Shapur I: Rome's Greatest Enemy?

Few rulers humbled Rome quite like Shapur I. A King of Kings, he rebuilt the Sasanian Persian Empire, defeated Roman armies and captured Emperor Valerian in one of antiquity's most remarkable military triumphs. In this episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes is joined by Eve MacDonald to explore the rise of Shapur the Great. Why did he find so much success against the ancient Roman behemoth? How did he help forge a new Persian superpower on the Empire’s eastern frontier? And is he worthy to stand shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Hannibal, Boudicca, and Spartacus in the Roman villain hall of fame? MORE Persia Reborn: Rise of the Sassanians Listen on Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-ancients/id1520403988?i=1000644788751 Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/7gSKjbVzB2jstHXUJKDtUO?si=A6zkdXicQ-KgaeHSE2XR7Q Edges of Empire: The Sassanian Frontiers Listen on Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-ancients/id1520403988?i=1000506003159 Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/6VObqk1D5t6P410f5g2F4r?si=dHgSeY5HSoad37gWd3n68w Presented by Tristan Hughes. Editor is Aidan Lonergan. The producer is Joseph Knight. Video producer is McKenna Fernandez, channel manager is Vilde Osknes. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff. All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds The Ancients is a History Hit podcast. Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Tristan Hughes?

  Ever wondered why the Romans were defeated in the Teutoburg Forest? What secrets lie buried in prehistoric Ireland? Or what made Alexander truly great? With a subscription to History Hit, you can explore our ancient past alongside the world's leading historians and archaeologists. You'll also unlock hundreds of hours of original documentaries with a brand new release every single week, covering everything from the ancient world to World War II. Just visit historyhit.com/subscribe. He'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:

• 0:44Tristan Hughes?

  the capture of an actual Roman emperor. His name is Shapur I, epithet the great, ruler of the Sassanian Persian Empire. And today, we're going to tell his story. Shapur and his father, Ardashir before him, helped restore the Persian heartlands to their former glory. When the Roman emperor Valerian left the battlefield of Odessa in 260 AD, he did so in Persian chains. Why did Shapur 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,

• 1:29Tristan Hughes?

  Boudicca, Arminius, and Spartacus in the Roman Villains Hall of Fame?

• 1:36Tristan Hughes?

  I'm Tristan Hughes, your host. This is The Ancients. And joining me today to answer all of this and much more is the ancient historian and, most importantly, friend of the show, Dr. Eve Macdonald.

• 2:01Tristan Hughes?

  Eve, welcome back to the show. It's wonderful to have you here.

• 2:04Speaker 01

  Tristan, such a pleasure to be back.

• 2:06Tristan Hughes?

  And in our brand new studio as well.

• 2:08Speaker 01

  That's amazing. I know, I love it. Fantastic space.

• 2:11Tristan Hughes?

  And to talk about this remarkable figure. When people say enemies of Rome, they will think Hannibal or Arminius, maybe even Boudicca. People often overlook Shapur, when actually, he's probably, he could well be the biggest of them all.

• 2:24Speaker 01

  Possibly, possibly. Shapur I, the Sassanian king of kings who ruled from 240 to 270 AD. And he ruled the Sassanian Persian Empire, or Iran-Shapur, 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, we think he assumes the sole rule of the Sassanian Empire. Now, we don't know if we should really call it an empire, because the Sassanians probably didn't call their lands an empire.

• 3:08Speaker 01

  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.

• 3:24Tristan Hughes?

  And it's funny, because we also went about the Sassanians. They're often referred to as 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 Sassanian power to its height against the Romans?

• 3:45Speaker 01

  Oh, absolutely. And, you know, his father, Ardashir, created the Empire of the Sassanians from Pars, from the province of the ancient Persian worlds, the same place as the Achaemenids ruled from and came from. But Shapur was a young man, we think, when this happened. So from 224 till 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,

• 4:24Speaker 01

  as somebody who has, you know, shaped the beginning of this incredible dynasty that goes on to rule these lands for over 400 years, so.

