For the Roman Empire in the third century AD, the
countdown to military crisis began with the rise of the Sasanians of Persia. The founder of the
Sasanians was Ardashir, who, as the commandant of Darabgerd, defeated various rivals in central
Persis, a state within the Parthian Empire. Already an ambitious warlord, in 211 or 212 he
declared himself the king of Istakhr following the death of the previous king, his brother
Shapur, and crushed a rebellion in Darabgerd.
Subsequently, the Parthian Empire
had grown increasingly unstable, and in 213 a civil war broke out between
the brothers Vologases VI and Artabanus IV. Ardashir exploited the crisis to expand his
kingdom, conquering Kerman, the coastline of Persis, and the region later known as
Ardashir-Khurreh. Artabanus declared him an outlaw, but Ardashir responded by conquering
Ispahan and Arrajan, thereby securing control over the remaining two districts of Persis. He captured
strongpoints from Nirofarr, the king of Ahwaz, and he defeated and killed Bandu, the king of
Messene. Recognizing the gravity of the situation, Artabanus led his armies against Ardashir,
but he was defeated in two battles. In the third and final battle, fought at Hormozdgan
in 224, Artabanus was slain in the fighting. In this final clash, Ardashir was accompanied
by his son Shapur, who would become a great warrior in his own right, and was described by
the Romans as being of enormous bodily size.
Despite the death of Artabanus, many
of the satraps of Iran still refused to submit to Ardashir, either seeking to carve
out their own kingdoms, or retaining loyalty to Vologases VI or the sons of Artabanus.
Ardashir defeated Madig, king of Media, Vologases in Upper Mesopotamia, and he conquered
Zabdicene, Arzanene and the kingdom of Albania. He seized Ctesiphon, killing Artabanus’ son
Arsaces and had put an end to Arab raids, before proceeding to launch a grand campaign
to the east. He subjugated Parthia itself, the satrapies of Gurgan, Abrasahr and Margiana,
and the Indo-Parthian kingdom of Sakastan, and he received the submission of the
Indo-Parthian kings of Turan and Makran. Ardashir then defeated the Chorasmians, forcing
them to pay tribute, and he marched on Bactria, at the time part of the Kushan Empire. His campaign
caused the Kushan Empire to split in two, with the Kushans of Bactria becoming Sasanian vassals.
Meanwhile, the weakened Parthian Arsacid dynasty continued to control the kingdom of Armenia, and
thus Ardashir’s attention turned to the west. He attempted to conquer Armenia, as well
as the independent kingdom of Hatra. However, both efforts were unsuccessful, in
particular the campaign into Armenia, where Rome sent volunteers to aid the Parthians. These
were the early signs of tension between Ardashir and the Romans, who were weary of the new empire
being forged to their east. However, Ardashir also planned to conquer the Roman territories of Upper
Mesopotamia, as until the second century many of these lands were Parthian.
War was to come!
In 231 Ardashir captured Roman fortresses
on the Tigris and Euphrates and raided as far as Syria and Cappadocia. The
Romans responded with panic. Their army in Mesopotamia killed its own commander,
Heracleo, and mutinies and rebellions followed. In 232 Severus Alexander responded with a massive
three-pronged offensive against the Persians. Alexander was to lead the main army to relieve
the besieged fortress of Nisibis, while a northern army would invade Media via Armenia, and
a southern army would advance down the Euphrates. However, although he relieved the siege of
Nisibis, Alexander failed to advance quickly enough in support of the other armies. Ardashir
detached a force to distract the northern army while he himself annihilated the southern army in
Messene. The northern army, after being ordered to return west, suffered a costly winter march
through the mountains of Armenia. The Persians had also sustained significant casualties,
and so the war ended for the time being.
But impressively, the Sasanian Empire had defended
itself against a three-pronged invasion while still in its infancy. Alexander returned west
to deal with barbarian incursions, where in 235 he was slain by his own soldiers, disdainful of
his conduct. Meanwhile Ardashir, ever energetic, crushed a religious revolt in Ardashir-Khurreh
and launched a major campaign into Arabia. He defeated a coalition of East Arabian kings,
with the king of Oman slain in battle. Sanatruk, the king of Bahrayn, hurled himself from the walls
of a besieged fortress, and Ardashir succeeded in vassalizing Yamamah, Bahrayn and Oman.
