Byzantine Battles: Siege of Petra

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15 th century

Siege of Petra	year: 549
Ineffective siege of the Sassanid-held Georgian city of Petra	★ ★ ★ ★ ★

enemy: Sassanid Persians	location: Petra, modern village Tsikhisdziri on the Black sea coast of Georgia	accuracy: ●●●●●
battle type: Siege	war: Lazic War	modern country: Georgia

	▼ The Byzantines(emperor: Justinian I)	▼ The Enemies
Commander:	magister militum Dagisthaeus	General Mihr-Mihroe (Mermeroes)
Forces:	7,000 Byzantines + Lazic forces	1,500
Losses:		1,000

Background story:

Lazica, situated on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, and controlling key mountain passes across the Caucasus and to the Caspian Sea, was of strategic importance for Byzantium being the barrier against a Persian advance to the coasts of the Black Sea.
Gubazes II (Greek: Γουβάζης) was king of Lazica from circa 541 until 555. He was a central figure of the Lazic War (541–562) between Byzantium and Persia.
He originally ascended the throne as a vassal of the Byzantine Empire, but the domineering attitude of the Byzantine overlords pushed him to seek the alliance of Byzantium's main rival, Sassanid Persia. The Byzantines were evicted from Lazica with the aid of a Persian army in 541, but the Persian occupation of the country turned out to be worse, and by 548, a repentant Gubazes was requesting assistance from Byzantium.

The Battle:

In 548. Emperor Justinian sent an army of 7,000 with 1,000 Macrones (a Georgian tribe) under the magister militum per Armeniam Dagisthaeus to join the forces of King Gubazes who was allied also to Alans and Sabirs (a Hunnic tribe). This army besieged the fortress city Petra which was defended by 1500 Persians.
Dagisthaeus put Petra under siege, but acted in an incompetent manner. He was so confident in victory that he wrote to Justinian, indicating what rewards he thought he and his brother deserved.
However the defenders of the city under the command of Mihran (Mirranes) fought bravely and the siege was unsuccessful despite the fortification of Petra was heavily damaged by the siege machines and the sappers (those undermining the walls).
The Byzantine commander neglected the guarding of the mountain passes and this allowed a large Sassanid army (perhaps 30,000) under Mihr-Mihroe (Mermeroes) to approach. Dagisthaeus had to flee and abandoned the siege, without giving orders to his men. Thus the siege of Petra was ended.
In the fortress, 1,000 men of the 1,500-strong Persian garrison of the city had been killed and 350 men were wounded. The defenders had kept all of the corpses inside the fortification in order not to inform the attackers of their losses. Mihr-Mihroe garrisoned 3,000 men in the fortress and made improptu repairs to the walls using wooden beams and sandbags.
Yet, the Persians lacked sufficient supplies, and so, after securing Petra and leaving a further 5,000 men under Phabrizus to secure its supply routes, Mihr-Mihroe left.
In the spring of the next year, Gubazes and Dagisthaeus combined their forces, destroyed Phabrizus's army in a surprise attack at the Phasis river, and pursued the survivors into Caucasian Iberia. In the same summer, they won another victory near the river Hippis. against a new Persian army led by Khorianes.

Noteworthy:

After relieving the siege of Petra, Mermeroes taunted the Byzantines because of their inability to defeat 150 men “without a wall”, referring to the fact that the city walls were almost destroyed.

Aftermath:

Despite these two victories, the Lazi held Dagisthaeus responsible for his failure at Petra and denounced him before Justinian, who had him placed in detention and replaced with Bessas in 549.
Bessas returned to Petra and captured it after a lengthy siege in 551. The war in Lazica went on until 561.