Smbat IV Bagratuni

marzpan  (margrave)

“Commander of the army of the lords of houses”

Smbat was head of the Bagratid house. He was a commander of Byzantine forces in the Balkans. He was condemned to be thrown to wild animals in the hippodrome, probably after participation in a rebellion. He was exiled to Africa. About 595, he went to Persia, where he became a military leader and favourite of Kosrow II. He is said to have killed the king of the Hephthalites in single combat.

Events 

Date of Birth: unknown.

Place of Birth: unknown.

Settipani estimates about 560.

Date of Death: 616 or 617.

Place of Death: the Persian court.

The date and place are given by Garsoian (2005). According to Sebeos (p. 54), he died in the 28th year of the reign of the Sassanian king Khosrow II.

Place of Burial: Dariwin, Gogovit.

The place is recorded in Sebeos (p. 54)

Relationships

Father: Manuel Bagratuni.

This relationship is recorded in Sebeos (pp. 38).

Mother: unknown.

Spouse: unknown.

Children: 

(Complete source citations for facts about the children on this page are currently outside of the scope of this project.)

Varaz-Tirots II Bagratuni (died about 645)

Varaz-Sahak (died after 628)

Evidence

Howard-Johnston on “Sebeos”, whose history was composed in the 650s, as a source:  

He had strong views but succeeded in confining them to a few passages of direct editorial comment. There are, of course, blemishes - an occasional disregard of chronology (e.g., a set of notices [pp. 96-97, 99-104] covering the career of Smbat Bagratuni to his death in 617/18, placed under 600/1), a certain disorder towards the end (for which he apologizes [p. 176]), and, above all, a conflation of the two Persian attacks on the Romans’ metropolitan area in 615 and 626 (pp. 122-23). But, on the whole, the history retailed is lucid and where it can be tested, it can be shown to be reliable (Howard-Johnston, Armenian History, pp. lxi-lxxvii).

References

The Armenian History attributed to Sebeos. (R.W. Thomson, tr) (Liverpool U.P., 1999). 

Garsoian, N. “Smbat Bagratuni” in Encyclopaedia Iranica (2005, online edition).

Howard-Johnston, James. “Sebeos” in Encyclopaedia Iranica (2010, online edition).

Settipani, Christian. “The Seventh-Century Bagratids between Armenia and Byzantium” in 2013, Constructing the Seventh Century, Travaux et Mémoires XVII, (C. Zuckerman ed.), (Paris, 2013), p. 559-578.

Toumanoff, Cyril. Studies in Christian Caucasian History (Georgetown U.P., 1963).