Rome Sinks, Persia Endures
A History of Mankind (311)
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Just as Attila’s Huns mauled the helpless Western Roman Empire to the point that it struggled to keep working as a political entity, Persia displayed enough strength and smarts – multiple kings paid the Huns just enough tribute to stop their attacks, but never so much that it endangered Sasanian coffers – to keep them generally at bay.
The accession of Yazdgerd I (r. 399-420), possibly Shapur II’s grandson, marked the start of a period of religious tolerance that saw a significant expansion of Christianity in the Sasanian domain. In 410, he presided over the official organization of the Church of the East at the Synod of Ctesiphon, one in which Eastern priests supported the Nicene Creed as defended by fellow Easterner Athanasius of Alexandria against his enemies, particularly powerful in the Roman West.
Yazdgerd’s tolerance of Christianity appears to have been a coldly calculated political move, entailing no particular affection for the religion. He understood perfectly well the way Romans had used Christianity as a battering ram against his state, trying to recruit fellow Christians to their anti-Sasanian campaigns; by establishing friendly ties with local Christians, and providing them with a degree of recognition, he hoped to minimize that particular danger.
The Persian nobility and the powerful Zoroastrian priesthood1 openly expressed their rejection of such policy, by having the king assassinated and replaced by somebody more acceptable. Following more plots and assassinations, one of the many sons of Yazdgerd I was enthroned as Bahram V and reigned for two decades during which he succeeded in charting a middle course between persecution and official recognition of Christianity.