• 4:35Tristan Hughes?

  Well, 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. So the world in which he is born into, is this quite a turbulent time for Persia at that moment?

• 4:52Speaker 01

  Well, it is. It's ruled, 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 100 years, and everybody out there probably remembers the 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.

• 5:34Speaker 01

  And this is, sets off almost 100 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.

• 6:09Tristan Hughes?

  So they weaken, 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?

• 6:20Speaker 01

  Absolutely. And, you know, the dynasty of the Sassanians ruled as a local satrap or sort of provincial rulers in the region of Pars, as the, the family ruled there. And they, they're, 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.

• 6:47Speaker 01

  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. And they become the rulers of this big, huge land.

• 7:11Tristan Hughes?

  And the figurehead at that time, is Shapur's father, this is Ardashir I, is it?

• 7:16Speaker 01

  Yes, Ardashir I, founder of the dynasty and the creator, really, of the, the whole legitimacy and ideas and family that follows on after that. So he's connected to the Arsacids. He's, he's, he's ruling and using the, the Parthian power sort of as a model from which to, to govern himself and take over the empire. But he really separates himself from that by emphasizing certain aspects of power and legitimacy around Zoroastrian religion.

• 7:51Tristan Hughes?

  Zoroastrian religion.

• 7:52Speaker 01

  And you've done an amazing episode on the Zoroastrians.

• 7:55Tristan Hughes?

  Professor Almud Hinz, if you've got Professor Almud Hinz in this city, she's the person to interview about it.

• 8:00Speaker 01

  So I think everybody should go listen to that. And then they'll understand, exactly.

• 8:05Tristan Hughes?

  But what's also interesting about this, so Ardashir is now the new king? Is he, has he taken the title of king, king of kings?

• 8:14Speaker 01

  Yes, 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.

• 8:35Tristan Hughes?

  And so teenage Shapur, 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?

• 8:46Speaker 01

  Absolutely. And he is, spends 20 years with him, making sure that sticks. Because this couldn't have been an easy thing for the Sassanian dynasty, the House of Sassan. They, 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, to govern as they did.

• 9:11Tristan Hughes?

  And is Shapur, is he a direct son of Ardashir? You might know where I'm, I might be going on this one.

• 9:18Speaker 01

  The, oh, well, I'm not sure. There's a lot of interesting things about his mother.

• 9:24Tristan Hughes?

  I was going to say, it's the potential adoption theory.

• 9:27Speaker 01

  There's, there's the possibility that he's adopted. There's the possibility that he is the son of Ardashir with a Parthian princess.

• 9:37Tristan Hughes?

  Right, interesting.

• 9:38Speaker 01

  And his... His legitimacy is really knitting together, I think, the old Parthian rule and the the new dynasty together. And so we have a lot of conflicting stories about both Ardashir and Shapur because of the way that their foundation of this dynasty is just written into legend. It becomes folklore, it becomes myth and becomes story. So we have a whole bunch of different ways of trying to access the exact family of Shapur. But it seems that he could very easily have been the natural born son of Ardashir with a Parthian princess,

• 10:20Speaker 01

  who is this daughter of Ardavan, the old Parthian king of kings. So he's part of that legitimacy of knitting these two powers together. But also, there is some idea that he might be, is it adopted? What are you thinking from?

• 10:37Tristan Hughes?

  There are several legends that Shapur's mother was put to death by Ardashir and that he was concealed until adopted by Ardashir for his virtuous values.

• 10:45Speaker 01

  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. And 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

• 11:29Speaker 01

  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, there's a lot of myth and sort of mayhem about the birth of Shapur himself. But to me, that just perhaps tells, perhaps tells us that there's so much construction of their legitimacy. There's a really great scholar of ancient Iran named Khodadad Rezaani, who I think you've spoken to. And he, he's done some interesting stuff around the fact that the whole Sassanian house, the house of Sassan, is actually from a completely different region and not Persian at all. And that they come from Sakastan and they come from the borderlands

• 12:14Speaker 01

  between India and Iran.

