Johannes Malalas wrote a contemporaneous account that assigns the event to 551 CE. He records that “a severe and tremendous earthquake occurred throughout the land of Palestine, in Arabia and in the land of Mesopotamia, Antioch, Phoenice Maritima and Phoenice Libanensis,” where “the following cities suffered: Tyre, Sidon, Berytus, Tripolis, Byblus, Botrys and parts of other cities.” Malalas also notes a rockslide in Botrys and that “at the time of the earthquake the sea retreated [at an unspecified location] for a mile and many ships were destroyed,” followed by the sea being “restored to its original bed.”