Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

10 Persians and the Hephthalites 97
the ‘King of kings’ was no longer a moral category but a forceful political
factor.
10: Persian confrontations with the Hephthalites
Procopius, De bello Persico i.3.1–5
(1) Later the Persian king Pērōz fought a war concerning borderland with the nation
of the Hephthalite Huns, who are called ‘White Huns’; he gathered a remarkable
force and marched against them. (2) The Hephthalites are Huns in fact as much
as they are in name but they do not mix in any way with those Huns that we know
because they neither occupy land that is adjacent to theirs nor do they even live
very close to them; instead they live straight north of Persia where they have a city
named Gorgo that is situated on Persian borderland and where the two frequently
fight each other over borderland. (3) For they are not nomads like the other Hunnic
peoples but have been settling on good land for a long time. (4) For this reason
they have never invaded Roman territory, except together with the Median army.
They are the only ones among the Huns 104 who have a white skin colour and who
are not unpleasant to look at. (5) Neither is their way of life in any way similar
to that of the others nor do they lead a savage life like the others do, but they are
ruled by one king, have a lawful constitution and deal with one another and their
neighbours on the basis of what is right and just, in no way less than the Romans
and Persians. 105
Procopius touches upon the problems faced by the Persians on their Northeastern
frontier during the fifth century. The Byzantine historian uses the
long peace between Rome and Persia in order to digress; he focuses on the
events in the Persian East and gives us an elaborate account of the Sasanian
confrontations with their most important enemy during the fifth century,
the Hephthalites. 106 Whereas during the third and fourth centuries the
Sasanians had been threatened primarily by the Empire of the Kūˇsān, 107
from the fifth century onwards they had to deal with more and more
nomadic tribes, whose individual history and ethnic identity are enigmatic
and discussed controversially among scholars. 108 Among these tribes were
the Hephthalites, who were called ‘White Huns’ and who during the fifth
104 The origins of this nomadic people from central Asia are not entirely known; while at some point
during the early years of the common era some Hunnic tribes advanced into the Caucasus region,
several state formations such as that of the Hephthalites emerged from an Eastern branch of the
Huns; Maenchen-Helfen 1973; Harmatta 1997: 159–73; Heather 1998: 487–518.
105 According to Veh 1970: 459 Procopius’ account of the looks, way of life and political order of the
Hephthalites is trustworthy and based on good sources.
106 On the origins of this tribe see Enoki 1955: 231–7; Bivar 1983a: 181–231; Thompson 1996; Frye 1984:
346–51; Lippold 1974: 127–37; Litvinsky 1996: 135–62.
107 Dani et al. 1996: 163–83. 108 On the history of Eastern Iran see Alram 1996: 119–40.