Carus' Sasanian campaign

Carus' invasion of the Sasanian Empire
Part of the Roman–Sasanian wars

Panel at Naqsh-e Rostam, suggested to be showing a victory of Bahram II over Carus in the top panel, and victory over Hormizd I Kushanshah in the bottom one[1]
Date283 AD
Location
Armenia and Mesopotamia
Result Inconclusive
Territorial
changes		 Status quo ante bellum
Belligerents
Roman Empire,
Armenia		 Sasanian Empire,
Sarmatian rebels
Commanders and leaders
Emperor Carus (MIA)
Numerian		 Bahram II
Casualties and losses
Unknown Unknown

The Sasanian campaign of Carus was a military campaign conducted by the Roman Emperor Carus against the Sasanian Empire in 283. Following Carus' accession in 282, he made his eldest son Carinus co-emperor. Leaving Carinus in charge of the western part of the empire, Carus and his younger son Numerian brought an army east into Mesopotamia, capturing Seleucia and Ctesiphon. Carus died suddenly in the summer of 283, probably of unnatural causes, leaving Numerian in command of the army; following this the Roman army withdrew from Mesopotamia, in unclear circumstances. In 284, after the death of Numerian, Diocletian was acclaimed emperor by the eastern army; he defeated Carinus and in 287 made peace with Persia.

Historical context

In AD 282, dissatisfaction within the Roman army culminated in his praetorian prefect Carus rebelling against the emperor Probus. Probus' attempt to counter him failed, as the troops he sent against him defected to Carus' side. Between September and December of 282, Probus was killed by his own soldiers, and Carus was declared emperor by the end of the year. While Carus did not go to Rome for senatorial ratification, his son, Carinus, went in his stead. From the accession of Carus onwards, the senate's role in imperial succession was permanently diminished.[2]

War with the Sasanians had become a Roman imperial priority during the latter part of Aurelian's reign, but his assassination in 275 ensured the campaign never came to fruition; plans from his immediate successors were similarly cut short.[3] Probus had been preparing for an invasion of Persia in 282 before he too fell victim to Carus' mutiny. But in 283, with Carus leading the army assembled by Probus, this long-awaited invasion was set in motion.[4]

The motivation for the war was primarily to avenge the defeats inflicted by Shapur I, restoring Rome's reputation and standing in the east[5] and providing legitimacy for the emperor.[6] Reconquest of lost territory was also a possible motivator. Although the province of Mesopotamia had likely remained in Roman hands following Odeanathus' offensive in 261/262,[7] Persian incursions may have occurred following Probus' death,[8] even if they were limited in nature.[9] Restoring Roman influence in the kingdom of Armenia may also have been a secondary aim of the campaign.[10] A likely contributing factor in Carus' decision to invade in 283 was the Sasanian empire's internal instability: Hormizd, brother of Persian king Bahram II, had led an insurrection in the eastern half of Persia, rendering the empire vulnerable in the west.[11]

In early 283, Carus and Numerian moved east towards Persia, leaving Carinus to take charge of the western provinces.[12] On their way east, Carus led a brief and successful campaign against the Sarmatians along the Danube.[13] They then proceeded to Antioch in spring of 283, a frequent base of operations for previous campaigns against the Parthians and Sasanians.[14] At this juncture, Carinus was likely elevated to the rank of Augusti,[15] possibly in connection to his victory on the Rhine against the Germans, for which both Carinus and Carus were awarded the title Germanicus Maximus.[16]

In late spring, with preparations for the invasion complete, Carus led the Roman forces from Antioch and thence across the Persian frontiers.[17]

War

The war took place in 283. According to Synesius of Cyrene (who however confuses Carus with Carinus), the shah of Persia Bahram II, having learned of the Emperor's warlike intentions, he tried to convince him to sign a peace. His ambassadors then reached the Roman camp, which at that time was located near Armenia, and asked to speak with the Emperor. They found Carus while he was having dinner: he took off his cap, which hid his baldness, and swore to the ambassadors that if the Persians did not recognize the supremacy of Rome, he would have made Persia as treeless as his head was hairless. So the ambassadors returned to Persia.[18]

