Uncle Vistahm

An uncle willing to kill your father might not be the best person in whom to put your faith. Vistahm and his brother Vinduyih killed Iranian Emperor Hormizd IV (they had reasons) and put his son on the throne as Khosrow II.

They had helped Khosrow during a civil war against his enemy, Bahram Chobin, but eventually he had to order them executed to distance himself from their murder of his father. Vinduyih was caught up with and killed, but Vistahm found enough supporters—including supporters of Bahram Chobin when Bahram's sister Gordita married Vistahm—to create a little kingdom for himself inside Persian territory.

Because of the coins Vistahm was printing with his name and dates (see illustration), we know that he was ruling that area for seven years. Khosrow sent soldiers several times to capture and kill Vistahm, but Vistahm's following was too great. Ultimately Vistahm had to flee to the mountainous province of Gilan.

Although some Armenian sections of Khosrow's army defected to Vistahm, he was finally tracked down and captured by forces led by an Armenian Prince, Smbat IV Bagratuni. Vistahm was killed, but there are two stories about that. One is that, at Khosrow's request, a prince of Transoxiana, Pariowk, killed him. The other is that the urging came from Gordiya.

Why would his wife, whose brother was killed by forces of which Vistahm was originally part? She seems to have had a good head for figuring out where her best future options lay. Once it looked like Vistahm was no longer going to be successful, she was willing to abandon him for something else.

What was that "something else"? Would you be surprised to know that her next husband was a younger man, a powerful man; in fact, that his name was Khosrow II?

Maybe it's time to learn more about Gordiya. See you tomorrow.

Dealing with the Uncles

So Khosrow II had regained his throne and the usurper Bahram Chobin had fled and been killed. Order was restored in the Iranian Empire. Khosrow had originally been put on the throne when his two uncles on his mother's side, Vistahm and Vinduyih, who absolutely hated Khosrow's father, Hormizd IV (who had persecuted aristocratic clans to have more control himself and had killed their father), deposed Hormizd.

During the approach of Bahram's army to Ctesiphon, when Khosrow fled to Azerbaijan, Vinduyih even pretended to be Khosrow when Bahram's force caught up with them, and allowed himself to be captured in order to save his nephew.

Both uncles were rewarded handsomely with money and positions. Vinduyih became the royal treasurer. Vistahm took over his father's title of military chief in the east. 

The shadow of Hormizd's murder hung over Khosrow's reign, however. In order to distance himself from any complicity, Khosrow chose to have his uncles executed. Vinduyih tried to flee to Vistahm, but was captured and killed.

Then Vistahm (understandably) rebelled against Khosrow, sending him a message:

You are not worthier to rule than I am. Indeed, I am more deserving on account of my descent from Darius, son of Darius, who fought Alexander. You Sassanians deceitfully gained superiority over us and usurped our right, and treated us with injustice. Your ancestor Sasan was no more than a shepherd.

There was plenty of support for Vistahm, aided by an unexpected marriage. Bahram's sister, the influential noblewoman Gordiya (see illustration), went to Vistahm and married him. This brought many of Bahram's supporters to Vistahm's side.

Vistahm managed to carve out a very nice principality for himself, thumbing his nose at Khosrow. The estimates of his reign are from 590 to c.594/5. If he had stayed quiet, he might have lasted longer, but he decided to expand toward Khosrow-controlled territory. This set up a more serious clash between the two, about which I will say more tomorrow.

Khosrow II and Bahram

After Hormizd IV was strangled with his own turban by his own followers in 590, his son, now Iranian Emperor Khosrow II, faced the threat of the civil war leader Bahram Chobin heading his way. Khosrow sent a message to Bahram with a gentle warning:

Khosrow, kings of kings, ruler over the ruling, lord of the peoples, prince of peace, salvation of men, among gods the good and eternally living man, among men the most esteemed god, the highly illustrious, the victor, the one who rises with the sun and who lends the night his eyesight, the one famed through his ancestors, the king who hates, the benefactor who engaged the Sassanians and saved the Iranians their kingship—to Bahram, the general of the Iranians, our friend.... We have also taken over the royal throne in a lawful manner and have upset no Iranian customs.... We have so firmly decided not to take off the diadem that we even expected to rule over other worlds, if this were possible.... If you wish your welfare, think about what is to be done.

Bahram continued his march to the capital of Ctesiphon. Khosrow's loyalists initially held off Bahram's forces, despite being outnumbered, but were eventually worn down. Khosrow, his wives, his uncles Vistahm and Vinduyih (who had killed Hormizd) and 30 nobles fled west to lands controlled by the Byzantine Empire.

Bahram declared himself emperor in the summer of 590. Bahram supported his claim by linking his existence and success to a Zoroastrian legend of a savior (mentioned here). He proceeded to do what rulers do: minting his own gold coins (illustration) with his name and likeness on them.

Khosrow, meanwhile, made the desperate move of writing to the Byzantine Emperor Maurice (mentioned here) to ask for help regaining his throne. Despite the frequent Byzantine/Persian clashing, Maurice agreed, in exchange for the return of some cities to Byzantine possession and Iran stopping interfering with Iberia and Armenia.

Some vicious fighting followed, as Khosrow and his people attacked Bahram-controlled territory. General Narses made enough progress into Bahram's territory that Khosrow was again declared king there. Vistahm and Vinduyih also were making progress. Bahram was sufficiently defeated that he fled eastward where he found refuge with the Khagan of the Turks.

Khosrow was back on the throne after having ruled for less than a year and then been exiled for less than a year. Understanding that Bahram was very popular and could still pose a threat, Khosrow sent men to execute him. It would be convenient to say that Bahram's legacy no longer intertwined with Khosrow's, but history doesn't always tie up loose ends neatly. Tomorrow we'll look at Khosrow's reign, new/old threats, and a surprise marriage.

The End of Hormizd IV

So Hormizd IV was dealing with a civil war when a successful military leader decided he was destined to lead the Iranian Empire. Hormizd asked his general Farrukhan to go put down the rebellion. Before setting out, Farrukhan requested that Hormizd release a political prisoner, Zadspram, a military leader whom Farrukhan considered important to success. Zadspram was released.

The armies of Hormizd under Farrukhan faced the army of Bahram Chobin across the River Zab. Neither wanted to be the first to try crossing the river and putting themselves into a vulnerable position. Farrukhan might also have delayed in hopes that the rebellion would dissolve over time.

Unfortunately, Zadspram deserted Farrukhan. This desertion demoralized the army. Two of Farrukhan's officers killed Farrukhan, and the loyalist army fell apart.

Meanwhile, Hormizd was in Ctesiphon, the Iranian royal capital for over 800 years. Enter Vistahm and Vinduyih. They were Hormizd's brothers-in-law, and they hated him. They decided to get Hormizd off the throne, so they blinded him with a red-hot needle in 590. The brothers elevated his son, their nephew Khosrow II (born c.570), to the position of emperor. Not long after, the two dealt with Hormizd permanently by strangling him with his own turban.

Accounts written later disagree on whether Khosrow II was involved in the murder of his father. A few years after the event, Khosrow executed both uncles for the murder of his father, along with others he considered co-conspirators. (More own this in the next few days.)

