Who Was Shapur I?

Shapur I was the second king of the Sasanian dynasty, who ruled from 240/241 to 272 CE. The son and successor of Ardashir I, the founder of the Sasanian empire, Shapur presided over the first great period of Sasanian imperial power, and his reign was a formative period in the long history of pre-Islamic Iran. He is remembered chiefly for his wars with Rome, and in particular for the capture of the Roman emperor Valerian at the Battle of Edessa in 260 CE — the first time a Roman emperor had been taken alive by a foreign enemy. He was also a great builder, a great patron of Zoroastrianism, and an administrative reformer of the first rank. The most useful English-language accounts are Touraj Daryaee’s Sasanian Persia (2009) and the relevant Encyclopaedia Iranica entries; Klaus Schippmann’s Grundzüge der Geschichte des sasanidischen Reiches (1980) is the older German survey, still cited.

Shapur is one of the best-documented Sasanian kings. The sources are unusually abundant: the Res Gestae Divi Saporis (the great trilingual inscription at Naqsh-e Rajab), the rock reliefs at Bishapur, Naqsh-e Rajab, and Naqsh-e Rostam, the Roman historians (Herodian, the Historia Augusta, Lactantius, Zosimus), and the Syriac and Armenian ecclesiastical sources. The combination is unusual and makes the reign of Shapur unusually well documented.

Early life and accession

Shapur I was the son of Ardashir I, the founder of the Sasanian dynasty, and his queen (or consort) Lady Rodak. The date of his birth is not known, but his accession in 240/241 CE is well established. He succeeded his father as the Sasanian king of kings in 240/241, and was crowned at the Sasanian capital, probably Ctesiphon. His legitimacy rested on his descent from Ardashir I, and through Ardashir I from the Sasanian family of the temple of Anahita at Istakhr. The Sasanian dynasty claimed descent from the Achaemenids, and Shapur styled himself as successor to the Achaemenid imperial tradition. Whether the claim had any historical substance is one of the standard questions of Sasanian historiography.

The wars with Rome and the capture of Valerian

The defining event of Shapur’s reign was his war with the Roman emperor Valerian. The Roman emperor Valerian had come to the throne in 253 CE and decided to launch a major invasion of the Sasanian state. The Roman army crossed the Euphrates in 259 or 260 CE, and the campaign ended in catastrophe. At the Battle of Edessa, the Roman army was defeated by the Sasanians, and the Roman emperor Valerian was captured. The capture of the Roman emperor — the ruler of the Mediterranean world — was an event without precedent in Roman history, and it established the Sasanian state as the dominant power of the Near East.

The fate of Valerian is among the most-cited stories of ancient history. According to Lactantius (De Mortibus Persecutorum 5), Valerian was paraded in chains through the Sasanian empire and was used as a footstool by Shapur when he mounted his horse. Lactantius adds that Valerian died in captivity and that his skin, stuffed with straw, was displayed in a Sasanian temple. The humiliation of Valerian became a stock reference in Roman political discourse, and it was a constant reminder of the dangers of eastern overreach. The Sasanian rock reliefs at Naqsh-e Rostam and Bishapur, which show the Roman emperor kneeling before Shapur, are the Sasanian counterpart to the Roman literary tradition. The reliefs are not, however, a literal record of the event: the Victory Relief at Bishapur is a constructed image that compresses three separate events (the submission of Philip in 244, the capture of Valerian in 260, and a third encounter) into a single composition.

Shapur used his victory to expand the Sasanian state. According to the Res Gestae, the Sasanian armies conquered the Roman provinces of Syria, Cilicia, and Cappadocia, taking the great cities of Antioch, Tarsus, and Caesarea, and pushed the Sasanian frontier as far west as the Aegean coast. The conquests did not all hold. The Roman emperor Aurelian (r. 270–275 CE) reconquered most of the lost territory in the 260s and 270s, and the Sasanian-Roman frontier settled back on the Euphrates. The Sasanian state, however, retained its conquests in northern Mesopotamia, and the Roman province of Mesopotamia (which Trajan had briefly established in 116 CE and Septimius Severus had more permanently established in 198 CE) was permanently lost to the Sasanians.

