Battle of Solachon
| date | 586 |
|---|---|
| place | Solachon near Dara-Anastasiupolis , Syria |
| output | Eastern Roman victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
Cardarigan |
|
| Troop strength | |
| unknown | unknown |
| losses | |
|
unknown |
unknown |
The Battle of Solachon was fought in 586 between the Eastern Roman general Philippikos , brother-in-law of the then emperor Maurikios , and the Sassanid general Kardarigan near the fortress Dara . It marked a victory for the Eastern Roman Empire against the Sassanids in the long series of wars that the two great powers of late antiquity fought against each other, but did not bring a decision.
course
In 572 another war broke out between the Romans and the Sassanid Persians. After the initial successes of the Persians, which culminated with the conquest of Dara in 573 and ended with the Battle of Melitene in 575 (or 576), the war got bogged down and was repeatedly interrupted by peace negotiations. In 585 the situation in the Balkans became so critical for Ostrom that the Persian great king Hormizd IV hoped to persuade the East Romans to surrender Armenia with an offer of peace. Maurikios turned down the peace offer, but while the Avars rolled up the Roman fortresses of the Danube Limes, the Persians continued to hope that they would give in.
After unsuccessful peace negotiations in Amida during the spring of 586, the magister militum Philippikos advanced with his army to the Tur Abdin Mountains and blocked the crossings over the Arzamon River at Bibas. Kardarigan approached the Eastern Romans from Wadi Dara. But instead of evading, as Kardarigan expected, Philippikos faced the battle on the Plains of Solachon. Obviously this surprised the Persians and drove them to flight. More than a thousand Persians are said to have surrendered, while the Persian garrison in Dara is said to have refused to accept dispersed Persian units. On the Eastern Roman side, the success was attributed to the piety of the soldiers and local Christian communities who prayed for victory for days before the battle. However, it was more likely that the Persian side was inadequate battle reconnaissance and the resulting element of surprise was the decisive factor. Theophylactus Simokates reports on the battle in the second book of his histories .
Subsequent failures of Herakleios the Elder and Philippicus prevented the Romans from taking advantage of this success. How significant the Roman victory actually was can hardly be estimated; but in any case he improved the morale of the imperial troops and increased the discontent of the Persian soldiers with their King Hormizd IV., who was then to be overthrown in 590.
literature
- Geoffrey Greatrex , Samuel Lieu: The Roman Eastern Frontier and the Persian Wars. Part II AD 363-630 . London 2002, pp. 168f.
- Michael Whitby : The Emperor Maurice and his Historian - Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan Warfare . Oxford 1988, pp. 290f.