With the news of the death of Hormizd, Bahram Chobin continued his march to the capital under the public pretext of avenging the assassination of the emperor. Now, however, he was Khosrow II's problem. Whether this would make Khosrow II's reign a short one will be seen tomorrow.

Hormizd IV

Iranian Emperor Khosrow I maintained a level of religious tolerance (except for Mazdakism), during his reign (531 - 579). His son was also tolerant.

Hormizd IV (reigned 579 - 590) turned down requests by the Zoroastrian clergy to persecute Christians. His explanation was:

Just as our royal throne cannot stand on its two front legs without the two back ones, our kingdom cannot stand or endure firmly if we cause the Christians and adherents of other faiths, who differ in belief from ourselves, to become hostile to us. So refrain from harming the Christians and become assiduous in good works, so that the Christians and the adherents of other faiths may see this, praise you for it, and feel themselves drawn toward your religion.

He wanted all living within the empire to be treated as citizens of the empire. One of Hormizd's wives was a Christian, and he is said to have prayed to St. Sergius, a 4th-century Christian soldier.

The Zoroastrian clergy were not okay with this, and treated him with hostility. Hormizd felt it prudent to deal with their threat by executing Zoroastrian clergy who opposed him. There was another Zoroastrian threat, however, that did not come from the clergy.

Bahram Chobin was a military leader from one of the Seven Great Houses of the Sassanian Iranian Empire. He started a civil war against Hormizd. The religious element came from a Zoroastrian holy book that predicted:

...a man shall come from the frontiers of Kavulistan, with whom there will be glory, also of the royal family, whom they will name Kay Bahram; and all men will return with him, and he will rule even over India, Rome, and Turkistan, over all the frontiers.

Bahram's activities were near the end of the millennium of Zoroaster (which had to have started with the Seleucids in 312 BCE to make this work). Bahram began to be hailed by some as the fulfillment of a prophecy. Bahram himself claimed to be the personification of the fire of Mithra.

Hormizd, of course, had his own army, and the two forces faced each other across a river, neither wanting to make the first move and become vulnerable while trying to cross. Tomorrow I'll tell you what ended the civil war about to take place.

The End of Mazdak

Two days ago I promised you a grisly end to Mazdak and his followers. Yesterday was the set-up: Iranian Emperor Kavad tried to be tolerant of Mazdak, a priest who preached a doctrine that was not in line with orthodox Zoroastrianism.

Kavad reached a point where support of Mazdak was detrimental to Kavad's rule. He arranged a debate over the tenets of Mazdakism. Not only Zoroastrian priests, but also Jewish and Christian representatives were invited to all denigrate Mazdak and his beliefs.

Kavad sent Mazdak and all his followers to his son, Khosrow (who would later succeed Kavad as emperor). Kavad's eldest son, Kawus, was a supporter of Mazdakism, and could not be entrusted to do what had to be done.

What happened next was not recorded at the time. The Shahnameh, an epic poem by a Persian in the 10th century (in fact, the longest epic poem in the world created by a single author), tells us what transpired. Khosrow took 3000 followers to a walled garden, where he had them "planted" head-down in the ground, with only their legs showing.

Mazdak himself was then invited by Khosrow, who supposedly said "You will find trees there that no-one has ever seen and no-one ever heard of even from the mouth of the ancient sages." Upon viewing the scene, Mazdak cried out, then fainted. He was hanged and shot with arrows.

Cool story, if true. There is a Jewish tradition that says the Jewish community under a revolutionary named Mar-Zutra II rose up to defeat Mazdak and the Mazdakites and then established a Jewish kingdom that lasted seven years.

"The End of Mazdak" was not necessarily the end of his ideas. Mazdakism survived, however, because a few survivors went to remote areas. An author in the 17th century claimed to have met Mazdakites practicing their beliefs secretly among the Muslims.

Religious tolerance in the Iranian Empire took a strange turn after Khosrow's son succeeded him. That's a story for tomorrow.

Mazdak and Kavad

During the reign of the Sassanian dynasty's Emperor Kavad I (r. 488–531), Zoroastrianism was the dominant religion. An Iranian priest named Mazdak started preaching a different version that came to be called Mazdakism.

The Zoroastrian clergy were very powerful, wealthy through donations at a time when the empire was having economic problems due to the need to provide tributes to some of their neighbors who had defeated them in some military struggles. The control of the Zoroastrian clergy meant the population was ready to embrace something new, but also meant that something new would not be received well by those in the upper class.

Mazdakism preached a dualistic Manichaeism cosmology, that there was a struggle between a good spiritual world of light, and an evil material world of darkness. Mazdakism also opposed war, consumption of meat, and said greed should be eliminated by eliminating personal property. It also said women should be held in common, which may have been an attempt by Mazdak to promote polygamy.

During a famine, grain was being hoarded by the wealthy nobility. Mazdak urged Kavad to help the people by sharing the grain. Kavad was dealing with an increasingly powerful nobility and Zoroastrian clergy, and saw helping the people as a way to garner more popular support to himself.

Kavad was actually deposed by the nobles for his support of Mazdak. He was imprisoned, and his brother Jamasp was enthroned in 496. Procopius tells the story that Kavad's wife went to the man guarding Kavad, offering herself to the guard for sex in exchange for getting to speak to her husband. While in his cell, Kavad and his wife exchanged clothes. An Iranian officer and friend of Kavad had horses ready nearby, helping him escape.

Kavad returned two years after his imprisonment with an army at his back. Fearing a devastating civil war, Jamasp stepped down with the promise that he would not be harmed. Those who plotted the usurpation were executed, however.

Kavad instituted several reforms that were influenced by Mazdakism: pacifism, anti-clericalism, and aid for the poor.

The Zoroastrian clergy were still powerful, however. When Kavad died, they asserted control over the succession. His elder son, Kawus, who had been a supporter of Mazdak, was considered unsuitable. The youngest, Khosrow, became Emperor Khosrow I. Under Khosrow, Mazdakism (and Mazdak) would come to a grisly end. Yesterday's post promised that today, but we will have to wait until tomorrow for the details.

Iranian Religious Tolerance

If the Iranian Empire under the Sassanian Emperor Khosrow I (531 - 579) had an official religion, it would be Zoroastrianism. In fact, Khosrow's older brother was deemed unsuitable to succeed their father as emperor because he supported an offshoot of Zoroastrianism (called Mazdakism after its chief proponent). Khosrow's father, Emperor Kazad I, was even deposed (briefly) because of his dalliance with Mazdakism.

Khosrow's interest in accepting "the good" in other cultures extended to tolerance of other religions. (Unless, of course, it was the "heretical" Mazdakism.) Sassanians were aware of other religions and their prominence in different parts of the East, and treated them as mard/zan ī šahr ("man/woman citizen" (of the Empire). So long as they adhered to the laws of Iran/Persia, they were accepted in society.

Christian and Jewish scholars had even been employed in a formal debate along with Zoroastrians to slander Mazdak.

