Bahram was succeeded by his son Yazdgard II in 439, who at once opened war against the Byzantines. Theodosius II, however, did not want trouble in the east, so he sent the commander of his eastern armies, Anatolius, to the camp of Yazdgard and peace was made preserving the status quo, with an additional proviso that neither side should erect any new forts in the frontier areas. Peace having been made in the west, Yazdgard then had to turn to his north-eastern frontier where certain tribes, defeated by Bahram, had again challenged Sasanian supremacy. The identity of these people is unknown, for the Armenian sources which tell about them simply call them, anachronistically, Kushans, or Huns who were called Kushans.
The use of the term "Kushan" for subsequent kingdoms in the east was analogous to the Greek usage of "Scythian" for all nomads in south Russia and Central Asia, or the later Byzantine designation of all eastern nomads as "Huns". It is probable, however, that Yazdgard fought against the Hephthalites, for one Armenian author suggests this when he says the Sasanian king in the twelfth year of his reign invaded the land of Itatakan where the king of the Kushans lived. The Hephthalites are mentioned in Chinese sources as originally having lived in Central Asia. In the fifth century they moved into Bactria and apparently joined some local mountaineers to rule the land. They adopted the local written language, Bactrian(or sometimes called Kushan-Bactrian), written in modified Greek letters. Yazdgard is reported by the Armenian sources to have established his residence for a number of years at Nlshapur in Khurasan so as to be better able to prosecute the war against his eastern enemies. Sasanian forces seem to have been victorious in the east, for Yazdgard turned his attention to Armenia where grave disorders had broken out.
Fortunately we have detailed accounts in Armenian sources of the attempt of Yazdgard to convert Armenia to the Zoroastrian faith. According to them, the prime mover behind this attempt was MihrNarseh, the famous prime minister of Yazdgard I, Bahram Gor and Yazdgard II; he wrote a letter to the Armenians calling upon them to convert. Mihr-Narseh not only failed but roused many people against his policy, and in 450 an assembly of Armenian priests and princes called by the patriarch Joseph launched a revolt. Some of the Armenian nobles had accepted Zoroastrianism and sided with the Persians, so the result was more a civil war than merely a Persian-Armenian struggle. Requests for aid from the Byzantines were in vain. In a memorable battle in 451 the Christian Armenians led by a noble, Vardan, of the house of Mamikonian, were annihilated and after the battle many Armenian priests and nobles were led into captivity in Iran. Several ecclesiastics were martyred in captivity and the land of Armenia was ruled by Persian marzbans. The battle of Avarair became a landmark in the history of Armenia, remembered with emotion by Armenians to this day.
Christians other than Armenians in the empire also suffered from persecutions and impositions, although there was no overall attack on them as in the time of Shapiir II. Several of the Syriac acts of martyrs incidentally mention the persecution of Jews by Yazdgard. The last years of the king were devoted to more struggles with nomads to the east of the Caspian Sea and with the Hephthalites. Yazdgard died in 457 without having pacified the eastern frontier and leaving two sons to contest the throne. Although the sources disagree as to who was the elder brother, it was probably Hormizd, who, in any event, became the ruler. Peroz, his brother, secured the aid of the Hephthalites, however, and marched against the king. In battle Peroz was victorious and became ruler. During the war between the two brothers the Transcaucasian area of Albania proclaimed its independence from Iran, so one of the first acts of Peroz was to reconquer the rebel territory. He also freed some Armenian nobles who had been imprisoned by his father, and it seemed that the harsh measures of previous reigns might now come to an end.
Yazdgard and His Anti-Religious Policies
