Shapur I: Rome's Greatest Enemy?

Introduction

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Shapur I

0:30He's one of the most formidable enemies that Rome ever faced. A king of kings who rebuilt a fading empire, fanned the flames of Rome's third-century crisis, and achieved what was previously thought unthinkable – the capture of an actual Roman emperor. His name is Sharpur I, Epithet the Great, ruler of the Sasanian Persian Empire, and today we're going to tell his story. Sharpur and his father Ardashir before him helped restore the Persian heartlands to their former glory.

1:06When the Roman emperor Valerian left the battlefield of Edessa in 260 AD, he did so in Persian chains. Why did Sharpur find so much success against this ancient Roman behemoth? How did he help forge a new Persian superpower on the Roman Empire's eastern frontier? And is he worthy to stand shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Hannibal, Boudicca, Arminius, and Spartacus in the Roman Villains Hall of Fame? I'm Tristan Hughes, your host, this is The Ancients, and joining me today to answer all of this and much more

1:42is the ancient historian and, most importantly, friend of the show, Dr. Eve MacDonald.

Interview with Dr. Eve MacDonald

2:01Eve, welcome back to the show. It's wonderful to have you here. Tristan, it's such a pleasure to be back. And in our brand new studio as well. It's amazing. I know, I love it. Fantastic space. And let's talk about this remarkable figure. When people say enemies of Rome, they will think Hannibal or Arminius, maybe even Boudicca. People often overlook Sharpur when actually he could well be the biggest of them all. Possibly, possibly. Sharpur I, the Sasanian king of kings who ruled from 240 to 270 AD.

2:35And he ruled the Sasanian Persian Empire or Iran Shah, as he would have called it, the lands of Iran and the lands of non-Iran. And yeah, came to power while his father was still ruling, we think, sort of between 240 and 242.

Shapur's Rise to Power

2:54We think he assumes the sole rule of the Sasanian Empire. Now, we don't know if we should really call it an empire because the Sasanians probably didn't call their lands an empire. That's such a Roman word. So it's so interesting because so many things we know about Shapur, like all enemies of Rome, come from the Romans in many ways. So it's interesting to try and think about how he viewed this battle with the Romans along their shared frontier.

3:24And it's funny because we also, when talking about the Sasanians, they're often referred to as like the second Persian Empire after the Achaemenid Persian Empire, right? So I innately think it's an empire also because of how powerful it becomes. But he is very much, he is a driving force in that third century AD CE in bringing Sasanian power to its height against the Romans. Oh, absolutely. And, you know, his father, Ardashir, created the empire of the Sasanians from Pars, from the province of the ancient Persian worlds, the same place as the Achaemenids ruled from and came from.

4:02But Shapur was a young man, we think, when this happened. So from 224 to 240, we think that he was there beside his father for a lot of that. So he's almost co-ruling. He's a prince of the realm is a nice way to think of him. So when he comes to power, he's already well established as a powerful figure, as somebody who has, you know, shaped the beginning of this incredible dynasty that goes on to rule these lands for over 400 years.

4:34Well, for this background, let's start at, yes, Shapur and his rise to power and this really fascinating background. So let's focus before his dad comes to power.

Parthian Empire

4:45So the world in which he is born into, is this quite a turbulent time for Persia at that moment? Well, it is. It's ruled that the lands that we think of as Iran, central, the Iranian plateau, Mesopotamia, all of that sort of natural Persian empire, perhaps we could call it, is ruled by the Parthians. And it's the Arsacid dynasty who rules this area we call the Parthian empire. And for the second century AD, so if we go back a hundred years and everybody out there probably remembers their Roman history, we know that the emperor, the Roman emperor Trajan famously leads a big invasion into the Parthian empire early in the second century AD.

5:33And this is, sets off almost a hundred years of Roman invasions of Parthian territory down the Euphrates and across that sort of natural border between the two powers, which was the Euphrates. The Romans are pushing and pushing into this new part of the world and they set up new provinces there and they wreak havoc in the Parthian empire. And in fact, I think you could trace the whole thing back. The rise of the Sassanians is directly linked to the way that the Romans really take down the Arsacid dynasty.

6:09So they weaken that dynasty, the Arsacids, for decades and decades. And is the creation of that, you know, this kind of the overthrowing of the Parthians completely? Absolutely. And, you know, the dynasty of the Sassanians ruled as a local satrap or sort of provincial rulers in the region of Parth as the family ruled there.

Sasanian Dynasty

6:34And they're underneath the Parthian kings of kings. So they're one of many, many, many vassals and satraps who are part of a big conglomeration who make up this big state. But they watch as the Parthian leaders fail to really challenge the Romans over and over and over again. And eventually they lead a rebellion against their king and they overthrow him. His name is Artabanus IV. And they defeat him at a battle and that takes place in 224.

7:07And they become the rulers of this big, huge land. And the figurehead at that time, Ishapo's father, this is Ardashir I, is it? Yes, Ardashir I, founder of the dynasty and the creator really of the whole legitimacy and ideas and family that follows on after that. So he's connected to the Arsakids. He's ruling and using the Parthian power sort of as a model from which to govern himself and take over the empire.

