Chapter 5: Shapur’s last decade
Shapur I was one of the most successful kings not just in Sasanian history, but in the entire history of Persia. He and his father had led the small territory of Persis to conquering a fractured and collapsing kingdom and turning it into a massive, prosperous empire.
He could never keep himself off his horse for long, and shortly after the Roman war he went on extensive campaigns in the central Asian steppe, possibly up to the Chorasmian Sea (Aral Sea). There he extracted tribute and took more captives. But this was his last war. He and his father had spent practically their entire reign on a horse, conquering and campaigning, but now was the time for consolidation.
What Shapur excelled at the most was propaganda. He carved several inscriptions depicting and describing his own successes in battle. In fact, he carved more than any other Shahanshah, showing not just his propaganda skills but also just how prideful he was, with one inscription dedicated to how far he shot an arrow. He very intentionally portrayed himself as a new Cyrus the Great and his empire as a resurgent Achaemenid Empire (1). Both oral and written accounts of Cyrus’s conquests were promoted during this period. Achaemenid history, which was mostly preserved orally, was so long ago that memory of it had become hazy, making it a blank canvas that Shapur could apply his propaganda to. He portrayed the Parthians as barbarian tyrants, and also tried to erase his own family’s connections to Parthia, going so far as to deliberately omit Sasan, his great-grandfather and the man the empire is now named after, from his own inscriptions because of his Parthian heritage. It’s important to remember that the Sasanians were a new dynasty, still trying to establish legitimacy.
He also promoted cultural unity among Iranians. It was during this time when the distinction between Eran (Iranians) and Aneran (not-Iranians) began to form. Iranians included Armenians and Caucasians, despite those people seeing themselves as distinct, and those within Persia proper. Not-Iranians included Mesopotamian, Roman, and Eastern subjects.
Shapur’s religious policies generated controversy, but to understand that we first need to understand Zoroastrianism. To give an oversimplified summary, Zoroastrianism was a religion centered around the supreme deity Ahura Mazda and the duality between good and evil. These two were locked in a cosmic war, and adherents needed to follow a set of rituals and moral principles to fight evil. The sun and fire were worshipped, and in certain temples sacred fires were constantly kept burning. It was not a unified religion, but a series of split, disorganized traditions. There also was no centralized church. The Great Houses controlled their local churches, and each house had their own dedicated fire temples.
All that changed when Ardashir came to power. He strove to unite the Zoroastrianism under one church and one faith. All fire temples in the empire were extinguished, as Ardashir claimed they hadn’t been founded legitimately. His message was clear: only the Shahanshah controlled the church. By uniting the church and state, Zoroastrianism became one of the main ways he could control his country. He proclaimed his dynasty to be “from the seed of the gods.” He hired Zoroastrian scholars from around the empire, most prominently the high priest Tosar, to create a unified “orthodoxy.” He massively expanded the church and centralized its hierarchy. Ardashir created a single unified religion out of the scattered traditions, he was the founder of Zoroastrianism as we know it. Religion was part of how his dynasty would secure legitimacy.
One of the more troublesome new assertions in orthodox Zoroastrianism was the iconoclasm. The priests believed that gods like Ahura Mazda should not be depicted, and religious imagery should not be worshipped in place of the gods. The only exceptions were the fires in each fire temple.
Ardashir didn’t enforce Zoroastrianism as the state religion. Other religions were tolerated. This had been the norm since the dawn of Iranian history, so it wasn’t considered major at the time to simply continue this policy.
Shapur followed in his father’s footsteps. In fact, he improved them. Not only did his conquests bring money which accelerated the expansion of religion, but he also began funding and sending priests to the levant, growing the religion in former Roman territory. And yet, at the same time he patronized one of the most influential heretics in Iranian history.
The prophet Mani.
