In Persian Armenia yearnings after independence had asserted themselves during the war with Rome, but when peace was concluded Bahram could again install a vassal king there; the selfish Armenian nobles, however, went to such lengths that the Persians were finally driven to do away with the Armenian monarchy altogether and to convert the country into a province (429), as the Romans had long since done with their portion of it. In this the Persians had the assistance of a strong party among the Armenians themselves, though as a matter of fact the Persian satraps had no less trouble with the barons and priests than with the kings before them.
After the death of Bahram (438 or 439) his son Yezdegerd II became king. He persecuted both Christians and Jews, nor is there much to be set to his credit in other respects. He abolished the audiences, on the first day of every month, in which any man of consequence was free to lay grievances or petitions before the king. The story goes that he married his own daughter (though that was no crime in the opinion of the Zoroastrians, who considered such marriages positively meritorious) and afterwards killed her.
WAR WITH THE HEPHTHALITES
[457-489 A.D.]
Upon the death of Yezdegerd II (457) a quarrel seems to have broken out immediately between his sons, Hormuzd III, king (that is to say, “prince-satrap”) of Sagastan, and Peroz, who were the children of one mother, Dinak by name. Hormuzd, the elder, held his ground for a while, but at the end of two years Peroz supplanted him by the help of the Hephthalites and the active exertions of Raham, of the noble house of Mihran. He caused three others of his nearest kinsmen to be put to death, as well as his brother. He, again, was hostile to Christians and Jews, but he had political insight enough to favour the conversion of his Christian subjects to the doctrines of Nestorius, which had been banished as archheresy from the Roman Empire. At the synod held at Beth Lapat in the year 483 or 484, the ancient Christian church of the Persian Empire adopted the Nestorian confession; and being thenceforward separated by a great gulf from the Roman Christians, was consequently even less dangerous to the state than it had been before.
But, as a matter of fact, Christianity in Persia had never been really much of a menace to the country. The Armenians on the other hand joined the monophysites, who had a large party in the Roman Empire and often had the upper hand there.
Whether the Hephthalites wanted heavier payment for their assistance than had been previously agreed upon, or whether Peroz did not keep promises he had actually made, the end was that great conflicts ensued between them and the Persians. Peroz won some victories; but in the desert country east of the Caspian Sea the conduct of war is hampered by enormous difficulties. Twice he was compelled to conclude peace on unfavourable terms, once at least he himself fell into the hands of his enemies, and for two years his son Kavadh had to remain in the enemy’s camp as a hostage for the payment of his heavy ransom. Nevertheless Peroz was perpetually breaking the pledges he had given. In 484 he took the field with a large army. A tremendous battle ensued, in which Peroz perished among the unrecognised slain. His daughter was among the prisoners, and the king of the Hephthalites took her into his harem.
Evil days were now in store for Persia. The victors overran the country. For a time there was no king. Presently, however, Zarmihr, of the powerful house of the Karen, succeeded in restoring order in the empire. At the time of Peroz’s death this man had been in Armenia, which had rebelled again, and had almost completed its subjugation. He then hastened to the capital and installed Balash, a brother of the late ruler, as king. In all probability he afterward entered into negotiations with the victorious enemy, and bought him off with a yearly tribute.
A brother of Balash, Zareh by name, who likewise aspired to the crown, was defeated and slain. The king, however, had but little authority. He was obliged to induce the Armenians to submit by allowing them to exclude the state religion of Persia from their country altogether. The praise which the Syrians and the Armenians render to Balash’s clemency may perhaps have no other foundation than his disagreements with the priests of Zoroaster. The enmity thus aroused proved fatal to him. His treasury, of course, was empty, so that he could neither form a party among the nobles nor attach an army to himself; and in 488 or 489 the priests went so far as to have him blinded and so made incapable of governing. For according to the law of Persia no man could be king who was not whole and sound in body and mind.