The Reign of Arsaces (324 AD – 400 AD)
The son of Darius the Restorer, Arthanthes, was murdered shortly after his father’s passing. Factions within the eastern empire based in Persepolis were unhappy with the Edict of Evangelisation. Their lands were the home of Zoroaster and they disagreed with the Mobadan Mobad interpretation that Christ was foreseen by Zoroaster. As Arthanthes was sailing up the Tigris on his way to take the throne of Achaemeniyya, the conspirators sprung their trap, stabbing the Shahanshah multiple times along with his small retinue of bodyguards before setting fire to the ship and leaving it to burn down as it sailed back down the Tigris. House Vivanid who had major estates and holdings in Persia proclaimed themselves the heirs of Zoroaster in Parsa as the eastern empire came to be called and elevated Zasthanes Vivanid to be the Shahanshah of the east and supposed equal to the king in Achaemeniyya.
Fortunately for the line of Darius, Arthanthes’ wife and child were residing in Achaemeniyya and his young son, Arsaces, was crowned Shahanshah of the Achaemenid Empire at the age of four. There were challenges from Vashti, Arsaces’ aunt, the daughter of Darius, but they never materialised into a credible threat and she was eventually packed off to a monastery – a developing Christian innovation.
The Nature of the Divided Empire
The experiment with diarchy did not survive the passing of Darius. Theoretically, the more pliant and peaceful East was supposed to be subservient to the West, providing manpower and taxes while enjoying limited self-government from the junior king situated in their heartlands. Darius did not foresee the resistance by the traditionalists against his radical ideas on religion and administration. Instead, the Vivanids capitalised on the opportunity to break away from Achaemeniyya and position themselves as the righteous champions of Ahura Mazda.
As co-Shahanshah, Zasthanes Vivanid began to reduce the tribute sent to the west, declaring that it was needed in the east. With a child on the throne, Achaemeniyya was not in a position to press the issue and that encouraged Zasthanes to further liberties. Within the East, Zoroastrianism was the state religion while Christianity was discouraged. The West had also adopted many Greek traditions and styles and Persepolis took conscious steps to reject such customs – basing its legitimacy on the reversion to ‘pure’ Persian ways. Zasthanes and his successors actively shaped his image as the defender of the ancient ways. The fault lines between the two halves were becoming ever more apparent as the weakness of Achaemeniyya to press its claims or control was becoming more apparent.
In the narrative, the East will be referred to as Parsa while the West as the Achaemenid Empire for clarity. There were other differences beyond the dictums of royalty between the two states. Parsa was far more ethnically homogenous than the East, where populations of Armenians, Cappadocians, Punics, Greeks, Illyrians, Syrians, Jews, Khemets, Romans and Arabs lived alongside the dominant Greco-Persians. Parsa was home to rare goods but had a smaller population to maximise its natural resources while the diverse Achaemenid empire was home to the great cities where trade (what existed after the plagues) thrived and became the natural hub of commerce between the Roman West and the Asian East. Of course, the most obvious difference was in terms of religion. Parsa was devoted to the precepts of Zoroaster while the Achaemenid Empire was home to the many different splinters of Christianity as each vied to be the Official Christine Doctrine.
The Early Years of Arsaces
Initially, the reign of Arsaces seemed to echo the rule of the Zoroastrian dynasty, ensconced within the palace and prey to the factions of court but Narsaki, the Mobadan Mobad and the Arsaces’ mother, Drema, were able protectors of the young Shahanshah. He would grow up well-educated and equipped with all the skills expected of an Achaemenid Shahanshah but the world beyond the palace was changing irrevocably.
The plagues, civil wars and religious conflicts had seen Achaemenid power falter and the throne’s ability to exercise control falter despite the exertions of Darius. In his later years, Darius was well aware of the weaknesses of the military. Once the greatest fighting force in the world, the army no longer fielded the Immortals after their betrayal and the troops were mostly levies trained periodically instead of the fully professional corp of the 1st and 2nd century AD. Darius agreed with his generals to lax recruitment standards and improve soldier pay but he never sanctioned any significant enlargement of the military beyond the traditional 10,000 men from Cyrus’ day.
During Arsaces’ reign, the Spahbeds and generals were no longer from the Great Houses, often field soldiers promoted to command. Darius sought to break up the control of the Houses and now the military was staffed by mercenary captains or up-jumped commoners with little-known surnames such as Agesipolid or Suren. However, as is common during the time of weak or young rulers, these military men became an aristocracy of their own as they developed their influence at the expense of the throne and traded favours to further their own goals.
Arsaces as Shahanshah & the Council of Chalcedon
Arsaces took control of his empire on his majority in 336 AD but he was plagued with ill-health throughout his life and rarely left the palace. The empire became increasingly inward-looking during his long reign as it grappled with church politics and economic rebuilding.
Initially, this meant a receding of imperial power from the furthest flung provinces. Egypt, Cyrenaica and Syria were given more freedom to manage their own economies and people. Into this newly created space, Church schismatics would capitalise and promote their own beliefs. Much of it was on definitions on the nature of Christ, his essence and whether he was divine and human or fully divine or did he become divine after his death. Many modern Christians have difficulty understanding some of the more esoteric details of these debates and why such arguments led to condemnation and executions, but in the historical context of the ways in Christianity was transforming the late Achaemenid Empire, the stakes were high; differences in interpretation jeopardized the very concept of salvation for Christians.
This also coincided with the crusade of Narsaki against the Zoroastrians within the realm. Within the church, two schools of thought developed – the Alexandrian and Achaemeniyyan factions. Both had been home to Darius and enjoyed prestige from his patronage.