Mani was born in Mesopotamia and raised in a Jewish-Christian sect. According to legend, in his early twenties, he received religious visions, and upon trying to explain them to his elders he was banished. From then on, he devoted his life to travelling and spreading his new religion, Manichaeism. He went east, converting the king of Turan, and convincing Peroz, Shapur’s brother, to introduce the prophet to the Shahanshah. Shapur was known for his interest in religious scholarship. Consequently, he took a liking to Mani, and although he himself didn’t convert, he brought Mani into his court and allowed him to proselytize, while also being the king’s medic and astrologist. Mani accompanied Shapur during his Roman campaigns, proselytizing in Syria. He became quite close to the crowned prince Hormizd, who he tutored and discussed theology with. Hormizd grew to admire the prophet. Eventually, Mani asked to leave the court so he could continue to dedicate himself to his religion full-time.
Manichaeism intentionally mixed aspects of Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Buddhism and “perfected” them. This made it highly adaptive, and able to syncretize in different environments, allowing it to spread far and wide. Like Zoroastrianism, it was dualistic, with a war between the worlds of good/light and evil/darkness. The material world was made of darkness with bits of light imprisoned in it, in fruits, vegetables, juice, water, etc. It was the duty of Manichean monks known as “the elect” to help the light escape the material world by following a strict moral code of asceticism, celibacy, and non-violence (including harvesting plants), which gave them the ability to free this light by eating it. Non-monks, known as “hearers,” followed a less strict moral code, committing sins like picking fruit to care for the Elect.
Some Persian nobles converted, most notably the Iberian king Hamazasp. The favor Mani enjoyed from Shapur made his own priesthood and administration uncomfortable. Mani’s biggest rival at court was an influential high priest named Kartir. Kartir came from humble, obscure origins, and like Mani, he rose to prominence because of his charisma and strong beliefs in Zoroastrianism. Shapur promoted him to high priest because, again like Mani, his religious rhetoric captivated the Shahanshah. He came with Shapur during his Roman campaigns, during which he fought bitterly with Mani, when the two weren’t bickering, Kartir helped renovate Roman Zoroastrian temples and convinced the king not to harm Zoroastrians during sackings, and to free those who had accidently been taken prisoner or converted while imprisoned.
Kartir was not yet as powerful as he would come to be, but he led a growing faction. He, along with several of Shapur’s priests, generals, and administrators, grew concerned over Mani. Why should heretics like him be allowed to lead believers astray? Wasn’t it the Shahanshah’s job to protect the faith? Mani’s heresy, as well as the rise of other religions like Christianity and Buddhism, forced them to reconsider the nature of Zoroastrianism and kingship. According to their Zoroastrian doctrine, heathens were promoting Evil and allowing it to overtake Good. As they became more radical, they began pressuring the Shahanshah to ban heathenry outright.
In 46 (271), only a year before his death, Shapur finally caved. He began persecuting Manichaeans, and banished Mani, forcing him to travel east.
********
As described in the last chapter, vassals controlled most Persian territory. To increase their power without angering the magnates, Ardashir and Shapur focused on developing their own land economically. The Sasanian economy was extremely lassaiz-faire, with the Shahanshah only caring about profiting from levies. Because they could only directly profit from their own land, they especially developed trade roads going through their estates. Practically every trade route passed through at least one royal province.
The collapsing Roman Empire meant external trade had declined. Though the silk road still provided luxuries to places like Syria, it wasn’t as lucrative as it had once been. Internal trade, meanwhile, was stronger than it had ever been. Levantine goods were now flowing into Persia, rather than the Mediterranean. Persia already had heavy Hellenic influence, and the levant already had heavy Persian influence, but this new trade dynamic helped the cultures cross-pollinate even more. Like emperor Hadrian, Shapur toured his domains, and ordered the building of dams, bridges, and irrigation to spur productivity. He and Ardashir became known as “the city builders,” as he developed numerous cities in royal domains to encourage economic growth. Several of the cities he made would be powerful trading centers for centuries.
Captives from Central Asia or Rome (especially Cappadocia) became royal slaves and were deported to these cities. Some lived in the cities and built infrastructure, others were given farmland in the suburbs they were tied to. These cities thus had a strict hierarchical class system between the ruling nobility, artisans/traders, and slaves. They built Roman-style architecture, and they retained and even spread their religion and culture (2).
