Battle of Bagavan
16th-century Armenian miniature depicting the battle
Date 371 Location nearBagavan,Bagrevand,Greater Armenia 39°36′30″N43°28′37″E / 39.6083°N 43.4769°E /39.6083; 43.4769 Result Roman-Armenian victory
Belligerents
Sasanian Empire Caucasian Albania	Kingdom of Armenia Roman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Urnayr (WIA) Meruzhan Artsruni	Traianus Vadomarius Mushegh I Mamikonian

TheBattle of Bagavan (also spelledBagawan),Battle of Dzirav (Armenian:Ձիրավի ճակատամարտ,romanized: Dziravi chakatamart) or theBattle of Vagabanta was fought in 371 near the settlement ofBagavan, in the district ofBagrevand inGreater Armenia, between a jointRoman-Armenian force and aSassanid army, with the Romans and Armenians emerging victorious. It is recorded by the Roman historianAmmianus Marcellinus, as well as the Armenian historianFaustus of Byzantium.

The Armenian historianMovses Khorenatsi and several later Armenian historians following him place the battle in a field called Dzirav, and so the battle is called the Battle of Dzirav in some Armenian sources. In the view of historiansHakob Manandian andNina Garsoïan, this is an error by Khorenatsi or a conflation of the Battle of Bagavan with the battle atGandzak described in the next chapter of Faustus's history.^[1][2]

In the aftermath of thePerso-Roman peace treaty of 363, whereby Rome had pledged not to intervene in Armenian affairs, Armenia was left at the mercy of theSassanid kingShapur II, who in 367/368 imprisoned the Armenian kingArshak II and strove to consolidate Persian rule in the country. In 369, the Roman emperorValens allowedPap, son of Arshak II, to return to Armenia accompanied by the generalTerentius.^[3] However, Pap was soon driven out of Armenia by Shapur's armies and forced to hide inLazica.^[3] While Pap was in hiding, Shapur contacted him and persuaded him to change his allegiance to Persia, but this attempted rapprochement was aborted when Valens's generalArintheus arrived and restored Pap to the Armenian throne a second time.^[4]

Shapur was enraged by this move, but did not declare the peace with Rome void until the winter of 370. Shapur amassed an army, which, according to Faustus, included the forces of his ally KingUrnayr ofAlbania,^[5] and invaded Armenia in the spring of 371.^[6] Valens sent a large army to Armenia under the command of generalsTraianus andVadomarius, but with orders to engage only in defensive actions, hoping to maintain the peace with Persia.^[6] The Armenians also assembled their army under the command ofsparapet (general-in-chief)Mushegh Mamikonian and convened with the Romans near the settlement ofBagavan, in the district ofBagrevand, at the foot ofMount Npat, near the source of theArsanias River.^[7] Faustus gives the number of the Armenian army as 90,000.^[5]

The combined Armenian-Roman army met the invading Sassanid force near Bagavan.^[7] According to Ammianus Marcellinus, the Romans initially withdrew to avoid combat, but were eventually forced to respond to the attacks of the Persian cavalry and won a decisive victory in the subsequent battle, inflicting heavy casualties on the Persians.^[8][7] Faustus of Byzantium gives considerable credit for the victory tosparapet Mushegh Mamikonian.^[7] Faustus also tells of how Urnayr of Albania asked Shapuh to let his contingent face the Armenian force, and how Mushegh engaged in single combat with Urnayr and wounded the Albanian king, but allowed him to escape with his life.^[9][5] This may indicate that the battle took place in a similar fashion as other battles where the Romans and their allies faced the Persians and their allies, with the Romans facing the Persians and the allies fighting each other.^[10] According to Faustus, King Pap did not take part in the battle and observed from Mount Npat together with PatriachNerses at the request of the Roman generals.^[7][5]

Ammianus writes that several other engagements were fought after the Armenian-Roman victory at Bagavan, with varying outcomes.^[11] Faustus tells of another great battle atGandzak inAdurbadagan where the Armenians and Romans routed the Persians again, this time with Shapur there in person.^[12] After these battles, Shapur sent envoys and a truce was agreed upon.^[7] Shapur then returned toCtesiphon and Valens toAntioch, with Armenia left effectively under Roman suzerainty.^[7] The truce would last for seven years.^[13] As a result of these victories, Mushegh is said to have reconquered many lost Armenian territories and forced the nobles who had revolted against the Arsacid monarchy to submit to Pap's authority.^[7][14][a]

• Ammianus Marcellinus,Res Gestae.
• P'awstos Buzand (1985).History of the Armenians. Translated by Bedrosian, Robert. New York.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

• Chaumont, M. L. (1985)."Albania".Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. I, Fasc. 8. pp. 806–810.
• Chaumont, M. L. (1986)."Armenia and Iran ii. The pre-Islamic period".Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. II, Fasc. 4. pp. 418–438.
• Garsoian, Nina (2000)."Mamikonean family".Encyclopaedia Iranica.
• Garsoïan, Nina G. (1989).The Epic Histories Attributed to Pʻawstos Buzand (Buzandaran Patmutʻiwnkʻ). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.ISBN 0-674-25865-7.
• Grousset, René (1947).Histoire de l'Arménie des origines à 1071. Paris.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Hughes, Ian (2013).Imperial Brothers: Valentinian, Valens and the Disaster at Adrianople. Pen & Sword.ISBN 978-1848844179.
• Lenski, Noel Emmanuel (2002).Failure of Empire: Valens and the Roman state in the fourth century A.D. University of California Press.ISBN 978-0-520-23332-4.
• Manandyan, Hakob (1957).Kʻnnakan tesutʻyun hay zhoghovrdi patmutʻyan, hator B, masn A [Critical theory of the history of the Armenian people, volume II, part I] (in Armenian). Erevan: Haypethrat.

• Battles involving the Kingdom of Armenia
• Battles involving the Roman Empire
• Battles of the Roman–Sasanian Wars
• Battles involving the Sasanian Empire
• 370s conflicts
• 371
• 370s in the Byzantine Empire
• 4th century in Armenia
• 4th century in Iran

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