Xerxes was a 6th-century Sassanid Persian prince who distinguished himself in war against the Byzantine Empire.
He was the son of the Sasanian king Kavad I, and is first mentioned as a Sasanian general during the Iberian War between the Byzantine and Sassanid Empires. In 528, Xerxes leading an army numbering 30,000 men defeated the Byzantines at the Battle of Thannuris by stratagem, killing or capturing many of them along with their commanders.
However, the victory was costly, and the army of Xerxes had lost ca. 500 of his Immortal units. These losses enraged Kavadh I, who had Coutzes imprisoned and disgraced Xerxes.
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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 Muslim conquest of Persia, also known as the Arab conquest of Iran, was carried out by the Rashidun Caliphate from 633 to 654 AD and led to the fall of the Sasanian Empire as well as the eventual decline of the Zoroastrian religion.
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, with varying success and ended in a victory for the Persians, who obtained an annual tribute in exchange for ending the war. The Lazic War is narrated in detail in the works of Procopius of Caesarea and Agathias.
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 Sasanian or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named after the House of Sasan, it endured for over four centuries, from 224 to 651 AD, making it the longest-lived Persian imperial dynasty. The Sasanian Empire succeeded the Parthian Empire, and re-established the Persians as a major power in late antiquity alongside its neighbouring arch-rival, the Roman Empire.
The Byzantine–Sasanian War of 572–591 was a war fought between the Sasanian Empire of Persia and the Eastern Roman Empire, termed by modern historians as 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 Battle of Antioch took place in 613 outside Antioch, Turkey between a Byzantine army led by Emperor Heraclius and a Persian Sassanid army under Generals (spahbed) Shahin and Shahrbaraz as part of the Byzantine–Sassanid War of 602–628. The victorious Persians were able to maintain a hold on the recently taken Byzantine territory. The victory paved the way for a further Sasanian advance into the Levant and Anatolia.
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.
War elephants were used in Iranian military history, most notably in Achaemenid, Seleucid and Sasanian periods. The elephants were Asian elephants, and were recruited from southern provinces of Iran and India but also possibly Syrian elephants from Syria and westernmost Iran.
The Sasanian conquest of Egypt took place between 618 and 621 CE, when the Sasanian Persian army defeated the Byzantine forces in Egypt and occupied the province. The fall of Alexandria, the capital of Roman Egypt, marked the first and most important stage in the Sasanian campaign to conquer this rich province, which eventually fell completely under Persian rule within a couple of years. An account of the event is given by A. J. Butler.
In 615, during the ongoing war with the Byzantine Empire, the Sasanian army under spahbod Shahin invaded Asia Minor and reached Chalcedon, across the Bosporus from Constantinople. It was at this point, according to Sebeos, that Heraclius had agreed to stand down and was about ready to become a client of the Sasanian emperor Khosrow II, allowing the Roman Empire to become a Persian client state, as well as even allow Khosrow II to choose the emperor. The Sassanids had already captured Roman Syria and Palestine in the previous year. After negotiations with Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, a Byzantine ambassador was sent to Persian Shahanshah Khosrau II, and Shahin withdrew again to Syria.
Sunicas was a Hun who served in the Byzantine military during the Iberian War, in the early reign of Emperor Justinian I.
The Battle of al-Qadisiyyah was an armed conflict which took place in 636 CE between the Rashidun Caliphate and the Sasanian Empire. It occurred during the early Muslim conquests and marked a decisive victory for the Rashidun army during the Muslim conquest of Persia.
Shahraplakan, rendered Sarablangas (Σαραβλαγγᾶς) in Greek sources, was a Sassanid Persian general (spahbed) who participated in the Byzantine-Sassanid War of 602–628 and the Third Perso-Turkic War.
The siege of Phasis took place in 555–556 during the Lazic War between the Byzantine and Sasanian Empires. Expecting an easy victory, the Persians besieged the town of Phasis in Lazica, held by the Byzantines, but were defeated in the ensuing irregular battle. The main source for the siege is the 6th-century historian Agathias.
The Hephthalite–Sasanian War of 484 was a military confrontation that took place in 484 between an invading force of the Sasanian Empire under the command of Peroz I and a smaller army of the Hephthalite Empire under the command of Khushnavaz. The battle was a catastrophic defeat for the Sasanian forces who were almost completely wiped out. Peroz, the Sassanid king, was killed in the action.
Fariburz, known in Byzantine sources as Phabrizus, was a 6th-century Iranian military officer from the Mihran family, who served under the Sasanian king Khosrau I.
Sasanian Iberia refers to the period the Kingdom of Iberia was under the suzerainty of the Sasanian Empire. The period includes when it was ruled by Marzbans (governors) appointed by the Sasanid Iranian king, and later through the Principality of Iberia.
The Battle of Thannuris (Tannuris) was fought between the forces of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire under Belisarius and the Persian Sasanian Empire under Xerxes in summer 528, near Dara in northern Mesopotamia.