In 530 CE Byzantium won a major strategic victory over the Sassanian Persians at the battle of Dara ((present-day Mardin Province, Republic of Türkiye). The battle was a major victory for the Byzantine Empire (337-1453 CE) under the command of General Belisarius, showcasing his military genius and boosting the morale of the Byzantine forces along the Eastern Frontier. Our understanding of the engagement comes from the Greek chronicler Procopius of Caesarea (c.500-565), who served as a Byzantine court secretary and is the primary historian of Justinian’s reign. His detailed account of the battle is one of the most complete from the era. The battle is often studied for its innovative use of fortifications and strategic positioning. Belisarius's tactics, including the use of trenches and the effective deployment of cavalry, were instrumental in the Byzantine victory. Strategically, the victory at Dara temporarily halted the Sassanian advance and established a period of relative stability in the region.

RIGHT: . Mosaic of the Byzantine General Belisarius. From the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy, which commemorates the reconquest of Italy by the Byzantine army. Click to enlarge.

Although trained as an officer, Justinian never took command in the field once he assumed the throne in Constantinople, instead relying on the battlefield genius of his two principal commanders, Belisarius and Narses, to expand his imperial possessions. Born in Thrace and of Greek or Thracian ancestry, Belisarius (c.505-565) joined the Byzantine army as a youth and rose quickly through the ranks of Emperor Justin I’s (r.518-527) royal bodyguard, becoming a capable and charismatic officer. Belisarius would cut his teeth in the eastern campaigns against Sassanian Persians, rising quickly through the ranks to become a commander.  A major flash point on the Byzantine-Sassanian frontier was the strongly fortified border city of Dara (located near the modern village of Oguz in eastern Turkey).  Dara was rebuilt into a fortress city by Justin’s predecessor, the Emperor Anastasius (r.491-518) and was the lynchpin of the Mesopotamian defenses because it covered a major trading nexus south into northern Syria and north-westwards into Anatolia.

The war between the Byzantines and the Sassanians began in 527, the last year of Justin’s reign, when the Christian king of the Caucasian kingdom of Iberia rebelled against the Sassanian Persian king Kavad (r.488-531), allegedly because the Persian king was trying to convert the region to Zoroastrianism.  Worried for his life, the Iberian king then fled to Byzantine territory, where he was offered sanctuary. Kavad tried to ease tensions with Justin, even offering his own son and prince regent Khusraw (later king Khusraw I, r.531-579, sometimes Chosroes I), to the Byzantine emperor as an adoptive son.  Justin refused and ordered an offensive against Persian controlled-Armenia, located just south of Iberia, led by the young commanders Sittas and Belisarius.  After the death of Justin in August 527, Justinian tried to negotiate with Kavad, but to no avail.  Sittas and Belisarius were defeated and Byzantine efforts in the region stalled in 529. In 530, Justinian appointed Belisarius “Master of the Soldiers” of the Army of the East and ordered him into the region again, leading an army of 25,000 men to Dara to keep it from being taken by the Persians.

When Belisarius arrived at Dara, he arranged his army behind a series of defensive ditches dug across the main road from Dara to nearby Nisibis just outside of the walls of the city.  The ditches were probably laid out with a short central section recessed behind two longer flanking sections, connected together by two transverse sections.  The defensive ditches were bridged in numerous places, allowing the Byzantine forces to cross into battle under supporting archery fire from the nearby battlements.  Manning the ditches were Byzantine infantry. Belisarius placed his Byzantine cavalry on the left and right flanks, supported by detachments of Hunnic and Heruli cavalry. A century earlier, the Huns were the premier cavalry power in Europe, but after Attila’s death in 453, the remaining steppe warriors sought employment as mercenaries in armies across Europe and the Near East. The Heruli cavalry were fierce Germanic horsemen originally from Scandinavia who became subjects first of the Ostrogoths and then the Huns before becoming foederati in service of Constantinople. The right wing and left wings were commanded by Belisarius’ lieutenants Hermogenes and Bouzes respectively. A reserve composed of his own bucellarii household cavalry was held behind his center and commanded by John the Armenian, a boyhood friend and man of considerable talent whose resolve would be instrumental in many of Belisarius’ victories.  

LEFT: Battle map of the initial deployments of Byzantine and Sassanian Persian forces at Dara, June 530 CE. Click to enlarge.

