Page:The Age Of Justinian And Theodora Vol II (1912).pdf/252

 defenders of the wall being comparatively few; but, as the day wore on, the whole effective population—men, women, and children, crowded to the battlements. Then improvised projectiles of every available substance were hurled, cauldrons of oil were brought up and fired along the top of the wall, and, with the aid of suitable sprinklers, drops of the burning liquid were rained down on the escaladers. After a prolonged and vigorous attack, the besiegers retired and informed the Shah that they could make no headway. He raged, and drove them back again; they returned to the assault with reckless fury; ladders, towers, and engines of every description were rushed up to the walls, but for the second time the ceaseless torrent of missiles put them to flight. Chosroes then resigned himself and left his post of observation, while the townspeople hurled their taunts of defiance after his retreating figure. The siege of Edessa had failed; and, with the slight compensation of five hundred pounds of gold (£20,000), he broke up his camp and departed.

Shortly after Justinian's legates again convened Chosroes and in 545 he granted a truce for five years in exchange for two thousand pounds of gold (£80,000), and a Greek physician, whose skill had formerly relieved him from a painful malady. Yet such was his ill faith that when he sent a plenipotentiary to conclude the pact at Constantinople, he commissioned him to attempt the capture of Dara, while on his way, by a stratagem. But for the wariness of the inhabitants of that fortress, the emissary would have gained admission with a large retinue, fired the houses in the night, and opened the gates to the army of Nisibis, which was to lie in waiting outside the walls.