• 12:16Tristan Hughes?

  Between where from?

• 12:17Speaker 01

  From Sakastan. Yeah, or Sistan, as it's sometimes called. There's different names for it. And that they, they work very hard to construct these really formal legitimacies. And the reason we have so much confusion around who Sassan 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. And so they've imposed themselves locally as well.

• 12:48Tristan Hughes?

  I think it's fascinating because you see it's time and time again when you have a new dynasty imposing themselves on a territory. You get with the Ptolemies in Egypt is the classic one, how they kind of align themselves with the traditional pharaohs of old, Necta Nebo and the like. And I think some Akhimnids 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? What's kind of things he would have gone up to as the prince slash co-ruler alongside his father?

• 13:22Speaker 01

  That'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. So that's something that was very important to him. We could, can we assume that that's an environment that he also grew up in? In perhaps in Faruzabad, where the one of Ardashir's palaces?

• 14:05Speaker 01

  You know, that's what we think 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 it. Middle Persian, he would have also spoken, and then probably Greek too. So we, certainly his inscriptions are trilingual and people would have been able to communicate in multiple languages. So he would have studied languages. He would have studied traditions, religious traditions, but also military traditions too. He was an amazing general and commander and would have been schooled in that all the way through. The cavalry is the very, very sort of instrumental part of the Sassanian military throughout the whole of its rule, really. And so that's where we think he would have been most engaged in,

• 14:50Speaker 01

  in terms of military scholar schooling.

• 14:52Tristan Hughes?

  You mentioned trilingual inscriptions. Are they one of our key sources of evidence for learning more about this figure? Also, his father, Ardashir, and just generally the story of his life and how he ruled?

• 15:03Speaker 01

  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 a 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. So we have long lists that list people in his court and who they were

• 15:43Speaker 01

  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 Sassanian empire, at least in the way they considered it. Maybe not everybody living in the places they claimed to rule would have thought they were ruled by the Sassanians, I always think. But they certainly, the Sassanians, thought they ruled these places.

• 16:07Tristan Hughes?

  One last question on the time of Ardashir before we get into the rule of Shapur proper. Portraits from that time, sculptures of Ardashir promoting his achievements. Do you also see Shapur shown on them as well?

• 16:22Speaker 01

  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. And there are two individuals sort of reaching up with, with rings that sort of are, they're getting their authority to rule, we think, in Armenia from these Shapur and Ardashir. So that's one where we see them side by side.

• 17:04Speaker 01

  But there's other ones where we think he, 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.

• 17:22Tristan Hughes?

  They're ruling side by side. And so when we get to the end of Ardashir's reign, what does this new Sassanian, I wouldn't use the word empire?

• 17:31Speaker 01

  Yes, use empire, I do too.

• 17:32Tristan Hughes?

  I think it is an empire, let's be fair. What does this Sassanian empire look like? How much has he achieved, Shapur's dad achieved, by the time that he passes?

• 17:40Speaker 01

  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. He 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 Sakastan or the old Bactrian, Satrapes as well,

• 18:22Speaker 01

  north into the areas, north to the Aixis too. And possibly into the Caucasus as well.

• 18:33Tristan Hughes?

  So very much he's following the older Akhimnids Persian empire, the limits of that old empire from centuries beforehand.

• 18:39Speaker 01

  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 ruled 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 Sassanian period and really important all the way through Sassanian 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

• 19:23Speaker 01

  of the Sassanian rule, like Surin, the Surinas, who is, that's a Parthian name or family name. And these are chief military officers under the Sassanians, but also really important in the Arsakid dynasty too.

• 19:40Tristan Hughes?

  Vassal Karai with Crassus, right?

• 19:41Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 19:42Tristan Hughes?

  And that, well, I guess will make more sense as to why there is that story of Shapur having a Parthian mother as well.

• 19:50Speaker 01

  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, in his messaging. He'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.

• 20:32Speaker 01

  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. They rule in similar ways, but they're projecting themselves slightly differently.

