took place there.  For the Persians did not spare persons of any age and were slaying all whom they met, old and young alike.  At that