Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

2.3 The fifth century 35
confrontations between the two powers, the fifth century shows an easing of
tension between West and East. 85 The Christians in Persia also fared better
after the death of the ‘great persecutor’. 86 Especially the reign of Yazdgard
I(399–420) displays a sympathetic attitude towards the Christians (32).
The king was determined to retain peace with the Romans. In 408/9 the
two sides came to an agreement that regulated the trade between West
and East and served the interests of both sides (28). The sources further
illustrate good relations at the beginning of this century by telling us that
the emperor Arcadius (383–408) asked Yazdgard I to become the guardian
of his infant son Theodosius after his death (9). However, refraining from
an expansive foreign policy against Byzantium and sympathising with the
Christians made Yazdgard I the target of accusations by the bellicose Persian
nobility as well as the Zoroastrian priesthood. Towards the end of
Yazdgard’s reign the Christians were persecuted again (32) and many Persian
Christians escaped to the West. Yazdgard’s successor, Bahrām V Gōr
(420–39), demanded that Theodosius II (408–50) extradite them. When
the latter refused, the Sasanian king continued the persecutions initiated
by his predecessor. Moreover, in the year 421 Bahrām V started a war with
Byzantium. As neither of the two sides achieved any noteworthy successes,
the war did not last for very long and a peace was concluded just one year
later (19). 87
In the following period armed confrontations were only occasional and of
short duration. 88 This is somewhat surprising if one considers how aggressive
Sasanian attitudes towards Rome had been during the third and fourth
centuries; the Roman Empire was in a difficult situation after the death
of Theodosius the Great in the year 395 and during the course of the fifth
century numerous peoples exerted pressure on virtually all borders of the
imperium Romanum. 89
Undoubtedly, developments in the religious sphere in the Roman Empire
played a significant role in this context because in the past the situation
of the Persian Christians had repeatedly provoked tensions between the
great powers. The growing Christological differences within Christianity, 90
85 On the Byzantine–Sasanian relations in the fifth century see Synelli 1986: 47–73; Rubin 1986: 677–95
and Whitby 1988: 202–9.
86 On the situation of the Persian Christians in the fifth century see Macomber 1968: 174–87.
87 On the Roman–Persian relations in the first half of the fifth century see Lee 1987: 188–91; Schrier
1992: 75–86; Blockley 1992: 52–67; Greatrex 1993: 1–14.
88 For an account of the confrontations between Theodosius II and Yazdgard II see Thompson 1950:
58–75.
89 For a survey of the situation in the East from Theodosius I to Anastasius see Blockley 1992: 39–96.
90 On these see Spuler 1961: 174–9; on the emergence of two separate Churches in the East see Heiler
1971: 303–403.