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Part 19: Creeping Darkness
The gruesome and unexpected death of Ardashir the Liberator in the burning waters of the Nile was a terrible shock to the court of the recently restored capital of Ctesiphon. In just two glorious years, the brilliant young Shah had reunified Iran, routed multiple Syrian armies and completely obliterated the capital of the kingdom that dared to attack and steal his country's rightful place as the master of the Middle East. The fact that he died in a river of what was surely hellfire right as he was on the verge of recreating the empire that was built by Cyrus the Great endless centuries ago didn't help: to the deeply religious people of that age, commoners and aristocrats alike, such a horrific end was surely a sign from God, in whatever way that He was worshipped, that He was deeply displeased with the Sasanian dynasty. The fact that he was the third monarch in a row to suffer a violent death (the other two being Narseh I and Hormizd I, his grandfather and father, respectively) provided further evidence of that.
The throne was once again occupied by a child, the ten year old Yazdegerd I. With Ardashir being quite absent from his son's life thanks to the many campaigns he led and his untimely end, the young King of Kings was deprived from a crucial role model at an early age, and was shaping up to be quite different from his father because of that. First and foremost, while most of the Shahs that ruled before him were, although officially Zoroastrians, were actually quite irreligious when push came to shove, Yazdegerd was an extremely pious and sometimes superstitious individual who, even though he had little power thanks to his young age, slowly but surely built very good relationships with the Magi, whose prominence in the empire had been steadily decreasing since the first days of the Sasanians. For now, all he could do was wear his crown and robes and see the political games go on in front of him as a harmless spectator.
There were many ambitious men who hoped to become top dog in such a scenario, but since the circumstances surrounding Yazdegerd's accession to the throne were so sudden, only one was in the right place at the right time to take advantage of them, that man being a most unusual fellow named Samuel bar Ezekiel, whose name already said a lot about him. A wealthy trader and one of the more prominent members of Ctesiphon's Jewish community, Samuel was one of the leaders of the revolt that ended the 65 year long Syrian occupation of the city, and was greatly rewarded by the grateful Ardashir II with many privileges and lands in Mesopotamia, as well as a place in his court. Because of this, he was in a perfect position to quickly seize power as regent once the vigorous Shah passed away in Egypt, for although many important noble families, especially the Seven Great Houses, looked down upon him as an outsider (although Jews were tolerated, the idea of one of them becoming so powerful was unheard of), he had many allies (and assassins) thanks to his trade connections in the capital and elsewhere.
However, Samuel's biggest and most urgent problem wasn't domestic, but foreign.
Tyrian pirates attacking an Iranian trading vessel with Syrian Fire.
Although the entirety of the Levant had been conquered by Ardashir II, a campaign that culminated with the complete destruction of Palmyra, one single and most stubborn holdout remained, allied with remnant Syrian government centered in Alexandria. This settlement was the important port city of Tyre, which was, thanks to the fact that it was located on a heavily fortified peninsula (it was an island until its conquest by Alexander the Great in ) that was almost impervious to land attacks, impossible to be conquered by the Iranians, who had no navy to speak of in the Mediterranean. Worse than that, its excellent position right next to multiple juicy trade routes which carried riches from places as distant as China and India turned the city into a safe haven for pirates and all sorts of similar lowlives, all of whom preyed on defenseless trade ships and caused tremendous damage to Iranian revenues.
As if that weren't enough, the Tyrians' friendly relations with Egypt allowed them to learn the secrets of Syrian fire, and they began to use the horrible substance to lay waste to important ports like Laodicea, Caesarea and Seleucia in the span of a few years. Ironically, the devastation suffered by these ports and their infrastructure prevented the empire from creating a fleet that could properly challenge the pirates for the time being. The only way they could be defeated was with foreign help.
Said help finally became available with the Roman reconquest of the Haemus peninsula in 336 AD. Taking advantage of Rome's new, decentralized political system, Samuel secretly made contact with the dux of Graecia (whose name is sadly lost to history), who controlled a powerful fleet thanks to the fact that he had to administrate many islands, promising him that Roman merchants would earn many trading privileges in Syria as long as he blockaded Tyre, which would allow the Iranians to besiege and capture the annoying peninsula. The dux, who was acting independently from the aging emperor Tetricus I, agreed, not only because of the bribe but also because the region he governed would become much richer if the pirates that stood between them and Syria were vanquished. At last, after being an extremely active hub for pirates for four years, Tyre was surrounded on sea by a Roman fleet and on land by an Iranian army in 338 AD. Aware that prolonged resistance was useless, the local authorities surrendered, hoping that their city wouldn't be sacked, and in return Samuel was surprisingly lenient: in exchange for expelling the pirates from its walls and formally submitting to the Shahanshah's supreme authority, Tyre maintained most of its institutions and internal autonomy.