7:43But he really separates himself from that by emphasising certain aspects of power and legitimacy around Zoroastrian religion. Zoroastrian religion. And you've done an amazing episode on the Zoroastrians. Zoroastrian religion, Professor Almut Hintze. If you've got Professor Almut Hintze in this city, she's the person to interview about it. So I think everybody should go listen to that. And then they'll understand. But what's also interesting about this, so Ardashir is now the new king. Has he taken the title of king?

8:13King of kings? Shah? Shah and Shah is the name. And he takes the title of king of kings. And that means that he has kings who are subordinate to him. And so he's obviously established his rule to the point in which he is a king among kings. And that's that title of Shah and Shah. So he's the Shah and he becomes Shah and Shah.

Shapur's Legitimacy

8:35And so a teenage Shahpur around that age, he's now seen his dad rise from being a noble lord of his house into becoming the chief power east of the Euphrates River. Absolutely. And he spends 20 years with him making sure that sticks. Because this couldn't have been an easy thing for the Sasanian dynasty, the House of Sasan. They had to both convince allies and enemies alike that they would be able to establish a coherent rule in this area that allowed them then to govern as they did.

9:11And is Shahpur, is he a direct son of Ardashir? You might know where I'm, I might be going on this one. The, oh, well, I'm not sure. There's a lot of interesting things about his mother. I was wondering, is the potential adoption theory? There's the possibility that he's adopted. There's the possibility that he is the son of Ardashir with a Parthian princess. Right. Interesting. And his, his legitimacy is really knitting together, I think, the old Parthian rule and the new dynasty together.

9:51And so we have a lot of conflicting stories about both Ardashir and Shahpur because of the way that their foundation of this dynasty is just written into legend. It becomes folklore, it becomes myth, it becomes story. So we have a whole bunch of different ways of trying to access the exact family of Shahpur. But it seems that he could very easily have been the, the natural born son of Ardashir with a Parthian princess who is this daughter of Ardavan, the old Parthian king of kings.

10:26So he's part of that legitimacy of knitting these two powers together.

Zoroastrian Religion

10:31But also there is some idea that he might be, is it adopted? What are you thinking from? Tell me. There are several legends that Shahpur's mother was put to death by Ardashir and that he was concealed until adopted by Ardashir for his virtuous values. Oh, yes. Well, so there is this. Yes. No, that's right. Okay. So there is part of the story actually is really interesting because it takes place in the court of the old kingdom, in the Parthian court. And Ardashir either woos a servant or a daughter of the old king and they run away together.

11:08And if it's the servant story, she takes the treasury and the keys to basically the kingdom with her and they run away and she becomes pregnant. And so in order to ensure that the baby is born, she's isolated. And in fact, there's an amazing story that has to do with a self-castration of an attendant to guard her and make sure that nobody interferes with her and she is actually giving birth to this heir. So there's a lot of myth and sort of mayhem about the birth of Shahpur himself.

11:45But to me, that just perhaps tells us that there's so much construction of their legitimacy. There's a really great scholar of ancient Iran named Khadadad Reza Khani, who I think you've spoken to. And he's done some interesting stuff around the fact that the whole Sasanian house, the house of Sasan, is actually from a completely different region and not Persian at all. And that they come from Sakhistan and they come from the borderlands between India and Iran.

12:16Between where from? From Sakhistan. Sakhistan. Yeah, or Sistan, as it's sometimes called. There's different names for it. And that they work very hard to construct these really formal legitimacies. And the reason we have so much confusion around who Sasan was, around Ardashir's birth, around Shapur's birth, is because of this. Because we have all these mixed stories and myths. It's because they're from outside of the legitimate line itself.

12:46And so they've imposed themselves locally as well. I think it's fascinating because you see it time and time again when you have a new dynasty imposing themselves on a territory. You get with the Ptolemies and Egypt is the classic one, how they kind of align themselves with the traditional pharaohs of old, Nectar Nebo and the like. And I think some Akeemnid Persian kings as well do the same. So really interesting to see those links there. But with Shapur then, his dad has taken control and he's growing up helping his dad. Do we know much about the education he would have received?

13:17What kind of things he would have gone up to as the prince slash co-ruler alongside his father? No, it's a really interesting question, actually. And something that we, you know, we don't know a lot about, except for that he would have been schooled fairly traditionally in Zoroastrian traditions, religion, scripture, that kind of thing. That he was very interested in intellectual pursuits. And we know that when he becomes king of kings, he himself sets up a really interesting court where he brings scholars and all scientists and religious thinkers all together in his court.

13:51So that's something that was very important to him. And we can, can we assume that that's an environment that he also grew up in, in perhaps in Firuzabad, where the one of Ardashir's palaces, you know, we, that's what we think is, is what, where he would have grown up and been educated. We, Aramaic was the sort of language of the street, perhaps is a way of putting, Middle Persian, he would have also spoken, and then probably Greek too. So we, we certainly his inscriptions are trilingual and people would have been able to communicate in multiple languages.

14:26So he would have studied languages. He would have studied traditions, religious traditions, but also military traditions too. He was an amazing general and a commander and would have been schooled in that all the way through. The cavalry is the very, very sort of instrumental part of the Sasanian military throughout the whole of its rule, really. And so that's where we think he would have been most engaged in, in terms of military scholar schooling. You mentioned trilingual inscriptions. Are they one of our key sources of evidence for learning more about this figure?

