which is held in reverence by Christians above all other places; but
the woman was able to drag him even from thence, for to her no place
ever was sacred or unassailable; and she thought nothing of violating
the holiest of sanctuaries. The Christian priests and people were
struck with horror at her impiety, but nevertheless yielded and
submitted to her in everything.

Photius had lived in this condition for nearly three years, when the
prophet Zacharias appeared to him in a dream, commanded him to escape,
and promised his assistance. Relying upon this vision, he rose,
escaped from his prison, and made his way to Jerusalem in disguise;
though tens of thousands must have seen the youth, yet none recognised
him. There he shaved off all his hair, assumed the monastic habit, and
in this manner escaped the tortures which Theodora would have
inflicted upon him.

Belisarius took no account of the oaths which he had sworn, and made
no effort to avenge Photius's sufferings, in spite of the solemn vows
which he had made to do so. Hereafter, probably by God's will, all his
warlike enterprises failed. Some time afterwards he was dispatched
against the Medes and Chosroes, who had for the third time invaded the
Roman Empire, and fell under suspicion of treachery, although he was
considered to have performed a notable achievement in driving the
enemy away from the frontier; but when Chosroes, after crossing the
Euphrates, took the populous city of Callinikus without a blow, and
made slaves of tens of thousands of Romans, Belisarius remained quiet,
and never so much as offered to attack the enemy, whereby he incurred
the reproach of either treachery or cowardice.