Roman–Sassanid War (421–422)
Encyclopedia
The Roman–Sassanid war of 421–422 was a conflict between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Sassanids. The casus belli
was the persecution of Christians by the Sassanid king Bahram V
; the Christian Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II
declared war and obtained some victories, but in the end the two powers agreed to sign a peace on the status quo ante.
succeeded his father Yazdegerd I
, who had been killed; immediately, he started a persecution of the Christians, many of who died. Among them there was James Intercisus
, a political counsellor of Yazdegerd's, who had converted to Zoroastrianism
but then converted back to Christianity
.
The persecuted Christians fled to Roman territory, and were welcomed by the bishop of Constantinople, Atticus
, who informed the Emperor of the persecution. The Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II
was at the time deeply influenced by his religious sister Pulcheria
, and had become more and more interested in Christianity.
The Roman-Sassanid relationship already had some friction. The Persians had hired some Roman gold-diggers, but now refused to send them back; furthermore, the Sassanids seized the properties of Roman merchants.
So, when Persian ambassadors reached the Roman court to ask for the fugitives, Theodosius choose to break the peace and declare war, rather than giving them back.
. Ardaburius needed to collect many troops for his campaign. Theodosius, therefore, allowed some Pannonia
n Ostrogoths to settle in Thracia
, to defend the province from the Huns
while the Thracian Roman troops were sent to the East.
Ardaburius sent Anatolius to Persarmenia
, where he joined the rebels, while Ardaburius entered in Persian territory and devastated Arzanene. The general of the Sassanid army
, Narses, moved with his troops against Ardaburius, and engaged the Romans in battle, but was defeated and forced to retreat. Narses planned to attack Mesopotamia
, a Roman province that had been left unguarded, and moved there, but Ardaburius foresaw his enemy's plan and reached Mesopotamia.
Ardaburius received reinforcements and put the fortress of Nisibis
under siege. Bahram allied with the Lakhmid Arabs
of Alamundarus (Al-Mundhir I of Hirah), who, however, were dispersed by the Romans. In the meantime, the King of the Huns, Rua
, had attacked the dioceses of Dacia and Thracia and had even menaced Constantinople
; at the same time, a large Persian army moved towards Nisibis. To avoid a war on two fronts, Theodosius then recalled Ardaburius back.
). According to this source, the Romans did not try to aid the besieged, but the Sassanid were convinced to lift the siege when the bishop of the city, Eunomius, had a stone-thrower, named after Thomas the Apostle
, kill a lesser king of the Sassanid army.
Despite the evident religious theme of this account, the passage is important as it testifies an unsuccessful Sassanid attack on Theodosiopolis. This could be the Theodosiopolis in Armenia, and in this case the siege should be dated in 421, while Narses was in Mesopotamia
, or Theodosiopolis in Osroene, and in this case the attack should be dated after the Roman retreat from Nisibis.
). Both parts agreed to reject Arab defectors of the other part, as well as to guarantee liberty of religion in their territories.
The Romans, however, were obliged to give an annual tribute to the Huns.
Casus belli
is a Latin expression meaning the justification for acts of war. means "incident", "rupture" or indeed "case", while means bellic...
was the persecution of Christians by the Sassanid king Bahram V
Bahram V
Bahram V was the fourteenth Sassanid King of Persia . Also called Bahram Gur or Bahramgur , he was a son of Yazdegerd I , after whose sudden death he gained the crown against the opposition of the grandees by the help of Mundhir, the Arab dynast of al-Hirah.- Reign and war with Rome :Bahram V...
; the Christian Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II
Theodosius II
Theodosius II , commonly surnamed Theodosius the Younger, or Theodosius the Calligrapher, was Byzantine Emperor from 408 to 450. He is mostly known for promulgating the Theodosian law code, and for the construction of the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople...
declared war and obtained some victories, but in the end the two powers agreed to sign a peace on the status quo ante.
