Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

3 Sasanian armaments and tactics 65
battles because they rush to immediate flight and do not know how to suddenly
turn against their attackers, as do the Scythian nations; attacks and encirclements
as the result of an outflanking on the sides and rear of their formation because
they do not place good flank guards in their line to sustain a major attack; often
also unexpected nightly attacks against their camp because they place their tents
without distinction and at random within the encirclement of the camp. It is thus
necessary to line up in battles as the treatise about formations says, namely to
choose ground that is even, open and level, so far as possible, which does not have
swamps or ditches or shrubs so as not to dissolve the formation. When the army or
formation is well prepared do not delay the attack, if it has been firmly decided to
fight on that day. In battle, launch the charges and attacks when close to the reach
of the bows, even and in dense order, and swiftly, lest through a delay in getting
to hand-to-hand combat the enemies, sending a continuous shower of arrows, get
to afflict our soldiers and horses with even more missiles.
The two passages are excerpts from two very different sources, each of
which provides us with an impressive as well as vivid account of Sasanian
armament and tactics. 3 Heliodorus, who tells us that he was a ‘Phoenician
from the city of Emesa, from the family of the descendants of Helios’, is
the author of a Greek novel entitled Aethiopica (‘Aethiopian stories’). The
date of this work is uncertain but it was probably composed in the third
century, or possibly the second half of the fourth century. 4 As a genre, the
Greek novel was extremely popular. The Aethiopica tells the love story of
a certain Theagenes and an Aethiopian princess Chariclea, whose adventures
take them all the way to Delphi. 5 Because of its wide geographical
scope this novel is particularly interesting. In our passage the contemporary
observer Heliodorus describes the mailed Sasanian cavalry, 6 which underlines
the significance of this source with regard to questions of cultural
history.
The second source relates to the late phase of Byzantine–Sasanian relations.
A work entitled Strategikon 7 is attributed to the Byzantine emperor
Maurice (582–602), who secured the throne for the Persian king Xusrō II
Pārvēz (34). This is a manual on military affairs composed in Greek, which
contains much information concerning military tactics, the organisation
and line-up of the army, military training and the use of armament as well as
siege craft and instructions for generals. It is not clear whether the emperor
3 For a general background see Tafazzoli 2000.
4 Cf. van der Walk 1941: 97–100 and Szepessy 1975: 279–87; Bowie 1999: 40–1.
5 See Winkler 1982: 93–158 (also in Swain 1999: 286–350); Szepessy 1984: 432–50; Hunter 1998.
6 On the Sasanian mailed cavalry see Bivar 1972: 271–91; Michalak 1987: 73–86; Mielczarek 1993: 51–67;
Campbell 1999: 339.
7 For the Greek text see Dennis 1981; for an English translation see Dennis 1985; also Kollautz 1985:
87–136.