Shahpur II King of Sasanian Empire [60535]

  General Notes:

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FIRST WAR WITH ROME (See 337\endash 363 ). Shapur invaded Mesopotamia, won some victories, but failed in three attempts to take Nisibis. In 350 he had to break off the war and go east to counter an invasian of the Chionites (Huns), whom he defeated and forced into an alliance (357). Beginning in 339 Christians began to be persecuted. Jews and Manichaeans also suffered.

SECOND WAR WITH ROME . Syria was invaded, and Amida was taken after a heroic defense (359). Singara and Bezabde were captured (360). Constantius attempted in vain to recapture Bezabde and died in the following year. His successor, Julian, invaded Persia, forced the passage of the Tigris, defeated the Persians north of Ctesiphon but retreated before investing that city, and was mortally wounded in a battle near Samarra (363). His successor, Jovian, made a treaty with Shapur in which Rome restored all the Mesopotamian territories ceded by Narseh, as well as Nisibis and Singara. Shapur was also given a free hand in Armenia, which he invaded and devastated in 365. He later made it and Iberia vassal states (378).
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Hormizd II (302-309), the son and successor of Narses, married a Kushan princess to maintain peace on his eastern frontier. His son Shapur II had one of the longest reigns in history (309-379), because, according to Gibbon, he was a king all of his life; his coronation took place before he was even born! In one of his most delightful anecdotes, Gibbon describes how this happened: Hormizd was childless when he died, but the queen was pregnant. The Magi did not want a violent struggle for the throne, so they declared that they knew for a fact that the queen was going to have a boy, and went ahead with the coronation before anyone could stop them! The ceremony was performed in the throne room with the queen on a bed, and the imperial crown was placed on her stomach. (5)

Because of the strength of Constantine's rule and Shapur's relative youth, the peace between Rome and Persia lasted while Constantine lived. By the time Shapur was old enough to rule on his own, the state had virtually become a Zoroastrian theocracy. The most fanatical of all Persian kings, Shapur found it only natural to double the taxes of Christians to support his endless wars. When they protested, he mercilessly persecuted all non-Zoroastrians within the realm.

Indeed, Shapur proved to be a ruthless adversary to any who opposed him. His first military campaigns were punitive expeditions directed against the Arabs and the Kushans, both of which had raided Persian territory during the long minority of the king. He won the submission of the Arabs by filling their wells with sand. After putting down a revolt at Susa, he used elephants to pulverize the ruins of that timeworn city beneath their giant feet. When he learned of the death of Constantine, his agents kidnapped and blinded the pro-Roman king of Armenia.

As might be expected, the meddling in Armenian politics provoked a new war with Rome. Shapur won nine battles in the Tigris valley, and the Roman emperor, Constantius II, turned out to be a timid commander, but the biggest prize, the city of Nisibis, remained in Roman hands. Shapur besieged it three times in a twelve-year period, and his failure to take it prevented him from following up on his victories. At this point a new enemy, the Huns, appeared on Persia's eastern frontier. Shapur was forced to put the war on hold, and he spent the next five years in a long campaign against the Huns (353-358). Returning to Mesopotamia in 359, he inflicted a sound defeat on the Romans, taking the citadels of Amida and Singara.

Both sides now took a break for a few years, during which Constantius was succeeded by his nephew Julian (also known as Julian the Apostate, for his attempts to bring back paganism). Julian renewed the war in July of 362, leading an army from Europe to Antioch. In March of 363 he marched eastward with 65,000 troops, and by June he had fought his way to the outskirts of Ctesiphon. At this point his army ran short on supplies, and on one particularly hot day Julian led a charge without putting on his armor. He was mortally wounded by a Persian lance, and an uncharismatic officer, Jovian, was proclaimed emperor on the spot. In order to save his men from their now desperate plight, he signed a disgraceful treaty with the Persians. All of the Tigris valley, including Nisibis, which the Romans had defended so well, was handed over; in addition Armenia and recently Christianized Georgia had their status changed from Roman satellites to Persian ones. Shapur was probably relieved to end the war anyway, for now it was essential to have peace on the frontier; barbarian tribes (the Goths and other Germans in Europe, the Huns in both Europe and Central Asia) were now becoming a major threat to both empires.

Rome and Persia managed to keep the terms of the treaty for over half a century, though they found it difficult to resist interfering in Armenia. A few years after the war Roman intrigues compelled Shapur to place Armenia under military occupation. His successors tried to solve the problem by partitioning the kingdom: one fifth of Armenia became a Roman province, while they renamed the rest "Persarmenia" (387). In 428 Persarmenia and the Arsacid dynasty were abolished completely, and Persian governors directly ruled the area afterwards.

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Shapur II the Great was the ninth King of the Persian Sassanid Empire from 309 to 379. During his long reign, the Sassanid Empire saw its first golden era since the reign of Shapur I (241\endash 272).