Ardashir then reignited the war with Rome, now under the rule of Maximinus. He
conquered much of Upper Mesopotamia, including Nisibis and Carrhae, and in 238 or
239 his forces began a new siege of Hatra.
Situated atop a precipitous ridge, and
surrounded by desert and loyal tribes who regarded it as a cultic centre, the city had
resisted sieges by Trajan and Septimius Severus.
But, in 240 Ardashir raised his son
Shapur to the position of co-regent, who took command of the siege. It
was under Shapur’s command that the most extensive siegeworks known
to the Near East were undertaken.
In the wake of the massive siege, Shapur sacked
the city. Over night the famed city of Hatra withered into a ghost town, with the surrounding
tribes driven out or exterminated.
However, in 241 Ardashir died, prompting a series
of rebellions against the still-young Sasanian regime. A coalition of Gilans, Dailamites and
Gurganians received Chorasmian assistance. But Shapur defeated the coalition in battle and
proceeded to subjugate the rebellious provinces, including the mountain abodes
of the warlike Dailamites.
Unfortunately for him, Roman Emperor Gordian III
simultaneously launched a major counter-offensive. His experienced praetorian prefect Timesitheus
began retaking Roman territories in Mesopotamia.
In 242, Shapur rushed back to his western front.
Caught on the backfoot with an exhausted army, he was defeated at Resaina. The Romans
reconquered their territory as far as Singara. But fortunes changed yet again
when Timesitheus died of dysentery. Reorganising his forces, in 244 Gordian
pressed ahead towards Ctesiphon, only to be defeated by Shapur in
a pitched battle near Misiche. The details of Gordian’s fate are debated, but
most likely he was mortally wounded in battle.
With their emperor dead, the Roman army
found itself trapped in foreign territory, and the new emperor Philip had to negotiate with
Shapur to secure the Roman army’s escape. He paid a massive ransom of 500,000 gold coins,
agreed to pay tribute to the Persians, and vowed not to intervene in Armenia. And,
for the time being, Shapur accepted the Roman reconquests as he shifted his focus east.
In the late 240s Shapur invaded the Kushan Empire, conquering the desert and mountain-filled lands
of Arachosia, Sogdiana and the Kabul Valley.
Around the year 250 he marched back west.
Re-launching the campaign into Armenia, he finally conquered the mountainous
last kingdom of the Arsacids.
In 251, Rome suffered a major defeat to Cniva’s
Gothic coalition at the battle of Abritus. Shapur, perhaps aware of this disaster, accused the Romans
of assisting the Armenians and in 252 re-invaded the Empire. But this time, rather than focus
on the fortresses of Upper Mesopotamia, Shapur marched up the Euphrates and deep into Syria,
outflanking Rome’s key Mesopotamian defences. He wiped out a large Roman army, supposedly
60,000 men strong, at the battle of Barbalissos.
He then bypassed further strongpoints
to make a surprise march on Antioch, the largest city in Rome’s eastern provinces.
Assisted by the exile Mareades, he caught Antioch’s inhabitants off-guard while many were
watching a theatrical production outside the city. He captured the citadel with a giant battering
ram, and proceeded to raid Syria and Cappadocia. He sacked 37 towns and cities by the end of 253,
including Hierapolis, Beroia, Apamea, Larissa, Seleucia, Alexandretta, Doliche and Germanikeia,
while a second force raided the Satala region from Armenia. In the panic, Uranius Antoninus, a priest
in Emesa, led a successful defence of his city, after which he led a brief usurpation against
emperor Gallus. In contrast, Odaenathus, the commander of Palmyra’s military, is
said to have sought Shapur’s friendship. Shapur demanded that Odaenathus prostrate
himself, something the latter would not do.
Rome was not able to respond
to their new formidable enemy.
For Shapur, these battles and raids
were intended to damage Roman manpower, gather plunder and prisoners, sap
Roman morale, and build royal prestige. However, he did not intend to hold territory in
Syria and Anatolia. Rather, he deported much of the population of Antioch to his new city of
Gundeshapur, which was originally founded as Weh-Andiok-Shapur, literally meaning ‘Shapur’s
Better Antioch’, and became one of his capitals.
