THE RULE OF YEZDEGERD I
His successor, Yezdegerd I, a son of Sapor II or Sapor III, seemed to have been designated as heir to the throne or otherwise invested with some sovereign dignity even during the life-time of Bahram IV, for his name appears on coins in conjunction with the king’s.
For all that he was far from being a Christian, and did not scruple to visit with severe chastisement the blind zeal which led Bishop Abda of Susiana to violate Zoroastrian sanctuaries. But the measure of toleration which he extended to Christianity was enough to rouse the hatred of the Persian priesthood, while the warlike nobility were probably ill pleased by his earnest desire to maintain peace with Rome. In the summer of 408 he concluded a firm treaty of peace and alliance, by which he seems to have undertaken a formal guarantee for the reign of the emperor Theodosius II, then a minor. He set a trustworthy vassal king over Persian Armenia in the person of his son Sapor. We have every reason to regard him as a skilful ruler for his time and country. But he was not well pleasing to the god of Persia. Wherefore he caused him to die suddenly in marvellous wise in far Hyrcania. We prosaically interpret this miracle to mean that he was murdered by the despotic nobles (probably late in the summer of 420); even as his three predecessors had been violently deprived of their sovereignty, and two of them murdered.
After his death, his son Sapor hastened from Armenia to the capital, no doubt intending to become king of the empire, but was murdered by the great nobles, for the latter were so exasperated against Yezdegerd that they resolved to exclude his sons from the succession. They chose a distant relative of his, Chosroes by name, to be their king. But another son of Yezdegerd, Bahram by name, contested his claim to the throne. During his father’s life-time this son had lived, presumably in a sort of banishment, with al-Mundhir (Alamundaros) the Arab king of Hira (west of the Euphrates and on the borders of the desert), a powerful vassal king. The latter supported Bahram’s pretensions with all his might, and this is probably the first time that the Arabs effectively interfered in the course of Persian history.
THE ARABS AID IN WAR WITH ROME
[420-457 A.D.]
Mundhir, with vast hordes of Arabs behind him, was soon at the gates of the capital, which lay only three or four days’ journey distant from Hira, and no doubt the rightful heir to the throne could count upon a party among the Persians. A compromise was therefore effected between the disputants, Chosroes withdrew his claim, and Bahram ascended the throne, but under promise to rule differently from his father and to do the will of the nobles and priests. Bahram V, who bears the surname of Gor, “the wild ass,” is a favourite with Persian tradition, which tells absolutely fabulous stories of him. He was young when he became king, and to the end of his days he was jovial and much addicted to women. The change of policy was immediately signalised by two things—the outbreak of a systematic persecution of the Christians, and a war with Rome. Both sides could easily find pretexts for war, but it is most likely that the Persian nobles urged it on; the Romans would certainly not have entered on the struggle merely on account of the persecution.
The main theatre of war was in Persian Mesopotamia and the mountain tracts that bounded it on the north. The Persian commander was Mihr Narseh, one of the most powerful nobles. A vainglorious Persian tradition relates that he made a victorious entry into Constantinople, but we know that, on the contrary, he suffered a severe defeat at the very beginning of the war (August, 421). The Romans besieged Nisibis for a long time, but the approach of a fresh force compelled them hastily to raise the siege. Mundhir, to whom Bahram owed his throne, was eager to devastate Syria with his Arabs, but was forced to retreat with great loss. The war, concerning the progress of which we have no adequate information, enfeebled both sides to such an extent that they quickly became anxious to end it. In the terms of peace (422) the Persians promised to allow the Christians the free exercise of their religion, and the Romans undertook to do likewise to the Zoroastrians.
The desire of the Persians for peace was most likely due to the fact that they were again involved in warfare with the rulers of the Bactria of that day and the neighbouring countries, the tribe of the Kushan, Haital (Hephthalites), or “white Huns.” To this perpetual conflict the Romans probably owed their rest from Persian invasion in the fifth century. We are not bound to take the word of Persian tradition for Bahram’s brilliant victory over the Hephthalites.