Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

27 Protection of the frontier 193
the fact that the Romans had failed to comply with the Persian request to
contribute to the protection of the Caucasus. 92
An account given by Priscus from Thracian Panion (c. 420 to after 474)
regarding a Persian embassy to the Byzantine emperor Leo I (457–74) nicely
illustrates the concerns. Priscus is the author of a lost Byzantine history,
which covered the events between 434 and 474; the work primarily yields
information on the confrontations between Byzantium and the Huns but
also gives us insight into the balance of power between Romans, Persians,
Huns, Hephthalites and the Lazes. The surviving fragments are assembled
in the Excerpta de legationibus by Constantinus Porphyrogenitus (905–59). 93
Priscus himself participated in two embassies sent to Attila, the king of the
Huns, in 449 and to Rome in 450 by Theodosius II (408–50) and therefore
must have known the contemporary diplomatic events quite well.
Priscus frg. 41.1 (= FHG iv, frg. 31)
There was also an embassy from the Persian king complaining that some of their
people were seeking refuge with the Romans . . . They also requested that the
Romans contributed money for maintaining the fortress Iuroeipaach, which is
situated by the Caspian Gates, 94 or at least commanded soldiers to its protection
because they would no longer bear the costs and protection of the place by themselves.
For if they withdrew the attacks of the tribes in the area would bear an
impact not only on the Persians but also on the Romans. They added that it was
also necessary that these supported them with money for the war against the so
called Kidarite Huns; for it would be to their own advantage if they defeated this
people and did not let them enter the Roman Empire. The Romans responded that
they would send someone 95 who would discuss all these matters with the Parthian
king. 96 For neither were they receiving refugees nor did they keep the Magians from
practising their religion. With regard to the protection of the fortress Iuroeipaach
and the war against the Huns, they claimed that the Persians had taken these on
in their own accord and did not have a right to request money from the Romans.
The ambassadors referred to the Kidarite Huns, who during the reign of
King Pērōz (459–84) represented a serious threat primarily to the Sasanians.
97 Leo therefore tried to delay the negotiations. According to another
passage in Priscus, in 467 the emperor rejected a new Persian request to
92 Luther 1997: 106.
93 Doblhofer 1955: 11–82 and Blockley 1983: 222–377.
94 Priscus confuses the Caspian Gates at Derbend with the portae Caucasiae.
95 The Romans sent the patricius Constantius to enter negotiations with Pērōz (459–84), which ended
without any actual results; cf. Priscus frg. 41.3 (= FHG iv 106).
96 Priscus refers to the Sasanian ruler Pērōz.
97 Blockley 1985a: 66 and Luther 1997: 112–16; see also Blockley 1981: 121.