• 20:52Tristan Hughes?

  And we'll now get to the reign of Shapur and his fighting against the Romans right after this.

• 21:01Tristan Hughes?

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• 21:32Tristan Hughes?

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• 21:42Tristan Hughes?

  So 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 straightway look west? He does look east towards places like Afghanistan. And is it the Kushans that were ruling there at the time?

• 22:03Speaker 01

  Yes, exactly. So there is the Kushans, the area of Afghanistan that was once the old Akhmanid satrapi of Bactria, that becomes the Hellenistic kingdom of Bactria, that is then ruled by the Parthians as well. And then eventually it is ruled in collaboration with local kings by the Parthians, who are called the Kushans.

• 22:27Tristan Hughes?

  The Kushans, yeah.

• 22:28Speaker 01

  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 third 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. And the Kushan period shifts in the third 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-Sasanian kings.

• 23:10Speaker 01

  And they start to mint coins there that look almost identical to Sasanian coins. And so there seems to be a merging of power. And that tells us that the Sasanians really had perhaps imposed a more direct impact on the Kushans. And we get what are called Kushano-shas or Kushanchas. And those are Kushan kings who are parts... Yeah, the Kushanchas. So that's super interesting. And then there is one of the most incredible rock reliefs that we have from the Sasanian period from Afghanistan that gives us much more concrete evidence of the place in which a Sasanian king put himself as a conqueror.

• 23:55Speaker 01

  And it's from a place, a site that's called Raghibbi, not far from Herat. And it's a rock relief that shows a Sasanian 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 Raghibbi in the early, late 90s, I think it was, or early 2000s. And so it's not as well preserved as it was, but we have people who drew it a little bit before.

• 24:38Speaker 01

  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 Sasanians are imposing this idea of their visual imprint of power onto the region as far away as Afghanistan.

• 24:55Tristan Hughes?

  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, you know, precious, important, you know, the land route to India and maybe even further to the step into China. He's also got to keep control of that as he's focusing, as we'll see, on the West against the Romans.

• 25:19Speaker 01

  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 Sasanian empire is as important, as wealthy and as developed for the Sasanians as the West. And the whole time, and we don't see it so clearly in microhistory 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 1,500, 1,600 kilometres to the

• 26:02Speaker 01

  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 kilometres in a year or two, trying to do exactly what Shapur and Ardashir and every other Sasanian king would have to do, is control this huge area.

• 26:21Tristan Hughes?

  That's amazing, isn't it? I'm glad we got that context in. But okay, 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? I mean, is it roughly the Euphrates River still? Is that the dividing barrier? What's the situation?

• 26:39Speaker 01

  So when we talked already about Trajan and that sort of the Roman emperors who followed had imposed themselves across the Euphrates numerous times. Trajan briefly, briefly crosses the Euphrates and bounds three provinces in the region of Mesopotamia and the upper Tigris.

• 27:00Tristan Hughes?

  It's modern Iraq kind of area.

• 27:02Speaker 01

  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-Tigranian territories. Now, 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

• 27:42Speaker 01

  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. And the last sort of event is Karakalla, who becomes, who before he dies in 217, he leads an invasion in all the way to the Parthian capital of Tisiphon. 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

• 28:25Speaker 01

  all come out to celebrate the marriage and then Karakalla 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 second century AD and into the early third 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. So the city of Hatra, for example, you know, Hatra is such an interesting place because it's in the region that we call the Jazira, which is the land between the two rivers,

• 29:09Speaker 01

  the upper part of the Euphrates and the Tigris. And it's an independent city. It has prospered enormously in the second 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. The 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 in, just in the period at the end of Ardashir's life and before or around when

• 29:49Speaker 01

  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.

• 30:04Tristan Hughes?

  So during Ardashir's reign there, you start to see the pushback almost from that time, you know, even Karakalla going to Tisiphon only a few years earlier. It does almost feel like the Romans completely crippling the Arsacids and going again and again, particularly in the early third century with Septimius Severus and then Caracalla. Is this one of the great examples of imperial blowback that actually they they instigate, they catalyze the change in the dynasty and the rise in of Ardashir? And now, as we get to Shapur as well. So they're almost the the victims of their own, well, of something they've caused themselves.

