On his part, Omar, who was now khalif sent to the succor of the besieging army the veteran troops of Syria.

There were many assaults and many sallies.

In one Amrou himself was taken prisoner by the besieged, but, through the dexterity of a slave, made his escape.

After a siege of fourteen months, and a loss of twenty-three thousand men, the Saracens captured the city.

In his dispatch to the Khalif, Amrou enumerated the splendors of the great city of the West "its four thousand palaces, four thousand baths, four hundred theatres, twelve thousand shops for the sale of vegetable food, and forty thousand tributary Jews." So fell the second great city of Christendom--the fate of Jerusalem had fallen on Alexandria, the city of Athanasius, and Arius, and Cyril; the city that had imposed Trinitarian ideas and Mariolatry on the Church.
In his palace at Constantinople Heraclius received the fatal tidings.
He was overwhelmed with grief.