Following his father's death, Kavadh had staved off disaster time and again for the empire.
But yearly peace tributes to the Hephtalites had left the Iranian treasury bare.
Nothing was left to help the farmers who fed the Empire.
Without help, Kavadh's people would soon starve.
In desperation, he turned to his neighbours: the Eastern Roman Empire.
Despite countless generations of conflict between Rome and Iran,
the two empires had been at peace for nearly a century.
Nomadic tribes across the Caucasus Mountains to the north had forced them to agree on terms of mutual defense.
Iran would guard the pass through the mountains, called the Caucasian Gates,
so long as Rome sent money to help pay the soldiers.
But the Romans had gotten kind of distracted.
They were all like, "We're kind of dealing with these other wars in the north right now and also in the west,
and wait - ah crap, the Ostrogoths just took Rome.
Like actual Rome.
Ah, geez. Can you guys handle the northern tribes thing while we -
Hey, you guys give that back, I am not kidding!"
So Rome had stopped paying for the northern defense, and since Iran had their own problems at the time -
multiple wars with the Hephtalites and their King dying, followed by a decade of political turmoil -
they weren't exactly in a position to press the issue.
But now, now that Kavadh had finally pulled his empire back together;
now, it was time to press.
Kavadh reached out to the Roman emperor, Anastasius, and insisted that Rome pay its share.
That would take some of the strain off of Iran's treasury,
so Kavadh could subsidise his farmers and avoid a famine;
but Anastasius replied saying,
"Well, we never technically signed an agreement or anything, so we're not going to pay you back,
but hey, we can give you a loan!"
To which Kavadh responded,
"I'll loan my fist to your face!" and went to war.
Now, waging war is generally not a good idea for empires on the brink of ruin,
but Kavadh really needed this one.
Raiding food and supplies from the border cities of the Roman Empire solved his immediate problem of feeding his own empire;
and it also solved his long-term problem of getting the Hephtalites off his back.
As Iran's eastern neighbours, the Hephtalites very much enjoyed watching Iran go to war with the West.
They liked it so much that they sent their own soldiers to join in the looting,
which was actually pretty handy,
because the Hephtalites had wiped out the core of Iran's army ten years ago.
This war lasted only a few years, but it ended with Rome finally agreeing to pay tribute to Iran.
Kavadh had adopted the superior swords and bows of his Hephtalite allies,
and built his broken army back into a power to be feared,
but he had done so at the cost of reigniting Iran's age-old rivalry with Rome.
The Romans now openly broke their prior treaty obligations.
Both empires had previously agreed to stop building military fortifications on their shared border,
as a gesture of good faith.
But as soon as Kavadh got distracted by Turkic tribes invading through the Caucasian Gates,
Anastasius bought every building in a small village called Dara,
and rapidly built it into a shoddy little fort.
When Kavadh turned back around and saw a fort where there had definitely not been a fort before,
he asked, "Hey, did you put that fort there?",
and Anastasius answered, "Hmm, that? No no no, that's always been there.
Here, take some gold, go fight your Turks or whatever."
Kavadh did have his hands full with the whole Turk situation,
and then beating up his former Hephtalite allies, so it took him a while to get back to this Rome issue.
By the time he finally did, things had changed.
Anastasius had died without declaring an heir.
An upstart pig farmer named Justin had stepped into his place,
although all reports indicated that his nephew Justinian was the real brains behind the throne.
Still, it was a stark reminder to the aging Kavadh that it was never too soon to choose an heir.
The most obvious candidate was his eldest son Kawus, who not only had seniority,
but currently served as a governor of a northern province.
But Kawus was a fervent Mazdakite,
and Kavadh had spent years now trying to distance himself from that whole mess.
His second son had lost an eye, which technically disqualified him under Iranian rules of succession.
And then there was Khosrau, his third son.
His favourite.
The one who had already made allies at court by denouncing the Mazdakites.
Not a hard choice actually.
But the Mazdakites remained a problem.
Even without Kavadh's support,
their goals of a classless society and equal distribution of wealth continued to win converts across the Empire.
They were still vastly outnumbered by followers of traditional Zoroastrianism though,
and a backlash eventually swelled against the Mazdakites and their radical ideas.
Priests pushed to enforce official doctrine all across the Empire, even in the border territories,
which Iran had traditionally allowed to do their own thing.
For many of those territories, doing their own thing meant being Christian,
so having Zoroastrian doctrines suddenly enforced on them did not go over very well.