The surviving sources do not allow us to reconstruct in detail or with accuracy Carus' military campaign against the Sasanians. They report laconically that the emperor devastated Mesopotamia, taking possession of the cities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon,[19] and leading the Roman army beyond the Tigris.[20] The Romans' successes were facilitated by the fact that the bulk of the Sasanian army was at that time engaged in suppressing Hormizd's rebellion, brother of the legitimate shah Bahram II; the rebel intended to carve out a semi-independent state in the eastern part of the Sasanian empire.[21][22] According to Zonaras, at one point in the campaign the imperial army was camped in a farm and the Persians decided to take advantage of this by attempting to dig a canal to let the river water flow into the valley; However, Carus managed to foil the plan by defeating the Persians in battle and putting them to flight.[20] Upon returning from Persia a triumph was planned to celebrate the victories in the Sassanid campaign, and Carus assumed the names Parthicus and Persicus Maximus.[20][23] According to the "vulgate" version, however, Carus fell ill and died during a thunderstorm, presumably killed by lightning.[20] The Historia Augusta reports a letter that Carus' secretary wrote to the praefectus urbi in which the circumstances of the Emperor's death are described (however, many letters reported in the Historia Augusta turn out to be forgeries and therefore their authenticity is doubtful):

«Dear, our most beloved Emperor, he was confined to his bed by illness, when a furious storm broke out on the field. The darkness that covered the sky was so thick that it prevented us from seeing each other, and the continuous flashes of lightning took away our knowledge of everything that was following in the general confusion. Immediately after a very violent clap of thunder, we heard a sudden cry that the Emperor was dead; and it was immediately seen that his courtiers in a transport of grief had set fire to the royal tent; circumstance for which it was said that Carus was killed by lightning. But as far as we can investigate the truth, his death was the natural effect of his illness.» (translated)

— Vopiscus, Historia Augusta — Carus, Carinus, Numerian, 8.

According to Zonaras (who reports John Malalas' version adding some details), Instead, Carus would have returned to Rome with a multitude of prisoners and the spoils of war, he would have celebrated sumptuously the triumph against the Persians and would have subsequently been killed during a military campaign against the Huns (Zonara also reports the version of death by electrocution).[20] Regardless of the groundlessness of Caro's alleged return to Rome, Some modern authors argue that it cannot be excluded that during the continuation of the Sassanid campaign Carus died in battle against the Huns (perhaps mercenaries in the pay of the Persians), according to them, a more plausible version than that of death by electrocution.[24] The latter may have been artfully created by Roman propaganda to hide the defeats of Carus and Numerian in the final phase of the campaign handed down by some late Byzantine and Armenian chroniclers.[25] However, it is necessary to take into account the substantial unreliability of Malalas and the fact that Zonaras was writing in the 12th century. Some sources claim that the emperor died of illness or because of alleged intrigues of the praetorian prefect Arrius Aper.[26]

However, the excessive slowness of the ride during the retreat (1,200 miles traveled in 16 months) It appears suspicious, and could indicate a possible continuation of the war against the Persians, which is also suggested by the poet Nemesianus' Cynegetica (which hints at the intention of writing in the future also about Numerian's Persian deeds, something which however never happened) and from the numismatic evidence (which, for propaganda purposes, would seem to suggest that Numerian had successes over Persia, which however, if there were any, must have been only partial, judging from the fact that the coins never attribute to him the cognomina ex virtute of Parthicus and Persicus).[27] Furthermore, one of the bas-reliefs of Naqsh-e Rostam would seem to depict a military victory of the Shah Bahram II achieved against the Romans, which however is completely silent in the "vulgate" version. According to some modern scholars, similarly to what had happened for the Battle of Misiche a few decades earlier, the version of the spontaneous withdrawal of the Romans would have been artfully handed down by Roman propaganda in order to hide the defeat of Numerian at the hands of the Sassanid ruler Bahram II divulgated by Byzantine and Armenian chronicles.[28]

