Agathias of Myrina wrote a contemporaneous account of the earthquake, as he was about twenty-one years old and living in Alexandria, Egypt when it occurred. Although Agathias combined accounts of other earthquakes – such as the 554 CE Constantinople event – into his narrative, creating some chronological ambiguity, it is possible to isolate his description of the 551 CE Beirut Quake to several details: the destruction at Beirut, the transfer of the law school from Beirut to Sidon, an earthquake occurring in the summer, and probably the “slight tremor” felt in Alexandria. Ambraseys (2009) noted that if the law school was temporarily relocated to Sidon, the lesser damage there would imply an epicenter located nearer to Beirut.