60 besants. These events occurred on Thursday, the fifth of June.
Then you would have seen the city overflowing with bodies and with
intolerable stench. Markets, public places, the porches and
vestibules of homes, which once were adorned with beautifully
polished marble surfaces, were now completely stained with gore.
Infinite numbers of corpses heaped up everywhere, a horrible
spectacle, and the savagery of the foul air, horribly infected both
the eyes and the ears. The narrow streets were strewn with deep
piles of stinking bodies, and since there was no way to carry off so
many dead, and there was no escape from the smells, the constant
sight and stink made men used to the horror. Thus habit led to
audacity, and no one feared to walk down the streets filled with
bodies.

Therefore Kherboga, the mayor of the palace or rather the leader of
the troops of the king of the Persians, whom they were accustomed to
call Sogdianus,[168] the name of previous king of the Persians (as
the Romans are accustomed to call their leaders Caesars), while he
was still within the kingdom of Persia, in the province called
Khorasan (some say that this land derives its name by corruption from
the name of the land around the Caucasus), was summoned by frequent
messengers from Cassianus, the ruler of the city of Antioch, to bring
help to him in his beleaguered position. Cassianus promised that, if
he drove off the Franks, he would either turn over to him the
liberated city, or provide him with a gift equal to his great labor.
When the general, enticed by this promise, had put together a huge
army, and had asked for and received permission to kill the
Christians from the chief pontiff of their heresy (for even they have
their Pope, in the likeness of ours), he quickly set off to relieve
the siege of Antioch. The prefect of Jerusalem (whom they call in