Unwilling to negotiate with the Byzantines, King Kavad sent Firuz, his Mirran or supreme commander, to Dara at the head of a Persian army of perhaps 40,000 men. The attacking Sassanian host was a combined-arms force in the tradition of great classical Mesopotamian armies of the past, complete with a reincarnation of the “Immortals” (Zhayedan), an elite band of Persian soldiers who served the king as a bodyguard.  Like their Byzantine counterparts, Sassanian commanders used cavalry as their primary combat arm, supported by infantry and at times, war elephants. Below, the fourth century Greek historian Ammianus Marcellinus, who served as a Roman staff officer under the emperors Julian the Apostate and Jovian, describes the elite Persian clibanarii of King Shapur II (r.309-379) and their support troops:    

The Persians opposed us with squadrons of [clibanarii] drawn up in such serried ranks that their movements in their close-fitting coats of flexible mail dazzled our eyes, while all their horses were protected by housings of leather.  They were supported by detachments of infantry who moved in compact formation carrying long, curved shields of wicker covered with raw hide.  Behind them came elephants looking like moving hills. Their huge bodies threatened the destruction of all who approached, and past experience had taught us to dread them.

Ammianus continues with a description of how well protected the clibanarii were by their armor and that some of the horsemen were lancers:

All the companies were clad in iron, and all parts of their bodies were covered with thick plates, so fitted that the stiff-joints conformed with those of their limbs; and the forms of human faces were so skillfully fitted to their heads, that since their entire body was covered with metal, arrows that fell upon them could lodge only where they could see a little through tiny openings opposite the pupil of the eye, or where through the tip of their nose they were able to get a little breath. Of these some who were armed with pikes, stood so motionless that you would have thought them held fast by clamps of bronze.

There is evidence that by the sixth century the Sassanian art of war had transitioned away from using exceptionally heavily armored lancers to using lighter armored cavalrymen who fought with both lance and composite bow.  There may have also been specialized units who fought with only lances, and certainly there were light cavalry units who fought only as mounted archers, mostly in reaction to contacts with mobile horse archers from the steppes. The elite Sassanian heavy cavalry are often referred to as the Savaran in Persian sources and were guided by a chivalry code not unlike that which was practiced hundreds of years later in Western Europe by Christian knights.  Savaran cavalry were made up of well-trained and well-equipped Persian nobles who excelled as lancers, wielding the long shaft with a two-handed couch.  Savaran cavalry were protected by a combination of armors, including ring, lamellar plate or chainmail.  Savaran noblemen wore conical helms that, as the description above suggests, incorporated protection for the face and sides of the head that often obscured the identity of the warrior. Besides the lance, Savaran cavalry carried swords, maces or javelins, and some carried composite bows and arrows. Horses were frequently armored in leather and sometimes metal barding.  The introduction of the stirrup into Sassanian Persian warfare, probably in the late fifth or early sixth century, made mounted shock tactics by lance wielding cavalry even more dangerous, as warriors could now direct the combined weight of rider and mount into their charge. Because it was the custom of the Savaran to challenge champions of an opposing army to single combat before battle, many celebrated lance-duels took place between the Savaran and Byzantine knights during the long history of conflict between these two civilizations.

RIGHT: Historical reenactor and mount wearing a Sassanian-era scale-armor panoply. This type of heavy cavalryman was present fighting on both sides during the battle of Dara. Click to enlarge.

Firuz drew up his Sassanian forces in two dense lines, taking personal command of the center troops in both formations. The forward Persian center consisted of light infantry slingers, javelin throwers, and archers, while behind them stood conscript infantry.  He placed the king’s elite Persian cavalry Immortals on both wings of the forward line, backed by their own clibanarii and supported by detachments of Persian and allied Arab light horse. The cavalry on his left was commanded by the “one-eyed” Baresmanes, while the cavalry on his right was under Pityaxes. Seeing Belisarius’ strong defensive position behind the trench, Firuz decided to open the battle with a cavalry probe, ordering horsemen under Baresmanes’ command forward against the Byzantine right, which withdrew as the Persians advanced.  Fearing an attack against their flank by the Hunnic horse, the Sassanians retreated in haste but were now counterattacked by units from the Eastern Roman left, probably made up of the fast-moving Heruli cavalry.  Justinian’s chief chronicler, the sixth century Greek historian Procopius of Caesarea, tells us that the Persians lost only seven men in this engagement.

After the Sassanian cavalry returned to their lines, a lone Persian warrior broke ranks and rode out to challenge a Byzantine champion to a fight.  This type of one-on-one duel was not uncommon in classical and medieval warfare and was practiced by numerous Indo-European, Semitic, and Turkic warrior cultures.  On this day the challenge was answered by a man named Andreas, an accomplished wrestler and personal attendant of Bouzes, who dropped the Persian champion with a spear thrust to the right breast, then, according to Procopius, drew a small knife and “slew him like a sacrificial animal as he lay on his back” to the cheers of the Byzantine lines. The Sassanians sent another warrior to avenge the first challenger’s death, and Andreas killed him as well. Although seemingly tactically insignificant, these duels could have important morale boosting results on the side whose champion won the challenge.  Afterwards, Firuz withdrew his army back to their base at Ammodios.

