Sykes' History of Persia - Heritage Institute

XXXV RISE OF THE SASANIAN DYNASTY 427
for the coming campaign were pushed on without delay,
and in the autumn of a.d. 231 a formidable force had
assembled at Antioch.
The Roman plan was to divide their forces into three
armies. The northern army was sent to invade Media
Atropatene in alliance with Chosroes of Armenia ; the
southern army was ordered to threaten Persia Proper or
more probably Susiana ; and the third, commanded by the
Emperor in person, was destined to operate against the
heart of the country. The bad strategy of employing
three detached forces which could not possibly support
one another effectively met with the failure it invited. The
northern army was successful in its raid into Media Atro-
patene, where it was probably
absence of the Median troops.
unopposed owing to the
But on the return march
its losses were severe, and nothing of importance was
accomplished. Ardeshir, wisely concentrating his troops,
attacked and annihilated the isolated southern force.
Severus, alarmed by this disaster, ordered a general re-
treat.^ It might have been thought that after this victory
Ardeshir would have invaded Syria. But as in
reality
the
the Persians for the
campaign had been undertaken by
possession of Armenia, destined under the Sasanian as
under the Parthian dynasty to be the bone of contention
between the
himself with
two empires, Ardeshir prudently
his
victory, and apparently peace
contented
was con-
cluded in A.D. 232.
The Conquest of Armenia by Ardeshir.— By the withdrawal
of Rome Armenia was left to its own resources to
meet the Persian army. The mountain state rose to the
occasion, and, aided by the fact that the Persian army
was almost entirely composed of cavalry, Chosroes defended
himself so well that Ardeshir, despairing of success
in the field, offered the second place
in the
whoever should make away with his enemy.
kingdom to
A Persian
noble in whose veins ran the Arsacid blood agreed
to
assassinate Chosroes, and gained his confidence by representing
himself as a refugee fleeing from the vengeance
1
N8ldeke, who declines to
rely on Herodian, states that when Severus marched
against Ardeshir, the latter gave way.