Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

20 The peace treaty of 562 143
double indemnity. If the dispute were still not settled at this point, the violated
party should send an embassy to the ruler of the offender. If the violated party had
not been compensated by the ruler within a fixed one-year period and had not
received the double indemnity, the peace treaty would be broken with regard to
this agreement.
(12) This concerned petitions for divine support and prayers: that the god be
gracious and an ally forever to the one who loved the peace, opponent and enemy
to the insincere and the one intending to violate the oaths.
(13) The agreements should be valid for fifty years and the peace should last for
fifty years, the year being reckoned according to old fashion that is ending after
365 days. 126 As mentioned already, it was also determined that declarations were
issued by both rulers expressing approval regarding everything the ambassadors
had negotiated.
When these terms had been agreed upon, the so-called sacrae litterae were
exchanged. . .
After all this had been formally agreed, the two separate declarations were handed
to the magistrates in charge, who compared their wording and meaning and immediately
made copies of both. The actual treaty was also folded and stamped with a
seal and other customary Persian symbols and with the signet-rings of the ambassadors
as well as those of the twelve interpreters, six on the Roman side and as many
Persian ones. They exchanged the documents. The Zich handed the Persian one to
Peter and Peter handed the Greek one to the Zich. In addition the Zich received a
Persian copy identical to the Greek one, without any seal, which was supposed to
remind him, and Peter respectively. After that they parted, both leaving the border
area, and the Zich travelled back to his homeland.
Negotiations
As had been the case when the foedus of 298 was concluded, on both
sides high ranking officials and experienced diplomats, the magister militum
praesentalis and the chamberlain of the Sasanian king, were in charge of the
negotiations. They were authorised to act with full power. The ambassadors
met in a neutral place by the border, close to Dārā, so that neither of the
parties was forced into a disadvantageous position even before negotiations
began. 127 At the beginning of the talks both sides made an effort to praise
the greatness and power of their own empire; then they worked towards an
understanding regarding the basic conditions for a peace.
These concerned above all the length 128 and scale of a settlement, and
in addition a solution to the Lazic question. After long discussions it was
agreed that the peace between the two empires should last for fifty years
126 The Roman and Persian calendars had to be synchronised; see Doblhofer 1955: 215–16.
127 On the significance of the choice of venue in the context of Sasanian–Roman peace negotiations
see Winter 1994: 589–607.
128 On the payments agreed upon in 562 see Güterbock 1906: 61–5 and Blockley 1985b: 285 n. 61.