29 Facts About Peroz I

Peroz I was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 459 to 484.

Peroz I soon clashed with the former subjects of the Kidarites, the Hephthalites, who possibly had previously helped him to gain his throne.

Peroz I was defeated and captured twice by the Hephthalites and lost his recently acquired possessions.

Peroz I was the last to mint unique gold coins in the Indian region of Sindh, which indicates that the region was lost around the same period.

Albeit a devout Zoroastrian, Peroz I supported the newly established Christian sect of Nestorianism, and just before his death, it was declared the official doctrine of the Iranian church.

Civil war soon followed; Yazdegerd II's eldest son Hormizd III declared himself king at the city of Ray in northern Iran, while Peroz I fled to the northeastern part of the empire and began raising an army in order to claim the throne for himself.

Peroz I allowed the Huns into the city of Derbent, and with their aid attacked the Iranian army.

Peroz I responded by allowing the Huns to pass through the Darial Gorge, and they subsequently ravaged Albania.

Peroz I freed some of the Armenian aristocrats who had been jailed by his father in the aftermath of the Armenian uprising in 451.

Peroz I lacked enough manpower to fight, and therefore asked for financial aid from the Byzantine Empire, which declined.

Peroz I then offered peace to the king of the Kidarites, Kunkhas, and offered his sister in marriage, but sent a woman of low status instead.

Around this time, Peroz I allied himself with the Hephthalites and other Huns, such as Mehama, the ruler of Kadag in eastern Tokharistan.

The style of the gold coin was largely based on the Kidarite coins, and displayed Peroz I wearing his second crown.

Peroz I was ransomed by Zeno, who helped him restore good relations between the Sasanians and the Hephthalites.

Meanwhile, in Iberia, Peroz I had favoured Varsken, the viceroy of the Armeno-Iberian frontier region of Gugark.

Peroz I sent an army under Zarmihr Hazarwuxt of the House of Karen to Armenia, while another army led by the Sasanian general Mihran, of the Mihranid family, was sent to Iberia.

Peroz I hoped that the Iranians would not pursue and attack him there, in order to avoid risking a conflict with the Byzantines.

Peroz I left his brother Balash in charge of the empire, launching his Hephthalite campaign at the head of a large army in 484.

The latter reported that Peroz I had the tower tied to fifty elephants and three hundred men linked together and dragged it in front of his men, while he walked behind the tower, feigning not to have violated his grandfather's peace treaty.

Akhshunwar, unwilling to face Peroz I directly, had a large trench dug across the battleground, concealing it with shrubbery and loose wood, and positioning his forces behind it.

Peroz I was the last to mint unique gold coins in the Indian region of Sindh, which indicates that the region was lost around the same period.

Peroz I was avenged by his grandson Khosrow I, who in collaboration with the First Turkic Khaganate destroyed the Hephthalites in 560.

Peroz I, like all other Sasanian rulers, was an adherent of Zoroastrianism.

Unlike his father, Peroz I did not attempt to convert the Caucasian Albanians and Armenians to Zoroastrianism.

Peroz I supported the new Christian sect of Nestorianism as the official doctrine of the Iranian Christian church.

Peroz I depicted himself with three different crowns on his coins.

The story begins with Peroz I dreaming about a beautiful woman whom he falls in love with.

Peroz I then sends one of his relatives who is a close friend, Mihrfiruz from the Mihran family, to find her.

Peroz I marries her and, at her request, lays the foundations of the city of Amol in Tabaristan.