There were three instrumental centers of Sasanian power and bureaucracy, all three of which were regional breadbaskets. First and most importantly was Mesopotamia, which enjoyed heavy development. Dozens of cities were refounded here, chief among them Ctesiphon, the empire’s capital. The agricultural productivity, crucial trade roads, and taxes made Mesopotamia the Shahanshah’s cash cow. Second, controlling the eastern flank, was Persis. Here Bishapur was founded, where former emperor Valerian was kept captive. The once mighty emperor was now in charge of bridge construction and was supposedly used as a footstool. Persis was especially the center of the Zoroastrian clergy. Last, on the eastern flank, was Egypt. Like the rest of the former Roman provinces, the administration of Egypt was kept intact, with only the very top layer being replaced with Persians. Egypt was the center of Persian trade in the Mediterranean, which at this stage was still in its infancy. Prior to its conquest, Egypt had been one of the provinces hit hard by the millennium crisis, with the city of Alexandria especially suffering from plague, riots, economic downturn, and a sacking, and had now lost three fourths of its population. Alexandria was thus renovated and renamed “Piravashapur.” Though this was the city’s “official” name, most Egyptians simply kept calling it Alexandria, and soon it would get a new, unofficial name.
The province of Khuzestan, being the connector between Persis and Mesopotamia, especially enjoyed heavy development. Here, among other cities, Gondeshapur was founded (3), one of Shapur’s largest cities. It had a rich economy based on rice and sugar plantations. In addition, after his conquests, Shapur brought here scholarly texts of all kinds from as far as India to Egypt, and commanded that they be copied and studied, turning Gondeshapur into Iran’s biggest center of scholarship.
Another important province was Parthia, the old homeland of the Parthians, on the empire’s northern frontier. Steppe nomads were a persistent threat to Persia for its entire history, owing partly to the fact that there were zero natural defenses from the steppe. As such, the city of Nishapur was founded, an administrative center and military fortress. It also helped develop trade flowing in from the Kushans and China and had lucrative turquoise mines.
******
Shapur had three living sons, Bahram, Hormizd, and Narses (4). Like his own father, Shapur involved his own children heavily in the business of war and politics from a young age. During his wars, he made them generals, and had them compete, promising that he would make the most skilled warrior out of his children his heir. Afterwards, he let them govern the largest, most important provinces in the empire, using them as trustworthy administrators while also training them in governance. As a king, taking this approach successfully trained them to each be competent and skilled. As a father, making them compete bred resentment between the siblings, who saw each other as rivals.
The eldest son was Bahram, born around 5 years before Ardashir’s crowning (220). His mother was a lowborn concubine, making him equivalent to a bastard child. Despite this, Shapur may still have had hopes for the boy, as he had him educated in politics and warfare. However, their relationship still grew strained over time, especially as Shapur started to show favoritism towards his younger brothers. Neither father nor son had much love for each other. Bahram fiercely criticized his father’s policies, especially his promotion of Mani. One, likely apocryphal, Manichean source reports that after receiving visions, Mani warned Shapur that, if he ever became Shah, a pair of shears would cut Persia’s divine wings and plunge it into evil. He was the only son Shapur didn’t grant a dedicated fire temple to. He was made king of Gilan, an isolated province in the Alborz mountains, on the Caspian Sea coast. The Gilani were one of several tribes within Iranian territory who lived in areas too isolated to be fully incorporated into the empire, like the Daylamites. They often served as Sasanian mercenaries. Bahram was assigned a small, isolated, and relatively unimportant region, likely just to give him something to do. He was savvy however, and he bid his time in the shadows, making alliances with nobles disaffected by Shapur’s reign. That is when he wasn’t hunting, a common pastime.
