they might not be seen by the enemy; and
with difficulty they collected two centenaria[10] of gold, for the city
they inhabited was not very prosperous, and they gave them to Chosroes
as the price of their lives and thus saved both the city and themselves.

From there on Chosroes did not wish to continue the return journey by
the road he had come, but to cross the River Euphrates and gather by
plunder as much money as possible from Mesopotamia. He therefore
constructed a bridge at the place called Obbane, which is forty stades
distant from the fortress in Barbalissum; then he himself went across
and gave orders to the whole army to cross as quickly as possible,
adding that he would break up the bridge on the third day, and he
appointed also the time of the day. And when the appointed day was come,
it happened that some of the army were left who had not yet crossed, but
without the least consideration for them he sent the men to break up the
bridge. And those who were left behind returned to their native land as
each one could.

Then a sort of ambition came over Chosroes to capture the city of
Edessa. For he was led on to this by a saying of the Christians, and it
kept irritating his mind, because they maintained that it could not be
taken, for the following reason. There was a certain Augarus in early
times, toparch of Edessa (for thus the kings of the different nations
were called then). Now this Augarus was the most clever of all men of
his time, and as a result of this was an especial friend of the Emperor
Augustus. For, desiring to make a treaty with the Romans, he came to
Rome; and when he conversed with Augustus, he so astonished him by the
abundance of his wisdom that Augustus wished never more to give up his
company; for he was an ardent lover of his conversation, and whenever he
met him, he was quite unwilling to depart from him. A long time,
therefore, was consumed by him in this visit. And one day when he was
desirous of returning to his native land and was utterly unable to
persuade Augustus to let him go, he devised the following plan. He first
went out to hunt in the country about Rome; for it happened that he had
taken considerable interest in the practice of this sport. And going
about over a large tract of country, he captured alive many of the
animals of that region, and he gathered up and took with him from each
part of the country some earth from the land; thus he returned to Rome
bringing both the