14:58Also his father, Ardashir, and just generally the story of his life and how he ruled. Yeah, he left. I mean, Shapur especially left us these sort of rather long and detailed inscriptions about what he did. And it's this very clear expression really of how we wanted to be remembered. And we have amazing sculptural reliefs as well, but, and multiple versions of them. So they're not just one, you know, isolated case, but we have repeated versions of these stories that Shapur wanted to be remembered by and about his family and about who ruled with him and how he was connected.

15:39So we have long lists that list people in his court and who they were and who his daughter was and who his, this, this kind of idea of connectivity across the realm. And that really helps us map the Sasanian empire, at least in the way they considered it. Maybe not everybody living in the places they claim to rule would have thought they were ruled by the Sasanians, I always think. But they certainly, the Sasanians thought they ruled these places. One last question on the time of Ardashir before we get into the rule of Shapur proper.

16:13Portraits from that time, sculptures of Ardashir promoting his achievements. Do you also see Shapur shown on them as well? You do in certain places, we think. We don't know for sure, because identifying people on these without an actual label is quite difficult. But yes, you do. In fact, there's a really famous one from Salmas, which is in what we would call greater Armenia today. So northeast, northwestern Iran. And it shows, it's a great image of Shapur and Ardashir on horseback, the two of them.

16:48And there are two individuals sort of reaching up with rings that sort of are, they're getting their authority to rule, we think, in Armenia from these Shapur and Ardashir.

Shapur and Ardashir

17:01So that's one where we see them side by side. But there's other ones where we think Shapur is visible in ones that are showing the granting of Ardashir authority to rule too. So it varies, but we definitely have, I think, at Salmas, the best example of the two of them ruling side by side. They're ruling side by side. And so when we get to the end of Ardashir's reign, what does this new Sasanian, I won't use the word empire. Yes, use empire. I do too.

17:32I think it is an empire, let's be fair. What does this Sasanian empire look like? How much has he achieved, Shapur's dad achieved by the time that he passes? Well, Ardashir has certainly consolidated power. Now, I always think that Ardashir projects himself as somebody who won a civil war. He overthrew his, you know, king of kings. So there is a certain amount of like, I'm the legitimate ruler. And, you know, there's an internal view of that. I always think in the way Shapur projects rule.

18:02He fought against the Romans, of course, across the Euphrates. This is ongoing. But he also fought in the east of the area of the empire. And he consolidated a lot of the rule of what the places I was just mentioning, what we call Sacistan, or the old Bactrian satrapies as well. North into the areas north to the Oxus too, and possibly into the Caucasus as well.

18:33So very much he's following the old Achaemenid Persian empire, the limits of that old empire from centuries beforehand. That's how they express it, certainly. And we don't know if they're expressing that because that's what the expressed idea of the rule of Iran. But they are also consolidating what the Parthians had rule as well. So they don't seem to extend any further than what the Parthians had ruled or ruled through vassals. They're doing the same thing. They're ruling through vassals. And the other thing that I think needs to be mentioned just in general is that the Parthian families are really important in the Sasanian period.

19:06And really important all the way through Sasanian rule. And so the Parthians don't go away. The ruling dynasty, the Arsakids, they go away. But the Parthians continue. So there's really powerful Parthian families who are visible in the sources all the way through to the very end of the Sasanian rule. Like Surin, the Surainas, who is, that's a Parthian name or family name. And these are chief military officers under the Sasanians, but also really important in the Arsakid dynasty too.

19:40That's the Karai with Crassus, right? And that, I guess, will make more sense as to why there is that story of Sharpur having a Parthian mother as well. Exactly. And so Ardashir consolidates power and he has to deal with the internal gaining of loyalty of all the different regions because it is very regionally diverse and culturally diverse, religiously diverse. Shapur comes to power, he co-rules with his father and then seems to, I think, look outward in his messaging.

20:15He's perhaps, because he is the son of a Parthian, perhaps he's not so interested in emphasizing internal sort of conquest. He really does go big into his publication and publicity around defeating the Romans. He makes that his crowning achievement is what and how he defeats Romans. And so I think that's a big difference in the way that we see the two of them. They have many similar messages.

20:47They rule in similar ways, but they're projecting themselves slightly differently. And we'll now get to the reign of Shapur and his fighting against the Romans right after this.

Shapur's Reign

20:59So, Eve, we get to the reign of Shapur. His dad has passed away. And as you've hinted at, very soon there'll be conflict with the Romans. I just want to quickly add, though, is there also evidence early on that he doesn't straightaway look west? He does look east towards places like Afghanistan. And is it the Kushans that were in there at the time? Yes, exactly. So, there is the Kushans, the area of Afghanistan that was once the old Achaemenid satrapy of Bactria that becomes the Hellenistic kingdom of Bactria that is then ruled by the Parthians as well.

21:38And then eventually it is ruled in collaboration with local kings by the Parthians who are called the Kushans. The Kushans, yeah. And the Kushans are a dynasty who ruled the old kingdom of Afghanistan, very much connected to groups who have been moving across the steppes from China. And we see in the 3rd century quite a lot of dynastic and transitional change across the whole of the ancient world. So, from the Roman Empire all the way to China.

