The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity, 395-700 AD

THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD IN LATE ANTIQUITY

The eastern provinces and peace with Persia

Whatever the original intention may have been, ideas and policies changed
with changing circumstances, and the hopeful beginning soon met with prob-
lems. In the east the Sasanians still presented a major military problem, and
this lasted throughout the period of the western campaigns and beyond, pass-
ing in turn to Justinian’s successors (Chapter 9). The story of Justinian’s wars
with Persia dramatically illustrates the actual lack of the necessary resources to
pursue major campaigns in the eastern frontier area, or even to resist Persian
raids, while simultaneously campaigning elsewhere, as well as the enormous
cost to the eastern empire of securing temporary peace.
The two powers had remained in competition over the border territory and
its population since the Sasanians fi rst came to power in the third century.^27
Now, a series of not-so-glorious campaigns on the Mesopotamian frontier
in the fi rst years of Justinian’s reign, as a result of which the future histo-
rian Procopius fi rst became the intimate of Belisarius, came to a temporary
end in 531 with the death of the Persian king Cavadh and the accession of
Chosroes I. This is the point at which, if we believe Agathias, seven philoso-
phers from the Academy at Athens, who had left after Justinian’s law of 529,
made their way to Ctesiphon in the hope that Chosroes would prove a Pla-
tonic philosopher-king. They found that ‘those in authority were overbearing
and vainglorious’ and that the young king’s much-vaunted acquaintance with
philosophy was ‘utterly superfi cial’, and soon left Persia.^28 Procopius’ version
of these early campaigns in the east is biased towards Belisarius, as can be seen
from the parallel account in the Chronicle of John Malalas.^29 A major treaty
between the two powers was concluded in 533; the terms included a payment
by Byzantium of 11,000 lb of gold, but apart from forcing a certain degree of
retreat on both sides, left things essentially unchanged. It was not likely that
a strong ruler such as Chosroes I, who was fully a match for Justinian, would
rest content with this. Moreover, his timing was fatal for the Byzantines; after
making hostile noises for some time, he invaded Roman territory again in 540,
the very year when Belisarius was recalled from Italy. The second Persian war,
in the 540s, was a very different affair from the fi rst. The lack of an adequate
Roman defence system is painfully obvious in the ease with which the Persian
armies could approach towns such as Edessa and Apamea in Mesopotamia
and Syria, and extort large payments of silver. The local bishops were the
unfortunate middle-men in these transactions; the Persians took and burnt
Beroea (Aleppo) while its bishop, Megas, was away appealing to the Roman
command at Antioch for assistance, only to fi nd that Justinian had given
orders for no payments to be made for the safety of eastern cities, and that
Ephraem, patriarch of Antioch, was under suspicion of being willing to hand
over his city to the Persians. Returning to Beroea, the hapless Megas expostu-
lated with Chosroes, but let out that he had received no funds for the safety of
Antioch, whereupon the Persian king at once made for Antioch.^30 Those citi-
zens who could, immediately left, and Chosroes besieged and sacked Antioch,