Zemarchus

Who is Zemarchus?

Zemarchus was a Byzantine official, diplomat and traveller in the reign of Justin II.

In the middle of the 6th century, the Göktürks conquered the Sogdiana and thus gained control of the silk trade, which then passed through Central Asia into Sassanid Persia. The Persian king, Chosroes I, dreading the intrusion of Turkish influence, refused to allow the old commerce to continue. The Turks, after many rebuffs, consented to a suggestion made by their mercantile subjects of the Soghd, and in 568 sent an embassy to Constantinople to form an alliance with the Byzantines and commence the silk trade directly with them, bypassing the Persian middlemen. The offer was accepted by Justin II, and in August 568, Zemarchus the Cilician left Byzantium for Sogdiana.

The embassy, whose description is preserved by Menander Protector, was under the guidance of Maniakh, chief of the people of Sogdiana, who had first, according to Menander, suggested to Dizabul Istämi, the great khan of the Turks, this Roman alliance, and had himself come to Byzantium to negotiate it. On reaching the Sogdian territories the travellers were offered iron for sale, and solemnly exorcised; Zemarchus was made to pass through the fire, and strange ceremonies were performed over the baggage of the expedition, a bell being rung and a drum beaten over it, while flaming incense-leaves were carried round it, and incantations muttered in Scythian.