Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/731

Rh SASSANIDAE. the accession of Bahram. In the province of Arzarene the Persian army under Narses was completely routed, and the courier (Palladius) brought the joyful tidings in three (?) days from the Tigris to the Bosporus. The Greeks, however, failed in the siege of Nisibis, and the Persians in their turn were driven back from the walls of Amida, whose bishop, Acacius, set a generous example to the patriotism of its inhabitants. The chief source for the history of this war is an eccle- siastical writer, Socrates, whence we naturally find it mixed up with a great number of wonders and marvellous tales, so that we at once proceed to its termination, by the famous peace of one hundred years, which lasted till the twelfth year of the reign of the emperor Anastasius. This peace was negotiated by Maximinus and Proco- pms on the part of the Greeks, and Bahram bound himself to molest the Christians no further, but his promise was not strictly kept by his successors. During his reign Armenia was divided between ttie Romans and the Persians, whose portion received the name of Persarmenia. The latter years of the reign of this king were occupied by great wars against the Huns, Turks, and Indians, in which Bahram is said to have achieved those valorous deeds for which he has ever since con- tinued to be a favourite hero in Persian poetry. The Eastern writers relate several stories of him, some of which are contained in Malcolm's work quoted below, to whom we refer the student, for they are well worth reading. Bahram was acci- dentally drowned in a deep well together with his horse, and neither man nor beast ever rose again from the fathomless pit. This is historical, and the well was visited by Sir John Malcolm, and proved fatal to a soldier of his retinue. 15. Yezdijird II., the son of the preceding, reigned from a. d. 448 till 458. He was surnamed " SiPAHDOST," or ■•' The Soldier's Friend." The persecutions against the Christians were renewed by him with unheard of cruelty, especially in Persarmenia, where 700 Magi discharged the duties of missionaries with sword in hand. The Armenians nevertheless resisted bravely, and Christianity, though persecuted, was never rooted out. His relations with Rome were peaceful. 16. HoRMUZ, or HoRMiSDAS III., and 17. Fi- ROES, or Peroses (riepolTjs, Ilepoo-Tjy, or Uepoa-lTTis), sons of the preceding, claimed the succession, and rose in arms against each other. Peroses gained the throne by the assistance of the White Huns, against whom he turned his sword in after years. He pe- rished in a great battle with them in 484, or as late as 488, together with all of his sons except Kobad, or, perhaps, only some of them. Peroses was accompanied on this expedition by an ambassador of the emperor Zeno. (Procop. Be/l. Fers. i. 3 — 6.) 18. Palash or Pallas (ndWas), who reigned from A. D. 484 till 488, was, according to the Eastern writers, a son of Peroses, and had to con- test the throne with Cobades, who was a son of Peroses, according to both Eastern and Western sources. Terrible internal revolutions took place during his short reign. The Christians were* no longer persecuted because they were not fire- wor- shippers. However, the Nestorians only were pro- tected, and the other Christians were compelled to become Nestorians if they would live in peace. Pallas perished in a battle with his brother Cobades in 488. SASSANIDAE. 719 19. Kobad, or Cobades (KogaSTjs), reigned from A. D. 488 to 498, and again from 501 or 502 till 531. The years from 498 till 502 were filled up by the short reign of, 20. Jamaspesot Zames. According to the Eastern authorities, he was the brother of Cobades, whom he dethroned, and com- pelled to fly to the Huns, with whose assist- ance Cobades recovered his throne about 502. Cobades divided his kingdom in four great divi- sions : an eastern, a western, a northern, and a southern, and made many wise regulations. Under him rose the religio-political sect of the Mazda- kites, so named from Mazdar, their founder, and whom we may compare to the modern Communists, or Socialists. Their principles were deraocratical, and their rise may be considered as a re-action against the overwhelming influence of the aris- tocracy. Cobades was for some time an adherent of Mazdak, but he afterwards turned against him, in order to gain the aristocratical party. The Mazdakites accordingly rose in arms, and offered the diadem to Phtasarus, a son of Cobades, but the king seized their leaders by a stratagem, and great numbers of the sectarians were massacred, Procopius {Bell. Fers. i. 11) says, that Cobades entreated the emperor Justin to adopt his son Khosrew or Chosroes, afterwards Nushirwan, in order thus to secure the succession to him through the assistance of the Romans. But this smacks very much of the tale of Arcadius having ap- pointed king Yesdigerd the guardian of his son Theodobius. The same author relates that Coba- des had four sons, Cuases, Zames, Chosroes, and Phtasurus, whence it would seem as if the above Jamaspes or Zames had rebelled against his father, and not against his brother. But as Cobades reigned forty-three years, it seems incredible that he should have had an adult son at the beginning of his reign, and this is an additional reason to put greater confidence in the Eastern writers in matters of genealogy. We now proceed to the great war between Cobades and the emperor Anastasius. It appears that according to the terms of the peace of one hundred years concluded between Theodosius the Younger and Bahram V., the Romans were obliged to pay annually a certain sum of money to the Persian king, and Cobades having sent in his request for the purpose, was answered by Anastasius, that he would lend him money, but would not pay any. Cobades declared war, and his arms were victorious. The Roman generals Hypacius and Patricius Phrygius were defeated, the fortified towns in Mesopotamia were conquered by the Persians, and even the great fortress of Amida was carried by storm, its inhabitants becoming the victims to the fury of the besiegers. Arabic and Hunnic hordes served under the Persian banner. The Huns, however, turned against Cobades, and made so powerful a diversion in the North, that he listened to the proposals of Anastasius, to whom he granted peace in 505, on receiving 11,000 pounds of gold as an indemnity, lie also restored Mesopotamia and his other con- quests to the Romans, being unable to maintain his authority there on account of the protracted war with the Pluns. About this time the Romans constructed the fortress of Dara, the strongest bul- wark against Persia, and situated in the very face of Ctesiphon, on the spot where the traveller descends from the mountainous portion of Mesopo- tamia into the plains of the South. Cobade«. in