Sykes' History of Persia - Heritage Institute

xxxviii STRUGGLE WITH WHITE HUNS 471
Tezdigtrd 11.^ his Campaigns against Rome and the
JVhite Huns,—Bahram Gur was succeeded by his son
Yezdigird II., who came to the throne in a.d. 440. He
declared war upon Rome immediately after his succession,
apparently on account of encroachments by the Roman
frontier officials. The Emperor Theodosius was most
anxious to avoid hostilities, and his representative succeeded
in concluding a treaty according to which no
fortifications were to be constructed by either power near
the common frontier. There were also other terms, one
of which was that Rome should annually pay to Persia a
sum of money, in consideration of which the latter power
agreed to maintain a powerful force at Darband or Derbent,
the point where the spurs of the Caucasus run down to
the Caspian Sea. Yezdigird afterwards turned his attention
to his eastern frontiers and engaged in a series of
campaigns from a.d. 443 to 451, in the course of which
he apparently sustained more than one defeat.
His Persecutions in Armenia and Mesopotamia.—As was
to be expected, the Mobeds were incessantly urging that
Armenia should be won back to the old faith. Policy,
too, undoubtedly suffered from the fact that the hill
province invariably looked to Christian Rome. It was
decided to attempt to wm over the Armenians by kindness
and conciliation, and in order to effect this Mihr-
Narses, the Vizier, was despatched on a special mission,
in which he totally failed. Force was then applied and the
Armenians ultimately broke up into two hostile parties,
with the result that after years of warfare the Christian
party was defeated, in A.D.i^JJoFJjg^ the patriarch Joseph
was martyred, and the remnant of the militant Christians
fled from the country. This persecution spread apparently
to Mesopotamia, and we read that at Karka, west
of Holwan, John the Metropolitan was martyred with
thousands of other Christians. Karka is
to-day known as
Karkuk or Kirkuk, and it is of no small historical interest
to find that every year
a solemn is still assembly convened
to commemorate the death of these martyrs,
at the little
church on the hillock outside the town which was dyed
with their blood.
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