ON THE HOLY MARTYRS UNDER CABADES, KING OF THE PERSIANS
At the beginning of the sixth century.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Martyrs under King Cabades, in Persia (SS.)
By the author I. B.
Section I. By what means Cabades, King of the Persians, was rendered more equitable toward the Christians.
[1] Cabades, son of Perozes and father of the elder Chosroes, great-grandfather of the one whom the Emperor Heraclius defeated, ruled over the Persians for forty-one years with varying fortune. For he shook off the yoke of the Huns, to whom the Persians had been tributary after the death of his father Perozes, and restored the kingdom to liberty. He was then cast down from the throne by his own people because he had enacted a law, intolerable even to barbarians, concerning the sharing of wives. Meanwhile, the governance of the kingdom was entrusted to his uncle or brother (for the authorities do not agree), and he himself was kept in custody. Having escaped from this in a marvelous manner, he approached the prince of the Ephthalites, or White Huns, his former enemies, and by their arms recovered the kingdom, which he had held for eleven years before and held thereafter for thirty more, and finally, dying in the fifth year of the Emperor Justinian—which is the year 532 of the common era—he left it to his son Chosroes. If you add to these forty-one years the four years of Zambasis or Blasius, his brother or uncle, you will find that he assumed the scepter under the Emperor Zeno.
[2] Having been restored to his kingdom, he thereafter guarded it securely, as Procopius writes in book 1 of the Persian War, and administered it prudently, since he was second to none in intellect and practical experience. Shortly afterward, since he owed money to the King of the Ephthalites and was quite unable to pay it, he sought a loan from Anastasius, Emperor of the Romans. When Anastasius put the matter to a consultation of his advisors, it did not seem fitting to them, for they argued that it was useless to make the friendship of their enemies with the Ephthalites stronger with their own money, and that it was more advantageous that they should fight each other in war and exhaust their strength. For these reasons, Cabades, indignant, resolved to move his army against the Romans for no other cause.
[3] What Procopius writes happened shortly after, Nicephorus seems to defer to the eleventh year after the recovery of the kingdom, unless there is an error in this, as will be discussed below. For he writes thus in book 16, chapter 36: "And since Cabades was a sagacious and industrious man, he thereafter held the kingdom most securely, and having enjoyed it for another eleven years, he first cultivated peace with the Romans; but when he sought a loan from Anastasius, and Anastasius replied that he must give a bond of security if he wished to receive the money, and that without it he would not receive even a single obol—for this reason, having broken the treaty, he undertook war against the Romans." And indeed, as Procopius indicates, with the greatest speed, so that he himself was the first messenger of war to burst into Armenia, and having widely ravaged the fields, he besieged Amida, a city of Mesopotamia, in the wintertime.
[4] As he was variously disposed toward the Christians, sometimes seeming to bestow favor upon them, sometimes raging against them with torments, there occurred at that time certain events which could render his spirit more equitable toward them: namely, the miracles of St. Jacobus the anchorite, the pointed remark of a Priest of Amida, and the obtaining of a treasure after demons had been put to flight at the prayers of Christians. The first two are narrated by Procopius in book 1.
[5] "There was among the Syrians a certain just man named Jacobus, who was diligently exercising himself in divine matters. He had many years before withdrawn to a certain place, one day's journey from Amida, to meditate more freely on matters pertaining to piety. And men, accommodating themselves to his wish, had surrounded him with certain stakes, not joined tightly together but driven in at some distance from one another, so that he could be seen and consulted by those who approached; and they had built a narrow roof overhead to ward off rain and snow. There he had remained for a very long time, yielding not in the least either to heat or to cold, subsisting on certain seeds, and taking even these not daily but at intervals of several days. Certain Ephthalites, therefore, catching sight of this Jacobus while they were overrunning the region, drew their bows with great force and wished to assail him with arrows; but the hands of all of them became immovable, so that they were utterly unable to discharge their weapons." When the report of this reached the camp, Cabades wished to see the prodigy with his own eyes; and when he came there, seized with great horror, together with the Persians who were present, he besought Jacobus to pardon the barbarians for the offense. With a single word he both granted pardon for the deed and freed them from the disability that held them. Cabades ordered him to ask for whatever he wished, supposing that he would ask for a great sum of money, and magnificently promised to bestow whatever he desired. He asked that only this one favor be granted to him: that however many people took refuge with him during this war, the King would allow them to remain safe. This Cabades willingly granted and added letters as a pledge of security. Thus many, flocking there from all sides, were preserved unharmed, for the report of the matter spread far and wide. So far Procopius. We shall treat of St. Jacobus on 6 August.
