The Persians pursued, but with caution, and the carnage was not so great as might have been expected; but vast numbers of the disarmed fugitives were overtaken and made prisoners by the enemy; and the arms, animals, and camp equipment which fell into the hands of the Persians amply compensated all previous losses, and left Persarmenia the richer for the inroad.
The ravages of the pestilence having ceased, Chosroes, in the following year (A.D.

544), again marched westward in person, and laid siege to the city of Edessa.

It would seem that he had now resolved not to be content with plundering raids, but to attempt at any rate the permanent conquest of some portion of the Roman territory.

Edessa and Daras were the two towns on which the Roman possession of Western Mesopotamia at this time mainly depended.

As the passing of Nisibis, in A.D.363, from Roman into Persian hands, had given to Persia a secure hold on the eastern portion of the country between the rivers, so the occupation of Edessa and Daras could it have been effected, would have carried with it dominion over the more western regions.