page_title: Battle of Dara
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Dara / Background
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Die justinianische Stadtmauer von Dara English: Emperor Justinian's city walls of Dara Polski: Mury miejskie miasta Dara, wybudowane za czasów cesarza Justyniana
context_page_description: The Battle of Dara was fought between the Byzantine Empire and the Sasanians in 530. 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.
context_section_description: The Byzantine Empire was at war with the Sassanids from 527, supposedly because Kavadh I had tried to force the Iberians to become Zoroastrians. The Iberian king fled from Kavadh, but Kavadh tried to make peace with the Byzantines, and attempted to have Justin I adopt his son Khosrau. Justin agreed, but on the terms that he would do so only in a rite reserved for barbarians. This failed to satisfy Kavadh, who attacked Byzantine allies, so Justin sent his generals Sittas and Belisarius into Persia, where they were initially defeated. In 529, the failed negotiations of Justin's successor Justinian prompted a Sassanian expedition of 40,000 men towards Dara. The next year, Belisarius was sent back to the region alongside Hermogenes and an army; Kavadh answered with another 10,000 troops under the general Perozes, who set up camp about five kilometers away at Ammodius. In the near vicinity of Dara.
caption: Ruins of Justinian's fortifications at Dara
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