Shapur I

Shapur I was the second ruler of Iran's Sasanian Empire, reigning as king of kings from about 240 to 270. He turned his father's new dynasty into a power able to humble Rome, forcing one Roman emperor to buy peace and capturing another, Valerian, in 260, while also pushing Sasanian rule deep into the former Kushan lands of the east.

Shapur was a son of Ardashir I, the prince of Pars (Persis) who overthrew the Parthian Empire. His birth date is unknown. A semi-legendary Middle Persian tale makes him the child of a Parthian princess, hidden by priests until his father recognised him; modern historians see this as a story meant to tie the new dynasty to Parthian nobility. Rock reliefs show Shapur fighting at the Battle of Hormozdgan on 28 April 224, where the last Parthian king, Artabanus IV, was killed, so he was clearly an adult by then. Ardashir named him heir, and he was crowned co-ruler on 12 April 240; his father died soon after, around 241 or 242.

Even before his accession Shapur had taken the Mesopotamian fortresses of Nisibis and Carrhae. A Roman counter-offensive under the young emperor Gordian III beat him at Resaena in 243, but the following year the Persians won at Misiche, and Gordian died, whether in battle or at the hands of his own men. His successor, Philip the Arab, bought peace in 244, accepting that Armenia lay in the Persian sphere and paying, according to the sources, 500,000 gold denarii.

In a second war, beginning in 252 or 253, Shapur destroyed a Roman army at Barbalissos, overran Syria and sacked Antioch and Dura-Europos. In his third campaign, in 260, he defeated the emperor Valerian near Edessa and took him prisoner with the remains of his army. Later Christian writers claimed Shapur used Valerian as a mounting block; Persian reliefs show a kneeling Roman, but the footstool story belongs to hostile tradition. Shapur's forces went on to take Caesarea in Cappadocia, before Odaenathus of Palmyra drove them back and recovered Roman Mesopotamia during the 260s.

In the east Shapur brought much of the Kushan Empire under his rule. His inscription at Naqsh-e Rostam claims Kushan territory as far as Peshawar, and he installed his son Narseh as king of the Sakas in Sistan. He also founded Nishapur, whose name honours him.

Shapur rarely tried to hold Roman provinces permanently. Instead he deported great numbers of Romans, including skilled workers, into his own lands. They built the dam known as Band-e Kaisar, "Caesar's dyke", near Shushtar, and helped found or rebuild Gundeshapur and Bishapur. He was the first Iranian ruler to style himself king of kings "of Iranians and non-Iranians", a title reflecting these new subjects.

A Zoroastrian, he funded fire temples, but he was also tolerant of other faiths. The prophet Mani joined his court in 242 and dedicated a book to him, though Shapur did not convert, and the Talmud remembers him on friendly terms with Jewish sages of Babylonia.

Shapur died of illness at Bishapur, most likely in May 270. He was succeeded by his son Hormizd I, and two other sons, Bahram I and Narseh, later reigned too. His victories are carved on several rock reliefs in Fars, in present-day Iran.

Our 200 map shows the Parthians still dominant just before the Sasanian takeover, and our 300 map shows the Sasanian state facing the Roman Empire across Mesopotamia after Shapur's reign.