When King Anushirvan learned of the rebellion ignited by his son Nushzad, he summoned his trusted commander, Ram-Barzin, equipping him with a formidable army to suppress the uprising. Yet the wise king laid down strict mandates of engagement: Ram-Barzin was first to seek peaceful resolution and exercise patience. Capture, stressed the King, was far preferable to execution, in the hope that Nushzad might repent of his treason. For Nushzad was of royal blood—a branch of the free cypress—and his life should not be spilled lightly upon the dust.
However, Anushirvan warned that if the prince held his own noble blood in contempt, raised his sword against the sovereign, and refused to yield, Ram-Barzin was not to withhold the mace or the blade. He who wages war against the King of the World courts his own destruction. Anushirvan grieved that his son had forsaken the ancestral crown to embrace the faith of Caesar and the Messiah, recalling the ancient proverb of Mehrnush, the wool-clad sage: 'Whoever rejoices in the death of his father shall know neither comfort nor longevity.' He reflected upon the fickle turning sky, which yields sweetness one moment and bitterness the next.
Regarding Nushzad's eventual capture, Anushirvan commanded that the prince be treated with dignity. He was not to be humiliated or deprived of his comforts; his own palace was to become his prison, with full access to his treasury, garments, food, and household. But for the Iranian marchlords and nobles who had broken their oaths to join the prince's revolt, Anushirvan decreed total annihilation: Ram-Barzin was to cleave them in two with daggers without hesitation, for any traitor who plots against the crown stems from the seed of Ahriman and belongs in the maw of a dragon.
Finally, the King ordered that any commoner or onlooker who had dared to revile Nushzad or insult the royal dynasty during the unrest should have their tongue branded in public. Though Nushzad had proven foolish and rebellious, he remained of royal lineage, and no subject would be permitted to heap scorn upon the sacred blood of the king.