Several factors underlay the termination of the longest period of peace the Eastern Roman and the Sassanid Empire ever enjoyed.

The Persian king Kavad I needed money to pay his debts to the Hephthalites who had helped him regain his throne in 498/499.

Kavad then besieged the fortress-city of Amida through the autumn and winter (502-503) and captured it after a lengthy siege, although the defenders were unsupported by troops.

[4] Many people, particularly the population of Amida, were deported to Pars and Khuzestan in Persia, in particular, to the new city of Veh-az-Amid Kavad (Arrajan).

Areobindus, together with Romanus and the Arab phylarch Asouades (Aswad) (probably a Kinda leader) attacked Nisibis, in which Kavad was residing.

[9] Notable officers associated with this force include "hyparch" Apion I (the Egyptian),[10] comes Justin (the future emperor),[11] Patriciolus and his son Vitalian (who later revolted against Anastasius), the Colchian Pharesmanes, and the Goths Godidisklus and Bessas.

[9] Initially, Areobindus gained the upper hand in Nisibis, but Kavad's counterattack defeated him, plundered his fort Apadna, and forced him to retreat westward; Hypatius and Patricius attempted to assist him, but it was too late.

[11] In the summer of 503, Anastasius sent reinforcements under magister officiorum Celer and canceled taxes from Mesopotamia and Osrhoene, while Hypatius and Apion were recalled.

Sasanian weakness at this point is apparent by defections to the Byzantine side by the renegade Constantine, a certain Arab chief Adid, and the Armenian Mushlek.