# Armeno-Sassanid War of 363–371

The Armeno-Sassanid Wars of 363–371 were a series of conflict between the Arsacid faction of the Kingdom of Armenia and the Sassanid Empire, led by shahanshah Shapur II.

## Historial context

In 359 AD, another Roman-Persian war began, which ended with the defeat of Rome. Julian, Roman emperor at the time, was killed by a spear probably thrown by a Saracen (Lakhmid) auxiliary in Sasanian service, in the Battle of Samarra in 363 AD. The next emperor, Jovian, did not continue the war and signed a treaty with Persia. According to this treaty, the 5 southern Armenian provinces, along with 15 fortresses and cities, were to pass under the rule of the Persians. This treaty signed by Rome was called "shameful" by the 4th-century Roman historian Ammianus. This treaty allowed the Persian "king of kings" (Shahanshah) Shapur II to freely implement his plans for Greater Armenia.

## War
### Battle of Ganzak, 363 AD

In 363 AD, Shapur led an offensive into Armenian territory. King Arshak II was informed about this invasion by the border guards, and in turn called general Vasak I Mamikonian to fight.
   The Armenian king's border guards, who were sitting in Gandzak in Atrpatakan, had informed King Arshak of this in advance, before [Shapuh] had reached Atrpatakan. As soon as the Armenian king Arshak learned of this, he ordered his general Vasak to organize all his troops and arrive, to resist the Persian king Shapuh... The general Vasak moved forward, arrived and clashed with the Persian king.
After a long march, the Armenian army reached Ganzak and Shahastan and met with the larger Persian army. After a long pitched-battle, the Persian army gives up on invading Armenia, and the Armenians emerged victorious. Not all the troops of the Persian army had managed to concentrate in one place and take up a military position. Vasak I Mamikonian's attack took them by surprise. Unable to withstand the onslaught of the Armenian army, the Persian army began to retreat, but, wanting to further consolidate his victory, Vasak I continued the pursuit even into Persian territories, until he lost the opponent army.

### Battles of Satala, Kaharan and Erevyal (?), 364 AD
#### Satala

In 364 AD, Shapur launched an attack, dividing the Persian army into three parts, which invaded Armenia from different directions. The armies of Shapur and Arshak II met at the village of Satala in the Basen province. Shapur's main strategic mistake was to arrange his army in a military order at Satala. He was confident of his victory, since he had a numerical advantage over the Armenians.
Arshak II did not immediately attack the enemy, but waited for the night, during which he attacked the Persians in a surprise attack. The surprised Persian army did not have time to adopt a plan of action, as a result of which it suffered defeat and fled.
   Arshak the king arrived with his troops and found himself, Shapuh the king, who had come to gather and set up an army in the province of Basyan, in a place called Voskha. Then Arshak the king attacked the Persian army at night, putting everyone to the sword. King Shapuh barely managed to escape with only one horse, and the Persian world fell. At that time, the heralds of victory from the three [Armenian] regiments met each other.

#### Kaharan

The Armenian army had been expecting such an invasion, since Vasak I Mamikonian had understood after the Battle of Ganzak in 363 AD that the Persians would continue their expansionist policy and undertake new campaigns. Vasak also divided his army into three parts, one of which was commanded by his brother Bagoas Mamikonian, the other by the Armenian king Arshak II, and the last by the Armenian general Vasak Mamikonian himself.
All three Armenian units cover an equal distance, so all the battles take place at almost the same time. The Persian army reaches the village of Kaharan in Arberan province, near Lake Van, where it sets up a military camp in a fishing village. Learning that the Armenian army is moving against them, the Persian army adopts a military formation. At the beginning of the battle, the Armenians manage to achieve success: they attack the Persian army, whose commander is trying to restore the broken order of battle. During these attempts, the Persian commander, Andikān, is killed. However, the numerical advantage was on the side of the Persians, thanks to which they are able to reorganize their own forces and bring war elephants into battle. At the cost of heavy casualties, the Armenians are able to withstand this counterattack and force the Persians to retreat. While resisting this counterattack, the commander of the Armenian unit, Bagoas, was killed. According to Faustus of Byzantium, Bagoas was the only casualty on the Armenian side, while the whole Persian army was annihilated. Although it was a decisive victory for the Armenians, the war would drag on for years to come.
   Then Bagoas met a troop of elephants. He saw that one of the elephants was very decorated and wore royal insignia. Bagoas thought that the king [Shapur] was riding on that elephant, so he dismounted, drew his sword, and attacked the elephant. He raised his weapon, went under the elephant, struck the elephant in the belly, and the elephant fell on him, and both died together, because [Bagoas] did not have time to get out from under the elephant.

