Acacius

Acacius, son of Archelaus was a Byzantine official, mentioned as a representative of emperor Justin II (r. 565–578) in 573. He is known for causing a military disaster in a siege of Nisibis, early in the Roman–Persian War of 572–591.

Siege of Nisibis

John of Epiphania

Acacius is first mentioned by name in the work of John of Epiphania. He was reportedly sent by Justin II to dismiss Marcian, the magister militum per Orientem, from office. Acacius dutifully did so, preventing Marcian from concluding the siege of Nisibis. The leaderless Byzantine troops retreated.

"While they were encamped near the city, King Chosroës set out from Babylon with an army of Medians crossing the Tigris River and passing over empty land, as the Roman had not heard of the king‘s movements, and came upon the Persian fortress of Amvaron (it is five days distant from the city of Circesion), where he dispatched Adaarman, as the general was called, to cross the Euphrates River there and plunder Roman territory with thousands of his own Medians and nomadic barbarians. At the same time, he urged Avorras on to the Romans besieging Nisibis. When Adaarman reached the city of Circesion, he crossed the Euphrates and began to forage Roman lands without any restraint. For due to the previous peace and quiet that they had enjoyed during the reign of Justinian, their war time preparation had receded and their virility completely vanished. As no one dared to come to blows with the barbarians, Adaarman was able to come as far as the city of Antioch ravaging the sites and fields near the city and then advancing on Coele Syria. He made camp not far from the great city of Apamea, to whose citizens’ embassies he promised to enter the city and leave it unharmed, but then actually entering it where the Persians seized their possessions, enslaved its inhabitants, and put the entire city to the flame then returning in all haste to their own land. As a result of these actions, the emperor Justin dispatched Acacius (the Romans are accustomed to add the name of Archelaus) removing Marcian, who was still besieging Nisibis, from office because he had doubts about his loyalty, as the city had not yet been taken control of. ... As the Romans were retreating."

John of Ephesus

John of Ephesus gives a similar account, but gives more attention to the contact of Acacius and the reactions of the soldiers:

And immediately that he came, he [Acacius] showed his orders, just at the time when Marcian and his army were fighting against Nisibis, and expecting to assault it the next day, and win the city; and all were in astonishment, and their hands were weakened. And the illustrious Marcian, who had been assiduously making his preparations, and was upon the point of capturing Nisibis, on hearing the orders, said to Acacius, 'You see how great labour we have taken for the purpose of capturing this city; and now, wait a little, and grant us a delay of two days only, and then do what you have been commanded; for the king has a right that what he orders should be done.' But he [Acacius] was angry with him [Marcianus], and insulted him, and in hot wrath laid hands upon him in the presence of all his officers, and pulled him about, and threw him down, and cut his girdle, scoffing at him, and even, as was said, he struck him on the cheek. And the whole army was indignant, and their hands weakened, and execrating the wickedness which had been done before their eyes, they lowered their standard, and turned it upside down. And thereupon the whole army fled, and left the city far behind them, and loud was their grief and lamentation at what had happened to their commander; for he was a good man and a believer: and besides, at the very time when they were expecting to enter and take the city, they had shown their backs when there was no enemy who pursued them, and had become the laughter and scorn of their foes."

"Chosroes, when his preparations for war were completed, having accompanied Adaarmanes for some distance, sent him across the Euphrates from his own bank of the river into the Roman territory, by Circesium, a city most important to the Romans, situated at the limit of the empire, and rendered strong not only by its walls, which are carried to an immense height, but by the rivers Euphrates and Aboras, which, as it were, insulate the place. Chosroes himself, having crossed the Tigris with his own division of the army, advanced upon Nisibis. Of these operations the Romans were for a long time ignorant, so far that Justin, relying on a rumour to the effect that Chosroes was either dead or approaching his last breath, was indignant at the tardiness of the siege of Nisibis, and sent persons for the purpose of stimulating the efforts of Marcian, and bringing to him the keys of the gates as quickly as possible. Information, however, that the siege was making no progress, but that the commander was bringing great discredit upon himself by attempting impossibilities in the case of so important a city with so contemptible a force, is conveyed in the first instance to Gregory, bishop of Theopolis."

The rank of Acacius is never clarified in primary sources. The Chronicle of 1234 is the only source to call him a tribune. The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire considers it likely that Acacius was one of the scribones, often employed on important missions.