David Hume - The Dark Ages

It is possible that at the same time the commercial relations between the two realms were under discussion. It was the policy of both powers alike to restrict the interchange of merchandise to a few places close to the frontier. Persian merchants never came to Constantinople, Roman merchants never went to Ctesiphon. The governments feared espionage under the guise of trade, and everything was done to discourage free intercourse between the two states. Before the treaty of Jovian, Nisibis was the only Roman town in which Persian merchants were allowed to trade. 8After the loss of Nisibis, Callinicum seems to have become the Roman market for Persian merchandise, but we hear nothing of the new arrangements until the year 408-409, when an Imperial edict was issued for the direction of the governors of the frontier provinces. 9From it we learn that the two governments had agreed that the Persian towns of Nisibis and Artaxata and the Imperial town of Callinicum should be the only places to which Persian and Roman traders might bring their wares and resort to transact business. Taken in connection with the fact that the two governments had been engaged in negotiations, this promulgation of the edict at this time suggests that if a new compact regarding commercial relations was not concluded, an old agreement, which may have been laxly executed, was confirmed. 10

At the very end of Yezdegerd’s reign the friendly understanding was clouded. All might have gone well if the Christian clergy had been content to be tolerated and to enjoy their religious liberty. But they engaged in an active campaign of proselytism and were so successful in converting Persians to Christianity that the king became seriously alarmed. 11It was perfectly natural that he should not have been disposed to allow the Zoroastrian religion to be endangered by the propagation of a hostile creed. It is quite certain that if there had been fanatical Zoroastrians 12in the Roman Empire and they had undertaken to convert Christians, the Christian government would have stopped at nothing to avert the danger. Given the ideas which then prevailed on the importance of State religions, we cannot be surprised that Yezdegerd should have permitted acts of persecution. Some of the Christians fled to Roman territory. The Imperial government refused to surrender them (A.D. 420) and prepared for the event of war. 13Yezdegerd died at this juncture, and was succeeded by his son Varahran V, who was completely under the influence of the Zoroastrian priests, and began a general persecution. 14Some outages were committed on Roman merchants. The war which resulted lasted for little more than a year, and the Roman armies were successful. 15Then a treaty was negotiated by which peace was made for a hundred years (A.D. 422). Varharan undertook to stay the persecution; and it was agreed that neither party should receive the Saracen subjects of the other. 16

The attention of Varahran was soon occupied by the appearance of new enemies beyond the Oxus, who for more than a hundred years were constantly to distract Persian arms from the Roman frontier. 17The lands between the Oxus and Jaxartes had for some centuries been in the hands of the Kushans. The Kushans were now conquered ( c. A.D. 425) by another Tartar people, who were known to the Chinese as the Ye-tha, to Armenian and Arabic writers as the Haithal, and to the Greeks as the Ephthalites. 18The Greek historians sometimes classify them as Huns, but add the qualification “white,” which refers to their fair complexion and distinguishes them from the true Huns (Hiung-nu), who were dark and ugly. 19The Ephthalites belonged in fact not to the Hiung-nu, but to a different Turanian race, which was known to the Chinese as the Hoa. Their appearance on the Oxus marked a new epoch in the perennial warfare between Iran and Turan. They soon built up a considerable empire extending from the Caspian to the Indus, including Chorasmia, Sogdiana, and part of north-western India. 20Their chief town was Balkh, and Gurgan 21(on the river of the same name which flows into the Caspian) was their principal frontier fortress against Persia. The first hostilities against the Ephthalites broke out in A.D. 427 and resulted in a complete victory for Varahran. 22

