Procopius, De bello Persico I.5.I—3
(i) As time went on, Kavadh ruled by force more than before and he introduced innovations into the constitution; among these there was a law which he drafted and according to which the Persians were to have intercourse with their women on a communal basis — a measure that the majority of the population very much disliked. Because of this they revolted against him, removed him from the throne and held him as a chained prisoner. (2) They chose as their king Bales, the brother of Peroz, because, as I mentioned, no male offspring of Peroz was left any more, and because the Persians are not allowed to appoint a man as king who is by birth a common man, unless it is the case that the royal family is totally extinct. (3) As soon as Balas had assumed the royal title he gathered the nobility and held council regarding Kavadh (I)’s fate...307
Political changes and his own socio-political initiatives provoked Kavadh I’s downfall. In an attempt to secure his position against the powerful nobility the king grew closer with a man named Mazdak. The so-called ‘Mazdakite revolt’, which derives its name from this figure, features primarily in the Eastern sources.308 Many scholars have speculated about and discussed without agreement the possible religious, social and political origins as well as goals of this movement.309 According to Tabari’s account Kavadh I joined the Mazdakites after ten years of his reign. These, as the author sets out, postulated that all men shared wealth and property equally and that the rich, who possessed too much money, too many women and too much property, should have this surplus taken away from them and instead it should be given to the poor. The king tolerated the severe political unrest and actual raids that took place in consequence of this doctrine. In turn the nobility and clergy decided to depose Kavadh and to imprison him. Procopius confirms Tabari’s words. The nobility replaced Kavadh, who was taken to a ‘place of oblivion’,310 with his brother, (Gamasp (497—9), who became the new Sasanian ruler.311 The sources describe in detail how Kavadh managed to escape from his prison in Huzistan and found refuge with the Hephthalites. With their help he returned and regained the royal throne.312 Procopius claims that at this point Kavadh renewed the Sasanian monarchy and henceforth reigned with a firm hand.313 The political unrest caused by the Mazdakite revolt broke the power of the traditional nobility once and for all.314° Towards the end of Kavadh’s reign his son Xusro and the Zoroastrian clergy finally persuaded the king to break with Mazdak and to crush the Mazdakite movement. During the reign of Kavadh’s successor Xusro I Anosarvan (531—79) both the position of the monarch and the Sasanian state as a whole were restored and reached new power.315
3.4 the sixth century: the sasanians renew their expansionist policy in the west
World History