• 30:39Speaker 01

  The 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. So at one level, this is sort of the natural outcome of a long period of rule. The Arsacids ruled for 500 years, almost.

• 31:20Speaker 01

  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 and sell the authority of the Arsacid kings within their own kingdom was no longer tenable, and their vassals rose up against them. They couldn't command the authority. And the Sassanian and the Arsacid state only work if your vassals are willing to provide military support, are willing to support you, so.

• 31:50Tristan Hughes?

  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 Shapur's territory.

• 32:04Speaker 01

  Absolutely. And it happens, and it's triggered by Shapur taking Hatra.

• 32:09Tristan Hughes?

  Of which you just mentioned.

• 32:11Speaker 01

  Yeah. So Gordian III is the emperor, very young boy. He is the grandson of Gordian I.

• 32:22Tristan Hughes?

  Yes, there are three Gordians in like the space of a year, 236, say.

• 32:26Speaker 01

  Yes, exactly. And from North Africa originally, and he's ruling with the help of grownups, 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. And so Gordian III and his army invade, and they win some successes at the beginning against the Sassanians.

• 33:04Speaker 01

  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 or Misike.

• 33:24Tristan Hughes?

  And is that as Shapur 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 the Sassanians, it's just gonna, it's just another house of the Arsacids, we've dominated them for so long, we're gonna come back, put them in their place after they took Hatra. Shapur, with this devastating defeat over them, shows them, no, I'm something different.

• 33:46Speaker 01

  I think he does, you know, and Ardashir had had successes with, against the Romans along the frontiers as well. But there hadn't been that sort of massive victory. And also, up until 235, we have the Severan dynasty ruling Rome, and it's really, they they put up a pretty good front. And of course, they're, you know, part of the Severan dynasty, the Julia Domina, and the female line of the Severan 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 to hold the line a little

• 34:31Speaker 01

  bit with Ardashir. And, 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 the 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 Mishike. And it's a complete wipeout. They destroy the Roman army and also, though, kill the emperor.

• 35:14Tristan Hughes?

  The young boy, Gordian III, he's killed.

• 35:18Speaker 01

  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.

• 35:43Tristan Hughes?

  Yeah, I can think of maybe the peace treaty of after Kadesh from the Hittites and then the Egyptians.

• 35:48Speaker 01

  There you go.

• 35:49Tristan Hughes?

  But 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?

• 35:57Speaker 01

  They say different things. So what we, what Shapur says very clearly is that he met with a big Roman army at a place called Mishike, and that he destroyed them and that Gordian was killed. That's what Shapur says about it. And that's how he he sets it up. A whole range of other sources admit that Gordian dies at some point during these events, but 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.

• 36:36Tristan Hughes?

  Philip the Arab, yeah.

• 36:37Speaker 01

  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, he is wounded and then dies of his wounds at some nearby time. But, yeah, those are the two versions. We have different versions, and this, 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.

• 37:06Tristan Hughes?

  Right, fair enough. It's interesting, because there's one other emperor that you normally associate with Shapur and his capture, and it, and, well, meeting his end at Shapur's hands, and it's not Gordian III. So that took me by surprise, that it was, that he actually says that he oversaw the killing, the death of this, this young child emperor. Before we go on to the next campaign, a quick word about the Sassanian tactics and the Sassanian army. What type of army is Shapur using to fight against, you know, the third century Severan reformed legionaries, auxiliary troops of the Romans?

• 37:46Speaker 01

  Shapur is fighting with cavalry forces that are using male armor, for example, that we know there are these adaptations within the Sassanian state. We think the Sassanians 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 of the battle between the Arsacids and the and the Sassanians. And that they're fighting with, yeah, their their traditional cavalry, but heavily armed cavalry are a big part of their fight. But they are also using forces from all across their empire, too.

