Five years before the Battle of Atropatene, in the year 315 of the Parsian calendar.
The three kingdoms of Turan, Sindhura, and Turk formed an alliance and invaded the eastern borders of Pars with a combined force of five hundred thousand troops. Turan was an old enemy that had fought Pars countless times throughout history, trading victories and defeats over generations. Since the fall of the Principality of Badakhshan, Sindhura now shared a direct border with Pars, and minor clashes between the two countries never ceased. Turk, meanwhile, coveted Pars’s trade and taxation rights along the Continental Highway.
Though each kingdom had its own motives, they agreed on one thing: Pars stood in their way. Turan invaded from the northeast, Turk from the east, and Sindhura from the southeast, all striking at the same time.
Even the fearless Shah Andragoras could not remain calm. He mobilized the royal army and ordered the shahrdaran[1] throughout the kingdom to gather in the royal capital of Ecbatana with their private forces.
Among those shahrdaran was Teos, ruler of the Daylam province along the northern Darband Sea. An old friend of the shah, he promised to arrive with five thousand cavalry and thirty thousand infantry, greatly pleasing the king.
But just before the campaign began, Teos accidentally fell down the stairs of his mansion, struck his head against the edge of a stone step, and died.
The shah was stunned by the news, but for the moment he recognized Teos’s son, Narses, as the new shahrdar. Even with Teos dead, those troops remained valuable to the crown.
Before long, Narses arrived in Ecbatana with his forces. At first the shah was pleased. Then he was astonished. Finally, he flew into a rage.
Narses had brought only two thousand cavalry and five thousand infantry.
“Why did you not bring more troops?” the shah demanded. “Your father gave me his word.”
“My deepest apologies.” The young lord, only twenty-one at the time, bowed calmly.
“That goes without saying.” The shah just barely managed to restrain his anger. “I’m asking for an explanation.”
“The truth is, I freed all the ghulams on my lands.”
“What?!”
“As Your Majesty knows, the infantry consisted of ghulams. Once they were freed, naturally I no longer had an infantry force. I offered wages and asked them to return. In the end, about five thousand agreed, so I brought them with me.”
“And why is your cavalry so small?”
“They were appalled and abandoned my service. I cannot really blame them.” His words were respectful, but he showed no shame whatsoever.
“I can understand their feelings perfectly well,” the shah snapped.
Andragoras had always been a hard and short-tempered man. Disappointment and fury radiated through his powerful frame and gathered in his eyes as he glared at Narses. Veteran warriors trembled beneath that gaze, but the young man met it without the slightest fear.
On the contrary, he said something so outrageous it bordered on madness. “If Your Majesty wishes, I can drive off the allied armies of the three kingdoms with a strategy of my own.”
“A bold claim. What is it? You want a hundred thousand men?” The source of this chapter is g.com.
“I require no soldiers at all. Only a little time.”
“Time?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Give me five days, and I will force them out of Pars. Though in the end, Your Majesty’s military strength will still be necessary.”
The shah granted the request. Not because he believed the young man, but because he wanted to see the look on his face when he failed.
Narses disappeared from camp with about ten followers.
“He ran away,” many people said.
The shah thought the same and had already decided to seize Daylam and absorb it into the royal domain.
Yet three days later, Narses casually returned and made a request of the shah. He asked for authority over the Sindhuran prisoners captured from the allied armies.
The shah approved that as well, mainly because Eran Vahriz said, “If we are to swallow the poison, we may as well lick the plate clean.”
Narses took custody of two thousand Sindhuran prisoners. Then he released every single one of them. The commanders who had struggled to capture those prisoners erupted in outrage and demanded an explanation. Even Dariun could not calm them.
Narses remained completely unconcerned. Finally, one enraged chiliarch drew his sword and challenged him to a duel.
The match ended almost immediately. Narses, whom everyone had taken for a frail scholarly noble, knocked the man’s sword from his hand in fewer than five exchanges.
“Is this really the time for us to turn on each other?” Narses shouted at the stunned commanders. “By tonight the Turks will attack the Sindhurans, and the Turanians will strike the Turks. If we do not prepare for an all-out assault, we’ll miss our chance for glory.”
Only Vahriz and Dariun—who at the time had only just become a chiliarch—believed him.
