IX. After Zenobia was the city of Suri,[49] situated on the river Euphrates, whose fortifications were so contemptible that when Chosroes assaulted it, it did not hold out for so much as half-an-hour, but was instantly taken by the Persians. This fort, however, like Callinicum, was restored by the Emperor Justinian, who surrounded it with a strong wall, strengthened it with an outwork, and enabled it for the future to resist the attack of the enemy, There is in Euphratesia a church dedicated to Sergius, an eminent saint, whom the ancients so admired and looked up to that they named the place Sergiopolis,[50] and surrounded it with a low rampart, sufficient to prevent the Saracens in that region from capturing it by assault; for the Saracens are by nature incapable of attacking walls, and consequently the weakest mud wall is sufficient to resist their onset. In later times this church received so many offerings as to become powerful and famous throughout the land. The Emperor Justinian, reflecting upon these matters, at once applied himself to its protection, surrounded it with a most admirable wall, and provided a quantity of water, stored up in reservoirs, for the use of its inhabitants; besides this, he built in the place houses and porticos, and all the other buildings which are regarded as the ornaments of a city. He also placed a garrison of soldiers in it to defend the walls in time of need; and, indeed, Chosroes, the King of Persia, who determined to take the city, and who brought up a large army to besiege it, was compelled to raise the siege, being overcome by the strength of the walls. The Emperor spent equal care upon all the towns and forts on the borders of Euphratesia, (namely) Barbalissus,[51] Neocæsarea, Gabula, Pentacomia, which is on the Euphrates, and Europus.[52] At Hemerius, finding the walls built in some parts carelessly and dangerously, and in some parts formed only of mud, while the place was deficient in water-supply and consequently despicable as a fortification, he razed them to the ground, and at once carefully rebuilt them of courses of the hardest stone, making the wall much wider and higher than before. He also constructed reservoirs for water in all parts of the works, all of which he filled with rain-water, and, placing a garrison there, he rendered the place as powerful and secure as we now see it. Indeed, if one were carefully to consider this, and to inspect all the other good works of the Emperor Justinian, one would say it was for this alone that he had received the crown, by the manifest favour of God, who watches over the Roman people.