Geoffrey Greatrex (2005). Byzantium and the East in - Kaveh Farrokh

The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian
the egalitarian nature of his new system, no doubt to conciliate those
who had supported the Mazdakites. 28 The army too was subject to
reform. Hitherto the Persian king had depended to a great extent on
troops raised by the leading families of Persia to constitute his army.
The most important of these were the heavy cavalry units, drawn from
the upper echelons of Sasanian society, under the overall command of a
supreme commander, the Eran-spahbed, himself a member of one of the
seven noble houses of Persia. Under Khusro, this supreme command
was divided up into four regional commands, each with considerable
autonomy, while other aspects of the system were centralised. Henceforth
soldiers were paid by the state, as well as, in the case of frontier
troops, being endowed with property; subsidies were also established
for the recruitment of cavalry, whereby the state furnished men with
the mounts, weapons, and pay necessary for service. In principle, we
should expect these reforms to have produced a more numerous and
effective army. Yet the evidence suggests that even late in Khusro’s
reign, problems remained: considerable numbers of frontier peoples
were being recruited for Persian service, in return for which they were
granted lands to settle, a concession that implies a shortage of available
manpower. 29
In general, the reigns of Kavadh and Khusro saw an increase in the
extent of royal power; the landed nobility remained important, but now
an aristocracy of service – those who had been rewarded or promoted
by the king – came to the fore. But even as this process took root,
the dispersal of lands to soldiers and foreign settlers, removing lands
from royal control, undermined the power of the king, while tensions
also arose in the tax-raising process. The reign of Khusro I was in many
respects a golden age for Persia, as tradition enshrined it, but his reforms
failed to eliminate fundamental weaknesses in the state. 30
The History of the Eastern Frontier
under Justin I and Justinian
The War under Justin I and Justinian (518–532)
The accession of Justin I occasioned no perceptible change in relations
between Rome and Persia. Sporadic Arab raids continued to be the chief
menace to the frontier provinces; in one of these, two senior Roman
commanders were captured and were recovered only by negotiation
several years later. Although the defection of the new king of Lazica,
Tzath, to the Roman side in 521 was condemned by the Persian king
486
Cambridge Companions Online © Cambridge University Press, 2006