The siege of Amida occurred in 502–503, during the

Anastasian War The Anastasian War was fought from 502 to 506 between the Byzantine Empire and the Sasanian Empire. It was the first major conflict between the two powers since 440, and would be the prelude to a long series of destructive conflicts between the t ...

. The city was not garrisoned by any troops of the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

but nevertheless resisted for three months before falling to the

military of the Sasanian Empire The Sasanian army was the primary military body of the Sasanian armed forces, serving alongside the Sasanian navy. The birth of the army dates back to the rise of Ardashir I (r. 224–241), the founder of the Sasanian Empire, to the throne. Ard ...

under

Kavadh I Kavad I ( ; 473 – 13 September 531) was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 488 to 531, with a two or three-year interruption. A son of Peroz I (), he was crowned by the nobles to replace his deposed and unpopular uncle Balash (). Inhe ...

. According to the detailed account of

Zacharias Rhetor Zacharias of Mytilene (Ζαχαρίας ό Μιτυληναίος; c. 465, Gaza City, Gaza – after 536), also known as Zacharias Scholasticus or Zacharias Rhetor, was a bishop and ecclesiastical historian. Life The life of Zacharias of Mytile ...

, the city's sack was particularly brutal, and accompanied by a massacre of the population for three days and nights. The fall of the city urged the Emperor

Anastasius I Dicorus Anastasius I Dicorus (; – 9 July 518) was Roman emperor from 491 to 518. A career civil servant, he came to the throne at the age of 61 after being chosen by Ariadne, the wife of his predecessor, Zeno. His reign was characterized by refor ...

to react militarily, before a truce was agreed between both parts in 505.

Background

In 502, the Persian king

needed money to pay his debts to the

Hephthalites The Hephthalites (), sometimes called the White Huns (also known as the White Hunas, in Iranian languages, Iranian as the ''Spet Xyon'' and in Sanskrit and Prakrit as the ''Sveta-huna''), were a people who lived in Central Asia during the 5th to ...

who had helped him regain his throne in 498/499. The situation was exacerbated by recent changes in the flow of the

Tigris The Tigris ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the eastern of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian Desert, Syrian and Arabia ...

in lower Mesopotamia, sparking famines and flood. When the Roman emperor Anastasius I refused to provide any help, Kavadh tried to gain the money by force. During the summer 502,

invaded Roman Armenia and Mesopotamia with an army which included Armenian and Arab allies. He quickly captured the unprepared city of Theodosiopolis (present-day Erzurum), perhaps with local support; the city was in any case undefended by troops and weakly fortified.

Siege

Kavadh then besieged the fortress-city of

Amida Amida can mean : Places and jurisdictions * Amida (Mesopotamia), now Diyarbakır, an ancient city in Asian Turkey; it is (nominal) seat of: ** The Chaldean Catholic Archeparchy of Amida ** The Latin titular Metropolitan see of Amida of the Ro ...

(present-day Diyarbakır) through the autumn and winter (502–503). The siege of the city proved to be a far more difficult enterprise than Kavadh expected. The defenders, although unsupported by troops, repelled the Persian assaults for three months. The city, behind its walls of black basalt, resisted desperately, resorted to cannibalism before finally succumbing to the siege. The city was being defended by Cyrus, the ''

praeses ''Praeses'' (Latin ''praesides'') is a Latin word meaning "placed before" or "at the head". In antiquity, notably under the Roman Dominate, it was used to refer to Roman governors; it continues to see some use for various modern positions. ...

'' of

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

. Having discovered a weak point in the walls, Kavadh sent a small squad to breach them at night. According to Procopius, the Persians had a stroke of luck in their attempt. Indeed, it seems that some guards were drunk and fell asleep after celebrating a festival, allowing the Persians to quietly scale the walls and get inside the city. A slaughter of the people of the city followed during three days until a priest went to meet Kavadh, begging him to stop killing, arguing that it was not a kingly act. As Kavadh asked him why they were fighting against him, the priest replied: "Because God willed to give Amida to you not by our decision but by your valour". Then, Kavadh ordered a stop to the slaughter but allowed his men to plunder the city and enslave the survivors. The population was deported to Persia and contributed in re-founding the town of

Arrajan Arrajan (Argan) was a medieval Persian city located between Fars and Khuzestan, which was settled since the civilisation of Elam in the second millennium BCE, and was important from the Sasanian Empire until the 11th century as the capital of a ...

Aftermath

Emperor

reacted to the news of Amida's fall by sending a huge force of 60,000 men east, but the Byzantines were unable to recover the city until the conclusion of a truce in 505, when they ransomed it for 1100 pounds of gold.Procopius. History of the Wars, I.7.1–2; Greatrex & Lieu 2002, p. 77

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Siege of Amida (502-503) 502 503

Amida 502 Amida 502 Amida 502 500s in the Byzantine Empire 6th century in Iran Anastasian War

Incidents of cannibalism