The reign of Theodosius II witnessed a second but less serious disturbance of the peace, soon after the accession of Yezdegerd II (A.D. 438). The cause is uncertain. It has been conjectured, without sufficient evidence, that the Persian king was in league with Attila and Gaiseric for the destruction of the Empire. 23It is possible that Persian suspicions had been provoked by the erection of a fortress at Erzerum in Roman Armenia, on the Persarmenian frontier, which was named Theodosiopolis. 24This stronghold was to have a long history, reaching down to the present day, as one of the principal eastern defences of Asia Minor. Whatever motives may have instigated him to violate the peace, Yezdegerd raided Roman Armenia (A.D. 440). 25Menaced, however, in his rear by an invasion of the Ephthalites he was easily bought off by Anatolius, the Master of Soldiers in the East, and Aspar. A new peace was then concluded (A.D. 442), probably confirming the treaty of A.D. 422, with the additional stipulations that neither party should build a fortress within a certain distance of the frontier, and that the Romans should (as had been agreed by the treaty of A.D. 363) contribute a fixed sum to keep in repair the defences of the Caspian Gates against the barbarians beyond the Caucasus. “Caspian Gates” is a misleading name; for it was used to designate not, as one would expect, passes at the eastern extremity of the range, but passes in the centre, especially that of Dariel, north of Iberia. These danger-points were guarded by the Romans so long as they were overlords of Iberia, but now they abandoned Iberia to Persian influence and were therefore no longer in a position to keep garrisons in the mountain passes. 26

The greater part of Yezdegerd’s reign was troubled by war with the Ephthalites. He made energetic efforts to convert Persian Armenia to the religion of Zoroaster, but the Armenians were tenacious of their Christianity and offered steady resistance to his armies. Since A.D. 428, when the last Arsacid king, Ardashir, had been deposed by the Persian monarch at the request of the Armenians themselves, the country had been ruled by Persian governors ( marzbans ). 27In A.D. 450 the Armenians sent a message to Constantinople imploring the Emperor to rescue them and their faith. Marcian, who had just come to the throne and was threatened by Attila, was not in a position to go to war with Persia for the sake of the Persarmenian Christians. He determined to be neutral, and Yezdegerd was informed that he need fear no hostilities from the Empire. 28The war between the Armenians and their overlord continued after the death of Yezdegerd (A.D. 453) during the reign of Firuz (Perozes), under the leadership of Vahan the Mamigonian.

Firuz perished in a war with the Ephthalites, whose king had devised a cunning stratagem of covered ditches which were fatal to the Persian cavalry (A.D. 484). 29Valakhesh (Balas), perhaps his brother, followed him, and enjoyed a shorter but more peaceable reign. He made a treaty with the enemy, consenting to pay them a tribute for two years. He pacified Armenia by granting unreserved toleration; Vahan was appointed its governor; and Christianity was reinstated. Valakhesh died in A.D. 488.

During this period — the reigns of Marcian, Leo, and Zeno — there had been no hostilities between the two empires, but there had been diplomatic incidents. About A.D. 464 Perozes had demanded money from Leo for the defence of the Caucasian passes, had complained of the reception of Persian refugees, and of the persecution of the Zoroastrian communities which still existed on Roman territory. 30Leo sent an ambassador who was received by the king, perhaps on the frontier of the Ephthalites, and the matters seem to have been amicably arranged. 31Ten years later an incident occurred which illustrates the danger of the extension of Persian influence to the Red Sea, although the Persian Government was in this case in no way responsible. 32A Persian adventurer, Amorkesos, who “whether because he was not successful in Persia or for some other reason preferred Roman territory,” settled in the province of Arabia. There he lived as a brigand, making raids, not on the Romans but on the Saracens. His power grew and he seized Jotaba, one of the small islands in the mouth of the gulf of Akaba, the eastern inlet formed by the promontory of Sinai. Jotaba belonged to the Romans and was a commercial station of some importance. Driving out the Greek custom-house officers, Amorkesos took possession of it and soon amassed a fortune by collecting the dues. He made himself ruler of some other places in the neighbourhood, and conceived the desire of becoming a phylarch or satrap of the Saracens of Arabia Petraea, who were nominally dependent on the Roman Emperor. He sent an ecclesiastic to Leo to negotiate the matter, and Leo graciously signified his wish to have a personal interview with Amorkesos. When the Persian arrived, he shared the Imperial table, was admitted to assemblies of the Senate, and even honoured with precedence over the patricians. The Byzantines, it appears, were scandalised that these privileges should be accorded to a fire-worshipper, and Leo seems to have been obliged to pretend that his guest intended to become a Christian. On his departure Leo gave him a valuable picture, and compelled the members of the Senate to present him with gifts; and, what was more important, he transferred to him the possession of Jotaba, and added more villages to those which he already governed, granting him also the coveted title of phylarch. 33Jotaba, however, was not permanently lost. The Imperial authority there was re-established in the reign of Anastasius. 34