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Siege of Martyropolis (531) | |||||||
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Part of the Iberian War | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Sasanian Empire Huns | Byzantine Empire Ghassanids | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Chanaranges Bawi Mihr-Mihroe | Garrison force: Strategos Sittas Hermogenes Al-Harith ibn Jabalah | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Large army | |||||||
A siege of Martyropolis occurred in the Autumn of 531 during the Iberian War between the Sasanian Empire under Kavadh I and the Byzantine Empire under Justinian I.
A Roman raid from Martyropolis triggered the Sasanians to launch a siege on the newly fortified frontier city. Initially, the Sasanians had the upper hand, but a series of political events and logistical issues led them to withdraw. It was the last conflict of the Iberian War.
Earlier, the Sasanian king Kavadh I had ordered a campaign which resulted in a battle at Callinicum. Although the Persians were victorious, the victory was narrow, and no fortress was captured, thus making the campaign inconclusive. Both Belisarius and Azarethes, the Byzantine and Sasanian generals at Callinicum, respectively, were dismissed due to the high casualties of this battle. Emperor Justinian I then appointed Sittas as strategos in charge of the east.
At this time, Justinian's policy was to bolster the Roman position and at the same time try to make a truce with the Persians.
In Mesopotamia, Bessas had recently been appointed as dux Mesopotamiae with the frontier city of Martyropolis as his base, which was recently fortified by emperor Justinian I. From there, he performed a successful raid into the Sasanian border land of Arzanene, killing hundreds.
This led the Sasanians to lay siege on Martyropolis with a capable force under three veteran generals, Adergoudounbades ("Chanaranges"), Bawi ("Aspebedes"), and Mihr-Mihroe. Roman garrison force was commanded by Bessas and Bouzes. Sittas and his Ghassanid ally Al-Harith ibn Jabalah were stationed near the city, but avoided engagement since the Persians had the upper hand in the conflict.
However, a series of political events, including the death of Kavadh I and the perceived threat of Huns, as well as the arrival of winter and the presence of Roman reinforcements at Amida all led the Sasanian field commanders to abandon the siege and agree on an armistice.
Justinian I and the new Sasanian king Khosrow I signed a peace treaty dubbed Perpetual Peace a year later, ending the Iberian War.
The Battle of Callinicum took place on Easter Saturday, 19 April 531 AD, between an army of the Byzantine Empire under Belisarius and a Sasanian cavalry force commanded by Azarethes. After being defeated at the Battle of Dara, the Sasanians moved to invade Roman Syria in an attempt to turn the tide of the war. Belisarius' rapid response foiled the plan, and his troops pushed the Persians to the Syrian border through maneuvering before forcing a battle in which the Sasanians won a Pyrrhic victory.
The Battle of Dara was fought between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Sasanians in 530 AD. It was one of the battles of the Iberian War.
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.
Al-Ḥārith ibn Jabalah, was a king of the Ghassanids, a pre-Islamic Arab Christian tribe who lived on the eastern frontier of the Byzantine Empire. The fifth Ghassanid ruler of that name, he reigned from c. 528 to 569, the longest of any Christian Arab ruler and played a major role in the Roman–Persian Wars and the affairs of the Syriac Orthodox Church. For his services to Byzantium, he was made patrikios and vir gloriosissimus.
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 Byzantine–Sasanian War of 572–591 was a war fought between the Sasanian Empire of Persia and the Byzantine Empire. It was triggered by pro-Byzantine revolts in areas of the Caucasus under Persian hegemony, although other events also contributed to its outbreak. The fighting was largely confined to the southern Caucasus and Mesopotamia, although it also extended into eastern Anatolia, Syria, and northern Iran. It was part of an intense sequence of wars between these two empires which occupied the majority of the 6th and early 7th centuries. It was also the last of the many wars between them to follow a pattern in which fighting was largely confined to frontier provinces and neither side achieved any lasting occupation of enemy territory beyond this border zone. It preceded a much more wide-ranging and dramatic final conflict in the early 7th century.
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.
Sittas was a Byzantine military commander during the reign of Emperor Justinian I. During the Iberian War against the Sassanid Empire, Sittas was given command of forces in Armenia, similar to the status of Belisarius in Mesopotamia. He won a victory over the Sassanids at the battle of Satala.
Bouzes or Buzes was an Eastern Roman general active in the reign of Justinian I in the wars against the Sassanid Persians.
Hermogenes was an Eastern Roman official who served as magister officiorum, military commander and diplomatic envoy during the Iberian War against Sassanid Persia in the early reign of Emperor Justinian I.
Mihr-Mihroe, in Middle Persian either Mihr-Mihrōē or Mihrmāh-rōy; in Byzantine sources Mermeroes, was a 6th-century Sasanian general, and one of the leading commanders of the Byzantine–Sassanid Wars of the time.
The Battle of Satala was fought between the forces of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire and the Sassanid (Persian) Empire in summer 530, near Satala in Byzantine Armenia. The Persian army approached the city to lay siege, when it was attacked in the rear by a small Byzantine force. The Persians turned back to meet them, but were then attacked by the main army from inside the city. A determined attack by a Byzantine unit led to the loss of the Persian general's flag, causing the panicking Persians to retreat.
The Perpetual Peace or the Treaty of Eternal Peace, signed in 532 between the East Roman (Byzantine) Empire and Sassanid Persia, was a peace treaty of indefinite duration, which concluded the Iberian War (527–531) between the two powers. It heralded a period of relatively cordial relations, but lasted only until 540, when hostilities resumed over the control of Lazica.
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.
Bawi was a Sasanian military officer from the Ispahbudhan family who was involved in the Anastasian War and the Iberian War between the Sasanian and Byzantine Empire. He is also known as Aspebedes, which is a corruption of the title spahbed.
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.
The Sassanid Empire or Sassanian Dynasty is the name used for the Persian dynasty which lasted from 224 to 651 AD.
The Battle of Thannuris (Tannuris) (or Battle of Mindouos) was fought between the forces of the Eastern Roman Empire under Belisarius and the Persian Sasanian Empire under Xerxes in summer 528, near Dara in northern Mesopotamia.
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.