The Sasanian campaign of Carus was a military campaign conducted by the Roman Emperor Carus against the Sasanian Empire in 283. Following Carus' accession in 282, he made his eldest son Carinus co-emperor. Leaving Carinus in charge of the western part of the empire, Carus and his younger son Numerian brought an army east into Mesopotamia, capturing Seleucia and Ctesiphon. Carus died suddenly in the summer of 283, probably of unnatural causes, leaving Numerian in command of the army; following this the Roman army withdrew from Mesopotamia, in unclear circumstances. In 284, after the death of Numerian, Diocletian was acclaimed emperor by the eastern army; he defeated Carinus and in 287 made peace with Persia.
In AD282, dissatisfaction within the Roman army culminated in his praetorian prefect Carus rebelling against the emperor Probus. Probus' attempt to counter him failed, as the troops he sent against him defected to Carus' side. Between September and December of 282, Probus was killed by his own soldiers, and Carus was declared emperor by the end of the year. While Carus did not go to Rome for senatorial ratification, his son, Carinus, went in his stead. From the accession of Carus onwards, the senate's role in imperial succession was permanently diminished.[2]
War with the Sasanians had become a Roman imperial priority during the latter part of Aurelian's reign, but his assassination in 275 ensured the campaign never came to fruition; plans from his immediate successors were similarly cut short.[3] Probus had been preparing for an invasion of Persia in 282 before he too fell victim to Carus' mutiny. But in 283, with Carus leading the army assembled by Probus, this long-awaited invasion was set in motion.[4]
The motivation for the war was primarily to avenge the defeats inflicted by Shapur I, restoring Rome's reputation and standing in the east[5] and providing legitimacy for the emperor.[6] Securing Roman territory was also a possible motivator. Although the Sasanians had likely been absent from the province of Mesopotamia following Odaenathus' offensive,[7] Persian incursions may have occurred prior to Carus' invasion.[8] Restoring Roman influence in the kingdom of Armenia may also have been a secondary aim of the campaign.[9] A likely contributing factor in Carus' decision to invade in 283 was the Sasanian empire's internal instability: Hormizd, brother of Persian king Bahram II, had led an insurrection in the eastern half of Persia, rendering the empire vulnerable in the west.[10]
In early 283, Carus and Numerian moved east towards Persia, leaving Carinus to take charge of the western provinces.[11] On their way east, Carus led a brief and successful campaign against the Sarmatians along the Danube.[12] They then proceeded to Antioch in spring of 283, a frequent base of operations for previous campaigns against the Parthians and Sasanians.[13] At this juncture, Carinus was likely elevated to the rank of Augusti,[14] possibly in connection to his victory on the Rhine against the Germans, for which both Carinus and Carus were awarded the title Germanicus Maximus.[15]
In late spring, with preparations for the invasion complete, Carus led the Roman forces from Antioch and thence across the Persian frontiers.[16]
While the exact route taken by Carus is uncertain, he likely led the Roman forces across the Euphrates, before following the river downstream and continuing along the Royal Canal to the Tigris.[17] This same route was taken by Gordian III in 243 and later by Julian in 363.[16] The army's southeasterly march towards Ctesiphon was swift,[18] and they encountered minimal resistance as they passed through southern Mesopotamia.[19]
The Romans faced more significant conflict along the Royal Canal shortly before reaching Seleucia, during the siege and capture of the city of Meinas Sabatha.[20] Meinas Sabatha is likely identifiable with the ruined city later referenced by Ammianus Marcellinus:[21] “... a deserted city destroyed in former days by the emperor Carus”.[22] It was midsummer when Carus, leading the Roman forces, reached Seleucia and the Sasanian capital, Ctesiphon, which lay directly across the Tigris.[23] Both cities were subsequently captured.[24]
In a report unique to Zonaras, the Persians attempted to repel the Romans by diverting a river into their encampment:[25] “But the army of the Romans had a close brush with danger. For they were encamped in a gully, and the Persians, when they observed this, by means of a trench diverted toward the gully the river flowing nearby. But Carus charged the Persians, met with success, and routed them.”[26] The diversion of rivers was an established defense measure employed in Mesopotamia,[27] and Zonaras’ report may have related to a battle in connection to the sieges of Ctesiphon and Coche.[28] While Carus captured Ctesiphon, Bahram II was likely engaged in suppressing a rebellion in the east and was unable to mount an effective defense of his capital.[29]
According to Zonaras (who reports John Malalas' version adding some details), Instead, Carus would have returned to Rome with a multitude of prisoners and the spoils of war, he would have celebrated sumptuously the triumph against the Persians and would have subsequently been killed during a military campaign against the Huns (Zonara also reports the version of death by electrocution).[30] Regardless of the groundlessness of Caro's alleged return to Rome, Some modern authors argue that it cannot be excluded that during the continuation of the Sassanid campaign Carus died in battle against the Huns (perhaps mercenaries in the pay of the Persians), according to them, a more plausible version than that of death by electrocution.[31] The latter may have been artfully created by Roman propaganda to hide the defeats of Carus and Numerian in the final phase of the campaign handed down by some late Byzantine and Armenian chroniclers.[32] However, it is necessary to take into account the substantial unreliability of Malalas and the fact that Zonaras was writing in the 12th century. Some sources claim that the emperor died of illness or because of alleged intrigues of the praetorian prefectArrius Aper.[33]
DIVO CARO PARTHICO, radiate head of Emperor Marcus Aurelius Carus and draped bust facing right.Bas-relief at Naqsh-e Rostam depicting a conflict between Shah Bahram II and the Romans, in which the latter appears to have had the worst of it.
