BYZANTINE-SASSANID WARS

The 'Byzantine-Sassanid Wars' refers to a series of conflicts between the Byzantine Empire (also known as the Eastern Roman Empire) and the Sassanid dynasty of the Persian Empire. Though widely seen as a continuous Roman-Persian War, the conflict involved several smaller campaigns and peace treaties lasting for years at a time.

Contents

Strategy and tactics

Rise of the Sassanid dynasty

The early wars(243 – 363)

Anastasian War

Iberian War

The ascendancy of Khosrau I

Lazic War

The climax

Aftermath

References

Strategy and tactics

'Roman Strategy'
The Roman empire had reached its greatest extent under the emperor Trajan. However, before Trajan, the emperor Augustus set about stabilizing the frontiers of the Empire. As a result, the Romans were more interested in simply defending their territory and consolidating the empire rather than attempt to conquer Persia.
'Roman Tactics'
The Romans employed the best infantry at the time; heavily armed and armoured soldiers plus numerous auxiliaries. By the 4th century A.D., armor was less often used and by the 5th century Germanic mercenaries were employed. The Roman continued to use heavy infantry of the legionary type but these were inneffective against the mobile Persian horse archers. From the 3rd century heavy cataphract cavalry wearing full horse and rider armour became an increasingly important component of Roman armies.
'Sassanid Strategy'
The Sassanid dynasty had a more or less secure northern and eastern border due to the mountainous terrain of southern Russia and Afghanistan. The Western border was loosely determined by Sassanid control of Mesopotamia. Due to the flat nature of the land, it was easy to overrun and difficult to defend. With these natural boundaries, the Sassanid Persians had only Westward to expand. The Sassanids were becoming as efficient in siege warfare as the Romans, capturing and sacking a number of cities as part of a larger goal of exacting tribute and land from the Byzantines. However, the nature of the warfare was one of attrition with hevay casualties on both sides. As a result, little land was exchanged between the two powers - rather vassal states and tribute would have been demanded.
'Sassanid Tactics'
The Sassanid Persians employed cavalry archers and Heavy Cataphracts to counter the heavy Roman infantry. In battle, these archers proved their worth until the Byzantines began to adopt similar methods of warfare.

Rise of the Sassanid dynasty

Following Trajan's successful conquest of Mesopotamia in the 2nd Century C.E., the Parthian dynasty began to decline. Ctesiphon was overrun by the Romans but the lack of any permanent establishment meant that the Sassanid Dynasty filled the power vacuum in the region and started a new Persian empire in 224 C.E. The Sassanids were a more aggressive enemy than their Parthian predecesors and consequently, the Romans found themselves fighting a more dangerous Eastern opponent at a time when the Roman empire was weakening due to the civil chaos arising from the death of the Roman emperor Commodus.

The early wars(243 – 363)

When the Parthian Empire ended, there was no reduction in the conflict since the Sassanids were even more aggressive and stronger than their predecessors due to their more centralized state.
Shapur I, "King of Kings" of Persia, launched numerous offensives into Roman territory. He invaded Mesopotamia but his forces were expelled from Roman territory after their defeat in the Battle of Resaena (243). Encouraged by the success, the Emperor Gordian III launched an invasion into Persia but was defeated near its capital in the Battle of Misiche in (244). Responding to Roman incursions into Armenia, Shapur I resumed hostilities and defeated the Romans at the Battle of Barbalissos in 253 allowing him to take and plunder Antiochia. In 259 he then captured the Emperor Valerian I after crushing his army in the Battle of Edessa, but his subsequent advance into Anatolia ended in defeat and the loss of all his territorial gains. In 283 the Emperor Carus launched a successful invasion of Persia, sacking its capital, Ctesiphon. In 296 the Persian Shah Narseh defeated the Emperor Galerius in Mesopotamia, but in 298 Galerius defeated Narseh in Armenia, capturing his harem and forcing the Persians to cede five provinces east of the Tigris. From 336 the Persians under Shapur II mounted a series of offensives against the Romans under Constantius II, with little lasting effect. After a period of truce in the 350s while Shapur repulsed nomad attacks on his Central Asian frontier, he launched a new campaign in 359 which was more successful and provoked a major offensive by the Roman Emperor Julian. Despite victory in the Battle of Ctesiphon (363), Julian was unable to take the Persian capital and he was killed the same year in the Battle of Samarra during a difficult retreat along the Tigris. His successor Jovian was forced to hand over Nisibis, Singara and the territories taken in 298 in exchange for safe passage for his army back to Roman territory. With both empires preoccupied by barbarian threats from the north, a largely peaceful period followed, interrupted only by two brief wars in 421-2 and 440.

