The large imperial realm that replaced the Parthian Empire in Mesopotamia, Iran, and other parts of the Near East in the early third century a. d. The Sassanian realm is also sometimes called the NeoPersian Empire. Several centuries before, the Achaemenid Persian Empire had fallen to Alexander the Great, whose own realm was soon superseded by that of the Greek Seleucid rulers, who in turn were overcome by the Parthians. The latter had a fairly decentralized, feudal state in which local vassal rulers gave allegiance to an overall king. A number of old Persian religious and social customs and ideas still lingered
The relief sculpture carved into a rock face at Naksh-e Rustam, which dates from the Sassanid dynasty, depicts the investiture of Ardashir I, king of Persia in the early 3rd century. © Corbis
In the region during the Parthian period. And the Parthian policy of welcoming and tolerating Greek and other foreign cultural influences was seen as decadent and corruptive by local traditionalists; this was especially true in Fars in southern iran, the original homeland of the Achaemenid Persians. As a result, sometime in the late second century a man from Fars, sassan (or sasan), began calling for the overthrow of the Parthians and a return to the “purer” Persian past. A number of legends have grown up about sassan, and trying to sort out who he really was and what he really did is close to impossible. in one story he was a Zoroastrian priest; in another he was rebel leader who had to go into exile. still another legend claimed he was a direct descendant of the last Achae-menid monarch, Darius iii, a claim that was probably unprovable and designed to give legitimacy to his pro-Persian crusade.
Whoever Sassan really was, his grandson, or at least a man who claimed descent from him—Ardashir—rose to a position of prominence in Fars in the early 200s A. D. Ardashir led a rebellion against the Parthian king Artabanus IV and defeated him, after which the victor established the Sassanian dynasty, named for Sassan. Although Ardashir tried to expand the new realm he had inherited, his son, Shapur I (reigned 241-272), far surpassed him in this venture. Shapur brazenly attacked Roman territories in Anatolia, Armenia, and Syria, in the process plundering the Syrian city of Antioch, one of Rome’s most important commercial centers. The Roman emperor Valerian (reigned 253-260) hastened to punish Shapur but was defeated by the Sassanian king at Edessa in southeastern Anatolia in 260. Shapur agreed to meet Valerian in a peace conference, but when the Roman delegation entered Shapur’s camp, the Sassanians took Valerian prisoner. The emperor spent the rest of his life as Shapur’s personal servant, forced to allow Shapur to step on his back when mounting his horse. After Valerian died, Shapur had the former emperor’s body stuffed and hung on the gate of the capital, Ctesiphon, as a warning to his enemies.
Under Shapur and his successors, Mesopotamia, Iran, and other sectors of the realm at first became more organized under a strong, central, imperial administration located in Ctesiphon. These rulers also refurbished and expanded that city, opened new trade routes, cultivated more land than the Parthians had, and created a strong national army. In addition, the early Sassanians vigorously promoted the Zoro-astrian faith, which had flourished in
Achaemenid Persia, and made it the state religion. The Sassanian monarchs called themselves “Mazda-worshipping kings,” meaning that they revered the Persian god Ahura-Mazda above all other deities. Under their rule the Magi, special Zoroas-trian priests, were given many privileges and became judges and tax collectors as well as religious experts. At the same time, Christians and other non-Zoroastrians were persecuted. The prophet Mani, who had sought to combine the tenets of Christianity and Zoroastrianism, was crucified.
In the years that followed, the Sassani-ans continued to expand their realm. Shapur II (reigned 309-379), for example, pushed the western borders to the frontiers of China. And later King Khusrau II (reigned 590-628) captured parts of Syria, the city of Jerusalem, Egypt, and the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. But during these same years, new territories were often added at the expense of older ones. Mesopotamia suffered particular decline, partly because it remained the scene of numerous wars and battles among the Sas-sanians, the Romans, and other peoples. These conflicts caused a number of towns in the region to be destroyed and never rebuilt. Also, the later Sassanian rulers increasingly devoted their main attention and resources to the needs of the Iranian provinces and neglected the towns and fields of the Mesopotamian plains, which fell into disrepair.
These plains therefore became a tempting target for new enemies who threatened the Sassanians beginning in the reign of Khusrau II. The eastern Romans, who had morphed into the Byzantines, launched a large-scale attack on Mesopotamia in 628. When Khusrau tried to stop them, his army mutinied and he was murdered. Not long afterward, King Yazdgird III (reigned 632-651) ascended the Sassanian throne, not realizing at the time that he was destined to be the last ruler of his country. During his reign Muslim armies from Arabia swept into southern Mesopotamia and delivered the Sassanians a series of debilitating defeats from which they were unable to recover. In 651 the Sassanian Empire ceased to exist and the Muslim period of Mesopotamia began.
See Also: Ardashir I; Artabanus IV; Ctesi-phon; Muslim period; Romans; Shapur I
World History
