Bouzes

Bouzes or Buzes ( Greek  Βούζης , fl .; * 528 ; † 556 ) was an Eastern Roman general who took part in the wars against the Sassanids during the reign of Justinian (527-565) .

family

Bouzes was a native of Thracian . He was likely a son of the rebel Vitalian . Prokopios of Caesarea (Prokop) calls Koutzes and Venilus brothers des Bouzes. An unnamed sister was the mother of Domentiolus .

Iberian War

Battle of Mindouos

Map of the Roman-Persian border in the 6th century

Bouzes is first mentioned in 528 as dux by Phoenice Libanensis (together with his brother Koutzes). (Your province was part of the larger diocese of the east and included the area east of the Lebanon Mountains ) Bouzes was stationed in Palmyra , Coutzes in Damascus . At the time, both brothers are described by Prokop as young.

Her first known mission was to help Belisarius in the Iberian War against the Sassanid Empire near Mindouos. Belisarius tried to build a fortress at this point.

When the emperor ( Justinian ) heard this, namely that Belisarius was unable to drive the Persians from this place with his army, he ordered another army there, as well as Koutzes and Bouzes, who were in command of the soldiers in Lebanon at the time. These were two brothers from Thrace , both young and disposed to engage the enemy in battle. So both armies marched in full strength on the construction site, the Persians to hinder the construction progress with all their might, the Romans to defend the construction workers. A fierce battle ensued in which the Romans were defeated; and there has been great slaughter among them, while some are also captured. Koutzes was among them. The Persians took all these prisoners away to their land and, after they had tied them up, kept them in a cave. The fortress that had been started was razed to the ground as no one defended it any more.

Battle of Dara

Bouzes survived the defeat. He is next mentioned in the victorious Battle of Dara in June 530. He served there as commander of the cavalry together with Pharas the Heruler . Among his servants was an Andreas who excelled on the first day of the battle.

Siege of Martyropolis

In 531 Bouzes was unable to take part in the Battle of Callinicum (April 19, 531). During this time he was stationed in Amida , where an illness prevented him from campaigning. Zacharias of Mytilene mentions that Bouzes commissioned his nephew Domentiolus to lead an army to Abhgarsat. This place is only described by Zacharias. The Eastern Roman army met the Sassanid army and was defeated. Domentiolus was captured and taken to the Sassanid Empire . In autumn 532, the so-called Eternal Peace was concluded between the two great powers. Domentiolus was released "in the course of a prisoner exchange".

In September / October 531, Kouzes and Bessas were joint commanders of the Martyropolis garrison . The city was besieged by a strong Sassanid army. The death of Kavadh I caused the siege to end prematurely. Procopius reports: “And the Persians again invaded Mesopotamia with a large army under the command of the Chanaranges , Aspebedes and Mermeroes . Since no one dared to face the Sassanid army, the army rested and besieged Martyropolis, where Bouzes and Bessas had been stationed as commanders of the garrison. This city is in a land called Sophanene , two hundred and forty stadia north of the city of Amida; it lies directly on the river Nymphius , which divides the land of the Romans and the Persians. So the Persians began to attack the fortifications, and although the defenders manly resisted them, it seemed unlikely that they would hold out long. Because the circular wall was easy to storm in most places, and the defenders had neither sufficient provisions nor war machines nor anything else that could have been of use to them. "

Armenian revolt

Bouzes reappears in the sources in 539. He succeeded the late Sittas as commander of Roman Armenia . He was entrusted with dealing with the Armenian revolt. Through his endeavors, Johannes, a descendant of the Armenian Arsacids , was murdered. John's son, Artabanes , survived. “After the death of the Sitta, the Emperor Bouzes ordered action against the Armenians; and the latter sent them an offer to come to a peaceful agreement between the emperor and all the Armenians, and asked them to send some Armenian dignitaries to deliberate on the matter. The Armenians could neither trust Bouzes nor listen to his suggestions. But there was a man of the Arsacid family who was friends with Bouzes, a certain John, the father of Artabanes, who came to consult with his stepson Bassakes and some others at Bouzes; when this embassy set up camp there, it was surrounded by the Roman army. Bassakes then begged his stepfather to flee. But because he could not convince him he left him alone and the embassy fled. So Bouzes found Johannes alone and killed him. After that there was no longer any hope of peace with the Romans for the Armenians, and because they could not defeat the emperor in war alone, they turned to the Persian great king. ”These events led to a new war between the Persians and the Eastern Romans. Justinian was ill-prepared for this.

