Narses

Narses (died 543) was an Armenian military commander in service of the Sasanian Empire and later the Byzantine Empire.

Family Narses was a native of Persarmenia, a part of Armenia under Sasanian Persian control. He was the brother of Aratius and Isaacius and possibly a member of the Kamsarakan family (a noble Armenian family of Parthian origin).

In , he was the commander of the troops in Philae, Egypt, where he destroyed the pagan shrines of the Nobades and Blemmyes, as ordered by the emperor Justinian I. His office was probably dux Thebaidis at this point. As comes rei militaris he was active in Italy and the East. He was among the commanders sent by the sea against the Ostrogoths to raise the Siege of Ariminum (538). He is mentioned several times commanding troops in Italy, including in Siege of Auximum in 539. In 540, Narses was sent away from Ravenna by Belisarius. In this account, which drew from the records of Procopius, the Sasanian army (or part of it) was driven back or feigned retreat back into the village, but Narses was caught in an ambush by the Sasanians who were hiding in the houses.