| Byzantine–Persian War over Armenia | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part ofByzantine–Sasanian Wars | |||||||||
 Map of the Byzantine–Sasanian frontier, including the long-standing borders of 387 and the Byzantine gains of 591 | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Byzantine Empire Ghassanids Mamikonians Huns Sasanian supporters ofKhosrow II | Sasanian Persian Empire Lakhmids | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Justin II Marcian Justinian Al-Mundhir ibn al-Harith, Cours, Maurice, John Mystacon, Philippicus, Narses, Khosrow II, Vistahm, Vinduyih, Musel II Mamikonian, Apsich | Khosrow I, Al-Mundhir IV ibn al-Mundhir †, Khorianes †, Adarmahan, Tamkhosrau †, Kardarigan, Izadgushasp, Fariburz, Bahram Chobin Bahram Gushnasp | ||||||||
TheByzantine–Sasanian War of 572–591 was a war fought between theSasanian Empire of Persia and theByzantine Empire. It was triggered by pro-Byzantine revolts in areas of theCaucasus under Persian hegemony, although other events also contributed to its outbreak. The fighting was largely confined to the southern Caucasus andMesopotamia, although it also extended into easternAnatolia,Syria, and northernIran. It was part of an intense sequence of wars between these two empires which occupied the majority of the 6th and early 7th centuries. It was also the last of the many wars between them to follow a pattern in which fighting was largely confined to frontier provinces and neither side achieved any lasting occupation of enemy territory beyond this border zone. It precededa much more wide-ranging and dramatic final conflict in the early 7th century.
Less than a decade after theFifty-Year Peace Treaty of 562, tensions mounted at all points of intersection between the two empires' spheres of influence, as had happened before when war broke out in the 520s. In 568–569, the Byzantines were engaged in ultimately abortive negotiations (cf. the embassy ofZemarchus) with theGokturks for an alliance against Persia; in 570, the Sassanidsinvaded Yemen, expelling the Byzantines'Aksumite allies and restoring theHimyarite Kingdom as a client state; in 570 and 571, the Sassanids'Arab clients, theLakhmids, launched raids on Byzantine territory, although on both occasions they were defeated by theGhassanids, clients of the Byzantines; and in 570, the Byzantines made a secret agreement to support anArmenian rebellion against the Sassanids, which began in 571, accompanied by another revolt inKingdom of Iberia.[1]
Early in 572, the Armenians under Vardan II Mamikonian defeated the Persian governor of Armenia and captured his headquarters atDvin; the Persians soon retook the city but shortly afterwards it was captured again by combined Armenian and Byzantine forces and direct hostilities between Byzantines and Persians began.[2] Despite frequent revolts in the 5th century, during the earlier wars of the 6th century the Armenians had largely remained loyal to their Sassanid overlords, unlike their neighbours and fellow Christians in Iberia andLazica (Colchis). By joining the Iberians, Lazi, and Byzantines in a coalition of the region's Christian peoples, the Armenians dramatically shifted the balance of power in the Caucasus, helping Byzantine forces to carry the war deeper into Persian territory than had previously been possible on this front: throughout the war, Byzantine forces were able to invade as far asAlbania (modernAzerbaijan) and even wintered there.[3]
In Mesopotamia, however, the war began disastrously for the Byzantines. After a victory at Sargathon in 573, theylaid siege toNisibis and were apparently on the point of capturing this, the chief bulwark of the Persian frontier defences, when the abrupt dismissal of their generalMarcian led to a disorderly retreat.[4] Taking advantage of Byzantine confusion, Sassanid forces underKhosrow I (r. 531–579) swiftly counter-attacked and encircledDara, capturing the city after afour-month siege. At the same time, a smaller Persian army underAdarmahan ravaged Syria,sacking Apamea and a number of other cities.[5] They were only pushed away from Syria proper by a bumbling Byzantine defence near Antioch.[6] To make matters worse, in 572 theByzantine emperorJustin II (r. 565-578) had ordered the assassination of the Ghassanid kingal-Mundhir III; as a result of the unsuccessful attempt on his life, al-Mundhir severed his alliance with the Byzantines, leaving their desert frontier exposed.[7]
The fall of Dara, the main Byzantine stronghold in Mesopotamia, reportedly drove Justin II to insanity, and control of the Byzantine Empire passed to his wifeSophia andTiberius Constantine. The new regents agreed to pay 45,000nomismata for a one-year truce, and later in the year extended this to five years, secured by an annual payment of 30,000nomismata. However, these truces applied only to the Mesopotamian front; in the Caucasus, the war continued.[8]
In 575, the Byzantines managed to settle their differences with the Ghassanids; this renewal of their alliance at once bore dramatic fruit as the Ghassanids sacked the Lakhmid capital atHira.[9][10] In the same year, Byzantine forces took advantage of the favourable situation in the Caucasus to campaign inCaucasian Albania and secure hostages from the native tribes.[9] In 576,Khosrow I set out on what was to be his last campaign and one of his most ambitious, staging a long-range strike through the Caucasus intoAnatolia, where Persian armies had not been since the time ofShapur I (r. 240–270). His attempts to attackTheodosiopolis andCaesarea were thwarted, but he managed to sackSebasteia before withdrawing. On the way home, he was intercepted and severelydefeated near Melitene byJustinian, themagister militum of the East; pillaging the undefended city of Melitene as they fled, his army suffered further heavy losses as they crossed the Euphrates under Byzantine attack. Khosrow was reportedly so shaken by this fiasco and his own narrow escape that he established a law forbidding any of his successors from leading an army in person, unless to face another monarch also campaigning in person.[11] The Byzantines exploited Persian disarray by raiding deep into Caucasian Albania andAzerbaijan, launching raids across theCaspian Sea against northernIran, wintering in Persian territory and continuing their attacks into the summer of 577. Khosrow now sued for peace, but a victory in Armenia by his generalTamkhosrow over his recent nemesis Justinian stiffened his resolve and the war continued.[12]
