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 276 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xl could not be successfully defended, and the conflagration of Theodosiopolis might justify the conduct of their prudent fAug., a.d. neighbours. Ainida sustained a long and destructive siege : at the end of three months the loss of fifty thousand of the soldiers of Cabades was not balanced by any prospect of success, and it was in vain that the Magi deduced a flattering prediction from the indecency of the women on the ramparts, who had revealed their most secret charms to the eyes of the assailants. [Jan., a.d. At length, in a silent night, they ascended the most accessible tower, which was guarded only by some monks, oppressed, after the duties of a festival, with sleep and wine. Scaling- ladders were applied at the dawn of day ; the presence of Cabades, his stern command, and his drawn sword, compelled the Persians to vanquish; and, before it was sheathed, four- score thousand of the inhabitants had expiated the blood of their companions. After the siege of Amida, the war continued three years, and the unhappy frontier tasted the full measure of its calamities. The gold of Anastasius was offered too late ; the number of his troops was defeated by the number of their generals; the country was stripped of its inhabitants; and both the living and the dead were abandoned to the wild beasts [siege of of the desert. The resistance of Edessa, and the deficiency of a.d. 504-5] spoil, inclined the mind of Cabades to peace ; he sold his con- quests for an exorbitant price ; and the same line, though marked with slaughter and devastation, still separated the two empires. To avert the repetition of the same evils, Anastasius resolved to form a new colony, so strong that it should defy the power of the Persian, so far advanced towards Assyria that its stationary troops might defend the province by the menace or Fortifi- operation of offensive war. For this purpose, the town of i>ani m Dara, 137 fourteen miles from Nisibis, and four days' journey from the Tigris, was peopled and adorned ; the hasty works of Anastasius were improved by the perseverance of Justinian ; and, without insisting on places less important, the fortifications of Dara may represent the military architecture of the age. The city was surrounded with two walls, and the interval be- 137 The description of Dara is amply and correctly given by Procopius (Persic. 1. i. c. 10 ; 1. ii. c. 13. De ^Edific. 1. ii. c. 1, 2, 3 ; 1. iii. c. 5). See the situation in d'Anville (PEuphrate et le Tigre, p. S3, 54, 55), though he seems to double the interval between Dara and Nisibis. [For the founding of Dara see Zachariah of Mytilene, vii. 6, transl. of Hamilton and Brooks, p. 165-7.]