Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

144 4 The diplomatic solutions
and that it should apply to all territories, including Armenia and Lazika. In
the past, continuing military confrontations in these regions had prevented
a secure peace over and over again. By dropping all claims in this area, the
Sasanians did their part to solve the Lazic question; in turn, Byzantium
had to agree to substantial monetary payments the amount and conditions
of which were a point of contention until, finally, a compromise agreeable
to both sides was reached. As soon as these basic conditions for the peace
had received mutual consent, the respective documents were produced and
sent to both royal courts for ratification. Thereby the foundations for the
conclusion of a peace treaty were laid.
After that, further meetings and negotiations between the ambassadors of
both empires took place so that all details regarding a permanent settlement
could be discussed. The official peace document was composed in Greek
and Persian. It is remarkable how much care was used to make this process
as accurate as possible. Altogether twelve interpreters were to make sure that
each translation had the same meaning and would not allow for different
interpretations. The respective documents were compared word for word
and sentence for sentence. 129 Menander the Guardsman claims to have
quoted verbatim the document written by Xusrō I(531–79) in the Persian
language and addressed to his ‘brother’ Justinian (527–65).
Territorial terms
Altogether the Byzantine historian lists fourteen articles of agreement. Several
points concern the territorial scope of the peace, which was intended
to apply not only to the territories of the Sasanian and Byzantine Empires
but in the interest of stability to include further areas. The regulation in
article nine according to which the client kingdoms on both sides should
not be attacked refers primarily to the Caucasian regions of Ibēria and
Albania, which had often been the cause of renewed or continued military
confrontations and were the subject of existing agreements (17). The
Arabian tribes fighting on both sides, namely the Lahmids, who were allies
of the Sasanians, and the Ghassanids, who acted on behalf of Byzantium,
were addressed in the second article of the treaty. 130 Considering the political
as well as military significance of these vassal states for the Sasanian–
Byzantine confrontations in particular during the sixth century (25), this
article makes a lot of sense. The Roman and Persian rulers were to enforce
peace among the vassals. This term, however, could have been expected to
129 On the oral and written components in the formation of a treaty see Täubler 1964: 318–72.
130 Shahîd 1988: vii.