When King Khosrow Anushirvan gave the command for war, a mighty resonance of war-horns, cymbals, and Indian bells echoed at the royal gates. Great kettle-drums were bound to the humps of formidable war-elephants, turning the face of the world dark as indigo beneath the rising dust. An ocean of troops marched out from Ctesiphon into the plain, so vast that even the green sea would gaze upon it in bewildered awe. From the wail of brass horns, the gleam of royal banners, and the surge of golden-shoed cavalry, it seemed as though the stars had plunged into deep waters and the revolving heavens themselves had fallen into a stupor.
When intelligence reached the Caesar of Rome that the Iranian monarch had set forth from his palace in fierce anger, he hastened from Amorium to Aleppo, filling the realm with turmoil and the thunder of mobilization. Three hundred thousand Roman horsemen encircled Aleppo in a tight siege, wasting no time in launching violent assaults. The Catholicos, a renowned commander among the Romans, erected massive catapults before every gate, while evacuating the fortress of Saqilan to serve as a staging ground for swift raids.
Soon, Aleppo was transformed into a sea of blood. The forces of Batrun sought quarter before the unstoppable Iranian onslaught. Within two weeks, thirty thousand Roman horsemen were captured and paraded before King Khosrow, while countless others fell beneath clouds of Iranian arrows. Desperate to check the relentless Iranian advance, the Romans dug a colossal trench across the highway in front of the royal army and flooded it with water under the cover of twilight, temporarily halting the King's march.