But in terms of conquest, the main western target
remained Upper Mesopotamia. And, after disrupting Rome’s eastern defenses, Shapur captured the
fortresses of Circesium, Dura Europos and Apadana. Such was his dedication that he had his forces
maintain a siege of Nisibis in the west, while he crushed a Kushan
rebellion in the east.
Although upon his return he succeeded in
capturing Nisibis, the Romans recaptured Dura, and so in 256 Shapur again put the fortress to
siege. As archaeology shows, the Persians and Romans built tunnels and counter-tunnels beneath
the city walls, and Shapur used poisonous gas in the underground fighting. Shapur recaptured Dura,
but this time it was abandoned by both sides.
Despite Shapur’s successes, the Roman network
of fortifications proved difficult to overcome in the long-term, as Roman garrisons
could hide behind their walls and then combine forces with each other or with the
emperor Valerian to retake lost positions. In 259 Shapur again invaded northern Mesopotamia.
He again captured Nisibis, but this time advanced as far as Carrhae, seizing the western stronghold
with the aid of the giant battering ram. He then besieged nearby Edessa. This new
offensive was answered by Valerian himself, who, after confronting Goths and Heruli in Anatolia,
returned to the east with his main army.
In the spring of 260, Valerian’s army arrived
in the area between Edessa and Carrhae, and near to the army of Shapur,
who was still besieging Edessa. Shapur later wrote that Valerian
had 70,000 men with him, drawn from the Rhine and Danube frontiers
as well as the eastern provinces.
The strongest Roman arm was their infantry,
and by the third century many were equipped with close-combat spears to better
deal with cavalry-heavy opponents. For the same reason, Rome now also employed units
of cataphracts, heavily armoured horse archers, excellent Moorish light cavalry, as well as
Germanic and Sarmatian mercenary horsemen.
The size of the Persian army is unknown, but the
majority was made up of Sasanian cataphracts, including feudal Sasanian knights, and prestige
units, such as the Immortals and the Royal Guard, the Pushtighban. By 260, these units must have
been highly experienced under Shapur’s command. The army also included high quality horse
archers, foot archers, and peasant light infantry, known as Paighan, who were used to build and
operate siegeworks. Shapur may have had a corps of elephants, which the Sasanians most often
used as beasts of burden and as mobile archery platforms against enemy walls. In major battles,
Sasanian kings could also employ the elephants as a rearguard. Shapur may have also used Dailamite
mercenary infantry, whose martial qualities were praised by later Byzantine authors.
Upon Valerian’s arrival, Shapur repositioned much of his own army to deter a Roman attack
on his position. The details of the coming engagement are shrouded in uncertainty, but
eastern Roman sources claim that Valerian’s army had been hit by a plague, with the Moors
most affected. As a result, the emperor was reluctant to offer battle. Shapur’s numerous past
victories were reason enough for caution. Indeed, Valerian had arrived with a large amount of
gold, hoping to strike a deal with his opponent. Valerian sent envoys to Shapur with proposals
in hand, but Shapur refused to negotiate. Worse for the Romans, Shapur now realised that Valerian
wasn’t confident, and he learned of the plague.
Shapur wanted battle.
His repositioned army presented an opportunity to the garrison, who
launched a sally against their besiegers and forced part of the Paighan infantry to retreat
in disorder. This gave Valerian new hope.
The specifics of what happened next are unclear,
but Valerian, now more confident, appears to have marched his army through the plains between
Edessa and Carrhae. These plains could favour the cavalry armies of the Persians, and indeed, three
centuries earlier, Crassus was famously defeated in this area in the battle of Carrhae.
Shapur’s army subsequently broke camp. They likely left behind much of the Paighan to
maintain the siege while they prioritised their own speed, using riverbanks and ridges to conceal
their approach. Peter the Patrician reports that Shapur followed close behind, waiting for the best
moment to strike. That moment soon came, likely in part because the Romans were about to march
through a particularly open stretch of land.