Anastasian War

When Anastasius I refused Kavadh I's demand for money to pay his debts to the Hepthalites who had helped him regain his throne, Kavadh used this as a pretext for war. In 502 he quickly captured the unprepared city of Theodosiopolis; he then besieged the fortress-city of Amida through the autumn and winter. Theodosiopolis was recaptured by the Byzantines. In early 503, Amida finally fell and the year saw much warfare without decisive results. The Byzantines attempted an ultimately unsuccessful siege of the Persian-held Amida while Kavadh laid siege to Edessa with the same results. Finally in 504, the Byzantines gained the upper hand with the renewed investment of Amida leading to the hand-over of the city. However, this surrender was far from decisive and the Persians were far from beaten. But no more fighting occurred during the next two years since an invasion of Armenia by the Huns from the Caucasus caused an armistice. In late 506, a truce was finally agreed upon on terms such as the Byzantines paying subsidies to the Persians for the maintenance of the fortifications in the Caucasus. The Roman generals blamed many of their difficulties in this war on their lack of a major base in the immediate vicinity of the frontier, a role filled for the Persians by Nisibis, and in 505 Anastasius therefore ordered the building of a great fortified city at Dara. This was to become a key component of the Byzantine defences, and also a lasting source of controversy with the Persians, who complained that its construction violated earlier "arms limitation" pacts by which both empires had agreed not to establish new fortifications in the frontier zone.

Iberian War

Main articles: Iberian War

The war was fought from 526 to 532 between the Byzantine Empire and Persian Empire over the country of Iberia. After the Anastasian War, a seven-year truce was agreed on, yet it lasted for nearly twenty years. Kavadh I tried to force the Christian Iberians to become Zoroastrians even though they were already under Persian rule. In 521/2 the neighbouring Christian kingdom of Lazica had succeeded in transferring its allegiance from Persia to Byzantium, and in 524/5 the Iberians under the leadership of Gourgen tried to do likewise, rising in revolt against the Sassanids. Violence escalated at various points where the power of the two empires met: in 525 a Byzantine fleet transported an Aksumite army to conquer Himyarite Yemen and in 525/6 Persia's Arab allies the Lakhmids raided Byzantine territories on the edge of the desert. By 526, overt fighting between the two empires had broken out in the Transcaucasus region and upper Mesopotamia. Following the emperor Justin I’s death in 527, Justinian I ascended to the imperial throne. Kavadh tried to make peace with the new emperor by attempting to have Justinian adopt his son Khosrau I, but without success. The early years of war favoured the Persians: by 527 the Iberian revolt had been crushed, a Byzantine offensive against Nisibis and Thebetha in that year was unsuccessful and forces attempting to fortify Thunnuris and Melabasa were prevented from doing so by Persian attacks. In 528 the Persians pressed on from Iberia to capture forts in eastern Lazica. Attempting to remedy the deficiencies revealed by these Persian successes, Justinian reorganised the eastern armies by dividing the command of the Magister Militum of the East in two and appointing a Magister Militum of Armenia over the northern portion. Damaging raids on Syria by the Lakhmids in 529 also encouraged Justinian to strengthen his own Arab allies, helping the Ghassanid leader Al-Harith ibn Jabalah turn a loose coalition into a coherent kingdom which was able to gain the upper hand against the Lakhmids over the following decades. In 530 Belisarius led the Byzantines to victory over a much larger Persian force under Mihran through his superior generalship in the battle of Daraa, while Sittas and Dorotheus defeated a Persian army under Mihr-Mihroe at Satala and the Byzantines captured some forts in Armenia. In 531 Belisarius was defeated by Persian and Lakhmid forces at the Battle of Callinicum, causing his dismissal, but the Byzantines made further gains in Armenia. Kavadh died shortly afterwards and the Eternal Peace agreement, which lasted 10 years, was signed in September 532, with both sides agreeing to return all occupied territories and the Byzantines to make a one-off payment of 11,000lbs of gold. Iberia remained in Persian hands.

