Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

17 The peace treaty of 298 125
who was the commander of the royal guard and thus a high Persian dignitary
and intimate friend of the Sasanian king. On the Roman side the
negotiations were led by the magister memoriae Sicorius Probus, who was
likewise a high official. The Persian ambassador argued that the Roman and
Persian Empires were like two lights, two eyes, whose sparkle made each
other shine, and they should therefore refrain from destroying each other. 28
Although Apharbān used this metaphor in order to emphasise the equal
rank of both empires his words cannot be dismissed as a feeble attempt
to show the Sasanian Empire in a better light. The expressive image must
reflect his actual view of the relationship between the two states. 29
Apharbān then went on to appeal to the Romans’ sense of humanity
and justice. However, when he asked for the Persian captives to be treated
well and assured the Roman emperor that this would oblige the great king
more than a military victory could, Galerius became very angry and interrupted
him. The memory of the death of the Roman emperor Valerian
in Persian captivity just a few decades before (5) and the circumstances of
his death must have been alive among Romans and Persians alike. Nevertheless,
Galerius dismissed the Persian ambassador by promising Narsē
that the captives would return soon. The emperor’s decision was probably
motivated by his respect both for Diocletian’s moderate policy and for the
Sasanian Empire. The negotiations between Galerius and Apharbān were
a prerequisite for the conclusion of a formal peace treaty.
When his negotiations with Apharbān had come to an end, Galerius
rushed to Nisibis where he and Diocletian jointly decided on the terms
for a formal peace. 30 Afterwards Sicorius Probus went to meet Narsē on
Persian territory in order to inform him of these terms. It seems certain that
Sicorius Probus and Narsē met in Mēdia but we do not know where exactly
on the river Asproudis. 31 The region had been conquered by Galerius after
Satala but officially it was still part of the Sasanian Empire. Diocletian’s
decision to send a middle man to the Persian ruler is surprising; even more
surprising, however, is the fact that in spite of the Persian defeat the Roman
ambassador crossed the official border and went to meet Narsē in order
28 Cf. also the words placed into the mouth of the Sasanian king Kavādh I by the Byzantine author
Ioannes Malalas (18.44 [p. 449]), namely that according to a divine plan Byzantium and the Sasanian
Empire were the two centres of civilisation, ‘the moon of the West and the sun of the East’; according
to Theophylact Simocatta (iv.13.7) Xusrō II wrote to his benefactor Maurice that ‘one power alone
was not able to shoulder the immense burden of taking care of the organisation of the universe
and one man’s pulse was not able to steer everything created under the sun’; see also Shahbazi 1990:
591.
29 For an analysis of this text see Winter 1988: 163–8.
30 Eutr. ix.25.1; Zon. xii.31. 31 Enßlin 1942: 42.