Peranius was a Georgian

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

 prince from Iberia

Caucasian Iberia

Iberia , also known as Iveria , was a name given by the ancient Greeks and Romans to the ancient Georgian kingdom of Kartli , corresponding roughly to the eastern and southern parts of the present day Georgia...

 and a military commander in Roman service. According to Procopius

Procopius

Procopius of Caesarea was a prominent Byzantine scholar from Palestine. Accompanying the general Belisarius in the wars of the Emperor Justinian I, he became the principal historian of the 6th century, writing the Wars of Justinian, the Buildings of Justinian and the celebrated Secret History...

, he was the eldest son of the Iberian king Gurgenes. Gurgenes can be identified with Vakhtang I Gorgasali

Vakhtang I Gorgasali

Vakhtang I "Gorgasali" , of the Chosroid dynasty, was a king of Iberia, natively known as Kartli in the second half of the 5th and first quarter of the 6th century. Gorgasali is a sobriquet meaning in Iranian "wolf’s head"...

 of the Georgian sources; and Peranius might have been his brother rather than a son as suggested by Procopius. He was the father of Pacurius

Pacurius

Pacurius was a prince of the Iberian royal family and a military commander in the Roman service in Italy. His name is presumably a Latinized rendition of the Georgian Bakuri....

 and uncle of Phazas

Phazas

Phazas was a prince of the Iberian royal family and a cavalry officer in the Roman service during the Gothic War . He was a nephew of Peranius and cousin of Pacurius....

, two other Iberian generals of the Roman army.

Peranius and his family fled the Sassanid oppression of Iberia into Lazica in the 520s. They placed themselves under Roman protection and left for Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

 where Peranius joined the Imperial army. Later in the 530s, he served under Belisarius

Belisarius

Flavius Belisarius was a general of the Byzantine Empire. He was instrumental to Emperor Justinian's ambitious project of reconquering much of the Mediterranean territory of the former Western Roman Empire, which had been lost less than a century previously....

 in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 and was in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 during the siege

Siege of Rome (537-538)

The First Siege of Rome during the Gothic War lasted for a year and nine days, from 2 March 537 to 12 March 538. It was fought between the defending East Romans, under general Belisarius, and the Ostrogothic army under king Vitiges...

 by the Goths

Goths

The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....

 (537-538). During the siege, he defended the Porta Praenestina and led a sally from the Porta Salaria

Porta Salaria

Porta Salaria was a gate in the Aurelian Walls of Rome, Italy, demolished in 1921.-History:Porta Salaria was part of the Aurelian Walls built by emperor Aurelian in the 3rd century, including pre-existing constructions in order to hasten the works. Under it passed the Via Salaria nova, which joined...

. In mid-538, he laid a siege to Urbs Vetus (Orvieto

Orvieto

Orvieto is a city and comune in Province of Terni, southwestern Umbria, Italy situated on the flat summit of a large butte of volcanic tuff...

) which fell in early 539.

Early in the 540s, Peranius was transferred to the eastern frontier where he fought the Sassanid Iranian armies. He raided Taraunitis in 543 and was one of the Roman commanders defending Edessa

Edessa, Mesopotamia

Edessa is the Greek name of an Aramaic town in northern Mesopotamia, as refounded by Seleucus I Nicator. For the modern history of the city, see Şanlıurfa.-Names:...

 in 544. Khosrau I

Khosrau I

Khosrau I , also known as Anushiravan the Just or Anushirawan the Just Khosrau I (also called Chosroes I in classical sources, most commonly known in Persian as Anushirvan or Anushirwan, Persian: انوشيروان meaning the immortal soul), also known as Anushiravan the Just or Anushirawan the Just...

demanded the surrender of Peranius on the grounds that Peranius was his hereditary slave. When an Iranian contingent under Azarethes threatened to break into the city through one of the gates, Peranius led reinforcements of soldiers and citizens to the spot and averted the danger.

Soon after the end of the siege of Edessa, Peranius died of severe injuries sustained in a fall from his horse while hunting.