Sadly, this success was nowhere near enough to offset the catastrophe that was taking place in the far east.
The magnificent Celestial Empire, having finally cast aside the last ghosts of the era of the Three Kingdoms and now entering a new age of prosperity, began to expand to the west, sending the skilled and ruthless general Shi Le in the campaign that became known as the Pacification of the West. At first, it seemed that only the city-states of the Tarim Basin (as far as Kashgar) would be conquered, but the ambitious Jie leader wasn't content with that, and marched further to the west, to lands that had never been put under Chinese authority before. Far away from a center of power that was in disarray thanks to the premature death of Ardashir II, the main cities of Transoxiana, Samarkand and Bukhara, surrendered to the eastern conqueror with no resistance. By the time the campaign was concluded, all territories east of the Oxus had been lost, wealthy lands that had sustained Iran during the difficult times of the Age of Division.
Not only that, but the arrival of the Chinese caused great upheaval among the nomadic peoples that lived in Central Asia, especially the Kidarites and the Hephthalites, who began to migrate in large numbers, searching for new lands to settle, and the obviously unguarded areas to the east of the Iranian Plateau, such as Bactria, Khorasan and Kerman, were prime targets. They too were enormously successful in their endeavors, and by the time Yazdegerd came of age in 342, even Merv had been lost to the invaders, and the only reason Kerman hadn't been overrun as well was the presence of the Citadel of Bam, which was still as majestic as ever, having received many upgrades since Odainat's siege in 269 AD. After this, the nomads moved in separate directions: while the Hephthalites would remain in the lands they conquered and would launch further attacks into the Iranian heartland, sometimes even reaching places like Spahan and Istakhr, the Kidarites would move into India, where they would establish a new kingdom that would soon find itself in a bloody struggle against the mighty Gupta Empire (1).
These colossal defeats, combined with the overly lenient treatment that was given to Tyre (many in the court wanted the port to be given what would become known as the "Palmyra Treatment") led to Samuel's downfall, with Yazdegerd's maturity providing the coup de grace to the battered and unpopular regent. Even his fellow Jews, once his most important base of support, were disgusted by his secret deal with Rome: many still remembered the days when their ancestors were targeted by popular riots and persecutions back when the so called "Old Empire" collapsed in the third century. Thus, the man who would later be seen as a precursor of the Jewish Golden Age (2) suffered a most ignoble fate, first being publicly humiliated and then executed on Ctesiphon's main square, a scapegoat who was unable to properly remedy problems that were more often than not completely outside of his control. Though Samuel bar Ezekiel's reputation would remain tarnished for many years afterwards, until sometime after the death of the man who ordered his execution, he did have one critical positive legacy: the defeat of the Tyrian pirates.
That would come in handy, for Yazdegerd would have to focus almost all of Iran's wealth and energy fighting a terrifying new enemy from the north. Soon, the entire country would burn, and a mighty new conqueror would leave his mark in history.
Summary:
334 A.D.: Samuel bar Ezekiel, a wealthy trader of Jewish origin and a close confidant of Ardashir II, becomes regent for the young Yazdegerd I.
Sometime before 335 A.D.: The Pacification of the West ends, and Iran loses all territories east of the Oxus river.
After 335 A.D.: A growing number of displaced nomads, especially the Kidarites and the Hephthalites, migrate into the provinces of Khorasan, Bactria and Kerman.
338 A.D.: The city of Tyre submits to Ctesiphon after a combined Roman-Iranian attack. Many in the court object to the leniency with which the Tyrians were treated.
342 A.D.: After an eight year long tenure full of conspiracies, defeats and instability, Samuel is executed on the orders of Yazdegerd as soon as the latter reaches adulthood.
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Notes:
(1) I really need to make an India centered update sometime.
(2) The Jews who live in the Sasanian Empire are currently very well treated, and this will bring about handsome rewards in the future. The fact that many of them migrated eastward following the Crisis of the Third Century is an additional bonus.