• 38:25Speaker 01

  So they 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.

• 38:38Tristan Hughes?

  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. Are you looking for the perfect podcasts to hunker down with during the longer, colder, darker nights?

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• 39:00Tristan Hughes?

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• 39:05Speaker 02

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• 39:17Tristan Hughes?

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• 39:27Tristan Hughes?

  So we get to the 250s AD and Rome is starting to be in its, well, it's done the third century crisis. Lots and lots of emperors coming and going. And this is a time, this is now when Chappar really begins his campaigns against Rome in earnest. What happens in 252 AD?

• 39:45Speaker 01

  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. There'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 Chappar defines this as Caesar lying again. And they do so over the territory of Armenia, which you know, and 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 Chappar attacks. And

• 40:28Speaker 01

  that's when Chappar attacks the Romans, and a big loss happens at the area of Barbelisus. And then Chappar goes and he begins to invade the area of Syria.

• 40:43Tristan Hughes?

  So this is now Chappar on the offensive. And I know you're, 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?

• 40:57Speaker 01

  He does, and he lists. What's so amazing is that we have the text of Chappar'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, he goes into Cappadocia, into Asia Minor.

• 41:21Tristan Hughes?

  It's Turkey nowadays, yeah.

• 41:22Speaker 01

  Yeah. 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 Chappar.

• 41:37Tristan Hughes?

  This is the Romans now, I mean, this is another level threat. 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 Severans, had come from Syria, and now all that land was being ransacked by Chappar. And so the Roman Emperor Valerian, this new emperor, he must muster a massive force, determined to get back control.

• 42:10Speaker 01

  You know, and it's so interesting, because with, we, you know, the sack of Antioch, one of the biggest cities of the Roman Empire.

• 42:18Tristan Hughes?

  So he sacks Antioch, Chappar sacks Antioch.

• 42:20Speaker 01

  Thirty-seven, 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 Sassanians go in and they sack, and then they, they go back. But Chappar's 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 Sassanians back out of the region.

• 42:56Tristan Hughes?

  This feels the, the big climax moment for the story of Chappar. So how does he fare now that the Roman Emperor Valerian has arrived for this massive army to defeat and crush him?

• 43:08Speaker 01

  I think his words are really kind of great here, because he's like, in the third campaign, when we attacked Karai and Odessa, and were besieging Karai and Odessa, Valerian Caesar marched against us. So he kind of depicts it as like, we were just busy attacking these towns, and Valerius came again, Valerian came against us. But Chappar says he had 70,000 soldiers with him.

• 43:37Tristan Hughes?

  With him, Chappar did?

• 43:38Speaker 01

  No, Chappar 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, Dacia, Pannonia, Spain, Africa, Thrace, Bithynia, Asia. He goes through all the different places that the soldiers came from.

• 44:01Tristan Hughes?

  He's making a point there, yeah.

• 44:02Speaker 01

  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 is 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 Sassanian king Chappar, who has been so destructive to the Roman armies along this key frontier.

• 44:27Tristan Hughes?

  And I'm trying to remember whether Odessa and Karai, they're east or west of the Euphrates. I believe they're east of the Euphrates.

• 44:32Speaker 01

  They're east in that area between the Tigris and the Euphrates.

• 44:36Tristan Hughes?

  Right. So actually, so Valerian has to cross off his Roman army to go east of the Euphrates, almost Chappar is bringing him into his sphere of influence almost a bit more.

• 44:45Speaker 01

  He is, although it's this play, it's sort of this idea that the Sassanians 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 Chappar was like, taking back territory. And Valerian was setting out to do the same thing, both of them thinking that this was inherently theirs.

• 45:10Tristan Hughes?

  So what happens in the big battle?

• 45:13Speaker 01

  Well, the amazing thing is that Chappar wins again, but he also captures the Roman Emperor. The Roman Emperor's not killed in the field. The Roman Emperor is captured. And Chappar 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. We made all prisoners, and we deported them into Persis.

• 45:47Tristan Hughes?

