Under Justinian the Samaritans fared even worse than the Jews. Oppression goaded them repeatedly to rebellion, and each attempt, accompanied as such attempts were with atrocities against the Christians, rendered the yoke heavier. One of these desperate revolts occurred in 556 A.D., when the Samaritans of Caesarea took advantage of one of the inevitable circus-riots and, aided by the Jews, massacred the Christian inhabitants. The crime brought down upon them a heavy and indiscriminate punishment. A respite followed on Justinian’s death, and it continued under his immediate successors. But the reign of Phocas witnessed a renewal of the feud. ♦608♦ The Jews of Antioch suddenly fell upon the Christians, whom they slaughtered and burnt; while they dragged the Patriarch through the streets and put him to death. A military force suppressed the riot and wreaked vengeance on the guilty people. A few years after, the Jews seized an opportunity for venting their ill-concealed hatred of the Greeks. This was the advance of the Persians upon Palestine. A certain rich Jew of Tiberias, Benjamin by name, led the revolt, and called upon his fellow-countrymen to join the Persians. The Jews gladly complied, and assembled from all parts of Palestine, bringing their fury and their fire to bear upon the Christians. ♦614♦ With their assistance the Persians took Jerusalem, massacred ninety thousand Christian inhabitants, and sacked all the Christian sanctuaries, for their Jewish allies would spare none and nothing that reminded them of their national humiliation. From the capital terror and havoc spread throughout the land, the conquerors destroying the monasteries and killing the monks wherever they found them. An attempt to surprise and slay the Christians of Tyre during the Easter celebrations, however, failed. The latter, having been informed of the design, seized the Jews in the town, who were to act as secret auxiliaries of the assailants, killed one hundred of them for each atrocity perpetrated by their accomplices outside the city, and threw the heads of the victims over the walls for the edification of their co-religionists. This performance had the desired effect. The besiegers, dismayed at the shower of Hebrew heads which fell upon them, beat a hasty retreat, pursued by the Tyrian Christians.