The Christian "Church of the East" (aka Nestorian Church, aka Assyrian Church) had a leader who was called Catholicos of Iran. During Khosrow's reign this was Mar Abba the Great. Khosrow (usually) got along with Mar Abba, although after the Lazic War there were increased persecutions of Christians. Mar Abba held a 544 synod that created an "orthodoxy of faith" that embedded in it some Persian facets of the Church in the East, like the prohibition of marriage between close kin, following Zoroastrian ideas.

Khosrow even used a Christian diplomat in his communications with the Byzantine Empire. One of his commanders, Gregory, had left Zoroastrianism and converted to Christianity. Khosrow supported Gregory, but the court felt the commander's existence was an insult. One of Gregory's nephews asked Khosrow to execute Gregory. Khosrow tried incarceration first, but ultimately was pressured to execute Gregory.

Worse than being a member of another religion, however, was being a member of Zoroastrianism and departing from Zoroastrian orthodoxy. I suppose I should really tell you about how harshly Mazdak and his followers were treated. Tomorrow's post should carry a warning for those who are squeamish.

Can't wait.

Khosrow the Philosopher King

Although the youngest of four sons and not truly expected to ever become king, Khosrow I (531 - 579) received an extensive education in his youth. Once he became king, he cared deeply about advancing knowledge and culture.

The intellectual center of the Iranian Empire was the city of Gundeshapur, founded centuries earlier as a place to house Roman prisoners of war and used as a royal winter residence. There was an Academy of Gundishapur that Khosrow expanded significantly. It taught astronomy, medicine, philosophy, physics, poetry, and rhetoric. The academy combined knowledge from Greek and Indian sources as well as Iranian.

Gundeshapur taught medicine not under an apprenticeship system. Students worked in a hospital supervised by the entire medical faculty. It is thought that there were even exams required before completion of study. The academy also had a department focused on the study of maritime diseases and their treatment, likely the first in history.

The Encyclopedia Iranica tells us:

John of Ephesus, who even apologizes for eulogizing ... an enemy, states that Ḵosrow “was a prudent and wise man, and all his lifetime he assiduously devoted himself to the perusal of philosophical works … He took pains to collect the religious books of all creeds, and read and studied them, that he might learn which one were true and wise and which were foolish.”

Khosrow himself is believed to have said:

We have not declined to adopt anything which was good nor to avoid anything which was bad. Affection for our forebears did not lead us to accept customs which were not good.

Khosrow's name in Iranian texts during and after his reign is mentioned numerous times. He created a golden age of culture. Part of his ability to do so much was because he concentrated power on his central authority, which angered many of the nobles in the far-reaching empire. After his death, there were significant changes.

He was succeeded by his son, but before we get into that, I want to talk about how Christians fared inside the Iranian Empire whose ruler followed Zoroastrianism. That will be for tomorrow.

Khosrow and The Panchatantra

The Emperor of Iran, Khosrow I (531 - 579) was not just a leader who wanted to go to war with the Byzantines. He wanted to advance his people and culture in all ways, not just militarily.

Yesterday we told the story of the creation of chess and then backgammon as part of a challenge between India and Iran. There was another "cultural exchange" between the two worth mentioning (and was touched on here a few years ago).

The Panchatantra is an ancient Sanskrit collection of animal fables, written down by an anonymous author from stories preserved by oral tradition. It was enormously popular in India, and consists of five frame stories (Panchatantra means "Five Treatises"), each of which has fables that contribute to the main theme. The theme in many is the duty that a leader has to a people.

When Khosrow learned about the Panchatantra, he sent his physician Borzuya to India to make a copy of it. Why a physician? Because what Khosrow heard was that in India was something that could raise the dead.

(Note: yesterday we learned of Khosrow's advisor Borzogmehr. Some think Borzogmehr and Borzuya are the same person, because "Borzuya" can be a shortened form of "Borzogmehr." Other sources say they were two different men.)

Borzuya sailed to India and inquired about the "plant"; he learned it was actually a book, the Panchatantra. The ruler of India did not allow him to make a copy, but Borzuya was allowed to read it in the palace. Borzuya would read a story each day, then at night in his room he would write out what he had memorized and send what he wrote back to Iran.

Khosrow's reaction to reading the fables was to say the book "has given my soul new life." In a sense, therefore, it brought something back to life.

It's refreshing to talk about a ruler without talking about war. Tomorrow let's see what else Khosrow might have done culturally.

Games of Diplomacy

A 7th-century Sanskrit biography of the Indian emperor Harshavardhana written by his court poet Banabhatta contains the first literary mention (we believe) of the game of chess. In it we read that the Indian emperor sent a gift to the Sassanian King Khosrow I. The gift was a game that contained pieces that have been translated in different ways: "royal figures of sculptors" or "fighting terracotta-warriors" or even "When this king reigns, the fight among kings is confined to terracotta statuettes."

The strong assertion is that this was a chess game. (More detail available here; just search for "chess.")

The biography explains that the king of India sent it to Khosrow with a challenge, or taunt:

As your name is the King of Kings, all your emperorship over us connotes that your wise men should be wiser than ours. Either you send us an explanation of this game of chess or send revenue and tribute to us.

Khosrow tossed the challenge to his vizier, Bozorgmehr, who had been an advisor and military commander under Khosrow's father. It took three days, but Bozorgmehr figured out the arrangement and rules of the game of chess. (The illustration shows Bozorgmehr challenging the Indian envoy to a game.)

Khosrow decided that turnabout was fair play, so he had Bozorgmehr design a board game to send to India. The game was called Nard, and was designed to represent Zoroastrian philosophy:

• 30 Checkers: Represent the 30 days of a month.
• 24 Points (Squares): Represent the 24 hours of a day.
• 4 Sections of the Board: Represent the 4 seasons of the year.
• Two Colors (Black and White): Symbolize night and day.
• The Dice: Represent the stars of fate, fortune, and life's unpredictability

Khosrow sent it to the Indian emperor with the same challenge. They failed to decipher the playing of the game, and therefore were obliged to pay tribute to Persia.

And that (we are told) is how these two wildly popular games came to be. Tomorrow we will return to more serious matters, perhaps fables.

Khosrow I

I thought we should learn about the man who was causing such trouble for Justinian I and the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire.

Khosrow was the supreme ruler of Iran from 531 to 579, a very long reign during which he instituted important reforms and created prosperity that survived after his death. Because of the lasting effects of his reign he gained the epithet Anushirvan, Middle Persian for "the Immortal Soul."

When he succeeded his father, Kavad I, Khosrow was still a teenager. As a child he would have started school young and learned reading, writing, riding, archery, and military strategy. As the youngest of four sons, he would not have been expected to become ruler after his father.

About 520, when the Byzantines and the Persians were fighting without definitive victories and therefore making peace treaties, Khosrow's father Kavad suggested to Emperor Justin I (Justinian's father) that Justin adopt Khosrow as a Roman citizen. This was at a time when it seemed highly unlikely that Khosrow would be in the line of succession. This idea of fostering Khosrow at the Byzantine court was a move toward creating more understanding and amity between the two empires. Justin and Justinian were for this, but an advisor warned against it, lest circumstance lead to Khosrow trying to take over the Byzantine throne. Instead they offered to take Khosrow, but only with the rights offered to outsiders, barbarians. Khosrow was insulted, which probably colored his attitude toward the empire to the west in the decades to come.

