elisarius and said that he, for his part, had bestowed a
favour upon the Romans in the withdrawal of the Median army, and that he
was expecting the envoys from them, who ought to present themselves to
him at no distant time. Then Belisarius also with the whole Roman army
crossed the River Euphrates and immediately sent to Chosroes. And when
the messengers came into his presence, they commended him highly for his
withdrawal and promised that envoys would come to him promptly from the
emperor, who would arrange with him that the terms which had previously
been agreed upon concerning the peace should be put into effect. And
they asked of him that he treat the Romans as his friends in his journey
through their land. This too he agreed to carry out, if they should give
him some one of their notable men as a hostage to make this compact
binding, in order that they might carry out their agreement. So the
envoys returned to Belisarius and reported the words of Chosroes, and he
came to Edessa and chose John, the son of Basilius, the most illustrious
of all the inhabitants of Edessa in birth and in wealth, and straightway
sent him, much against his will, as a hostage to Chosroes. And the
Romans were loud in their praises of Belisarius and he seemed to have
achieved greater glory in their eyes by this affair than when he brought
Gelimer or Vittigis captive to Byzantium. For in reality it was an
achievement of great importance and one deserving great praise, that, at
a time when all the Romans were panic-stricken with fear and were hiding
themselves in their defences, and Chosroes with a mighty army had come
into the midst of the Roman domain, a general with only a few men,
coming in hot haste from Byzantium just at that moment, should have set
his camp over against that of the Persian king, and that Chosroes
unexpectedly, either through fear of fortune or of the valour of the man
or even because deceived by some tricks, should no longer continue his
advance, but should in reality take to flight, though pretending to be
seeking peace.

But in the meantime Chosroes, disregarding the agreement, took the city
of Callinicus which was entirely without defenders. For the Romans,
seeing that the wall of this city was altogether unsound and easy of
capture, were tearing down portions of it in turn and restoring them
with new construction. Now just at that time they had torn down one
section of it and had not yet built in this interval; when