Azarethes ( el, ), also recorded as Exarath () and Zuraq, was a

Sassanid 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 History of Iran, last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th cen ...

Persian military commander during the Byzantine–Sassanid Wars. His Greek name is possibly a misunderstanding of the honorific title ''

hazaraft ''Hazārbed'' (Middle Persian: ḥčʾlpt, or ''hazarbadh'', literally "the commander of thousand"), also known as ''hazaruft''/''hazaraft'' (Middle Persian: hz’lwpt; possibly the older/original form), was a Sasanian office which initially functi ...

''.

Biography

According to the account of

Procopius Procopius of Caesarea ( grc-gre, Προκόπιος ὁ Καισαρεύς ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; la, Procopius Caesariensis; – after 565) was a prominent late antique Greek scholar from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman gen ...

(''De bello Persico'', I.18), Azarethes was placed in command of the Persian army in

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the ...

after the Persian defeat in the

Battle of Dara The Battle of Dara was fought between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Sasanians in 530 AD. It was one of the battles of the Iberian War. Procopius's account of this engagement is among the most detailed descriptions of a late Roman battle. ...

in 530. Procopius calls him an "exceptionally able warrior", and

Zacharias of Mytilene Zacharias of Mytilene (c. 465, Gaza – after 536), also known as Zacharias Scholasticus or Zacharias Rhetor, was a bishop and ecclesiastical historian. Life The life of Zacharias of Mytilene can be reconstructed only from a few scattered repo ...

records that he held the rank of ''

astabadh ''Spāhbed'' (also spelled ''spahbod'' and ''spahbad'') is a Middle Persian title meaning "army chief" used chiefly in the Sasanian Empire. Originally there was a single ''spāhbed'', called the , who functioned as the generalissimo of the Sasani ...

''. In 531, together with his

Lakhmid The Lakhmids ( ar, اللخميون, translit=al-Laḫmiyyūn) referred to in Arabic as al-Manādhirah (, romanized as: ) or Banu Lakhm (, romanized as: ) was an Arab kingdom in Southern Iraq and Eastern Arabia, with al-Hirah as their capita ...

allies, he led an invasion across the

Euphrates The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers'') ...

into the Byzantine region of

Commagene Commagene ( grc-gre, Κομμαγηνή) was an ancient Greco-Iranian kingdom ruled by a Hellenized branch of the Iranian Orontid dynasty that had ruled over Armenia. The kingdom was located in and around the ancient city of Samosata, which s ...

(more probably Chalybonitis). When the Byzantine army under

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 terr ...

approached, they withdrew east, halting at Callinicum. In the ensuing battle, the Byzantines suffered a heavy defeat, but Persian losses were also so high that the Persian king Kavadh I (r. 488–531) was displeased with him and relieved him of his command. He only reappears in the sources once, in 544, when he accompanied Kavadh's successor,

Khosrau I Khosrow I (also spelled Khosrau, Khusro or Chosroes; pal, 𐭧𐭥𐭮𐭫𐭥𐭣𐭩; New Persian: []), traditionally known by his epithet of Anushirvan ( [] "the Immortal Soul"), was the Sasanian Empire, Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from ...

(r. 531–579), at the siege of Edessa (544). In the last stage of the siege, when the Persians under Khosrow I withdrew from their second general assault, Azarethes and his men were the only Persians who were still fighting and making progress at one of the city gates. They were repelled by regrouped Romans under Peranius of Iberia, Peranius.

, ''De Bello Persico'', XXVII, 36-43

References

*{{cite book, editor1-last=Martindale, editor1-first=John Robert, editor2-last=Jones, editor2-first=Arnold Hugh Martin, editor3-last=Morris, editor3-first=J., title=The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, Volume III: A.D. 527–641, year=1992, location=Cambridge, United Kingdom, publisher=Cambridge University Press, isbn=978-0-521-20160-5, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ElkwedRWCXkC, page=160 6th-century Iranian people People of the Roman–Sasanian Wars Generals of Khosrow I Iberian War Generals of Kavad I