[6] When the city was at last taken after eighty days of siege, a great slaughter of the citizens was made (as the same author writes), until a certain old man and Priest of Amida, going out to meet Cabades as he rode into the city, warned him that it was not regal to kill captives. Cabades, angered, replied: "Why then did you dare resist me with arms?" The other immediately rejoined: "Because God willed that Amida be delivered to you not by our counsel but by your valor." Pleased by this speech, Cabades allowed no one to be killed thereafter; but he ordered the Persians to plunder the property of the citizens. Those who had thus far escaped their swords were to be counted among the slaves, and he directed that the leading men among them be singled out. Shortly after, he left a thousand soldiers to guard the place, appointing the Persian Glones over them, and a few wretched inhabitants of Amida to serve the Persians with provisions. He himself departed homeward with the rest of the army and the captives; but he treated these with a humanity worthy of a king, for after a short time he allowed them all to return to their homes.
[7] A third event, considerably greater in its effect, served to move the spirit of the barbarian king, who set temporal advantages above heavenly ones. Theodorus Lector relates it thus in book 2 of his Collectanea: "There is a certain fortress between the Persians and the Indians, named Tzundadeero. When King Coades heard that much money and precious stones were stored there, he desired to ascertain the truth of the matter. But the demons inhabiting that place were obstructing his effort. And when his magi had expended all their invocations and enchantments and had been unable to accomplish anything, he turned to the Jews; but having been frustrated in his hope there as well, he resolved upon a plan to drive away those demons through the Christians. And so the Bishop of the Christians who were in Persia, having performed a liturgy for this purpose and received the Divine Mysteries and dispensed them to the Christians who were present, put the demons to flight with the sign of the Cross and delivered the fortress to Coades without difficulty. Wherefore Coades, astonished, honored the Bishop with the prerogative of the first seat, whereas the Jews and Manichaeans had formerly held the first places; and then he granted everyone the power to embrace the Christian religion openly and freely." So much from Theodorus. Nicephorus Callistus records the same in book 16, chapter 36, calling the fortress which Theodorus names Tzoundadeero by the form Tzoundadaer and designating it an asty, or town. Anastasius Bibliothecarius, drawing from Theophanes, calls it Zubdaber.
Section II. The persecution of the Christians under Cabades, King of the Persians. The feast day of the Martyrs.
[8] Before the events we have described occurred, Cabades had raged terribly against the Christians, as the same Nicephorus writes, to such an extent that he deprived many of them of the organs by which the voice is produced — "so as to deprive many of their vocal organs." Yet even after these were torn out, they spoke no less clearly than before.
[9] Georgius Cedrenus, under the twenty-second year of Anastasius, the year of Christ 513, reports that certain Christians in Persia were tortured by Cabades; and Baronius briefly sets forth these torments under the year 513, number 4, namely that their tongues were cut off and their hamstrings severed, yet without these they both spoke and walked correctly. Cedrenus writes thus: "Cabades, having mutilated certain Christians in Persia with barbed implements, they nevertheless walked afterward." Xylander translates: "When Cabades had cut down certain Christians in Persia with hooked swords, they nonetheless walked afterward." Jacobus Goar, a most learned man of the Order of Preachers, more correctly translates: "When Cabades had lacerated certain Christians in Persia with barbed instruments, they nonetheless walked afterward." And he gives the reason for the correction thus: "For the word kopto, when joined to another in composition, never, in the manner of later Greek usage, signifies a cutting; but rather the frequency of a repeated action. Thus rhabdokopo means 'I beat repeatedly with rods'; sphyrokopo means 'I strike again and again with a hammer.' Whence ankylokopo should be understood to signify laceration of the legs and feet made by hooks, scorpions, and barbs, rather than a cutting made with swords." So far Goar.
