Battle of Dara The Battle of Dara was fought between the Sassanids and the Byzantine Empire in 530 . It was one of the battles of the Iberian War . Background . The Byzantine Empire was at war with the Sassanids from 507 , 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 and his nephew and heir , Justinian I , refused and sent his generals Sittas and Belisarius into Persia , where they were initially defeated . Justinian tried to negotiate but Kavadh instead sent 40 , 000 men towards Dara in 529 . Belisarius was sent back to the region with Hermogenes as his co - commander and 25 , 000 men in 530 ; Kavadh replied with another 10 , 000 troops under the general Perozes , who set up camp about five kilometers away at Ammodius . The battle . Despite being outnumbered , Belisarius decided to give battle to the numerically superior Persians . He dug a number of ditches to block the Persian cavalry ; leaving gaps between them to allow a counterattack . These were pushed forward on either flank of his position ; while his center was refused back . Here he placed his unreliable infantry behind the center ditch . On the left and right flanks were the Roman cavalry , of questionable quality . Supporting them on their interior flanks were small bodies of Huns : 300 Hun cavalry under Sunicas and Aigan supporting the left ; and as many more Huns on the right under Simmas and Ascan . Belisarius also placed a body of Heruli cavalry under Pharas in ambush position off of his left flank . A reserve composed of his own " bucellarii " household cavalry was held behind his center and commanded by Armenian John ; his trusted lieutenant and boyhood companion . On the first day , there was no general engagement , but instead a series of challenge fights between champions of both sides . One particular combat involved a Persian knight , who challenged Belisarius to a single combat ; but was instead met by a Roman bath slave named Andreas . Andreas , who had been secretly training with Belisarius ' own household troopers , killed not only this Persian champion , but also a second challenger later in the day . The Persians then withdrew to Ammodius for the night . On the second day of the battle , 10 , 000 more Persian troops arrived from Nisibis . The Persians and Byzantines exchanged volleys of arrows , resulting in minor casualties on each side . The Persians formed two lines : the right flank under Pityaxes and the left under Baresamanes . The first wave of the Persian attack was directed against the Roman left flank . The Persians forced a crossing of the ditch , pushing back the Roman cavalry . But the intervention of Sunicas ' Huns attacking from the interior of the Roman line ; as well as Pharas ' Herulians attacking out of ambush from the opposite side , forced the Persians wing to retreat . The Persians then attacked the Byzantine right wing , where Perozes sent the Persian Immortals , the elite Persian armored lancers . The Roman cavalry defending the ditch , were pushed back here as they had been on the right . But Belisarius counterattacked with his reserve " bucellari " cavalry , and split the Persian troops in two . Half the Persians pursued the Byzantine cavalry , but the rest were trapped , and Baresmanes was killed along with 5 , 000 other men . The Byzantine cavalry also recovered and routed their pursuers . Belisarius allowed a pursuit for a few miles , but let the majority of Persian survivors escape . Outcome and later attacks . The victory didn ' t last long for the Byzantine Empire . Following the defeat , the Lakhmid King al - Mundhir IV ibn al - Mundhir , a Sassanid vassal , sent his troops to aid the Sassanid army . With Lakhmid aid , on 19 April 531 , under the command of the Spahbod Azarethes , the Persians heavily defeated Belisarius at the Battle of Callinicum , partly due to the insubordination of Belisarius ' officers , which led the Byzantines to pay heavy tributes for years in exchange for a peace treaty . In 540 and 544 Dara was attacked by Khosrau I , who was unable to take it either time . Khosrau finally captured it in 573 ; its fall was said to have caused Justin II to go insane . Justin ' s wife Sophia and his friend Tiberius II Constantine took control of the empire until Justin died in 578 . Meanwhile the Persians were able to march further into the empire , but Khosrau died in 579 . Maurice defeated the Persians at Dara in 586 and recaptured the fortress , but the Persians under Khosrau II defeated the Byzantines in 604 . This time Persians destroyed the city , but the Byzantines later rebuilt it in 628 . In 639 the Muslim Arabs captured it , and it remained in their hands until 942 when it was sacked by the Byzantines . It was sacked again by John Tzimisces in 958 , but the Byzantines never recaptured it . The battle in media . The Battle of Dara is depicted in 2005 in the TV series " Time Commanders " .