His prediction proved perfectly correct. That very night, the allied armies of the three kingdoms erupted into a savage battle among themselves. Taking advantage of the chaos, the Parsian army routed them. During the fighting, Dariun won great renown by cutting down the younger brother of the king of Turan with a single stroke from horseback.
When Dariun complimented him afterward, Narses merely laughed. “It was simple enough. Sometimes a single rumor outweighs a hundred thousand soldiers.”
For three days, Narses and his men had spread rumors through the enemy camps.
To the Turk forces, they whispered, “The Sindhuran army has betrayed you and joined hands with Pars. As proof, the Sindhuran prisoners will all be released within a day or two.”
To the Turanians, they spread a different tale. “The Turk army is colluding with Pars. Soon they plan to attack the Sindhurans, claiming Sindhura is in league with Pars. Don’t fall for it.”
And to the Sindhuran prisoners he released, Narses said, “The shah of Pars and your own king has already reached an agreement for peace. But Turk and Turan have gotten wind of it. Be careful. The allies you trusted may attack you.”
And so the allied armies collapsed under the weight of their own suspicion and paranoia.
Narses’s unconventional strategy succeeded. The alliance destroyed itself, and Pars was saved. Even Andragoras had no choice but to reward him. The shah formally recognized his inheritance, granted him ten thousand dinars,[2] and appointed him as dabir.[3] People began whispering that he would one day rise to the position of framadar.[4]
Narses himself preferred a carefree life in his own territory to the rigid duties of the court, but the shah refused to let him leave. At least at that time, Andragoras still valued Narses’s intelligence and insight highly. Left with no choice, Narses remained in the capital. The source of this chapter is novelping.com.
For the next two years, things passed in relative peace. Dariun made his name as a military officer, while Narses gained distinction as a civil official.
Then, in the year 317 of the Parsian calendar, an envoy departed for the distant eastern land of Serica to strengthen diplomatic ties, and Dariun was appointed commander of the escort.
Narses, who had studied the history and culture of Serica, envied his friend immensely and held a grand feast to see him off.
Around that time, cracks began to appear in the rule of Shah Andragoras. Corruption among officials, priests, and nobles became increasingly conspicuous.
By then, Narses already seemed deeply weary of life at court. He investigated the realities of the kingdom’s politics and submitted numerous reform proposals to the shah, but almost none received serious consideration. Andragoras preferred war to governance, and at the time the royal treasury overflowed while no foreign threat loomed over the kingdom. The shah saw no reason to invite trouble by carrying out reforms that would antagonize priests and nobles.
At first he simply ignored Narses’s proposals. Before long, however, he could no longer brush the matter aside. The priests had petitioned the shah to expel Narses from court.
Narses had uncovered widespread corruption among the priesthood, who abused their status and privileges freely. Priests were exempt from paying taxes, and even if they committed crimes, they were not taken into custody.
They lent money to farmers at illegal interest rates, then seized their land when they could not repay the debt. They monopolized karezes[5] and reservoirs and extorted payment for water. If anyone resisted, they sent private soldiers to commit arson and murder before dividing the stolen wealth among themselves. They mixed sand into the salt they sold and pocketed the difference. When peasants dug their own wells, the priests poisoned them.
After gathering evidence of these crimes, Narses demanded that the shah punish the priests severely.
The enraged priests retaliated by attempting to assassinate him while he returned home from court but failed.
They sent eight assassins. Four died by Narses’s sword, two were wounded and captured, and the remaining two barely escaped with their lives.
The priests immediately changed tactics and accused Narses before the shah of unlawfully killing men.
Deciding it was a good opportunity, Narses abandoned the court and returned to his own lands.
When Dariun returned from Serica, he learned that his friend had been driven from court during his absence. The news shocked and saddened him. He intended to visit Narses someday, but before he could, the Battle of Atropatene began.
1. Parsian term for vassal lords. Singular: shahrdar. Based on the Sasanian designation for the kingdom’s great territorial lords. ↩
2. Parsian term for gold coin. Based on the historical gold dinar used throughout the medieval Middle East. ↩
3. Parsian term for a court secretary. Based on the Middle Persian term dibīr, meaning scribe or secretary. ↩
4. Parsian term for chancellor. Based on the Middle Persian title framādār, the Sasanian Empire’s chief minister. ↩
5. Parsian term for an underground irrigation channel. Based on the historical Persian karez system. ↩