Battle of Dara

map of the battle

Date	530
Location	Dara (present-day Mardin Province, southern Turkey)
Result	Byzantine victory

Belligerents

Byzantine Empire,
Heruli,
Huns

Sassanid Empire

Commanders and leaders

Belisarius,
Hermogenes,
Pharas,
John of Lydia
Sunicas

Perozes,
Pityaxes,
Baresmanas †

Strength

25,000 men

50,000 men
(originally 40,000 men)

Casualties and losses

Unknown

8,000+ men

The Battle of Dara was fought between the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire and the Sassanids in 530. It was one of the battles of the Iberian War.

The Byzantine Empire was at war with the Sassanids from 527, supposedly because Kavadh I had tried to force the Iberians to become Zoroastrians. The Iberian king fled from Kavadh, but Kavadh tried to make peace with the Byzantines, and attempted to have Justin I adopt his son Khosrau. Justin and his nephew and heir, Justinian I, refused and sent his generals Sittas and Belisarius into Persia, where they were initially defeated. Justinian tried to negotiate but Kavadh instead sent 40,000 men towards Dara in 529. Belisarius was sent back to the region with Hermogenes as his co-commander and 25,000 men in 530; Kavadh replied with another 10,000 troops under the general Perozes, who set up camp about five kilometers away at Ammodius.

Despite being outnumbered, Belisarius decided to give battle to the numerically superior Persians. He dug a number of ditches to block the Persian cavalry, leaving gaps between them to allow a counterattack. These were pushed forward on either flank of his position, while his center was refused back. Here he placed his unreliable infantry behind the center ditch, being placed close enough to the walls of the fortress to provide supporting fire from the city battlements. On the left and right flanks were the Byzantine cavalry, of questionable quality. Supporting them on their interior flanks were small bodies of Huns: 300 Hun cavalry under Sunicas and Aigan supporting the left; and as many more Huns on the right under Simmas and Ascan. Belisarius also placed a body of Heruli cavalry under Pharas in ambush position off of his left flank. A reserve composed of his own bucellarii household cavalry was held behind his center and commanded by John the Armenian, his trusted lieutenant and boyhood friend.

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Wikipedia