Persian Invasion 540

At the beginning of 540 Justinian appointed Belisarius and Bouzes jointly magistri militum per Orientem ; the division of command was an unusual decision, which was probably due to the fact that the emperor was now awaiting the Persian attack. Bouzes was supposed to secure the area between the Euphrates and the Persian border, i.e. the Roman north of Mesopotamia . Belisarius had been a magister militum per Orientem for several years , but he was bound in the Gothic Wars and was on the Italian peninsula . He could therefore effectively not take command in the Orient before 541; And this was probably the reason for the imperial decision: Belisarius was not supposed to be formally relieved of his post, but because he could not actually fill it at the moment, Bouzes took over the defense of the Roman East instead.

In the spring of the same year, the Sassanids actually attacked Eastern Roman territory. To the surprise of the imperial troops, however, they bypassed the strong fortresses in Mesopotamia and, completely unexpectedly, advanced directly into Syria and Cilicia . Bouzes was stationed in Hierapolis at this time . In the height of summer, the Sassanids conquered Sura . Bouzes now left Hierapolis with his best troops and promised the city to return in the event of a Persian attack. But Prokop accuses Bouzes of simply disappearing so that neither the Hierapolis nor the Sassanids could track him down. The Persian king Chosrau I was now able to advance unhindered to the Mediterranean coast and pillage the city of Antioch on the Orontes . When he finally withdrew to his kingdom with rich booty, Bouzes had not stood in his way once. He was probably of the opinion that he did not have enough troops for a battle.

Later that year Bouzes was mentioned in Edessa , the capital of the Osrhoene province . The inhabitants of this city wanted to pay a ransom for the safe return of the prisoners made in Antioch. But Bouzes prevented this on behalf of Justinian, as they did not want to give the Persians any more money.

War in Lasika

The Persian invasion of 540 was the prelude to long-running fighting. While Chosrau I was opening a new front in Lazika , the Eastern Romans tried to take the initiative in Mesopotamia. In 541 Bouzes was one of the numerous commanders who met with Belisarius in Dara to discuss how to proceed. He was among the proponents of an invasion of Persian territory. Nothing is reported about Bouzes himself in the subsequent campaign. The Roman army was not able to conquer Nisibis , but the fortress Sisauranon. In the following year, Chosrau I again attacked Eastern Roman territory. Bouzes then withdrew to Hierapolis. He and others wrote a letter to Belisarius to appeal to them there. But Belisarius marched instead to Europos and was able to use clever tactics to get the Persians to withdraw without a fight.

Loss of favor

In the summer of 542, the Justinian plague broke out in Constantinople . The emperor fell ill and there were discussions about his successor. Belisarius and Bouzes, both far away in the field, swore to each other not to support any candidate without the consent of the other. Theodora allegedly took offense at the careless speech about her husband's death and called them both back to the capital. Presumably, however, it was Justinian himself who became angry with his generals after his recovery. So Bouzes was held for two years and four months (542-545) in a cellar dungeon, which was located under the women's apartments of the imperial palace. After he was released, Prokop reports that he had poor eyesight and poor health throughout his life.

Later years

In the late summer of 548, Germanus, Justinian's cousin, initiated Bouzes into the Artabanes plot to assassinate the emperor. The conspiracy failed because Germanus betrayed it to the emperor.

In the spring of 549 Bouzes was sent back into the field. He led (together with Aratius , Constantianus and Johannes) an army of 10,000 cavalrymen from Constantinople to the northwest to support the Lombards against the Gepids . The campaign was short-lived, however, as both parties concluded a peace treaty after a short time. This is the last mention of Bouzes by Procopius.

Bouzes is mentioned again in Agathias as one of the commanders of the Roman army in Lazika . In 556 Bouzes was ordered there to defend Nesus (a small island on the Phasis River ). After that, nothing more is reported about him in the sources.

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Martindale, Jones & Morris (1992), pp. 254-257
2. ↑ Prokopios, Histories 1, Chapter 13
3. ↑ Martindale, Jones & Morris (1992), p. 413
4. ↑ Prokopios, Histories 2, Chapter 3
5. ↑ See Henning Börm : The Persian King in the Imperium Romanum. Chosroes I and the Sasanid invasion of the Eastern Roman Empire in 540 AD. In: Chiron 36 (2006), pp. 299–328.
6. ↑ Prokopios, Historien 2, Chapters 5–6.

literature

• John Bagnell Bury : History of the Later Roman Empire: From the Death of Theodosius I to the Death of Justinian . Volume 2. New York 1958 (ND from 1923)
• Geoffrey B. Greatrex , Samuel NC Lieu: The Roman Eastern Frontier and the Persian Wars. Part II AD 363-630. A narrative sourcebook . London and New York 2002, ISBN 0-415-14687-9 (with sources in English translation).
• John R. Martindale, AHM Jones, John Morris: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire . Volume 3, 527-641. Cambridge 1992