However, the excessive slowness of the ride during the retreat (1,200 miles traveled in 16 months) It appears suspicious, and could indicate a possible continuation of the war against the Persians, which is also suggested by the poet Nemesianus' Cynegetica (which hints at the intention of writing in the future also about Numerian's Persian deeds, something which however never happened) and from the numismatic evidence (which, for propaganda purposes, would seem to suggest that Numerian had successes over Persia, which however, if there were any, must have been only partial, judging from the fact that the coins never attribute to him the cognomina ex virtute of Parthicus and Persicus).[34] Furthermore, one of the bas-reliefs of Naqsh-e Rostam would seem to depict a military victory of the Shah Bahram II achieved against the Romans, which however is completely silent in the "vulgate" version. According to some modern scholars, similarly to what had happened for the Battle of Misiche a few decades earlier, the version of the spontaneous withdrawal of the Romans would have been artfully handed down by Roman propaganda in order to hide the defeat of Numerian at the hands of the Sassanid ruler Bahram II divulgated by Byzantine and Armenian chronicles.[35]
According to Joannes Zonaras, Numerian continued the campaign against the Persians and was defeated.[30] Zonaras also reports that according to some of his sources Numerianus attempted to escape but was captured and killed by the enemy and his skin was used to make a wineskin; according to other sources, however, during the retreat he was killed by the prefect of the praetorium Arrius Aper.[30]
According to John Malalas, Emperor Numerian, defeated in battle by the Persians, was besieged by them at Carrhae, then taken prisoner and finally executed and his skin used to make a wineskin (Malalas himself). However, he reports an alleged and "invented" Sassanid campaign by Carinus to avenge the death of his brother in which the Persians, after being defeated several times, they would have asked for a three-month truce, granted by Carinus because of the harsh winter and the tiredness of his army; the emperor, after having wintered in the Cyrrhestica, he would have resumed the campaign during which he would have died of natural causes.[36]
The Chronicon Paschale, instead, in an attempt to reconcile the official Roman version (Carus and Numerian killed respectively by lightning and by Aper) with Malalas' story, he "invents" that it is Carinus who accompanies his father in the Persian campaign; Following the death of Carus by lightning, Carinus is defeated, captured and flayed by the Persians, but his death is avenged by his brother Numerian who defeats the Persians before being killed near Perinthus by Aper.[37]
The Armenian story of Movses Khorenatsi reports a similar version, with some variations and additions, to that of Malalas and the Chronicon Paschale: Carus defeats the Persians for the first time and returns to Rome in triumph, but the Shah of Persia (called "Artashir") counterattack with reinforcements received from the allied nations including desert peoples, defeating the army of Carus in battle on the banks of the Euphrates, who finds death; subsequently Carinus, while he was marching in the desert with the pretender to the throne of Armenia Tiridates, he is massacred with his army, and Tiridates manages to save himself by swimming across the Euphrates; finally Numerian is killed in Thrace and Diocletian succeeds him to the throne.[38]
These sources present significant problems of accuracy. Malalas, in addition to filling the story with lies (such as that the province of Caria and the city of Carrhae were named after the emperor Carus), falsely attributes to Numerian the martyrdom of Babylas of Antioch (which actually occurred under Decius thirty years earlier) and in a similar manner he may have mistakenly attributed to him the death by flaying that actually happened to Valerian (also considering that the latter, according to Malala, would have been killed in Mediolanum).[39] Note the fact that some historians (the author of the Chronicon Paschale and the Armenian Movses Khorenatsi), faced with the dilemma of two irreconcilable versions of Numerian's death, they made the arbitrary choice to have Carinus killed by the Persians and Numerian killed near the Bosphorus for betrayal.