Khosrow I, traditionally known by his epithet of Anushirvan, was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 531 to 579. He was the son and successor of Kavad I.
Kavad I was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 488 to 531, with a two or three-year interruption. A son of Peroz I, he was crowned by the nobles to replace his deposed and unpopular uncle Balash.
The Lazic War, also known as the Colchidian War or in Georgian historiography as the Great War of Egrisi, was fought between the Byzantine Empire and the Sasanian Empire for control of the ancient Georgian region of Lazica. The Lazic War lasted for twenty years, from 541 to 562, and ended with the Fifty-Year Peace Treaty, which obligated the Byzantine Empire to pay tribute to Persia each year for the recognition of Lazica as a Byzantine vassal state by Persians. The Lazic War is narrated in detail in the works of Procopius and Agathias.
The Gothic War between the Byzantine Empire during the reign of Emperor Justinian I and the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy took place from 535 to 554 in the Italian Peninsula, Dalmatia, Sardinia, Sicily, and Corsica. It was one of the last of the many Gothic Wars against the Roman Empire. The war had its roots in the ambition of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I to recover the provinces of the former Western Roman Empire, which the Romans had lost to invading barbarian tribes in the previous century, during the Migration Period.
Azarethes, also recorded as Exarath (Ἑξαράθ) and Zuraq, was a Sassanid Persian military commander during the Byzantine–Sassanid Wars. His Greek name is possibly a misunderstanding of the honorific title hazaraft.
The Roman–Persian Wars, also known as the Roman–Iranian Wars, were a series of conflicts between states of the Greco-Roman world and two successive Iranian empires: the Parthian and the Sasanian. Battles between the Parthian Empire and the Roman Republic began in 54 BC; wars began under the late Republic, and continued through the Roman and Sasanian Empires. A plethora of vassal kingdoms and allied nomadic nations in the form of buffer states and proxies also played a role. The wars were ended by the early Muslim conquests, which led to the fall of the Sasanian Empire and huge territorial losses for the Byzantine Empire, shortly after the end of the last war between them.
The Iberian War was fought from 526 to 532 between the Byzantine Empire and the Sasanian Empire over the eastern Georgian kingdom of Iberia—a Sasanian client state that defected to the Byzantines. Conflict erupted among tensions over tribute and the spice trade.
The Anastasian War was fought from 502 to 506 between the Byzantine Empire and the Sasanian Empire. It was the first major conflict between the two powers since 440, and would be the prelude to a long series of destructive conflicts between the two empires over the next century.
Belisarius was a military commander of the Byzantine Empire under the emperor Justinian I. Belisarius was instrumental in the reconquest of much of the Mediterranean territory belonging to the former Western Roman Empire, which had been lost less than a century prior. Belisarius is considered one of the greatest military commanders in history and the greatest of all Byzantine generals.
The Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 was the final and most devastating of the series of wars fought between the Byzantine Empire and the Persian Sasanian Empire. The previous war between the two powers had ended in 591 after Emperor Maurice helped the Sasanian king Khosrow II regain his throne. In 602 Maurice was murdered by his political rival Phocas. Khosrow declared war, ostensibly to avenge the death of the deposed emperor Maurice. This became a decades-long conflict, the longest war in the series, and was fought throughout the Middle East: in Egypt, the Levant, Mesopotamia, the Caucasus, Anatolia, Armenia, the Aegean Sea and before the walls of Constantinople itself.
Bessas was an Eastern Roman general of Gothic origin from Thrace, primarily known for his career in the wars of Justinian I. He distinguished himself against the Sassanid Persians in the Iberian War and under the command of Belisarius in the Gothic War, but after Belisarius' departure from Italy he failed to confront the resurgent Goths and was largely responsible for the loss of Rome in 546. Returning east in disgrace, despite his advanced age he was appointed as commander in the Lazic War. There he redeemed himself with the recapture of Petra, but his subsequent idleness led Justinian to dismiss him and exile him to Abasgia.
The Treaty of Dara, also known as the Fifty-Year Peace, was a peace treaty concluded between the Byzantine and Sassanid (Persian) empires at the frontier town of Dara in what is now southern Turkey in 562. The treaty, negotiated by Peter the Patrician for the Byzantine emperor Justinian I and Izadgushasp for the Sassanid king Khosrau I ended the 20-year-long war over the Caucasian kingdom of Lazica. The treaty contained 13 articles, and is well-recorded. It covered all parts of the two empires, Persarmenia, Lazica, the client states, and the Arab allies.
Izadgushasp, known in Byzantine sources as Isdigousnas Zikh, was an Iranian nobleman from the House of Mihran, who served as one of Khosrow I's viziers.
The Sassanid Empire or Sassanian Dynasty is the name used for the Persian dynasty which lasted from 224 to 651 AD.
The Battle of Anglon took place in 543 AD, during the Byzantine invasion of Sasanian-ruled Armenia ("Persarmenia").
The siege of Petra took place in 541 when the Sasanian Empire, under King of Kings Khosrow I, besieged the town of Petra in Lazica, held by the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. The Sasanians successfully captured the fortress.
The siege of Petra was fought in 550 AD, between the Byzantines under general Bessas, and the Sasanian Persian garrison of Petra in the buffer state of Lazica. The strategic fortress had previously been held by the Byzantines before it was seized in 541 by the Sasanian king Khosrow I, and his Lazi allies. This conquest gave the Sassanian Empire access to the Black Sea and marked the beginning of the Lazic War. After a failed attempt to recapture Petra in 549, the Byzantine emperor Justinian I sent an army under Bessas to retake the fortress. The Byzantine historian Procopius described the resulting siege in vivid detail.
The siege of Urbinus also called siege of Urbino or siege of Urbinum took place in the year 538 during Justinian's Gothic War. Earlier, when John took Ariminum, he had bypassed Auximus and Urbinus which would have to be taken now to secure the road to Ravenna. The Gothic king, Witigis, had sent a man called Moras with 2.000 troops to defend the city. In the year 538, the Byzantine commander, Belisarius went to besiege the town while another strong Byzantine contingents besieged Urviventus. The forces of Narses and John, other Byzantine commanders, who were undermining Belisarius' authority, joined him in this venture. Thinking the defenders would be terrified on seeing the Byzantine army, Belisarius sent envoys offering the garrison a chance to surrender. Narses and John set up camp separately form Belisarius, on the other side of the town, and, after negotiations with the garrison failed, totally abandoned the siege. They declared taking the town impossible and moved to capture Aemilia but while Belisarius was preparing to assault the town surrendered due to the failure of its spring. Astonished by such success, Narses sent John to capture Caesena but this assault failed. John then moved to and managed to capture Forocornelius. After this siege Belisarius moved to support in the siege of Urviventus, also capturing that city shortly after.
The siege of Ravenna of 539-540 took place during Justinian’s Gothic War.
Rufinus was a Byzantine military officer and emissary of the 6th century, active during the reigns of emperors Anastasius I Dicorus, Justin I, and Justinian I. Of Greek origin, he was the son and brother, respectively, of the officers Silvanus and Timostratus. He first appeared in 502, when he was sent by Anastasius to the court of the Sasanian shah Kavad I with large amounts of money to prevent attacks on the Byzantine Empire. When Rufinus learned of the Persian attacks, he left the money in Caesarea and met in Amida Kavad I, who imprisoned him until January 503, when he was released and sent to the emperor.
