Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume II/Socrates/Book VII/Chapter 18
Chapter XVIII.—Renewal of Hostilities between the Romans and Persians after the Death of Isdigerdes King of the Persians.
Isdigerdes king of the Persians, who had in no way molested the Christians in his dominions, having died,[1]
his son Vararanes by name succeeded him in the kingdom. This prince yielding to the influence of the magi, persecuted the Christians there with rigor, by inflicting on them a variety of Persian punishments and tortures. They were therefore on account of the oppression obliged to desert their country and seek refuge among the Romans, entreating them not to suffer them to be completely extirpated. Atticus the bishop received these suppliants with great benignity, and did his utmost to help them in whatsoever way it was possible: accordingly he made the emperor Theodosius acquainted with the facts. It happened at the same time that another grievance of the Romans against Persians came to light. The Persians, that is to say, would not send back the laborers in the gold mines who had been hired from among the Romans; and they also plundered the Roman merchants. The bad feeling which these things produced was greatly increased by the flight of the Persian Christians into the Roman territories. For the Persian king immediately sent an embassy to demand the fugitives. But the Romans were by no means disposed to deliver them up; not only as desirous of defending their suppliants, but also because they were ready to do anything for the sake of the Christian religion. For which reason they chose rather to renew the war with the Persians, than to suffer the Christians to be miserably destroyed. The league was accordingly broken, and a fierce war followed.[2]
Of which war I deem it not unseasonable to give some brief account. The Roman emperor first sent a body of troops under the command of the general Ardaburius;[3]
who making an irruption through Armenia into Persia, ravaged one of its
provinces called Azazene. Narsæus the Persian general marched
against him with the Persian army; but on coming to an engagement he
was defeated, and obliged to retreat. Afterwards he judged it
advantageous to make an unexpected irruption through Mesopotamia into
the Roman territories there unguarded, thinking by this means to be
revenged on the enemy. But this design of Narsæus did not escape
the observation of the Roman general. Having therefore plundered
Azazene, he then himself also hastily marched into Mesopotamia.
Wherefore Narsæus, although furnished with a large army, was
prevented from invading the Roman provinces; but arriving at
Nisibis—a city in the possession of the Persians situated on the
frontiers of both empires—he sent Ardaburius desiring that they
might make mutual arrangements about carrying on the war, and appoint a
time and place for an engagement. But he said to the messengers,
‘Tell Narsæus that the Roman emperors will not fight when it
pleases him.’ The emperor perceiving that the Persian was
mustering his whole force, made additional levies to his army, and put
his whole trust in God for the victory: and that the king was not
without immediate benefit from this pious confidence the following
circumstance proves. As the Constantinopolitans were in great
consternation, and apprehensive respecting the issue of the war, angels
from God appeared to some persons in Bithynia who were travelling to
Constantinople on their own affairs, and bade them tell the people not
to be alarmed, but pray to God and be assured that the Romans would be
conquerors. For they said that they themselves were appointed by God to
defend them. When this message was circulated it not only comforted the
residents of the city, but rendered the soldiers more courageous. The
seat of war being transferred, as we have said, from Armenia to
Mesopotamia, the Romans shut up the Persians in the city of Nisibis,
which they besieged; and having constructed wooden towers which they
advanced by means of machines to the walls, they slew great numbers of
those who defended them, as well as of those who ran to their
assistance. When Vararanes the Persian monarch learned that his
province of Azazene on the one hand had been desolated, and that on the
other his army was closely besieged in the city of Nisibis, he resolved
to march in person with all his forces against the Romans: but dreading
the Roman valor, he implored the aid of the Saracens, who were then
governed by a warlike chief named Alamundarus. This prince accordingly
brought with him a large reinforcement of Saracen auxiliaries, exhorted
the king of the Persians to fear nothing, for that he would soon reduce
the Romans under his power, and deliver Antioch in Syria into his
hands. But the event did not realize these promises; for God infused
into the minds of the Saracens a terrible panic; and imagining that the
Roman army was falling upon them, and finding no other way of escape,
they precipitated themselves, armed as they were, into the river
Euphrates, wherein nearly one hundred thousand of them were drowned.
Such was the nature of the panic.
The Romans besieging Nisibis, understanding that the king of Persia was bringing with him a great number of elephants, became alarmed in their turn, burnt all the machines they had used in carrying on the siege, and retired into their own country. What engagements afterwards took place, and how Areobindus another Roman general killed the bravest of the Persians in single combat, and by what means Ardaburius destroyed seven Persian commanders in an ambuscade, and in what manner Vitian another Roman general vanquished the remnant of the Saracen forces, I believe I ought to pass by, lest I should digress too far from my subject.