22:08And the Kushan period shifts in the 3rd century are connected to, we think, the rule of Shapur or Ardashir, where we're getting not necessarily independent Kushan kings, but what are called Kushano-Sassanian kings. And they start to mint coins there that look almost identical to Sassanian coins. And so, there seems to be a merging of power. And that tells us that the Sassanians really had perhaps imposed a more direct impact on the Kushans.

22:45And we get what are called Kushano-Sass or Kushanshass. And those are Kushan kings who are parts. Yeah, the Kushanshass. So, that's super interesting. And then there is one of the most incredible rock reliefs that we have from the Sassanian period from Afghanistan that gives us much more concrete evidence of the place in which a Sassanian king put himself as a conqueror. And it's from a site that's called Ragibibi, not far from Herat.

23:21And it's a rock relief that shows a Sassanian king who is hunting a white rhinoceros and attended by people dressed in traditional Kushan wear. So, it's this mix, again, of the king of kings imagery, although it's quite destroyed because it was the Taliban actually destroyed Ragibibi in the early, late 90s, I think it was, or early 2000s. And so, it's not as well preserved as it was.

23:52But we have people who drew it a little bit before. But, yes, we have the remains of a king of kings on horseback and part of the white rhinoceros he's hunting. And this scene, so we see that the Sassanians are imposing this idea of their visual imprint of power onto the region as far away as Afghanistan. And I think that's so interesting with Shapur's story because we will largely be focusing on what happens in the West against the Romans. But it's interesting context because that must always have been going on in the back of his mind, knowing that he has to retain control over these eastern lands.

24:26You know, precious, important, you know, the land route to India and maybe even further to the steppe and to China. He's also got to keep control of that as he's focusing, as we'll see, on the West against the Romans. Absolutely. And it's so easy to overlook this because we have so much Roman history written about the Roman and Persian Wars and the Roman and Parthian Wars. But there's no question that the eastern and northeastern part of the Sassanian Empire is as important, as wealthy, and as developed for the Sassanians as the West.

24:58And the whole time, and we don't see it so clearly in micro history, as we do say for the Parthian king Mithridates II. We have these amazing Babylonian calendrical diaries almost that tell us, like in one year, that he travels 1,600 kilometers to the east of his kingdom and then has to come back into Babylon really quickly because there's a rebellion. And so we can trace his movements over thousands of kilometers in a year or two, trying to do exactly what Shapur and Ardashore and every other Sassanian king would have to do is control this huge area.

25:38It's amazing, isn't it? I'm glad we got that context in. But OK, let's focus then on the West. So it's not too long before Shapur goes to fight the Romans. And what is the situation on Rome's eastern frontier? Is it roughly the Euphrates River still? Is that the dividing barrier? What's the situation? So when we talked already about Trajan and the sort of the Roman emperors who followed had imposed themselves across the Euphrates numerous times.

26:09Trajan briefly, briefly crosses the Euphrates and bounds three provinces in the region of Mesopotamia and the upper Tigris. It's a modern-day Iraq kind of area. Yes. And he, but of course Trajan dies really soon afterwards and that sort of all collapses and there's a withdrawal. But it's Septimius Severus actually who very much imposes more permanent Roman provincial regions in what's called the Trans-Tagranian territories.

26:40Now, if you think exactly upper regions of Iraq, parts of Turkey and Armenia, that area, that would be what we're talking about. And it's so vital for the communications north and south up from Mesopotamia up into and across the Caucasus and east and west across the northern area of the region too. So there have been Roman territories founded in the upper Tigris River.

27:14And the last sort of event is Caracalla, who becomes, who before he dies in 217, he leads an invasion in all the way to the Parthian capital of Tisafon. And supposedly he tricks the Parthians into thinking he's going to marry the daughter of the king. And then they have this kind of Parthian red wedding experience where the Parthians all come out to celebrate the marriage.

27:44And then Caracalla slaughters them all. And this is Artabanus and his daughter. This is in Herodian, who is a pretty spurious source for the period. But what it tells us is that for the latter part of the 2nd century AD and into the early 3rd century AD, the Romans are occupying part of the upper Tigris region. So across the Euphrates. But there's a lot of independent cities in this area too that we have to think about who are really key to the events, I think, that happened with Shapur.

28:16So the city of Hatra, for example. You know, Hatra is such an interesting place because it's in the region that we call the Jazeera, which is the land between the two rivers, the upper part of the Euphrates and the Tigris. And it's an independent city. It has prospered enormously in the 2nd century AD with trade from east and west and the expansion of Roman interests, but also the end of the Parthian period. The Romans have tried to take it a number of times.

28:47The Parthian, it's allied, we think very clearly from what's inside the city with the Parthians. But it's a multicultural city, Arab city of its own in this region. And it's just in the period at the end of Ardashir's life and before or around when Shapur comes to power that the Sasanians take Hatra. And this, you know, instigates really what follows on at the beginning with the wars on the western frontier between the Sasanians and the Romans.

