Bawi

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Bawi was a Sasanian military officer from the Ispahbudhan family. He is sometimes called Aspebedes, a corruption of the title spahbed (military commander). Bawi fought against the Byzantine Empire in the Anastasian War and the Iberian War. Some sources say he helped arrange the peace of 506 that ended the Anastasian War.

Bawi’s family connections linked him to later kings. He is said to be the father of Asparapet (whose original name was Shapur) and the grandfather of Khosrau II, linking him to later rulers through Shapur, who also fathered Vistahm and Vinduyih.

During the Iberian War, Bawi commanded part of a large Sasanian army under Kavadh I that besieged Martyropolis in Mesopotamia. The siege was lifted as winter approached, Byzantine reinforcements arrived, and Kavadh I died.

When Khosrau I came to the throne in 531, Bawi joined other Persian nobles in a plot to overthrow him and restore Kavadh II (the son of Kavadh I’s other son, Djamasp) as king. The plot was uncovered, and Khosrau executed Bawi, the conspirators, and the king’s brothers. Kavadh II, who was then a child, was raised in secret by Adergoudounbades but was betrayed by his own son Bahram in 541 and either killed or forced to flee to the Byzantine Empire.