The ascendancy of Khosrau I

As the Byzantine general Belisarius was winning his campaigns in the west, in 540, the Persians broke The Treaty Of Eternal Peace and Khosrau II invaded Syria, destroying the great city of Antioch and deporting its population to Persia; as he withdrew, he extorted large sums of money from the cities of Syria and Mesopotamia. Belisarius was quickly recalled by Justinian I to the East to deal with the Persian conquest, while the Goths in Italy, who were in touch with the Persian King, launched a counter-attack. Belisarius took the field and waged a brief, inconclusive campaign against Nisibis in 541. In the same year Lazica switched its allegiance to Persia and Khosrau led an army to secure the kingdom, capturing the Byzantine base at Petra on the Black Sea and installing a Persian garrison. In 542 Khosrau launched another offensive in Mesopotamia, but soon withdrew in the face of an army under Belisarius, en route sacking the city of Callinicum. Attacks on a number of Roman cities were repulsed and the Persian general Mihr-Mihroe was defeated and captured at Dara by John Troglita. Byzantine commanders then launched an offensive against Dvin in Armenia, but were defeated by a small Persian force at Anglon. In 543 Khosrau besieged Edessa without success and was eventually bought off by the defenders. A five-year truce was agreed in 545, secured by Byzantine payments to the Persians.

Lazic War

Main articles: Lazic War

The Lazic War lasted from 547 to 562, with the fighting lasting until 557 due to a five-year truce. Having escaped Persian persecution by defecting to the Byzantines in 521/2, after twenty years the Lazi had become discontented with their new overlords, and in the wake of Khosrau I's spectacular campaign of 540, in 541 Gubazes II of Lazica switched his allegiance to Khosrau, who captured and garrisoned the Byzantine base at Petra on the Black Sea. Over the following years Gubazes came to regret his decision and in 547 Lazica changed sides yet again, reigniting the war. In 548 and 549 combined Byzantine and Lazic forces under Gubazes and the Magister Militum of Armenia Dagistheus won a series of victories against Persian armies under Mihr-Mihroe and Khorianes, but failed in repeated attempts to take Petra. The city finally fell to the Roman general Bessas in 551, but in the same year a Persian army under Mihr-Mihroe occupied eastern Lazica and secured the defection of Scymnia and Svaneti, subject territories of Lazica. That year the truce which had been established in 545 was renewed outside Lazica for a further five years, with the Romans paying 2,000lbs of gold each year. Within the kingdom a limited war continued but the fighting was generally inconclusive, with both sides winning victories but little territory changing hands. The Byzantines and Lazi blocked attempts by other subject peoples of Lazica, the Abkhaz, Apsili and Misimians, to transfer their allegiance to the Persians. Meanwhile, despite the truce, in 554 the Lakhmids launched new raids in Syria, but were decisively defeated by the Ghassanids under Al-Harith ibn Jabalah near Chalkis and the Lakhmid king Al-Mundhir IV was killed. In 557 a general truce brought an end to hostilities and a peace treaty was finally concluded in 562. The Persians withdrew from eastern Lazica, leaving the kingdom under Roman control, and agreed to prevent attacks on Roman territory by nomads crossing the Caucasus, the Byzantines were to pay the Persians 30,000 ''nomismata'' annually, and both sides agreed not to build new fortifications near the frontier and to ease restrictions on diplomacy and trade between the two empires. A beneficial military outcome for the Byzantines was preventing the Persian Empire from gaining access to the Black Sea.

