Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

260 9 Exchange of information between West and East
who lived during the reign of ˇ Sāpūr II, when comprehensive persecutions
of Christians took place in the Sasanian Empire (31).
Martyrology of Pusai under ˇ Sāpūr II, Acta martyrum et sanctorum,
ed. P. Bedjan, ii 208–10
This illustrious Pusai was one of the descendants of the captives whom ˇ Sāpūr the
son of Hormizd 72 had brought from the territory of the Romans and had settled
in the city of Vēh ˇ Sāpūr which is in the province of Fārs, for the father of this
Pusai had arrived in that captivity. 73 He was a person at ease with his way of life
in this world, and was a believer in Christ before he was taken captive. He lived,
then, by order of the king, in the city of Vēh ˇ Sāpūr, and he made himself a native
in it, and married a Persian woman from the city, and converted her, and baptised
his children, and raised and instructed them in Christianity. Now when this king
ˇSāpūr the son of Hormizd, he who stirred up the persecution against the churches
of the east, 74 built Karhā d-Lādān and brought captives from various regions and
settled them in it, it was also pleasing to him that from all the peoples of the cities
which were in the territories of his dominion he should bring thirty families, more
or less, and settle them among them, so that through the mingling of their people
the captives should be bound by their families and by their love, so that it should
not be easy for them to return by flight, a few at a time, to the territories from which
they had been taken captive. 75 Now ˇ Sāpūr planned this by his cunning, but God
in his compassion made use of it to bring about good, for through the mingling of
the captives with the peoples he captured the peoples for the knowledge of truth,
and made them disciples on the way of verity. Like the other families whom they
brought from various regions and settled in Karh‚ by the command of ˇ Sāpūr son
of Hormizd, so also they brought [families] from the city of Vēh ˇ Sāpūr which is
in Fars. Among these whom they brought from Vēh ˇ Sāpūr they also brought the
blessed Pusai, and his wife and children, and brothers and sisters, and the people
of his household, and they settled them in Karhā d-Lādān. Pusai was a skilled
craftsman, and was especially expert in the making of woven cloth and in the
embroidery of gold filigree. And he was one of those craftsmen whom king ˇ Sāpūr
gathered together from all the peoples, the captives and his own subjects, and made
into a single, multi-tiered, guild, and he established a workshop for them beside
his palace in Karhā d-Lādān. Now the blessed Pusai, because he was excellent at
his craft, was praised before the king, and he was continually giving him honours
and great gifts. Indeed, after a short time he made him chief craftsman, as day by
day the man grew in honour and praise.
72 According to Braun 1915: 58 n. 2 this must be a confusion and refer to ˇ Sāpūr I, son of Ardaˇsīr, during
whose reign many Roman prisoners of war were deported to the Sasanian homelands.
73 On Pusai see Schwaigert 1989: 155–9.
74 On the persecution of Christians during the reign of ˇ Sāpūr II (309–79) cf. pp. 220–1 (31).
75 This refers to the desire of the deported population to return to their home countries.