The Persian, on his side, was not slack or remiss.

No sooner had he received the ransom of Hierapolis than he advanced upon Berhoea (now Aleppo), which he reached in four days.
Observing that the defences were weak, he here demanded twice the ransom that he had accepted from the Hierapolites, and was only induced to forego the claim by the tears and entreaties of the good bishop, who convinced him at length that the Berhoeans could not pay so large a sum, and induced him to accept the half of it.

A few more days' march brought him from Aleppo to the outskirts of Antioch; and after an interval of nearly three centuries the "Queen of the East," the richest and most magnificent of Oriental cities, was once more invested by Persian troops and threatened by a Sassanian monarch.
A great calamity had fallen upon Antioch only fourteen years previously.
The entire town had been ruined by a succession of terrible earthquakes, which commenced in October, A.D.525, and terminated in August of the ensuing year.

All for a time was havoc and disorder.

A landslip had covered a portion of the city, and in the remainder almost every house was overthrown.