  • According to Joannes Zonaras, Numerian continued the campaign against the Persians and was defeated.[20] Zonaras also reports that according to some of his sources Numerianus attempted to escape but was captured and killed by the enemy and his skin was used to make a wineskin; according to other sources, however, during the retreat he was killed by the prefect of the praetorium Arrius Aper.[20]
  • According to John Malalas, Emperor Numerian, defeated in battle by the Persians, was besieged by them at Carrhae, then taken prisoner and finally executed and his skin used to make a wineskin (Malalas himself). However, he reports an alleged and "invented" Sassanid campaign by Carinus to avenge the death of his brother in which the Persians, after being defeated several times, they would have asked for a three-month truce, granted by Carinus because of the harsh winter and the tiredness of his army; the emperor, after having wintered in the Cyrrhestica, he would have resumed the campaign during which he would have died of natural causes.[29]
  • The Chronicon Paschale, instead, in an attempt to reconcile the official Roman version (Carus and Numerian killed respectively by lightning and by Aper) with Malalas' story, he "invents" that it is Carinus who accompanies his father in the Persian campaign; Following the death of Carus by lightning, Carinus is defeated, captured and flayed by the Persians, but his death is avenged by his brother Numerian who defeats the Persians before being killed near Perinthus by Aper.[30]
  • The Armenian story of Movses Khorenatsi reports a similar version, with some variations and additions, to that of Malalas and the Chronicon Paschale: Carus defeats the Persians for the first time and returns to Rome in triumph, but the Shah of Persia (called "Artashir") counterattack with reinforcements received from the allied nations including desert peoples, defeating the army of Carus in battle on the banks of the Euphrates, who finds death; subsequently Carinus, while he was marching in the desert with the pretender to the throne of Armenia Tiridates, he is massacred with his army, and Tiridates manages to save himself by swimming across the Euphrates; finally Numerian is killed in Thrace and Diocletian succeeds him to the throne.[31]

These sources present significant problems of accuracy. Malalas, in addition to filling the story with lies (such as that the province of Caria and the city of Carrhae were named after the emperor Carus), falsely attributes to Numerian the martyrdom of Babylas of Antioch (which actually occurred under Decius thirty years earlier) and in a similar manner he may have mistakenly attributed to him the death by flaying that actually happened to Valerian (also considering that the latter, according to Malala, would have been killed in Mediolanum).[32] Note the fact that some historians (the author of the Chronicon Paschale and the Armenian Movses Khorenatsi), faced with the dilemma of two irreconcilable versions of Numerian's death, they made the arbitrary choice to have Carinus killed by the Persians and Numerian killed near the Bosphorus for betrayal.[33] Zonaras, more methodically honest, reported both versions without alterations. Burgess considers the account of Moses of Chorene to be completely fictitious considering that Carinus died in battle against Diocletian, not against the Persians (Porena, instead, considers it plausible that Numerian and Tiridates may have suffered a defeat in the desert against the Persians).[34][35] Even with all these problems of accuracy, it is plausible that at least the figure of Numerian's defeat is correct, making the spontaneous renunciation of conquered lands useless and explaining some inconsistencies in the "vulgate" version. According to Porena's reconstruction, Numerian initially had to face a counterattack by mercenaries in the pay of the Persians against whom Carus died, then, after a truce of several months during which he would have wintered in Syria, apparently at Emesa (where he promulgated two rescripts dated September 283 and March 284), in the course of 284 he would suffer a serious defeat on the Euphrates, followed by the definitive Roman withdrawal.[36]

Numerian, Carus, and Carinus all took the title Persici maximi.[37][38] despite the withdrawal of the Roman armies. According to the traditional reconstruction, the way back, 1,200 miles along the Euphrates River, was traveled in an orderly and slow manner: in March 284 they were at Emesa, in Syria, in November again in Asia Minor. Two imperial rescripts attest that Numerian was in Emesa on 8 September 283 and 18 March 284, which would seem to suggest a long stay of the emperor in the Syrian city.[39][40]

Aftermath

In late 284, Numerian died in Bithynia. One of his commanders accused his praetorian prefect, Aper, of murdering him and was proclaimed emperor as Diocletian. A succession war followed, which saw Carinus defeat another rival, Sabinus Julianus, before he was also killed in summer 285. Diocletian negotiated a peace with the Sasanians a few years later in 287–88 which saw pro-Roman Tiridates III installed in a possibly-partitioned Armenia, though this reconstruction has been disputed.[41] Rome claimed victory in the negotiations. The settlement in 287 did not long hold, however, as conflict with the Sasanians resumed some nine years later in 296.[42]

