There was another, smaller (est 7.5 vs. 7.0) quake in late May of 526: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/526_Antioch_earthquake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/526_A

There was another, smaller (est 7.5 vs. 7.0) quake in late May of 526: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/526_Antioch_earthquake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/526_Antioch_earthquake (followed by a fire) that also reportedly killed 250 thousand. The two figures are close. A lot of historically big numbers turn out to be greatly exaggerated, maybe as a part of the storytelling process. For example, some old books claimed the toll of the 1737 Calcutta (quake or cyclone) was around 300,000 - while there were no more than 10,000 residents at the time. https://rashidfaridi.com/2008/05/13/earthquakes-in-asia/ https://rashidfaridi.com/2008/05/13/earthquakes-in-asia/