The Alexandrian school were monophysites or belief that Christ only had one nature while the Achameniyyans held that Christ had two natures united in one person. The Alexandrites were led by Theophilus while Narsaki championed the dual nature of Christ. Both sought to outdo each other in religious zeal and this sped up the destruction of Fire Temples across the land. Many had their marble burned in lime kilns to make cement, and the stone robbed for the construction of other buildings. We have the writing of Manishir of Antigoneia appealing to the throne to save them:
"Christian monks hasten to attack the temples with sticks and stones and bars of iron, and in some cases, disdaining these, with hands and feet. Then utter desolation follows, with the stripping of roofs, demolition of walls, the tearing down of statues and the overthrow of altars, and the priests must either keep quiet or die. After demolishing one, they scurry to another, and to a third, and trophy is piled on trophy, in contravention of the law. Such outrages occur even in the cities, but they are most common in the countryside. Many are the foes who perpetrate the separate attacks, but after their countless crimes this scattered rabble congregates and they are in disgrace unless they have committed the foulest outrage...Temples, Sire, are the soul of the countryside: they mark the beginning of its settlement and have been passed down through many generations to the men of today. In them, the farming communities rest their hopes for husbands, wives, children, for their oxen and the soil they sow and plant. An estate that has suffered so has lost the inspiration of the peasantry together with their hopes, for they believe that their labour will be in vain once they are robbed of Ahura Mazda who directs their labours to their due end. And if the land no longer enjoys the same care, neither can the yield match what it was before, and, if this be the case, the peasant is the poorer, and the revenue jeopardized."
The plea fell on deaf ears and Narsaki bid the Shahanshah to build more churches across the land to fill the void in people’s hearts.
As the faction grew in animosity, Arsaces was forced to call a new Ecumenical Council to address the complaints of the clergy. This council held in Chalcedon in 381 AD was to settle debates regarding the nature (hypostases, "reality") of Christ that threatened to break Church unity. The question was whether Christ was human or divine, a man who became God (through the resurrection and ascension) or God who became a man (through the incarnation, "taking on flesh"), and how his humanity and divinity affected his essence and being, if at all. It was attended by 520 bishops and their entourages and was the largest and best-documented of all the councils. Arsaces wished to bring proceedings to a speedy end and asked the council to make a pronouncement on the doctrine of the Incarnation. It was decided that no new creed was necessary.
The conclusion was reached that the two natures of Christ remained distinct in the union; neither nature was diminished in any way through their joining. The Council also issued twenty-seven disciplinary canons governing church administration and hierarchy (to stem the lifestyles and corruption of the clergy). The immediate result of the Council created more schisms. The Bishop of Rome, styling himself Pope
The Alexandrians were now labelled as monophysites ("one nature") and they broke from both Acahemeniyya and Rome and created the independent Coptic Christian Church of Egypt with their own Pope. They suffered persecution and executions until the time of Daeva Achaemenid, King of Jerusalem in the 7th century, who acted as their protector as lord of Egypt. The Bishop of Rome who fancied himself as the head of the Church as the Roman Empire, his See, oversaw the largest territory, disagreed with the exact wording of the creed of Chalcedon but did not voice opposition in the land of the Persians. Back in Rome, he announced his opposition to Chalcedon and inserted the so-called Filioque clause (Latin filioque, “and the son”), after the words “the Holy Spirit,…who proceeds from the Father,”. This was gradually introduced as part of the creed in the Western church during the lifetime of the now Pope Alexander and became the basis of a continuing schism between the Roman and Achaemenid churches, though both put up the fiction that Rome and Achameniyya were in communion for many more centuries.
Arsaces attempt at church unity had only driven home the differences between the factions and ensured that the Western Church (soon to be called the Catholic Church) would not follow the lead of the Patriarch of Achaemeniyya as Narsaki began to coin himself. Narsaki would proclaim that his church was the Orthodox Church of Christ and that all others not recognising his pre-eminent status were schismatics or even worse, potentially heretics. The continual Church conflicts would exacerbate the instability of the empire as new factors come into play.
The Thunder of Hooves from the East
The first half of Arsaces’ reign was relatively peaceful but from 360 AD onwards, began to face constant barbarian invasions from the North and East. The tribes north of the Black Sea and the Caucasus were retreating before some much greater threat. Moesia and Caucasian Albania began to see large migrations crossing into Achaemenid lands in search of shelter and peace. These barbarians proved to be a boon and bane for the empire. Unable to keep such large numbers out due to the impoverished size of the army, Arsaces was forced to accommodate them, integrating some of them into the army while seeking to settle others in abandoned lands in Macedonia and Asia Minor. They proved to be a great source of instability for the recovering empire but also helped to infuse new economic and military vitality.
Behind them, the Huns began to pour in and ravage the Pontic Steppe, raiding deep into Moesia and Armenia. Terror of their attacks were carried before them by refugees and eventually reached Achaemeniyya where a full-scale panic set in. Autophradates Suren Spahbeh of Spahbeds was called in to restore order in the city but once again the fears of military mutiny reared its ugly head.
The last decades of Arsaces reign’ was plagued by his ill-health and the question of succession. Arsaces had no sons, only two daughters. Both common folk and nobility were against the daughters taking power as the spectre of the Three Witches was still fresh in many minds. Arsaces would cede the throne to his son-in-law Tigraios, adopted into the Achaemenid line but lacking the blood of Darius and Cyrus. For the first time in 800 years, there would be no descendant of Amastris sitting on the throne. Arsaces would pass away from a stroke in 400 AD and the line of the Dâmâds (Persian for Son-in-Law) would lead the Empire through the Hunnic invasions and 5th-century wars.