  Yes. So the first time ever, a Roman Emperor's been captured in battle, not killed. Well, Chappar's already killed a Roman, a Roman Emperor, according to him. He now got one alive as well, that he's taken back to his, to his heartlands.

• 46:03Speaker 01

  Absolutely. He takes not just Valerian Caesar back, but he also takes a lot of his army back with him. 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 Chappar and by Ardeshir. And we see their, 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 Vischapur in Persh, 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

• 46:48Speaker 01

  were perhaps Roman builders too. So there's a big population that also goes into the Persian Empire in this period, the Sassanian Empire in this period. And interestingly, people think that this leads to what becomes one of the, the big, interesting movements in the Sassanian 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.

• 47:16Tristan Hughes?

  Oh, wow.

• 47:17Speaker 01

  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.

• 47:26Tristan Hughes?

  Interesting, pre Constantine, the great thing like as well. And does Valerian ever escape captivity, or does Chappar just keep him as his, as his prisoner for the rest of Valerian's life?

• 47:37Speaker 01

  Yes, we think that poor Valerian is kept prisoner for his, his whole rest of the life. What actually happens to him is, oh, so a matter of rumor and scandal.

• 47:49Tristan Hughes?

  There are some cool stories, yeah, we should mention them.

• 47:51Speaker 01

  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.

• 48:09Speaker 01

  Valerian persecuted Christians inside the Roman Empire. And so Lactanias kind of revels in what happened to him. And he tells us that he was used as a footstool by the Sassanian emperor, that he was used basically to help the Sassanian emperor get up onto his horse, the Sassanian 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. So we don't really know, other than he's captured and he never leaves Persia.

• 48:48Tristan Hughes?

  Would you say that this is, yeah, the high point, the zenith of Shapur's story? Or does he keep going on from there?

• 48:56Speaker 01

  So would I say it or would he say it? I mean, the thing is, is that Shapur would certainly say that this was the high point. Yeah. 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. What'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 the way, in, in history as it's told in our ancient sources.

• 49:38Speaker 01

  But yeah, the Palmyrene, husband of Zenobia, whose name was Odenathus, who was a, 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.

• 49:57Tristan Hughes?

  So that is when the tide starts to turn. So Shapur wins those great successes epitomized by the capture of Valerian. But then the, the empire, the Roman Empire in the east, it stabilizes to an extent against the Sassanian threat?

• 50:12Speaker 01

  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, and really reconstitutes the Roman Empire.

• 50:35Tristan Hughes?

  It's so interesting because of course you get at that time before you get the Tetrarchian and the time of Aurelian, for a brief moment where 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, the worst time of Shapur being a threat to the Romans. I must ask then, because this is the third century crisis period for the Romans, when people explore Shapur's story and see his successors right at the height of that third century crisis, some, surely there's sometimes a question of whether, did Shapur gain his successes because Rome was in, you know, was suffering all these difficulties at that time?

• 51:18Tristan Hughes?

  Or is he actually, is, is he a cause of the crisis in a different kind of way? I mean, do you have any thoughts on that?

• 51:23Speaker 01

  I do. No, I would say that he doesn't cause the crises. He's a, his victories are a result of the crises that has already embedded itself in the Roman state. But I think that for, for Shapur, those victories were in some way a justification of everything that had happened for the previous years against the Parthians. But it also sets up this incredible narrative that will continue on all the way through to the seventh century. This idea of fighting over these key border towns and cities all along the frontier in the upper Tigris. And this becomes then the, the story between the Romans and the Sassanians

• 52:03Speaker 01

  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. It 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 third century with the defeat of the Sassanian king of kings, Narce, 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,

• 52:46Speaker 01

  the Caesar Galerius, one of the sub-Casers, sub, sub rulers in the newly fashioned Roman Empire of the Tetrarchy. And this huge humiliation of the late third 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 Narce, which of course they never, that never happened either. So both sides project ideas of things that maybe never really happened. But this whole capture of his camp and his family and the ransomming of the family

• 53:29Speaker 01

  and the humiliation that happened to the Sassanian king is depicted in this glorious ways by Galerius.