The next son, Hormizd, born in 7 S.E. (232), was the chosen heir. He was his father’s favorite, having demonstrated his military capability in his invasion of Anatolia and having earned the title “the brave.” He was quite ambitious and idolized his father. Shapur made him king of Armenia, which was considered the crowned jewel of the empire, being historically a key strategic province against the Roman Empire, having several important trade roads, and most importantly the source of many skilled cavalry, making it a sizeable portion of the Sasanian royal army. It still had its own unique institutions and governance, making it very different from regular provinces. During the Parthian era, Armenia was divided between feudal lords who squabbled and fought, until the Sasanians arrived to keep the peace. Among the nobles were the relatives of the deposed Arsacid dynasty, many of whom had originally helped the Sasanians invade Armenia. One of the biggest challenges Hormizd faced was religious. Armenia was deeply Zoroastrian, but like everywhere else it had a decentralized series of traditions rather than a formal religion. Many of Armenia’s deep-rooted traditions were now considered heresy, especially idol worship. Idols and icons made up a significant portion of Armenian spiritual and material culture, and the Sasanians would soon find out that forcefully changing Armenian culture was not an easy task. For now, Hormizd focused solely on converting the nobility, while ignoring the rural peasants living in the highlands.
After Anatolia came under Callistus’s rule, Hormizd began raiding Cappadocia annually, arguing that since it had split off from Rome it was it was independent, meaning he technically wasn’t violating the treaty. It wasn’t like the Empire was in a position to respond. He deported even more captives, until the region was thoroughly depopulated. He also relocated Cappadocian Zoroastrians, who were apparently being persecuted under suspicion of cooperating with Persia.
The youngest, Narses, was born in 13 S.E. (238). He was in his twenties and also quite ambitious, and apparently earned a reputation for being pious. He was made governor of Sakastan. With the recent conquest of the Kushan Empire, there was a power vacuum in the east, which Narses filled by conquering and annexing the regions of Turan, Makran, and India going up and possibly past the Indus River. These conquests were probably done to impress Shapur, and yet Hormizd was still the favorite son. His territory now bordered the indo-scythian kingdom, which was undergoing a renaissance under king Rudrasena II. Relations between the two were cordial, with Rudrasena paying Narses tribute in exchange for peace. Unfortunately, very little is known about the eastern edge of the empire. The Indus River, like it had been for centuries, remained an important conduit of trade roads between India and Persia, with Sasanian irrigation projects promoting its prosperity. Other regions, like Makran and Turan, were less developed, and remained arid, remote deserts. The entire area had dozens of different tribes, which has historically made it difficult to control. Much of the region, especially in the rural areas, was still ruled by the same kings/chieftains, now subject to Narses. Narses was only interested in directly controlling the trade roads. Religiously the entire region was a blend of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Zoroastrianism, with the geography making promoting Zoroastrianism especially difficult.
To the north of Narses’s domain was Kushanshah, also known as the Kushano-Sasanian Empire. The once great Kushan Empire, which thrived off trade and supposedly had rulers that lived in luxury, had been conquered by Ardashir only a year after his crowning (in 227 C.E.). However, it took decades for Sasanian control to truly be established. There was considerable debate over how exactly these territories should be governed. On the one hand, provinces like Bactria were rich and powerful, but on the other hand they were far on the kingdom’s edge, away from any centers of power. Ardashir had decided to make one of his sons, also named Ardashir, a vassal king in Merv. The oasis city of Merv was the Persians’ main base of power in this region, functioning as a fortress, trading center, and regional capital. Shapur annexed Merv in 37 (262), along with the rest of the east, but soon he was confronted with the reality that governing the region directly was simply impractical. In 43 (268), he reinstated his brother Ardashir as governor of Bactria and Kush, making him the first Kushanshah of what historians would call the Kushano-Sasanian Empire. He was no mere governor; he had a great deal of autonomy and even minted his own coins. Shapur seems to have understood the potential threat this new vassal kingdom could pose, so he annexed Merv as the empire’s easternmost directly controlled stronghold, the city that would be responsible for keeping the Kushanshah in line.
East of Merv, Bactria was during Kushan times one of the most important centers of Kushan power, and the heartland of the new Kushano-Sasanian kingdom. It was highly urbanized, with extensive and highly complex irrigation networks that made it one of the most fertile regions in the empire. It was the major trade center linking China and Persia and profited immensely from the silk road. Though its zenith had passed with the fall of the Kushan Empire, the Sasanian conquest had only caused it to slightly decline. It was still just as powerful as ever. It’s this wealth that Shapur was interested in controlling directly, before deciding it was more trouble than it was worth. The locals were not particularly rebellious, the war that ended the Kushan Empire had not been the most violent. What posed an issue was that Bactria was a massive center of Buddhism, where the religion was entrenched in their society. Among the growing “heretic” religions, Buddhism was the one they most feared because of its tendency to spread along trade routes, most of which came from Bactria. In addition, the Buddhists loved their religious icons, which didn’t sit well with the iconoclast priesthood.