Background
In 421, Bahram VBahram V
Bahram V was the fourteenth Sassanid King of Persia . Also called Bahram Gur or Bahramgur , he was a son of Yazdegerd I , after whose sudden death he gained the crown against the opposition of the grandees by the help of Mundhir, the Arab dynast of al-Hirah.- Reign and war with Rome :Bahram V...
succeeded his father Yazdegerd I
Yazdegerd I
Yazdegerd I, or Izdekerti , was the thirteenth Sassanid king of Persia and ruled from 399 to 421. He is believed by some to be the son of Shapur III and by others to be son of Bahram IV...
, who had been killed; immediately, he started a persecution of the Christians, many of who died. Among them there was James Intercisus
James Intercisus
Saint James Intercisus is a Persian saint. His surname, Intercisus, is derived from the Latin word for "cut into pieces," which refers to the manner of his martyrdom: he was slowly cut into twenty-eight pieces...
, a political counsellor of Yazdegerd's, who had converted to Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of prophet Zoroaster and was formerly among the world's largest religions. It was probably founded some time before the 6th century BCE in Greater Iran.In Zoroastrianism, the Creator Ahura Mazda is all good, and no evil...
but then converted back to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
.
The persecuted Christians fled to Roman territory, and were welcomed by the bishop of Constantinople, Atticus
Archbishop Atticus of Constantinople
Atticus was the archbishop of Constantinople, succeeding Arsacius of Tarsus in March 406. He had been an opponent of John Chrysostom and helped Arsacius of Tarsus depose him, but later became a supporter of him after his death...
, who informed the Emperor of the persecution. The Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II
Theodosius II
Theodosius II , commonly surnamed Theodosius the Younger, or Theodosius the Calligrapher, was Byzantine Emperor from 408 to 450. He is mostly known for promulgating the Theodosian law code, and for the construction of the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople...
was at the time deeply influenced by his religious sister Pulcheria
Pulcheria
Aelia Pulcheria was the daughter of Eastern Roman Emperor Arcadius and Empress Aelia Eudoxia. She was the second child born to Arcadius and Eudoxia. Her oldest sister was Flaccilla born in 397, but is assumed she had died young. Her younger siblings were Theodosius II, the future emperor and...
, and had become more and more interested in Christianity.
The Roman-Sassanid relationship already had some friction. The Persians had hired some Roman gold-diggers, but now refused to send them back; furthermore, the Sassanids seized the properties of Roman merchants.
So, when Persian ambassadors reached the Roman court to ask for the fugitives, Theodosius choose to break the peace and declare war, rather than giving them back.
Conflict
The commander-in-chief of the Roman army was Ardaburius, who, incidentally, came from the Iranian tribe of the AlansAlans
The Alans, or the Alani, occasionally termed Alauni or Halani, were a group of Sarmatian tribes, nomadic pastoralists of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian.-Name:The various forms of Alan —...
. Ardaburius needed to collect many troops for his campaign. Theodosius, therefore, allowed some Pannonia
Pannonia
Pannonia was an ancient province of the Roman Empire bounded north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia....
n Ostrogoths to settle in Thracia
Thracia (Roman province)
Thracia was the name of a province of the Roman empire. It was established in AD 46, when the former Roman client state of Thrace was annexed by order of emperor Claudius ....
, to defend the province from the Huns
Huns
The Huns were a group of nomadic people who, appearing from east of the Volga River, migrated into Europe c. AD 370 and established the vast Hunnic Empire there. Since de Guignes linked them with the Xiongnu, who had been northern neighbours of China 300 years prior to the emergence of the Huns,...
while the Thracian Roman troops were sent to the East.
Ardaburius sent Anatolius to Persarmenia
Persarmenia
Nor-Shirakan or Persarmenia , also known as Adiabene, was part of Greater Armenia, but now situated on the western shore of Lake Urmia in northern Iran. Following the partition of Greater Armenia between the Roman Empire and Sassanid Empire in 387, the territory under Sassanid influence became to...
, where he joined the rebels, while Ardaburius entered in Persian territory and devastated Arzanene. The general of the Sassanid army
Sassanid army
The birth of the Sassanid army dates back to the rise of Ardashir I , the founder of the Sassanid dynasty, to the throne. Ardashir aimed at the revival of the Persian Empire, and to further this aim, he reformed the military by forming a standing army which was under his personal command and whose...
