breaking of the peace and hearing much from him, they retired. But on
the morrow the populace of Antioch (for they are not seriously disposed,
but are always engaged in jesting and disorderly performance) heaped
insults upon Chosroes from the battlements and taunted him with unseemly
laughter; and when Paulus came near the fortifications and exhorted them
to purchase freedom for themselves and the city for a small sum of
money, they very nearly killed him with shots from their bows, and would
have done so if he had not seen their purpose in time and guarded
against it. On account of this Chosroes, boiling with anger, decided to
storm the wall.

On the following day, accordingly, he led up all the Persians against
the wall and commanded a portion of the army to make assaults at
different points along the river, and he himself with the most of the
men and best troops directed an attack against the height. For at this
place, as has been stated by me above, the wall of fortification was
most vulnerable. Thereupon the Romans, since the structure on which they
were to stand when fighting was very narrow, devised the following
remedy. Binding together long timbers they suspended them between the
towers, and in this way they made these spaces much broader, in order
that still more men might be able to ward off the assailants from there.
So the Persians, pressing on most vigorously from all sides, were
sending their arrows thickly everywhere, and especially along the crest
of the hill. Meanwhile the Romans were fighting them back with all their
strength, not soldiers alone, but also many of the most courageous
youths of the populace. But it appeared that those who were attacking
the wall there were engaged in a battle on even terms with their enemy.
For the rock which was broad and high and, as it were, drawn up against
the fortifications caused the conflict to be just as if on level ground.
And if anyone of the Roman army had had the courage to get outside the