| Keywords |
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| ID |
5034 |
| Text |
Historia (continuatio Agathiae) (557 - 582) Menander, the Guardsman |
| Quotation |
Ὅτι ἀρχομένου τοῦ τετάρτον ἔτους τῆς Ἰουσνίνου βασιλείας πρεσβεία τῶν Τούρκων ἀφίκετο ἐν Βυζαντίῳ. ὡς γὰρ τὰ Τούρκων ἐπὶ μέγα ἤρθη, οἱ Σογδαῗται οἱ πρὸ τοῦ μὲν Ἐφθαλιτῶν, τηνικαῦτα δὲ Τούρκων κατήκοοι, τοῦ σφῶν βασιλέως ἐδέοντο πρεσβείαν στεῖλαι ὡς Πέρσας, ὡς ἂν ἐκεῖσε ἀπιόντες οἱ Σογδαῗται ὤνιον παράσχοιντο τὴν μέταξαν τοῖς Μήδοις. καὶ οὖν πείθεται ὁ Σιζαβουλος ἀφίησί τε πρεσβευσομένους Σογδαΐτας· ἐξηγεῖτο δὲ τῆς πρεσβείας Μανιάχ. ἀφικόμενοι δὴ οὖν παρὰ βασιλέα Περσῶν ἐδέοντο τῆς μετάξης πέρι, ὅπως ἄνευ τινὸς κωλύμης αὐτοῖς προέλθοι ἐπ’ αύτῇ τὰ τῆς ἐμπορίας. ὁ δὲ Περσῶν βασιλεύς (οὐδαμῶς γὰρ αὐτῷ ἤρεσκε τὰ τοιάδε, ὡς ἂν μὴ ἐνθένδε ἄδεια ἔσοιτο τούτοις τοῖς Περσῶν ἐμβατεύειν ὁρίοις) ἀνεβάλετο ἐς τὸ αὔριον· καὶ μὲν οὖν αὖθις ἀναβολῇ ἐχρῆτο πάλιν ἐτέρᾳ. ὡς δὲ ἄλλως τὸ παρὸν ἀπεκρούετο, των Σογδαϊτῶν ἐκλιπαρούντων τε καὶ ἐγκειμένων, τότε Χοσρόης ἐκκλησιάσας ἀνελογίζετο. καὶ οὖν ὁ Κάτουλφος ἐκεῖνος ὁ Ἐφθαλίτης, ὃς διὰ τὴν ἐκ τοῦ κατ’ αὐτὸν βασιλέως γεγενημένην βιαίαν μίξιν τῇ γυναικὶ προύδωκε τὸ ὁμόφυλον τοῖς Τούρκοις, οὗτος γοῦν (μετανάστης γὰρ ἐν τῷ μεταξὺ ἐγεγόνει τοῦ χρόνου καὶ ἐμήδιζεν ἤδη) παρῄνεσε βασιλεῖ τῶν Περσῶν τὴν μέταξαν οὐδαμῶς ἀποπέμψασθαι, ἀλλὰ γὰρ καὶ ὠνήσασθαι, καὶ τὰ ὑπὲρ αὐτῆς μὲν καταθέσθαι τιμήματα, θεωμένων δὲ αὐτῶν τῶν πρέσβεων ταύτην ἀφανίσαι πυρί, ὡς ἂν μήτε ἀδικεῖν δόξοι μήτε μὴν βούλεσθαι χρῆσθαι τῇ ἐκ Τούρκων μετάξῃ. καὶ ἡ μὲν μέταξα ἐπυρπολήθη, αὐτοὶ δὲ ἐς τὰ πάτρια ἤθη ἀνεχώρησαν τῷ γεγενημένῳ ἤκιστα χαίροντες. |
| Translation |
At the beginning of the fourth year of Justin’s reign an embassy from the Turks (Toȗrkoi) came to Byzantium (Buzántion). As the power of the Turks (Toȗrkoi) increased, the Sogdians (Sogdaῗtai), who were earlier subjects of the Ephthalites (Éphthalítai) and now of the Turks (Toȗrkoi), asked their king to send an embassy to the Persians (Pérsai), to request that the Sogdians be allowed to travel there and sell raw silk to the Medes. Sizabul agreed and dispatched Sogdian envoys, whose leader was Maniakh. When they reached the king of the Persians, they asked that they be given permission to sell the raw silk there without any hindrance. The Persian king, who was not at all pleased by their request, being reluctant to grant free access from there to the area of Persia, put off his reply until the next day and kept postponing it. After a series of postponements, as the Sogdians were pressing insistently for a reply, Khosro summoned a council to discuss the matter, Katulph, the Ephthalite, who, because the king had raped his wife, had betrayed his own tribe to the Turks (and who in the meantime had left them and joined the Medes), advised the Persian king not to return the silk, but to buy it, paying the fair price for it, and to burn it in the fire before the very eyes of the envoys, so that he would not be held to have committed an injustice but that it would be clear that he did not wish to use raw silk from the Turks. So the silk was burned, and the Sogdians returned to their homeland not at all pleased with what had happened. |
| Summary |
Premisses of a Turkish ambassy to Byzantium. A disagreement over the silk trade: a group of Sogdian envoys, led by Maniakh, is sent to the Persians by the Turkish khagan Sizabul, trying to get permission to sell raw silk in Persia. The Persian king Chosroes I, advised by Katulph, an Ephthalite, prohibits the sale of the silk by buying it and consequently burning it. |
| Quotation source |
Fr. 10.1-26 (pp. 110-111) |
| Temporal Coverage |
568 - 569 |
| Associated use case(s) |
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| Comment |
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