As it turned out, his three older brothers all had strikes against them that prevented them becoming king.

The eldest, Kawus, was the likeliest heir presumptive, but after a revolt by followers of an offshoot of Zoroastrianism led by a man named Mazdak, and the support that Kawus gave to Mazdak, he was considered disqualified for the succession by the nobles who were all strict Zoroastrians. (Khosrow was a Zoroastrian.)

The next, Jamasp, lost an eye in a battle and was therefore considered unsuitable. The third, Xerxes, led an army that defeated Byzantines in 528 at the Battle of Thannuris. Although a victory, Xerxes was disgraced by Kavad because 500 of his own soldiers were killed.

So when Kavad died, Khosrow became the obvious choice. Before we get into the start of his long and impressive reign however, let's take a departure into the invention of two popular table games connected with him. See you tomorrow.

The Lazic War

While the Byzantine Empire under Justinian I and the Sassanids under Khosrow I might have decided to stop fighting on their southern borders, but hostilities continued in the area east of the Black Sea. This was a 20-year conflict, from 541 to 562.

The Byzantine control had been settled years earlier, in a treaty made in 532 that was called "Eternal Peace" (!) after five years of conflict. Iran recognized the Byzantine control of the place, and the monarch of Lazica, Tzath I, was even made to convert to Christianity and given royal recognition by Justinian's predecessor, Justin I.

In 536, Constantinople reduced their king's authority when the Byzantine general John Tsibus was given military command over Lazica. Tribes also promoted Byzantine merchants over the locals, leading to an uprising in 541. Then-Lazican king Gubazes II requested help from the Persians.

Khosrow I answered the call for help, advancing to Lazica and capturing the Roman-built trade city of Petra. Khosrow declared Lazica under his protection, and withdrew. A Roman invasion of Armenia in 543 was defeated by the Persians.

Lazica had many Christians by that time, and they objected to the increasing Persian influence and control. The Christians threatened an uprising, and this time Gubazes II decided he had to assuage his people, so he requested help from Justinian against the Persians.

Justinian sent 7000 soldiers, who besieged the well-defended Petra unsuccessfully. Persian reinforcements arrived and drove away the siege. Then, 5000 Persians marched to Armenia, but they were defeated by the Byzantines in 549. 

A later siege of Petra was successful, and its defenses were dismantled. Byzantine control of the area around the Black Sea was maintained. Khosrow had his men spread out and conquer as much of Lazica as they could. Meanwhile, Gubazes was arguing with the Byzantine commanders, who killed him. His younger brother Tzathes was made king. The assassination was investigated and the men responsible were executed.

Fighting went back and forth, with no clear victor. This was the perfect time for a treaty to stop wasting men and materiel. A truce was declared with the Fifty Years of Peace treaty in 562.

Khosrow was certainly a thorn in the side of the Byzantines, but they were a thorn in his side just as much. Let's meet the man tomorrow.

Justinian and Iran

When Justinian I became emperor (527 - 565), he inherited from his uncle the war with the Sassanid Empire to the east. This Iranian Empire was ruled by the House of Sassan from 224 to 651 CE.

His chief adversary was Khosrow I, who ruled the Sassanids from 531 to 579. Khosrow inherited the war from his father, Kavad I.

In 541, Justinian sent General Belisarius to the east to take command of Byzantine forces facing the Iranians. Belisarius had recently come from Italy where he had been successful in the Gothic Wars, Justinian's attempts to reunite the Western Roman Empire with his Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. Belisarius was recalled shortly after, possibly because of concerns about his loyalty (especially after a stratagem he used in Italy).

Hostilities between the two empires were halted in 541 at the outbreak of what we call the Justinian Plague, the first appearance of Bubonic Plague in the west. A rebellion in Persia also forced Khosrow to divide his attention between quelling it and the Byzantine front.

Knowing about the rebellion, Justinian ordered a 30,000-strong military invasion of Persian Armenia in 543. They were defeated, partially because (we saw this recently in posts about the Gothic wars), the commanders of the different divisions did not communicate well, nor did they coordinate well. The Byzantine forces were scattered.

Khosrow besieged the Roman-held city of Edessa the following year. He was unsuccessful. 

Without each side making much progress—and the effects of the plague—they lost their taste for strife. In 545 they declared a truce along the southern Roman-Persian border. 

The northern border was another matter. That area was part of a two-decade war called (among other things) the Lazic War. I'll talk about that tomorrow.

The Three-Chapter Controversy

One of Emperor Justinian's (527 - 565) goals—and it was personal as well as professional—was reconciling Chalcedonian Christianity with the non-Chalcedonians.

The Chalcedonians were called so because they followed the resolutions of the 451 CE Council of Chalcedon. That council accepted Trinitarianism, the idea that one God existed in three divine persons, and they were co-eternal, three distinct persons that shared the same essence. It also accepted that Jesus had two natures, one divine and one human. (This is essentially the Roman Catholic tradition.)

This council rejected Arianism, Nestorianism, and others.

What Justinian did was called the "Three-Chapter Controversy" because it rejected three different ideas/sets of documents that existed:

1. The writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia, whose writings included what were considered heresies.
2. The letter of Ibas of Edessa, associated with the growth of Nestorianism, and who promoted the idea of Theodore of Mopsuestia.
3. Some writings of Theodoret of Cyrus, a 5th-century theological commentator who would not reject Nestorius of Constantinople, and wrote opposing Cyril of Alexandria's attack on Nestorius.

Justinian wanted one universal religion throughout the empire. Opposition/heresy had to be quelled. About 543/44 he issued an edict that rejected the above-mentioned writings, hoping that the eastern bishoprics (who favored them) would accept the Council of Chalcedon and result in religious unity.

There was resistance to the edict, partially because of religious obstinance, partially because the Latin-speaking authorities did not read Greek and could not understand the writings mentioned, and could not therefore discuss them intelligently.

The council called by Justinian to discuss and ratify his edict (to which he sent Belisarius as an emissary) had little effect in the East. More concerned with encroaching Persians than changes in theology, Justinian's dream of a catholic theology throughout his empire failed.

Tomorrow we'll look at the ongoing threat of the Persians.

Justinian's Empire

We've been talking lately about Emperor Justinian I and the Eastern Roman Empire trying to reunite with the Western Roman Empire in the Gothic Wars. Ostrogoths had taken over much of Italy, and Justinian wanted the west back under his control. He failed, but not for lack of trying. Also, he had many more things on his imperial plate.

Although he could not hold Italy, the red line seen in the illustration shows the extent of the area in which he had influence, not just control.

Despite operating out of Constantinople/Byzantium, and despite the tendency to think of this as the Byzantine Empire, Justinian and his people felt they were the extension and continuation of the Christian Roman Empire. (My recent posts refer to the soldiers sent by Justinian as "Byzantines" because of the original name of the city, not some national identity).

Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus was born in 482 in what is now southern Serbia, east of Kosovo, near where he later founded the city of Justiniana Prima in 535. He also made it the seat of a new archbishopric. It is currently an archaeological site, and was only occupied until 615 CE.

