Azarethes (), also recorded as Exarath () and Zuraq, was a

Sassanid The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranian peoples, Iranians"), was an List of monarchs of Iran, Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, th ...

Persian military commander during the Byzantine–Sassanid Wars. His Greek name is possibly a misunderstanding of the honorific title '' hazaraft''.

Biography

According to the account of

Procopius Procopius of Caesarea (; ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; ; – 565) was a prominent Late antiquity, late antique Byzantine Greeks, Greek scholar and historian from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman general Belisarius in Justinian I, Empe ...

(''De bello Persico'', I.18), Azarethes was placed in command of the Persian army in

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

after the Persian defeat in the Battle of Dara in 530. Procopius calls him an "exceptionally able warrior", and Zacharias of Mytilene records that he held the rank of '' astabadh''. In 531, together with his Lakhmid allies, he led an invasion across the

Euphrates The Euphrates ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of West Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia (). Originati ...

into the Byzantine region of Commagene (more probably Chalybonitis). When the Byzantine army under

Belisarius BelisariusSometimes called Flavia gens#Later use, Flavius Belisarius. The name became a courtesy title by the late 4th century, see (; ; The exact date of his birth is unknown. March 565) was a military commander of the Byzantine Empire under ...

approached, they withdrew east, halting at Callinicum. In the ensuing battle, the Byzantines suffered a heavy defeat, but Persian losses were also so high that the Persian king Kavadh I (r. 488–531) was displeased with him and relieved him of his command. He only reappears in the sources once, in 544, when he accompanied Kavadh's successor, Khosrau I (r. 531–579), at the siege of Edessa (544). In the last stage of the siege, when the Persians under Khosrow I withdrew from their second general assault, Azarethes and his men were the only Persians who were still fighting and making progress at one of the city gates. They were repelled by regrouped Romans under Peranius.

, ''De Bello Persico'', XXVII, 36-43

References

*{{cite book, editor1-last=Martindale, editor1-first=John Robert, editor2-last=Jones, editor2-first=Arnold Hugh Martin, editor3-last=Morris, editor3-first=J., title=The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, Volume III: A.D. 527–641, year=1992, location=Cambridge, United Kingdom, publisher=Cambridge University Press, isbn=978-0-521-20160-5, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ElkwedRWCXkC, page=160 6th-century Iranian people People of the Roman–Sasanian Wars Generals of Khosrow I Iberian War Generals of Kavad I