he imagined the place to be entirely impregnable, gave up his project, and straightway retired into Persia, being out-generalled by the foresight of the Roman Emperor. III. Such were the works of the Emperor Justinian in the city of Dara. I shall now describe what he arranged to prevent any second misfortune happening to the city from the river, in which matter his wishes were manifestly assisted by Heaven. There was one Chryses of Alexandria, a clever engineer, who served the Emperor as an architect, and constructed most of the works both in the city of Dara and in the rest of the country. This Chryses was absent when the misfortune from the river befell the city of Dara; when he heard of it, he retired to bed in great grief, and dreamed the following dream: A figure of more than human stature appeared to him, and showed and explained to him a device which would protect the city from any dangerous inundation of the river. He, conceiving this idea to be divinely inspired, at once wrote an account of the device and of the vision, and sent it to the Emperor, giving a sketch of what he had been taught in his dream. It happened that not long before this a message reached the Emperor from the city of Dara, giving him an account of what had happened with the river. Thereupon the Emperor, disturbed and alarmed at what had taken place, straightway summoned those most celebrated architects, Anthemius and Isidorus, whom I have mentioned before. He informed them of what had happened, and inquired what arrangement could be devised to prevent this mischief befalling the city a second time. Each of them described what he considered to be a suitable plan for this purpose; but the Emperor, evidently acting under a divine impulse, although he had not yet seen the letter of Chryses, miraculously invented and sketched out of his own mind the plan suggested by the dream. The interview terminated without the adoption of any distinct plan, and without their deciding upon what was to be done; but three days afterwards came a messenger to the Emperor, who brought the letter from Chryses, and who explained the form of the arrangement which he had seen in his dream. The Emperor now again sent for the architects, and ordered them to recall to mind their former ideas of what ought to be done. They repeated everything in order, both their own devices and the spontaneous inventions of the Emperor; after which the Emperor brought forward the messenger sent from Chryses, and showing them the letter and the sketch of what he had seen in his dream, caused them to wonder greatly, when they perceived how Heaven had assisted our Emperor in everything for the advantage of the Empire. The plan of the Emperor accordingly won the day, and triumphed over the art and learning of the architects. Chryses returned to the city of Dara, with orders from the Emperor to carry out the work which he had described with all speed, according to the plan revealed in the dream.