Editing Justinian I (section)

====War with the Sassanid Empire, 540–562====
{{main|Lazic War}}
[[File:Roman-Persian Frontier, 565 AD.png|thumb|alt=Map showing Roman-Persian frontier in 565 AD|Map of the Byzantine–Sasanian frontier in 565. In 541, the small but strategic region of [[Lazica]] on the eastern shore of the Black Sea became the new battlefield of the [[Roman–Persian Wars]].]]

Belisarius had been recalled in the face of renewed hostilities by the [[Sassanid Empire|Persians]]. Following a revolt against the Empire in [[Marzpanate Period|Armenia]] in the late 530s and possibly motivated by the pleas of Ostrogothic ambassadors, King [[Khosrau I]] broke the "Eternal Peace" and invaded Roman territory in the spring of 540.<ref>See for this section Moorhead (1994), pp. 89 ff., Greatrex (2005), p. 488 ff., and especially H. Börm, "Der Perserkönig im Imperium Romanum", in ''Chiron'' 36, 2006, pp. 299 ff.</ref> He first sacked [[Aleppo|Beroea]] and then [[Antioch]] (allowing the garrison of 6,000 men to leave the city),<ref name="gold2">J. Norwich, ''Byzantium: The Early Centuries'', 229</ref> besieged [[Daras]], and then went on to attack the Byzantine base in the small but strategically significant satellite kingdom of [[Lazic War|Lazica]] near the Black Sea as requested by its discontented king [[Gubazes II of Lazica|Gubazes]], exacting tribute from the towns he passed along his way. He forced Justinian I to pay him 5,000 pounds of gold, plus 500 pounds of gold more each year.<ref name="gold2"/>

Belisarius arrived in the East in 541, but after some success, was again recalled to Constantinople in 542. The reasons for his withdrawal are not known, but it may have been instigated by rumours of his disloyalty reaching the court.<ref>Procopius mentions this event both in the ''Wars'' and in the ''Secret History'', but gives two entirely different explanations for it. The evidence is briefly discussed in Moorhead (1994), pp. 97–98.</ref> 
The outbreak of the plague coupled with a rebellion in Persia brought Khosrow I's offensives to a halt. Exploiting this, Justinian ordered all the forces in the East to invade Persian Armenia, but the 30,000-strong Byzantine force was defeated by a small force at [[Battle of Anglon|Anglon]].<ref name="Nor2">J. Norwich, ''Byzantium: The Early Centuries'', 235</ref> The next year, Khosrau unsuccessfully [[Siege of Edessa (544)|besieged]] the major city of [[Edessa, Mesopotamia|Edessa]]. Both parties made little headway, and in 545 a truce was agreed upon for the southern part of the Roman-Persian frontier. After that, the [[Lazic War]] in the North continued for several years: the Lazic king switched to the Byzantine side, and in 549 Justinian sent [[Dagisthaeus]] to [[Siege of Petra (549)|recapture Petra]], but he faced heavy resistance and the siege was relieved by Sasanian reinforcements. Justinian replaced him with [[Bessas (magister militum)|Bessas]], who was under a cloud after the loss of Rome in 546, but he managed to [[Siege of Petra (550–551)|capture and dismantle Petra]] in 551. The war continued for several years until a second truce in 557, followed by a [[Fifty-Year Peace Treaty|fifty years' peace]] in 562. Under its terms, the Persians agreed to abandon Lazica in exchange for an annual tribute of 400 or 500 pounds of gold (30,000 ''solidi'') to be paid by the Romans.<ref>Moorhead ((1994), p. 164) gives the lower, Greatrex ((2005), p. 489) the higher figure.</ref>