L. Kawad, the king of the Persians, came from the north on the fifth of the first Teshrt (October), on a Saturday, and encamped against the city of Amid, which is beside us in Mesopotamia, he and his whole army. When Anastasius, the Roman emperor, heard that Kawad had collected his forces, he was unwilling to meet him in battle, that blood might not be shed on both sides; but he sent him money by the hand of Rufinus, to whom he gave orders that, if Kawad was on the frontier and had not yet crossed over into the Roman territory, he should give him the money and send him away. But when Rufinus came to Caesarea of Cappadocia, and heard that Kawad had laid waste Agel and Suph and Armenia and the Arabs, he left the money at Caesarea, and went to him, and told him that he should recross the border and take the money. He however would not, but seized Rufinus and ordered him to be kept under guard. He fought against Amid, he and his whole army, with every manner of warfare, by night and by day, and built against it (the mound called) a mule; but the people of Amid built and added to the height of the wall. When the mule was raised high, the Persians applied the battering-ram; and after they had struck the wall violently, the part newly built became loosened, because it had not yet settled, and fell. But the Amidenes dug a hole in the wall under the mule, and secretly drew away inside the city the earth which was heaped up to form it, propping it up with beams as they worked; and so the mule collapsed and fell.