It all came to a head in 524 CE when one Iranian territory with a Christian king decided to defect to Rome.
Kavadh reached out to Justin to see if they could resolve this peacefully.
"Justin, buddy.
Hey, just a thought;
maybe stop accepting our runaway territories into your empire and let's just be friends, okay?
And hey, as a gesture of good faith to seal this friendship,
I'll let you adopt Khosrau as your son!"
The adoption offer was mostly a formality.
Khosrau was a grown man,
he wasn't exactly going to move to Constantinople and start calling Justin dad.
But the gesture could bring the two empires together;
and Roman support could help Khosrau claim the throne when Kavadh died.
In fact, the Iranians had done exactly the same thing for Rome in the fourth century,
when a previous Shah had adopted the emperor's son to secure his succession.
Kavadh felt that it was high time Rome returned that favour.
Justin loved this idea.
His advisors did not love it as much.
They worried that this symbolic gesture might be the first step of a sneaky campaign to place Khosrau on the throne of the Roman Empire.
They suggested, "Maybe tone it down a little."
So ambassadors from both sides met on the border with Khosrau himself waiting in the wings.
The Roman said, "Great news!
Our emperor will adopt you, but not as a Roman and an equal son.
N-n-no, he's already got one of those.
But, he will adopt you as a barbarian."
To which Khosrau responded, "He can adopt my fist to his face!" and went to war.
The war started out great for Iran.
Kicking the Romans up and down the frontier felt just like old times.
By now though, Justin had died, and left the Empire in the hands of his ambitious nephew,
who began an aggressive push to fortify more places along the border.
The newly reinforced city of Dara,
which Kavadh always knew would be trouble,
handed Iran their first major loss.
In the peace negotiations that followed,
Kavadh insisted that the Romans pull down their fortifications at Dara,
and start paying their fair share to defend the Caucasian Gates.
He did not live to hear Justinian's response.
Kavadh passed away in 531 CE,
leaving a will that declared Khosrau should inherit his throne.
The nobles quickly voted to confirm his choice,
and at last, it was Khosrau's time to shine!
But all the problems from his father's reign hit Khosrau at once.
A new wave of invaders poured through the Caucasian Gates,
and the Iranian army was still tied up in the war with Rome.
Khosrau called on his brother Kawus, who still governed the province up north, to repel the invaders.
Kawus took care of the problem quickly,
but then claimed that his victory proved that maybe he should be Shah instead of Khosrau;
and since Kawus was a Mazdakite,
Mazdak and his followers immediately joined his cause.
Khosrau needed his army back,
which meant he needed to make peace with Justinian and recall the army from the borders of Rome.
He invited Justinian's envoys into his court,
but the envoys replied that they would not negotiate anything.
Justinian had caught wind of Kawus' rebellion,
and hoped to sow as much chaos into Iran as he could,
so he refused to recognise Khosrau as the new Shah.
Kawus came to Ctesiphon to press his claim to the throne,
and Khosrau watched his allies begin slipping away.
Most nobles refused to recognise his brother,
but a few quietly began to switch sides.
The Mazdakites had given Kawus a strong base of support,
and Khosrau decided that he needed to take that support away.
He invited Mazdak and his people to come to his palace without Kawus,
promising to hear their demands.
The invitation was a trap.
As the Mazdakites entered his courtyard,
Khosrau had them cut down.
One story, which is probably just a story,
but it goes to show how ruthless Khosrau was perceived to be,
says that he planted their corpses upside down in his garden,
and invited Mazdak to gaze upon these unique and beautiful trees.
Then, he had Mazdak hanged from the gallows.
Now that Kawus no longer had his most powerful ally,
he was easy prey.
Khosrau captured him and dragged him in front of the priests.
He offered to set Kawus free if he begged forgiveness in front of all the holy men at court.
Kawus replied that he prefered death to humiliation,
and Khosrau obliged.
Then he hunted down every one of Kawus' sons,
and executed them before they could even think of avenging their father or stealing the throne.
It was at this point that Khosrau returned his attention to Justinian's envoys,
and informed them that he was now, without question, the Shah of Iran.
Would they like to make peace with him now?
Justinian decided that yes, he very much would.
He handed over 11 thousand pounds of gold to pay for the defence of the Caucasian Gates,
and withdrew his military base from Dara.
But Khosrau would not forget or forgive this Roman Emperor for failing to support his succession.