[40] Zonaras, more methodically honest, reported both versions without alterations. Burgess considers the account of Moses of Chorene to be completely fictitious considering that Carinus died in battle against Diocletian, not against the Persians (Porena, instead, considers it plausible that Numerian and Tiridates may have suffered a defeat in the desert against the Persians).[41][42] Even with all these problems of accuracy, it is plausible that at least the figure of Numerian's defeat is correct, making the spontaneous renunciation of conquered lands useless and explaining some inconsistencies in the "vulgate" version. According to Porena's reconstruction, Numerian initially had to face a counterattack by mercenaries in the pay of the Persians against whom Carus died, then, after a truce of several months during which he would have wintered in Syria, apparently at Emesa (where he promulgated two rescripts dated September 283 and March 284), in the course of 284 he would suffer a serious defeat on the Euphrates, followed by the definitive Roman withdrawal.[43]
Numerian, Carus, and Carinus all took the titlePersici maximi.[44][45] despite the withdrawal of the Roman armies. According to the traditional reconstruction, the way back, 1,200 miles along the Euphrates River, was traveled in an orderly and slow manner: in March 284 they were at Emesa, in Syria, in November again in Asia Minor. Two imperial rescripts attest that Numerian was in Emesa on 8 September 283 and 18 March 284, which would seem to suggest a long stay of the emperor in the Syrian city.[46][47]
Aftermath
In late 284, Numerian died in Bithynia. One of his commanders accused his praetorian prefect, Aper, of murdering him and was proclaimed emperor as Diocletian. A succession war followed, which saw Carinus defeat another rival, Sabinus Julianus, before he was also killed in summer 285. Diocletian negotiated a peace with the Sasanians a few years later in 287–88 which saw pro-Roman Tiridates III installed in a possibly-partitioned Armenia, though this reconstruction has been disputed.[48] Rome claimed victory in the negotiations. The settlement in 287 did not long hold, however, as conflict with the Sasanians resumed some nine years later in 296.[49]
Whether Diocletian's settlement in 287 was due to Carus' campaign is unclear. Bahram II in the early 280s was suppressing a rebellion in the Sasanian east; the Diocletianic settlement may have been favourable due to that ongoing conflict.[50]
↑ Edwell 2021, p.135; Altmayer 2014, p.94; Bleckmann 1992, pp.130–131. Some scholars, including Kreucher 2003, p.161, question the extent of Roman control: "Long-term occupation of Mesopotamia was only achieved by Rome through Diocletian (or Galerius) in 298 after further military conflict."
↑ Altmayer 2014, p.96-97, considers raids in north Mesopotamia, as does Luther 2006, p.213. Hartmann 2022, p.23, citing Caes., 38.2, and HA. Car., 8.1, conceives of a Sasanian occupation of parts of northern Mesopotamia following Probus' death; Luther 2006, p.217, describes an occupation in 282-283 as uncertain.
↑ Burgess, Richard W.; Witakowski, Witold (1999). Studies in Eusebian and Post-Eusebian Chronography. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag. pp.85–86. ISBN978-3-515-12040-1.
↑ Presenting Tiridates III's installation c.287: Daryaee 2009, p.12; Potter 2004, p.651 n. 151 (arguing against Kettenhofen's chronology); Edwell 2021, pp.134–35; Hellström 2023. Some scholars dispute this. Weber 2016, for example, believes that Armenia was a Persian vassal through the settlement in 298, citing Kettenhofen, Erich (1995), Tirdād und die Inschrift von Paikuli: Kritik der Quellen zur Geschichte Armeniens im späten 3. und frühen 4. Jh. n. Chr., Wiesbaden: Reichert.
↑ Edwell 2021, pp.134 ("Bahram was dealing with a serious revolt in the east led by Hormizd at the time of Carus' invasion in 283 and with the continuation of these difficulties, he likely had little choice but to strike the agreement with Diocletian"), 249 ("The agreement between Diocletian and Bahram... demonstrated the extent of the difficulties Bahram faced [as to] the rebellion of Hormizd in the east").
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