Featured dossier
Hormizd III: two brothers and one crown
Hormizd III was Yazdegerd II’s eldest son and heir. After their father’s death his younger brother Peroz rose against him. Two years later Hormizd was defeated and killed. No coin or other relic certainly his is known.
- years of reign
- 2
Map: the reign of Hormizd III
Administration & economybefore 457 CE1 of 4
King of Sistan
According to Ṭabari, before his reign Hormizd “was king of Sejestān”.
Certainty: Probable
BattleCampaignBuildingAdministration & economyReligionArrow keys, Home/End and Space work.
Three separate layers
Each section has three layers: “Historical evidence” is only what the sources say; “Philosophical interpretation” is our reading by the standard of property and liberty; “Modern cultural meaning”. Quotations come only from published translations, with references.
Historical evidencePhilosophical interpretationModern cultural meaning
Dossier · 1
The war of the brothers
Hormizd was the elder son and heir. Peroz, the younger, was the foster son of Rahām (or Aštād) of the Mehrān family. Elishe says the army of the Iranians split in two, and Rahām with one half defeated and killed Hormizd. Then he crowned Peroz.
Now the tutor of Yazkert’s younger son, Raham by name from the family of Mihran, although he saw that the army of the Aryans was divided into two, nonetheless with one half he ferociously attacked the king’s elder son. He defeated and massacred his army, and capturing the king’s son ordered him to be put to death on the spot.
The eastern sources (Ṭabari and others) show Hormizd as unjust and Peroz as worthier. Only one anonymous text (Codex Sprenger 30) says Hormizd “was the braver and better” and Peroz “more learned in religion”. Shahbazi says the Armenian accounts are more exact. The winners wrote the history, so judgments about Hormizd need caution.
Here a great house (Mehrān) gave the crown to its own foster son. When no clear law settles succession, war and powerful families settle it.
Sources: A. Sh. Shahbazi, Encyclopaedia Iranica · Elishe, tr. R. W. Thomson
Synthesis
Hormizd III was king for two years and almost nothing of his survives. What we know comes from the side of his victorious rival or from Armenian sources. The story of Hephthalite help for Peroz is disputed.
Bibliography
- A. Sh. Shahbazi, Encyclopaedia Iranica, Hormozd III (2004). https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/hormozd-iii/
- Elishe, tr. R. W. Thomson, History of Vardan and the Armenian War (Harvard Armenian Texts and Studies 5) (1982). https://archive.org/details/eghishe-vardan-1982Thomson (Iranica) says Elishe’s book is probably a 6th-century rewriting of Łazar and is literary and elaborate. Numbers in brackets are pages of the Armenian edition.
- K. Schippmann, Encyclopaedia Iranica, Fīrūz (Pērōz) I (1999). https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/peroz/i-history/
Yazdegerd II, his fatherPeroz I, his brotherThe Sasanian dynasty