The Historians' History of the World 08

A country to which the sea offered the only convenient approach could be of no use to a race so utterly ignorant of navigation as the Persians, and we find no vestige of sea-borne traffic between Yemen and Persia. Chosroes may indeed have had some idea of diverting commercial advantages from the Romans and procuring them for the Persians, just as in other respects commercial interests play their part in the hostile and amicable relations of the empire; as was done, for instance, and to a very great extent, by the silk trade with the interior of Asia.

[551-578 A.D.]

The king was not exempt from strife within the borders of his dominions. About 551 his son Anoshazadh, who for some offence had been banished to Susiana, hearing that his father was seriously ill, proclaimed himself king and persisted in his rebellion. He relied upon the Christians, his mother’s co-religionists, but was soon overcome and taken prisoner. He was not executed, but merely rendered ineligible for the throne by a slight facial disfigurement.

In the later years of his life Chosroes was again involved in war with the Romans, who this time allied themselves with the Turkish chagan, now a formidable foe of Persia. The Persians did all they could to prevent intercourse between him and the Romans. The Romans likewise complained of the destruction of the Christian kingdom of Yemen. But these were secondary considerations. Even the refusal of the emperor, Justin II (November 14th, 565-6, to October, 578), to pay to Persia the sum stipulated by treaty would probably not have led to a direct rupture.

But the Persians could not tamely submit to see the whole of Armenia become Roman. Armenian nobles were once more contemplating rebellion; the clergy and the fanatical mob raised a tumult when it was proposed to erect a temple of Fire at Dovin, the capital, and Suren, a Persian, was slain (spring of 571). The rebels turned to Constantinople; the king of Iberia (to the north of Armenia) did likewise. The incompetent emperor imagined that both countries might fall to Rome again, and took them under his protection. It was the signal for war. Excellent as are the contemporary reports of this war which have come down to us, we have no complete and chronologically exact summary of its progress. At the very beginning Nisibis was besieged to no purpose by the Romans; Chosroes, on the other hand, took Dara after a six months’ siege (573), while his general, Adharmahan, invaded Syria by way of the right bank of the Euphrates, and there perpetrated ravages similar to those for which his master had been responsible in 540. He destroyed Apamea and carried the inhabitants away into captivity. After marching through Mesopotamia he joined forces with the king before Dara. Some of the captives he settled in New Antioch.

Tiberius, who directed the government at Constantinople in concert with the empress Sophia and was formally appointed co-regent on the 7th of December, 574, was anxious for peace. But even the conclusion of a truce for three years did not bring about real tranquillity, as Armenia was not included in the armistice. Early in the year 575 Chosroes marched through Armenia and penetrated a long way towards Cappadocia. He was obliged to withdraw before the Roman troops, who actually plundered his camp, but could not prevent him from burning Sebastia and Melitene and getting safely home. His Roman pursuers occupied a great part of Persian Armenia and wintered there, but were driven out of it in the following year.

That the Romans displayed no more humanity than the Persians is clear from the fact that they carried off even the Christian inhabitants of the Persian border-provinces of Arzanene, and considered it a singular favour to assign dwelling-places to them in Cyprus (577). Negotiations for peace were set on foot again and again. After recent experiences the Roman claims to Persian Armenia and Iberia were readily renounced at Constantinople. On the point of honour that the temporal and spiritual nobles of Armenia who had taken refuge at Constantinople should not be handed over to the vengeance of the Persians, an understanding might also have been arrived at. Dara was still a great stumbling-block, the Romans insisting on its restoration, with excellent reason. For all that, peace would probably have been concluded if Chosroes had not died (about February, 579) shortly after Tiberius had become sole monarch (October 4th or 6th, 578).

HORMUZD IV

[578-590 A.D.]