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Sisauranon
Sisauranon, Sisauronon ( gr, Σισαυράνων), Sisaurana, or Sarbane was a Sasanian fortress city in the province of Arbayistan, located to the east of Nisibis at the edge of the north Syrian plain. It was situated near the border with the Byzantine Empire. Sisauranon is mentioned by Procopius in the 6th century. On linguistic grounds, it is identified with the way-station Sarbane in the 5th-century ''Tabula Peutingeriana'', and with the modern site of Sirvan on the Turkish–Syrian border, whose name probably derives from the ancient settlement. The site is also variously mentioned as Sarbanon (τὸ Σαρβανῶν) in Theophanes the Confessor, Sisarbanon (τὸ Σισαρβάνων) in Theophylact Simocatta, and Sisara in Ammianus Marcellinus, as well as the variant forms of Sisaurion (Σισαύριον), Sisabranon (Σισαβράνων), Isauranon (Ἰσαυρανῶν) in various manuscripts of Procopius. The locality of Sambure in the ''Ravenna Cosmography'' may also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siege Of Sisauranon (541)
The siege of Sisauranon took place in 541 between Byzantine forces under Belisarius and the Sassanian garrison of the Sisauranon fortress under Bleschames. The Romans employed several approaches, including stratagems and assaults. The garrison eventually surrendered and defected after the Byzantines received information about the fort being without supplies. Background In 541, the Byzantine emperor Justinian I sent Belisarius to launch a campaign in the East. The latter set out from Dara together with his Gothic forces and Ghassanid allies. They camped near Nisibis, trying to lure out the Persian garrison and defeat them in the field before beginning a regular siege, but this was unsuccessful as the Persian garrison under Nabedes performed a surprise raid and retreated to the fortified city. Belisarius gave up, and instead commenced a siege against Sisauranon, a nearby frontier fortress. Sisauranon was held by a garrison consisting of 800 Persian cavalrymen. Siege A Roma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Belisarius
Belisarius (; el, Βελισάριος; The exact date of his birth is unknown. – 565) was a military commander of the Byzantine Empire under the emperor Justinian I. He was instrumental in the reconquest of much of the Mediterranean territory belonging to the former Western Roman Empire, which had been lost less than a century prior. One of the defining features of Belisarius' career was his success despite varying levels of available resources. His name is frequently given as one of the so-called "Last of the Romans". He conquered the Vandal Kingdom of North Africa in the Vandalic War in nine months and conquered much of Italy during the Gothic War. He also defeated the Vandal armies in the battle of Ad Decimum and played an important role at Tricamarum, compelling the Vandal king, Gelimer, to surrender. During the Gothic War, despite being significantly outnumbered, he and his troops recaptured the city of Rome and then held out against great odds during the siege ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bleschames
Bleschames ( el, Βλησχάμης) was a Persian military officer, who first served the Sasanian Empire and from 541 the Byzantine Empire. He is first mentioned in 541 as the head of the Sasanian garrison of the fortress Sisauranon, where he defected to the Byzantine army under Belisarius, who sent him and 800 Sasanian cavalrymen to the Byzantine capital of Constantinople. However, he did not stay there for long, and was sent to Italy in order to fight the Ostrogothic Kingdom in the Gothic War, while some of his men were sent to fight under Artabazes Artavasdes is the Hellenized form of the Iranian name . Variant renderings in Greek include (), (), and (); in Armenian (); and in Latin or . People with this name include: Persian satraps * Artabazos I of Phrygia (flourished 5th century BC .... Nothing else is known of his life. Sources * References Year of death unknown People of the Roman–Sasanian Wars Year of birth unknown 6th-century Iranian people People of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arbayistan
Arbāyistān ( xpr, 𐭀𐭓𐭁𐭉𐭎𐭈𐭍 rbstn; Middle Persian: ''Arwāstān''; Armenian: ''Arvastan'') or Beth Arabaye (Syriac: ''Bēṯ ʿArbāyē'') was a Sasanian province in Late Antiquity. Due to its situation and its road systems, the province was a source of income from commercial traffic, as well as a constant area of contention during the Roman–Persian Wars. The province reached across Upper Mesopotamia toward the Khabur and north to the lower districts of Armenia; it bordered Adiabene in the east, Armenia in the north and Asoristan in the south. On the west, it bordered the Roman provinces of Osroene and Mesopotamia. The principal city of the Arbayistan province was Nisibis and it also included the fortress of Sisauranon. Name ''Arbāyistān'' (Old Persian: ''Arabāya-stāna)'' is mentioned in Shapur I's inscription on Ka'ba-ye Zartosht. According to historian Geo Widengren, the name refers to the Arab inhabitants of Upper Mesopotamia. The terms ''Arbāy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byzantine–Sasanian War Of 572–591
The Byzantine–Sasanian War of 572–591 was a war fought between the Sasanian Empire of Persia and the Eastern Roman Empire, termed by modern historians as the Byzantine Empire. It was triggered by pro-Byzantine revolts in areas of the Caucasus under Persian hegemony, although other events also contributed to its outbreak. The fighting was largely confined to the southern Caucasus and Mesopotamia, although it also extended into eastern Anatolia, Syria, and northern Iran. It was part of an intense sequence of wars between these two empires which occupied the majority of the 6th and early 7th centuries. It was also the last of the many wars between them to follow a pattern in which fighting was largely confined to frontier provinces and neither side achieved any lasting occupation of enemy territory beyond this border zone. It preceded a much more wide-ranging and dramatic final conflict in the early 7th century. Outbreak of war Less than a decade after the Fifty-Year Peace T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhabdion
Rhabdion ( gr, Ῥάβδιον, translit=Rhábdion) was a Late Antique fortress of the Roman Empire, located on the Tur Abdin plateau to the northeast of Nisibis on the border with the Sasanian Empire. It is now identified with Hatem Tai, a fortification () in south-eastern Turkey. It was probably built, along with Amida (Diyarbakır) and Cepha (Hasankeyf), by the emperor Constantius II (). After the cession by the emperor Jovian () of the five Transtigritine provinces and some border forts to the Sasanian Empire under Shapur II () as a result of the Persians' victory in Julian's Persian War, Rhabdion became the easternmost Roman frontier outpost, perhaps even ''de facto'' exclave in Persian territory, since the only road to it appears to have been from the south, passing across the plain by the Persian-controlled city of Nisibis. The Hatem Tai ''kalesi'' was visited in the early 1860s by John George Taylor, then British consul in Diyarbakır, who sketched its outline in his ''T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comentiolus
Comentiolus ( el, Κομεντίολος, ''Komentiolos''; died 602) was a prominent Eastern Roman (Byzantine) general at the close of the 6th century during the reign of Emperor Maurice (). He played a major role in Maurice's Balkan campaigns, and fought also in the East against the Sassanid Persians. Comentiolus was ultimately executed in 602 after the Byzantine army rebelled against Maurice and Emperor Phocas () usurped the throne. Biography Nothing is known of Comentiolus's early life, except that he hailed from Thrace. He first appears in 583, as an officer (''scribon'') in the '' Excubitores'', the imperial bodyguard, when he accompanied a Byzantine embassy to Bayan I (), the khagan of the Avars. According to the historian Theophylact Simocatta, he enraged the khagan with an outspoken statement, and was briefly imprisoned. It is likely that the close trust he shared with Maurice dates from the latter's time as commander of the ''Excubitores'', before his ascension to th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman–Persian Wars
The Roman–Persian Wars, also known as the Roman–Iranian Wars, were a series of conflicts between states of the Greco-Roman world and two successive Iranian empires: the Parthian and the Sasanian. Battles between the Parthian Empire and the Roman Republic began in 54 BC; wars began under the late Republic, and continued through the Roman (later Byzantine) and Sasanian empires. A plethora of vassal kingdoms and allied nomadic nations in the form of buffer states and proxies also played a role. The wars were ended by the early Muslim conquests, which led to the fall of the Sasanian Empire and huge territorial losses for the Byzantine Empire, shortly after the end of the last war between them. Although warfare between the Romans and Persians continued over seven centuries, the frontier, aside from shifts in the north, remained largely stable. A game of tug of war ensued: towns, fortifications, and provinces were continually sacked, captured, destroyed, and traded. Neithe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second principal period of the three-age system proposed in 1836 by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen for classifying and studying ancient societies and history. An ancient civilization is deemed to be part of the Bronze Age because it either produced bronze by smelting its own copper and alloying it with tin, arsenic, or other metals, or traded other items for bronze from production areas elsewhere. Bronze is harder and more durable than the other metals available at the time, allowing Bronze Age civilizations to gain a technological advantage. While terrestrial iron is naturally abundant, the higher temperature required for smelting, , in addition to the greater difficulty of working with the metal, placed it out of reach of common use until the end o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Forts
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ("to make"). From very early history to modern times, defensive walls have often been necessary for cities to survive in an ever-changing world of invasion and conquest. Some settlements in the Indus Valley civilization were the first small cities to be fortified. In ancient Greece, large stone walls had been built in Mycenaean Greece, such as the ancient site of Mycenae (famous for the huge stone blocks of its 'cyclopean' walls). A Greek '' phrourion'' was a fortified collection of buildings used as a military garrison, and is the equivalent of the Roman castellum or English fortress. These constructions mainly served the purpose of a watch tower, to guard certain roads, passes, and borders. Though smaller than a real fortress, they act ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sassanian Fortifications
The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named after the House of Sasan, it endured for over four centuries, from 224 to 651 AD, making it the longest-lived Persian imperial dynasty. The Sasanian Empire succeeded the Parthian Empire, and re-established the Persians as a major power in late antiquity alongside its neighbouring arch-rival, the Roman Empire (after 395 the Byzantine Empire).Norman A. Stillman ''The Jews of Arab Lands'' pp 22 Jewish Publication Society, 1979 International Congress of Byzantine Studies ''Proceedings of the 21st International Congress of Byzantine Studies, London, 21–26 August 2006, Volumes 1–3'' pp 29. Ashgate Pub Co, 2006 The empire was founded by Ardashir I, an Iranian ruler who rose to power as Parthia weakened from internal strife and wars with th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lazic War
The Lazic War, also known as the Colchidian War or in Georgian historiography as the Great War of Egrisi was fought between the Byzantine Empire and the Sasanian Empire for control of the ancient Georgian region of Lazica. The Lazic War lasted for twenty years, from 541 to 562, with varying success and ended in a victory for the Persians, who obtained an annual tribute in exchange for ending the war. The Lazic War is narrated in detail in the works of Procopius of Caesarea and Agathias. Lazica Lazica, situated on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, and controlling important mountain passes across the Caucasus and to the Caspian Sea, had a key strategic importance for both empires. For Byzantines, it was a barrier against a Persian advance through Iberia to the coasts of the Black Sea. Persians on the other side hoped to gain access to the sea, and control a territory from which Iberia, which was by now under their firm domination, could be threatened. Lazica featured a difficult ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