His mother was Vigilantia, a sister of an army commander named Justin, who later became emperor. Justin I adopted Justinian and took him to Constantinople to ensure a good education and future for the boy. Justinian learned theology, Roman history, and law. His native language was Latin, and he was possibly the last emperor in Constantinople who was a native speaker of Latin, since his successors were all from Greek-speaking areas.

He ruled from 527 to 565. In that time he accomplished many things that weren't all about defending or conquering territory. For instance, he instigated major overhauling of the Corpus Juris Civilis, the body of Roman civil law. He was responsible for rebuilding the Hagia Sophia, the Dome of the Holy Wisdom. He was called "the emperor who never sleeps" for his ambitious plans and work ethic.

One of the issues he had to deal with during his reign was the matter of Chalcedonian Christianity. Justinian was a Chalcedonian. What made him different and why it was controversial is a topic for next time.

Rome Changes Hands Again

Totila's behavior in Rome after the Siege enhanced his reputation. He did not kill very many—there weren't that many left to kill!) and he only destroyed part of the walls, reacting to the letter from Belisarius about preserving the great city and ensuring he would not be seen by posterity as a monster.

It looked like Totila wanted to restore Rome the way things were under Theodoric of the Ostrogoths, but he had to leave Rome with a small garrison and head south to Apulia (the "heel" of the Italian peninsula) where John the Sanguinary had re-conquered some territory on behalf of the Byzantines.

The small garrison Totila left behind was overcome by Belisarius in April 546, however (although it took two attempts). Belisarius was able to recruit from the surrounding towns to increase his army and rebuild the walls. He hadn't restored the gates when Totila returned, but he placed a fighting force that was able to counter the Goth tempts to enter. In one skirmish, Tortila's standard-bearer was killed, the standard fell, and the Byzantines tried to seize it—always seen as demoralizing for the other side. The Goths did manage to retrieve it, but retreated.

Totila returned realized that recovering Rome would require another siege, which he was not up for. He left Rome to control by the Byzantines where it remained until January 550, when Totila once again captured the city.

Justinian had many other problems during his reign as emperor, so many that he eventually gave up trying to reunite the Western Roman Empire with his Eastern half. Soon it would cease to be known as the Roman Empire and simply be the Byzantine Empire.

Let's look next time at some of the other consequential matters facing Justinian, not all of which were military.

Totila in Rome

In 546, Goth King Totila walked into Rome after a year-long siege.

The city was nearly empty due to starvation and suicide brought on by the siege. The siege had been so devastating for the inhabitants that Isaurian members of the guard helped the Goths scale the walls and open the gates.

Unlike the typical behavior of Germanic tribes when going through enemy territory, Totila had shown great restraint and not ravaged the countryside. It seems he wanted to restore the era of Theodoric, ruling the peninsula and nominally "under" the emperor in Constantinople. Totila went to St. Peter's Basilica to pray, showing his intention to be peaceful and a good leader.

If Justinian would not allow the suggested arrangement, however, Totila intended to punish Rome itself by destroying it. Justinian told Totila's messengers that Belisarius was in charge of the war, and sent them back. Totila started tearing down the outer walls: he did not want to waste leaving soldiers to hold the city, and didn't want it defensible if the Byzantines re-captured it.

Procopius wrote that Totila claimed he would turn Rome into "a sheep pasture." Hearing of this, General Belisarius (who had failed to lift the siege) wrote Totila a letter, warning him that destruction of Rome would result in the opposite of what Totila wanted to achieve: being seen as a noble ruler:

As those to whom a city owes the construction of beautiful buildings are reputed wise and civilised, so those who cause their destruction are naturally regarded by posterity as persons devoid of intelligence, true to their own nature. Of all cities under the sun Rome is admitted universally to be the greatest and most important. She attained this pre-eminence not suddenly nor by the genius of one man, but in the course of a long history throughout which emperors and nobles by their vast resources and employing skillful artists from all parts of the world have gradually made her what you see her today. Her monuments belong to posterity, and an outrage committed upon them will rightly be regarded as a great injustice to all future generations as well as to the memory of those who created them. Therefore consider well. Should you be victorious in this war, Rome destroyed will be your own loss, preserved it will be your fairest possession. Should it be your fortune to be defeated, the conqueror will owe you gratitude if you spare Rome, whereas if you demolish it, there will be no reason for clemency, while the act itself will have brought you no profit. And remember that your reputation in the eyes of the world is at stake.

Totila relented, and left a small force behind as he went south to re-take some territory that had been re-captured by John the Sanguinary.

That was an "Oops."

I'll explain tomorrow.

The Siege of Rome (545)

In May 544, General Belisarius and a mere 4000 men were camped along the Adriatic coast, sent by Emperor Justinian I to counter the Gothic army of Totila that was reclaiming territory that the Byzantines had taken from the Ostrogoths during the first part of the Gothic Wars. Totila himself was marching on Rome, ready to besiege the one major city that had resisted him before now.

There is evidence that Totila had reached out to Constantinople to suggest a healthy relationship between the two. Totila could hold Italy as a sub-domain of the old Roman (now largely Byzantine) Empire. It looked, however, like this aim was not to be achieved peacefully. Totila would have to face Constantinople to recognize his authority in Italy.

The Siege of Rome did not begin until the end of 545. Although Totila preferred open combat to sitting through long sieges, Rome was too well-defended by strong walls and could best be conquered by starving the inhabitants. Inside Rome, the Byzantine commanders Conon and Bessas had 3000 soldiers. The Gothic navy was guarding the ports from which Rome might have received fresh supplies. What supplies of grain they had were sold by Conon at inflated prices. Procopius records that the citizens who were too poor to pay were reduced to eating nettles, dogs, and even mice (and "each other's dung," but that is difficult to take as anything other than exaggeration). Famine led some to suicide.

Belisarius sent men led by Valentinus to harass the Goths. Valentinus sent messages to Conon to coordinate attacks from without and within the walls, but Conon would not open the gates and come out. Valentinus' cavalry could not do much damage against the large Gothic force outside the walls. A later attempt was betrayed by a Byzantine soldier who defected to Totila's side. The Byzantines were devastated by the Goths.

The Siege lasted a year, and ended with a betrayal. Some Isaurian Guards planned to betray the city to the Goths. Supposedly, Bessas and Conon were informed of this but took no action to deter it. In December 546, a year after the siege had begun, the Isaurians assisted Goths to scale the walls at night and then open the Asinarian Gate. The Goths entered Rome through the same gate that Belisarius had used years earlier when he originally captured it from the Ostrogoths.

Tomorrow I'll tell you what happened when Totila entered Rome, and the letter Belisarius sent him.

Totila as War Leader

King Totila of the Ostrogoths, although the enemy and a barbarian, was still recognized by Procopius as an impressive figure:

The armour in which he was clad was abundantly plated with gold and the ample adornments which hung from his cheek plates as well as his helmet and spear were not only purple, but in other respects befitting a king … And he himself, sitting upon a very large horse, began to dance under arms skillfully between the two armies. And as he rode he hurled his javelin into the air and caught it again as it quivered above him, then passed it rapidly from hand to hand, shifting it with consummate skill.