Aurelius Victor reports that Valerian
was surrounded by a trick, and Peter the Patrician claims that Shapur tricked Valerian with
deceptions. Evidently Shapur took the Romans by surprise, using part of his cavalry to intercept
their line of march and cut off their retreat. Valerian now realised that he would have to
fight a battle, and he drew up his forces.
Like other Sasanian armies,
Shapur will have placed his cavalry in several lines in the
front, interspersed with archers, with other infantry deployed further back,
and elephants possibly in the rear.
As the Romans deployed for battle,
Sasanian foot bowman and horse archers advanced towards the enemy, firing
volleys to soften the Roman formation. Persian horse archers harassed the Roman cavalry,
attempting to bait them into breaking their lines. Shapur then gave the signal to charge
to the first line of cataphracts.
As these heavy horsemen thundered towards the
Roman lines, they produced a thick cloud of dust, obscuring the vision of the Romans. The
cataphracts smashed into the Roman infantry and cavalry, relying on their heavy armour to avoid
taking serious casualties. Thrusting their heavy lances into the Roman legions, they disabled
shields and tore through flesh. It soon became clear that Shapur planned to use his superior
numbers of cavalry to encircle the Roman line.
But rather than commit to a prolonged
fight, this first line of cataphracts disengaged and withdrew through gaps between
the cataphract units of the second line. However, before the Romans could catch their
breaths, the second Sasanian line struck.
Again, they stabbed their way through
the mass of Romans with their lances. The Romans also inflicted casualties,
especially the spearmen. However, in the open terrain the cataphracts held the advantage.
Again avoiding a prolonged fight against massed infantry, the Sasanian heavy cavalry broke off
the attack and rotated with other cataphracts, so that, while cataphract units reorganised
and recuperated, the Romans experienced an unending series of charges, all with
the momentum of an initial attack.
Through frustration, many Romans likely
broke formation in their desperate attempts to pursue the enemy. This left them
vulnerable to Sasanian counterattacks. Moreover, Shapur had by now surrounded the
enemy on all sides, forcing them to bunch up. Panic took hold among the Romans, and many
tried to flee. Breaking formation and with their backs to the enemy, the Romans were
cut down en masse by the Persian cavalry. The terrible slaughter lasted until dusk.
In the chaos, Valerian himself was captured, either during the battle itself or amidst
the chaos of the rout afterwards.
The capture of an emperor was an
unprecedented disaster for the Romans. Their Eastern army was decimated.
Maintaining momentum, Shapur launched the most far-reaching raid of his career, ravaging Syria,
Cilicia, Cappadocia, Pamphylia and Lycaonia. He sacked Antioch for a second time as well as
other major cities, including Seleucia, Tarsus, Tyana, Iconium, Caesarea and Sebasteia.
All told, 36 cities were sacked.
Some of the Roman commanders fought back,
Ballista defeating smaller raiding forces in Cilicia, and Odaenathus harassing the rear of
Shapur’s army as it departed Roman territory.
But the damage was done.
Shapur deported Roman citizens en masse to populate his new cities of
Gundeshapur and Bishapur. Prisoners of war were put to work on infrastructure
projects. Emperor Valerian was humiliated by being put in charge of building a dam-bridge at
Shushtar, and he ultimately died in captivity.
The capture of Valerian sent
shockwaves through the empire. Valerian’s son Gallienus now faced a
collapse in loyalty to his dynasty. Usurpations broke out in Gaul, the Balkans
and the east. Worse for the Romans, Gallienus had to rely on Odaenathus to
defend Syria and the eastern frontier, thus granting him much autonomy, which essentially
turned Palmyra into a kingdom within the empire.
Having won his greatest victory over the Romans, Shapur returned to his eastern frontier to
finish off his other great enemy, the Kushans. He conquered Gandhara and captured the
last king of the Kushans, Vasishka.
However, Sasanian control in Upper
Mesopotamia continued to be tenuous. Likely while Shapur campaigned on the
Subcontinent, Odaenathus retook Carrhae, Nisibis and other fortresses. He
even attempted to capture Ctesiphon, but a Sasanian army drawn from across
the empire blocked Odaenathus’ advance.
By now, Shapur was an elderly man,
campaigning less extensively and less often. In 271 he died, leaving behind a powerful empire
that would endure for centuries.