The climax

In 602 Maurice was murdered by the usurper Phocas. Khosrau II seized the excuse to attack the Byzantine Empire. The war initially went the Persians' way, partly because of Phocas' brutal repression and the succession crisis that ensued as the general Heraclius sent his nephew Nicetas to attack Egypt, enabling his son Heraclius the younger to claim the throne in 610. By this time the Persians had conquered Mesopotamia and the Caucasus, and in 611 they overran Syria and entered Anatolia. A major counter-attack led by Heraclius in 613 was decisively defeated outside Antioch by Shahrbaraz and Shahin and the Roman position collapsed. Over the following decade the Persians were able to conquer Palestine and Egypt and to devastate Anatolia, while the Avars and Slavs took advantage of the situation to overrun the Balkans, bringing the Roman Empire to the brink of destruction. During these years, Heraclius strove to rebuild his army, slashing non-military expenditure, devaluing the currency and melting down Church plate to raise the necessary funds to continue the war. having revived his forces by such means, in 622 he launched a new counter-offensive and won a first victory over the Persians under Shahrbaraz. In 624 and 625, Heraclius campaigned in the Caucasus, winning a series of victories in Azerbaijan and Armenia against Khosrau and his generals Shahrbaraz, Shahin and Shahraplakan. In 626 the Avars and Slavs besieged Constantinople, supported by a Persian army commanded by Shahrbaraz, but the siege ended in failure, while a second Persian army under Shahin suffered another crushing defeat at the hands of Heraclius's brother Theodore. With the Persian war effort disintegrating, Heraclius was able to bring the Gokturks of the Western Turkic Khaganate into the war against the Sassanids in the Caucasus (seeThird Perso-Turkic War). Late in 627 he launched a winter offensive into Mesopotamia, where despite the desertion of the Turkish contingent which had accompanied him he defeated the Persians under Rhahzadh at the Battle of Nineveh. Continuing south along the Tigris he sacked Khosrau's great palace at Dastagird and was only prevented from attacking Ctesiphon by the destruction of the bridges on the Nahrawan Canal. Discredited by this series of disasters, Khosrau was overthrown and killed in a coup led by his son Kavadh II, who at once sued for peace, agreeing to withdraw from all occupied territories.

Aftermath

The devastating impact of this last war, added to the cumulative effects of a century of almost continuous conflict, left both empires crippled. When Kavadh II died only months after coming to the throne, Persia was plunged into several years of dynastic turmoil and civil war. The Sassanids were further weakened by economic decline, heavy taxation from Khosrau II's campaigns, religious unrest, rigid social stratification, and the increasing power of the provincial landholders. The Roman Empire was even more severely affected, with its financial reserves exhausted by the war, the Balkans now largely in the hands of the Slavs, Anatolia devastated by repeated Persian invasions and the empire's hold on Syria, Mesopotamia, Palestine and Egypt loosened by many years of Persian occupation. Neither empire was given any chance to recover, as within a few years they were struck by the onslaught of the Arabs, newly united by Islam. The Sassanid Empire rapidly succumbed to these attacks and was completely destroyed. During the Byzantine-Arab Wars, the exhausted Roman Empire's recently regained southern provinces were also lost during the Muslim conquest of Syria, Egypt and North Africa, reducing the empire to a territorial rump consisting of Anatolia and a scatter of islands and footholds in the Balkans and Italy. These remaining lands were thoroughly impoverished by frequent attacks, marking the transition from classical urban civilisation to a more rural, medieval form of society. However, unlike Persia the Roman Empire (in its medieval form usually termed the Byzantine Empire) ultimately survived the Arab assault, holding onto its residual territories and decisively repulsing two Arab sieges of its capital Constantinople in 674 and 718.

References

1. "An Encyclopedia of Battles: Accounts of Over 1,560 Battles from 1479 B.C. to the Present" (David Eggenberger)