A Brazen Officer — Chanaranges (~544AD)

Not quite the burning wagon I was thinking of.


Chanaranges, of course not to be mistaken with the Persian word for “general”, was Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire military officer notably serving under Emperor Justinian the First whose reign lasted from 527AD to 565AD. This is quite appropriate, as I briefly wrote about Ostrogoth king and rival to the Eastern Roman Empire, Totila, who reigned at a similar time.

Chanaranges’ actions were mostly documented by Greek poet and historian Agathias.

Chanaranges’, an Armenian native, was first mentioned in late 554, serving general Narses. Chanaranges took part in a campaign against the Franks (another set of Germanic people, although I like to imagine an evil and calculating army of Frank Underwoods from House of Cards) near Casilinus.

Their intention was to prevent casual pillaging by the Franks and enabling movement by removing the Franks from a nearby bridge. The campaign was a resounding success — I’m sure an army of Frank Underwoods would put up more of a fight. Chanaranges was able to capture a number of wagons and even setting one on fire to destroy a Frankish built watch-tower.

Chanaranges’ actions lead to the Battle of the Volturnus, for which the Romans were prepared. However, the Heruli, a supporting tribe, put a spanner in the works, as a Herule leader killed one of their own servants. Narses felt it necessary to punish the leader. The leader unrepentantly proclaimed that it was a right of a master to treat a servant as they wished, so Narses ordered for this man to be executed and the Herules immediately ceased their deployment for the Romans.

Boy, that escalated quickly.

Fear not, during battle with the Franks pushing forward, the Heruli had a change of heart or they were just glory hogs, as the Franks were soon annihilated.

Following this battle, Chanaranges is barely written or heard of, maybe this is because he allegedly conspired to kill Justinian in 548–549. It doesn’t appear that Chanaranges was executed for this, as Justinian chose to imprison the conspirators instead.

Probably one of the happier endings, could have had a Brazen Bull on our hands.

Did you play “Clicks to Hitler/Jesus”? Comment your scores.

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