| |
| 502–506 |
| |
| FIRST WAR WITH ROME (Byzantium). The Byzantine emperor's failure to support Kavad led to an indecisive war in which the Persians took Amida. Peace was made, and Amida and other Persian conquests were ceded (506). | 1 |
| |
| 506–523 |
| |
| The nobility and the Zoroastrian priesthood continued to oppose the Mazdakites, who were massacred late in the reign (523). The Arab kingdom of the Kinda occupied parts of Mesopotamia (506–528), and unrest in Iberia led to the introduction of a Persian garrison. | 2 |
| |
| 527–531 |
| |
| SECOND WAR WITH ROME (Byzantium). Hostilities began in the Caucasus with Persian victories in Iberia and Mesopotamia (527–528) (See 527–31). Belisarius defeated Persia at the Battle of Daras (528) but was himself defeated at the Battle of Callinicum (531). The war ended with the death of Kavad. Khusrau, the crown prince, engineered the execution of Mazdak and his followers as heretics (531) and then succeeded his father, Kavad. | 3 |
| |
| 531–579 |
| |
| KHUSRAU (Chosroes) I ANUSHIRVAN (“of the immortal soul”). After putting down a revolt and concluding formal peace with Byzantium, Khusrau undertook a series of great reforms. A fixed land tax and a head tax were instituted, which improved efficiency and equity while increasing state revenues. Irrigation and communications were improved, and new agriculture was encouraged. The army was restructured, with the state supplying equipment and salaries to the poorer nobles, the dehkan (knights). The empire was divided into four great administrative districts under a military governor (spahbad). Toleration was granted to Christians, and learning was patronized. When the Athenian Academy was closed in 529, philosophers found refuge with Khusrau. | 4 |
| |
| 540–562 |
| |
| WAR WITH ROME (Byzantium). Disturbed by the policy of Justinian, Khusrau invaded Syria and sacked Antioch (540) (See 540–62). A treaty was struck but denounced when Khusrau extorted money from Byzantine cities. The Persians campaigned successfully in Lazica (ancient Colchis, southwest of Iberia), making it a province (541). Khusrau's unsuccessful siege of Edessa (544) led to a five-year truce which was broken when the Byzantines invaded and eventually retook Lazica (549–555). A fifty-year peace was concluded with the Byzantines in 561 in which Lazica was recognized as Roman in exchange for an annual payment in gold to the Sassanians. | 5 |
| |
| 557 |
| |
| Allied with the Turks of Transoxiana, Khusrau finally brought an end to Hephthalite power. | 6 |
| |
| 572–579 |
| |
| WAR WITH ROME (Byzantium) (See 572–91). The attempt to impose Zoroastrianism on the Armenians caused a revolt that encouraged the emperor Justin II to break the peace. Syria was ravaged by the Persians, and peace was negotiated with the co-emperor Tiberius (574); after renewed hostilities in Armenia, an uneasy truce was struck when Khusrau died (579) and was succeeded by his son, Hormizd IV. | 7 |
| |
| |
