Photo ID: GA0019
Site: Bishapur
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Description: Shapur I, best remembered for his victories over three Roman emperors, Gordian III, Philip the Arab and Valerian, has left a written record of his campaigns on an Achaemenid stone tower, the Ka’ba-I Zardusht, at Naqsh-I Rustam, near Persepolis. In this trilingual inscription, written in Pahlavi, or Middle Persian, Parthian and Greek, Shapur writes, “… when I first ascended the throne Gordianus Caesar from all of Rome, of Goth and German kingdom, assembled a force and came against …us. And at the frontier of Assyria, at Meshik, a great battle took place. The Roman force was destroyed. And the Romans made Philip Caesar. Then Philip Caesar came to us for terms and having given us 500,000 dinars as ransom for the life (of his friends) became tributary to us. ”This battle, fought in AD 244 near Ctesiphon, is indication of an earlier Persian setback that allowed the Romans to reach the area of Ctesiphon unhindered. Shapur’s decisive reversal in AD 244 of the earlier setback is commemorated in a major triumphal rock relief on the gorge near the city of Bishapur, and at Naqsh-I Rustam where his father had recorded his divine investiture. The equestrian figure of the victorious Shapur towers over the figure of the keeling, supplicant Roman emperor, identified with Philip the Arab suing for peace. The fallen figure of the Roman emperor Gordian III, lies behind the hooves of the king's horse in the traditional position of the fallen enemy. Shapur’s campaign against Rome in AD 256, resulted in another resounding Persian victory: A Roman army of 60,000 men was destroyed, Armenia, contested between the two parties, was conquered and Shapur I, best remembered for his victories over three Roman emperors, Gordian III, Philip the Arab and Valerian, has left a written record of his campaigns on an Achaemenid stone tower, the Ka’ba-I Zardusht, at Naqsh-I Rustam, near Persepolis. In this trilingual inscription, written in Pahlavi, or Middle Persian, Parthian and Greek, Shapur writes, “… when I first ascended the throne Gordianus Caesar from all of Rome, of Goth and German kingdom, assembled a force and came against …us. And at the frontier of Assyria, at Meshik, a great battle took place. The Roman force was destroyed. And the Romans made Philip Caesar. Then Philip Caesar came to us for terms and having given us 500,000 dinars as ransom for the life (of his friends) became tributary to us. ”This battle, fought in AD 244 near Ctesiphon, is indication of an earlier Persian setback that allowed the Romans to reach the area of Ctesiphon unhindered. Shapur’s decisive reversal in AD 244 of the earlier setback is commemorated in a major triumphal rock relief on the gorge near the city of Bishapur, and at Naqsh-I Rustam where his father had recorded his divine investiture. The equestrian figure of the victorious Shapur towers over the figure of the keeling, supplicant Roman emperor, identified with Philip the Arab suing for peace. The fallen figure of the Roman emperor Gordian III, lies behind the hooves of the king's horse in the traditional position of the fallen enemy. Shapur’s campaign against Rome in AD 256, resulted in another resounding Persian victory: A Roman army of 60,000 men was destroyed, Armenia, contested between the two parties, was conquered and Persian forces raided deep into Roman Syria. The third and most successful of Shapur’s Roman campaigns is described in Shapur’s inscription, “we attacked Carrhae and Edessa… Valerian Caesar came upon us having with him … a force of 70 thousands. … a great conflict took place, and Valerian Caesar himself with our own hand we made captive. And the rest, the praetorian prefect, senators and generals, and whatever of the forces were officers, all we made captive and away to the Persis we led.”
Photo Source: Guitty Azerpay slides
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Last updated: November 8, 2001:jlz