Hormizd IV

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Hormizd IV, son of Khosrau I, reigned as King of Persia from 579 to 590.

He seems to have been imperious and violent, but not without some kindness of heart. Some very characteristic stories are told of him by Tabari (Noldeke, Geschichte d. Perser und Arhalter unter den Sasaniden, 264 ff.). His father's sympathies had been with the nobles and the priests. Hormizd IV protected the common people and introduced a severe discipline in his army and court. When the priests demanded a persecution of the Christians, he declined on the ground that the throne and the government could only be safe if it gained the goodwill of both concurring religions. The consequence was that Hormizd IV raised a strong opposition in the ruling classes, which led to many executions and confiscations.

When Hormizd IV came to the throne in 579, he killed his brothers, according to the oriental fashion. From his father he had inherited a war against the Byzantine Empire and against the Turks in the east, and negotiations of peace had just begun with the Emperor Tiberius II, but Hormizd IV haughtily declined to cede anything of the conquests of his father. Therefore the accounts given of him by the Byzantine authors, Theophylact Simocatta (iii.16 ff), Menander Protector and John of Ephesus (vi.22), who give a full account of these negotiations, are far from favourable.

In 588 Hormizd IV's general, Bahram Chobin (who became rival King Bahram VI), defeated the Turks, but in the next year (589) was beaten by the Romans; and when the King superseded him he rebelled with his army. This was the signal for a general insurrection. The magnates deposed and blinded Hormizd IV and proclaimed his son Khosrau II King. The sources do not agree on how Hormizd was killed: Theophylact states (iv.7) that Khosrau killed him a few days after his father was blinded; the Armenian historian Sebeos (History, Ch.10.75) states that Hormizd's own courtiers killed him.