Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

26 Armenia 183
the influential men and satraps or by surprising others with unexpected raids. (3)
Then he used a carefully calculated mix of flattery and perjury in order to get at
King Arsaces himself. He gave instructions to take the king, who had been invited
to a banquet, to a secret door, to tear his eyes out and to bind him in silver chains,
which among this people is held as a consolation in the punishment of men of
rank, if only a small one; 49 then he had him banished to a fortress called Agabana, 50
where he was tortured and then punished with death by the sword. (4) After that,
so that his perjury would not leave anything undefiled, he expelled Sauromaces,
who ruled over Ibēria by Roman authority, and handed over the rule over the same
people to a certain Aspacures; he even crowned the man in order to show how
much he disrespected our authority. 51
In February of 364 Jovian died unexpectedly and ˇ Sāpūr II embarked on an
offensive against Armenia. 52 In the above passage, Ammianus Marcellinus
criticises the Persian advance sharply. The author emphasises ˇ Sāpūr II’s
aggressive policy and his intention to conquer the areas that his ancestors
had controlled. It is noteworthy that Ammianus’ words contradict his own
account of the peace of 363 (xxv.7.12; 18) according to which the Romans
broke the treaty when they refused to support Armenia in the event of a
Persian invasion. Be that as it may, the Persian king met with strong opposition
in Armenia. Whereas the Armenian Christians tended to support the
West and the still numerous Zoroastrians sided with the Persians, the interests
of the almost independent ‘feudal’ nobles were not as clear cut because
the latter above all wanted to retain their autonomy. Ammianus mentions
that it took ˇ Sāpūr II until 367 to capture and execute the Armenian king
Arsaces, and this only by resorting to a ruse. Arsaces’ son and successor to
the throne, Papās, fled and sought protection from the Roman emperor
Valens. ˇ Sāpūr II mustered a large force and took possession of large parts
of Armenia. He also tried to expand Sasanian influence to the north, into
Ibēria, by deposing Sauromaces, whom Rome had invested with power in
Ibēria, and to install a man of his own choice, a certain Aspacures, as the
new ruler.
Rome reacted to this development without delay. Shortly after the peace
agreement of 363 both powers were at war again. In 371 the armies of
ˇSāpūr II and of the Roman emperor Valens confronted each other in open
49 Cf. Hdt. iii.130 and Curt. v.12.20.
50 Proc. BP i.3.7 mentions this fortress and calls it the ‘place of oblivion’.
51 When Ibēria was to be divided between Sauromaces and Aspacures in 370 (Amm. xxvii.12.16–17)
ˇSāpūr II objected vehemently (Amm. xxx.2.2). The Sasanian king used the war against the Goths
fought by the emperor Valens in order to expel Sauromaces once more from Ibēria in 378 (Amm.
xxx.2.4 and 7).
52 Gutmann 1991: 162–91.