Theophanes provides a date of 9 July and a probable year of 551 CE. He recounts “a severe and frightful earthquake throughout Palestine, Arabia, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Phoenicia,” where “the following cities suffered: Tyre, Sidon, Berytos, Tripolis, and Byblos.” He also reports a rockslide in Botrys and that “the sea retreated [at an unspecified location] one mile toward the deep and many ships were lost,” followed by “a return of the sea to its own bed.”