29:22So during Ardashir's reign there, you start to see the pushback almost from that time, you know, even Caracalla getting to Ctesiphon only a few years earlier. It does almost feel like the Romans completely crippling the Arsicids and going again and again, particularly in the early 3rd century with Septimius Severus and then Caracalla. Is this one of the greatest examples of imperial blowback that actually they instigate, they catalyze the change in the dynasty and the rise in of Ardashir and now as we get to Sharpe as well. So they're almost the victims of their own, wow, of something they've caused themselves.

29:57The unintended consequences of the successes. The unintended consequences of military action. Oh dear, yes. Well, yeah, no, absolutely. It's so interesting. I mean, it's hard to know because, of course, in this period, the Romans enter into chaos, turmoil. They almost lose part of their empire as well. So there's a lot of sort of structural change across, as we were saying already, across all these different ancient kingdoms.

30:28So at one level, this is sort of the natural outcome of a long period of rule. The Arsicids ruled for 500 years, almost. And so at that level, perhaps this is just natural decay over extended time. But at another level, yeah, the Romans seem to have pushed and pushed and pushed until the authority of the Arsicid kings within their own kingdom was no longer tenable. And their vassals rose up against them. They couldn't command the authority.

31:00And the Sasanian and our second state only work if your vassals are willing to provide military support, are willing to support you. Well, the first thing I've got in regards to fighting on that frontier is actually a Roman invasion. And this happens during the reign of the child emperor, Gordian III. So there's a Roman invasion of Charpeau's territory. Absolutely. And it happens and it's triggered by Charpeau taking Hatra. Of which you just mentioned. Yeah. Ah, okay. So Gordian III is the emperor.

31:33Very young boy. He is the grandson of Gordian I. Yes, there's three Gordians in the space of a year. 236, say it or not. Yes, exactly. Yes, exactly. And from North Africa originally. And he's ruling with the help of grown-ups, perhaps is a better way to think about it. And it seems that it's 242 that they invade. And the trigger, from what I understand it, is that it's Hatra's falling to the Sassanians.

32:07And so Gordian III and his army invade. And they win some successes at the beginning against the Sassanians. But they meet in a big battle in 244, which ends in total disaster for the Romans. So there's these initial successes in the upper area of Mesopotamia. And then the disastrous battle at a place called Mishike.

32:42And is that as Charpeau has returned from the east and now he's come back. And to think that the Romans may be up to that point. They think that the Sassanians, it's just another house of the Arsacids. We've dominated them for so long. We're going to come back, put them in their place after they took Hatra. Charpeau, with this devastating defeat over them, shows them, no, I'm something different. I think he does. You know, and Ardashir had had successes against the Romans along the frontiers as well. But there hadn't been that sort of massive victory.

33:16And also up until 235, we have the Severn dynasty ruling Rome. And it's really, they put up a pretty good front. And of course, they're, you know, part of the Severn dynasty. Julia Domina and the female line of the Severn dynasty are from Syria. So they're local. They're very much interested in the protection of the Syrian frontiers and things like that. And so there, I think, is a very concerted effort, perhaps, to hold the line a little bit with Ardashir.

33:50And, you know, there's obviously they must have known there was new things happening on the frontier. And we know that they do because Cassius Dio tells us when he is writing in that sort of 230s, 235s about the rise of the Sassanians. So we have a historian of the Romans sort of mentioning a new power on their eastern frontier. So we have, yeah, Shapur comes to meet Gordian's army in 244 at Mishke.

34:22And it's a complete wipeout. They destroy the Roman army and also, though, kill the emperor.

34:33And so the young boy, Gordian III, he's killed. The young boy is killed in this battle, according to Shapur. So this is one of the issues that we have with this. Well, it's a marvelous issue to have because we actually have two different versions of this battle told by two different sides. And, you know, how often does that happen? Almost never does it happen that we have both sides of the story preserved. Yeah, I can think of maybe the peace treaty of after Kadesh from the Hittites and then the Egyptians.

35:06But that's more the peace treaty anyway. But yes, that's quite something to have them both. Yes, both sides survive. So and they say different things, do they? They say different things. So what Shapur says very clearly is that he met with a big Roman army at a place called Mishke and that he destroyed them and that Gordian was killed. That's what Shapur says about it. And that's how he sets it up. A whole range of other sources admit that Gordian dies at some point during these events.

35:43But none of them say that he died in battle or in the battle. Some say that the successor to Gordian, Philip, who becomes the Emperor Philip the Arab, Philip the Arab, yes, that Gordian is killed by his own troops, that he's not really supported by his own army. And he is very young. He probably didn't have the loyalty of the soldiers. Others say that he is wounded and then dies of his wounds at some nearby time.

36:14But yeah, those are the two versions. We have different versions. And we have many, many different Roman sources that talk about this. A lot of them don't really want to talk about it very specifically. Right. Fair enough. It's interesting because there's one other emperor that you normally associate with Shapur and his capture. And, well, meeting his end at Shapur's hands. And it's not Gordian III. So that took me by surprise that he actually says that he oversaw the killing, the death of this young child emperor.

36:43Before we go on to the next campaign, a quick word about the Sasanian tactics and the Sasanian army. What type of army is Shapur using to fight against the 3rd century Severan reformed legionaries, auxiliary troops of the Romans?

