Justinian and Iran

When Justinian I became emperor (527 - 565), he inherited from his uncle the war with the Sassanid Empire to the east. This Iranian Empire was ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651 CE.His chief adversary was Khosrow I, who ruled the Sassanids from 531 to 579. Khosrow inherited the war from his father, Kavad I.In 541, Justinian sent General Belisarius to the east to take command of Byzantine forces facing the Iranians. Belisarius had recently come from Italy where he had been successful in the Gothic Wars, Justinian's attempts reunite the Western Roman Empire with his Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. He was recalled shortly after, possibly because of concerns about his loyalty.Hostilities between the two empires were halted in 541 at the outbreak of what we call the Justinian Plague, the first appearance of Bubonic Plague in the west. A rebellion in Persia also forced Khosrow to divide his attention between quelling it and the Byzantine front.Knowing about the rebellion,…