Hormizd (usurper)

Hormizd was a late antique Persian usurper from the house of the Sassanids in the late 3rd century AD.

Little is known about Hormizd, the little information comes from Western (Latin) sources; it is not mentioned in oriental sources. In the Panegyrici Latini (anonymous Panegyricus of the year 291: 2,17) it is reported that a certain Ormies (Hormizd) rose up against his brother, King Bahram II , and received support from peoples from the East. Eutropius only briefly reports of unrest in the Persian Empire, which Emperor Carus took advantage of when he invaded Persia in 283 (Eutropius, 9:18). There is also a note in the (often, however, very unreliable) Historia Augusta , where the biography of Carus also reports on internal struggles in Persia ( Vita Cari 8).

According to research, a rebellion in eastern Persia can be reconstructed on the basis of these reports, although the exact time (probably around 280), the duration and the exact background remain unknown. Apparently a relative of Bahram II had risen in Sīstān , who acted there as the Sassanid viceroy and now presented himself as a competitor to Bahram. Coins from the east of the Sassanid Empire, made by a local viceroy named Hormizd at the end of the 3rd century, would go with this; this referred to himself as Hormizd, king of the kings of the Kušān . However, it does not necessarily have to be a brother of Bahram II, but possibly a cousin. However, Bahram managed to put down this revolt at an unknown point in time, although this struggle probably dragged on for years and tied up considerable resources, which Carus had exploited during his invasion in 283. The failed attempt at usurpation also underlines the tense situation in the Sassanid Empire when, after the death of Shapur I in 270, there was a dispute over royal dignity (see also Narseh ).

literature

• A. Shapur Shahbazi: Hormozd Kusansah . In: Encyclopædia Iranica Online.
• Ursula Weber, Josef Wiesehöfer : The revolt of Ormies and the succession to the throne in the early Sasanid Empire. In: Henning Börm, Norbert Erhardt, Josef Wiesehöfer (eds.): Monumentum et instrumentum inscriptum. Inscribed objects from the imperial era and late antiquity as historical evidence. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2008, pp. 217–225.