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Carus' Sasanian campaign

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

Victory of Bahram II over Roman Emperor Carus is depicted in the top panel, and the victory over Hormizd I Kushanshah is depicted in the bottom panel at Naqsh-e Rostam[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 (PKIA)
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

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Minted coin of Carus.

In 282 the army acclaimed the praetorian prefect Carus as emperor: the sources are divided between those who maintain that his elevation to the throne occurred after the unexpected death of Probus, and those who instead affirm that Carus usurped the purple and revolted while Probus was still alive. Probus sent some troops against the rebel, but they went over to his opponent's side; between September and December of that year Probus was assassinated and Carus had no rivals. Although he never went to Rome to ratify his election by the Roman senate, nevertheless he respected the ancient and prestigious organ of the state.[2]

He probably assumed the consulate for the remainder of 282, replacing Probus; he appointed his sons Carinus and Numerianus Caesars and designated himself and Carinus consuls for 283. At the beginning of 283 he associated Carinus to the throne, naming him Augustus and entrusting him with the administration of the western provinces, while with his son Numerian he left for the eastern limes (frontier), with the intention of waging war on Sassanid Persia and recovering the province of Mesopotamia; In this way Carus resumed the plans of his predecessor Probus, who was busy preparing for war against Persia when he was assassinated by his own soldiers.[3] According to Aurelius Victor, moreover, Carus went to Mesopotamia with his son Numerian to protect it from the continuous incursions of the Persians.[4] If we want to believe the Armenian historians, who are not always reliable from the chronological point of view, the aim was also to reinstate Tiridates III on the throne of Armenia.[5]

During the journey he inflicted a defeat on the Sarmatians, 16,000 enemy warriors were killed, while others 20,000 were taken prisoner.[6][7] After crossing Thrace and Asia Minor, the Emperor reached, together with his son Numerian, the eastern limes.

War

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Map of Ctesiphon.

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.[8]

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,[9] and leading the Roman army beyond the Tigris.[10] 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.[11][12] 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.[10] 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.[10][13] According to the "vulgate" version, however, Carus fell ill and died during a thunderstorm, presumably killed by lightning.[10] 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).[10] 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.[14] 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.[15] 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.[16]

DIVO CARO PARTHICO, radiate head of Emperor Marcus Aurelius Carus and draped bust facing right.
Bas-relief at Naqsh-e Rostam depicting a conflict between Shah Bahram II and the Romans, in which the latter appears to have had the worst of it.

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).[17] 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.[18]

  • According to Joannes Zonaras, Numerian continued the campaign against the Persians and was defeated.[10] 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.[10]
  • According to the often unreliable 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.[19]
  • 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.[20]
  • 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.[21]

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).[22] 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.[23] 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).[24][6] 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.[25]

Numerian, Carus, and Carinus all took the title Persici maximi.[26][27] 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.[28][29]

Aftermath

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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 Armenia. Rome claimed victory in the negotiations. The settlement did not long hold, however, as conflict with the Sasanians resumed in 296.[30][31]

Whether Diocletian's settlement 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.[32]

References

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  1. ^ Shahbazi 2004.
  2. ^ Southern 2001, p. 132.
  3. ^ Vopiscus, Historia Augusta — Carus, Carinus, Numerian, 7.
  4. ^ Aurelius Victor, Liber de Caesaribus, 38.
  5. ^ Porena 2003, pp. 27–28.
  6. ^ a b Porena 2003, p. 28.
  7. ^ Cavazzi, Franco (2021-12-16). "Emperor Carus". The Roman Empire. Retrieved 2023-01-25.
  8. ^ Synesius of Cyrene, De regno, 16.
  9. ^ Eutropius, IX, 18.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Joannes Zonaras, Epitome delle storie, XII, 30.
  11. ^ Southern 2001, p. 241.
  12. ^ Panegyrici Latini III/11, 17, 2.
  13. ^ Inscription CIL VIII, 12522.
  14. ^ Porena 2003, p. 33.
  15. ^ Porena 2003, pp. 32–33.
  16. ^ Southern 2001, p. 133.
  17. ^ Porena 2003, pp. 28–31.
  18. ^ Porena 2003, pp. 31–36.
  19. ^ John Malalas, XII, 35-36.
  20. ^ Chronicon Paschale, s.a. 284.
  21. ^ Movses Khorenatsi, History of the Armenians, II, 79.
  22. ^ Porena 2003, p. 26.
  23. ^ Porena 2003, pp. 26–27.
  24. ^ 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.
  25. ^ Porena 2003, pp. 28–33.
  26. ^ Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, p. 4
  27. ^ Leadbetter, "Carus."
  28. ^ Codex Iustinianus, V, 71.7.
  29. ^ Codex Iustinianus, V, 52.2.
  30. ^ Hellström 2023.
  31. ^ There is some dispute as to whether Tiridates III was restored in or before the Diocletanic settlement. Weber 2016 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. However, other scholars do not, including: Daryaee 2009, p. 12; Potter 2004, p. 651 n. 151 (arguing against Kettenhofen's chronology); Edwell 2021, pp. 134–35; Hellström 2023.
  32. ^ 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").

Bibliography

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