• 53:35Tristan Hughes?

  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, like bowing down towards him. And is there another one of Shapur with Valerian as well? And Valerian or he's very much subjugated. So 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.

• 54:05Speaker 01

  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 Roman Septimius Severus's arch in Rome is covered with captured Parthians. So 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 in the, in the, into the fourth, fifth and sixth century, that the East Roman Emperor and the Sassanian king of kings see each other very much as equals. They, they, they write to each other and call each other brothers.

• 54:50Speaker 01

  They are two eyes of the earth, to quote one of the letters that goes between one to the other. So it's quite interesting how the two powers see each other as the two superpowers, kind of dividing up the world.

• 55:04Tristan Hughes?

  And that kind of starts with Shapur, 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?

• 55:14Speaker 01

  Shapur dies. Yeah. He, he, he passes away. He must have been, it's like his, his dad, Ardashir, was probably 70 when he died. And now Shapur is also quite old. And he has sort of gathered together this amazing court life with all these scientists and thinkers. And he, 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, and learning as well into the Sassanian Persian world.

• 55:57Speaker 01

  He dies and we have a lot of turmoil actually just after his death. We have three of his sons, we think, you know, the Sassanians had many, many, many wives. And so they had many, many, many sons. And the, the succession is not always really, really clear. The amazing thing is that Shapur inherits so clearly and easily from Ardashir. But that doesn't happen after Shapur's death. And so his son, and then there's a few upheavals and internal battles and rivalries before things settle down again.

• 56:30Tristan Hughes?

  I'm sorry, I didn't question you about the, the Zoroastrian temples that he builds and that, that other important part. Because we have focused largely on the military part of Shapur's story. But 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 always done a lot of work around Hannibal and the Carthaginians. And of course Hannibal is labeled as another of Rome's greatest enemies. Is it impossible to rank them? Like, do you just feel that Hannibal, Arminius, Shapur, you know, 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, that threshold of being some of Rome's greatest enemies. Could you, could you rank them at all?

• 57:13Speaker 01

  So yeah, what, what, what we could, we could do, we could do the top five, right? Who would be your top five, Tristan? I would, 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, I'm interested in Hannibal, but because even in the late Roman Empire, even in the seventh century, Roman writers talk about Scipio Africanus as the ideal Roman general. And I always think, wow, if Scipio is the greatest of Roman generals,

• 57:54Speaker 01

  then the man he defeated is their greatest enemy in, in that, that sort of concept. But it does change. Yeah, I'd say Shapur's right up there. I don't know, Arminius though is, perhaps his defeats were so shocking. But in, in many ways, Shapur inflicted longer term defeat, wouldn't you say?

• 58:15Tristan Hughes?

  I think Hannibal and Shapur are the top two. I think Arminius, that, yeah, that psychological, the tutubek 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.

• 58:27Speaker 01

  I would put Arminius more along Boudicca, Vercingetorix, sort of auxiliary, 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.

• 58:50Tristan Hughes?

  Quite right. Mithridates, Hannibal, Shapur, Pyrrhus.

• 58:55Speaker 01

  Pyrrhus. I love Pyrrhus too. So absolutely, I support that. We need one more though.

• 59:02Tristan Hughes?

  Eve, this has been fantastic. You are currently writing a book all about the Sassanians, including Shapur, it is called?

• 59:08Speaker 01

  I am. It's called The Last Persian Empire. And it's a history of the Sassanian dynasty. And it will hopefully be out in 2027.

• 59:18Tristan Hughes?

  Wow. Okay. So next year, we'll get you back on for more then. It just goes to me to say, thank you so much for taking the time, as always, to come back on the show.

• 59:25Speaker 01

  Thanks.

• 59:26Tristan Hughes?

  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? As a subscriber, you will have access to hundreds of hours of original documentaries with a new release every week, plus early access and ad-free podcasts. You can sign up at historyhit.com/subscribe. See you in the next episode.