The Bactrian highlands to the south, while technically considered part of Bactria, were geographically very different. It was always a difficult region, with a harsh climate and independent locals, but it was important for the trade roads that connected Bactria with the Indus. These roads contain the major cities in the region, in specific basins and passes. They could not possibly hope to tax every rural village here, so once again Ardashir stuck to light control over only the important trade roads and cities. In fact, archaeologically there’s no evidence the Sasanians controlled the region at all.
East of Bactria the region of Gandhara was at the very fringes of the empire. It’s likely they were merely vassals/tributaries of Ardashir. In Punjab, the “little Kushans” remained, who were also vassalized. This Kushan rump state was in economic disrepair and forced to debase their currency. The city of Gandhara marked the very edge of Persia’s borders. It was something of a Buddhist “holy land” and center of monasticism. Culturally, this region was something of a land between worlds, with Central Asia, India, China, and Persia all converging here. Gandhara was responsible for spreading Buddhism into each of these regions. Economically, they were located on the only road to China. Despite the decline of the Silk Road, this still made them quite powerful, and they could leverage their position to, once again, strengthen Buddhism. Despite Ardashir being a devout Zoroastrian, he couldn’t ignore how entrenched Buddhism was. To keep his vassals and subjects loyal, he had to tolerate the faith, much to the chagrin of the Persian priesthood.
Shapur I died peacefully in 47 S.E. (272). He was in his 70’s and had ruled for 31 years. At the time of his death, he had a complex legacy. To many Persians, he was the warrior king who created a massive empire and restored prosperity. To radical Zoroastrian clergymen, he promoted heretics and allowed evil to sweep the empire. To the Romans, he was the largest threat they had faced since Hannibal (5). Powerful as Persia had become, immediately after Shapur’s death the cracks began to show. There was the increasingly zealous clergy, who were beginning to convince the nobility to join their crusade. Not even Shapur could ignore them anymore. Then there were the Shahanshah’s brothers Bahram and Narses, both of whom were competent, ruthless, and felt they deserved the throne. It was up to the newly crowned Hormizd I to fill the large shoes his father left behind.
1. Hence why I almost named this TL “The Neo-Achaemenid Empire,” though now I very much prefer the name I did settle on. I’m not very good at naming things.
2. IOTL, they also brought Christianity and helped it spread in Persia. ITTL, the vast majority of captives are from Cappadocia rather than Syria, where Christianity wasn’t as prevalent. That means Christianity has far less of a foothold in Persia proper
3. One of my favorite obscure historical facts is that IOTL this city was populated with captives from Antioch and named “Shapur’s better Antioch.” Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen ITTL.
4. I have to make a correction. Back in chapter 3 I said one of Shapur’s sons, Shapur Mesanshah, might have been killed in battle against Uranius Antoninus in 254. However, he was attested to be alive in 262, so either he was resurrected, or I was wrong. I’m not retconning it, just know that IOTL it was probably some general who got sling-shotted, rather than a prince. Really, I just wanted to give poor prince Shapur an interesting story, since as we’ll see, all three of his brothers have their own role in the next few decades of Sasanid history, whereas he dies before getting to join in on the fun.
5. There will be more to say about Shapur’s legacy that I’m intentionally withholding right now, because a lot of it has to do with political events after his death.
----------
Compared to OTL, the Sasanian central monarchy is richer and more powerful. Yes, they gave away most of the conquered land, but Shapur still kept the northern half of Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Egypt, which is a significant improvement from OTL. Not to mention how they benefit from Levantine trade and taxes, as we've discussed. So far, though, there haven't been many direct political changes. Most of those will come in the decades after Shapur's death.
But before we explore that, we're first going to turn west and look at the changes in the Roman Empire, and seeing just how much worse things could possibly get.