Siege of Amida (502–503)

The Siege of Amida occurred in 502–503, during the Anastasian War. The city was not garrisoned by any troops, but nevertheless resisted for three months before falling to the Sassanid ruler, Kavadh I. According to the detailed account of Zacharias of Mytilene, the city's sack was particularly brutal, and accompanied by a massacre of the population for three days and nights. The Byzantine emperor Anastasius I reacted to the news of Amida's fall by sending a huge force of 60,000 men east, but the Byzantines were unable to recover the city until the conclusion of a truce in 505, when they ransomed it for 1,100 pounds of gold.