Sycae
A walled suburb of Constantinople across the Golden Horn.
Today: Galata (Karaköy), Istanbul, Turkey
The Plague at Constantinople
Procopius, History of the Wars, Book 2 (chapters 22–23) · c. 550 (events of 542; Books 1–7 made public in 551 at the earliest)
ἐπεὶ δὲ τὰς θήκας ἁπάσας αἳ πρότερον ἦσαν ἐμπίπλασθαι τῶν νεκρῶν ἔτυχεν, οἱ δὲ ὀρύσσοντες ἅπαντα ἐφεξῆς τὰ ἀμφὶ τὴν πόλιν χωρία, ἐνταῦθά τε τοὺς θνήσκοντας κατατιθέμενοι, ὡς ἕκαστός πη ἐδύνατο, ἀπηλλάσσοντο, ἔπειτα δὲ οἱ τὰς κατώρυχας ταύτας ποιούμενοι πρὸς τῶν ἀποθνησκόντων τὸ μέτρον οὐκέτι ἀντέχοντες, ἐς τοὺς πύργους τοῦ περιβόλου ἀνέβαινον ὃς ἐν Συκαῖς ἐστι·
When all the existing tombs were full, people dug up every spot around the city, one after another, laid the dead there as best they could, and went away. Later, though, the men digging these trenches could no longer keep pace with all the dying. So they climbed up into the towers of the wall at Sycae.