Khosrow I

Khosrow I (also spelled Khosrau, Khusro or Chosroes; Middle Persian: 𐭧𐭥𐭮𐭫𐭥𐭣𐭩), traditionally known by his epithet of Anushirvan (Middle Persian: 𐭠𐭭𐭥𐭱𐭫𐭥𐭡𐭠𐭭, lit. 'the Immortal Soul'), was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 531 to 579. He was the son and successor of Kavad I (r. 488–496, 498/499–531). Inheriting a reinvigorated empire at war with the Byzantines, Khosrow I signed a peace treaty with them in 532, known as the Perpetual Peace, in which the Byzantine emperor Justinian I paid 11,000 pounds of gold to the Sasanians. Khosrow then focused on consolidating his power, executing conspirators, including his uncle Bawi. Dissatisfied with the actions of the Byzantine clients and vassals, the Ghassanids, and encouraged by Ostrogoth envoys from Italy, Khosrow violated the peace treaty and declared war against the Byzantines in 540. He sacked the major city of Antioch and deported its population to Persia. In 541, he invaded Lazica and made it an Iranian protectorate, thus initiating the Lazic War. In 545, the two empires agreed to halt the wars in Mesopotamia and Syria while continuing to fight in Lazica. A truce was declared in 557, and by 562 the fifty-year peace treaty was signed. In 572, Justin II, the successor of Justinian, broke the peace treaty and sent a Byzantine force into the Sasanian region of Arzanene. The following year, Khosrow besieged and captured the important Byzantine fortress-city of Dara, which led to Justin II's insanity. The war lasted until 591, outliving Khosrow. Khosrow's wars were not only focused in the west. To the east, in an alliance with the Göktürks, he finally put an end to the Hephthalite Empire, which had inflicted a handful of defeats on the Sasanians in the 5th century, killing Khosrow's grandfather Peroz I. To the south, Iranian forces led by Wahrez...