He also did not act the way the Mediterranean Procopius thought Germanic barbarians usually acted. The Roman/Byzantine depiction of Germanic warriors was of a group that ravaged the countryside. Totila, however, was well aware that he needed to win over the people as their king, and instead got what he needed to provision his army by collecting taxes from the towns he captured liberated from Byzantine rule.

He accepted Byzantine deserters into the ranks of his army, and it is said brought slaves into the military train, no doubt to provide non-fighting tasks like cooking and tending the wounded.

Totila showed restraint and wisdom in another incident, when after the siege of Naples he gained access to the town and its starving citizens. Food was sent on ships to aid them, but Totila captured those ships, killing the crew. With the surrender of the city, he prepared to use the provisions to feed the natives.

He knew, however, that starving people would show little restraint, and might very well make themselves ill by gorging too much when food became suddenly plentiful. Procopius explains his solution:

He posted sentinels at the gates and in the harbor and allowed no one to leave the city. Then he dealt out small rations, gradually increasing the quantity every day until the people had recovered their strength. The terms of the capitulation were more than faithfully observed. Conon and his followers were embarked in ships with which the Goths provided them, and when, deciding to sail for Rome, they were hindered by contrary winds, Totila furnished horses, provisions, and guides so that they could make the journey by land.

Despite wanting Byzantines out of Italy, Totila wanted peaceful relations with Constantinople. There was one prize that eluded him, however, and that was Rome, still under imperial control and defended by very strong walls. Totila preferred open battle, but Rome required a siege. Tomorrow we'll start the Siege of Rome.

Totila the Ostrogoth

Although the coins later minted during his reign as king of the Osgtrogoths name him Baduila, he has become known as Totila through the writings of men like Procopius. "Totila" was a diminutive name, made to make him sound less legitimate.

In one sense he was illegitimate, since he was not slated to become king. His uncle, King Ildibad, was assassinated in 541 and succeeded by Eraric. Eraric, however, had been negotiating with the Byzantines to hand over control of the Gothic kingdom in exchange for money. When this became known, Pavia offered the throne to Totila. Totila helped plan the assassination of Eraric after only five months of his reign, and was made king himself.

So Procopius and other writers of the empire labeled him a usurper, thereby legitimizing war against him, especially since under Eraric there was a chance for peace between Goths and Byzantines. Totila began a campaign of trying to drive out the Byzantines from Italy.

One of the first encounters between the two forces was the Battle of Faventia (modern Faenza) in the spring of 542. Totila had 5000 men against 12,000 Byzantines. It was not a planned battle, however. The Byzantines were marching away after a failed Siege of Verona. Totila sent 300 archers by a faster route to attack the Byzantines. While they were distracted by this, Totila's men approached. The Goths suggested single combat between two champions.

The Goth Valaris was killed by Artabazes the Armenian, but it had been planned as a sacrifice anyway, since Totila used the single combat to delay the Byzantines while the Goths all crossed the river Po and attacked the Byzantines from behind. The resulting disarray turned the encounter into a victory for the Goths. (One of the Byzantine commanders was the same Alexander mentioned here.) This victory netted the Goths prisoners and the capture of some military standards, a grave loss for Byzantine morale.

This was followed by the Battle of Mucellium, where Totila's men attacked from a hill, surprising and scattering the larger Byzantine force. The military commanders fled to different strongholds and failed to coordinate, giving Totila room to advance and reclaim more territory. His army also grew, attracting not only natives but also some Byzantine soldiers who had deserted their army.

The Goths were besieging Dryus, a Byzantine garrison, which was running out of supplies. This was when Belisarius arrived back in Italy. Aware of the situation in Dryus, he sent ships with supplies, whose arrival was not noted by the Goths. The Goths abandoned the siege when they realized the garrison had been re-provisioned and could hold out longer.

Totila needed information about Belisarius and his plans. Fortunately, he had former Byzantine soldiers now among his following, and he used them as spies. We will continue this tomorrow.

Belisarius Returns to Italy

The Gothic Wars (535 - 554) under Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I were created to reunify the Western Roman Empire with the Eastern. They were successful, thanks to the strategies and (in one case) subterfuge of General Belisarius. After his initial success, however, Belisarius had to return to deal with additional problems, some of them caused by his own people.

Italy had been divided among several military commanders so that no one man would gain enough power to try to set up his own kingdom. That did not mean, however, that all the commanders were ethical. One of these commanders, a man named Alexander, turned out to be corrupt. One of his corrupt acts was the crime of "coin clipping": trimming the edges off gold coins and using the gold bits to make your own coins or to sell.

Alexander also charged soldiers under his command with corruption and forced them to pay fines. His soldiers began to mutiny, and some to simply quit. The Justinian Plague also meant many commanders did not want to leave their barracks and risk becoming infected.

The Goths took advantage of this timidity. Some Goth leaders, Ildibad and Totila, decided the opportunity to re-take their territory was worth the risk of catching the plague. They easily won several battles and sieges, gaining control over much of their old kingdom except for Rome, which was too large and too well-defended.

In 544 General Belisarius was told to go to Italy and reverse these outcomes. The Plague and troubles on the eastern border made it difficult to assemble troops, however, and he only had a force of about 4000.

Belisarius and Totila had different approaches. Totila had faith that his men would prevail in open battles. Belisarius had shown that he was good at sieges. Totila did not want to be stuck inside a city or  sit outside them for months waiting for a defensive force to run out of supplies, so he destroyed the walls of towns that he conquered to prevent either of those possibilities.

Belisarius was going to go up against a strong leader and decent strategist, Totila (seen above destroying the walls of Florence). Let's meet the man next time.

The Nika Riots, Part 3

Emperor Justinian's plan to end the Nika Riots involved bribes. One difficulty about the Riots was that two large and influential rival factions, the Blues and the Greens, had joined together against the imperial administration. The Greens were mostly working class: merchants, tradesmen, craftsmen. The Blues, however, were more elite, and more willing to listen to the emperor.

These two factions filled the Hippodrome, the site of chariot races that was attached to the imperial palace. Narses, a eunuch, was given gold with which to bribe the Blues. He entered the Hippodrome through the entrance used by the Blue chariot teams, going to the most influential members of the Blues. He reminded them that Justinian considered them his favorites instead of the Greens. He gave them the gold for their embers, and told them what the emperor wanted in return.

The riots had called for replacing Justinian with Hypatius, a nephew of a former emperor, Anastasius I. Hypatius had taken refuge in the palace with Justinian. An announcement went out that Hypatius would be crowned emperor at the Hippodrome. The teams let down their guard, thinking they were getting a happy outcome.

During the mock coronation, the Blues stood apart from the Greens, having been informed what would happen next. General Belisarius and his troops then entered the Hippodrome and started killing rioters. Belisarius took Hypatius and his brother Pompeius into custody while the soldiers killed anyone, Blues as well as Greens.

Procopius claimed that 30,000 people were killed, although it is likely that many of those deaths were caused not by the soldiers but by the stampede to get out of the Hippodrome. Although it would seem that Hypatius and Pompeius were innocent, Justinian now saw them as a potential threat to his power and had them executed (although later he gave their properties and royal titles to the men's children). Senators who had supported the rioters were exiled and their properties confiscated. John the Cappadocian, whose dismissal was demanded (and received) by the rioters, was reinstated.

