Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

106 3 Military confrontations
Kavādh did not intervene when Xusrō conspired to have Mazdak removed,
too. Earlier, in 526 Sasanian initiatives to establish Zoroastrianism in Ibēria,
the majority of whose population was Christian, had triggered new military
confrontations. 152
13: The second Sasanian–Byzantine War (540–62)
Procopius tells us about an embassy that the king of the Goths, Vitiges, sent
to Xusrō I before military confrontations began in 540 and whose aim it was
to induce the Sasanian ruler to start a war against Justinian. The speech of
the Gothic diplomats illustrates both the regional expansion of the conflict
between West and East and its world historical dimensions. More and more
nations were drawn into the Byzantine–Sasanian confrontations.
Procopius, De Bello Persico ii.2.4–11
(4) They [the envoys] appeared before Xusrō and spoke as follows, ‘As a rule, it is
the case that all other envoys, O king, join an embassy for the sake of their own
advantage, but we have been sent by Vitiges, the king of the Goths and of the
Italians, 153 so that we speak on behalf of your empire; and now view the following
as if he said it to you in person. (5) If someone said, bluntly, that you, O king, had
given up your kingdom and all subjects to Justinian, he would rightly say so. (6)
For he is a man who by nature strives for change and loves what does not belong
to him at all, who is not able to keep things as they are, who has therefore tried to
seize the whole earth and has been captured by the desire to take for himself each
and every rule. (7) He therefore decided (since he was neither strong enough to go
against the Persians on his own nor capable of attacking others while at war with the
Persians) to deceive you in the guise of a peace, while he subjugated the remaining
powers by force and prepared a huge force against your empire. (8) Already having
destroyed the kingdom of the Vandals he subjugated 154 the Maurusians 155 while the
Goths stayed out of his way because of a so-called friendship, but now he has come
against us with huge sums of money and a lot of men. (9) It is clear that – if he can
destroy utterly also the Goths – he will march against the Persians together with us
and those whom he has enslaved already, and neither will he respect the name of
friendship nor will he be ashamed with regard to the oaths that have been sworn.
(10) While you have a chance to save yourself, do not do us any further harm
152 Schippmann 1990: 52 suggests that these initiatives stemmed from Kavādh’s desire to show the
Zoroastrians in Persia that he was no longer a follower of the Mazdakite movement.
153 In 537 the king of the Eastern Goths (536–40) had embarked on an offensive in Italy against
Justinian’s general Belisarius, who had conquered Rome. In March 538 Vittigis had to abandon
his siege of Rome and Belisarius advanced to Ravenna. In this situation the king of the Goths
campaigned for allies in his fight against Justinian.
154 In 533/4 Belisarius defeated the Vandals, whose king Gelimer had been supported by the Mauretanian
nobility, and as a result North Africa was again ruled by Byzantium.
155 This is an older name of the inhabitants of Mauretania in north-west Africa; cf. Polyb. iii.33.15.