37:03Shapur is fighting with cavalry forces that are using male armor, for example, that we know there are these adaptations within the Sasanian state. We think the Sasanians made some big changes to the way in which they armed their forces. And some of that stuff's represented on imagery as well of the battle between the Arsakids and the Sasanians. And that they're fighting with, yeah, their traditional cavalry.

37:35But heavily armed cavalry are a big part of their fight. But they are also using forces from all across their empire, too. So they famously use Arabs and they use people from the eastern parts of their empire as well as a whole array of people from the Caucasus and things like that. So, yeah. But there are a few, there are still a few more campaigns to do. And we'll go into the next one right after this.

Roman Empire

38:00So we get to the 250s AD and Rome is starting to be in its, well, it's dubbed the 3rd century crisis. Lots and lots of emperors coming and going. And this is a time, this is now when Shapur really begins his campaigns against Rome in earnest. What happens in 252 AD? So what happened right after the defeat of Gordian's army is that Philip became the emperor, Philip the Arab, and he immediately had to make peace.

38:30There's a treaty made and it's an important treaty that sets out the property and the ideas of who gets what territories and all that. The Romans break that treaty and Shapur defines this as Caesar lying again. And they do so over the territory of Armenia, which you know, and it has been this sort of area, which is a buffer between the two states all the way through the Parthian period as well. And so we don't really know exactly what happens there, but Shapur attacks.

39:03And that's when Shapur attacks the Romans. And a big loss happens at the area of Barbalissus. And then Shapur goes and he begins to invade the area of Syria. So this is now Shapur on the offensive. And I know you're reading something there, but is this because you're reading what he tells us in his inscriptions? He details his campaign, his going on the offensive against the Romans. He does and he lists.

39:34What's so amazing is that we have the text of Shapur's inscription that describes all of this. And he lists all the cities that fall to him. And it's an extraordinary list, really, of all the areas that he rules, Apamea, all these cities in the territory of Syria, one by one by one. So he goes into Cappadocia, into Asia Minor. It's Turkey nowadays. So all of these places fall to him in this period. And then in the third campaign, that takes us to 260 and the third campaign that is fought between the Romans and Shapur.

40:12This is the Romans now. I mean, this is another level threat. It isn't that they've lost a battle outside of Roman territory. It's now this king, this powerful king with this powerful army has now ransacked one of the, maybe not the richest, but a very important, as you mentioned, members of one of the previous dynasties. The Severins had come from Syria. And now all that land was being ransacked by Shapur. And so the Roman Emperor Valerian, this new emperor, he must muster a massive force determined to get back control.

40:45You know, and it's so interesting because with we, you know, the sack of Antioch, one of the biggest cities of the Roman Empire. So he sacks Antioch. Shapur sacks Antioch. 37, just a total of 37 towns and their surroundings in this area of Syria and parts of Anatolia, Asia Minor, which is modern Turkey. So a huge area is not taken and ruled because the Sasanians go in and they sack and then they go back.

41:15But Shapur is still busy attacking various strategic towns in the region when the new Roman Emperor Valerian raises an enormous army to come against him and try really to push the Sasanians back out of the region. This feels the big climax moment for the story of Shapur. So how does he fare now that the Roman Emperor Valerian has arrived for this massive army to defeat and crush him? I think his words are really kind of great here because he's like in the third campaign, when we attacked Carai and Edessa and were besieging Carai and Edessa, Valerian Caesar marched against us.

41:59So he kind of depicts it as like we were just busy attacking these towns and Valerian came against us. But Shapur says he had 70,000 soldiers with him. With him, Shapur did, or Valerian did? No, Shapur says that Valerian had 70,000 soldiers with him. It's really hard to imagine. And he says that they come from all over the Roman Empire and he lists where they come from. I mean, it's amazing. From Germany and Noricum, Daesia, Pannonia, Spain, Africa, Thrace, Bithynia, Asia.

42:32He goes through all the different places that the soldiers came from who were fighting against him. 70,000. Now, of course, I don't know. We know. We both know the reality of 70,000 soldiers in an army in the field right now. It's pretty hard to believe, but it's, you know, possible. But it's a big, huge force that Valerian musters to go and take on the Sasanian king, Shapur, who has been so destructive to the Roman armies along this key frontier. And I'm trying to remember whether Odessa and Cari, they're east or west of the Euphrates.

43:05I believe they're east of the Euphrates. They're east in that area between the Tigris and the Euphrates. Right. So actually, so Valerian has to cross with his Roman army to go east of the Euphrates. Almost, Shapur is bringing him into his sphere of influence almost a bit more. It is, although it's this plate, it's sort of this idea that the Sasanians always would have assumed from the Parthians that this was their territory. The Romans, of course, had taken it, as we've talked about over the previous. So it was this kind of no man's land. So in a way, you can imagine that Shapur was like taking back territory and Valerian was setting out to do the same thing.

43:42Both of them thinking that this was inherently theirs. So what happens in the big battle? Well, the amazing thing is that Shapur wins again, but he also captures the Roman emperor. The Roman emperor is not killed in the field. The Roman emperor is captured. And Shapur says that he does it by his own hands. We made prisoner ourselves with our own hands, Valerian Caesar and others, chiefs of the army, the praetorian prefect, the senators.

