Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/112

 and were ready to act against the rioters. On the Thursday Belisarius issued forth with a body of Goths and Herules, and a fierce battle ensued around the Milium and in the adjoining streets. The rebels defended themselves furiously, and, while the men fought below, women, posted in the upper chambers of the houses, hurled stones and tiles through the windows on the heads of their military antagonists. Numbers of these Amazons were among the slain. At a certain hour of the day an attempt was made to restore order by priestly intervention, and a train of ecclesiastics, presenting the sacred books and holy images to the eyes of the combatants, descended into the scene of the conflict. The Byzantines might have been influenced, but the barbarians took no account of their presence, and the strife raged without abatement. The civil war in the streets was continued for the two succeeding days, ineffectively on the part of the authorities, while the confidence of the insurgents increased. The work of incendiarism went on, and now on both sides, for the soldiers tried to dislodge those who assailed them from the domiciles and public edifices by firing the buildings. The wind often assisted the conflagration by sweeping the flames along. Among the architectural monuments consumed during this period of the sedition were the Octagon, the church of St. Irene, the Hospital of Sampson