Early childhood

When King Hormizd II (302\endash 309) died, Persian nobles killed his eldest son, blinded the second, and imprisoned the third (Hormizd , who afterwards escaped to the Roman Empire ).[3] The throne was reserved for the unborn child of one of the wives of Hormizd II. It is said that Shapur II may have been the only king in history to be crowned in utero: the crown was placed upon his mother's belly. This child, named Shapur, was therefore born king; the government was conducted by his mother and the magnates. But when Shapur II came of age, he turned out to be one of the greatest monarchs of the dynasty.

Conquests

During the early years of the reign of Shapur, Arabs crossed the Persian Gulf from Bahrain to "Ardashir-Khora" of Pars and raided the interior. In retaliation, Shapur led an expedition through Bahrain , defeated the combined forces of the Arab tribes of "Taghlib ", "Bakr bin Wael ", and "Abd Al-Qays " and advanced temporarily into Yamama in central Najd . He resettled these tribes in Kerman and Hormizd-Ardashir . Arabs named him, as "Shabur Dhul-akt or "Zol 'Akt that means "The owner of the shoulders" after this battle. [4]

In 337, just before the death of Constantine I (324\endash 337), Shapur II broke the peace concluded in 297 between Narseh (293\endash 302) and Emperor Diocletian (284\endash 305), which had been observed for forty years. A twenty-six year conflict (337\endash 363) began in two series of wars, the first from 337 to 350. After crushing a rebellion in the south, he headed toward Mesopotamia and recaptured Armenia . From there he started his first campaign against Constantius II , a campaign which was mostly unsuccessful for Shapur II. He was unable to take the fortress of Singara in the Siege of Singara (344). Shapur II also attempted with limited success to conquer the great fortresses of Roman Mesopotamia , Nisibis (which he besieged three times in vain) and Amida .

Although often victorious in battles, Shapur II made scarcely any progress. At the same time he was attacked in the east by nomad tribes, among whom the Xionites are named. He had to interrupt the war with the Romans and pay attention to the east. After a prolonged struggle (353\endash 358) they were forced to conclude a peace, and their king, Grumbates , agreed to accompany Shapur II in the war against the Romans.

In 358 Shapur II was ready for his second series of wars against Rome, which met with much more success. In 359, Shapur II conquered Amida after a siege of seventy-three days, and he took Singara and some other fortresses in the next year (360). In 363 the Emperor Julian (361\endash 363), at the head of a strong army, advanced to Shapur's capital at Ctesiphon but was defeated by superior Sassanid army at the Battle of Ctesiphon , and was killed during his retreat. His successor Jovian (363\endash 364) made an ignominious peace, by which the districts beyond the Tigris which had been acquired in 298 were given to the Persians along with Nisibis and Singara, and the Romans promised to interfere no more in Armenia. The great success is represented in the rock-sculptures near the town Bishapur in Persis (Stolze, Persepolis, p. 141); under the hoofs of the king's horse lies the body of an enemy, probably Julian, and a supplicant Roman, the Emperor Jovian, asks for peace.

Shapur II then invaded Armenia, where he took King Arshak II , the faithful ally of the Romans, prisoner by treachery and forced him to commit suicide. He then attempted to introduce Zoroastrian orthodoxy into Armenia. However, the Armenian nobles resisted him successfully, secretly supported by the Romans, who sent King Pap , the son of Arshak II, into Armenia. The war with Rome threatened to break out again, but Valens sacrificed Pap, arranging for his assassination in Tarsus, where he had taken refuge (374). Shapur II subdued the Kushans and took control of the entire area now known as Afghanistan and Pakistan . Shapur II had conducted great hosts of captives from the Roman territory into his dominions, most of whom were settled in Susiana . Here he rebuilt Susa , after having killed the city's rebellious inhabitants.

By his death in 379 the Persian Empire was stronger than ever before, considerably larger than when he came to the throne, the eastern and western enemies were pacified and Persia had gained control over Armenia.

Contributions

Under Shapur II's reign the collection of the Avesta was completed, heresy and apostasy punished, and the Christians persecuted (see Abdecalas , Acepsimas of Hnaita ). This was a reaction against the Christianization of the Roman Empire by Constantine I . He was successful in the east, and the great town Nishapur in Khorasan (eastern Parthia ) was founded by him. He founded some other towns as well.

References

1. ^ MacKenzie, David Niel (1998), "Eran, Eranšahr <http://www.iranica.com/newsite/articles/v8f5/v8f545.html>", Encyclopedia Iranica, 8, Costa Mesa: Mazda, <http://www.iranica.com/newsite/articles/v8f5/v8f545.html>
2. ^ [1] <http://www.nndb.com/people/261/000101955>
3. ^ [2] <http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Shapur>
4. ^ Encyclopaedia Iranica : p.202. Link: [3] <http://www.iranica.com/articles/search/searchpdf.isc?ReqStrPDFPath=/home1/iranica/articles/v2_articles/arab&OptStrLogFile=/home/iranica/public_html/logs/pdfdownload.html>
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition , a publication now in the public domain .

  Noted events in his life were:

• Coronation: King of kings of Iran and Aniran, 309.

Shahpur married.