Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

124 4 The diplomatic solutions
generosity of the Romans, whose kindness he had challenged, and to hope that
soon they [the captives] would return to him by judgement of the emperor.
(14) When Galerius and Diocletian had come together in Nisibis, they took
counsel there and agreed to send an ambassador to Persia, Sicorius Probus, an
archivist. Narsē received him in a friendly way expecting to hear what had been
reported to him. But Narsē also made use of delaying tactics. For as if he wanted the
ambassadors who had come with Sicorius to recover (since they were exhausted),
he took Sicorius, who knew well what was going on, as far as the Asproudis, a
river in Media, until the units who had been scattered here and there because of
the war had gathered. And then, in the inner room of the palace, having sent
away all others and allowing only the presence of Apharbān and of the archapetēs
Barsaborsos, 25 the one of whom was the praetorian prefect and the other held the
rule over Syme, 26 he asked Probus to deliver his message. The main points of the
ambassador’s message were the following: that in the eastern region the Romans
should receive Ingilēnē together with Sōphēnē, Arzanēnē together with Karduēnē
and Zabdikēnē and that the river Tigris should be the boundary line between the
two states, 27 that the fortress of Zintha, which was located on the border of Media,
should mark the border of Armenia, that the king of Ibēria should owe his royal
status to the Romans, and that the city of Nisibis, which lies on the Tigris, should
be the place of trade. Narsē listened to these points and – as his present situation
did not allow him to refuse any of this – agreed to all of them; with the exception,
so that he would not seem to be forced to comply with everything, that he rejected
the condition that Nisibis should be the only place for exchange. Sicorius, however,
responded, ‘This point is a requirement because the embassy does not have full
power and no instructions for this have been given by the emperors.’ When these
matters had thus been settled, Narsē was given back his wives and children, whose
pure reputation had been respected thanks to the emperors’ love of honour.
Already shortly after the decisive defeat in Armenia, which did not leave the
Sasanians any prospects for a military success (6), the Persian ruler Narsē
sent an ambassador to Galerius. The main objective of this embassy was
to achieve the release of the royal family whose captivity would represent
an asset for the Romans during the negotiations and at least a significant
psychological advantage. The man sent to Galerius by Narsē was Apharbān,
25 On the title archapetēs, which is attested for the Parthian and early Sasanian period, see Chaumont
1986a: 400–1; on Barsaborsos see Chaumont 1969: 120; Felix 1985: 124.
26 Peeters 1931: 27–8 conjectures tēn tou Symiou eichen archēn into tēn tou sēmeiou archēn; in this case
Barsaborsos, who was able to read, would have acted as secretary to the Great king, which would
suggest that there was a written agreement.
27 Chrysos 1976: 12–14 points to the significance of the term politeia, i.e. the ‘state’ as a construct
organised in a specific way in contrast to the royal power (basileia). Chrysos argues that the term
politeia indicates an autonomous state acting in a politically sovereign manner and that in the
sixth and seventh centuries Byzantine authors such as Peter the Patrician, Menander Protector and
Theophylact Simocatta reserved this term for Rome and the Sasanian Empire whereas other empires
and nations were labelled as ethnē and genē; see also Schreiner 1983: 305–6.