LXXVI. The year 816 (A.D. 504-5). The fugitives and those who had escaped the sword, that were left in Amid of its inhabitants, were in sore trouble and distress from famine. The Persians were afraid of them lest they should give up the city to the Romans; and they bound all the men that were there, and threw them into the amphitheatre, and there they perished of hunger and of endless bonds. But to the women they gave part of their food, because they used them to satisfy their lust, and because they had need of them to grind and bake for them. When, however, food became scarce, they neglected them, and left them without sustenance. For none of them received more than one handful of barley daily during this year; whilst of meat, or wine, or any other article of food, they had absolutely none at all. And because they were very much afraid of the Romans, they never stirred from their posts, but made for themselves small furnaces upon the wall, and brought up hand-mills, and ground that handful of barley where they were, and baked and ate it. They also brought up large kneading-troughs, and placed them between the battlements, and filled them with earth, and sowed in them vegetables, and whatever grew in them they ate.