 Garrisoned by a strong detachment of the Persians under Mamersides (per Ammianus), or Momoseiros (per Zosimus), the city maintained a stout defense.However, the walls were soon reduced by the siege engines of the Roman emperor, and the garrison, which retired to an inner citadel while the enemy commenced the sack of the city, was soon after brought to surrender, after a mere two day siege.Pirisabora was burnt and mercilessly ravaged by the soldiery, who well remembered the treatment of the Persians towards Amida, after its capture four years previously (A.D. 359).