Battle of Bagavan

Battle of Bagavan
16th-century Armenian miniature depicting the battle
Date 371 Location near Bagavan, Bagrevand, Greater Armenia 39°36′30″N 43°28′37″E / 39.6083°N 43.4769°E / 39.6083; 43.4769 Result Roman-Armenian victory
Belligerents
Sasanian Empire Caucasian Albania	Kingdom of Armenia Roman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Urnayr (WIA)	Traianus Vadomarius Mushegh I Mamikonian

The Battle of Bagavan (also spelled Bagawan) or the Battle of Vagabanta was fought in 371 near the settlement of Bagavan, in the district of Bagrevand in Greater Armenia, between a joint Roman-Armenian force and a Sassanid army, with the Romans and Armenians emerging victorious. It is recorded by the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus, as well as the Armenian historian Faustus of Byzantium.

The Armenian historian Movses Khorenatsi and several later Armenian historians following him place the battle in a field called Dzirav, and so the battle is called the Battle of Dzirav in some Armenian sources. In the view of historians Hakob Manandian and Nina Garsoïan, this is an error by Khorenatsi or a conflation of the Battle of Bagavan with the battle at Gandzak described in the next chapter of Faustus's history.^[1][2]