LXVI. On the 25th of the first Kanun (December) there came an edict from the emperor that the tax should be remitted to all Mesopotamia. The Persians who were in Amid, when they saw that the Roman army had gone far away from them, opened the gates of the city of Amid, and went forth and entered where they pleased, and sold to the merchants copper and iron and lead and old clothes and whatever was to be had in it, and established in it a public magazine. When Patricius heard this, he set out from Melitene (Malatia), where he was wintering, and came and pitched against Amid. All the merchants whom he found carrying down thither grain and oil, and those too who were buying things from thence, he slew. He found also the Persians who were sent by Kawad to convey thither arms and grain and cattle, and destroyed them, and took all that was with them. When Kawad learned this, he sent against him a general to take vengeance on him. When they came near one another to fight, the Romans, because of the fear inspired by their former defeat, counselled Patricius to flee, and he hearkened to this. In their haste, not knowing whither they were going, they came upon the river Kallath; and because it was winter and there was a great flood in it, they were not able to cross it, but every one of them who hastened to cross was drowned in the river with his horse. When Patricius saw this, he exhorted the Romans, saying: "O men of Rome, let us not put to shame our race and our profession, and flee from our enemies, but let us turn against them, and perhaps we may be a match for them. And if they be too strong for us, it is better to die by the edge of the sword with a good name for valour than to perish like cowards by drowning." Then the Romans listened to his advice, being constrained by the river; and they turned against the Persians with fury and destroyed them, and took their generals alive. Thereafter they again encamped against Amid, and Patricius sent and collected unto him artisans from other cities and many of the villagers, and bade them dig in the ground and make a mine beneath the wall, that it might be weakened and fall.