In 578, the truce in Mesopotamia came to an end and the main focus of the war shifted to that front. After Persian raids in Mesopotamia, the newmagister militum of the East,Maurice, mounted raids on both sides of the Tigris, captured the fortress ofAphumon and sackedSingara. Khosrow again sought peace in 579, but died before an agreement could be reached and his successorHormizd IV (r. 579–590) broke off the negotiations.[13] In 580, the Ghassanids scored yet another victory over the Lakhmids, while Byzantine raids again penetrated east of the Tigris. However, around this time the futureKhosrow II was put in charge of the situation in Armenia, where he succeeded in convincing most of the rebel leaders to return to Sassanid allegiance, although Iberia remained loyal to the Byzantines.[14] The following year, an ambitious campaign along the Euphrates by Byzantine forces under Maurice and Ghassanid forces under al-Mundhir III failed to make progress, while the Persians under Adarmahan mounted a devastating campaign in Mesopotamia. Maurice and al-Mundhir blamed each other for these difficulties, and their mutual recriminations led to al-Mundhir's arrest in the following year on suspicion of treachery, triggering war between Byzantines and Ghassanids and marking the beginning of the end of the Ghassanid kingdom.[15]
In 582, after a victory atConstantia over Adarmahan andTamkhosrau in which the latter was killed, Maurice was acclaimed emperor following the death ofTiberius II Constantine (r. 574–582). The advantage gained at Constantina was lost later in the year when his successor asmagister militum of the East,John Mystacon, was defeated on the river Nymphios byKardarigan.[16] During the mid-580s, the war continued inconclusively through raids and counter-raids, punctuated by abortive peace talks; the one significant clash was a Byzantine victory at theBattle of Solachon in 586.[17]
The arrest by the Byzantines of al-Mundhir's successoral-Nu'man in 584 led to the fragmentation of the Ghassanid kingdom, which reverted to a loose tribal coalition and never regained its former power.[18] In 588, a mutiny by unpaid Byzantine troops against their new commander,Priscus, seemed to offer the Sassanids a chance for a breakthrough, but the mutineers themselves repulsed the ensuing Persian offensive; after a subsequent defeat at Tsalkajur, the Byzantineswon another victory atMartyropolis. During this year, a group of prisoners taken at the fall of Dara 15 years earlier reportedly escaped from their prison inKhuzestan and fought their way back to Byzantine territory.[19]
 | This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(March 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
In 589, the course of the war was abruptly transformed. In spring, the Byzantine pay dispute was settled, bringing an end to the mutiny, butMartyropolis fell to the Persians through the treachery of an officer named Sittas and Byzantine attempts to retake it failed, although the Byzantines won a battle atSisauranon later. Meanwhile, in the Caucasus, Byzantine and Iberian offensives were repulsed by the Persian generalBahram Chobin, who had recently been transferred from the Central Asian front where he had brought a war with theGöktürks to a successful conclusion. However, after he was defeated by the Byzantines underRomanus on the riverAraxes, Bahram was contemptuously dismissed by Hormizd IV. The general, enraged at this humiliation, raised a revolt which soon gained the support of much of the Sassanid army. Alarmed by his advance, in 590 members of the Persian court overthrew and killed Hormizd, raising his son to the throne asKhosrow II (r. 590–628). Bahram pressed on with his revolt regardless and the defeated Khosrow was soon forced to flee for safety to Byzantine territory, while Bahram took the throne as Bahram VI, marking the first interruption of the Sassanid dynasty's rule since their empire's foundation. With support from Maurice, Khosrow set out to regain the throne, winning the support of the main Persian army at Nisibis and returning Martyropolis to his Byzantine allies. Early in 591, an army sent by Bahram was defeated by Khosrow's supporters near Nisibis, andCtesiphon was subsequently taken for Khosrow by Mahbodh. Having restored Dara to Byzantine control, Khosrow and themagister militum of the EastNarses led a combined army of Byzantine and Persian troops from Mesopotamia into Azerbaijan to confront Bahram, while a second Byzantine army under themagister militum of Armenia John Mystacon staged a pincer movement from the north. At theBattle of Blarathon nearGanzak they decisively defeated Bahram, restoring Khosrow II to power and bringing the war to an end.
| This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(March 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Having played a vital role in restoring Khosrow II to the throne, the Byzantines were left in a dominant position in their relations with Persia. Khosrow not only returned Dara andMartyropolis in exchange for Maurice's assistance, but also agreed to a new partition of the Caucasus by which the Sassanids handed over to the Byzantines many cities, includingTigranokert,Manzikert,Baguana,Valarsakert,Bagaran,Vardkesavan,Yerevan,Ani,Kars, andZarisat. The western part of theKingdom of Iberia, including the cities ofArdahan,Lori,Dmanisi,Lomsia,Mtskheta, andTontio became Byzantine dependencies. Also, the city ofCytaea was given toLazica, also a Byzantine dependency. Thus the extent of effective Byzantine control in the Caucasus reached its zenith historically. Also, unlike previous truces and peace treaties, which had usually involved the Byzantines making monetary payments either for peace, for the return of occupied territories, or as a contribution towards the defence of the Caucasus passes, no such payments were included on this occasion, marking a major shift in the balance of power. Emperor Maurice was even in a position to overcome his predecessor's omissions in theBalkans by extensivecampaigns. However, this situation was soon dramatically overturned, as the alliance between Maurice and Khosrow helped trigger a new war only eleven years later, with catastrophic results for both empires.