44:17We made all prisoners and we deported them into Persis. Yes. So the first time ever a Roman emperor has been captured in battle, not killed. Well, Shapur has already killed a Roman emperor, according to him. He now got one alive as well that he's taken back to his heartlands. Absolutely. He takes not just Valerian Caesar back, but he also takes a lot of his army back with him. Wow. So, and that's super interesting because we have evidence of the soldiers of the Roman armies that were captured settling in areas that knew these new cities built by Shapur and by Ardashir.

44:57And we see their sort of depiction, the way in which they may have influenced the building of these cities. There's this street grid system in a place called Bishapur in Pers, in Pars, that seems to have been inspired by Roman builders. There's some mosaics from the palace there as well that people think, because there aren't very many mosaics in the region of Pars, that these were perhaps Roman builders too. So, there's a big population that also goes into the Persian empire in this period, the Sasanian empire in this period.

45:35And interestingly, people think that this leads to what becomes one of the big interesting movements in the Sasanian empire, the Christianization of it. Because there would have been a lot of Christians in the Roman army in this period in the third century. And so, we think Christianity or a big movement of Christianity comes with some of these soldiers into the Mesopotamia and into the region of Pars. Interesting. Pre-Constantine the Great thing like as well. And does Valerian ever escape captivity or does Shapur just keep him as his prisoner for the rest of Valerian's life?

46:12Yes, we think that poor Valerian is kept prisoner for his whole rest of the life. What actually happens to him is, oh, so a matter of rumor and scandal. There are some cool stories. Yeah, we should mention them. There are. So, one of the stories, so there's a great source whose name is Lactantius, and he writes a wonderful book, which is all about the terrible ways that the people who persecuted Christians in the Roman empire died. And it's called On the Death of the Persecutors.

46:44Valerian persecuted Christians inside the Roman empire. And so, Lactantius kind of revels in what happened to him. And he tells us that he was used as a footstool by the Sasanian emperor, that he was used basically to help the Sasanian emperor get up onto his horse, the Sasanian king of kings. But we don't know if that's true or not. There's a lot of rumor and a lot of bad things may have happened to him. In fact, possibly his being skinned alive. But we really, really, really, these are all just sort of later stories and things like that.

47:18So, we don't really know other than he's captured and he never leaves Persia. Would you say that this is, yeah, the high point, the zenith of Shapa's story or does he keep going on from there? So, would I say it or would he say it? I mean, the thing is that Shapa would certainly say that this was the high point. And he makes a big, long inscription about it and he discusses it in detail. And he tells us again, even after 260, all the cities that he's taken.

47:51What's really interesting about this is a little bit of a story that I think comes in from other stuff you've done is that it's actually the king of Palmyra who saves the Romans after 260. And it's so interesting because the way these stories don't necessarily intersect in history as it's told in our ancient sources. But yeah, the Palmyrene husband of Zenobia, whose name was Odonathus, who was, you know, fought as an auxiliary for the Romans, is actually the one who saves a lot of Roman territory and kind of defeats the Sassanians after 260 and chases them back a bit across the Euphrates.

48:32So, that is when the tide starts to turn. So, Shapa wins those great successes, epitomized by the capture of Valyrian. But then the Empire, the Roman Empire in the East, it stabilizes to an extent against the Sassanian threat. Absolutely. No, it stabilizes. And there's a huge effort put into building fortifications along the frontiers. There's a big effort made into making a more sort of defensive infrastructure work. And that gets really solidified by Diocletian after 285 when he takes power and really reconstitutes the Roman Empire.

49:10It's so interesting because, of course, you get at that time before you get the Tetrarchy and the time of Aurelian for a brief moment when the Roman Empire divides in the height of the third century crisis. And you mentioned Zenobia. So, you've got the Palmyrene Empire in the East. And yet, even at that time, actually, the frontier is stable. That's post the worst time of Sharpeau being a threat to the Romans. I must ask then, because this is the third century crisis period for the Romans, when people explore Sharpeau's story and see his successes right at the height of that third century crisis,

49:42surely there's sometimes a question of whether did Sharpeau gain his successes because Rome was suffering all these difficulties at that time? Or is he actually, is he a cause of the crisis in a different kind of way? I mean, do you have any thoughts on that? I do. No, I would say that he doesn't cause the crisis. He's a, his victories are a result of the crisis that has already embedded itself in the Roman state. But I think that for, for Sharpeau, those victories were in some way a justification of everything that had happened for the previous years against the Parthians.

50:19But it also sets up this incredible narrative that will continue on all the way through to the 7th century. This idea of fighting over these key border towns and cities all along the frontier in the upper Tigris. And this becomes the story between the Romans and the Sassanians for the next 300 years or so with huge successes and failures on either side. And so it really does become a kind of stasis.

50:50It sits in stasis. And we, there's a little bit of, you know, victory on the Sassanian side and then it goes back to the Romans. And so we see huge humiliation of the Sassanians at the end of the 3rd century with the defeat of the Sassanian king of kings, Narse, who is a son of, or grandson, probably son, of Shapur. He is not captured, but his whole camp and his whole family are captured by Galerius, the Caesar Galerius,

51:22one of the sub-Caesars, sub-rulers in the newly fashioned Roman Empire of the Tetrarchy. And this huge humiliation of the late 3rd century is kind of, I would say, for the Romans, a retribution. And it's the way Galerius actually depicts it. There's a triumphal arch in Thessaloniki that shows this single combat scene, equestrian scene between Galerius and Narse, which, of course, they never, that never happened either.

