Ardashir
- r - to ,
610 363-429. captains. The Christian Armenians leaned on the whole towards Rome, while the Zoroastrians, who still formed a large part of the nation, inclined to Persia, and the personal interests of the great barons, who preferred to recognize no lord, inclined them now to this side, now to that. Papa, son of Arsaces, fled to the Romans and got help from them, first secretly and then openly ; but he was only their tool in the design of reducing Armenia to a province. Con flicts between the rival empires took place also to the north of Armenia in Iberia, and after five years they were practically again at war. In 371 ShApur was openly met by Roman troops in Armenia, which both parties were determined to have by force or by fraud. Once and again negotiations failed, but a general war was still averted by external circumstances (on Rome s part by the Gothic war) and considerations of prudence. Shapiir II., who is justly celebrated by the later tradi- tions, died towards the end of the summer of 379, and was succeeded by his brother, Ardashir II., an old man, who was perhaps chosen king for similar reasons to those which governed the choice of Shapur as an infant. As prince and governor of Adiabene Ardashfr had taken an active part in the suppression of Christianity in 344 and as late as 376, but with his accession the persecution ceased whether of purpose or merely from the Oriental lack of persistency we cannot tell and a bishop was again ad mitted even in the capital. Ardashir was deposed in 383 or 384, having taken strong measures against the nobles and put some of them to death. His successor, Shapur III., son of Sh&pur II., at once sent ambassadors to Constantinople and made a definite treaty of peace (384). In 388 or 389 he was murdered by the nobles. His successor (a son, or perhaps a brother), Bahrain IV., called Kirm&n Shah, 1 kept peace with Rome and was clement to the Christians. In 390 Armenia was divided by treaty, much the larger part becoming a vassal state of Persia and the rest falling to Rome. The division, with various modifications and vicissitudes, lasted into Arab times. Bahrain was shot by a band of " miscreants " in the summer of 399. Yazdegerd I., son of Shapur II. or Shapiir III., seems to have been designated heir to the throne while Bahrain IV. was still alive, or at least he held such high dignity that his name appears on coins of his predecessor. Persian tradition makes him wise but very wicked. Christian witnesses, on the other hand, speak very favourably of him, and it appears certain that his surname, " the Sinner/ was gained by a severity, perhaps tyrannical, towards the grandees, by tolerance towards the Christians, and little favour shown to the priests. In 410 the Christians were even allowed to hold a regularly constituted synod in the capital, and the king employed the "Catholicus" i.e., the primate of the church, a functionary possessed of full religious autonomy on a mission to the emperor, and even in settling differences with his own brother, who governed Persis. Yazdegerd had no personal inclination towards Christianity, and he severely punished the fanaticism of Bishop AbdA, who had insulted a Zoroastrian sanctuary in Susiana, but his habitual tolerance was enough to make him hated of the Persian priests. The warlike nobles also found cause for dissatisfaction in his earnest endeavours to keep on quiet terms with Rome, with whom he made a treaty of peace and friendship in the summer of 408, when he seems to have pledged himself to support the throne of Theodosius II. during his minority. Over Persian Armenia he set his own son Shapur. We have every reason to deem Yazdegerd an excellent prince for the time and circum stances, but he was not well pleasing to the god of the 1 He had mled in Kirman, and from him two towns, in Kurdistan and in Rinnan, take the name Kirmanshahan. [SASANIAN Persians, who smote him with sudden and miraculous death in distant Hyrcania. The explanation of the miracle is no doubt that he was murdered by the magnates (probably late in summer 420). Shapur, hurrying from Armenia on the news of his father s death, was slain by the grandees, who had resolved altogether to exclude from the throne the seed of the hated Yazdegerd. A distant relation, Khosrau, was made king, but had to contest the throne with another son of Yazdegerd, Bahrain, who in his father s lifetime had dwelt apparently in a sort of exile, with the powerful vassal prince Al-Mondhir (Alamundaros) of Hira, on the borders of the desert to the west of the Euphrates. Moridhir energetically supported the claims of his guest-friend, and appeared with a vast Arab horde before the gates of Ctesiphon, which is only three or four days march from Hira. As Bahrain doubtless had support among the Persians also, Khosrau gave way, and Bahrain took the throne, but with a promise to reign in a different spirit from his father and please the magnates and the priests. This is the first important intervention of the Arabs in the affairs of Persia. Bahrain V., surnamed G6r or Wildass, is the favourite Bahran hero of Persian tradition, which tells many incredible v - stories about him. He came to the throne young, and was always a jolly prince, very fond of women, and whose personal strength and prowess as a huntsman, perhaps also in Avar, blinded men s eyes to the real weakness of his sway. The change of policy was at once announced in a systematic persecution of the Christians and in war with Rome. For the latter there were pretexts enough on both sides, but the Romans would not have begun the war merely because the Christians were persecuted ; its real authors Avere presumably the Persian nobles. The chief seat of war was the north of Persian Mesopotamia and the mountain-land above. The Persians were led by one of the greatest nobles, Mihr Narseh, whom Persian tradition represents as taking Constantinople, while we know that he really sustained heavy defeat at the very commencement of the Avar (August 421). Nisibis was attacked by the Romans, but relieved after a siege of some length. In 422 both parties Avere glad to make peace ; religious freedom AA as given to Christians in Persia and to Zoroastrians in the Roman empire. There seems to have been no change of frontier, but the Romans promised to receive no Arabs Avho Avished to change their allegiance, 2 and to pay an annual sum toAA T ards the maintenance of the defences of the Caucasian Gates (the pass of Dariel), Avhich protected both poAA r ers from the inroads of the northern barbarians. This last condition reappears in almost all treaties and ah T ays caused soreness. For, IIOAV- ever carefully the provision Avas Avorded, both sides looked on the contribution as a tribute, of Avhich the Romans evaded payment Avhenever they could. The Persians, AVC may suppose, Avere the readier to make peace that they Avere again embroiled with the nation of Kiishdn or Haital, the Hephthalites or " Avhite Huns," Avho then ruled in Bactria and the surrounding lands. Constant Avars of Persia with this people Avent on during the 5th century and gave the Romans repose, and we are hardly bound to believe the Persian tradition that Bahrain had a glorious victory over the Hephthalites. A movement for freedom had taken place in Persian Armenia during the Roman Avar ; but after the peace Bahrain established a neAv vassal king, till in 429 the conduct of the selfish Armenian nobles led the Persians - The Bedouin tribes, " nee amici nobis unquam nee hostes optandi " (Annnian., xiv. 4, 1), and the petty states that had been formed out of them, under Roman or Persian suzerainty, were a constant trouble to both empires in war and in peace.