, Narses, moved with his troops against Ardaburius, and engaged the Romans in battle, but was defeated and forced to retreat. Narses planned to attack Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia (Roman province)
Mesopotamia was the name of two distinct Roman provinces, the one a short-lived creation of the Roman Emperor Trajan in 116–117 and the other established by Emperor Septimius Severus in ca. 198, which lasted until the Muslim conquests of the 7th century....
, a Roman province that had been left unguarded, and moved there, but Ardaburius foresaw his enemy's plan and reached Mesopotamia.
Ardaburius received reinforcements and put the fortress of Nisibis
Nisibis
Nusaybin Nisêbîn) is a city in Mardin Province, Turkey, populated mainly by Kurds. Earlier Arameans, Arabs, and Armenians lived in the city. The population of the city is 83,832 as of 2009.-Ancient Period:...
under siege. Bahram allied with the Lakhmid Arabs
Lakhmids
The Lakhmids , Banu Lakhm , Muntherids , were a group of Arab Christians who lived in Southern Iraq, and made al-Hirah their capital in 266. Poets described it as a Paradise on earth, an Arab Poet described the city's pleasant climate and beauty "One day in al-Hirah is better than a year of...
of Alamundarus (Al-Mundhir I of Hirah), who, however, were dispersed by the Romans. In the meantime, the King of the Huns, Rua
Rua
-Music:*Rua , 1998*Rua , a New Zealand Celtic fusion band*Rua , 2003-People:*Rua Kenana Hepetipa , Maori self-proclaimed prophet*Rua Tipoki , rugby union player...
, had attacked the dioceses of Dacia and Thracia and had even menaced Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
; at the same time, a large Persian army moved towards Nisibis. To avoid a war on two fronts, Theodosius then recalled Ardaburius back.
Siege of Theodosiopolis
According to a Roman ecclesiastical source, the Sassanids besieged Theodosiopolis for 30 days, with thousands of soldiers and even siege engines (that the source calls helepolisHelepolis
Helepolis was an ancient siege engine invented by Polyidus of Thessaly and improved by Demetrius I of Macedon and Epimachus of Athens for the unsuccessful siege of Rhodes, based on an earlier, less massive design used against Salamis...
). According to this source, the Romans did not try to aid the besieged, but the Sassanid were convinced to lift the siege when the bishop of the city, Eunomius, had a stone-thrower, named after Thomas the Apostle
Thomas the Apostle
Thomas the Apostle, also called Doubting Thomas or Didymus was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He is best known for questioning Jesus' resurrection when first told of it, then proclaiming "My Lord and my God" on seeing Jesus in . He was perhaps the only Apostle who went outside the Roman...
, kill a lesser king of the Sassanid army.
Despite the evident religious theme of this account, the passage is important as it testifies an unsuccessful Sassanid attack on Theodosiopolis. This could be the Theodosiopolis in Armenia, and in this case the siege should be dated in 421, while Narses was in Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia (Roman province)
Mesopotamia was the name of two distinct Roman provinces, the one a short-lived creation of the Roman Emperor Trajan in 116–117 and the other established by Emperor Septimius Severus in ca. 198, which lasted until the Muslim conquests of the 7th century....
, or Theodosiopolis in Osroene, and in this case the attack should be dated after the Roman retreat from Nisibis.
Peace treaty
The peace treaty that ended the war (422) was negotiated by the magister officiorum Helio. It returned everything to the situation before the war (status quo ante bellumStatus quo ante bellum
The term status quo ante bellum is Latin, meaning literally "the state in which things were before the war".The term was originally used in treaties to refer to the withdrawal of enemy troops and the restoration of prewar leadership. When used as such, it means that no side gains or loses...
). Both parts agreed to reject Arab defectors of the other part, as well as to guarantee liberty of religion in their territories.
The Romans, however, were obliged to give an annual tribute to the Huns.