The rock reliefs

The reign of Shapur is associated with some of the most impressive monuments of Sasanian art. The most famous is the Investiture of Shapur, a great rock relief at Naqsh-e Rajab (not, as is sometimes claimed, at Naqsh-e Rostam), which shows Shapur I on horseback receiving the ring of kingship from the supreme god Ahura Mazda. The Res Gestae Divi Saporis, the great trilingual inscription at Naqsh-e Rajab, is the Sasanian king’s own account of his reign — the most important Sasanian royal inscription to survive. The reliefs at Bishapur, in the mountains of Fars, are equally impressive. The most famous is the Victory Relief of Shapur, which depicts the triumph of Shapur I over Valerian, with the Roman emperor kneeling before him and Philip the Arab paying homage. The rock reliefs of Shapur I are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site (as part of the “Sassanid Archaeological Landscape of Fars” inscription, 2018) and are among the most visited tourist sites in modern Iran.

The city of Bishapur

Shapur was one of the great builders of late antiquity. The most famous of his foundations is the city of Bishapur, in the mountains of Fars, which was built as a showcase of Sasanian imperial architecture. The city was planned on a grid pattern, with a great palace, a great fire temple, a hippodrome, and a series of bridges and dams. The great ayvan, or vaulted hall, of the Bishapur palace — a barrel-vaulted iwan about 24 metres long — is one of the masterpieces of Sasanian architecture. Shapur also founded the city of Veh-Antiok-Shapur, the “Sasanian Antioch,” in Mesopotamia near the modern town of Anbar, and built several great fire temples.

The Zoroastrian revival

Shapur was a major patron of Zoroastrianism, and his reign saw a major revival of the Zoroastrian religion. The Avesta, the sacred scripture of Zoroastrianism, was codified in his reign or that of his successors, the Zoroastrian priesthood was reorganised as a state church, and a network of fire temples, religious schools, and priestly colleges was established across the empire. The Sasanian state, under Shapur and his successors, supported the Zoroastrian church financially and gave it substantial judicial authority. The Zoroastrian revival under Shapur was a major factor in the development of the Pahlavi literary tradition; many of the great Zoroastrian texts, including the Denkard and the Bundahishn, were compiled in the Sasanian period.

The Zoroastrian revival under Shapur was not exclusive. The Sasanian state also patronised the Manichaeans, a new religious movement founded by the prophet Mani (b. 216 CE). Shapur was initially tolerant of the Manichaeans, and Mani himself reportedly travelled to the Sasanian court. The Manichaean religion, however, soon came into conflict with the Zoroastrian priesthood. The Zoroastrian church, with the support of the Sasanian state, turned against the Manichaeans under Bahram I; Mani was executed c. 274 CE, and the persecution of the Manichaeans continued under Bahram II.

Legacy

Shapur died in 272 CE. His reign was followed by a long period of Sasanian history that included the reigns of Hormizd I, Bahram I, Bahram II, Narseh, and the great Shapur II. The Sasanian state that Shapur built, and the imperial ideology that he embodied, would shape the political, cultural, and religious traditions of the Near East for centuries. The memory of Shapur I has been preserved in a rich body of sources, and he is a king whose fame has outlasted the dynasty. The Shahnameh of Firdowsi treats him as among the great kings of pre-Islamic Iran, the equal of his father Ardashir and the model for his successors.

The historical Shapur was, in my reading, a serious and capable ruler who set the template for Sasanian kingship for the next four centuries. The capture of Valerian was a famous event but not the most consequential thing he did. The Res Gestae, the rock reliefs, the city of Bishapur, the Zoroastrian revival, and the administrative reform were all more durable. The Sasanian state that emerged from his reign was the Sasanian state that would rule Iran for another three and a half centuries.