The Sassanian army returned the following day, this time with 10,000 reinforcements from Nisibis. During the morning both sides exchanged letters.  The Byzantines asked the Persians to come to the negotiation table, and the Persians refused. At midday, the two armies deployed in the same manner as the day before, with one exception; Belisarius hid a small contingent of Heruli cavalry under the command of Pharas behind a hill on the extreme left of the Byzantine position to be used if the opportunity presented itself.  The battle opened with an exchange of archery fire, but despite having more bowmen, the effectiveness of the Persian volleys was hampered by strong opposing winds.  Both sides suffered light casualties.  Firuz then ordered his entire Sassanian line forward in a general attack.  On his right wing, Pityaxes pushed forward with his Savaran and Immortal cavalry, backed by Persian and Arab horse, forcing the Byzantine left wing under Bouzes backwards.  But a coordinated counterattack by 600 Hunnic cavalry from the left center and the sudden appearance of the reserve Heruli horse from behind the hill changed the tactical situation. Struck in the flank and rear by the once hidden cavalry, the Immortals and their allies fell back in disarray toward their second line who opened their ranks and accepted their retreating comrades.  Still, casualties on the Persian right were high with Procopius recording some 3,000 dead.

LEFT: Two heavily armored Sassanian noblemen dueling on horseback with cavalry lances. Sasanian era silver plate with gold coating, Azerbaijan Museum, Tabriz, Iran. Click to enlarge.

After a pause in the battle, the Persian Mirran ordered his entire line forward again, but pressed his numerical advantage on his left.  Here, under the command of the “one-eyed” Baresmanes and backed by Savaran and Immortal cavalry, the Persian left pushed John and his Byzantine heavy cavalry on the right wing backwards in complete disarray.  It seemed as though the Persians were about to enjoy a breakthrough when Belisarius noticed the Persian left was now detached from its center.  He ordered his two center Hunnic units (1,200 horsemen in all) to wheel and strike the flank of the victorious Persian left wing.  Belisarius seized the moment and launched his elite cavalry reserve against the beleaguered Persian left who, attacked on three sides, broke and ran for their lives, swept from the battlefield by John and his reinvigorated cavalry.  Baresmanes was killed in the melee along with 5,000 other Persian troops on the collapsing left wing.

Belisarius quickly recognized his fortunes had changed.  The remaining Persian army in front of him was without a left wing to protect the mass of infantry in the center.  The Byzantine general ordered his mounted bodyguard and the Hunnic horse to attack the enemy’s unprotected left flank, shattering the infantry formation with repeated heavy cavalry charges and clibanarii and light cavalry missile fire.  Persian casualties were high, with some 8,000 men dead on the battlefield. Despite the hopelessness of their situation, the Immortals fought on and died to the last man. Byzantine casualties are not recorded by Procopius, although we do know that Belisarius and Hermogenes called off the pursuit after a few miles, fearing the Sassanians might regroup and counterattack, endangering the victory.

RIGHT: (left map) Detailed map of the Byzantine-Sassanian Frontier. (right map) Byzantine Empire at the Death of Emperor Justinian the Great. C.565 CE, c.1025 CE. Click to enlarge.

After Dara, the Persians suffered several more defeats, and in 532, Kavad’s successor agreed to a peace with Byzantium with no term limit, the poorly named “Perpetual Peace.”  By the unusual terms of this agreement Justinian was to pay the Persians 11,000 pounds of gold toward the upkeep of the Caucasian defenses, and in return, Byzantium could keep the fortress at Dara, but not as its headquarters in Mesopotamia. Both sides would return strategic strongholds captured in the decades-old war.  Finally, Persia swore eternal friendship and alliance with the Byzantine Empire. The treaty lasted less than a decade, and Byzantium and Persia continue to play strategic tug-of-war in the region until the early 630s, when both empires faced a new and dangerous threat from the expansion of Islam out of the Arabian Peninsula. 

Suggested Readings 

Primary Sources

Ammianus Marcellinus. The Later Roman Empire. Trans. Hamilton. Penguin Books, 1986.

Procopius. History of the Wars, trans. H.B. Dewing. Harvard University Press, 1914.

Secondary Sources

Carey, Brian Todd, Joshua B. Allfree, and John Cairns. Road to Manzikert: Byzantine and Islamic Warfare, 527-1071. Pen and Sword Military, 2012.

Farrokh, Kavah. Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War. Osprey, 2009.

Haldon, John. The Byzantine Wars. The History Press, 2008.

Treadgold, Warren. Byzantium and Its Army, 284-1081. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1995.