#### Erevyal (?)

In a place called Erevyal, in Vanand province, the unit led by Vasak Mamikonian meets the enemy, whose commander was a certain Hazaravukht. The Armenian general attacks the enemy's central wing and forces them to retreat in different directions. This attack does not allow the enemy to unite his forces and bring his war elephants into battle. The enemy flees, and the Armenian general organizes a pursuit of the retreating enemy, as a result of which the enemy is unable to unite his forces. Hazaravukht was killed in battle.

### Siege of Artogerassa, 368 AD

By carefully calculated flattery mingled with perjury Shapur, tricked King Arsaces; for after being invited to a banquet he was taken according to orders to a secret rear-door; there after his eyes had been gouged out, he was bound in silver chains, which among that people is regarded as a consolation, though an empty one, for the punishment of men of rank, and then he was banished to a fortress called Agabana, where after being tortured he was slain by the penal steel. After sending Pap to safety in Roman Cappadocia, Parandzem manned the watchtowers every night at Artogerassa in the Caucasus Mountains on the Aras River and brandished torches to show her resolve. Meanwhile, the siege of Artogerassa continued, and the Epic Histories inform us that Pap, in "the land of the Greeks," was in communication with his mother inside the fortress, whom he encouraged to await his rescue, Unfortunately for Parandzem, Valens was willing to intervene and reimpose Pap only in 369. The clash ended in 368 in epidemic and hunger that wiped out most of Queen Parandzem's army made up of 11,000 men and forced her surrender, taking over a thousand people and the Queen herself captive. After the siege Shapur ravages Armenia in retaliation of the ally with Rome, Shapur destroyed Artaxata, the Armenian capital, after that Shapur blockaded Artogerassa with the whole weight of his forces and after some battles of varying result and the exhaustion of the defenders, forced his way into the city and set it on fire, dragging out and carrying off the wife and the treasures of Arsaces. Shapur II wanting to humiliate Armenia and the Roman Empire, had Parandzem given to his soldiers whom they brutally raped until she died.

### Battle in Bagrevand, 371 AD

The combined Armenian-Roman army, amounting up to 90,000 men, met the invading Sassanid force near Bagavan. According to Ammianus Marcellinus, the Romans initially withdrew to avoid combat, but were eventually forced to respond to the attacks of the Persian cavalry and won a decisive victory in the subsequent battle, inflicting heavy casualties on the Persians. Faustus of Byzantium gives considerable credit for the victory to sparapet Mushegh I Mamikonian. Faustus also tells of how Urnayr of Albania asked Shapuh to let his contingent face the Armenian force, and how Mushegh engaged in single combat with Urnayr and wounded the Albanian king, but allowed him to escape with his life. This may indicate that the battle took place in a similar fashion as other battles where the Romans and their allies faced the Persians and their allies, with the Romans facing the Persians and the allies fighting each other. According to Faustus, King Pap did not take part in the battle and observed from Mount Npat together with Patriach Nerses at the request of the Roman generals.

## Aftermath

Ammianus (29.1.4) writes that several more engagements were fought after the Armeno-Roman victory at Bagavan, with varying results. Faustus tells of another major Battle at Ganzak in Azerbaijan, where the Armenians and Romans defeated the Persians again, this time with Shapur leading in person, who sustained a light wound caused by fighting. After these battles, Shapur sent emissaries and a truce was agreed. Shapur then returned to Ctesiphon and Valens to Antioch, with Armenia effectively under Roman suzerainty. The truce would last for seven years. As a result of these victories, Mushegh is said to have reconquered many lost Armenian territories and forced the nobles who had revolted against the Arsacid monarchy to submit to the authority of Pap.