Theophanes (c.759 - 817), writing over 200 years later, said the chariot races were not held for a long time afterward. A contemporary chronicler, John Malalas (c.491 - 578), says 35,000 were killed, although he did not have the "inside track" that Procopius had.

General Belisarius went on to be Justinian's chief commander of the military, involved in the first phase of the Gothic Wars, then having to return to northern Italy again to deal with problems (this was before the Justinian Plague and the Lombard invasion). We'll start looking at his return tomorrow.

The Nika Riots, Part 2

Let's look at how Emperor Justinian managed to stop the Nika Riots and save Constantinople. We saw yesterday how the Blue and Green factions were angered over the treatment of some of their own people, and how an attempt by Justinian to placate them with a chariot race erupted into rioting.

Now, previous emperors had sometimes canceled chariot races to avoid bringing people together and getting their adrenalin and testosterone built up, but Justinian took a different approach. He thought a chariot race would appease the crowd and give them something to focus on besides rioting.

How bad had the rioting become? They demanded that Justinian get rid of a prefect, John the Cappadocian, and one other legal administrator. Justinian agreed, and appeared in public from his balcony over the Hippodrome to apologize for the problems of his administration. He carried a Bible, and declared amnesty for all the rioters if they would cease the riots.

They were not appeased, however. Some wanted to declare a new emperor, and picked Hypatius,  a nephew of former emperor Anastasius I who was a favorite of the working-class Greens. Hypatius, uncertain of having popular support and not wishing to go against Justinian, took refuge from the crowd in the imperial palace with Justinian. Hypatius had a brother, Pompeius, who joined him. A cousin, Probus, another nephew of Anastasius, also wanted nothing to do with a potential hostile change in succession and fled the city.

The riots showed no sign of winding down in the next couple days, and Justinian considered fleeing Constantinople himself. The sea was open to him. His wife, Theodora, stopped him, saying (according to Procopius, who may, of course, have been embellishing) "Those who have worn the crown should never survive its loss. Never will I see the day when I am not saluted as empress." (Sounds like she didn't like the thought of exile, no matter how lavish it might be.)

A plan was crafted to quell the danger by bribing some of the rioters and overwhelming others. The plan started with Narses, a eunuch who had no connections or loyalties outside of the royal family that he served, and could therefore be trusted to carry out the first phase. (Narses would later be known as a military strategist during the Gothic Wars.)

Tomorrow I'll tell you how the plan worked.

The Nika Riots, Part 1

Constantinople during the reign  of Emperor  Justinian I (482 - 565) saw a tumultuous week in 532. The catalyst was a little earlier, when in 531 the city prefect, Eudaimon, arrested some citizens in connection with deaths that took place after a chariot race.

As we see today in the USA, after an intense sporting event there may be brawls that take place between fans of the opposing teams. From Ancient Rome to the time of which I speak (and beyond), the supporters of chariot-racing teams were very vocal and (at times) very violent. I spoke more about them yesterday, especially the Blues and the Greens.

Well, the brawl resulted in some deaths, and Eudaimon arrested some members of the Blues' and Greens' "fan clubs." Found guilty, they were sentenced to be executed for murder. On 10 January 532, the executions were to be carried out by hanging.

One Blue and one Green survived when, unexpectedly, the wooden scaffolding broke. This seemed to be an act of Providence, and monks from the monastery of St. Conon hurried the two survivors to a nearby church for sanctuary. Eudaimon, foiled in his attempt to seek justice, surrounded the sanctuary with his troops to prevent their escape.

This was very concerning to Justinian, who had plenty of other potential problems on his mind without angering two of the largest and most vocal groups in the city. On the eastern front he was trying to establish a peace treaty with the Persians after a six-year war. Demanding the two men be executed as planned could make things worse. Justinian was also blamed for high taxes and accusations of corruption in high government officials.

In order to avoid further unrest, he therefore decreed that their death sentence would be commuted to life imprisonment. He also declared a chariot race to be held on the 13th. The races were held in the Hippodrome (circled in red above), which was attached to the palace complex. Justinian was able to view the races and be seen from a safe balcony in his palace.

The races commenced, with the usual chants of the Blues and the Greens to cheer on their teams. As the day wore on, however, the tone changed. Instead of shouting out "Blues" or "Greens," they started shouting Nika!, "Victory" (or, if used as an imperative verb, "Conquer"). The crowds surged toward the palace itself, starting riots that lasted a week. Buildings were burned, including the Hagia Sophia, which Justinian would later have to rebuild.

Justinian's attempt at "bread and circuses," hosting more games to occupy and appease the rioters, failed. There was real fear that the city would be destroyed or the emperor overthrown. Tomorrow we'll see how it was resolved, although "resolved" is an awfully sanitized word for how it was ended.

The Blues and Greens

People love sports, and people love their sports teams, and rivalries abound. 'Twas ever thus, and Ancient Rome was no exception.

In Rome and the later Byzantine Empire, chariot races were extremely popular, so popular that the different teams, called demes (from a Greek word meaning "people" as in the words democracy and demography, but here used to mean "faction"), that were so persistently popular and polarizing that they became social and political forces and could be fiercely opposed to each other. The Blues included many of higher status, while the Greens were more of a working-class group.

There were four factions: the Blues (Veneti), the Greens (Prasini), the Reds (Russati), and the Whites (Albati); these colors were first mentioned by Pliny the Elder. The largest and most powerful were the Blues and Greens. These factions maintained their identities over centuries, starting with the time of Augustus in the 1st century BCE and lasting into the 8th century CE and beyond.

It is the 6th century in the Eastern Roman Empire that we will concern ourselves with, and the time of Emperor Justinian I (482 - 565). Although some modern scholars minimize the impact these factions had on society, evidence of the Nika Riots shows how strong an effect they could have on major cities where large numbers of the different colors resided.

Whole neighborhoods were described as pro-Blue or pro-Green. The factions created their own militias, and the emperor would sometimes request help from them in military matters. They even got involved in religious matters. When the Council of Chalcedon met, their conclusions were supported by the Blues, while the Greens were opposed (although these distinctions were not universal).

Even a 12th-century scholar, Theodore Balsamon, whose writings preserved information from earlier sources now lost to us, when writing about the Council of Trullo (in 692), comments that the emperors had no control over the factions and had to appease them.

Justinian, according to contemporary chroniclers Procopius and Evagrius Scholasticus, favored the Blues, likely because they included more elites and politicians. This made the Blues more arrogant and likely to cause trouble in Constantinople for others. Despite this, there were times when all factions felt the need to speak out against the state and join forces. One such time was the Nika Riots, when the Blues and the Greens united against Justinian. It started when the prefect of Constantinople arrested some members of the Blues and Greens in connection with some deaths during riots after (what else?) a chariot race.

The suspects were all to be executed, and on 10 January 532, the sentence was carried out. The Riots did not come about because of the executed men, but because of two—one Blue and one Green—who escaped execution by luck. I'll explain tomorrow.

General Belisarius

Flavius Belisarius (c.500 - March 565) was Byzantine Emperor Justinian's favorite military commander. He successfully managed to gain control of Northern Italy from the Ostrogoths during the Gothic Wars, and then was sent back to Italy when the Lombards invaded.