Whether Diocletian's settlement in 287 was due to Carus' campaign is unclear. Bahram II in the early 280s was suppressing a rebellion in the Sasanian east; the Diocletianic settlement may have been favourable due to that ongoing conflict.[43]

References

  1. ^ Shahbazi 2004.
  2. ^ Southern 2001, p. 132.
  3. ^ Edwell 2021, p. 128.
  4. ^ Potter 2004, pp. 274–275.
  5. ^ Altmayer 2014, p. 97, citing Cyn., 493.
  6. ^ Edwell 2021, p. 128; Potter 2004, pp. 274–275.
  7. ^ Edwell 2021, p. 135; Altmayer 2014, p. 94; Bleckmann 1992, pp. 130–131. Some scholars, including Southern 2001, p. 241, disagree: "Despite his successes in attacking the Persians, it is not clear whether Odenathus had regained control of Osroene and Mesopotamia".
  8. ^ Hartmann 2022, p. 23, citing Caes., 38.2.
  9. ^ Altmayer 2014, p. 96-97.
  10. ^ Altmayer 2014, pp. 98–99, 114–115.
  11. ^ Edwell 2021, p. 128; Hartmann 2022, p. 28-29, citing HA. Car., 8.1, Eutr., 9.18.1, and Pan. Lat., 11 (3) 17.2.
  12. ^ Southern 2001, pp. 132–133.
  13. ^ Altmayer 2014, p. 83-85, citing HA. Car., 9.4.
  14. ^ Hartmann 2022, p. 30.
  15. ^ Southern 2001, p. 132; Altmayer 2014, p. 94.
  16. ^ Altmayer 2014, p. 102.
  17. ^ Altmayer 2014, p. 103.
  18. ^ Synesius of Cyrene, De regno, 16.
  19. ^ Eutropius, IX, 18.
  20. ^ a b c d e f g Joannes Zonaras, Epitome delle storie, XII, 30.
  21. ^ Southern 2001, p. 241.
  22. ^ Panegyrici Latini III/11, 17, 2.
  23. ^ Inscription CIL VIII, 12522.
  24. ^ Porena 2003, p. 33.
  25. ^ Porena 2003, pp. 32–33.
  26. ^ Southern 2001, p. 133.
  27. ^ Porena 2003, pp. 28–31.
  28. ^ Porena 2003, pp. 31–36.
  29. ^ John Malalas, XII, 35-36.
  30. ^ Chronicon Paschale, s.a. 284.
  31. ^ Movses Khorenatsi, History of the Armenians, II, 79.
  32. ^ Porena 2003, p. 26.
  33. ^ Porena 2003, pp. 26–27.
  34. ^ Burgess, Richard W.; Witakowski, Witold (1999). Studies in Eusebian and Post-Eusebian Chronography. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag. pp. 85–86. ISBN 978-3-515-12040-1.
  35. ^ Porena 2003, p. 28.
  36. ^ Porena 2003, pp. 28–33.
  37. ^ Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, p. 4
  38. ^ Leadbetter, "Carus."
  39. ^ Codex Iustinianus, V, 71.7.
  40. ^ Codex Iustinianus, V, 52.2.
  41. ^ Presenting Tiridates III's installation c. 287: Daryaee 2009, p. 12; Potter 2004, p. 651 n. 151 (arguing against Kettenhofen's chronology); Edwell 2021, pp. 134–35; Hellström 2023. Some scholars dispute this. Weber 2016, for example, believes that Armenia was a Persian vassal through the settlement in 298, citing Kettenhofen, Erich (1995), Tirdād und die Inschrift von Paikuli: Kritik der Quellen zur Geschichte Armeniens im späten 3. und frühen 4. Jh. n. Chr., Wiesbaden: Reichert.
  42. ^ Hellström 2023.
  43. ^ Edwell 2021, pp. 134 ("Bahram was dealing with a serious revolt in the east led by Hormizd at the time of Carus' invasion in 283 and with the continuation of these difficulties, he likely had little choice but to strike the agreement with Diocletian"), 249 ("The agreement between Diocletian and Bahram... demonstrated the extent of the difficulties Bahram faced [as to] the rebellion of Hormizd in the east").

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Primary Sources

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