[10] It should further be noted that neither Cedrenus nor Nicephorus affirms that those who are said to have been subjected to torments actually died at that time; nor is it certain whether the persons whom each author mentions are the same. For Nicephorus, after having reported that Cabades had granted everyone the power to embrace the Christian religion, adds that the same people had previously suffered atrocious things at his hands. But that permission was granted after the treasure was obtained in the town of Tzundadaer, which Anastasius Bibliothecarius dates to the twentieth year of the Emperor Anastasius; others place it in connection with the siege of Amida, so that it seems to have occurred shortly after or shortly before it.
[11] Amida was besieged, as stated above from Procopius, shortly after Cabades had been restored to the kingdom, at the time when he was obligated to pay the money agreed upon to the King of the Ephthalite Huns—a payment that no one would suspect was deferred for eleven years. And indeed Cedrenus, under the thirteenth year of the Emperor Anastasius, which was the year of Christ 503, has the following: "Cabades, King of the Persians, having undertaken an expedition, captures the city of Amida." Nicephorus agrees, writing thus in book 16, chapter 37: "If anyone wishes to know more fully and exactly about the siege and capture of that city (Amida), let him read Eustathius the Syrian, who described these events quite brilliantly, and who died when he had brought his history down to that time—namely, the twelfth year of the reign of Anastasius." He himself calls it the twelfth year of Anastasius, which Cedrenus calls the thirteenth, because the year 503 of the common era was in its first part the twelfth year of Anastasius, having begun from the preceding April, toward the end of which, as the thirteenth year from the same April was already running, the city seems to have been besieged.
[12] I believe this can be confirmed from the Life of St. John the Silentiary, which we shall present on 13 May. For after the monk Cyrillus had narrated that in the eleventh Indiction, in the fiftieth year of his age, which was the year of Christ 503, he had withdrawn into the desert of Ruba, he adds that Alamundarus Sicicenus, King of the Saracens subject to the Persians, ravaged Arabia and Palestine after Amida had been captured, and indeed, as he had indicated before, after the Easter feast had been celebrated—therefore in the year 504. Baronius referred this to the year 509, as though the city had been captured for the first time then, because in that year, Indiction II, John was led away from there by St. Sabas, so that he would no longer be exposed to the fury of the barbarians, who made incursions into those places not only then but also frequently at other times, as will be evident on 19 February, when we shall treat of the monks killed in that region. The Historia Miscella, book 15, chapter 10, mentions the incursion of the Saracens into Phoenicia and Syria around the eleventh year of Anastasius.
[13] But what shall we say about the passage of Nicephorus Callistus cited above in Section 1, number 3? For he seems to establish that Cabades did not move his arms against the Romans until the eleventh year after recovering his kingdom. Indeed, for he writes: "Having held the kingdom for another eleven years thereafter, he at first cultivated peace, or truces, with the Romans; but when," etc. But since he is treating not of the first eleven years but of the remaining years after he recovered the kingdom, I would not hesitate to declare that an error has crept into the numerals, so that for lambda (30), iota-alpha (11) has been written—that is, 11 for 30. For he died, as we said above, in the fifth year of Justinian, the year of Christ 532 or 531, having presided over the recovered kingdom for thirty years. The writer, therefore, says that he had peace with the Romans at first, then waged war after being denied the loan—without defining the time at which he did so.
