Lýtron. Ransom for abandoning siege as an element of Chosroes’s I military strategy in „De bello Persico” by Procopius of Caesarea

Abstract

The author analysed the description of Chosroes’s military campaign as presented by Procopius of Caesarea. Consecutive stages of the war in the years 540–542 are discussed with the main focus on the amounts of ransoms which the Persian king imposed on cities located on the route his army had taken towards Antiochia. Procopius mentions that the shares in the collection were proportionate to the estates and gold reserves owned by inhabitants of a city the ransom was demanded from. It is difficult to estimate the validity of such accounts. Unfortunately, there is no incidental information which could confirm their correctness. The ransom amounts listed by Procopius do, however, raise certain reservations. The author analyses the ransom amounts cited by Procopius and juxtaposes them with the size of a besieged city. The implemented comparison allows for expressing reasonable doubts as far as parts of Procopius’s accounts are concerned. It is confirmed in the instance of Antiochia, from which a considerably small ransom was demanded, whereas much larger sums were demanded from other, much smaller and less affluent towns. Thus, one may doubt the genuineness of some of the data provided by Procopius.