51:55So both sides project ideas of things that maybe never really happened. But this whole capture of his camp and his family and the ransoming of the family and the humiliation that happened to the Sassanian king is depicted in this glorious ways by Galerius. But this is what I love because, you know, if one side does it, the other side can do it as well. We mentioned about Shapur and Philip the Arab, showing Philip, like, bowing down towards him. Is there another one of Shapur with Valerian as well? And Valerian is very much subjugated.

52:26So you have those ones ordered by Shapur, showing himself very much triumphant. And then you get the Roman Emperor Galerius doing exactly the same with Shapur's successor, which you can go and see in the Arch of Galerius in Thessaloniki today. And if you go back to Augustus, to the very first Roman Emperor, his coins show Parthians taking the knee, basically, and handing over the standards of Crassus. So it goes all the way back to the Romans. Septimius Severus' arch in Rome is covered with captured Parthians.

52:59So we have this continuum of one side or the other personifying and really kind of defining their idea of great enemy with the other. And yet we know as well, as this moves on into the 4th, 5th, and 6th century, that the East Roman Emperor and the Sasanian King of Kings see each other very much as equals. They write to each other and call each other brothers. They are two eyes of the earth, to quote one of the letters that goes between one to the other.

53:32So it's quite interesting how the two powers see each other as the two superpowers kind of dividing up the world. And that kind of starts with Chaput, I think you could argue, couldn't you, and his actions. Eve, this has been fascinating. As we wrap up now, how does he die? Does he die peacefully in his sleep, in his bed? Chaput dies, yeah. He passes away. He must have been like his dad, Ardashir, was probably 70 when he died. And Chaput is also quite old. And he has sort of gathered together this amazing court life with all these scientists and thinkers.

54:06And he's created this world where he is the king of kings sitting amongst this really sophisticated, worldly, cosmopolitan court as well. So although we remember him for, and he wants us to remember him as a great military commander, he was also somebody who was very, very important in sort of developing and pulling together culture, religion, and learning as well into the Sasanian Persian world. He dies, and we have a lot of turmoil, actually, just after his death.

54:37We have three of his sons. We think, you know, the Sasanians had many, many, many wives, and so they had many, many, many sons. And the succession is not always really, really clear. The amazing thing is that Chaput inherits so clearly and easily from Ardashir, but that doesn't happen after Chaput's death. And so his son, and then there's a few upheavals and internal battles and rivalries before things settle down again. And I'm sorry I didn't question you about the Zoroastrian temples that he builds and that other important part, because we have focused largely on the military part of Chaput's story.

55:13But, of course, there was much more to that than that, as you mentioned, with the cities and the culture and so on. Eve, of course, you've also done a lot of work around Hannibal and the Carthaginians. And, of course, Hannibal is labelled as another of Rome's greatest enemies. Is it impossible to rank them? Like, do you just feel that Hannibal, Arminius, Sharpe, they all kind of, maybe even Pyrrhus as well. I mean, I always fight for Pyrrhus. Mithridates and the like, they all kind of occupy that threshold of being some of Rome's greatest enemies.

55:46Could you rank them at all? So, yeah, what we could do? We could do the top five, right? Top five. Who would be your top five, Tristan? So, I always think that it's about the self-definition, isn't it, of an enemy? Who would the Romans think was their greatest enemy? Who did the Romans perceive of? For me, Hannibal, because, not just because, you know, I'm interested in Hannibal, but because even in the late Roman Empire, even in the 7th century,

56:18Roman writers talk about Scipio Africanus as the ideal Roman general. And I always think, wow, if Scipio is the greatest of Roman generals, then the man he defeated is their greatest enemy. In that sort of concept. But it does change. Yeah, I'd say Schaper's right up there. I don't know. Arminius, though, is perhaps his defeats were so shocking. But in many ways, Schaper inflicted longer-term defeat, wouldn't you say?

56:51I think Hannibal and Schaper are the top two. I think Arminius, that, yeah, that psychological, the Teutoburg Forest disaster, but then the Romans come back. When you get to Boudicca and Vercingetorix, they're kind of rebels, but the Romans do defeat them ultimately. I would put Arminius more along Boudicca versus Vercingetorix, sort of auxiliary-making empire processes. I think Mithridates of Pontus is right up there, though. I do think he put the fear of, who knows, everybody into the Romans in a way that they had not seen since Hannibal, certainly.

57:25You're quite right. Mithridates, Hannibal, Schaper, Pyrrhus. Pyrrhus. I love Pyrrhus, too, so absolutely, I support that. We need one more, though.

57:37Eve, this has been fantastic. You are currently writing a book all about the Sasanians, including Schaper, it is called? I am. It's called The Last Persian Empire, and it's a history of the Sasanian dynasty, and it will hopefully be out in 2027. Wow, okay. So next year, we'll get you back on for more then. It just goes for me to say thank you so much for taking the time, as always. Thanks so much for joining us on The Ancients today. I hope you enjoyed the episode. And if you are loving The Ancients, then why not become a History Hit subscriber?

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