He was probably born in what is now Bulgaria, and a part of the Eastern Roman Empire (Constantinople still thought of itself as the Eastern Roman Empire; the Gothic wars were Justinian's attempt to re-unite with the Western Roman Empire). In his 20s he was a guardsman for Justinian, who at the time was not emperor but a prince and the nephew of Emperor Justin. Belisarius later was given the command to create a regiment of heavy cavalry armed with lances, bows, and long swords. This later grew to be 7000 men.

Although his early career saw him defeated many times, he retained Justinian's confidence. When Emperor Justin died in 527, Justinian took the throne and gave Belisarius command of the armies in the east. In the summer of 530, Belisarius managed an impressive defeat over the Sassanids (Persians) by digging trenches that forced the Persian cavalry into a vulnerable position. The Sassanid leader, King Kavad I, requested peace negotiations with the Byzantines.

A later loss to the Persians, however, caused him to be recalled to Constantinople and charged with incompetence.

Justinian was attempting some reforms against corruption that led ultimately to the Nika Riots, where Belisarius distinguished himself. They've been mentioned before, but it's time to explain how they came about, the intense rivalry between the Blues and the Greens, and the definitive way Belisarius dealt with the riots.

Post-Plague Constantinople

Although during the horrific events of the first recorded appearance of the Bubonic Plague during the time of Justinian we read that rivals put aside their differences, the aftermath did not usher in a golden age of humanity.

A chief chronicler of that time, Procopius, tells us that people started changing the course of their lives and acted according to their "better angels":

Nay, more, those who in times past used to take delight in devoting themselves to pursuits both shameful and base, shook off the unrighteousness of their daily lives and practiced the duties of religion with diligence, not so much because they had learned wisdom at last nor because they had become all of a sudden lovers of virtue, as it were—for when qualities have become fixed in men by nature or by the training of a long period of time, it is impossible for them to lay them aside thus lightly, except, indeed, some divine influence for good has breathed upon them—but then all, so to speak, being thoroughly terrified by the things which were happening, and supposing that they would die immediately, did, as was natural, learn respectability for a season by sheer necessity.

This virtuous behavior did not last in those who turned to it simply because they feared they were dying:

Therefore, as soon as they were rid of the disease and were saved, and already supposed that they were in security, since the curse had moved on to other peoples, then they turned sharply about and reverted once more to their baseness of hearts.

Still, the status quo would have been manageable, except that more had changed than just behavior:

And work of every description ceased, and all the trades were abandoned by the artisans, and all other work as well, such as each had in hand. Indeed, in a city which was simply abounding in all good things, starvation almost absolute was running riot. Certainly, it seemed a difficult and very notable thing to have a sufficiency of bread or of anything else; so that with some of the sick it appeared that the end of life came about sooner than it should have come by reason of the lack of the necessities of life.

Justinian couldn't raise the taxes he needed to continue his building projects—particularly the churches he wanted to build to appease God. He also couldn't maintain a military presence as he would prefer, and lost much of northern Italy to the Lombards, after just recently conquering it from the Ostrogoths.

In fact, let us return to northern Italy at this time and see how the plague affected the fighting there. To do this, we'll accompany General Belisarius, who had been so successful just a couple years earlier.

Burial During Justinian's Plague, Part 2

Just because deaths during the Justinian Plague were so numerous that they couldn't dig graves and had to resort to piling them up in stone towers doesn't mean that "proper" funerary procedures weren't followed.

Procopius does state that "At that time all the customary rites of burial were overlooked."

A "proper" funeral involved a procession by friends and relatives and a priest to the place of interment—either a tomb or a cemetery plot—with chanting. The priest would have been notified as soon after death as possible, so he could start spraying for the deceased. Relatives would stay with the deceased and read prayers in order to aid the soul to understand that it is entering the afterlife.

The decedent would be washed and dressed according to their station in the community, and sometimes covered with a white cloth. His or her hands would be crossed on their chest. There was a memorial service at the gravesite and chanting while the body was lowered into its final resting place.

This procedure was not possible when thousands were dying each day. Procopius tells us:

For the dead were not carried out escorted by a procession in the customary manner, nor were the usual chants sung over them, but it was sufficient if one carried on his shoulders the body of one of the dead to the parts of the city which bordered on the sea and flung him down; and there the corpses would be thrown upon skiffs in a heap, to be conveyed wherever it might chance.

The shared grief brought enemies together:

At that time, too, those of the population who had formerly been members of the factions laid aside their mutual enmity and in common they attended to the burial rites of the dead, and they carried with their own hands the bodies of those who were no connections of theirs and buried them.

It was not long before this that General Belisarius had stopped the Nika Riots, fighting between two factions in Constantinople (the blues and the greens) who hostility toward each other threatened to tear Constantinople apart.

It would be nice to think that this tragedy brought people together in a permanent detente. Tomorrow we'll see id that was the case.

Burial During Justinian's Plague, Part 1

Sometimes a disaster strikes a civilization that kills so many so fast that the systems for providing support and burial cannot keep up. Such was the case when the Bubonic Plague came to town. One of the earliest recorded cases of the plague sweeping through civilization came during the time of Emperor Justinian I of Constantinople.

Procopius, who recorded much of the history of this era, wrote of the advance of the plague and how it affected its victims. He also tells us of the impact it had on society:

Now the disease in Byzantium ran a course of four months, and its greatest virulence lasted about three. And at first the deaths were a little more than the normal, then the mortality rose still higher, and afterwards the tale of dead reached five thousand each day, and again it even came to ten thousand and still more than that. Now in the beginning each man attended to the burial of the dead of his own house, and these they threw even into the tombs of others, either escaping detection or using violence; but afterwards confusion and disorder everywhere became complete. For slaves remained destitute of masters, and men who in former times were very prosperous were deprived of the service of their domestics who were either sick or dead, and many houses became completely destitute of human inhabitants. For this reason, it came about that some of the notable men of the city because of the universal destitution remained unburied for many days.

Modern scholars doubt that the number reached 10,000 per day, but generally agree that 5,000 per day was a believable number. These dead were so numerous that burial in the ground was no longer possible. An unusually creative method for containing the corpses was employed:

And when it came about that all the tombs which had existed previously were filled with the dead, then they dug up all the places about the city one after the other, laid the dead there, each one as he could, and departed; but later on those who were making these trenches, no longer able to keep up with the number of the dying, mounted the towers of the fortifications in Sycae, and tearing off the roofs threw the bodies there in complete disorder; and they piled them up just as each one happened to fall, and filled practically all the towers with corpses, and then covered them again with their roofs. As a result of this an evil stench pervaded the city and distressed the inhabitants still more, and especially whenever the wind blew fresh from that quarter.

Sycae was in Thrace. Climbing outside a tower and dropping corpses into it to fill it up was a truly horrific and gruesome solution to a problem.

A proper funeral had certain actions to be performed. Were these actions completely ignored in the haste to dispose of the diseased bodies? Not necessarily. Tomorrow we'll look at how to have a "proper" funeral when your goal is to eliminate too many bodies. (The illustration is a picture of bones from a mass grave of plague victims during the Justinian Plague.)