[14] As for his writing that the Christians were tortured by him before he obtained that treasure, this may have been done before he lost the kingdom, and perhaps God for that very reason hastened His vengeance; or certainly as soon as he returned to it. If again, as Cedrenus reports, in the twenty-second year of Anastasius, the year of Christ 513, he ravaged them with new punishments, it must be said that his fury was rekindled either through the instigation of the magi or other wicked men, or through the fickleness innate in barbarians. For also around the fifth year of the Emperor Justin, which was the year of Christ 523, he attempted to compel the Iberians by force from the Christian discipline to pagan rites. Procopius commemorates this in book 1 in the following manner: "The Iberians, who inhabit Asia, dwell at the Caspian Gates, which are situated to the north of them; to their left, toward the setting sun, lies the region of Lazica; to their right, toward the East, the Persian nations. They are themselves Christians, and of all the peoples we know, they observe their religion with the greatest zeal, having been subject to the King of Persia from ancient times. But at that time Cabades wished to bring them over by force to his own superstition. He therefore commanded their King Gurgenes both to perform other things according to Persian custom and especially not to commit the dead to the earth but to expose them to birds and dogs." He then narrates how Gurgenes fled with his wife and children into the region of the Lazi and implored the aid of Justin.
[15] At nearly the same time, Cabades held the Christian Bishop Boazanes in the highest regard, not indeed out of consideration for religion but for his own benefit, because Boazanes was considered most skilled in the medical art; and for this reason he wished him to be present as a spectator at the punishment he inflicted on the Manichaeans, who (as he believed) were plotting rebellion. Anastasius Bibliothecarius narrates this from Theophanes under the sixth year of Justin: "Kabades, King of the Persians, son of Perozes, killed many thousands of Manichaeans, together with their Bishop Indazarus, in a single day, along with the Persian Senators who shared their views. For the Manichaeans, having instructed his son, named Pthasuarsan, from boyhood and making him of their persuasion, promised him, saying: 'Your father has grown old, and if it should happen that he dies, the chief magi will make one of your brothers Emperor, because he holds their doctrine. But we can persuade your father by our prayers to renounce the empire and promote you, so that you may everywhere establish the doctrine of the Manichaeans.' He promised to do this if he became emperor. When Kabades learned of these things, he ordered an assembly to be convened, as though he were going to make his son Pthasuarsan Emperor, and he commanded all the Manichaeans, together with their Bishop and their women and children, to attend the assembly; likewise the chief of the magi, Glonazenes, and the magi, and Boazanes, Bishop of the Christians, who was beloved by Kabades as an excellent physician. And having summoned the Manichaeans, he said: 'I rejoice over your doctrine, and I wish to give, while I live, my son Pthasuarsan, your sympathizer; but separate yourselves to receive him.' Trusting in this assurance, they separated themselves. But Kabades, ordering his armies to enter, cut them all down with swords together with their Bishop, in the sight of the chief of the magi and the Christian Bishop." Paulus Diaconus has the same in almost the same words in book 15 of the Historia Miscella, chapter 21, and from him Baronius in volume 7 under the year 523, number 14. Cedrenus also mentions the slaughter of the Manichaeans under the same year of Justin. Zonaras gives as the sole cause of the slaughter the fact that they had seduced one of Coades's sons into their impure heresy, and adds that their books were burned by Coades's order.
[16] Whether the holy Martyrs completed their struggle at one and the same time or at different times; whether the same persons who are recorded as having endured those torments are those who are mentioned, or their companions, or others—their memorial is inscribed in the Roman Martyrology under 8 February as follows: "In Persia, the commemoration of the holy Martyrs who, under Cabades, King of the Persians, were put to death by various torments for the Christian faith." But what Baronius writes in his Notes—that Cabades was King of the Saracens (which is not stated by the Cedrenus he cites)—can be affirmed only to the extent that certain tribes of the Saracens, over whom Alamundarus then presided with the royal title, were subject to Cabades and the Persian empire. The Historia Miscella, book 15, has various things about the same Cabades, but not about these Martyrs, as Baronius cites it in the same place.